Basic Themes
FOUR TREATISES ON BUDDHIST PRACTICE
by

Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo(Phra Suddhidhammaraṅsī
Gambhīramedhācariya)

Tr a n s l a t e d f ro m t h e Th a i byṬhānissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)2

copyright 2012 ṭhānissaro bhikkhu
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any
sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities.

questions about this book may be addressed toMetta Forest Monastery
Valley Center, CA 92082-1409
U.S.A.

additional resources
More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu areavailable to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at
dhammatalks.org.

printed copy
A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write
to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA
92082 USA.

3

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo was unique among the ajaans in the Thai Wilderness
tradition in that he composed systematic treatises on the practice. These are
valuable documents, giving a wilderness perspective on basic Dhamma topics, andin particular on topics taught in the standard textbooks that Thai monks havebeen studying since the early part of the last century. The style of these treatises issomewhat terse and formal, in that it adopts the pattern of the textbooks,
presenting lists of dhammas – Pali terms and Thai definitions – followed bydiscussions. The lists and their definitions are all derived from the textbooks;
Ajaan Lee’s original contribution lies both in how he arranges the lists to amplify
one another, and in how he explains them in the discussions, reflecting his own
practical experience as a wilderness monk and what he had learned from his
teachers. Among the highlights of these discussions are the passages where hedeparts from the formality of the textbook style with anecdotes and analogies thatbring the teachings alive.
Four of these treatises, dating from the latter part of Ajaan Lee’s life, aretranslated here. These were all composed after Ajaan Lee had formulated themethod for breath meditation that has since become established with his name.
The first three treatises form a set, in that What is the Triple Gem? shows that thepractice of the noble eightfold path lies at the heart of the act of taking refuge in
the Triple Gem; The Path to Peace & Freedom for the Mind shows that thepractice of breath meditation lies at the heart of the noble eightfold path; andBasic Themes deals in detail with issues related to breath meditation itself.
All three of these treatises emphasize two points where the Wilderness
tradition differed most sharply from the scholarly tradition in Bangkok in Ajaan
Lee’s time: in their assertion that the superior human attainments of jhāna andnibbāna are still possible, and in their interpretation of the not-self teaching.
Also, The Path to Peace & Freedom for the Mind makes the point – common to
the entire Wilderness tradition – that virtue, concentration, and discernment are
inseparable, mutually supporting practices: concentration and discernment bringvirtue to perfection; discernment and virtue bring concentration to perfection;and discernment becomes liberating only when based on virtue andconcentration.
As for Basic Themes, it was originally a smaller treatise. Ajaan Lee expanded it
to its current form – adding the Prologue and Epilogue – when he was asked toprovide a meditation text for an academy for monks and novices under4

construction north of Bangkok. Plans to use the text in the academy nevermaterialized, as Ajaan Lee died before the academy was built, but the added
portions give an interesting perspective on the aspects of the Canon that heviewed as being most directly related to the meditation. Of particular interest is
the inclusion of the fourteen duties or protocols (vatta) from the Vinaya, whichstress the way in which training in meditation is a form of apprenticeship. This is adistinctive feature of the Wilderness tradition, in that these duties have beenabandoned by many other Buddhist practice traditions.
Duties of the Saṅgha is somewhat different sort of treatise, in that it deals withthe formal organization of the Thai Saṅgha. It was written at a time when thisorganization was being overhauled, and it offers a Wilderness perspective on whatsort of organization – and attitude to organization – would be genuinely
conducive to the aims of the Buddhist religion. The departments mentioned in thetreatise were disbanded shortly after it appeared and were replaced by a very
different system of organization, which is still in place. However, the lasting valueof the treatise lies in the way in which Ajaan Lee shows that the work of theSaṅgha is primarily a matter of the inner development of skillful qualities in theheart and behavior of each monk. These points remain valid regardless ofwhatever form the external organization of the Saṅgha takes.
The translations in this book are based on the editions printed during Ajaan
Lee’s lifetime that seem most definitive and complete. At certain points, these
editions differ from those more recently printed. Also, I was able to locate a copyof Basic Themes containing corrections in Ajaan Lee’s own hand. These have been
incorporated in the translation.
The Thai term for treatises of this sort is lak wichaa: principles of skill, or
principles of knowledge. I hope that these translations will provide your practicewith principles of knowledge and skill that will keep it firmly grounded.
Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
METTA FOREST MONASTERYOCTOBER, 20125

What is the Triple Gem?

6

INTRODUCTION
Parts of this analysis of the Triple Gem were originally used to teach newmonks here at the temple and have been printed twice in book form. Now that agroup of people who feel that the book would be beneficial to people interested in
the Buddha’s teachings have pooled their resources and asked permission to print
it a third time, I have decided to expand it into a handbook for all Buddhist
adherents – i.e., for all who have declared the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha to be
their refuge. Once we have made such a declaration, we have to learn exactly what
the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha are. Otherwise, we will follow our religion
blindly, without realizing its aims or the benefits – called puñña, or merit – thatcome from its practice, inasmuch as Buddhism is a religion of self-help.
Furthermore, we as Thai people are known throughout the world as Buddhists,
but I feel that there are very few of us who know the standards of the Buddha,
Dhamma, and Saṅgha. Although many of us are ‘Buddhist,’ we are Buddhist
mostly through custom, not through the principles of informed knowledge.
Altogether, there are two ways of adhering to the religion: rationally andirrationally. To adhere to the religion irrationally means to adhere to it blindly,
following one’s teachers or companions, holding to whatever they say is good
without showing any interest as to whether it really is good or not. This is like aperson of no discernment who uses whatever paper money comes his way: If it
turns out to be counterfeit, he’ll be punished and fined in a variety of ways. This iswhat it means to adhere to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha irrationally.
To adhere to the religion rationally means not to follow one’s own prejudicesor those of one’s teachers or companions, but to follow the principles of informed
knowledge; holding to the Dhamma-Vinaya as one’s standard, like a law affixedwith the king’s seal, enforceable throughout the land, making exceptions for noone. Whoever then transgresses the law can’t be regarded as a good citizen. So it iswith those who practice the religion: If we want to know if a practice is good orbad, right or wrong, worthy of respect or not, we should check it against thestandards established by the Buddha, which are eight in number: Any behavior
that –
1. leads to passion,
2. leads to the compounding of suffering,
3. leads to the accumulation of defilement,
4. leads to overweening ambition,7

5. leads to discontentment with what one has – i.e., having this, one
wants that (greed that goes beyond moderation),
6. leads to socializing (of the wrong sort),
7. leads to laziness,
8. leads to being burdensome to others:
None of these eight forms of behavior qualify as the Dhamma or Vinaya of
Buddhism. Once we know clearly that these forms of behavior are not what the
Buddha intended, we should abandon them completely.
For this reason, all of us who respect the Buddha’s teachings should – insteadof working at cross-purposes – join our hearts to cleanse and correct the practiceof the religion. Laymen, laywomen, monks and novices should make a point of
helping one another in the area of reform. Whatever is already good, we should
maintain with respect. Whatever isn’t, we should exert pressure to improve. We’llthen meet with what’s truly good, like rice: If you cook good, clean, husked white
rice, you’ll eat with pleasure. If you cook unhusked rice or a pile of husks, they’ll
stick in your own throat. If we let any bad factions go uncorrected, they willburden the hearts of their supporters, who will become like people who cook ricehusks to eat. Are we going to let one another be so stupid as to eat rice husks?
By and large, though, most laypeople don’t see this as their duty. As for themonks and novices, they throw the responsibility on the laypeople, and so we donothing but keep throwing it back and forth like this. When things have a bearing
on all of us, we should by all means unite our hearts and accept joint
responsibility. Only things that have no bearing on us should we leave to others.
Unless we act in this way, what is good – the religion – will fall from our grasp.
And when the religion falls from our grasp, laymen (upāsaka) will become
obstacles (upasak), i.e., they’ll keep creating obstacles in the way of finding merit.
Laywomen (upāsikā) will become the color of crows (sīkā), i.e., dark and evil in
their behavior. Novices will become sham novices, careless, spattered, and filthy;
and monks (phra) will become goats (phae), missing out on the flavor of the
Dhamma, like the nanny goat who has to go hungry because the milk under her
stomach has been taken and drunk by people more intelligent than she. In India,
for instance, there are hardly any monks left to make merit with.
Monks are the important faction, because they are the front-line troops, thestandard-bearers in the fight with the enemy – evil. Ordinarily, soldiers have toadhere to the discipline of their army and to be sincere in performing their duties.
As for the duties enjoined by the religion, they are two:
1. Gantha-dhura: studying the Dhamma of the texts. Once we know the texts,
though, we can’t stop there. We have to put them into practice, because the levelof study is simply knowledge on the level of plans and blueprints. If we don’t
8follow the blueprints, we won’t receive the benefits to be gained from ourknowledge. And when we don’t gain the benefits, we’re apt to discard the texts,
like a doctor who knows the formula for a medicine but doesn’t use it to cure any
patients. The medicine won’t show any benefits, and this will cause him to go
looking for a living in other ways, discarding any interest to pursue that formula
further. Thus, putting the Dhamma texts into practice is one way of preserving
them, for once we’ve put them into practice and seen the results arising within us– i.e., our own bad qualities begin to wane – we will appreciate the value of thetexts and try to keep them intact. This is like a doctor who is able to use a
medicine to cure a fever and so will preserve the formula because of its use in
making a living. Thus, the Lord Buddha set out a further duty – the practice of the
Dhamma – for those who are ordained:
2. Vipassanā-dhura: the practice of tranquility and insight meditation. These
two practices are our primary duties as monks and novices. If we don’t devote
ourselves to these two lines of practice, we’ll become a fifth column within thereligion, enemies of the good standards of the Dhamma and Vinaya. Monks will
become political monks, war-making monks, loudspeaker monks – loudspeakermonks are those who can teach others but can’t teach themselves. They’re good
only at speaking Dhamma, but their hearts have no Dhamma, and so they become
the enemies of those who practice the Dhamma and Vinaya rightly and well.
So I ask all Buddhists not to turn a deaf ear or a blind eye to these problems. If
we hold that it’s none of our business, the consequences could well flare up andspread to burn us. For this reason, I ask that we all help one another to look after
the religion.
Actually, all human beings born need a set of customs and traditions – called
religion – to which they give special respect. Otherwise, we will have no principles
of good and evil or of moral virtue. Whatever religion this may be is up to theindividual adherents. I ask only that they respect their religion sincerely andrightly, for the sake of true purity.
If we were to use only worldly knowledge to keep order, it would work only inpublic places. In private or secret places, order wouldn’t last. But as for religion,
once people have studied so that they really know good and evil, they wouldn’t
dare do evil, either in public or in private. Religion is thus one of the important
mainstays of the world. If we human beings had no moral virtue imbedded in ourhearts, even the greatest power on earth would be able to keep us in line only
temporarily, and even then it wouldn’t be able to influence our minds the way themoral virtue that comes from religion can. For this reason, the practice of moral
virtue is one way of helping the religion and the world.
Now, I’m not claiming to be a heavenly being or anyone special. I’m simply aperson who wishes the religion well. So if anything in this book is defective – in9

terms of the expression or the Pali – I hope that knowledgeable people will forgiveme, for it’s not the case that I’m expert in a wide range of matters.
Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
WAT PAA KHLAWNG KUNG
(THE SHRIMP CANAL FOREST MONASTERY)CHANTHABURI, 1953

10

I. BUDDHAṀ SARAṆAṀ GACCHĀMI
I go to the Buddha for refuge
Ordinarily, for the world to experience happiness and harmony, there has to bea teaching or tradition generally respected as good. This being the case,bodhisattvas arise – people who develop goodness on the grand scale for the sakeof attaining right self-awakening. Once they have reached this goal, they are
termed ‘Buddhas,’ Awakened Ones. For bodhisattvas to succeed in this way, they
have to give themselves over to perfecting ten qualities –1. Dāna-pāramī: generosity.
2. Sīla-pāramī: virtue.
3. Nekkhamma-pāramī: renunciation of sensuality (and of thehousehold life).
4. Paññā-pāramī: the search for discernment.
5. Viriya-pāramī: persistence.
6. Khanti-pāramī: endurance, patience.
7. Sacca-pāramī: truthfulness.
8. Adhiṭṭhāna-pāramī: determination.
9. Mettā-pāramī: goodwill.
10. Upekkhā-pāramī: equanimity (in proper cases, i.e., in areas that are
beyond one’s control).
These ten perfections are the factors that enable a bodhisattva to succeed in
becoming an arahant, a Pure One, in the world. Once he attains this state, three
qualities – called actualized virtues – arise in his heart:
Visuddhi-guṇa: purity.
Paññā-guṇa: sharp discernment.
Karuṇādhiguṇa: compassion for living beings throughout the world.
These qualities enable the Buddha to teach the Dhamma in a beneficial way.
His conduct in this area is of three sorts: Having achieved his own purposes(attattha-cariyā), he acts for the benefit of living beings throughout the world(lokattha-cariyā) and teaches the Dhamma to his own circle of relatives (ñātatthacariyā).
There are three aspects to the Buddha:

111) The physical aspect – the body (properties [dhātu], aggregates[khandha], and sense media [āyatana]), which is the external aspect of the
Buddha, called Buddha-nimitta, or the symbol of the Buddha. (This is likethe bark of a tree.)2) The good practices he followed – such as virtue, concentration, anddiscernment, which are aspects of his activity. These are called dhammanimitta of the Buddha, symbols of his inner quality. (These are thesapwood.)3) Vimutti – release from ignorance, craving, clinging, and kamma;
attaining nibbāna, the supreme quality, a quality that does not die (amatadhamma). (This is the heartwood, or essence of the Buddha.)
A person of little intelligence will use bark to build himself a home; a person of
medium intelligence will use sapwood; while a person of sharp intelligence willbuild his home of heartwood. So it is with those of us who take refuge in the
Buddha: We’re like the three types of people who take wood to build ourselves ahome. But in any case we’re better off than people without a home. Like rats or
lizards who have to live in the hollows of trees and are in for trouble if people set
the trees on fire: If we place our trust in our bodies, our worldly possessions, or
our livelihood, we’ll have no refuge when the fires of death reach us. Or as when aboat sinks in the middle of the ocean: A person without a life-vest is in serious
danger. For this reason, we should educate ourselves so as to find a refuge that will
benefit us both in this life and in lives to come.
Another comparison: The sages of the past used the term Buddha-ratana,comparing the Buddha to a jewel. Now, there are three sorts of jewels: artificial
gems; gemstones, such as rubies or sapphires; and diamonds, which are held to be
the highest. The aspects of the Buddha might be compared to these three sorts ofjewels. To place confidence in the external aspect – the body of the Buddha orimages made to represent him – is like dressing up with artificial gems. To showrespect for the practices followed by the Buddha by giving rise to them within
ourselves is like dressing up with rubies and sapphires. To reach the quality ofdeathlessness is like dressing in diamonds from head to toe.
But no matter what sort of jewels we use to dress up in, we’re better off thansavages who go around hanging animal bones or human bones from their necks,
who look unkempt and – what’s more – are bound to be haunted by the bones
they wear. The bones, here, stand for our own bones, i.e., our attachment to thebody as really being ours. Actually, our body comes for the most part from thebodies of other animals – the food we’ve eaten – so how can we seriously take it tobe our own? Whoever insists on regarding the body as his or her own should becalled a savage or a swindler – and, as a swindler, is bound to receive punishment
12

in proportion to the crime.
So we should regard the body as money borrowed for the span of a lifetime, tobe used as capital. And we should search for profits so as to release ourselves fromour debts, by searching for another, better form of goodness: the qualities of the
Buddha that he left as teachings for all of his followers. These qualities, briefly put,are –1. Sati: the continual mindfulness (wakefulness) found in the factors ofjhāna.
2. Paññā: the intuitive discernment that comes from developing themind in concentration.
3. Vimutti: release from defilement
These are qualities that all Buddhists should develop within themselves so as togain awakening, following the example of the Buddha, becoming Sāvaka Buddhas(Disciple Buddhas), an opportunity open – without exception and with norestrictions of time or place – to all who follow his teachings.
Buddhists who revere the Buddha in the full sense of the word should have two
sorts of symbols with them, to serve as reminders of their tradition –1. Buddha-nimitta: representatives of the Buddha, such as Buddha
images or stūpas in which relics of the Buddha are placed. This sort ofreminder is like a nation’s flag.
2. Buddha-guṇa: the qualities that form the inner symbol of the Buddha,
i.e., the proper practice of his teachings. Whoever takes a stand in thismanner is bound to be victorious both within and without, safe from suchenemies as temptation and mortality.
Our nation’s flag and the people of our nation are two different things. Just as
our flag will have value only if the people of our nation are good and preserve thefullness of the nation’s qualities; so too, we Buddhists have to respect both our flag
– images of the Buddha – and the qualities of the Buddha if we are to turnourselves into good Buddhists. Otherwise, we will suffer from not having fulfilled
our responsibilities.
To take an example, we Thai people, in order to be Thai in the full sense, haveto possess a number of qualifications: the ability to speak and to read Thai,
acquaintance with Thai customs and traditions, the ability to benefit ourselves(attattha-cariyā) and to spread those benefits to help care for the needs of ourparents, spouses, and children (ñātattha-cariyā). And not only that: If we have theability and the energy – physical, mental, financial, or the energy of our virtues –13

we should expand those benefits to help other groups in general, our companions
in happiness and suffering, throughout the nation (lokattha-cariyā). This is what itmeans to be Thai in the full sense of the word. In the same way, we who revere
images of the Buddha and the Buddha’s good qualities should have them with us
at all times if we are to receive the full benefits that come from respecting theBuddha’s teachings and to maintain the peace and well-being of Buddhists atlarge.

14

II. DHAMMAṀ SARAṆAṀ GACCHĀMI
I go to the Dhamma for refuge
There are three levels to the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha –A. Pariyatti-dhamma: studying the words of the Buddha as recorded in
the Canon – the Discipline, the Discourses, and the Abhidhamma.
B. Paṭipatti-dhamma: following the practice of virtue, concentration,and discernment as derived from one’s study of the Canon.
C. Paṭivedha-dhamma: Nibbāna.
A. The study of the Dhamma can be done in any of three ways –1. Alagaddūpama-pariyatti: studying like a water viper.
2. Nissaraṇ’attha-pariyatti: studying for the sake of emancipation.
3. Bhaṇḍāgārika-pariyatti: studying to be a storehouse keeper.
Studying like a water viper means to study the words of the Buddha without
then putting them into practice, having no sense of shame at doing evil,
disobeying the training rules of the Vinaya, making oneself like a poisonous snakehead, full of the fires of greed, anger, and delusion.
Studying for the sake of emancipation means to study the Buddha’s teachingsout of a desire for merit and wisdom, with a sense of conviction and high regard
for their worth – and then, once we have reached an understanding, bringing ourthoughts, words, and deeds into line with those teachings with a high sense ofreverence and respect. Some people try to change themselves to be in line with the
Buddha’s words. To try to change the Buddha’s teachings to be in line withourselves is the wrong approach – because when we’re ordinary, run-of-the-mill
people, we’re for the most part full of defilements, cravings, views, and conceits. If
we act in this way we’re bound to be more at fault than those who try to bringthemselves into line with the teachings: Such people are very hard to find fault
with.
Studying to be a storehouse keeper refers to the education of people who nolonger have to be trained, i.e., of arahants, the highest level of the Noble Ones.
Some arahants, when they were still ordinary, run-of-the-mill people, heard the
Dhamma directly from the Buddha once or twice and were able immediately toreach the highest attainment. This being the case, they lacked a wide-ranging
knowledge of worldly conventions and traditions; and so, with an eye to the15benefit of other Buddhists, they were willing to undergo a certain amount offurther education. This way of studying the Dhamma is called sikkhā-gāravatā:respect for the training.
B. The practice of the Dhamma means to conduct oneself in line with thewords of the Buddha as gathered under three headings:– Virtue: proper behavior, free from vice and harm, in terms of one’s
words and deeds.
– Concentration: intentness of mind, centered on one of the themes of
meditation, such as the breath.
– Discernment: insight and circumspection with regard to all
fabrications, i.e., the properties, aggregates, and sense media.
To conduct oneself in this manner is termed practicing the Dhamma. By andlarge, though, Buddhists tend to practice the Dhamma in a variety of ways thataren’t in line with the true path of practice. If we were to classify them, there
would be three types:
1. Lokādhipateyya – putting the world first.
2. Attādhipateyya – putting the self first.
3. Dhammādhipateyya – putting the Dhamma first.
To put the world first means to practice for the sake of such worldly rewards as
status, material gains, honor, praise, and sensual pleasures. When we practice thisway, we’re actually torturing ourselves because undesirable things are bound tooccur: Having attained status, we can lose it. Having acquired material gains, we
can lose them. Having received praise, we can receive censure. Having
experienced pleasure, we can see it disintegrate. Far from the paths, fruitions, andnibbāna, we torture ourselves by clinging to these things as our own.
To put the self first means to practice in accordance with our own opinions,acting in line with whatever those opinions may be. Most of us tend to side withourselves, getting stuck on our own views and conceits because our study of the
Dhamma hasn’t reached the truth of the Dhamma, and so we take as our standard
our own notions, composed of four forms of personal bias –a. Chandāgati: doing whatever we feel like doing.
b. Bhayāgati: fearing certain forms of power or authority, and thus notdaring to practice the Dhamma as we truly should. (We put certain
individuals first.)
c. Dosāgati: acting under the power of anger, defilement, craving,
conceits, and views.
16

d. Mohāgati: practicing misguidedly, not studying or searching for what
is truly good; assuming that we’re already smart enough, or else that we’re
too stupid to learn; staying buried in our habits with no thought ofextracting ourselves from our sensual pleasures.
All of these ways of practice are called ‘putting the self first.’
To put the Dhamma first means to follow the noble eightfold path –a. Right View: seeing that there really is good, there really is evil, there
really is stress, that stress has a cause, that it disbands, and that there is a
cause for its disbanding.
b. Right Resolve: always thinking of how to rid ourselves of whatever
qualities we know to be wrong and immoral, i.e. seeing the harm in sensual
desires in that they bring on suffering and stress.
c. Right Speech: speaking the truth; not saying anything divisive orinciting; not saying anything coarse or vulgar in places where such words
would not be proper or to people to whom they would not be proper to say;
not saying anything useless. Even though what we say may be worthwhile, if
our listener isn’t interested then our words would still count as useless.
d. Right Action: being true to our duties, not acting in ways that would
be corrupt or bring harm to ourselves or others.
e. Right Livelihood: obtaining wealth in ways that are honest, searchingfor it in a moral way and using it in a moral way.
f. Right Effort: persisting in ridding ourselves of all that is wrong andharmful in our thoughts, words, and deeds; persisting in giving rise to what
would be good and useful to ourselves and others in our thoughts, words,
and deeds, without a thought for the difficulty or weariness involved; acting
persistently so as to be a mainstay to others (except in cases that are beyond
our control).
g. Right Mindfulness: being firmly mindful in the correct way; making
sure, before we act or speak, not to act or speak through the power of
inattention or forgetfulness, making sure to be constantly mindful in our
thoughts (being mindful of the four frames of reference).
h. Right Concentration: keeping the mind firmly centered in the correct
way. No matter what we do or say, no matter what moods may strike theheart, the heart keeps its poise, firm and unflinching in the four jhānas.
These eight factors can be reduced to three – virtue, concentration, anddiscernment – called the middle way, the heart of the Buddha’s teachings. The
middleness of virtue means to be pure in thought, word, and deed, acting out of17

compassion, seeing that the life of others is like your own, that their possessions
are like your own, feeling goodwill, loving others as much as yourself. When ‘you’and ‘they’ are equal in this way, you are bound to be upright in your behavior, likea well-balanced burden that, when placed on your shoulders, doesn’t cause you to
tip to one side or the other. But even then you’re still in a position of having toshoulder a burden. So you are taught to focus the mind on a single preoccupation:
This can be called ‘holding in your hands’ – i.e., holding the mind in the middle –or concentration.
The middleness of concentration means focusing on the present, not sending
your thoughts into the past or future, holding fast to a single preoccupation(ānāpānaka-jhāna, absorption in the breath).
As for the middleness of discernment: No matter what preoccupations may
come passing by, you’re able to rid yourself of all feelings of liking or disliking,approval or rejection. You don’t cling, even to the one preoccupation that hasarisen as a result of your own actions. You put down what you have been holding
in your hands; you don’t fasten onto the past, present, or future. This is release.
When our virtue, concentration, and discernment are all in the middle thisway, we’re safe. Just as a boat going down the middle of a channel, or a car that
doesn’t run off the side of the road, can reach its destination without beaching or
running into a stump; so too, people who practice in this way are bound to reachthe qualities they aspire to, culminating in the paths and fruitions leading to
nibbāna, which is the main point of the Buddha’s teachings.
So in short, putting the Dhamma first means to search solely for purity ofheart.
C. The attainment of the Dhamma refers to the attainment of the highest
quality, nibbāna. If we refer to the people who reach this attainment, there are
four sorts –1. Sukkha-vipassako: those who develop just enough tranquility anddiscernment to act as a basis for advancing to liberating insight and whothus attain nibbāna having mastered only āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa, theknowledge that does away with the fermentation of defilement.
2. Tevijjo: those who attain the three skills.
3. Chaḷabhiñño: those who attain the six intuitive powers.
4. Catuppaṭisambhidappatto: those who attain the four forms ofacumen.
To explain sukkha-vipassako (those who develop insight more thantranquility): Vipassanā (liberating insight) and āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa (the awareness18

that does away with the fermentation of defilement) differ only in name. In
actuality they refer to the same thing, the only difference being that vipassanārefers to the beginning stage of insight, and āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa to the final stage:
clear and true comprehension of the four noble truths.
To explain tevijjo: The three skills are –a. Pubbenivasanussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember past lives – one,
two, three, four, five, ten, one hundred, one thousand, depending on one’s
powers of intuition. (This is a basis for proving whether death is followed byrebirth or annihilation.)b. Cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: knowledge of where living beings are reborn – onrefined levels or base – after they die.
c. Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: the awareness that enables one to do away withthe fermentations in one’s character (sensuality, states of becoming, andignorance).
To explain chaḷabhiñño: The six intuitive powers are –a. Iddhividhī: the ability to display miracles – becoming invisible,
walking on a dry path through a body of water, levitating, going throughrain without getting wet, going through fire without getting hot, making a
crowd of people appear to be only a few, making a few to appear many,making oneself appear young or old as one likes, being able to use thepower of the mind to influence events in various ways.
b. Dibbasota: clairaudience; the ability to hear far distant sounds, beyond
ordinary human powers.
c. Cetopariya-ñāṇa: the ability to know the thoughts of others.
d. Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember previous lives.
e. Dibba-cakkhu: clairvoyance; the ability to see far distant objects,
beyond ordinary human powers. Some people can even see other levels of
being with their clairvoyant powers (one way of proving whether death isfollowed by rebirth or annihilation, and whether or not there really areother levels of being).
f. Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: the awareness that does away with thefermentation of defilement.
To explain catuppaṭisambhidappatto: The four forms of acumen are –a. Attha-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to the sense of the Dhamma
and of matters in general, knowing how to explain various points in linewith their proper meaning.
19

b. Dhamma-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to all mental qualities.
c. Nirutti-patisambhida: acumen with regard to linguistic conventions.
(This can include the ability to know the languages of living beings in
general.)d. Paṭibhāṇa-paṭisambhidā: acumen in speaking on the spur of the
moment, knowing how to answer any question so as to clear up the doubtsof the person asking (like the Venerable Nagasena).
This ends the discussion of the virtues of the four classes of people – calledarahants – who have reached the ultimate quality, nibbāna. As for the essence ofwhat it means to be an arahant, though, there is only one point – freedom fromdefilement: This is what it means to attain the Dhamma, the other virtues being
simply adornment.
The three levels of Dhamma we have discussed are, like the Buddha, comparedto jewels: There are many kinds of jewels to choose from, depending on how
much wealth – discernment – we have.
All of the qualities we have mentioned so far, to put them briefly so as to be ofuse, come down to this: Practice so as to give rise to virtue, concentration, anddiscernment within yourself. Otherwise, you won’t have a refuge or shelter. A
person without the qualities that provide refuge and shelter is like a person
without a home – a delinquent or a vagrant – who is bound to wander shiftlessly
about. Such people are hollow inside, like a clock without any workings: Even
though it has a face and hands, it can’t tell anyone where it is, what time it is, orwhether it’s morning, noon, or night (i.e., such people forget that they are going todie).
People who aren’t acquainted with the Dhamma within themselves are likepeople blind from birth: Even though they are born in the world of human beings,
they don’t know the light of the sun and moon that give brightness to humanbeings. They get no benefit from the light of the sun and moon or the light of fire;and being blind, they then go about proclaiming to those who can see, that there isno sun, no moon, and no brightness to the world. As a result, they mislead those
whose eyes are already a little bleary. In other words, some groups say that the
Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha don’t exist, that they were invented to fool thegullible.
Now, the Dhamma is something subtle and fine, like the fire-potential (tejas)that exists in the air or in various elements and that, if we have enough common
sense, can be drawn out and put to use. But if we’re fools, we can sit staring at abamboo tube [a device for starting fire that works on the same principle as thediesel engine] from dawn to dusk without ever seeing fire at all. Anyone who
believes that there is no Buddha, Dhamma, or Saṅgha, no series of paths or20

fruitions leading to nibbāna, no consciousness that experiences death and rebirth,
is like the fool sitting and staring at the bamboo tube.
Here I would like to tell a story as an allegory of those who aren’t acquainted
with the Dhamma. There once was a man living in the woods who, with his fivesons, started growing crops in a clearing about a mile from their home village. He
built a small shack at the clearing and would often take his sons to stay there. One
morning he started a fire in the shack and told his sons to look after the fire, for he
was going out to hunt for food in the forest. ‘If the fire goes out,’ he told them, ‘getsome fire from my bamboo tube and start it up again.’ Then he set out to search
for food to feed his sons.
After he had left, his sons got so wrapped up in enjoying their play that when
they finally took a look at the fire, they found that it was completely out. So they
had the first son go get some fire to start it up again. The first son walked over andtried knocking on the bamboo tube but didn’t see any fire. So they had the second
son get some fire from the tube: He opened it up but didn’t see any fire inside. All
he saw were two bamboo chips but he didn’t know what to do with them. So thethird son came over for a look and, since he didn’t see any fire, he took a knife to
cut the tube in half but still didn’t see any fire. The fourth son went over and,seeing the two halves lying there, shaved them down into thin strips to find thefire in them but didn’t see any fire at all.
Finally the fifth son went over to look for fire, but before he went he said to his
brothers, ‘What’s the matter with you guys that you can’t get any fire from thebamboo tube? What a bunch of fools you are! I’ll go get it myself.’ With that, hewent to look at the bamboo tube and found it split into strips lying in pile.
Realizing what his brothers had done, and thinking, ‘What a bunch of harebrains,’ he reached for a mortar and pestle and ground up the bamboo strips tofind the fire in them. By the time he ran out of strength, he had ground them intoa powder, but he still hadn’t found any fire. So he snuck off to play by himself.
Eventually, toward noon, the father returned from the forest and found thatthe fire had gone out. So he asked his sons about it, and they told him how they
had looked for fire in the bamboo tube without finding any. ‘Idiots,’ he thought
angrily to himself, ‘they’ve taken my fire-starter and pounded it to bits. For that, I
won’t fix them any food. Let ’em starve!’ As a result, the boys didn’t get anything
to eat the entire day.
Those of us who aren’t acquainted with the brightness of the Dhamma –‘Dhammo padīpo’ – lying within us, who don’t believe that the Dhamma has value
for ourselves and others, are lacking in discernment, like the boys looking for firein the bamboo tube. Thus we bring about our own ruin in various ways, wasting
our lives: born in darkness, living in darkness, dying in darkness, and then reborn
in more darkness all over again. Even though goodness lies within us, we can’t get
21any use from it and so we’ll suffer for a long time to come, like the boys whoruined their father’s fire-starter and so had to go without food.
The Dhamma lies within us, but we don’t look for it. If we hope for goodness,whether on a low or a high level, we’ll have to look here, inside, if we are to findwhat’s truly good. But before we can know ourselves in this way, we first have toknow – through study and practice – the principles taught by the Buddha.
Recorded Dhamma (pariyatti dhamma) is simply one of the symbols of the
Buddha’s teachings. The important point is to actualize the Dhamma through thecomplete practice of virtue, concentration, and discernment. This is an essential
part of the religion, the part that forms the inner symbol of all those who practicerightly and well. Whether the religion will be good or bad, whether it will prosper
or decline, depends on our practice, not on the recorded Dhamma, because therecorded Dhamma is merely a symbol. So if we aim at goodness, we should focus
on developing our inner quality through the Dhamma of practice (paṭipatti
dhamma). As for the main point of Buddhism, that’s the Dhamma of attainment(paṭivedha dhamma), the transcendent quality: nibbāna.

22III. SAṄGHAṀ SARAṆAṀ GACCHĀMI
I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
The word Saṅgha, if translated as a substantive, refers to those who haveordained and are wearing the yellow robe. Translated as a quality, it refers to all
people in general who have practiced correctly in line with the Buddha’s
teachings. Members of the monastic order, however, are of all sorts, and so wehave two groups –A. Sammuti-saṅgha: the conventional Saṅgha.
B. Ariya-saṅgha: the Noble Saṅgha.
Membership in the conventional Saṅgha is attained through consent of theOrder, in a formal ceremony with witnesses, following the procedures set out inthe Vinaya. Membership in the Noble Saṅgha is attained when the quality oftranscendence (lokuttara dhamma) appears in one’s heart as a result of one’s own
behavior and practice, with no formalities of any sort whatsoever. All Buddhists –whether formally ordained or not, no matter what their gender, color, or social
position – can become members of this Saṅgha. This is termed being ordained by
the Dhamma, or being self-ordained in a way that cannot be faulted.
To speak in terms of qualities, the qualities of transcendence, stable and sure,that appear in the hearts of those who practice – leading them solely to good
destinations and closing off the four states of destitution (apāya) – are, taken
together, called the Noble Saṅgha.
A. Members of the conventional Saṅgha, with regard to the way they conduct
themselves, fall into four groups –1. Upajīvikā: those who become ordained simply because they’re looking
for ways to make a living, without searching for any higher virtues todevelop within themselves. They use the yellow robe as a means of
livelihood, without any thought of following the threefold training of virtue,
concentration, and discernment.
2. Upakiḷikā: those who become ordained without any respect for the
training, looking simply for pastimes for their own enjoyment – collecting
plants, playing chess, gambling, buying lottery tickets, betting on horses –looking for gain in ways forbidden by the Vinaya, disobeying the words of
the Buddha, disregarding the virtues he promulgated, undermining thereligion.
23

3. Upamuyuhikā: those who are close-minded and misguided, unwillingto train themselves in heightened virtue, concentration, or discernment.
Even though they may have some education and knowledge, they still keep
themselves closed-minded, making excuses based on their teachers, thetime, the place, and their accustomed beliefs and practices. Stuck where
they are, such people are unwilling to change their ways so as to accord
with the principles of the Dhamma.
4. Upanissaraṇikā: those who desire what’s meritorious and skillful; who
search for the true principles of the Dhamma and Vinaya; who set theirhearts on studying with reverence and respect, and conduct themselves inline with what they have learned; who aim for the merit and skillfulness
offered by Buddhism, for the path leading to release from suffering; whorightly follow the Buddha’s teachings, i.e. –a. Anūpavādo: They don’t berate others in inappropriate ways.
b. Anūpaghāto: They aren’t vindictive or violent to others.
c. Pāṭimokkhe ca saṁvaro: They stay well within the precepts of
the Pāṭimokkha and don’t disobey the training rules of the Vinaya –like good citizens, desired by the nation, who stay within the boundsof the government’s laws. (If people don’t keep within the laws of theland, it will lead only to turmoil, because people who have no bounds
are like farmers who have no boundary markers and who will thus
infringe on one another’s property, giving rise to needless disputes
and ill-feeling, serving no purpose whatsoever.)d. Mattaññutā ca bhattasmiṁ: They have a sense of moderation in
searching for and using the four necessities of life. They understandhow to make the best use of things – knowing what’s beneficial andwhat’s harmful, what is and what isn’t of use to the body, considering
things carefully before making use of them (in line with the principles
of morality and the Buddha’s teachings).
e. Pantañca sayanāsanaṁ: They favor quiet, secluded places tostay. To quote from the Canon, these include:– Araññagato vā: going to a forest wilderness, far fromhuman society, free from social interaction– Suññāgāragato vā: or to uninhabited dwellings, in places
far off the beaten track– Rukkhamūlagato vā: or living under the shade of a tree, in a
cave, or under an overhanging cliff face, so as to aid the heart in
attaining concentration.
24

f. Adhicitte ca āyogo: They make a persistent effort, through thepractice of concentration, to cleanse the heart, freeing it from such
hindrances as sensual desire.
Etaṁ buddhāna-sāsanaṁ: All of these factors are the teachings of the
Buddhas.
Na hi pabbājito parūpaghātiSamaṇo hoti paraṁ viheṭhayanto.
How can a person who harms himself and others be a good monk?
These, then are the attributes of the Saṅgha. In broad terms, they come down
to two sorts:
1. Saṅgha-nimitta: the symbol of having been ordained (the mode ofdress, etc.).
2. Guṇa-sampatti: the inner qualifications – virtue and truth – of those
worthy meditators who are held to be the field of merit for the world.
Those with the necessary resources – i.e., discernment – will obtain a goodfield. Whatever seed they plant will give a yield well worth the effort involved, justas an intelligent person who puts his savings in a safe national bank will protect
his capital from loss and even earn a profit.
Just as a good rice field has four characteristics – the ground is level and even,the dike has a water gate that is easy to open and close, the soil is rich in nutrients,
the rainfall comes at the proper season – in the same way, members of the Saṅgha
who are to be a field of merit for the world have to be endowed with the four
following qualities:
1. The analogy of level, even ground refers to those monks who are free fromthe four forms of personal bias. Whatever they do in thought, word, and deed,
they are free from:a. Chandāgati – i.e., they don’t act solely under the power of their own
likes and inclinations;b. Dosāgati – or under the power of ill will or anger towards others;c. Mohāgati – or under the power of delusion;d. Bhayāgati – or under the power of fear or apprehension of any sortwhatsoever. They aim at what is right and true as their major concern, bothin the presence of others and in private, keeping themselves always on a parwith their principles.
25

2. As for the analogy of a water gate that is easy to open and close, ‘closing’refers to exercising restraint so that evil doesn’t arise within us. Restraint has four
aspects –a. Pāṭimokkha-saṁvara-sīla: staying within the bounds of thePāṭimokkha.
b. Indrīya-saṁvara-sīla: exercising restraint over our senses of sight,
hearing, smell, taste, feeling, and ideation so as to keep the mind quiet,
unagitated, and in good order.
c. Ājīva-parisuddhi-sīla: searching for the necessities of life – food,clothing, shelter, and medicine – only in ways that are proper.
d. Paccaya-paccavekkhaṇa-parisuddhi-sīla: considering the necessities
of life before using them so as not to use them out of craving.
To exercise restraint in these ways is called ‘closing.’ ‘Closing,’ however, can beunderstood in another way, i.e., exercising restraint so that corruption doesn’tarise in the three areas of our thoughts, words, and deeds.
a. To close or control our deeds means, in broad terms, not to kill living
beings or to oppress or torment them in any way; not to steal the
belongings of others; and not to engage in sexual misconduct (or in thesexual act) or to give rein to any sensual defilements. Even though such
defilements may arise in the heart, we keep them under control. This iswhat it means to close our deeds.
b. To close our words means not to tell lies, either to others people’s
faces or behind their backs; not to speak divisively, i.e., in a way that would
lead to a needless falling-out between people; not to speak coarsely or
abusively, not cursing, swearing, or being vulgar; and not to engage inuseless chatter, saying things that are of no real use to ourselves or ourlisteners. To be intent on restraining ourselves in this way is called closing
off evil words so that they don’t have a chance to arise.
c. To close off evil thoughts means:– Anabhijjhā-visama-lobha: refraining from the greed that goes
above and beyond our sphere and powers to the point where
dissatisfaction defiles the mind.
– Abyāpāda: not storing up feelings of ill will to the point wherestrong anger takes over and we let envy and jealousy show,– Sammā-diṭṭhi: keeping our views correct in line with rightprinciples, eliminating wrong views that arise from the mind’s being
clouded and untrained – i.e., overpowered by ignorance and delusion26

– to the point of believing that there is no good or evil, and fromthere to deeply ingrained unskillful mental states. When we take careto ward off these unskillful mental qualities so that they can’t arise in
our hearts, they will give way to Right View: seeing that there really isgood, there really is evil; that virtue, generosity, and meditation reallygive results; that the paths and fruitions leading to nibbāna reallyexist. When we see things in this way, we have in effect closed off evil,
preventing it from penetrating our hearts, just as rice farmers close
their dikes to prevent salt water from flowing into their fields.
As for ‘opening,’ it refers to practicing the five forms of unselfishness –a. Āvāsāmacchariya: not being possessive of the place over which we havecontrol, such as our temple or monastery; not preventing good people fromcoming to stay. If people are pure in their behavior and able to impart what isgood to us, we should give up our space to make room for them so that they canstay in comfort. Evil people, however, shouldn’t be allowed to infiltrate our group;and bad people who are already in the group should be expelled. This is how tobehave with discernment in this area.
b. Kulāmacchariya: not being possessive of our families. On the external level,
this refers to the families who support us. We don’t prevent them from making
offerings to other individuals and we don’t prevent capable individuals fromteaching and advising them. Some monks stand in the way of such interchanges,
creating barriers with their thoughts, words, and deeds. Sometimes if theirsupporters make merit with other individuals, they even make reprisals, such as
refusing to allow that family to make merit with their own groups or factions.
These unskillful attitudes shouldn’t be allowed to arise in our hearts.
This is on the external level.
On the internal level, being possessive of our ‘family’ refers to the heart’s
attachment to sensations and mental acts, which form the family line ofunawakened people. We should abandon this attachment so that we can enter the
lineage of the Noble Ones.
c. Lābhāmacchariya: not being possessive of the material gains we haveattained through proper means, not regarding them as being our own. Material
gains, as classified by the Vinaya, are of four sorts: food, clothing, shelter (lodgings
and the items used in them, such as furniture, matting, etc.), and medicine. We
should see that when people present us with offerings of this sort, they haveabandoned an enemy – their own stinginess and selfishness – and have gained inmerit and skillfulness through the power of their sacrifice. Anyone who receives
such an offering and clings to it as really being his own is like a person who
27

collects coconut pulp or sugar cane pulp from which others have already squeezed
and drunk the juice. For this reason, people of wisdom and discernment aren’t
possessive of their belongings and don’t really see them as their own.. They arealways willing to relinquish and share their gains – in proportion to the amountthey have received – so that others can make use of them.
This is external relinquishment. As for internal relinquishment: Whereas weonce ate as we liked, many times a day, we now eat less, only one meal a day. We
use only one set of robes. We relinquish our comfortable lodgings and undertakethe ascetic practice of living in the forest or under the shade of a tree. If we
become ill, we search for medicine and treat our disease with moderation, in a waythat doesn’t create burdens for others. In other words, we relinquish ourselves as
an offering to the religion by putting it into practice. This is classed as the internal
relinquishment of material gain through the power of our practice and conduct.
d. Vaṇṇāmacchariya: not being possessive of our ‘color’ (vaṇṇa). ‘Vaṇṇa,’ here,
has been interpreted in two senses. In one sense, it refers to social caste or class.
For example, the ruling class, the religious elite, property owners, and laborers areheld to be unequal in status, and the members of one group are unwilling to let
other groups mix with theirs. If such mixing occurs, they regard it as somethingbase and disgraceful and so they continually put up barriers to prevent it fromhappening. In this sense, we can infer that we shouldn’t make distinctions basedon faction, nationality, color, or race, because the Buddha taught that a person’s
worth comes not from his or her birth, but from the goodness of his or her own
actions; or, as we say, ‘Those who do good will meet with good, those who do evil
will meet with evil.’ For example, we at present worship and respect the Buddha
even though he wasn’t Thai as we are. We respect him through the power of his
goodness. If we were to be close-minded and nationalistic, we Thai’s wouldn’t
have any religion to worship at all aside from the religion of spirits and ghosts.
The second sense of ‘vaṇṇa’ refers to the complexion of our skin. This, too, wecling to, unwilling to sacrifice it for what is meritorious and skillful. We hesitate toobserve the precepts, to meditate, or to undertake the ascetic practices for fearthat we’ll spoil our looks and complexion.
e. Dhammāmacchariya: not being possessive of the Buddha’s teachings wehave learned. Possessiveness in this case can mean not wanting to teach unless weare reimbursed, not wanting to preach unless there is an offering, or complaining
if the offering is small.
On another level, being possessive of the dhamma can refer to holding on to
the unskillful qualities (akusala-dhamma) within us; being unwilling to rid
ourselves of such evils as greed, anger, delusion, pride, conceit, or any of the otherfermentations of defilement; clinging to these things without searching for thetechniques, called the Path, for relinquishing them, i.e.:28

– the precepts of the Pāṭimokkha that, if we observe them carefully, caneliminate the common defilements arising through our words and deeds;– the practice of concentration that, when developed in our hearts, caneliminate intermediate defilements, i.e., such hindrances as sensual desire;– the discernment that, when it arises within us, can eliminate such
subtle defilements from our hearts as avijjā – mental darkness; taṇhā –craving; and upādāna – clinging to false assumptions that defile the mind.
When we develop these five forms of unselfishness, we can be classed as open
– and our eyes will be open to perceiving the highest quality, the transcendent.
3. The analogy of soil rich in nutrients refers to our putting four qualities into
practice –a. Mettā: goodwill, friendliness, hoping for our own happiness and wellbeing, and for that of all other living beings.
b. Karuṇā: compassion for ourselves and others, which induces us to be
helpful in various ways.
c. Muditā: appreciation for ourselves for having cultivated goodness;appreciation (not feeling jealousy) for the goodness cultivated by others.
d. Upekkhā: equanimity in cases beyond our control. For instance, when
death has come to a person we know, we see that it’s beyond our help andso we keep our hearts neutral, not allowing feelings of sadness or gladness
to arise.
For these four qualities to arise in fully mature form, they have to appear in our
thoughts, words, and deeds. Whatever we may do in thought, word, or deedshould not be done through the power of anger. We should regard anger as anogre – and when anger takes over, our body becomes an ogre’s tool: his bludgeon.
To see the drawbacks of anger in this way can give rise to goodwill in thought,
word, and deed, extending without partiality to all people and living beings
throughout the world.
Even with our enemies we should try to develop these same thoughts ofgoodwill, by looking for their good side, in one way or another, instead of looking
just at their bad side, which can cause hatred to invade and consume our hearts.
Anger is a fire that can’t burn other people; it burns only ourselves. This is why weshould develop goodwill within our hearts. The power of goodwill brings good toeveryone – just as food that contains the nutrients needed by people brings healthand contentment to all who eat it; or as fertilizer with the proper nutrients cancause plants and trees to grow, flower, give fruit, and so be of use to people andother living beings. Goodwill is thus a form of goodness that can be classed as a29

nutrient. (Goodwill is what cools the fevers of the world.)
4. The analogy of seasonable rain refers to our establishing ourselves in thefour bases of success (iddhipāda) –a. Chanda: feeling a love and an affinity for goodness and virtue as muchas for life, or more.
b. Viriya: being persistent, audacious, and persevering in cultivating
goodness within ourselves.
c. Citta: being intent on whatever we set about to do.
d. Vimaṁsā: using appropriate attention, being discriminating andcircumspect at all times in whatever we set about to do.
These four qualities can lead to two kinds of success: iddhiriddhi – successthrough the power of thought; and puññariddhi – success that comes on its own.
Both of these forms of success, on the level of the world or the Dhamma, have to
be based on the four qualities mentioned above. These four qualities are like
preservatives: Whoever is saturated with them won’t go sour or stale. And when
we’re free from going stale, our work is bound not to stagnate and so is sure to
succeed.
Another comparison: These four qualities are sacca-kamma – actions that giverise to truth, achieving our purposes. Those who bring these qualities into
themselves will become true people. Truth can be compared to salt: If we try tokeep food, like vegetables or fish, without salting it, it soon turns rotten andwormy, making it unfit for human consumption. But if we salt it, it can keep for along time. A good example of this is our Lord Buddha, whose actions gave rise totruth and who thus was able to establish the religion so as to benefit people atlarge. Even the body he left behind still serves a purpose for human and divine
beings. For instance, his bones, which have become relics, are still with us eventhough he gained total nibbāna a long time ago. As for his teachings, they havelasted for more than 2,500 years. And he himself is deathless, i.e., he has enteredtotal nibbāna. All of this was achieved by means of truth, i.e., the four bases ofsuccess.
Those of us who have no truth, though, are like unsalted fish or meat, and arebound to go wormy. The worms, here, refer to our various defilements and are ofthree main species: The first species is composed of passion, aversion, anddelusion; these feed on us from our feet to our waists. The second species –sensual desire, ill-will, sloth & torpor, restlessness & anxiety, and uncertainty –latch on and bore into us from our waists to our necks. And the third species – thefermentations of sensuality, states of becoming, views, and ignorance (cloudy,
unclear knowledge) – eats us up whole: ears, eyes, nose, mouth, body, and mind.
30

Whoever is all worm-eaten like this is classed as a person gone rotten and stale,
who hasn’t reached any qualities of substance. And for this reason, the bones ofsuch a person after death are no match for the bones of chickens and pigs, for no
one wants them. If the bones and meat of such a person were put up for sale, no
one would buy. And furthermore, such a person will have to come back as anangry demon, lolling its tongue and rolling its eyes, to frighten its children andgrandchildren.
So whoever develops the four qualities mentioned above will reachdeathlessness – amata-dhamma – which is like a crystalline shower that comesfrom distilling away all impurities, just as rain water, which is distilled from thesea, rises into the air and falls back on the earth, nourishing the grasses, crops, andtrees, giving refreshment to people and other living beings.
These, then, are some of the characteristics of those who form the field of
merit for the world both on the mundane and on the transcendent levels, who
conduct themselves rightly in keeping with the phrase in the chant of the virtuesof the Saṅgha:Puññakkhettaṁ lokassāti
The field of merit for the world.
Now we will discuss the chant of the virtues of the Saṅgha further as a path topractice, because the virtues of the Saṅgha are open to all Buddhists in general,
without excluding any individual, race, or social class at all. Whoever puts theseprinciples into practice is capable of becoming a member of the Noble Saṅgha
within the heart, without having to go through the formalities of the Vinaya. In
other words, this is a community and a state of worthiness in the area of the
Dhamma open to all who put the following principles into practice –1. Supaṭipanno: being a person whose conduct is good. ‘Good conduct’ refers
to seven principles –a. We should gather frequently – for the daily chanting services, to hear
the Dhamma explained, to seek out wise people, and to join wholeheartedly in the work of the group. This is external gathering. What is really
important, though, is internal gathering, i.e., collecting the mind inconcentration, which is the gathering point of all that is good and forms thebasic skill for bringing the factors of the Path together (magga-samaṅgī).
b. When a meeting of the group disperses, we should all disperse at thesame time and not act at variance with the group. On the internal level, we
should all as a group disperse evil from our thoughts, words, and deeds.
c. We should neither establish new rules that were not established by the31

Buddha nor abandon those that were. For example, don’t make a practice of
doing things the Buddha declared to be worthless, evil, or wrong; develop
within yourself the things he taught to be good, right, and worthwhile.
d. Be respectful of your elders, parents, teachers, etc.
e. Whatever you do in thought, word, or deed, don’t act under the
influence of craving, anger, or delusion.
f. Make a point of searching out virtuous people.
g. Take pleasure in solitude.
This is what is meant by good conduct.
2. Uju-paṭipanno: being a person whose conduct is straightforward, firmly
established in the threefold training – virtue, concentration, and discernment –which leads straight to nibbāna; being fair and just, unswayed by any of the four
forms of personal bias. This is what is meant by straightforward conduct.
3. Ñāya-paṭipanno: being a person whose conduct leads to higher knowledge.
This refers to following fifteen procedures (caraṇa-dhamma) –a. Pāṭimokkha-saṁvara: keeping restrained within the precepts of thePāṭimokkha, respecting the training rules of the Vinaya. (For laypeople, thismeans observing the five or eight precepts.)
b. Indrīya-saṁvara: keeping watch over your senses of sight, hearing,
smell, taste, feeling, and ideation so as to keep the mind properly collected
and at peace.
c. Bhojane mattaññutā: knowing moderation in the requisites of life, i.e.,eating only just enough food.
d. Jāgariyānuyoga: being persistent in cleansing the mind so that it ispure and bright, not allowing lapses in mindfulness or alertness to occur.
e. Saddhā: conviction, i.e., being convinced of the truth of good and evil,of the paths and their fruitions; having conviction in people who merit it.
f. Hiri: feeling shame at the thought of doing evil, not doing evil either inpublic or in private.
g. Ottappa: having a sense of compunction at the thought of doing evil.
h. Bahu-sacca: being well-educated and always willing to listen andlearn.
i. Viriya: being persistent, unflagging, and courageous in performing
your duties.
j. Sati: being mindful before doing anything in thought, word, or deed.
k. Paññā: developing discernment as to what should and should not be
32done, as to what is and isn’t beneficial.
l. Paṭhama-jhāna: the first jhāna, composed of five factors – directedthought, evaluation, rapture, pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation.
(Jhāna means to be absorbed in or focused on a single object orpreoccupation, as when we deal with the breath.)
m. Dutiya-jhāna: the second jhāna, composed of three factors – rapture,pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation.
n. Tatiya-jhāna: the third jhāna, composed of two factors – pleasure andsingleness of preoccupation.
o. Catuttha-jhāna: the fourth jhāna, composed of two factors –equanimity and pure mindfulness, which is the single preoccupation ofyour concentration.
This is what is meant by conduct leading to higher knowledge.
Here we will discuss how to give rise to the first jhāna.
Directed thought: Think of the breath until you can recognize it both as itcomes in and as it goes out.
Singleness of preoccupation: Let the mind become one, at rest with the breath,
not straying away to other objects. Watch over your thoughts so that they deal
only with the breath until the breath becomes comfortable.
Evaluation: Focus exclusively on issues connected with the breath and acquaintyourself with how to let this comfortable breath-sensation spread and co-ordinate
with the other breath-sensations in the body. Let these breath-sensations spread
until they all merge. Once the body has benefited from the breath, feelings of pain
will grow calm. The body will be filled with good breath energy.
For jhāna to arise, these three factors have to be brought to bear on the same
breath sensation. This breath sensation can lead all the way to the fourth jhāna,
the level of refinement depending on the act of focusing through the power ofmindfulness: Sometimes the focus is broad, sometimes narrow, in accordancewith the different factors in the different jhānas. But to be really beneficial, you
should let the breath spread as broadly as possible, being constantly aware
throughout the body of the various aspects of the breath. You will then get
excellent results from your practice of jhāna. You might even gain liberating
insight on this level, because the first jhāna is what constitutes thresholdconcentration (upacāra samadhi).
If you want to go on to fixed penetration (appanā samadhi), you should keep
practicing this level until you are adept, i.e., adept at fixing the mind on a single
object and keeping it there, adept at adjusting and expanding the object, and adept
33

at staying firmly in place. When you want your concentration to have energy,
make the breath light and refined – but keep your mindfulness broad. Otherwise,
the mind might go into arūpa jhāna, where it has no sense of the form of thebody; or you might sit absolutely still, without any awareness of the body at all,while the mind pays attention to another area, such as simple awareness,completely disregarding the body or sitting unconscious, like a log. This is bāhirajhāna, concentration outside of the Buddha’s teachings, incapable of giving rise toliberating insight.
So when you begin, you should develop the three above-mentioned factors asmuch as possible, and the mind will then be able to go on to the second jhāna.
When you fix the mind on the breath repeatedly using these three beginning
factors, they give rise to two more factors:
Rapture: a sense of fullness and refreshment of body and mind, going straightto the heart, independent of all else.
Pleasure: a sense of ease arising from the body’s being still and undisturbed(kāya-passaddhi), and from the mind’s being at rest on its own, placid, serene, andundistracted (citta-passaddhi).
The factors of the first jhāna, then, are of two sorts: cause and result. The
causes are directed thought, evaluation, and singleness of preoccupation; theresults, rapture and pleasure.
As for the second jhāna, with its three factors of rapture, pleasure, andsingleness of preoccupation: This refers to the state of mind that has tasted theresults coming from the first jhāna. The sense of fullness becomes more powerful,as does the sense of pleasure, allowing the mind to abandon its thinking andevaluating, so that the singleness of the preoccupation takes the lead from here on
in. Make the mind still in the refined sense of the breath. Body and mind are fulland at ease; the mind is more firmly implanted in its object than before. After awhile, as you keep focusing in, the sense of fullness and pleasure begins to expand
and contract. Focus the mind down to a more refined level and you will enter thethird jhāna.
The third jhāna has two factors – pleasure and singleness of preoccupation:
The mind is solitary; the body, solitary and still. The breath is refined and broad,with a white glow like cotton-wool throughout the body, stilling all painful
feelings in body and mind. Not a single hindrance (nīvaraṇa) arises to interfere.
The four properties – earth, water, fire, and wind – are at peace with one anotherin every part. You could almost say that they’re pure throughout the entire body.
The mind is completely still – steady, solid, and sure – reaching oneness in asolitary sense of ease. Body and mind are in solitude. Even if you’re with a group ofpeople, you feel as if you were alone. The mind is strong, expansive, and large.
34

Mindfulness is expansive – spreading throughout the body, focused exclusively on
the present, not affected by any perceptions of past or future. The breath gives riseto an energy that is pure white. The mind has power. The focus is strong, and thelight brilliant. Energy is strong, so that you are no longer concerned with yoursense of pleasure, which dilates somewhat. This causes the mind to focus on into
the fourth jhāna.
The fourth jhāna has two factors – equanimity and singleness of preoccupation(or mindfulness). The breath energy is still, with no ripples or gaps. The propertiesof the body are undisturbed. As for the mind, it’s undisturbed with regard to all
three time periods: uninvolved with the past, uninvolved with the future,
undisturbed by the present. When the mind stays with this undisturbed sense ofequanimity, this is the true meaning of ‘singleness of preoccupation.’ The breath isat peace, the body at peace in every part. There is no need to use the in-and-out
breath. The breath energy has reached saturation point.
The four properties (dhātu) are equal, all with the same characteristics. The
mind is completely at peace, with a brilliance streaming in all directions. The
brilliance of the breath at peace reaches full strength. The brilliance of the mind
arises from the power of mindfulness focused on all four of the great frames ofreference: body, feelings, mind, and mental qualities. The question of their being
four doesn’t arise, for in this mental moment they coalesce in perfect unity. The
brilliance of the mind and of the body, which arises from the power of theirsolitary stillness, shines as jāgariyānuyoga, the purifying inner fire (tapas) that candispel darkness thoroughly. The bright light of the mind reaches full strength. The
purity of the different parts of the breath energy keeps the other properties ingood order. The body is completely at peace, like a factory at rest. In other words,
you don’t have to use the in-and-out breath. The body develops potency; themind, resilient power. When these reach saturation point, if you then want to giverise to knowledge, shift your awareness so that it dilates slightly, and theimportant skills that arise from the power of the mind – such as the Eight Skills –will appear, i.e.:
1. Vipassanā-ñāṇa: clear insight into the properties, aggregates, andsense media.
2. Manomayiddhi: the ability to achieve one’s aims through the power ofthought.
3. Iddhividhī: the ability to display a variety of supra-normal powers.
4. Dibba-sota: clairaudience, the ability to hear far distant sounds.
5. Cetopariya-ñāṇa: the ability to know the mental states of otherpeople.
6. Pubbe-nivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember past lives. (This is35

a basis for proving whether death is followed by annihilation or rebirth, andwhether or not there really are other levels of existence.)
7. Dibba-cakkhu: clairvoyance, the inner eye that arises from the powerof the mind, relying to some extent on the optic nerves.
8. Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: knowing how to eliminate the fermentations ofdefilement as they relate to your various forms of knowledge.
If you want to give rise to supernormal powers, formulate an intention at thatpoint, and it will appear openly, so that ordinary people will be able to see it.
Both of these aspects – knowledge and power – can lead to mastery on thelevel of the world and of the Dhamma. The properties in the body acquirepotency; the mind becomes a potent center of consciousness. This is the scienceof the mind on an advanced level, giving rise to an advanced form of Buddhist
learning: lokavidū, wide-ranging knowledge of the cosmos.
To develop the factors discussed here is to warrant the name, ñāya-paṭipanno,
one whose conduct leads to higher knowledge.
(The moment in which the enemies of the body – impure properties – disband
and disappear is termed saṅkhata-lakkhaṇa-nirodha, conditioned disbanding.
When the enemies of the mind – i.e., the five hindrances – disappear completely,leaving the mind radiant and clear, that is termed bhujissaka-nirodha, disbanding
in a state of dependency.)
4. Sāmīci-paṭipanno: being a person whose conduct is masterful. This refers to
our conduct in developing two qualities: tranquility and insight.
a. The practice of tranquility means stilling the mind in a single preoccupation,
free from the five hindrances, so as to attain the four levels of rūpa-jhāna.
b. The practice of insight means seeing clearly and truly into the nature of all
fabrications (saṅkhāra), e.g., seeing that they are inconstant, stressful, and not-self;
gaining discernment that sees distinctly in terms of the four noble truths; seeing
fabrications from both sides, i.e., the side that is inconstant, stressful, and not-self,
and the side that is constant, pleasant, and self; giving rise to the purity ofknowledge and vision termed gotarabhū-ñāṇa, escaping from the assumption thatthings are either constant or inconstant; knowing both the side that arises anddisbands, as well as the side that doesn’t arise and doesn’t disband, without
making assumptions about or being attached to either side. Theories, views, andconceits disappear. The mind doesn’t fasten onto anything at all: past, present, or
future. This is termed asesa-virāga-nirodha, utter disbanding and dispassion. Thisis the way of insight.
Insight, analyzed in detail in terms of the Dhamma in line with the conventions
36

of the sages of the past, means knowledge of the four noble truths:– Dukkha: mental and physical stress, the result of being overcome by
the power of birth, aging, illness, death, and defilement.
– Samudaya: the cause of stress – i.e., taṇhā, craving or thirst – which
includes kāma-taṇhā, insatiable craving for sensual pleasures; bhava-taṇhā,the desire to be or have certain states of becoming; and vibhava-taṇhā, thedesire not to be or have certain states of becoming.
– Nirodha: the disbanding of stress; the extinguishing of the fires ofdefilement.
– Magga: the path of practice that puts an end to craving, the cause ofstress.
All four of these noble truths already exist in the world, but ordinarily are hardto perceive because they show us only their images or reflections. On this level, we
can’t yet see them for what they really are. But for the Buddha to know them, he
had to start out with the reflections that appear, before he was able to trace themback to the real thing. This is why they are termed noble truths: They are thepossessions of noble people; only those who search and explore can know them.
Thus, the noble truths have two aspects: their first aspect, which is the way they
are found in the experience of ordinary people in general; and their second aspect,which is more subtle and can be known only by people of wisdom who explore in
the area of the heart and mind.
An example of the four Truths on the ordinary level, as experienced byordinary people: Physical discomfort, such as illness or disease, can be called thetruth of stress. Knowing enough to buy the right medicine, or being a doctor who
knows the medicine for curing that particular kind of disease, is the truth of thepath. As the symptoms of the disease disband and disappear, that is termed
conditioned disbanding. When the disease is cured, that is the truth of disbanding.
If, however, we suffer from a disease, such as a wound, but don’t know how totreat it – simply wanting it to heal and using whatever medicine we can lay ourhands on, without any knowledge (this is termed craving and ignorance) – thewound will only worsen, for the medicine we take isn’t right for the disease. This is
the truth of the cause of stress.
If we want to go deeper than the ordinary level, we have to practice correctly inline with the way of the Path, developing our virtue, concentration, anddiscernment, before we will be able to perceive the four Truths on the noble level.
The heartwood or essence of the Dhamma, by its nature, lies mixed with its
outer bark. If we don’t have the right knowledge and skill, we won’t get very muchuse from the Dhamma. Whatever benefits we do get will be only on the mundane37

level. We can make a comparison with diamond or gold ore buried in the ground:
If a person doesn’t have enough knowledge to extract the ore, he will get only thetraces that come flowing out in spring water or that adhere to rocks along thesurface of the ground. These will earn him only a meager profit, which won’t beenough to insure his livelihood. A person with knowledge and skill, though, canuse the gold to insure his livelihood without having to search for any otheroccupations, but he’ll have to follow the traces down into the earth until he meetswith the real thing, i.e. the genuine ore. Even just a single hunk – if it’s large and ofhigh quality, weighing a ton – will enable him to rest secure for the rest of his life.
In the same way, those who are wise in Buddhism see stress as a noble treasureand so go digging down into stress; they see the cause of stress as a noble treasureand so dig down into it; they see the Path as a noble treasure; they see disbanding
and nibbāna as noble treasures and so dig on down until they meet with thegenuine ore. Only then can they be called noble sages.
Those of us who are dauntless enough to unearth our inner resources in thisway will be able to use those resources to protect ourselves throughout time,
gaining release from the cycle of rebirth, the jail for imprisoning foolish andignorant people. We who like to explore in general should be glad that we’ve comeacross a good mine with genuine ore whose traces lie scattered about for us to see.
If we don’t disregard the things we see, we’ll meet the four Truths mentioned
above.
If we were to summarize the four noble truths briefly, we could do so as
follows: The objects or preoccupations of the mind that arise and disappear are
the truth of stress. The mental act that deludedly enters into and takes possessionof those objects is the truth of the cause of stress. The mental act that focuses inon those objects and examines them as they arise and disappear is the truth of thePath; and the mental act that lets go of those objects as they arise and disappear is
the truth of disbanding, or release – i.e., that which knows the reality that doesn’tarise and doesn’t disappear.
These, then, are the four noble truths. Those who see these four Truths
directly for themselves will give rise to the noble path and fruition termed ‘streamentry.’ Such people are a field of merit for the world: worthy of respect, worthy ofwelcome, worthy of offerings and veneration.
Whoever possesses the qualities mentioned here qualifies rightly as a memberof the Saṅgha in line with the Dhamma and Vinaya taught by the Buddha, andmay be called, sāmīci-paṭipanno, one whose conduct is masterful, reaching theapex of the mundane level and becoming transcendent.
B. Now we will discuss the second main heading, the Noble Saṅgha, the familyof the Noble Ones, which may be joined by virtue of having developed one’s inner38

qualities, with no need to go through the formalities of the Vinaya. The NobleSaṅgha, like the conventional Saṅgha, is composed of four groups:
1. Stream-enterers: those who have reached the beginning stage of the current
leading to nibbāna. At most they will have to be reborn only seven more times.
They have developed enough tranquility and insight for the Path to converge in asingle mental instant, enabling them to gain true insight into all phenomena –mundane and transcendent – as they really are. When they see in this way, they
have cut three of the fetters (saṅyojana) that keep living beings under the spell of
the world. The fetters they have cut absolutely are –a. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi: the view that the body – together with its properties,
aggregates, and sense media – belongs to the self. Stream-enterers, unlike
ordinary run-of-the-mill people, don’t hold that these things are the self or
belong to the self. They see them simply as common property – that we
didn’t bring them when we came and won’t take them when we go – andthat they arise simply through kamma.
b. Vicikicchā: doubt and uncertainty about the practices one is following.
Stream-enterers have no such doubts, because they have reached thequality attained by the Buddha.
c. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa: attachment to customs or traditions that areheld to be good in this way or that. Stream-enterers are not attached to any
external practices dealing with actions or manners.
These three fetters, stream-enterers have cut absolutely, once and for all. They
have attained the noble quality of having closed off completely the four states ofdeprivation. In other words, they are destined never again to be born in hell, on
the level of the angry demons, the level of the hungry ghosts, or the level ofcommon animals. This is what it means to close off all four states of deprivation.
2. Once-returners: those who have gained the second level of Awakening, whowill attain nibbāna after being born once more in the world. Once-returners havecut three fetters, like stream-enterers, but have also reduced the amount of desire,anger, and delusion in their hearts. (They know how to keep the mind withinbounds.)3. Non-returners: those who have awakened to the third level and who will
never again return to the human world. After they die they will be born in the
Brahmā worlds on the levels of the Pure Abodes, there to attain nibbāna. They
have absolutely abandoned five of the fetters –a. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi.
39

b. Vicikicchā.
c. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa.
d. Kāma-rāga: passion and delight caused by the power of sensual
desires and sensual objects.
e. Paṭigha: irritation and displeasure caused by the power of anger.
4. Arahants: those who have awakened to the ultimate level of the four noble
truths and have reached the quality of deathlessness, free from all thefermentations of defilement; whose ignorance, craving, attachments, and kamma
have ended. Arahants have abandoned their fetters by means of the factors of thehighest of the noble paths. The fetters they have abandoned are ten:a. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi.
b. Vicikicchā.
c. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa.
d. Kāma-rāga.
e. Paṭigha.
f. Rūpa-rāga: passion for the sense of form that can act as the object ofrūpa jhāna.
g. Arūpa-rāga: passion for formless phenomena, such as the feeling ofpleasure that comes from seclusion.
h. Māna: conceiving or construing oneself to be this or that.
i. Uddhacca: restlessness and distraction, being carried away with one’s
thoughts. The thoughts on this level deal with the activity of discernment,
which is something good, but they go out of bounds.
j. Avijjā: ignorance, i.e., not recognizing stress, its cause, its disbanding,and the path to its disbanding – in short, not being acquainted with thefabricated phenomena (saṅkhata dhamma) that exist within each of us; notbeing acquainted with the unfabricated (asaṅkhata dhamma), which is agenuine property, existing naturally. This, briefly, is what avijjā means.
Another meaning for avijjā is not being acquainted with the way we are– e.g., not recognizing our perceptions of the past and thus becoming
immersed in them; not recognizing our perceptions of the future; notrecognizing the present, which is the important aspect of all physical andmental phenomena. Thus, delusion with regard to all three time periods iscalled avijjā: counterfeit knowledge, falling short of the four genuine
Truths.
These ten fetters, arahants – both men and women – have cut absolutely,
freeing themselves from every sort of bond or domination, so that their hearts are40

brilliant and dazzling, like the full moon unobscured by clouds. This is sāmīcipaṭipanno – one whose conduct is masterful – on the transcendent level.
The four groups mentioned here are termed the Ariya Saṅgha, the Noble
Community, which can be found only in Buddhism. Therefore, all Buddhists whodaily pay homage to the Saṅgha should make themselves aware of what theSaṅgha is, of how genuine or counterfeit the members of the Saṅgha are.
Otherwise, our respect will be blind and misguided, ignorant of what the Buddha
is like, what the Dhamma is like, and what the Saṅgha is like. We should use ourjudgment and reason to be selective so that we can help one another look after thestate of the religion, bringing it into proper line with the principles of the
Buddha’s teachings.
The Saṅgha can be compared to a tree: Some members are like the heartwood,others are like the sapwood, others are like the outer bark, and still others are likeparasitic creepers. Another popular analogy is to compare the Saṅgha to a jewel.
Now, there are many kinds of jewels, just as there are many parts to a tree:
artificial gems, zircons, rubies, amethysts, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds. Just
as all of these are called jewels, and are all of differing value, so it is with themembers of the Saṅgha. Whoever is rich in discernment will obtain a valuable
jewel as an adornment. Whoever is poor in discernment will end up with nothing
but artificial gems or bits of gravel: Some people believe that all who wear theyellow robe are alike. They ‘make donations to the yellow robe,’ or ‘pay respect tothe yellow robe,’ or ‘make donations to the virtuous’… Thus I ask that all
Buddhists make a point of learning where the gems of the religion that we as anation revere may be found.
A person who doesn’t know what the Saṅgha is, is like a child who doesn’tknow his family and relatives – who doesn’t know who his father is, who hismother is, who his elder brothers and sisters are. When this is the case, he has noone to rely on. If he tries to rely on others, he can do so only as long as he has
money in his pockets. As soon as he runs out of money, he’s in for trouble: His
friends and companions are sure to act as if they don’t recognize him; and he can’tturn to his family and relatives because he doesn’t know where they are. So in theend he’ll meet with nothing but suffering.
This is why we’re taught that, as long as we still have life, we shouldn’t rest
complacent. We should urgently make the virtues of the Saṅgha our guardians –because our friend, the body, can be relied on only as long as it doesn’t die. And
when the time comes, who will care for us aside from our guardians, the virtues of
the Saṅgha?
We shouldn’t waste our time engrossed simply with the life of the body for, as
far as I can see, there’s nothing to the life of the body but eating and then sleeping,41

sleeping and then eating again. If we let ourselves get stuck simply on the level ofsleeping and eating, we’re eventually headed for trouble. This can be illustrated
with a story:
Once in a village by the seaside, there came a time of unbalance in the naturalelements, and large numbers of the livestock – the water buffaloes – died of theplague. The men of the village, fearing that the disease would spread, took the
buffalo carcasses and threw them into the sea. As the carcasses floated away fromshore, a flock of crows came to feed on them for many days. Each day, when thecrows had eaten their fill, they would fly back to spend the night in the trees by theshore; and then would fly out the following dawn to continue eating. As days
passed, and the carcasses floated further and further out to the deep sea, some of
the crows – seeing the hardships in flying back to shore – decided to spend thenight floating on the carcasses; others of the flock, though, didn’t mind thehardships and continued flying back to shore every evening.
Finally, when the carcasses had floated so far out to sea that flying back andforth was no longer possible, the flock decided to abandon that source of food andto search for a new source of food on land. One of the crows, though, had stayedwith the carcasses; when he saw that his fellows were no longer coming to claim ashare of the food, he became overjoyed, thinking that the food he had would last
him a long time. He became so engrossed in his eating that he never thought oflooking back to shore. As the carcasses went floating further and further out,
swarms of fish came from below to devour them until there was nothing left toeat. Finally, the remains of the carcasses sank deep into the sea; and at that point,
the crow realized that the time had come to fly back to shore. With this in mind,
he flew to the north, but didn’t see land. He flew to the south, to the east and west,
but didn’t see land. Finally, he ran out of strength and could fly no further, and solowered his wings and dropped into the sea, where he became food for the fishes.
This is human life. If we let ourselves become engrossed only with eating andsleeping and mundane pleasures, without searching for virtue – i.e., if we don’t
practice the virtues of the Saṅgha as we’ve been taught – we’re sure to reap therewards – suffering – just like the crow who had to fall to his death in the sea.
This story is about us: The sea stands for the world, the flood of rebirth; thecarcasses of the water buffaloes who had died of the plague stand for the body; thetrees on the shore stand for monasteries and the Dhamma, and the crows standfor the heart – i.e., sometimes we feel like going to a monastery to practice theDhamma and sometimes we don’t.
The virtues of the Saṅgha are subtle, deep, and hard to perceive. If we don’t
have knowledge in ourselves, we won’t be able to see them, just as a mute person
doesn’t know how to speak his native tongue.
Here I would like to tell another story to illustrate what it means not to know
42the virtues of the Saṅgha. Once there was a mute person who made his living byplaying a conch shell trumpet. Now, the way he played the conch shell was tomake it sound like human voices or animal calls. When he had perfected his skill,
he wandered about the cities and country towns, playing his conch. One day hewent to play in a village deep in the countryside. As he was about to reach thevillage, he stopped to rest under the shade of a tree and picked up his conch topractice for a moment. Within minutes a swarm of people, hearing the sound of
the conch, came bursting wide-eyed from the village to see what it was. They saw
the mute man sitting under the tree and so asked him, ‘What was that beautiful
sound we heard just now?’ The mute man pointed to the conch shell lying nearby.
The people, thinking that they had heard the cry of the conch, ran over to tap on it
to make it cry again, but it didn’t make a sound. Some of them picked it up andtried shaking it, but still no sound, so they put it back down. Others turned it overto see exactly where its cry came from, but no matter what they did, the sound of
the conch wouldn’t come out. So they ran back to the mute person.
The mute person didn’t know what to say, but he could tell from their actions
that they wanted to know what made the sound of the conch come out in such avariety of calls, so he pointed to his mouth. The villagers ran to take a look. They
had him open his mouth and looked up and down inside, but didn’t see how it
could be made to sound. So the mute man flickered his tongue for them to see.
With this, they realized that the sound came from the mute man’s tongue; and sothey tried flickering their own tongues, but no beautiful sounds came out. So theyran back to the mute man, who blew air out of his mouth, meaning that the soundcame from the breath. They tried blowing air from their own mouths, but still no
beautiful sounds. Finally, the mute man reached for the conch, put it to his lips –and out came the beautiful sounds: the sounds of people crying, people laughing,people wailing and mourning, the sounds of birds, mice, and forest beasts.
So it is with us: If we don’t know how to train ourselves so as to attain thevirtues of the Saṅgha, we won’t know how beneficial to us the Saṅgha can be.
We’ll become uncivilized savages, not knowing whether the Saṅgha is good orbad, and we’ll end up like the villagers who didn’t know where the sound of theconch came from.
This story doesn’t refer to anything distant: The mute man, producing various
sounds from his conch shell, stands for preaching monks. For example, sometimes
they try to be correct, proper, and principled in their preaching; sometimes theypreach like animals, i.e., using a song-like voice or cracking jokes that go beyond
the bounds of the Dhamma and Vinaya. In this way they are like the man blowing
the conch. As for the villagers who came running wide-eyed to hear the sound of
the conch, they stand for Buddhist laypeople who don’t understand the virtues of
the Saṅgha and so are destined not to find the Saṅgha, just as the villagers couldn’t
43find the sound of the conch. When this is the case, they will simply shell out
money to hear the sound of conch trumpets, without any thought of the practices
taught by the Buddha. Monks will be deluded into blowing conch shells for theirliving, without any thought of the qualities of the Saṅgha; and so our religion will
degenerate day by day, becoming ultimately a theater or playhouse for the world.
This has been an extended discussion of the Triple Gem. If we were to put itbriefly, there wouldn’t be a great deal to say. We’ve kept the discussion drawn-out
in this way so as to show the general usefulness of the Triple Gem for those whorevere it. If you want to go for refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha in a
way that will reach their genuine benefits, then you should gather their main
points into yourself, training yourself so as to give rise to the virtues of the Buddha,
Dhamma, and Saṅgha in your heart. This is where the value of the Triple Gem
lies.

44

SUMMARY
The gist of our discussion of the Triple Gem comes down simply to this:A. ‘Buddha’ can be divided into a number of levels. The ‘Buddha’ of his
physical representatives refers to Buddha images, stūpas, and places worthy ofveneration such as his birthplace, the place of his Awakening, the place where hedelivered his first sermon, and the place where he entered total nibbāna, which atpresent lie within the boundaries of India and Nepal. All of these things qualify on
the physical level as symbols of the Buddha for those who revere them, but they
may be disqualified if the people who revere them lack the necessary innerqualifications.
Take Buddha images as an example: You should understand Buddha images as
having three characteristic types –1. those inhabited by angry demons;
2. those inhabited by devas;
3. those that people of virtue have invested with the potency of the mind
– these can be termed, ‘inhabited by the Dhamma.’
In other words, Buddha images can be beneficial or harmful depending on how
they are used by those who revere them. Even people who use them as charms incommitting robbery, casting spells, or performing black magic may get results
because of the power of their conviction. But if we can be selective and use theseimages in ways that are right, the potency they contain will benefit us, bringing us
blessings and protecting us from danger. Thus, the symbols of the Buddha canfunction in various ways. There is much more to this topic, but if we were to
discuss it here, it would draw things out even further. These images can either
qualify or be disqualified as symbols of the Buddha, depending on the people whorevere them, but the images in themselves are neutral.
The important point for people who hope for true welfare, though, is to invest
themselves with the qualities that serve on the inner level as symbols of reverence
for the Buddha. These qualities are three –1. Sati: wakefulness.
2. Paññā: the intuitive discernment and cognitive skill that come fromconcentrating the mind.
3. Vimutti: purity and release from mental defilement: This is the45essence of Buddha-ratanaṁ, the gem of the Buddha.
B. Dhamma: Good Dhamma is of three sorts –1. Pariyatti-dhamma: This refers to studying and memorizing passages fromthe Discourses, the Vinaya, and the Abhidhamma, which qualify on the physicallevel as a symbol of the Dhamma or of the Buddhist religion. But this, too, caneither qualify or be disqualified as a symbol. Some people, for example, use
passages from the Dhamma in committing robbery or casting spells. For instance,
they repeat the chant of the virtues of the Dhamma or the phrase, ‘Namo
buddhāya,’ three times or seven times, and then commit thievery or highway
robbery, believing that they have made themselves invincible. Or when castingspells, they repeat the phrase, ‘Na-mettā, mo-karuṇā, da-love me, I won’t go, youcome, omasavāha’ – they say that this makes a woman really fall for a man. This
sort of thing disqualifies the phrase, even though its original meaning may havebeen something good.
But if we revere the Dhamma and make use of it through the power of ourconviction, memorizing passages of Pali for the sake of what is good and pure, andthen putting them into practice, they will give rise to merit and skillfulness. For
example, if we repeat the phrase, ‘Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi (I go to the
Dhamma for refuge),’ or ‘Namo buddhāya (Homage to the Buddha),’ withheartfelt conviction, giving rise to a sense of joy, this mental state can then serve
to protect us from certain kinds of accidents and harm. We may reap real benefits
from the phrase we repeat. This is something that people who have respect for the
Dhamma should investigate carefully.
These passages, then, can qualify as symbols of the Dhamma – or bedisqualified, if we don’t know their true purposes.
2. Paṭipatti-dhamma: This refers to behaving sincerely in line with the
Buddha’s teachings:
a. Sīla: putting our thoughts, words, and deeds in order.
b. Samādhi: keeping the mind firmly intent in the four jhānas, free fromthe mental hindrances.
3. Paṭivedha-dhamma: This refers to disbanding defilement completely,
releasing the mind from all suffering and stress. This qualifies as the true treasureof the Dhamma.
All three of the levels mentioned here form the inner qualifications of those
who truly revere and follow the Dhamma.

46

C. Saṅgha: If we translate this as a substantive, it refers to those who shave
their heads and wear the yellow robe as a sign of having been ordained. These
people can qualify on the external level as symbols of the Saṅgha or they may bedisqualified. To qualify, they have to meet three criteria:
1. Vatthu-sampatti: The individual to be ordained as a monk has topossess the proper characteristics in line with the principles of the Vinaya.
2. Saṅgha-sampatti: The monks who gather to witness the ordination
constitute a legitimate quorum in line with the Vinaya.
3. Sīmā-sampatti: The territory in which the ordination is held has had
its boundaries properly defined.
When an individual ordains in line with these criteria, he qualifies as a symbolof the Saṅgha. But viewed from another angle, if the individual has met thesecriteria and becomes a monk but doesn’t behave in line with the Dhamma andVinaya – disobeying the training rules established by the Buddha, committing
major and minor offenses with no sense of shame – he becomes disqualified on
the personal level, just as a Buddha image that has been properly consecrated but
is then put to improper uses by evil or low-minded people is bound to lead toharm. A monk with no sense of shame or compunction is like a Buddha image
inhabited by an angry demon. Normally, when an angry demon takes possessionof a person, it reveals itself by its behavior. For example, when some angry demonstake possession, they like to run around naked, harassing other people. If a person
has no sense of shame or compunction, it’s as if he were possessed by an angry
demon. In other words, if he doesn’t have any moral restraint, it’s as if he lacked
the clothing needed to hide his nakedness. And when this is the case, he isdisqualified as a symbol of the Saṅgha.
A person who meets the three external qualifications mentioned above has tobehave in line with the inner virtues of the Saṅgha –1.a. Cāga: relinquishing external and internal enemies (worries andconcerns).
b. Sīla: keeping one’s words and deeds in proper order.
To have these two qualities is to qualify as a human being (supaṭipanno).
2.a. Hiri: having a sense of shame at the thought of doing evil; not daring
to do evil in public or private.
b. Ottappa: having a sense of compunction at the thought of the resultsof doing evil.
If a monk has these qualities (termed deva-dhamma, the qualities of heavenly
47

beings), it’s as if he were inhabited by a deva (uju-paṭipanno).
3. Samādhi: steadying the mind so as to reach the first jhāna and thendeveloping it up to the fourth jhāna, making it radiant and free from themental hindrances. If a monk does this, it’s as if he were inhabited by aBrahmā, for he has the inner qualifications of a Brahmā (ñāya-paṭipanno).
4. Paññā, vijjā, vimutti: gaining release from the mundane level,
abandoning the three fetters beginning with self-identification, reaching theDhamma of the Buddha, attaining the state where we are guaranteed by the
Buddha as being upright, certain, honest, and sincere toward the Dhamma
and Vinaya; gaining Awakening following his example, becoming a reliable
member of the Saṅgha. Such people are termed ariya sotapanna – Noble
Ones who have reached the stream – and deserve to be called visuddhideva, devas through purity, whose virtues are higher than those of humanbeings, devas, Indras, or Brahmās. Even though such people are still subject
to death and rebirth, they are not like other human beings. The pure aspectof their heart will never again become defiled. Thus they deserve to becalled, in a partial sense, devas through purity (sāmīci-paṭipanno).
All four of these qualities form the inner qualifications of the Saṅgha.
Speaking in terms of these inner qualifications, every person can become amember of the Saṅgha. But if we don’t develop these qualities within ourselves
and then take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha only on the external
level without practicing, how will we get the full benefits? We’re taught that if we
can’t depend on ourselves, how can we hope to depend on others? For example, if
an evil person breaks the law, commits robbery, and then asks the government togive him help, you can rest assured that the only help the government will give
him will be to build a home for him to live in discomfort – a jail. In the same way,
if we don’t practice in line with the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha,how can we go around taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha? The
Buddha taught:Attāhi attano nātho, ko hi nātho paro siyā.
‘The self is its own refuge, for who else could be refuge?’
So we should develop the inner qualifications of the Buddha, Dhamma, andSaṅgha within ourselves. Then we will belong to the company of the Buddha’s
followers. If we belong to the religion as laywomen, we’re called upāsikā. If webelong as laymen, we’re called upāsaka. If we observe the ten precepts and are
endowed with the virtues of the Saṅgha, we’re termed sāmaṇera. If we take a vow
to join the community of those who fully observe the 227 precepts, we’re termed48

bhikkhu. When we join the company of the Buddha’s followers (Buddha-parisā) in
this way, all people in general who practice and revere the teachings will benefit –just as when we meet the qualifications of a good citizen as set out by the policiesof the government: If we are trained and educated to be good, we are bound tohelp the nation progress and prosper. But if we don’t view ourselves as part of thenation and don’t think of making a living to support ourselves, and instead simply
go around looking for pleasure or for help from others, the results are bound to be
bad.
Therefore, we as Buddhists have to study and practice before we can be
Buddhists of virtue and value. We will then reap rewards in the visible present.
And even if we are no longer able to live in this world, then when our bodies die
and we head for another world, we have a good destination awaiting us, as in theverse from the Mahāsamaya Sutta:
Ye keci buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gatāse
Na te gamissanti apāya-bhūmiṁ.
Pahāya mānusaṁ dehaṁ
Deva-kāyaṁ paripūressantīti.
‘Those who reach the refuge of the Buddha (in their own hearts, with purity)
will close off all four of the lower realms (such as hell). When they leave this life
they are bound for a good bourn (heaven), there to fill the ranks of the gods.’
Buddhaṁ dhammaṁ saṅghaṁ jīvitaṁ yāva-nibbānaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
‘I go to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha as my life and refuge till reachingnibbāna.’49

The Path toPeace & Freedom
for the Mind

50

INTRODUCTION
This analysis of the Path is intended as a guide to lead practicing Buddhists topeace and well-being in terms both of the world and of the Dhamma. Well-being
in terms of the world includes such things as fortune, status, praise, and pleasure.
These four things depend on our conducting ourselves properly along the rightpath. If we follow the wrong path, though, we are bound to meet with loss of
fortune, loss of status, censure and criticism, suffering and pain. The fact that we
experience these things may well be due to faults in our own conduct. So if ourpractice of the right path – the Noble Eightfold Path – is to lead us to peace interms both of the world and of the Dhamma, we will first have to study it so that
we understand it rightly and then conduct ourselves in line with its factors. Then,if we have aims in terms of the world, we’ll get good results. Our fortune, status,
good name, and pleasure will be solid and lasting. Even after we die, they willcontinue to appear in the world.
If, however, we see that fortune, status, praise, and pleasure are inconstant,undependable, and subject to change, we should immediately start trying to study
and develop the qualities that will lead our hearts in the direction of peace. We arethen sure to meet with results that parallel those of the world. For example, status– the paths of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship;
fortune – the gaining of the fruition of stream-entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and arahantship: These forms of status and fortune don’t deteriorate.
They stay with us always. At the same time, we’ll receive praise and pleasure in fullmeasure, inasmuch as Buddhists chant in praise virtually every night and day that,‘The followers of the Blessed One conduct themselves well, conduct themselves
uprightly, conduct themselves for the sake of knowledge, conduct themselves
masterfully.’ Similarly, our pleasure will be solid and lasting, steeping andrefreshing the heart with the Dhamma, not subject to death or decay. This iscalled nirāmisa sukha, pleasure free from the baits of the world. Quiet and cool,genuine and unchanging, this is the pleasure for which people who practice theBuddha’s teachings aspire. Like gold: No matter in what land or nation it may fall,
it remains gold by its very nature and is bound to be desired by people at large. In
the same way, the mental traits of people who follow the right path in terms of the
Dhamma are bound to give rise to genuine pleasure and ease. Even when they die
from this world, their fortune, status, good name, and pleasure in terms of the
Dhamma will not leave them.
Thus, Buddhists who aim at progress and happiness should study, ponder, and51

put into practice – as far as they can – all eight factors of the Noble Path set out
here as a guide to practice. There may be some mistakes in what is written here
because I have aimed more at the meaning and practice than at the letter of thescriptures. So wherever there may be mistakes or deficiencies, please forgive me. I
feel certain, though, that whoever practices in line with the guidelines given hereis sure to meet – to at least some extent – with ease of body and mind in terms
both of the world and of the Dhamma, in accordance with his or her own practiceand conduct.
May each and every one of you meet with progress and happiness.
Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
WAT BOROMNIVAS, BANGKOKAUGUST, 1955

52

THE PATH
All of the Buddha’s teachings and their practice can be summed up in amere eight factors –I. Right View: seeing in line with the truth.
II. Right Resolve: thinking in ways that will lead to well-being.
III. Right Speech: speaking in line with the truth.
IV. Right Action: being correct and upright in one’s activities.
V. Right Livelihood: maintaining oneself in ways that are honest andproper.
VI. Right Effort: exerting oneself in line with all that is good.
VII. Right Mindfulness: always being mindful of the person or topic that
forms one’s point of reference.
VIII. Right Concentration: keeping the mind correctly centered in linewith the principles of the truth, not letting it fall into the ways of Wrong
Concentration.
Discussion
I. RIGHT VIEW. ‘Seeing in line with the truth’ means seeing the four noble
truths –A. Dukkha: physical and mental stress and discomfort.
B. Samudaya: the origin of physical and mental stress, i.e., ignorance andsuch forms of craving as sensual desire. Right View sees that these are thecauses of all stress.
C. Nirodha: the ending and disbanding of the causes of stress, causing
stress to disband as well, leaving only the unequaled ease of nibbāna.
D. Magga: the practices that form a path leading to the end of the causesof stress, i.e., ignorance (avijjā) – false knowledge, partial and superficial;and craving (taṇhā) – struggling that goes out of proportion to the way
things are. Both of these factors can be abandoned through the power of
the Path, the practices we need to bring to maturity within ourselves
through circumspect discernment. Discernment can be either mundane ortranscendent, but only through the development of concentration cantranscendent discernment or insight arise, seeing profoundly into theunderlying truth of all things in the world.
53

In short, there are two sides to Right View:– knowing that evil thoughts, words, and deeds lead to stress andsuffering for ourselves and others;– and that good knowing, properly giving rise to good in our thoughts,
words, and deeds, leads to ease of body and mind for ourselves and others.
In other words, Right View sees that evil is something that good people
don’t like, and that evil people don’t like it either. This is what is meant by
seeing in line with the truth. For this reason, people of discernment should
always act in ways that are good and true if they are to qualify as having
Right View.
***

II. RIGHT RESOLVE. There are three ways of thinking that will lead to wellbeing –A. Nekkhamma-saṅkappa: resolving to shed the pleasures of the senses– which lie at the essence of the mental hindrances – from the heart andmind.
B. Abyāpāda-saṅkappa: resolving to weaken, dismantle, and destroy any
evil in our thoughts. In other words, we try to shed from the heart andmind any thoughts of ill will we may have toward people who displease us.
C. Avihiṁsa-saṅkappa: resolving not to think in ways that aim atpunishing or doing violence to others, or in ways that would lead to harmfor other people or living beings. No matter how good or evil other people
may be, we don’t give rein to thoughts of envy, jealousy, or competitiveness.
We can shed these things from the heart because they are harmful to us –and when we can do ourselves harm, there is nothing to keep us fromharming others.
In short, there are two sides to Right Resolve:– the intention at all times to abandon any evil or distressing traits that
defile the mind and cause it to suffer; the intention to remove ourselvesfrom this suffering, because traits of this sort are a form of self-punishment
in which we do ourselves harm;– the intention to develop within ourselves whatever will give rise toease, comfort, and pleasure for the mind, until we reach the point where
peace and ease are absolute: This is classed as having goodwill towardourselves. Only then can we qualify as having Right Resolve.

54

*

*

*

III. RIGHT SPEECH. Speaking in line with the truth has four forms –A. Not lying.
B. Not speaking divisively, e.g., talking about this person to that person
so as to give rise to misunderstandings leading to a falling-out between thetwo.
C. Not speaking harsh or vulgar words, casting aspersions on a person’sfamily, race, or occupation in ways that are considered base by theconventions of the world.
D. Not speaking idly, i.e., in ways that are of no benefit to the listener –for instance, criticizing or gossiping about the faults of other people in waysthat don’t serve to remind our listeners to correct their own faults;
or grumbling, i.e., complaining over and over about something until our
listeners can’t stand it any longer, the way a drunkard grumbles repeatedly
without saying anything worthwhile;or speaking extravagantly – even if what we say may be good, if it goesover our listeners’ heads it serves no purpose;or babbling, i.e., speaking excessively without any aim. Talking at great
length without really saying anything serves no purpose at all and fits thephrase, ‘A waste of words, a waste of breath, a waste of time.’
In short:– Don’t say anything bad or untrue.
– Say only things that are true and good, that will give knowledge to ourlisteners or bring them to their senses. Even then, though, we should have asense of time, place, and situation for our words to qualify as Right Speech.
Don’t hope to get by on good words and good intentions alone. If what you
say isn’t right for the situation, it can cause harm. Suppose, for instance,that another person does something wrong. Even though you may meanwell, if what you say strikes that person the wrong way, it can cause harm.
There’s a story they tell about a monk who was walking across an open
field and happened to meet a farmer carrying a plow over his shoulder anda hoe in his hand, wearing a palm-leaf hat and a waistcloth whose ends
weren’t tucked in. On seeing the monk, the farmer raised his hands inrespect without first putting himself in order. The monk, meaning well,
wanted to give the farmer a gentle reminder and so said, ‘Now, that’s not
the way you pay respect to a monk, is it?’ ‘If it isn’t,’ the farmer replied,‘then to hell with it.’ As a result, the gentle reminder ended up causing55

harm.
***

IV. RIGHT ACTION: being upright in our activities. With reference to ourpersonal actions, this means adhering to the three principles of virtuous conduct–
A. Not killing, harming or harassing other people or living beings.
B. Not stealing, concealing, embezzling, or misappropriating thebelongings of other people.
C. Not engaging in immoral or illicit sex with the children or spouses ofother people.
With reference to our work in general, Right Action means this: Some of ouractivities are achieved through bodily action. Before engaging in them, we should
first evaluate them to see just how beneficial they will be to ourselves and others,
and to see whether or not they are clean and pure. If we see that they will cause
suffering or harm, we should refrain from them and choose only those activities
that will lead to ease, convenience, and comfort for ourselves and others.
‘Action’ here, includes every physical action we take: sitting, standing, walking,and lying down; the use of every part of the body, e.g., grasping or taking with ourhands; as well as the use of our senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and feeling.
All of this counts as physical activity or action.
External action can be divided into five sorts:
a. Government: undertaking responsibility to aid and assist the citizensof the nation in ways that are honest and fair; giving them protection sothat they can all live in happiness and security. For example: (1) protecting
their lives and property so that they may live in safety, freedom, and peace;(2) giving them aid, e.g., making grants of movable or immovable property;
giving support so that they can improve their financial standing, theirknowledge, and their conduct, establishing standards that will lead thecountry as a whole to prosperity – ‘A civilized people living in a civilized
land’ – under the rule of justice, termed ‘dhammādhipateyya,’ making theDhamma sovereign.
b. Agriculture: putting the land to use, e.g., growing crops, running
farms and orchards so as to gain wealth and prosperity from what is termed
the wealth in the soil.
c. Industry: extracting and transforming the resources that come fromthe earth but in their natural state can’t give their full measure of ease and56

convenience, and thus need to be transformed: e.g., making rice into flouror sweets; turning fruits or tubers into liquid – for instance, making orange
juice; making solids into liquids – e.g., smelting ore; or liquids into solids.
All of these activities have to be conducted in honesty and fairness toqualify as Right Action.
d. Commerce: the buying, selling, and trading of various objects for theconvenience of those who desire them, as a way of exchanging ease,convenience, and comfort with one another – on high and low levels,
involving high and low-quality goods, between people of high, low, andmiddling intelligence. This should be conducted in honesty and fairness sothat all receive their share of convenience and justice.
e. Labor: working for hire, searching for wealth in line with the level of
our abilities, whether low, middling, or high. Our work should be up to theproper standards and worthy – in all honesty and fairness – of the wages we
receive.
In short, Right Action means:– being clean and honest, faithful to our duties at all times;– improving the objects with which we deal so that they can becomeclean and honest, too. Clean things – whether many or few – are always
good by their very nature. Other people may or may not know, but we can’t
help knowing each and every time.
So before we engage in any action so as to make it upright and honest,
we first have to examine and weigh things carefully, being thoroughly
circumspect in using our judgment and intelligence. Only then can ouractions be in line with right moral principles.
***

V. RIGHT LIVELIHOOD. In maintaining ourselves and supporting ourfamilies, expending our wealth for the various articles we use or consume, wemust use our earnings – coming from our Right Actions – in ways that are in
keeping with moral principles. Only then will they provide safety and security,
fostering the freedom and peace in our life that will help lead to inner calm. For
example, there are four ways of using our wealth rightly so as to foster our own
livelihood and that of others, providing happiness for all –A. Charity: expending our wealth so as to be of use to the poor, sick,needy, or helpless who merit the help of people who have wealth, bothinner and outer, so that they may live in ease and comfort.
B. Support: expending what wealth we can afford to provide for the ease57

and comfort of our family and close friends.
C. Aid: expending our wealth or our energies for the sake of thecommon good – for example, by helping the government either actively or
passively. ‘Actively’ means donating a sum of money to a branch of thegovernment, such as setting up a fund to foster any of its various activities.
‘Passively’ means being willing to pay our taxes for the sake of the nation,
not trying to be evasive or uncooperative. Our wealth will then benefit both
ourselves and others.
D. Offerings (dānapūja): This means making gifts of the four necessities
of life to support Buddhism. This is a way of paying homage to the Buddha,
Dhamma, and Saṅgha that will serve the purposes of the religion. At thesame time, it’s a way of earning inner wealth, termed ariyadhana. A person
observing the principles of Right Livelihood who does this will reap benefits
both in this life and in the next.
The wealth we have rightfully earned, though, if we don’t have a sense of how
to use it properly, can cause us harm both in this life and in lives to come. Thus, in
expending our wealth in the area of charity, we should do so honestly. In the areaof support, we should use forethought and care. The same holds true in the areasof aid and offerings. Before making expenditures, we should consider thecircumstances carefully, to see whether or not they’re appropriate. If they aren’t,then we shouldn’t provide assistance. Otherwise, our wealth may work to ourharm. If we provide help to people who don’t deserve it – for instance, giving
assistance to thieves – the returns may be detrimental to our own situation in life.
The same holds true in making offerings to the religion. If a monk has no respect
for the monastic discipline, doesn’t observe the principles of morality, neglects his
proper duties – the threefold training – and instead behaves in ways that aredeluded, misguided, and deceitful, then whoever makes offerings to such a monk
will suffer for it in the end, as in the saying,
Make friends with fools and they’ll lead you astray;
Make friends with the wise and they’ll show you the way.
Make friends with the evil and you’ll end up threadbare,
And the fruit of your evil is: No one will care.
Now, we may think that a monk’s evil is his own business, as long as we’re
doing good. This line of thinking ought to be right, but it may turn out to be
wrong. Suppose, for instance, that a group of people is playing cards in defiance ofthe law. You’re not playing with them, you’re just sitting at the table, watching.
But if the authorities catch you, they’re sure to take you along with the group, nomatter how much you may protest your innocence. In the same way, whoever
58makes offerings without careful forethought may end up reaping harm, and such aperson can’t be classified as maintaining Right Livelihood.
In short, there are two sides to Right Livelihood:– We should have a sense of how to use our wealth so as to maintainourselves in line with our station in life, being neither too miserly nor too
extravagant.
– We should give help to other people, as we are able, so as to provide
them with comfort and well-being. This is what it means to maintain Right
Livelihood.
***

VI. RIGHT EFFORT. There are four ways of exerting ourselves in line with the
Dhamma –A. Make a persistent effort to abandon whatever evil there is in your conduct.
For example, if you’ve given yourself over to drinking to the point where you’ve
become alcoholic, spoiling your work, wasting your money and yourself, creatingproblems in your family, this is classed as a kind of evil. Or if you’ve given yourself
over to gambling to the point where you’ve lost all sense of proportion, blindly
gambling your money away, creating trouble for yourself and others, this too isclassed as a kind of evil. Or if you’ve let yourself become promiscuous, going frompartner to partner beyond the bounds of propriety, this can be damaging to your
spouse and children, wasting your money, ruining your reputation, and so isclassed as a kind of evil, too. Or if you’ve been associating with the wrong kind ofpeople, troublemakers and debauched types who will pull you down to their level,
this will cause you to lose your money, your reputation, and whatever virtue you
may have. Thus, each of these activities is classed as an evil – a doorway to ruin
and to the lower realms – so you should make a persistent effort to abandon themcompletely.
B. Make a persistent effort to prevent evil from arising, and use restraint to put
a halt to whatever evil may be in the process of arising – as when greedy desiresthat go against the principles of fairness appear within you. For instance, suppose
you have a ten-acre plot of land that you haven’t utilized fully, and yet you go
infringing on other people’s property. This is classed as greedy desire, a path totrouble and suffering for yourself and others. Now, this doesn’t mean that you
aren’t allowed to eat and live, or that you aren’t allowed to work and search for
wealth. Actually, those who have the enterprise to make whatever land or wealththey own bear fruit, or even increasing fruit, were praised by the Buddha asuṭṭhāna-sampadā, enterprising, industrious people who will gain a full measure of59

welfare in this lifetime. Greedy desires, here, mean any desires that go beyond ourproper limits and infringe on other people. This sort of desire is bound to cause
harm and so is classed as a kind of evil. When such a desire arises in the heart, you
should use restraint to put a halt to it. This is what is meant by preventing evil
from arising.
Another example is anger, arising from either good or bad intentions that,when unfulfilled, lead to feelings of irritation and dissatisfaction. Such feelings
should be stilled. Don’t let them flare up and spread, for anger is something you
don’t like in other people, and they don’t like it in you. Thus it’s classed as a kindof evil. You should exert restraint and keep your mind on a steady and even keel.
Your anger won’t then have a chance to grow and will gradually fade away. This iswhat’s meant by making a persistent effort to keep evil from taking root andsprouting branches.
Or take delusion – knowledge that doesn’t fit the truth. You shouldn’t jump toconclusions. Restrain yourself from making snap judgments so that you can firstexamine and consider things carefully. Sometimes, for instance, you understandright to be wrong, and wrong to be right: This is delusion. When right looks
wrong to you, then your thoughts, words, and deeds are bound to be wrong, out ofline with the truth, and so can cause you to slip into ways that are evil. Whenwrong looks right to you, your thoughts, words, and deeds are also bound to be
wrong and out of line with the truth. Suppose that a black crow looks white toyou; or an albino buffalo, black. When people who see the truth meet up with you,disputes can result. This is thus a form of evil. Or suppose that you have goodintentions but act out of delusion. If you happen to do wrong – for example,
giving food to monks at times when they aren’t allowed to eat, all because of yourown ignorance and delusion – you’ll end up causing harm. So you should be
careful to observe events and situations, searching for knowledge so as to keep
your thoughts and opinions in line. Delusion then won’t have a chance to arise.
This is classed as making an effort to exercise restraint so that evil won’t arise.
As for whatever evil you’ve already abandoned, don’t let it return. Cut off theevil behind you and fend off the evil before you. Evil will thus have a chance tofade away.
C. Make a persistent effort to give rise to the good within yourself. For example–
1. Saddhā-sampadā: Be a person of consummate conviction –conviction in the principle of cause and effect; conviction that if we do good
we’ll have to meet with good, if we do evil we’ll have to meet with evil.
Whether or not other people are aware of our actions, the goodness we dois a form of wealth that will stay with us throughout time.
60

2. Sīla-sampadā: Be a person of consummate virtue, whose words anddeeds are in proper order, whose behavior is in line with the principles ofhonesty leading to purity. These are truly human values that we should
foster within ourselves.
3. Cāga-sampadā: Be magnanimous and generous in making donations
and offerings to others, finding reward in the fruits of generosity. For
example, we may give material objects to support the comfort andconvenience of others in general: The fruits of our generosity are bound tofind their way back to us. Or we may be magnanimous in ways that don’t
involve material objects. For instance, when other people mistreat or insult
us through thoughtlessness or carelessness, we forgive them and don’t let
our thoughts dwell on their faults and errors. This is called the gift offorgiveness (abhaya-dāna) or the gift of justice (dhamma-dāna). It brings
the highest rewards.
4. Paññā-sampadā: Be a person of consummate discernment, whose
thinking is circumspect and whose sense of reason is in line with the truth.
All four of these qualities are classed as forms of goodness. If they haven’t yet
arisen within you, you should give rise to them. They will reward you with wellbeing in body and mind.
D. Make a persistent effort to maintain the good in both of its aspects: cause
and effect. In other words, keep up whatever good you have been doing; and as forthe results – mental comfort, ease, and light-heartedness – maintain that sense ofease so that it can develop and grow, just as a mother hen guards her eggs until
they turn into baby chicks with feathers, tails, sharp beaks, and strong wings, able
to fend for themselves.
The results of the good we have done, if we care for them well, are bound todevelop until they take us to higher levels of attainment. For instance, when ourhearts have had their full measure of mundane happiness, so that we develop asense of enough, we’re bound to search for other forms of happiness in the area of
the Dhamma, developing our virtue, concentration, and discernment to fullmaturity so as to gain release from all suffering and stress, meeting with thepeerless ease described in the phrase,Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ:Nibbāna is the ultimate ease, invariable and unchanging.
When we have done good in full measure and have maintained it well until it’s
firmly established within us, we should then make the effort to use that good withdiscretion so as to benefit people in general. In short: Do what’s good, maintain61

what’s good, and have a sense of how to use what’s good – in keeping with time,
place, and situation – so as to give rise to the greatest benefits and happiness.
Whoever can do all of this ranks as a person established in Right Effort.
***

VII. RIGHT MINDFULNESS. There are four establishings of mindfulness orframes of reference for establishing the mind in concentration –A. Contemplation of the body as a frame of reference: Focus on the body as
your frame of reference. The word ‘body’ refers to what is produced from thebalance of the elements or properties (dhātu): earth – the solid parts, such as hairof the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin; water – the liquid parts, e.g., saliva,
catarrh, blood; fire – warmth, e.g., the fires of digestion; wind (motion) – e.g., thebreath; space – the empty places between the other elements that allow them tocome together in proper proportion; consciousness – the awareness thatpermeates and brings the other elements together in a balanced way so that they
form a body. There are four ways of looking at the body –1. Outer bodies: This refers to the bodies of other people. When you see them,focus on the symptoms of the body that appear externally – as when you see achild suffering pain in the process of being born, or a person suffering a disease
that impairs or cripples the body, or a person suffering the pains andinconveniences of old age, or a dead person, which is something disconcerting topeople the world over. When you see these things, be mindful to hold yourreactions in check and reflect on your own condition – that you, too, are subject
to these things – so that you will feel motivated to start right in developing thevirtues that will serve you as a solid mainstay beyond the reach of birth, aging,illness, and death. Then reflect again on your own body – the ‘inner body’ – asyour next frame of reference.
2. The inner body: the meeting place of the six elements – earth, water, fire,
wind, space, consciousness – the body itself forming the first four. Center yourmindfulness in the body, considering it from four angles:
a. Consider it as a group of elements.
b. Separate it into its 32 parts (hair of the head, hair of the body, etc.).
c. Consider how the mingling of the elements leads to such forms offilthiness as saliva, catarrh, blood, lymph, and pus, which permeate
throughout the body.
d. Consider it as inconstant – it’s unstable, always altering anddeteriorating; as stressful – it can’t last – no matter what good or evil you
62may do, it changes with every in-and-out breath; and as not-self – some of
its aspects, no matter how you try to prevent them, can’t help following
their own inherent nature.
The body, viewed from any of these four aspects, can serve as a frame ofreference. But although our frame of reference may be right, if we aren’t
circumspect and fully aware, or if we practice in a misguided way, we can come tosee wrong as right to the point where our perceptions become skewed. For
example, if we see an old person, a sick person, or a dead person, we may become
so depressed and despondent that we don’t want to do any work at all, on the levelof either the world or the Dhamma, and instead want simply to die so as to getaway from it all. Or in examining the elements – earth, water, fire, wind, space,and consciousness – we may come to the conclusion that what’s inside is nothing
but elements, what’s outside is nothing but elements, and we can’t see anything
above and beyond this, so that our perception of things becomes skewed, seeingthat there’s no ‘man,’ no ‘woman.’ This is what can lead monks to sleep withwomen and abandon their precepts, eating food in the evening and drinking
alcohol, thinking that it’s only elements eating elements so there shouldn’t be any
harm. Or we may consider the filthy and unattractive aspects of the body until wereach a point where things seem so foul and disgusting that we can’t eat at all andsimply want to escape. Some people, on reaching this point, want to jump off acliff or into the river to drown. Or we may view things as inconstant, stressful, andnot-self, but if we act deludedly, without being circumspect in our discernment,
the mind can become a turmoil. If our foundation – our concentration – isn’t
strong enough for this sort of investigation, it can lead to a distressing sense ofalienation, of being trapped in the body. This is called skewed perception, and it
can lead to corruptions of insight (vipassanūpakkilesa), all because we aren’t
skilled in training the mind. We may feel that we already know, but knowledge is
no match for experience, as in the old saying,
To know is no match for having done.
A son is no match for his father.
So in dealing with this frame of reference, if we want our path to be smoothand convenient, with no stumps or thorns, we should focus on the sensation of the
body in and of itself, i.e., on one of the elements as experienced in the body, suchas the breath.
3. The body in and of itself: Focus on a single aspect of the body, such as the inand-out breath. Don’t pay attention to any other aspects of the body. Keep track ofjust the breath sensations. For example, when the breath comes in long and goesout long, be aware of it. Focus on being aware at all times of whether your63

breathing feels easy or difficult. If any part of the body feels uncomfortable, adjust
your breathing so that all parts of the body feel comfortable with both the inbreath and the out, and so that the mind doesn’t loosen its hold and run after any
outside perceptions of past or future, which are the sources of the hindrances(nīvaraṇa). Be intent on looking after the in-and-out breath, adjusting it andletting it spread so as to connect and coordinate with the other aspects of thebreath in the body, just as the air stream in a Coleman lantern spreads kerosene
throughout the threads of the mantle. One of the preliminary signs (uggaha
nimitta) of the breath will then appear: a sense of relief-giving brightness fillingthe heart, or a lump or ball of white, like cotton-wool. The body will feel at peace– refreshed and full. The properties (dhātu) of the body will be balanced andwon’t interfere or conflict with one another. This is termed kāya-passaddhi, kāyaviveka – serenity and solitude of the body.
As for awareness, it’s expanded and broad – mahaggataṁ cittaṁ – sensitive
throughout to every part of the body. Mindfulness is also expanded, spreading
throughout the body. This is called the great frame of reference, enabling you toknow how cause and effect operate within the body. You’ll see which kinds ofbreath create, which kinds maintain, and which kinds destroy. You’ll see feelingsof breath arising, remaining, and disbanding; liquid feelings arising, remaining,and disbanding; solid feelings arising, remaining, and disbanding; feelings ofwarmth arising, remaining, and disbanding; feelings of space arising, remaining,and disbanding; you’ll see consciousness of these various aspects arising,remaining, and disbanding. All of this you will know without having to drag in any
outside knowledge to smother the awareness that exists on its own, by its very
nature, within you, and is always there to tell you the truth. This is termed
mindful alertness in full measure. It appears as a result of self-training and iscalled paccattaṁ: something that exists on its own, knows on its own, and thateach person can know only for him or her self.
4. The body in the mind: When the breath is in good order, clean and bright,
and the heart is clear, internal visions may appear from the power of thought.
Whatever you may think of, you can make appear as an image – near or far, subtle
or gross, giving rise to knowledge or completely lacking in knowledge, true or
false. If you’re circumspect, mindful, and alert, these things can give rise toknowledge and cognitive skill. If you aren’t, you may fall for the images you see.
For example, you may think of going somewhere and then see an image of yourself
floating in that direction. You center your awareness in the image and float alongwith your thoughts until you get carried away, losing track of where you originallywere. This way you get engrossed in traveling through heaven or hell, meetingwith good things and bad, being pleased or upset by what you see. As a result, yourconcentration degenerates because you aren’t wise to the nature of the image of64

the body in the mind.
If, though, you can think to restrain your train of thought and focus on theimage as a phenomenon in the present, the image will return to join your primarysense of the body. You’ll then see that they are equal in nature. Neither is superior
to the other. The nature of each is to arise, remain, and then dissolve. Awarenessis simply awareness, and sensations are simply sensations. Don’t fasten onto
either. Let go of them and be neutral. Be thoroughly mindful and alert with eachmental moment. This level of sensation, if you’re adept and knowledgeable, canlead to knowledge of previous lives (pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa), knowledge of
where living beings are reborn after death (cutūpapāta-ñāṇa), and knowledge that
does away with the fermentations of defilement (āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa). If you aren’twise to this level of sensation, though, it can lead to ignorance, craving, andattachment, causing the level of your practice to degenerate.
The image or sensation that arises through the power of the mind issometimes called the rebirth body or the astral body. But even so, you shouldn’t
become attached to it. Only then can you be said to be keeping track of the bodyas a frame of reference on this level.
B. Contemplation of feelings as a frame of reference: The mental act of‘tasting’ or ‘savoring’ the objects of the mind – e.g., taking pleasure or displeasurein them – is termed vedanā, or feeling. If we class feelings according to flavor,
there are three –1. Sukha-vedanā: pleasure and ease for body and mind.
2. Dukkha-vedanā: stress and pain for body and mind.
3. Upekkhā-vedanā: neutrality, neither pleasure nor pain.
If we class them according to range or source, there are four:
1. Outer feelings: feelings that arise by way of the senses – as when theeye meets with a visual object, the ear with a sound, the nose with a smell,
the tongue with a taste, the body with a tactile sensation – and a feelingarises in one’s awareness: contented (somanassa-vedanā), discontented(domanassa-vedanā), or neutral (upekkhā-vedanā).
2. Inner feelings: feelings that arise within the body, as when any of thefour properties – earth, water, fire, or wind – change either through ourpresent intentions or through the results of past actions, giving rise topleasure, pain, or neutral feelings.
3. Feelings in and of themselves: feelings regarded simply as part of thestream of feelings. For example, pleasure, pain, and equanimity occur indifferent mental moments; they don’t all arise in the same moment. When65

one of them, such as pain, arises, focus right on what is present. If pleasurearises, keep the mind focused in the pleasure. Don’t let it stray to otherobjects that may be better or worse. Stay with the feeling until you know its
truth: in other words, until you know whether it’s physical pleasure ormental pleasure, whether it results from past actions or from what you aredoing in the present. Only when your mindfulness is focused in this way
can you be said to be viewing feelings in and of themselves.
4. Feelings in the mind: moods that arise in the mind, independent of any
object. Simply by thinking we can give rise to pleasure or pain, good or bad,accomplished entirely through the heart.
Each of these four kinds of feelings can serve as an object for tranquility andinsight meditation. Each can serve as a basis for knowledge.
C. Contemplation of the mind as a frame of reference: taking as our
preoccupation states that arise in the mind. The term ‘mind’ (citta) refers to two
conditions – awareness and thinking. Awareness of thinking can cause the mind
to take on different states, good or bad. If we classify these states by theircharacteristics, there are three: good, bad, and neutral.
1. Good mental states (kusala-citta) are of three sorts –a. Vītarāga-citta: the mind when it disentangles itself from its
desire or fascination with objects it likes or finds pleasing.
b. Vītadosa-citta: the mind when it isn’t incited or roused toirritation by its objects.
c. Vītamoha-citta: the mind when it isn’t deluded, intoxicated, or
outwitted by its objects.
2. Bad mental states (akusala-citta) are also of three sorts –a. Sarāga-citta: the mind engrossed in its affections and desires.
b. Sadosa-citta: the mind irritated or aroused to anger.
c. Samoha-citta: the mind deluded and ignorant of the truth.
3. Neutral mental states, which arise from being neither pleased nor
displeased, or when mental activity (kiriyā) occurs without affecting thecondition of awareness for good or bad – are called avyākata:indeterminate.
If we classify mental states according to their range or source, there are three –1. Outer mental states: thoughts that run after perceptions of past or66

future, and may be either contented (this is termed indulgence in pleasure,kāmasukhallikānuyoga) or discontented (this is termed indulgence in selfaffliction, attakilamathānuyoga).
2. Inner mental states: thoughts that arise within us with reference to thepresent, either right or wrong, good or bad.
3. Mental states in and of themselves: mental fabrication (citta-saṅkhāra)– the act of thinking arising from awareness, the act of awareness arisingfrom thinking, taking such forms as consciousness, intellect, mindfulness,
alertness, discernment, knowledge. Whichever one of these mental states
may be arising and remaining in the present moment, focus your attention
exclusively on it. For example, knowledge of a certain sort may appear,
either on its own or as the result of deliberation; it may or may not be
intended. Whatever arises, focus your mindfulness and alertness on it until
you know the stages in the workings of the mind; knowing, for instance,
which mental state is the intentional act (kamma), which the result(vipāka), and which mere activity (kiriyā). Keep focused exclusively onthese states until you can see mental states simply as mental states,
knowledge simply as knowledge, and intelligence as intelligence. Be
thoroughly circumspect, mindful, and discerning at each mental moment
until you are able to let go of all mental states without being caught up on
what they are supposed to refer to, represent, or mean. Only then can you
be said to be keeping track of mental states in and of themselves as a frameof reference.
D. Contemplation of mental qualities as a frame of reference: Mental
qualities (dhamma) that can serve as bases for mindfulness leading to peace andrespite for the mind are of three kinds –1. Outer mental qualities, i.e., the hindrances, which are of five sorts –(a) Kāmachanda: desire for the five types of sensual objects – visualobjects, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations – which can cause themind to become restless.
(b) Byāpāda: ill-will; stepping into a mood of discontent that arises fromcertain sorts of individuals or situations that, when we brood on them,cause the mind to focus on what we find displeasing until it becomes
irritated and upset.
(c) Thīna-middha: drowsiness, torpor, dullness, giving rise to laziness,
apathy, and discouragement.
(d) Uddhacca-kukkucca: restlessness and anxiety; thinking more than wewant to or need; thoughts that go out of control, drifting further and67

further away until we may even lose sense of our own body. Thinking thathas no order or bounds is sure to cause harm.
(e) Vicikicchā: doubt, hesitancy, uncertainty about issues dealing withthe world or the Dhamma: doubt about certain individuals, about theirteachings, about our own conduct and practices. This comes from nothaving enough mindfulness or alertness to keep the mind in check andfrom not knowing where the hindrances come from. We should realize that– to put it briefly – the hindrances come from concepts that allude to either
the past or the future. So when we want to ward them off, we should let goof these concepts and focus our attention in on the present, and thehindrances will weaken away.
2. Inner mental qualities: The skillful mental qualities we should foster within
ourselves are five, counting their component factors, and four, counting theirlevels, in other words –(a) The first jhāna, which has five factors:– Vitakka: directed thought focused on the object of the mind’s
concentration, such as the breath.
– Vicāra: evaluating and adjusting the breath so that it becomes
comfortable to the point where it spreads throughout the entire body;coordinating and connecting the various breath-sensations existing
within us.
– Pīti: rapture, refreshment, fullness of body and mind.
– Sukha: pleasure, ease of body and mind.
– Ekaggatā: The mind enters into a single object, such as thebreath; i.e., all five of these factors deal with a single topic.
(b) The second jhāna has three factors:– Pīti: The sense of refreshment and fullness for body and mind
becomes stronger, so that the mind abandons its directed thought(vitakka).
– Sukha: The sense of ease for body and mind becomes greater, sothat it can relieve mental discomfort. This leads the mind to abandon
its evaluating and adjusting (vicāra).
– Ekaggatā: The mind enters into a subtle and gentle level ofbreath, with a feeling of spaciousness and relief throughout the body.
This subtle breath bathes and pervades the entire body, so that themind becomes absolutely snug with its one object.
68

(c) The third jhāna: The singleness of the mind’s object becomes evenmore refined, leaving just a feeling of mental and physical ease, the result of
steadying the mind in a single object. This is called ekaggatā-sukha: All thatremains is singleness and ease.
(d) The fourth jhāna: Upekkhā – the breath sensations in the body arestill, so that we can do without the in-and-out breath. The still breath fills
all the various parts of the body. The four physical properties are all quiet
and still. The mind is still, having abandoned past and future, entering into
its object that forms the present. The mind is firmly focused on one object:This is ekaggatā, the second factor of the fourth jhāna. Mindfulness andalertness are present in full measure and thus give rise to mental brightness.
When mindfulness is strong, it turns into cognitive skill (vijjā); whenalertness is strong, it turns into intuitive insight (vipassanā-ñāṇa), seeing
the truth of physical sensations (rūpa) and mental acts (nāma), whether
near or far, gross or subtle, our own or those of others. This knowledge
appears exclusively within our own body and mind, and we can realize it on
our own: This is what is meant by the word, ‘paccattaṁ.’3. Mental qualities in and of themselves. This refers to mental qualities ofanother level that appear after the above qualities have been developed. Intuitive
knowledge arises, e.g. –‘Dhamma-cakkhuṁ udapādi’: The eye of the mind, which sees in termsof the Dhamma, arises within one.
‘Ñāṇaṁ udapādi’: deep intuitive sensitivity, thoroughly penetrating.
This refers to the three forms of intuitive knowledge beginning with theability to remember previous lives.
‘Paññā udapādi’: Liberating discernment arises.
‘Vijjā udapādi’: Cognitive skill – clear, open, deep, penetrating, and true– arises within one.
These forms of knowledge arise on their own – not for ordinary people, but for
those who have developed concentration. Discernment, here, refers to thediscernment that comes from mental training and development, not to theordinary discernment coming from concepts we’ve remembered or thought out.
This is discernment that arises right at the heart. Cognitive skill (vijjā), here, is ahigh level of knowledge, termed pariññāya dhamma: thorough comprehensionthat arises within from having explored the four noble truths, beginning withstress (dukkha), which is the result of such causes (samudaya) as ignorance andcraving. Knowledge arises, enabling us to cut the taproot of stress by performing
the task of abandoning the cause. When this is done, stress disbands and ceases;
69

the cause doesn’t flare up again: This is nirodha. And the knowledge that steps into eliminate the cause of stress is the Path (magga), the way leading to releasefrom all stress and suffering, made possible by the eye of the mind composed of –ñāṇa-cakkhu: intuition as a means of vision;
paññā-cakkhu: discernment as a means of vision;vijjā-cakkhu: cognitive skill as a means of vision.
This is the eye of the mind.
In short, we have: dukkha, physical and mental stress; and samudaya, the causeof stress. These two are one pair of cause and effect functioning in the world.
Another pair is: nirodha, the disbanding and cessation of all stress, and maggacitta, the mind following the right path, causing the causes of stress – ignorance
and craving – to disband. In other words, when the physical and mental stressfrom which we suffer is ended through the power of the mind on the Path, themind is freed from all disruptions and fermentations, and doesn’t latch onto cause
or effect, pleasure or pain, good or evil, the world or the Dhamma. It abandons all
supposings, assumptions, wordings, and conventions. This is deathlessness(amata dhamma), a quality that doesn’t arise, doesn’t change, doesn’t vanish or
disband, and that doesn’t fasten onto any quality at all. In other words, it can let goof conditioned phenomena (saṅkhata dhamma) and doesn’t fasten onto
unconditioned phenomena (asaṅkhata dhamma). It lets go of each phenomenon
in line with that phenomenon’s own true nature. Thus the saying: ‘Sabbe dhammāanattā’ – No phenomenon is the self; the self isn’t any phenomenon. All
supposings and assumptions – all meanings – are abandoned. This is nibbāna.
All of this is called seeing mental qualities in and of themselves – i.e., seeing
the higher aspect of mental qualities that arises from their more common side.
***

VIII. RIGHT CONCENTRATION: the way to discernment, knowledge, andrelease. If we class concentration according to how it’s practiced in general, there
are two sorts: right and wrong.
A. Wrong Concentration: Why is it called wrong? Because it doesn’t give rise to
the liberating insight that leads to the transcendent qualities. For example, after
attaining a certain amount of concentration, we may use it in the wrong way, as inmagic – hypnotizing other people or spirits of the dead so as to have them in our
power, or exerting magnetic attraction so as to seduce or dupe other people – allof which causes the heart to become deceitful and dishonest. Or we may use
concentration to cast spells and practice sorcery, displaying powers in hopes ofmaterial reward. All of these things are based on nothing more than momentary70

(khaṇika) concentration.
Another type of Wrong Concentration is that used to develop types of mental
absorption falling outside of the Buddha’s teachings and belonging to yogic
doctrines and practices: for example, staring at an external object – such as the
sun or the moon – or at certain kinds of internal objects. When the mind becomessteady for a moment, you lose your sense of the body and become fastened on theobject to the point where your mindfulness and alertness lose their moorings. You
then drift along in the wake of the object, in whatever direction your thoughts
may take you: up to see heaven or down to see hell, seeing true things and false
mixed together, liking or disliking what you see, losing your bearings, lacking themindfulness and alertness that form the present.
Another instance of Wrong Concentration is when – after you’ve begun
practicing to the point where you’ve attained threshold (upacāra) concentration –you then stare down on the present, focusing, say, on the properties of breath, fire,or earth, forbidding the mind to think; staring down, getting into a trance until theproperty becomes more and more refined, and the mind becomes more and morerefined; using force to suppress the mind until awareness becomes so dim that you
lose mindfulness and alertness and all sense of body and mind: Everything isabsolutely snuffed out and still, with no self-awareness. This is called the plane of
non-perception (asaññī-bhava), where you have no perception of anything at all.
Your awareness isn’t well-rounded, your mindfulness lacks circumspection, and as
a result discernment has no chance to arise. This is called Wrong Concentration,
Wrong Release, a mental blank – no awareness of past, present, or future.
Another instance of Wrong Concentration is when we can give rise to
momentary concentration, threshold concentration, all the way to the four jhānas,but aren’t adept at entering and leaving these levels, so that we focus in until only
the property of consciousness is left, with no sense of the body: This is calledarūpa jhāna. Bodily processes disappear, leaving only the four types of mental acts
(vedanā, saññā, saṅkhāra, and viññāṇa), which form the four levels of arūpa
jhāna, the first being when we focus on a feeling of space or emptiness. The mind
attains such a relaxed sense of pleasure that we may take it to be a transcendent
state or nibbāna, and so we search no further, becoming idle and lazy, making nofurther effort because we assume that we’ve finished our task.
In short, we simply think or focus, without having any finesse in what we’re
doing – entering, leaving, or staying in place – and as a result our concentration
becomes wrong.
B. Right Concentration: This starts with threshold concentration, which acts as
the basis for the four jhānas, beginning with the first: vitakka, thinking of
whichever aspect of the body you choose to take as your object, such as the four71

physical properties, starting with the in-and-out breath. And then vicāra:adjusting, expanding, letting the breath sensations flow throughout the body, andat the same time evaluating the results you obtain. For instance, if the body feels
uncomfortable or constricted, adjust the breath until it feels right throughout the
body. The mind then sticks to its single object: This is termed ekaggatā. When
mindfulness enters into the body, keeping the breath in mind, and alertness ispresent in full measure, keeping track of the causes that produce results congenial
to body and mind, then your sense of the body will benefit. Bathed withmindfulness and alertness, it feels light, malleable, and full – saturated with thepower of mindfulness and alertness. The mind also feels full: This is termed pīti.
When both body and mind are full, they grow quiet like a child who, having eaten
his fill, rests quiet and content. This is the cause of pleasure on the level of the
Dhamma, termed sukha. These factors, taken together, form one stage of Right
Concentration.
As you continue practicing for a length of time, the sense of fullness andpleasure in the body becomes greater. Ekaggatā – interest and absorption in yourone object – becomes more intense because you have seen the results it produces.
The mind becomes steady and determined, focused with full mindfulness andalertness, thoroughly aware of both body and mind, and thus you can let go ofyour thinking and evaluating, entering the second jhāna.
The second jhāna has three factors. Ekaggatā: Keep the mind with its one
object, the breath, which is now more subtle and refined than before, leaving
simply a feeling of pīti, fullness of body and mind. The sensations of the body
don’t clash with one another. The four properties – earth, water, fire, and wind –are properly balanced. The mind and body don’t interfere with each other, so both
feel full and satisfied. The body feels pleasant (sukha) – solitary and quiet. The
mind, too, feels pleasant and at ease – solitary and quiet. When you’re mindful,alert, and adept at doing this – entering, staying in place, and withdrawing – sidebenefits will result. For example, knowledge of certain matters will arise, either on
its own or after you’ve posed a question in the mind. Doubts about certain issues
will be put to rest. As the sense of bodily pleasure grows stronger, the sense ofmental pleasure and ease grows stronger as well, and thus you can let go of thesense of fullness. Awareness at this point becomes refined and so can detect a
subtle level of the breath that feels bright, open, soothing, and spacious. This
enables you to go on to the third jhāna.
The third jhāna has two factors, pleasure and singleness of preoccupation. The
pleasure you’ve been experiencing starts to waver in flashes as it reaches
saturation point and begins to change. You thus become aware of another, subtler
level of sensation, and so the mind shifts to a sense of openness and emptiness.
The breath grows still, with no moving in or out, full in every part of the body.
72

This allows you to let go of the sense of pleasure. The mind enters this stage
through the power of mindfulness and alertness. Awareness is tranquil and still,bright in the present, steady and independent. It lets go of the breath and is simply
observant. The mind is still, with no shifting back and forth. Both breath and mind
are independent. The mind can let down its burdens and cares. The heart issolitary and one, infused with mindfulness and alertness. When you reach thisstage and stay with it properly, you’re practicing the fourth jhāna.
The fourth jhāna has two factors. Ekaggatā: Your object becomes absolutely
one. Upekkhā: You can let go of all thoughts of past and future; the five hindrances
are completely cut away. The mind is solitary, clear, and radiant. The six
properties – earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness – become radiant.
The heart feels spacious and clear, thoroughly aware all around through the powerof mindfulness and alertness. As mindfulness becomes tempered and strong, itturns into intuitive knowledge, enabling you to see the true nature of body andmind, sensations and mental acts, past, present, and future.
When this happens, if you aren’t skilled, you can become excited or upset. In
other words, you may develop pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa, the ability to remember
previous lives. If what you see is good, you may get pleased, which will cause yourmindfulness and alertness to weaken. If what you see is bad or displeasing, you
may get upset or distressed, so intent on what you remember that your sense of
the present is weakened.
Or you may develop cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: The mind focuses on the affairs ofother individuals, and you see them as they die and are reborn on differing levels.
If you get carried away with what you see, your reference to the present will
weaken. If you find this happening, you should take the mind in hand. If anythingpleasing arises, hold back and stay firm in your sense of restraint. Don’t let
yourself fall into kāmasukhallikānuyoga, delight. If anything bad or displeasing
arises, hold back – because it can lead to attakilamathānuyoga, distress. Draw themind into the present and guard against all thoughts of delight and distress. Keepthe mind neutral. This is the middle way, the mental attitude that forms the Pathand gives rise to another level of awareness in which you realize, for instance, howinconstant it is to be a living being: When things go well, you’re happy andpleased; when things go badly, you’re pained and upset. This awareness enables
you truly to know the physical sensations and mental acts you’re experiencing andleads to a sense of disenchantment, termed nibbidā-ñāṇa. You see all fabrications
as inconstant, harmful, stressful, and hard to bear, as lying beyond the control of
the heart.
At this point, the mind disentangles itself: This is termed virāga-dhamma,
dispassion. It feels no desire or attraction; it doesn’t gulp down or lie fermenting insensations or mental acts, past, present, or future. It develops a special level of73

intuition that comes from within. What you never before knew, now you know;what you never before met with, now you see. This happens through the power ofmindfulness and alertness gathering in at a single point and turning intoāsavakkhaya-ñāṇa, enabling you to disentangle and free yourself from mundanestates of mind – in proportion to the extent of your practice – and so attain thetranscendent qualities, beginning with stream entry.
All of this is termed Right Concentration: being skilled at entering, staying inplace, and withdrawing, giving rise to –Right Intuition: correct, profound, and penetrating;
Right View: correct views, in line with the truth;
Right Practice: in which you conduct yourself with full circumspection in
all aspects of the triple training, with virtue, concentration, anddiscernment coming together in the heart.
This, then, is Right Concentration. For the most part, people who haveattained true insight have done so in the four jhānas. Although there may beothers who have gone wrong in the practice of jhāna, we’ll achieve the proper
results if we study so as to gain an understanding and adjust our practice so as tobring it into line.
This ends the discussion of Right Concentration.
***

All that we have discussed so far can be summarized under three headings:
Right View and Right Resolve come under the heading of discernment; Right
Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood under the heading of virtue; and Right
Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration under the heading ofconcentration. So altogether we have virtue, concentration, and discernment.

74

VIRTUE
There are three levels of virtue –1. Heṭṭhima-sīla: normalcy of word and deed, which consists of three kinds ofbodily acts – not killing, not stealing, not engaging in sexual misconduct; and fourkinds of speech – not lying, not speaking divisively, not saying anything coarse orabusive, not speaking idly. If we class virtue on this level according to the wordingof the precepts and the groups of people who observe them, there are four – thefive precepts, the eight, the ten, and the 227 precepts. All of these deal withaspects of behavior that should be abandoned, termed pahāna-kicca. At the sametime, the Buddha directed us to develop good manners and proper conduct in theuse of the four necessities of life – food, clothing, shelter, and medicine – so that
our conduct in terms of thought, word, and deed will be orderly and becoming.
This aspect is termed bhāvanā-kicca, behavior we should work at developing
correctly.
Observance of these precepts or rules – dealing merely with words and deeds –forms the lower or preliminary level of virtue, which is what makes us into fullfledged human beings (manussa-sampatti).
2. Majjhima-sīla: the medium level of virtue, i.e., keeping watch over yourwords and deeds so that they cause no harm; and, in addition, keeping watch overyour thoughts so as to keep your mental kamma upright in three ways –a. Anabhijjhā-visamalobha: not coveting things that do not belong to you andthat lie beyond your scope or powers; not focusing your thoughts on such things;
not building what are called castles in the air. The Buddha taught us to tend to thewealth we already have so that it can grow on its own. The wealth we already have,
if we use our intelligence and ingenuity, will draw more wealth our way without
our having to waste energy by being covetous or greedy. For example, suppose wehave a single banana tree: If we water it, give it fertilizer, loosen the soil around its
roots, and protect it from dangers, our single banana tree will eventually give riseto an increase of other banana trees. In other words, if we’re intelligent we canturn whatever wealth we have into a basis for a livelihood. But if we lack
intelligence – if our hearts simply want to get, without wanting work – then evenif we acquire a great deal of wealth, we won’t be able to support ourselves. Thus,
greed of this sort, in which we focus our desires above and beyond our capacities,
is classed as a wrong kind of mental action.
b. Abyāpāda: abandoning thoughts of ill will, hatred, and vengeance, anddeveloping thoughts of goodwill instead; thinking of the good aspects of the75

people who have angered us. When people make us angry, it comes from the factthat our dealings with them – in which we associate with and assist one another –sometimes lead to disappointment. This gives rise to dislike and irritation, which
in turn cause us to brood, so that we develop hurt feelings that grow into anger
and thoughts of retaliation. Thus we should regard such people from many angles,
for ordinarily as human beings they should have some good to them. If they don’t
act well toward us, they may at least speak well to us. Or if they don’t act or speak
well to us, perhaps their thoughts may be well-meaning to at least some extent.
Thus, when you find your thoughts heading in the direction of anger or dislike,you should sit down and think in two ways –(1) Try to think of whatever ways that person has been good to you. Whenthese things come to mind, they’ll give rise to feelings of affection, love, andgoodwill. This is one way.
(2) Anger is something worthless, like the scum floating on the surface of alake. If we’re stupid, we won’t get to drink the clean water lying underneath; or if
we drink the scum, we may catch a disease. A person who is bad to you is likesomeone sunk in filth. If you’re stupid enough to hate or be angry with suchpeople, it’s as if you wanted to go sit in the filth with them. Is that what you want?
Think about this until any thoughts of ill will and anger disappear.
c. Sammā-diṭṭhi: abandoning wrong views and mental darkness. If our minds
lack the proper training and education, we may come to think that we and allother living beings are born simply as accidents of nature; that ‘father’ and‘mother’ have no special meaning; that good and evil don’t exist. Such views
deviate from the truth. They can dissuade us from restraining the evil that lies
within us and from searching for and fostering the good. To believe that there’s nogood or evil, that death is annihilation, is Wrong View – a product of shortsighted thinking and poor discernment, seeing things for what they aren’t. So weshould abandon such views and educate ourselves, searching for knowledge of the
Dhamma and associating with people wiser than we, so that they can show us thebright path. We’ll then be able to reform our views and make them Right, which is
one form of mental uprightness.
Virtue on this level, when we can maintain it well, will qualify us to be heavenly
beings. The qualities of heavenly beings, which grow out of human values, willturn us into human beings who are divine in our virtues, for to guard ourthoughts, words, and deeds means that we qualify for heaven in this lifetime. Thisis one aspect of the merit developed by a person who observes the middle level ofvirtue.
3. Uparima-sīla: higher virtue, where virtue merges with the Dhamma in thearea of mental activity. There are two sides to higher virtue –76

a. PAHĀNA-KICCA: qualities to be abandoned, which are of five sorts –(1) Kāmachanda: affection, desire, laxity, infatuation.
(2) Byāpāda: ill will and hatred.
(3) Thīna-middha: discouragement, drowsiness, sloth.
(4) Uddhacca-kukkucca: restlessness and anxiety.
(5) Vicikicchā: doubt, uncertainty, indecision.
Discussion(1) Ill will (byāpāda) lies at the essence of killing (pāṇātipāta), for it causes us
to destroy our own goodness and that of others – and when our mind can kill off
our own goodness, what’s to keep us from killing other people and animals aswell?
(2) Restlessness (uddhacca) lies at the essence of taking what isn’t given(adinnādāna). The mind wanders about, taking hold of other people’s affairs,
sometimes their good points, sometimes their bad. To fasten onto their good
points isn’t too serious, for it can give us at least some nourishment. As long as
we’re going to steal other people’s business and make it our own, we might as welltake their silver and gold. Their bad points, though, are like trash they’ve thrownaway – scraps and bones with nothing of any substance – and yet even so we let
the mind feed on them. When we know that other people are possessive of their
bad points and guard them well and yet we still take hold of these things to think
about, it should be classed as a form of taking what isn’t given.
(3) Sensual desires (kāmachanda) lie at the essence of sensual misconduct. The
mind feels an attraction for sensual objects – thoughts of past or future sights,
sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations – or for sensual defilements – passion,
aversion, or delusion – to the point where we forget ourselves. Mental states suchas these can be said to overstep the bounds of propriety in sensual matters.
(4) Doubt (vicikicchā) lies at the essence of lying. In other words, our minds are
unsure, with nothing reliable or true to them. We have no firm principles and so
drift along under the influence of all kinds of thoughts and preoccupations.
(5) Drowsiness (thīna-middha) is intoxication – discouragement, dullness,forgetfulness, with no mindfulness or restraint watching over the mind. This iswhat it means to be drugged or drunk.
All of these unskillful qualities are things we should eliminate by training theheart along the lines of:b. BHĀVANĀ-KICCA: qualities to be developed –(1) Mindfulness (sati): Start out by directing your thoughts to an object, such77

as your in-and-out breathing. Use mindfulness to steady the mind in its object
throughout both the in-breath and the out-. Vitakka, thinking in this way, is whatkills off sensual desires, in that the discipline of mindfulness keeps the mind fromslipping off into external objects.
(2) Vicāra: Evaluate and be observant. Make yourself aware of whether or not
you’ve received a sense of comfort and relaxation from your in- and outbreathing. If not, tend to the breath and adjust it in a variety of ways: e.g., in longand out long, in long and out short, in short and out short, in short and out long,in slow and out slow, in fast and out fast, in gently and out gently, in strong andout strong, in throughout the body and out throughout the body. Adjust thebreath until it gives good results to both body and mind, and you’ll be able to kill
off feelings of ill will and hatred.
(3) Pīti: When you get good results – for instance, when the subtle breath
sensations in the body merge and flow together, permeating the entire sense of the
body – the breath is like an electric wire; the various parts of the body, such as thebones, are like electricity poles; mindfulness and alertness are like a power source;
and awareness is thus bright and radiant. Both body and mind feel satisfied andfull. This is pīti, or rapture, which can kill off feelings of drowsiness.
(4) Sukha: Now that feelings of restlessness and anxiety have disappeared, asense of pleasure and ease arises for both body and mind. This pleasure is whatkills off restlessness.
(5) Ekaggatā: Doubts and uncertainty fade into the distance. The mind reaches
singleness of preoccupation in a state of normalcy and equilibrium. This normalcyof mind, which is maintained through the power of the discipline of mindfulness(sati-vinaya), forms the essence of virtue: firmness, steadiness, stability. And theresulting flavor or nourishment of virtue is a solitary sense of calm for the mind.
When freedom of this sort arises within us, this is called the development ofsīlānussati, the mindfulness of virtue. This is virtue that attains excellence –leading to the paths, their fruitions, and nibbāna – and thus can be called
uparima-sīla, higher virtue.
To summarize, there are three levels of virtue: external, intermediate, andinternal. In ultimate terms, however, there are two –1. Mundane virtue: virtue connected with the world, in which we maintainthe principles of ordinary human morality but are as yet unable to reach thetranscendent levels: stream entry, once-returning, non-returning, andarahantship. We can’t yet cut the fetters (saṅyojana) that tie the heart to the
influences of all the worlds. This is thus called mundane virtue.
2. Transcendent virtue: virtue that’s constant and sure, going straight to the78heart, bathing the heart with its nourishment. This arises from the practice oftranquility meditation and insight meditation. Tranquility meditation forms thecause, and insight meditation the result: discovering the true nature of theproperties, aggregates (khandhas), and senses; seeing clearly the four noble truths,
in proportion to our practice of the Path, and abandoning the first three of thefetters –a. Sakkāya-diṭṭhi (self-identity views): views that see the body or the aggregatesas in the self or as belonging to the self. Ordinarily, we may be convinced thatviews of this sort are mistaken, yet we can’t really abandon them. But when weclearly see that they’re wrong for sure, this is called Right View – seeing things as
they truly are – which can eliminate such wrong views as seeing the body as
belonging to the self, or the self as the five aggregates, or the five aggregates as in
the self.
b. Vicikicchā: doubt about what’s genuine and true, and what’s counterfeit andfalse. The power of Right View allows us to see that the quality to which we
awaken exists at all times and that the true qualities enabling us to awaken also
exist and are made effective through the power of the practices we’re following.
Our knowledge is definite and true. Our doubts about the virtues of the Buddha,
Dhamma, and Saṅgha are cleared up for good. This is called becoming a niyatapuggala, a person who is certain and sure.
c. Sīlabbata-parāmāsa: When the heart abandons this fetter, it no longer
fondles theories concerning moral virtue; it’s no longer stuck merely on the levelof manners and activities. Good and evil are accomplished through the heart;
activities are something separate. Even though people who reach this level do good– taking the precepts, making gifts and offerings, or meditating in line with thegood customs of the world – they’re not caught up on any of these things, because
their hearts have reached the nourishment of virtue. They aren’t stuck on theparticulars (byañjana), i.e., their activities; nor are they stuck on the purpose(attha), i.e., the meaning or intent of their various good manners. Their hearts
dwell in the nourishment of virtue: tranquility, stability, normalcy of mind. Just as
a person who has felt the nourishment that comes from food permeating his body
isn’t stuck on either the food or its flavor – because he’s received the benefits of
the nourishment it provides – in the same way, the hearts of people who havereached the essence of virtue are no longer stuck on activities or manners,
particulars or purposes, because they’ve tasted virtue’s nourishment.
This is thus classed as transcendent virtue, the first stage of nibbāna. Even
though such people may be destined for further rebirth, they’re special people,
apart from the ordinary. Anyone whose practice reaches this level can be counted
as fortunate, as having received dependable wealth, like ingots of gold. Just as gold
can be used as currency all over the world because it has special value for all79

human beings – unlike paper currency, whose use is limited to specific countries– in the same way, a heart that has truly attained virtue has a value in this life thatwill remain constant in lives to come. Thus, a person who has reached this level
has received part of the Noble Wealth of those who practice the religion.

80

CONCENTRATION
Concentration has three levels –1. Kāmāvacara-khaṇika-samādhi: (momentary concentration in the sensory
realm): The mind keeps thinking, coming to rest, and running along after skillful
preoccupations – either internal or external – on the sensory level (kāmāvacarakusala): sights, sounds, smells, flavors, tactile sensations, or ideas. An example ofthis is when the mind becomes quiet and rested for a moment as we sit chanting
or listening to a sermon. In other words, the mind grows still for momentary
periods in the same way that a person walks: One foot takes a step while the otherfoot rests on the ground, providing the energy needed to reach one’s goal. This isthus called momentary concentration, something possessed by people all over theworld. Whether or not we practice concentration, the mind is always behaving
this way by its very nature. This is called the bhavaṅga-citta or bhavaṅga-pāda:
The mind stops for a moment and then moves on. In developing higher levels ofconcentration, we have to start out with this ordinary level as our basis.
Otherwise, the higher levels probably wouldn’t be possible. Still, this level ofconcentration can’t be used as a basis for discernment, which is why we have to go
further in our practice.
2. Rūpāvacara-upacāra-samādhi (threshold concentration in the realm ofform): This refers to the first jhāna, in which the mind comes inward to rest on asingle preoccupation within the body, fixing its attention, for example, on the inand-out breath. When the mind stays with its one object, this is called ekaggatā.
At the same time, there’s mindfulness keeping the breath in mind: This is calledvitakka. The mind then adjusts and expands the various aspects of the breath
throughout the entire body, evaluating them mindfully with complete
circumspection: This is called alertness (sampajañña) or vicāra, which is thefactor aware of causes and results. Mindfulness, the cause, is what does the work.
Thus vitakka and vicāra cooperate in focusing on the same topic. We are thenaware of the results as they arise – feelings of fullness, pleasure, and ease (pīti andsukha) for body and mind. At this point, the mind lets down its burdens to rest fora while, like a person walking along who meets with something pleasing andattractive, and so stops to look: Both feet are standing still, stepping neither
forward nor back.
If we aren’t skilled enough to go on any further, we’ll then retreat. If we see
results – such as signs and visions – arising in the mind, we may get excited and so81cause our original preoccupation to waver or fade. Like a person sitting on a chair:
If he sees something appealing in front of him, he may become so interested thathe leans forward and reaches out his hand; he may even begin to budge a bit fromhis seat or stand up completely. In the same way, if we get engrossed in visions,thoughts, or views while we’re engaged in threshold concentration, we canbecome excited and pleased – we may even think that we’ve reached thetranscendent – and this can cause our concentration to degenerate. If we try to doit again and can’t, we may then seize the opportunity to say that we’ve gone
beyond the practice of concentration, so that we can now take the way of
discernment – thinking, pondering, and letting go in line with nothing more thanour own views and ideas. This, though, is not likely to succeed, because ourknowledge has no firm basis or core, like a wheel with no axle or hub: How can it
get anywhere? The power of threshold concentration, if we don’t watch after itwell, is bound to deteriorate, and we’ll be left with nothing but old, left-overconcepts.
3. Rūpāvacara-appanā-samādhi (fixed penetration in the realm of form):
This refers to the practice of all four levels of rūpa jhāna. The first jhāna has fivefactors: directed thought, evaluation, fullness, pleasure, and singleness of
preoccupation. The second jhāna has three: fullness, pleasure, and singleness of
preoccupation. The third has two: pleasure and singleness of preoccupation; andthe fourth has two: equanimity and singleness of preoccupation.
Discussion
Fixed penetration in the realm of form means that the mind focuses on theinternal sense of the body, remaining steadily with a single object – such as the inand-out breath – until it reaches jhāna, beginning with the first level, which iscomposed of directed thought, evaluation, fullness, pleasure, and singleness of
preoccupation.
When you see results arising, focus in on those results and they will then turninto the second jhāna, which has three factors: fullness, pleasure and singleness of
preoccupation.
As your focus becomes stronger, it causes the sense of fullness to waver, so you
can now let go of that sense of fullness, and your concentration turns into thethird jhāna, in which only two factors are left: pleasure and singleness of
preoccupation. The mind has few burdens; its focus is strong and the sense of
inner light is radiant.
This causes the feeling of pleasure to waver, so that you can let go of that senseof pleasure, and the mind attains oneness in a very subtle preoccupation. The82

preoccupation doesn’t waver and neither does the mind. It stands firm in its
freedom. This is called equanimity and singleness of preoccupation, which form
the fourth jhāna. Mindfulness is powerful; alertness, complete. Both are centeredon a single preoccupation without getting snagged on any other allusions orperceptions. This mental state is called the fourth jhāna, which has two factors:
Equanimity is the external attitude of the mind; as for the real factors, they’re
mindfulness and singleness, steady and firm.
The mind experiences a sense of brightness, the radiance that comes from its
state of fixed penetration. Mindfulness and alertness are circumspect and allround, and so give rise to skill and proficiency in practicing jhāna – in focusing,staying in place, stepping through the various levels, withdrawing, going back andforth. When the mind behaves as you want it to, no matter when you practice,
only then does this truly qualify as fixed penetration, the basis for the arising of
three qualities: intuitive knowledge (ñāṇa), discernment (paññā), and cognitive
skill (vijjā).
Intuitive knowledge here refers to knowledge or sensitivity of an
extraordinary sort. For example –Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember previous lives.
Cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: the ability to focus on the death and rebirth of otherliving beings – sometimes in good destinations, sometimes in bad –together with the causes that lead them to be reborn in such ways. This
gives rise to a sense of weariness and disenchantment with sensations andmental acts, body and mind.
Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: knowing how to put an end to the defilements of
the heart in accordance with the knowledge – the clear vision of the four
noble truths – that accompanies the particular transcendent path reached.
And there are still other forms of extraordinary knowledge, such as
iddhividhī, the ability to display supernormal powers, to make an image of
oneself appear to other people; dibbasota, clairaudience; dibbacakkhu,
clairvoyance – i.e., the ability to see objects at tremendous distances.
Discernment refers to discriminating knowledge, clear comprehension,
knowledge in line with the truth. For example –Attha-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to aims and results; thoroughgoing comprehension of cause and effect; knowing, for example, how stressis caused by ignorance and craving, and how the disbanding of stress iscaused by the intuitive discernment that forms the Path; comprehending
the meaning and aims of the Buddha’s various teachings and knowing how
to explain them so that other people will understand – being able, for83

instance, to summarize a long passage without distorting its meaning.
Dhamma-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to mental qualities;
knowing how to explain deep and subtle points so that other people will
understand.
Nirutti-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to different languages.
According to the texts, this includes knowing foreign languages and thelanguages of various other living beings by means of the eye of discernment(paññā cakkhu).
Paṭibhāṇa-paṭisambhidā: acumen with regard to expression; being
fluent in making explanations and quick-witted in debate; knowing themost strategic way to express things.
All of these forms of discernment can arise from training the mind to attainfixed penetration. Vijjā – clear, open knowledge, free from any further
concealments; and āloka – brilliance, radiance streaming out in all directions –enable us to see the true nature of sensations and mental acts, in accordance with
our powers of intuitive discernment.
Cognitive skill refers to clear, uncanny knowledge that arises from the mind’s
being firmly fixed in jhāna. There are eight sorts –(1) Vipassanā-ñāṇa: clear comprehension of physical sensations andmental acts (rūpa, nāma).
(2) Manomayiddhi: psychic powers, influencing events through thepower of thought.
(3) Iddhividhī: the ability to display powers, making one’s body appear ina variety of ways.
(4) Dibba-cakkhu: clairvoyance.
(5) Dibba-sota: clairaudience.
(6) Cetopariya-ñāṇa: the ability to know the mental states of otherpeople.
(7) Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember previous lives.
(8) Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: the ability to put an end to the fermentations
that defile the heart.
Thus, jhāna on the level of fixed penetration is extremely important. It can give
us support on all sides – on the level of the world and of the Dhamma – and canbring success in our various activities, both in our worldly affairs and in our
Dhamma duties, leading us on to the transcendent.
To summarize, there are two kinds of concentration:84

1. That which gives rise to mundane knowledge: This is termedmundane concentration.
2. That which helps us to fulfill our duties on the level of the Dhamma,
leading to vipassanā-ñāṇa or āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa, the knowledge thatenables us – in accordance with the discernment and cognitive skills thatarise – to abandon or cut off completely the mental currents tending in the
direction of the fetters: This is termed transcendent concentration.

85

DISCERNMENT
Discernment is of three kinds –1. Sutamaya-paññā: discernment that comes from studying.
2. Cintāmaya-paññā: discernment that comes from reflecting.
3. Bhāvanāmaya-paññā: discernment that comes from developing themind.
Discussionl. Sutamaya-paññā is the discernment that comes from having listened agreat deal, like the Venerable Ānanda. Listening here, though, includes studying
and taking interest in a variety of ways: paying attention, taking notes, asking
questions, and taking part in discussions so as to become quick-witted and astute.
Education of all kinds comes down to two sorts: (a) learning the basic units,
such as the letters of the alphabet, their sound and pronunciation, so as tounderstand their accepted usage; and (b) learning how to put them together – forinstance, how to combine the letters so as to give rise to words and meanings – aswhen we complete our elementary education so that we won’t be at a loss when
we’re called on to read and write in the course of making a living.
In the area of the religion, we have to study the letters of the Pali alphabet,
their combinations, their meanings, and their pronunciation. If we don’t
understand clearly, we should take an interest in asking questions. If we havetrouble memorizing, we should jot down notes as a way of aiding our memory andexpanding our concepts. In addition, we have to study by means of our senses. For
example, when we see a visual object, we should find out its truth. When we hearsounds or words, we should find out their truth. When we smell an aroma, weshould consider it to see what it comes from. We should take an interest in flavors
so that we know what they come from, and in tactile sensations – the heat andcold that touch the body – by studying such things as the way weather behaves.
All of these forms of education are ways of giving rise to astuteness – both in
the area of the world and in the area of the Dhamma – because they constitute abasic level of knowledge, like the primary education offered in schools.
2. Cintāmaya-paññā refers to thinking and evaluating so as to learn themeaning and truth of one’s beginning education. This level of education draws out
the meaning of the knowledge we have gained through studying. When we gain86

information, we should reflect on it until we understand it so that we will be led byour sense of reason and not by gullibility or ignorance. This is like a person who
has used his knowledge of the alphabet to gain knowledge from books to complete
his secondary education. Such a person has reached the level where he can think
things through clearly.
In the area of the Dhamma, the same holds true. Once we have learned thebasics, we should research and think through the content of the Teaching until wegive rise to an understanding so that we can conduct ourselves correctly in linewith the methods and aims taught by the sages of the past. This level ofdiscernment is what prepares us to conduct ourselves properly in line with thetruths of the Doctrine and Discipline. This is classed as an aspect of pariyatti
dhamma, Dhamma on the level of theory. By learning the language and meaningof the Teaching, we can become astute as far as theory is concerned; but if we
don’t use that knowledge to train ourselves, it’s as if we studied a profession –such as law – but then went out to become bandits, so that our knowledge
wouldn’t give its proper results. For this reason, we’ve been taught still anothermethod, which is the well-spring of discernment or mastery – i.e., the mental
activity termed bhāvanāmaya-paññā.
3. Bhāvanāmaya-paññā: discernment that arises exclusively from training
the mind in concentration. In other words, this level of discernment isn’t related
to the old observations we’ve gained from the past, because our old observations
are bound to obscure the new observations, endowed with the truth, that can arise
only right at the mind. When you engage in this form of practice, focus exclusively
on the present, taking note of a single thing, not getting involved with past or
future. Steady the mind, bringing it into the present. Gather virtue, concentration,and discernment all into the present. Think of your meditation object and bringyour powers of evaluation to bear on it – say, by immersing mindfulness in thebody, focusing on such objects as the in-and-out breath. When you do this,knowledge will arise.
‘Ñāṇaṁ udapādi’: Intuitive knowledge of things we have never before studiedor known will appear. For example: pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa – the ability toremember our present life and past lives; cutūpapāta-ñāṇa – the ability to knowliving beings as they die and are reborn – well or poorly, happily or miserably –knowing the causes and results of how they fare; āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa – the ability
to cleanse ourselves of the fermentations that defile the mind, thinning them out
or eliminating them altogether, as we are able. These three forms of knowledge
don’t arise for people who simply study or think things through in ordinary ways.
They form a mental skill that arises from the practice of concentration and are an
aspect of Dhamma on the level of practice (paṭipatti-dhamma).
87

Another aspect – ’paññā udapādi’: Clear discernment of the true nature of theproperties (dhātu), aggregates, and sense media arises. We can focus on thesethings by way of the mind and know them in terms of the four noble truths: stress(dukkha), which arises from a cause (samudaya), i.e., ignorance and craving; andthen nirodha, the ceasing and disbanding of stress, which occurs as the result of acause, i.e., the Path (magga), composed of practices for the mind. These things canbe known by means of the discernment that arises exclusively and directly within
us and is termed the eye of discernment or the eye of Dhamma: the eye of themind, awakening from its slumbers.
‘Vijjā udapādi’: The eight forms of cognitive skill, which follow the laws ofcause and effect – means of practice that bring us results – can arise in a quietmind.
‘Āloko udapādi’: Brightness, clarity, relief, and emptiness arise in such a mind.
Thus, the discernment that results from developing the mind differs from the
beginning stages of discernment that come from studying and reflecting. Studyand reflection are classed as Dhamma on the level of theory, and can give only apreliminary level of knowledge. They’re like a person who has awakened but has
yet to open his eyes. The discernment that comes from developing the mind,
though, is like waking up and seeing the truth – past, present, and future – in all
four directions. We can clearly see stress, its cause, its disbanding, and the Path toits disbanding, and so can absolutely abandon the first set of fetters. Our hearts
will then flow to nibbāna, just as the water in a mountain cataract is sure to flow
to the sea. They will flow to their natural truth: the mental fullness andcompleteness of a person who has practiced mental development until
discernment arises within. We will meet with a special form of skill –transcendent skill – whose power will stay with us always, a quality that’s certain
and sure, termed certain truth, certain wisdom, making us people certain for
nibbāna.
So this level of discernment – termed the discernment of liberating insight – isespecially important. It arises on its own, not from cogitating along the lines of old
concepts we’ve learned, but from abandoning them. Old concepts are what
obscure the new knowledge ready to arise.
The nature of liberating insight is like an electric light: Simply press the switch
once, and things all around are made bright. In the same way, when the mind
reaches a stage of readiness, insight will arise in a single mental instant, andeverything will become clear: properties, aggregates, and the sense media. We’ll
know, on the one hand, what’s inconstant (aniccaṁ), stressful (dukkhaṁ), andnot-self (anattā); and on the other hand, what’s uncommon, i.e., niccaṁ – what’s
constant and true; sukhaṁ – true happiness, termed nirāmisa-sukha; and attā –the self. The eye of the mind can know both sides and let go both ways. It’s
88attached neither to what’s inconstant, stressful, and not-self; nor to what’s
constant (niccaṁ), good (sukhaṁ), and right (attā). It can let these things go, inline with their true nature.
The knowledge that comes from discernment, cognitive skill, and intuitive
insight, it can let go as well. It isn’t attached to views – for there’s yet another,
separate sort of reality that has no ‘this’ or ‘that.’ In other words, it doesn’t havethe view or conceit that ‘I am.’ It lets go of the assumptions that, ‘That’s the self,’‘That’s not-self,’ ‘That’s constant,’ ‘That’s inconstant,’ ‘That arises,’ ‘That doesn’tarise.’ It can let go of these things completely. That’s the Dhamma, and yet it
doesn’t hold onto the Dhamma, which is why we say that the Dhamma is not-self.
It also doesn’t hold on to the view that says, ‘not-self.’ It lets go of views, causes,and effects, and isn’t attached to anything at all dealing with wordings or
meanings, conventions or practices.
This, then, is discernment that arises from the development of the mind.
To summarize: The discernment that comes from studying and reflecting isclassed as Dhamma on the level of theory. The discernment that comes fromdeveloping the mind is classed as Dhamma on the level of practice. The resultsthat arise are two –1. Mundane discernment: comprehension – of the world and the
Dhamma – falling under mundane influences and subject to change.
2. Transcendent discernment: awareness that goes beyond the ordinary,giving rise to clear realization within. People who reach this level are said tohave awakened and opened their eyes, which is what is meant by ‘Buddho.’***

To summarize everything, there are three main points –1. Virtue, which in terms of where its principles are found is the VinayaPiṭaka.
2. Concentration, which in terms of where its principles are found is the
Suttanta Piṭaka.
3. Discernment, which in terms of where its principles are found is theAbhidhamma Piṭaka.
Expressed in terms of their meaning, they refer to three modes of behavior to
be developed –1. Virtue: keeping our words and deeds honest and in good order. This isa means of killing off one of the causes of stress, i.e., kāma-taṇhā (sensual89

craving), mental states that take pleasure in growing attached and involved
in sights, sounds, smells, flavors, tactile sensations, and ideas, known
through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling, and ideation.
2. Concentration: steadying the mind in a single preoccupation, holding
fast to the present, not latching onto thoughts of past or future.
Concentration is a means of killing off bhava-taṇhā (craving to be what one
isn’t), i.e., mental states that stray off into thoughts of past and future. The
act of straying is craving for becoming, looking for a new place to take birth.
This is what is meant by ‘sambhavesin.’ When concentration arises, themind can let go of such craving.
3. Discernment: circumspect knowledge that guards over the mind tokeep it from being influenced, involved, and attached. Discernment is whatenables us to abandon vibhava-taṇhā (craving not to be what one is), inthat the characteristic of this form of craving is the wavering that occurs in
the mental moment arising in the present. This we can perceive throughintuitive discernment. Discernment knows stress; intuitive knowledge cuts
the root of stress; cognitive skill – clear knowledge of past, future, andpresent – distinguishes cause, result, and release, without being attached:This is what’s meant by the skill of release.
And that is the heart of the Buddha’s teachings.
(Etaṁ buddhāna-sāsanaṁ)90

Basic Themes

91

PROLOGUE
Beginning meditators should search for two things as external aids to theirpractice –1. Suitable companions (puggala-sappāya): Be discriminating in choosing
people to associate with. Search only for companions who have peace of mind.
This can be any group at all, as long as the group as a whole is aiming for mental
peace.
2. A suitable location (senāsana-sappāya): Choose a quiet place with anagreeable atmosphere, far from human society. Places of this sort, providing
physical seclusion, are conducive to the practice of meditation. Examples listed in
the Canon include caverns and caves, the shade of an over-hanging cliff-face, theforest wilderness, and empty houses or buildings where not too many people will
come passing by. Places like this are an excellent aid and support for a beginning
meditator.
When you go to stay in such a place, don’t let your thoughts dwell on topics
that will act as enemies to your peace of mind. For example, don’t preoccupy
yourself with magic spells or the black arts. Instead, call to mind and put into
practice principles and qualities that will be to your benefit. For example –Appicchatā: Be a person of few wants with regard to the necessities oflife.
Santuṭṭhi: Be content with the possessions you already have.
Viveka: Aim solely for peace, quiet, and seclusion.
Asaṅsagga: Don’t entangle yourself with human companionship.
Viriyārambha: Be single-minded and persistent in making the mind still
and at peace.
Sīlānussati: Reflect on your own conduct to see if you’ve oversteppedany of your precepts, and – if you have – immediately purify your behavior
through your own intention.
Samādhi-kathā: Focus on calling to mind the meditation theme onwhich your mind can become firmly established.
Paññā-kathā: Focus exclusively on those topics that will give rise todiscernment and clear insight.
Vimutti: Make the mind well-disposed toward the search for releasefrom all defilements.
Vimutti-ñāṇa-dassana: Focus on contemplating how to come to the92realizations that will enable you to gain release from the fermentation of all
defilements.
These principles are guidelines for meditators of every sort, and will direct themind solely to the path leading beyond all suffering and stress.
What follows is a short-hand list of essential principles, selected to help
prevent meditators from getting tied up in the course of their practice. These
principles, though, should be viewed merely as incidental to the Dhamma. The
reality of the Dhamma has to be brought into being within ourselves through ourown energies: This is called practicing the Dhamma. If we go no further than thelists, we’ll end up with only concepts of the Dhamma. Our ultimate aim should be
to make the mind still until we reach the natural reality that exists on its own
within us, that knows on its own and lets go on its own. This is the practice of the
Dhamma that will lead us to the realization of the Dhamma – the true taste andnourishment of the Dhamma – so that we will no longer be caught up on theropes.
In other words, conceptualized Dhamma is like a rope bridge for crossing overa river. If we take the bridge down and then carry it with us, it will serve no
purpose other than to weigh us down and get us all tied up. So no matter how
much conceptualized Dhamma you may have memorized, when you come to thepoint where you’re practicing for real you have to take responsibility for yourself.
Whether you are to win or lose, let go or cling, will depend on how much
Dhamma you’ve built into your own mind. This is why we’re taught not to cling to
the scriptures and texts, to meanings and concepts. Only when we train ourselvesto get beyond all this will we be heading for purity.
Attāhi attano nātho:Nothing can help us unless we can rely on ourselves. Only when we realize thiswill we be on the right track. The Buddha attained all of the truths he taught
before he put them into words. It wasn’t the case that he came up with the words
first and then put them into practice later. He was like the scientists who
experiment and get results before writing textbooks. But people who simply readthe textbooks know everything – for example, they may know every part in an
airplane – but they can’t produce one out of their own knowledge. To be a
consumer and to be a producer are two different things. If we cling merely to theconcepts of the Dhamma, simply memorizing them, we’re no more thanconsumers. Only if we make ourselves into producers, so that others canconsume, will we be acting properly.
To be successful producers, we have to accept responsibility for ourselves. If
there’s any area where we don’t succeed, we should apply our own ingenuity until93

we do. If we rely just on the ingenuity of others, then we can’t depend on
ourselves. And if we can’t depend on ourselves, why should we let other people
think that they can depend on us?
This is why I have compiled this list of principles merely as a brief beginningguide for meditators.

The Thirteen Ascetic Observances
1. Paṅsukūlikaṅga: the practice of wearing robes made from thrownaway cloth.
2. Tecīvarikaṅga: the practice of using only one set of three robes.
3. Piṇḍapātikaṅga: the practice of going for alms.
4. Sapadācārikaṅga: the practice of not bypassing any donors on one’s
alms path.
5. Ekāsanikaṅga: the practice of eating no more than one meal a day.
6. Pattapiṇḍikaṅga: the practice of eating one’s food only from one’sbowl.
7. Khalupacchābhattikaṅga: the practice of not accepting any foodpresented after one has eaten one’s fill.
8. Āraññikaṅga: the practice of living in the wilderness.
9. Rukkhamūlikaṅga: the practice of living under the shade of a tree.
10. Abbhokāsikaṅga: the practice of living out under the open sky.
11. Sosānikaṅga: the practice of living in a cemetery.
12. Yathāsanthatikaṅga: the practice of living in whatever place isassigned to one.
13. Nesajjikaṅga: the practice of not lying down.

The Fourteen Duties
1. Ākantuka-vatta: duties of a monk newly arriving at a monastery.
2. Āvāsika-vatta: duties of a host-monk when a newcomer arrives.
3. Gamika-vatta: duties of a monk when leaving a monastery.
4. Anumodanā-vatta: duties connected with expressing appreciation for
donations of food.
5. Bhattaka-vatta: duties to observe before and after one’s meal.
6. Piṇḍicārika-vatta: duties to observe when going for alms.
7. Āraññika-vatta: duties to observe when living in the wilderness.
8. Senāsana-vatta: duties to observe in looking after one’s dwellingplace.
9. Jantaghara-vatta: duties to observe in using the fire-house.
9410. Vaccakuṭī-vatta: duties to observe in using the toilet.
11. Upajjhāya-vatta: duties to observe in attending to one’s preceptor.
12. Ācariya-vatta: duties to observe in attending to one’s teacher.
13. Saddhivihārika-vatta: a preceptor’s duties toward his pupil.
14. Antevāsika-vatta: a teacher’s duties toward his pupil.

Seven Important Sets of Principles(The Wings to Awakening)
1. The four establishings of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna): body, feelings, mind,
mental qualities.
2. The four right exertions (sammappadhāna): making the effort to prevent
evil from arising, to abandon whatever evil has arisen, to give rise to the good thathasn’t yet arisen, and to maintain the good that has.
3. The four bases of power (iddhipāda):Chanda – an affinity for one’s meditation theme.
Viriya – persistence.
Citta – intentness on one’s goal.
Vimaṁsā – circumspection in one’s activities .
4. The five faculties (indrīya): conviction, persistence, mindfulness,concentration, discernment (factors that are pre-eminent in performing one’s
duties).
5. The five strengths (bala): conviction, persistence mindfulness,concentration, discernment (factors that give energy to the observance of one’s
duties).
6. The seven factors for Awakening (bojjhaṅga):Sati-sambojjhaṅga – mindfulness and recollection.
Dhammavicaya-sambojjhaṅga – discrimination in choosing a
meditation theme well-suited to oneself.
Viriya-sambojjhaṅga – persistence.
Pīti-sambojjhaṅga – rapture; fullness of body and mind.
Passaddhi-sambojjhaṅga – physical stillness and mental serenity.
Samādhi-sambojjhaṅga – concentration.
Upekkhā-sambojjhaṅga – equanimity.
7. The eightfold path (magga):Sammā-diṭṭhi – Right View.
95

Sammā-saṅkappa – Right Resolve.
Sammā-vācā – Right Speech.
Sammā-kammanta – Right Action.
Sammā-ājiva – Right Livelihood.
Sammā-vāyāma – Right Effort.
Sammā-sati – Right Mindfulness.
Sammā-samādhi – Right Concentration.

The Forty Meditation Themes
Ten recollections; ten foul objects; ten kasiṇas; four sublime abidings; four
formless absorptions; one resolution into elements; and one perception of thefilthiness of food.
Ten recollections:
1. Buddhānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Buddha.
2. Dhammānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Dhamma.
3. Saṅghānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Saṅgha.
4. Sīlānussati: recollection of one’s own moral virtue.
5. Cāgānussati: recollection of one’s own generosity.
6. Devatānussati: recollection of the qualities that lead to rebirth as aheavenly being.
7. Kāyagatāsati: mindfulness immersed in the body.
8. Maraṇassati: mindfulness of death.
9. Ānāpānassati: mindfulness of breathing.
10. Upasamānussati: recollection of the virtues of nibbāna – ultimate
pleasure; unexcelled ease, free from birth, aging, illness and death.
Ten foul objects:
1. Uddhumātaka: a rotten, bloated corpse, its body all swollen and its
features distended out of shape.
2. Vinīlaka: a livid corpse, with patchy discoloration – greenish, reddish,yellowish – from the decomposition of the blood.
3. Vipubbaka: a festering corpse, oozing lymph and pus from its various
orifices.
4. Vichiddaka: a corpse falling apart, the pieces scattered about,radiating their stench.
5. Vikkhāyittaka: a corpse that various animals, such as dogs, aregnawing, or that vultures are picking at, or that crows are fighting over,96

pulling it apart in different directions.
6. Vikkhittaka: corpses scattered about, i.e., unclaimed bodies that havebeen thrown together in a pile – face up, face down, old bones and new
scattered all over the place.
7. Hatavikkhittaka: the corpse of a person violently murdered, slashedand stabbed with various weapons, covered with wounds – short, long,shallow, deep – some parts hacked so that they’re almost detached.
8. Lohitaka: a corpse covered with blood, like the hands of a butcher, all
red and raw-smelling.
9. Puḷuvaka: a corpse infested with worms: long worms, short worms,
black, green, and yellow worms, squeezed into the ears, eyes, and mouth;squirming and squiggling about, filling the various parts of the body like a
net full of fish that has fallen open.
10. Aṭṭhika: a skeleton, some of the joints already separated, others notyet, the bones – whitish, yellowish, discolored – scattered near and far allover the place.
Ten kasiṇas:1. Paṭhavī kasiṇa: staring at earth.
2. Āpo kasiṇa: staring at water.
3. Tejo kasiṇa: staring at fire.
4. Vāyo kasiṇa: staring at wind.
5. Odāta kasiṇa: staring at white.
6. Pīta kasiṇa: staring at yellow.
7. Lohita kasiṇa: staring at red.
8. Nīla kasiṇa: staring at blue (or green).
9. Ākāsa kasiṇa: staring at the space in a hole or an opening.
10. Āloka kasiṇa: staring at bright light.
Four sublime abidings:
1. Mettā: goodwill, benevolence, friendliness, love in the true sense.
2. Karuṇa: compassion, sympathy, pity, aspiring to find a way to be truly
helpful.
3. Muditā: appreciation for the goodness of other people and for ourown when we are able to help them.
4. Upekkhā: When our efforts to be of help don’t succeed, we shouldmake the mind neutral – neither pleased nor upset by whatever it focuseson – so that it enters the emptiness of jhāna, centered and tranquil to the97point where it can disregard acts of thinking and evaluating as well as
feelings of rapture and ease, leaving only oneness and equanimity withregard to all objects.
Four formless absorptions:1. Ākāsānañcāyatana: being absorbed in a sense of boundless emptinessand space as one’s preoccupation.
2. Viññāṇañcāyatana: being absorbed in boundless consciousness as
one’s preoccupation, with no form or figure acting as the sign or focal pointof one’s concentration.
3. Ākiñcaññāyatana: focusing exclusively on a fainter or more subtle
sense of consciousness that has no limit and in which nothing appears or
disappears, to the point where one almost understands it to be nibbāna.
4. Nevasaññā-nasaññāyatana: being absorbed in a feeling that occurs in
the mind, that isn’t knowledge exactly, but neither is it non-awareness; i.e.,there is awareness, but with no thinking, no focusing of awareness on what
it knows.
These four formless absorptions are merely resting places for the mind because
they are states that the mind enters, stays in, and leaves. They are by nature
unstable and inconstant, so we shouldn’t rest content simply at this level. We haveto go back and forth through the various levels many times so as to realize thatthey’re only stages of enforced tranquility.
One resolution into elements:
i.e., regarding each part of the body simply in terms of physical properties orelements.
One perception of the filthiness of food:i.e., viewing food as something repugnant and unclean – with regard to where
it comes from, how it’s prepared, how it’s mixed together when it’s chewed, andwhere it stays in the stomach and intestines.
***

With one exception, all of the meditation themes mentioned here are simply
gocara-dhamma – foraging places for the mind. They’re not places for the mind
to stay. If we try to go live in the things we see when we’re out foraging, we’ll end
up in trouble. Thus, there is one theme that’s termed vihāra-dhamma (a home forthe mind) or anāgocara (a place of no wandering): Once you’ve developed it, you
can use it as a place to stay. When you practice meditation, you don’t have to go98

foraging in other themes; you can stay in the single theme that’s the apex of all
meditation themes: ānāpānassati, keeping the breath in mind. This theme, unlike
the others, has none of the features or various deceptions that can upset or disturb
the heart. As for the others:– Some of the recollections, when you’ve practiced them for a long time, cangive rise to startling or unsettling visions.
– The ten foul objects can give rise after a while to visions and sometimes tosense of alienation and discontent that turns into restlessness and distress, yourmind being unable to fabricate anything on which it can come to rest, to the point
where you can’t eat or drink.
– The ten kasiṇas, after you’ve stared at them a long while, can give rise tovisions that tend to pull you out of your sense of the body, as you become
enthralled by their color and features, to the point where you may becomecompletely carried away.
– As for the resolution into elements, when you become more and moreengrossed in contemplating the elements, everything in the world becomesnothing more than elements, which are everywhere the same. You come to believethat you no longer have to make distinctions: You’re nothing more than elements,
members of the opposite sex are nothing more than elements, food is nothing
more than elements, and so you can end up overstepping the bounds of morality
and the monastic discipline.
– As for the perception of the filthiness of food, as you become more and morecaught up in it, everything becomes repulsive. You can’t eat or sleep, your mind
becomes restless and disturbed, and you inflict suffering on yourself.
– As for the four sublime abidings, if you don’t have jhāna as a dwelling for themind, feelings of goodwill, compassion, and appreciation can all cause you tosuffer. Only if you have jhāna can these qualities truly become sublime abidings,
that is, restful homes for the heart to stay (vihāra dhamma).
So only one of these themes – ānāpānassati, keeping the breath in mind – istruly safe. This is the supreme meditation theme. You don’t have to send yourawareness out to fix it on any outside objects at all. Even if you may go foraging
through such objects, don’t go living in them, because after a while they can waver
and shift, just as when we cross the sea in a boat: When we first get into the boat
we may feel all right, but as soon as the boat heads out into the open bay and we’rebuffeted by wind and waves, we can start feeling seasick. To practice keeping thebreath in mind, though, is like sitting in an open shelter at dockside: We won’t feel
queasy or sick; we can see boats as they pass by on the water, and people as they
pass by on land. Thus, keeping the breath in mind is classed:– as an exercise agreeable to people of any and every temperament;99

– as anāgocara, an exercise in which you focus exclusively on the breath
while you sit in meditation, without having to compound things by sending
your awareness out to grab this or get hold of that;– and as dhamma-ṭhīti, i.e., all you have to do is keep your mind
established firm and in place.
The beginning stage is to think buddho – ‘bud-’ with the in-breath, and ‘dho’
with the out. Fixing your attention on just this much is enough to start seeing
results. There’s only one aim, and that’s:that you really do it.
If there is anything you’re unsure of, or if you encounter any problems, thenconsult the following pages.

100INTRODUCTION
This handbook on keeping the breath in mind has had a number of readers
who have put it into practice and seen results appearing within themselves inaccordance with the strength of their practice. Many people have come to me to
discuss the results they’ve gained from practicing the principles in this book, but
now it’s out of print. For this reason I’ve decided to enlarge it and have it printed
again as an aid for those who are interested in the practice.
Now, if you’re not acquainted with this topic, have never attempted it, or aren’t
yet skilled – if you don’t know the techniques of the practice – it’s bound to be
hard to understand, because the currents of the mind, when they’re written down
as a book, simply won’t be a book. The issues involved in dealing with the mind
are more than many. If your knowledge of them isn’t truly comprehensive, you
may misunderstand what you come to see and know, and this in turn can be
destructive in many ways. (1) You may lose whatever respect you had for thepractice, deciding that there’s no truth to it. (2) You may gain only a partial graspof things, leading you to decide that other people can’t practice or are practicing
wrongly, and in the end you’re left with no way to practice yourself. So you decideto ‘let go’ simply through conjecture and speculation. But the truth is that thissimply won’t work. True and complete letting go can come only from theprinciples well-taught by the Buddha: virtue, concentration, and discernment,
which are a synopsis of the eightfold path he taught in his first sermon.
So in our practice we should consider how virtue, concentration, discernment,
and release can be brought into being. Virtue forms the basis for concentration;
concentration, the basis for discernment (liberating insight or cognitive skill); anddiscernment, the basis for release from ignorance, craving, and attachment. Thusin this book, which is a guide to developing Right Concentration, I would like torecommend to other meditators a method that, in my experience, has proven safeand productive, so that they can test it for themselves by putting it into practice
until they start seeing results.
The main concern of this book is with the way to mental peace. Now, the word
‘peace’ has many levels. A mind infused with virtue has one level of peace andhappiness. A mind stilled through concentration has another level of peace andhappiness. A mind at peace through the power of discernment has still anotherlevel of happiness. And the peace of a mind released is yet another level, with ahappiness completely apart from the rest.
In these matters, though, meditators tend to prefer the results to the causes.
101

They aren’t as interested in abandoning their own defilements through theprinciples of the practice as they are in standing out among society at large. They
appropriate the ideas and observations of other people as being their own, but by
and large their wisdom is composed of bāhira paññā – remembered ‘outsights,’
not true insight.
So when you want the reality of the principles taught by the Buddha, you
should first lift your mind to this principle – Right Concentration – because it’s an
excellent gathering of the energies of your mind. All energy in the world comesfrom stopping and resting. Motion is something that destroys itself – as when our
thinking goes all out of bounds. Take walking for instance: When we walk, energy
comes from the foot at rest. Or when we speak, energy comes from stopping
between phrases. If we were to talk without stopping, without resting between
phrases, not only would it waste energy, but the language we’d speak wouldn’t
even be human. So it is with practicing the Dhamma: Release comes fromconcentration and discernment acting together. Release through the power of themind (ceto-vimutti) requires more concentration and less discernment; releasethrough discernment (paññā-vimutti), more discernment and less concentration– but there is no way that release can be attained without the stillness ofconcentration.
Thus, resting the mind provides the strength needed to support all thequalities developed in the practice, which is why it’s such an essential part of Right
Concentration. It forms a wellspring and a storage place for all knowledge,
whether of the world or of the Dhamma. If you aren’t acquainted with this basic
principle, skilled awareness won’t arise. And if you don’t have skilled awareness,
how will you be able to let go? You’ll have to go groping around in unskilledawareness. As long as the mind is in the grips of unskilled awareness, it’s bound to
be deluded by its fabrications.
Unskilled awareness is a brine in which the mind lies soaking; a mind soaked inits juices is like wet, sappy wood that, when burned, gives off smoke as its signal,
but no flame. As the smoke rises into the air, you imagine it to be something highand exalted. It’s high, all right, but only like smoke or overcast clouds. If there’s a
lot of it, it can obscure your vision and that of others, so that you can’t see thelight of the sun and moon. This is why such people are said to be ‘groping.’ Those
who train their own hearts, though, will give rise to skilled awareness. Whenskilled awareness penetrates the heart, you’ll come to realize the harmful potencyof mental fabrications. The arising of skilled awareness in the heart is like theburning of dry, sapless wood that gives off flame and light. Even though there may
be some smoke, you don’t pay it any mind, because the firelight is more
outstanding.

102The flame of skilled awareness gives rise to five sorts of results:
1. Rust (the defilements) won’t take hold of the heart.
2. The heart becomes purified.
3. The heart becomes radiant in and of itself (pabhassaraṁ cittaṁ).
4. The heart develops majesty (tejas).
5. The three skills, the eight skills, and the four forms of acumen willarise.
All of these things arise through the power of the mind. The nature of themind is that it already has a certain amount of instinctive intuition – the times
when it knows on its own, as when you happen to think of a particular person, andthen he or she actually shows up. All good qualities, from the mundane to thetranscendent, are always present in each of us. These qualities – the Dhamma –aren’t the exclusive possession of any particular group or person. We all have theright to develop them and put them into practice.
For these qualities to yield results, we have to develop them in conjunction
with the following four principles –1. Chanda: feeling an affinity for the practice.
2. Viriya: being persistent in the practice.
3. Citta: being intent on the practice.
4. Vimaṁsā: being circumspect in what we do, i.e., circumspect before
we do it, circumspect (mindful and alert) while we’re doing it, andcircumspect with regard to the results that arise from what we’ve done.
These four principles form the foundation for success in all areas, whether inmatters of the world or of the Dhamma. Once they’re actualized within us andfocused together on a single goal, we’re bound to succeed in line with ouraspirations. The results they yield, in short, are of two sorts –1. Iddhiriddhi: certain mundane powers that accrue to meditators.
2. Puññariddhi: power in terms of the Dhamma that will accrue tomeditators, providing means for settling issues that relate to the world andthe heart, or for liberating the mind from all mundane influences. This istermed:vimutti – release,visuddhi – purity,
santi – peace,nibbāna – the disbanding of all stress.
103Thus, I would like to invite all Buddhists – all who hope for peace and wellbeing – to reflect on the principles of practice dealing with Right Concentration
presented here as a guide for those who are interested. If you have any questions
dealing with this book, or any problems arising from the practice of training themind, I will be glad to give whatever advice I can.
May you prosper and be well.
Whoever feels that this book is of use and would like to print it again for free
distribution, may go ahead and do so without having to ask permission. Someparts may not be correct in terms of the Pali, so wherever there may be any
mistakes, I ask your forgiveness.
Phra Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
WAT ASOKARAM, SAMUT PRAKAANSEPTEMBER, 1960

104‘Buddhānussati mettā ca asubhaṁ maraṇassati:
Iccimā caturārakkhā…’(Recollection of the Buddha; goodwill;
the foul; mindfulness of death:these four guardian protectors…)– Rama IV, ‘Mokkhupāya Gāthā’

I. RECOLLECTION OF THE BUDDHA
Arahaṁ sammā-sambuddho bhagavā:Buddhaṁ bhagavantaṁ abhivādemi.
The Blessed One is Worthy and Rightly Self-awakened.
I bow down to the Awakened, Blessed One.
(Bow down)

Svākkhāto bhagavatā dhammo:
Dhammaṁ namassāmi.
The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One.
I pay homage to the Dhamma.
(Bow down)Supaṭipanno bhagavato sāvaka-saṅgho:Saṅghaṁ namāmi.
The Saṅgha of the Blessed One’s disciples has practiced well.
I pay respect to the Saṅgha.
(Bow down)

A. Paying homage to objects worthy of respect:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa. (Repeat three times.)
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.
105

Ukāsa, dvāra-tayena kataṁ,sabbaṁ aparādhaṁ khamatha me bhante.
Asking your leave, I request that you forgive me for whatever wrong I
have done with the three doors (of body, speech, and mind).
Vandāmi bhante cetiyaṁ sabbaṁ sabbattha ṭhāne, supatiṭṭhitaṁ sārīraṅkadhātuṁ, mahā-bodhiṁ buddha-rūpaṁ sakkāratthaṁ.
I revere every stūpa established in every place, every relic of the
Buddha’s body, every Great Bodhi tree, every Buddha image that is anobject of veneration.
Ahaṁ vandāmi dhātuyo. Ahaṁ vandāmi sabbaso. Iccetaṁ ratanattayaṁ,ahaṁ vandāmi sabbadā.
I revere the relics. I revere them everywhere. I always revere the Triple
Gem.

B. Paying homage to the Triple Gem:
Buddha-pūjā mahātejavanto: I ask to pay homage to the Buddha, whose
majesty is greater than the powers of all beings human and divine. Thus, thishomage to the Buddha is a means of developing great majesty.
Buddhaṁ jīvitaṁ yāva-nibbānaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi: I take refuge in the
Buddha from now until attaining nibbāna.
Dhamma-pūjā mahappañño: I ask to pay homage to the Dhamma, theteachings of the Buddha, which are a well-spring of discernment for beings humanand divine. Thus, this worship of the Dhamma is a means of developing great
discernment.
Dhammaṁ jīvitaṁ yāva-nibbānaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi: I take refuge in the
Dhamma from now until attaining nibbāna.
Saṅgha-pūjā mahābhogāvaho: I ask to pay homage to those followers of the
Buddha who have practiced well in thought, word, and deed; and who possess all
wealth, beginning with Noble Wealth. Thus, this homage to the Saṅgha is a meansof developing great wealth.
Saṅghaṁ jīvitaṁ yāva-nibbānaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi: I take refuge in theSaṅgha from now until attaining nibbāna.
N’atthi me saraṇaṁ aññaṁ, Buddho dhammo saṅgho me saraṇaṁ varaṁ:Etena sacca-vajjena hotu me jaya-maṅgalaṁ.
I have no other refuge: The Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha are my highest
refuge. By means of this vow, may the blessing of victory be mine.
106Yaṅkiñci ratanaṁ loke vijjati vividhaṁ puthu,
Ratanaṁ buddha-dhamma-saṅgha-samaṁ n’atthi,Tasmā sotthī bhavantu me.
Of the many and varied treasures found in the world, none equal the Triple
Gem. Therefore, may well-being be mine.
(If you repeat the translations of these passages, bow down once at this point.)

107

II. GOODWILL
Declare your purity, taking the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha as witness once
more, repeating this Pali passage:
Parisuddho ahaṁ bhante. Parisuddhoti maṁ buddho dhammo saṅgho
dhāretu. (I now declare my purity to the Triple Gem. May the Triple Gem
recognize me as pure at present.)
Now develop thoughts of goodwill, saying:
Sabbe sattā – May all living beings
Averā hontu – be free from animosity,
Abyāpajjhā hontu – free from oppression,
Anīghā hontu – free from trouble.
Sukhī attānaṁ pariharantu – May they look after themselves with ease.
Sabbe sattā sadā hontu averā sukha-jīvino: May all beings always live
happily, free from animosity.
Kataṁ puñña-phalaṁ mayhaṁ sabbe bhāgī bhavantu te: May all sharein the blessings springing from the good I have done.
(This is the abbreviated version. If your time is limited, simply say this much and then get
into position to meditate.)

Spreading thoughts of goodwill to the six directions:
1. The eastern quarter: ‘Puratthimasmiṁ disā-bhāge sabbe sattā (May all living
beings in the eastern quarter…) averā hontu, abyāpajjhā hontu, anīghā hontu,
sukhī attānaṁ pariharantu. Sabbe sattā sadā hontu averā sukhajīvino. Kataṁ
puññaphalaṁ mayhaṁ sabbe bhāgī bhavantu te.
(For translations, see above.)

2. The western quarter: ‘Pacchimasmiṁ disā-bhāge…’
3. The northern quarter: ‘Uttarasmiṁ disā-bhāge…’
4. The southern quarter: ‘Dakkhiṇasmiṁ disā-bhāge…’
5. The lower regions: ‘Heṭṭhimasmiṁ disā-bhāge…’
6. The upper regions: ‘Uparimasmiṁ disā-bhāge sabbe sattā averā hontu,
abyāpajjhā hontu, anīghā hontu, sukhī attānaṁ pariharantu. Sabbe sattā sadāhontu averā sukhajīvino. Kataṁ puññaphalaṁ mayhaṁ sabbe bhāgī bhavantu te.
108

(Bow down three times.)

When you have finished spreading thoughts of goodwill to all six directions,cleanse your heart of thoughts of animosity and apprehension. Make your heartcompletely clear and at ease. Goodwill acts as a support for purity of virtue and sois an appropriate way of preparing the heart for the practice of tranquility andinsight meditation.

109

III. THE FOUL: TRANQUILITY MEDITATIONIn other words, remove all befouling mental states from the mind. The things
that befoul and darken the mind are the five hindrances:– Kāma-chanda: sensual desires, taking pleasure in sensual objects(sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, ideas) and sensual moods(such as passion, aversion, and delusion).
– Byāpāda: ill will, malevolence, hatred.
– Thīna-middha: torpor, lethargy, drowsiness, listlessness.
– Uddhacca-kukkucca: restlessness and anxiety.
– Vicikicchā: doubt, uncertainty.
When any of these unskillful states occupy the heart, it’s not flourishing,blooming, or bright. For the heart to bloom, it has to be free from all five of thehindrances; and for it to be free in this way, we have to develop concentration orabsorption (jhāna), which is composed of directed thought, evaluation, rapture,pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation (see below). The heart will then be clear,bright, and resplendent. In Pali, this is called sobhaṇa-citta. Thus, in this section
we will discuss how to develop concentration as a means of eliminating thehindrances as follows:
A. ‘Among the forty themes, breath is supreme.’
Sit in a half-lotus position, your right leg on top of your left; your hands palmup in your lap, your right hand on top of your left. Keep your body comfortably
erect and your mind on what you’re doing. Don’t let your thoughts go spinningforward or back. Be intent on keeping track of the present: the present of thebody, or the in-and-out breath; and the present of the mind, or mindfulness andall-round alertness. The present of the body and the present of the mind should be
brought together at a single point. In other words, make the object of the mind
single and one. Focus your attention on the breath, keeping watch over it until
you’re clearly aware that, ‘This is the in-breath,’ and ‘This is the out.’ Once you
can see clearly in this way, call to mind the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, andSaṅgha, gathering them into a single word, ‘Buddho.’ Then divide ‘Buddho’ into
two syllables, thinking ‘bud-’ with the in-breath, and ‘dho’ with the out, at thesame time counting your breaths: ‘Bud-’ in, ‘dho’ out, one; ‘bud-’ in, ‘dho’ out, two;‘bud-’ in ‘dho’ out, three, and so on up to ten. Then start counting again from one
110

to nine; then one to eight, one to seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…
zero. In other words:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10123456789
12345678
1234567123456
12345
1234
123
12
1
0
Keep three points – the breath, your mindfulness, and your awareness –together in a single stream. If when you’ve finished counting you find that yourmind still won’t stay with the breath, start by counting again, from one to ten andso on to zero. Keep this up until you feel that your mind has settled down, andthen stay with zero. In other words, you no longer have to count, you no longer
have to think ‘Buddho.’ Simply keep careful watch over your breath and yourawareness. Keep your awareness focused on a single point, mindful and watchful.
Don’t send it in and out after the breath. When the breath comes in, you know.
When it goes out, you know, but don’t make your awareness go in or out. Keep itneutral and still. Keep watch only on the present. When you can do this, the fivehindrances won’t be able to find entry into the mind. This is called parikammabhāvanā, repetition meditation.
At this point, the mind becomes light and can put aside its heavy burdens.
When the mind is light, so is the body. In Pali this is called, kāya-lahutā, cittalahutā. The mind is peaceful and solitary – free from agitation and unrest – clear
and calm with the refined sense of the breath. When the mind reaches this state,it’s in the sphere of directed thought (vitakka), which is the first factor of jhāna.
Now survey and examine the characteristics of the breath. Try adjusting thebreath in four different ways: Breathe in long and out long, and see whether yourmind is at ease with that sort of breath. Then breathe in short and out short to see
whether you feel comfortable and at ease that way. Then see whether you feel atease breathing in long and out short, or in short and out long. Continue breathingin whichever of these four ways feels most comfortable and then let that
comfortable breath spread throughout the different parts of the body. At the sametime, expand your sense of mindful awareness along with the breath.
When the breath runs throughout the body, and the sensations of breath in the111

various parts of the body are coordinated, they can be put to use, for example, torelieve feelings of pain. Your sense of mindfulness at this point is broad; youralertness, fully developed. When mindfulness is spread throughout the body, thisis called kāyagatāsati – mindfulness immersed in the body. Your frame ofreference is large and expansive, and so is called ‘mahāsatipaṭṭhāna.’ Your
alertness is present throughout, aware both of the causes – i.e., what you’re doing– and of the results coming from what you’ve done. All of these characteristics are
aspects of evaluation (vicāra), the second factor of jhāna.
Now that the body and mind have received nourishment – in other words,
now that the breath has provided for the body and mindfulness has provided forthe mind – both body and mind are bound to reap results, i.e., rapture. The bodyis full and refreshed, free from restlessness. The mind is full and refreshed, freefrom anxiety and distraction, broad and blooming. This is called rapture (pīti),which is the third factor of jhāna.
Once fullness arises in this way, body and mind settle down and are still. In Pali
this is termed ‘kāya-passaddhi, citta-passaddhi.’ This feeling of stillness leads to asense of relaxation and ease for both body and mind, termed pleasure (sukha).
These are the beginning steps in dealing with the mind. Once you are able tofollow them, you should make a point of practicing them repeatedly, back andforth, until you’re skilled at entering concentration, staying in place, andwithdrawing. Even just this much can form a path along which the mind can thenprogress, for it has to some extent already reached the level of upacāra bhāvanā,threshold concentration.
B. Focal points for the mind
These include: (1) the tip of the nose; (2) the middle of the head; (3) the palate;(4) the base of the throat; (5) the tip of the breastbone; (6) the ‘center,’ two inches
above the navel. In centering the breath at any of these points, people who tend tohave headaches shouldn’t focus on any point above the base of the throat.
Coordinate the various aspects of breath in the body, such as the up-flowing
breath, the down-flowing breath, the breath flowing in the stomach, the breath
flowing in the intestines, the breath flowing along every part of the body, hotbreath, cool breath, warm breath: Mesh these various sorts of breath so thatthey’re balanced, even, and just right, so as to give rise to a sense of ease andcomfort throughout the body. The purpose of examining and coordinating thebreath is to expand your sense of mindfulness and awareness so that they aresensitive throughout the entire body. This will then benefit both body and mind.
The enlarged sense of the body is termed mahābhūta-rūpa; expanded awarenessis termed mahaggataṁ cittaṁ. This sense of awareness will then go on to reap the112benefits of its beauty that will arise in various ways, leading it to the level ofappanā bhāvanā, fixed penetration.
The characteristics of the in-and-out breath, as they interact with theproperties of the body, can cause the properties of water and earth to be affected
as follows:
There are three types of blood in the human body –1. Clear, white – arising from cool breathing.
2. Light red, dark red – arising from warm breathing.
3. Black, bluish black – arising from hot breathing.
These different types of blood, as they nourish the nerves in the body, cancause people to have different tendencies:
1. Hot breathing can make a person tend heavily toward being
affectionate, easily attracted, and infatuated – tendencies that areassociated with delusion.
2. Warm breathing can cause a person to have moderate tendencies as
far as affection is concerned, but strong tendencies toward a quick andviolent temper – tendencies associated with anger.
3. Cool breathing causes weak tendencies toward affection but strong
tendencies toward greed, craving material objects more than anything else.
If we know clearly which physical properties are aggravating greed, anger, ordelusion, we can destroy the corresponding properties and these states of mind
will weaken on their own.
’Remove the fuel, and the fire won’t blaze.’
To adjust these properties skillfully gives rise to discernment, which lies at theessence of being skillful. Adjust the property of warmth so that the blood is clear
and light red, and your discernment will be quick, your nerves healthy, yourthinking perceptive, subtle, and deep. In other words, to make heavier use of thenerves in the physical heart is the way of the Dhamma. As for the nerves of thebrain, to use them a great deal leads to restlessness, distraction, and heavy
defilements.
These are just a few of the issues related to the breath. There are many, many
more that people of discernment should discover on their own.
Nānā-dhātu-vijjā: knowledge of the subtleties of all 18 elements (dhātu), the22 faculties (indrīya), the six sense media (āyatana); acute insight into thequalities of the mind; expertise in concentration. Concentration gives rise to113

liberating insight, acquaintance with the process of fabrication;
nibbidā – disenchantment;virāga – dispassion;
nirodha – utter disbanding;vimutti – a mind released from the mundane;
santi – peace of heart;paramaṁ sukhaṁ – the ease that is ultimate bliss.
C. Images
These are of two sorts –1. Uggaha nimitta: images as they are first perceived.
2. Paṭibhāga nimitta: adjusted images.
Images of either sort can appear at certain mental moments or with certain
people. When the mind becomes still, uggaha nimittas can appear in either of twoways:– from mental notes made in the past;– on their own, without our ever having thought of the matter.
Uggaha nimittas of both sorts can be either beneficial or harmful, true or false,
so we shouldn’t place complete trust in them. If we’re circumspect in our
mindfulness and alertness, they can be beneficial. But if our powers of reference
are weak or if we lack strength of mind, we’re likely to follow the drift of whatever
images appear, sometimes losing our bearings to the point where we latch onto
the images as being real.
Uggaha nimittas are of two sorts –a. Sensation-images: e.g., seeing images of our own body, of other people, ofanimals, or of corpses; images of black, red, blue or white. Sometimes these images
are true, sometimes not. Sometimes images arise by way of the ear – for example,
we may hear the voice of a person talking. Sometimes they arise by way of thenose – we may smell fragrant scents or foul, like those of a corpse. Sometimes
images are sensed by the body – the body may feel small or large, tall or short. Allof these sensations are classed as uggaha nimittas. If the mind is strong andresilient, they can act as a means for the arising of liberating insight. If our powersof reference are weak, though, they can turn into corruptions of insight(vipassanūpakkilesa), in which we fall for the objects we experience, believing
them to be true. Even when they’re true, things that are false can mingle in with114

them – like a man sitting under the open sky: When the sun shines, he’s bound tohave a shadow. The man really exists, and the shadow is connected with him, but
the shadow isn’t really the man. Thus, we’re taught to let go of what’s true andreal; things that are untrue will then fall from our grasp as well.
b. Thought-images: When the breath is subtle and the mind is still andunoccupied, things can occur to it. Sometimes we may think of a question andthen immediately know the answer. Sometimes we don’t even have to think: The
knowledge pops into the mind on its own. Things of this sort are also classed asuggaha nimittas. Sometimes they may be true, sometimes false, sometimes mixed.
You can’t trust them to be absolutely true. Sometimes they’re true, and that truthis what leads us to fall for them. For example, they may be true about three things
and false about seven. Once we’ve placed our confidence in them, even the false
things will appear true to us. This is one way of giving rise to the corruptions of
insight.
So when sensation-images or thought-images arise in one way or another, you
should then practice adjusting and analyzing them (paṭibhāga nimitta). In otherwords, when a visual image arises, if it’s large, make it small, far, near, large, small,appear, and disappear. Analyze it into its various parts and then let it go. Don’t letthese images influence the mind. Instead, have the mind influence the images, as
you will. If you aren’t able to do this, then don’t get involved with them. Disregard
them and return to your original practice with the breath.
If a thought-image arises by way of the mind, stop, take your bearings, andconsider exactly how much truth there is to the knowledge it gives. Even if it’strue, you shouldn’t latch onto what you know or see. If you latch onto yourknowledge, it’ll become a corruption of insight. If you latch onto your views,
they’ll become a form of attachment and conceit, in which you assume yourself tobe this or that. Thus, you should let go of these things, in line with their true
nature. If you aren’t wise to them, they can skew your practice so that you missout on the highest good.
D. The Ten Corruptions of Insight
1. Obhāsa: a bright light that enables you to see places both far and near.
2. Ñāṇa: knowledge enabling you to know in an uncanny way things you neverbefore knew, such as pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa, the ability to remember previous
lifetimes. Even knowledge of this sort, though, can mislead you. If you learn goodthings about your past, you may get pleased. If you learn bad or undesirable things
about your past, you may get displeased. Cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: Sometimes you may
learn how people and other living beings die and are reborn – knowing, forinstance, where they are reborn when they have died from this world – which can
115cause you to become engrossed in the various things you come to know and see.
As you become more and more engrossed, false knowledge can step in, and yet
you still assume it to be true.
3. Pīti: a sense of physical and mental fullness and satisfaction, full to the pointof infatuation – physically satisfied to the point where you don’t feel hunger orthirst, heat or cold; mentally satisfied to the point where you become engrossed
and oblivious, lazy and lethargic, perhaps deciding that you’ve already achieved
the goal. What’s actually happened is that you’ve swallowed your mood down
whole.
4. Passaddhi: The body is at peace and the mind serene, to the point where you
don’t want to encounter anything in the world. You see the world as being
unpeaceful and you don’t want to have anything to do with it. Actually, if the mind
is really at peace, everything in the world will also be at peace. People who are
addicted to a sense of peace won’t want to do any physical work or even think
about anything, because they’re stuck on that sense of peace as a constantpreoccupation.
5. Sukha: Once there’s peace, there’s a sense of physical and mental pleasureand ease; and once there’s a great deal of pleasure, you come to hate pain, seeing
pleasure as something good and pain as something bad. Your view of things falls
into two parts. Actually, pleasure doesn’t come from anywhere else but pain. Painis the same thing as pleasure: When pleasure arises, pain is its shadow; when pain
arises, pleasure is its shadow. As long as you don’t understand this, you give rise toa kind of defilement – again, you swallow your mood down whole. When a deep
and arresting sense of relaxation, stillness, ease, or freedom from disturbancearises, you get engrossed in that feeling. What has happened is that you’re simply
stuck on a pleasing mental state.
6. Adhimokkha: being disposed to believing that your knowledge and thethings you know are true. Once ‘true’ takes a stance, ‘false’ is bound to enter the
picture. True and false go together, i.e., they’re one and the same thing. For
example, suppose we ask, ‘Is Nai Daeng at home?’ and someone answers, ‘No, he
isn’t.’ If Nai Daeng really exists and he’s really at home, then when that person
says, ‘He’s not at home,’ he’s lying. But if Nai Daeng doesn’t exist, that person can’tlie. Thus, true and false are one and the same…
7. Paggāha: excessive persistence, leading to restlessness. You’re simply
fastened on your preoccupation and too strongly focused on your goal…
8. Upaṭṭhāna: being obsessed with a particular item you’ve come to know orsee, refusing to let it go.
9. Upekkhā: indifference, not wanting to meet with anything, be aware ofanything, think about anything, or figure anything out; assuming that you’ve let go116

completely. Actually, this is a misunderstanding of that very mental moment.
10. Nikanti: being content with your various preoccupations, simply attachedto the things you experience or see.
All of these things, if we aren’t wise to them, can corrupt the heart. So, as
meditators, we should attend to them and reflect on them until we understandthem thoroughly. Only then will we be able to give rise to liberating insight, clear
knowledge of the four truths:
1. Physical and mental stress, i.e., the things that burden the body or mind.
Physical and mental pleasure and ease, though, are also classed as stress because
they’re subject to change.
2. The factors that enable these forms of stress to arise are three –a. Kāma-taṇhā: craving for attractive and appealing sights, sounds, smells,
tastes, tactile sensations, and ideas; fastening onto these things, grabbing hold ofthem as belonging to the self. This is one factor that enables stress to arise. (Themind flashes out.)b. Bhava-taṇhā: desire for things to be this way or that at times when they
can’t be the way we want them; wanting things to be a certain way outside of theproper time or occasion. This is called ‘being hungry’ – like a person who hungers
for food but has no food to eat and so acts in a way that shows, ‘I’m a person who
wants to eat.’ Bhava-taṇhā is another factor that enables stress to arise. (The mind
strays.)c. Vibhava-taṇhā: not wanting things to be this way or that, e.g., having beenborn, not wanting to die; not wanting to be deprived of the worldly things we’ve
acquired: for example, having status and wealth and yet not wanting our status
and wealth to leave us. The truth of the matter is that there’s no way this change
can be avoided. As soon as it comes, we thus feel stress and pain. (The mind
flinches.)
Punappunaṁ pilitattāsaṅsarantā bhavābhave:‘Repeated oppression,
wandering on
from one state of becoming to another.’Different states of becoming arise first in the mind, then giving rise to birth.
Thus, people of discernment let go of these things, causing:
3. Nirodha – cessation or disbanding – to appear in the heart. In other words,
the mind discovers the limits of craving and lets it go through the practice of
insight meditation, letting go of all fabrications, both good and bad. To be able to117let go in this way, we have to develop:
4. Magga – the Path – so as to make it powerful. In other words, we have togive rise to pure discernment within our own minds so that we can know thetruth. Stress is a truth; its cause is a truth; its cessation and the Path are truths: To
know in this way is liberating insight. And then, when we let all four truths fallaway from us so that we gain release from ‘true,’ that’s when we’ll reachdeathlessness (amata-dhamma). Truths have their drawbacks in that untrue
things are mixed in with them. Wherever real money exists, there’s bound to be
counterfeit. Wherever there are rich people, there are bound to be thieves waiting
to rob them. This is why release has to let go of truths before it can reach nibbāna.
Meditators, then, should acquaint themselves with the enemies ofconcentration, so as to keep their distance from all five of the hindrances, the two
sorts of uggaha nimittas, and the ten corruptions of insight. The mind will then beable to gain release from all things defiling, dirty, and damp. What this means isthat the mind doesn’t hold onto anything at all. It lets go of supposings, meanings,
practice, and attainment. Above cause and beyond effect: That’s the aim of the
Buddha’s teachings.
Those who want to get rid of kāma-taṇhā – desire and attraction for the six
types of sensory objects – have to develop virtue that’s pure all the way to theheart: This is termed heightened virtue (adhisīla.) Those who are to get rid ofbhava-taṇhā – thoughts that stray out, choosing objects to dwell on – first have todevelop Right Concentration, pure and circumspect: This is termed heightened
mind (adhicitta.) Those who are to get rid of vibhava-taṇhā – attachment toknowledge and viewpoints, attainments and states of becoming, theories andconceits – will first have to develop clear-seeing discernment, cognitive skill that’s
pure and fully developed: This is heightened discernment (adhipaññā).
Thus, the threefold training – virtue, concentration, and discernment – is agroup of truths that can let go of the causes of stress. Other than this, there’s no
way to release.

118IV. MINDFULNESS OF DEATH: INSIGHT MEDITATIONIn other words, keep death in mind. This is where the mind advances to thedevelopment of liberating insight, taking death as its theme. ‘Death’ here refers to
the death occurring in the present – physical sensations arising and passing away,
mental acts arising and passing away, all in a moment of awareness. Only when
you’re aware on this level can you be classed as being mindful of death.
Now that we’ve brought up the topic of death, we have to reflect on birth,seeing how many ways sensations are born and how many ways mental acts areborn. This is something a person with a quiet mind can know.
A. Sensations have up to five levels of refinement –1. Hīna-rūpa: coarse sensations, sensations of discomfort, aches andpains. When these arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.
2. Paṇīta-rūpa: exquisite sensations that make the body feel pleasurable,
light, and refined. Focus on what causes them until they disappear.
3. Sukhumāla-rūpa: delicate sensations, tender, yielding, and agile.
When they arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.
4. Oḷārika-rūpa: physical sensations that give a sense of grandeur,
exuberance, brightness, and exultation: ‘Mukhavaṇṇo vipassīdati.’ Whenthey arise, focus on finding out what causes them until they disappear.
All four of these sensations arise and disband by their very nature; and it’s
possible to find out where they first appear.
5. ‘Mano-bhāva’: imagined circumstances that appear through thepower of the mind. When they arise, focus on keeping track of them until
they disappear. Once you’re able to know in this way, you enter the sphereof true mindfulness of death.
An explanation of this sort of sensation: When the mind is quiet and steadily
concentrated, it has the power to create images in the imagination (innersensations, or sensations within sensations). Whatever images it thinks of willthen appear to it; and once they appear, the mind tends to enter into them andtake up residence. (It can go great distances.) If the mind fastens onto thesesensations, it is said to take birth – simply because it has no sense of death.
These sensations can appear in any of five ways –a. arising from the posture of the body, disappearing when the posture119changes;b. arising from thoughts imbued with greed, hatred, or delusion –arising, taking a stance, and then disbanding;c. arising with an in-breath and disbanding with the following outbreath;d. arising from the cleansing of the blood in the lungs – appearing anddisbanding in a single instant;e. arising from the heart’s pumping blood into the various parts of thebody, the pressure of the blood causing sensations to arise that correspondto sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. Sensations of thissort are arising and disbanding every moment.
Another class of sensation is termed gocara-rūpa – sensations that circle
around the physical body. There are five sorts – light, sound, smells, tastes, andtactile sensations – each having five levels. For instance, common light travels
slowly; in the flash of an eye it runs for a league and then dies away. The second
level, subtle light, goes further; the third level goes further still. The fourth andfifth levels can travel the entire universe. The same holds true for sounds, smells,
tastes, and tactile sensations. The relationships between all the potentials in theuniverse are interacting at every moment, differing only as to whether they’re fastor slow. This is the inequality that has been termed ‘anicca-lakkhaṇa’ – thecharacteristic of inherent inconstancy. Whoever is ignorant is bound to think that
all this is impossible, but actually this is the way things already are by their nature.
We’ll come to know this through vijjā – cognitive skill – not through ordinary
labels and concepts. This is called true knowing, which meditators who develop
the inner eye will realize for themselves: knowing the arising of these sensations,
their persisting, and their disbanding, in terms of their primary qualities and basic
regularity.
Knowing things for what they really are.
Release, purity, dispassion, disbanding;Nibbānaṁ paramaṁ sukhaṁ:Nibbāna is the ultimate ease.
B. As for mental acts that arise and die, their time span is many thousands oftimes faster than that of sensations. To be able to keep track of their arising anddying away, our awareness has to be still. The four kinds of mental acts are:– Vedanā: the mind’s experience of feelings of pleasure, pain, andneither pleasure nor pain.
– Saññā: recognizing and labeling the objects of the mind.
120

– Saṅkhāra: mental fabrications of good and bad.
– Viññāṇa: distinct consciousness of objects.
One class of these mental acts stays in place, arising and disbanding withreference to the immediate present. Another class is termed gocara vedanā,gocara saññā, etc., which go out to refer to the world. Each of these has five levels,
differing as to whether they’re common, refined, or subtle, slow or fast. These fivelevels connect with one another, running out in stages, and then circling back totheir starting point, disbanding and then arising again – all without end.
When we don’t have the skill to discern the primary sensations and mental actsthat stay in place, we can’t see into the gocara sensations and mental acts that goflowing around. This is termed ‘avijjā,’ the ignorance that opens the way forconnecting consciousness (paṭisandhi viññāṇa), giving rise to the act of
fabrication (saṅkhāra), which is the essence of kamma. This gives fruit as
sensations and feelings that are followed by craving, and then the act of labeling,which gives rise to another level of consciousness – of sensory objects – and thenthe cycle goes circling on. This is termed khandha-vaṭṭa, the cycle of theaggregates, circling and changing unevenly and inconsistently. To see this is called
aniccānupassanā-ñāṇa, the knowledge that keeps track of inconstancy as it
occurs. This is known through the inner eye, i.e., the skill of genuine discernment.
Thus, those who practice the exercises of insight meditation should use their
sensitivities and circumspection to the full if they hope to gain release fromignorance. Fabrications, in this context, are like waves on the ocean. If we’re out ina boat on the ocean when the waves are high, our vision is curtailed. Our senses ofhearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation are all curtailed. We won’t be able toperceive far into the distance. What this means is that when our minds are
immersed in the hindrances, we won’t be able to perceive death at all. But once
we’ve been able to suppress the hindrances, it’s like taking a boat across the ocean
when there are no waves. We’ll be able to see objects far in the distance. Our eyes
will be clear-seeing, our ears clear-hearing, our senses of smell, taste, touch andideation will be broad and wide open. The water will be clear, and the lightbrilliant. We’ll be able to know all around us.
In the same way, those who are to know death clearly have to begin bypracticing concentration as a foundation for developing liberating insight. How do
the five sorts of above-mentioned sensation arise? What are their causes? How dothey disappear? How do physical and mental feelings arise? How do they
disappear? What are their causes? How do labels and concepts arise? What are
their causes? How do they disappear? How do mental fabrications arise? What are
their causes? How do they disappear? How does consciousness arise by way of thesenses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation? What are its causes?
121How does it disappear?
Altogether there are four levels to each of the five aggregates (khandhas):external and internal, staying in place and streaming outward. These can be
known at all times, but only people who have the discernment that comes fromtraining the mind in tranquility and insight meditation will be able to know deathon this level.
The discernment that arises in this way has been termed pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa, i.e., understanding past sensations, future sensations, and sensations in thepresent. These sensations differ in the way they arise and pass away. To know thisis to have mastered one cognitive skill.
Cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: With discernment of this sort, we’re able to keep track of
the states of our own mind as they arise and disappear, sometimes good as theyarise and good as they disappear, sometimes bad as they arise and bad as they
disappear, sometimes good as they arise and bad as they disappear, sometimes badas they arise and good as they disappear. To be able to keep track in this way is toknow states of being and birth.
Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: When the discernment of this skill arises, it leads todisenchantment with the way sensations and mental acts arise and disappear andthen arise again, simply circling about: coarser sensations going through the cycle
slowly, more refined sensations going quickly; coarser mental acts going slowly,
more refined mental acts going quickly. When you can keep track of this, youknow one form of stress. Now focus attention back on your own mind to see
whether or not it’s neutral at that moment. If the mind approves of its knowledge
or of the things it knows, that’s kāmasukhallikānuyoga – indulgence in pleasure. If
the mind disapproves of its knowledge or of the things it knows, that’s
attakilamathānuyoga, indulgence in self-infliction. Once you’ve seen this, makethe mind neutral toward whatever it may know: That moment of awareness is themental state forming the Path. When the Path arises, the causes of stress disband.
Try your best to keep that mental state going. Follow that train of awareness asmuch as you can. The mind when it’s in that state is said to be developing the Path
– and at whatever moment the Path stands firm, disbanding and relinquishingoccur.
When you can do this, you reach the level where you know death clearly.
People who know death in this way are then able to reduce the number of theirown deaths. Some of the Noble Ones have seven more deaths ahead of them,some have only one more, others go beyond death entirely. These Noble Ones arepeople who understand birth and death, and for this reason have only a few deaths
left to them. Ordinary people who understand their own birth and death on thislevel are hard to find. Common, ordinary birth and death aren’t especiallynecessary; but people who don’t understand the Dhamma have to put up with122

birth and death as a common thing.
So whoever is to know death on this level will have to develop the cognitive
skill that comes from training the mind. The skill, here, is knowing which
preoccupations of the mind are in the past, which are in the future, and which arein the present. This is cognitive skill (vijjā). Letting go of the past, letting go of the
future, letting go of the present, not latching onto anything at all: This is purity
and release.
As for ignorance, it’s the exact opposite, i.e., not knowing what’s past, notknowing what’s future, not knowing what’s present – that is, the arising andfalling away of sensations and mental acts, or body and mind – or at mostknowing only on the level of labels and concepts remembered from what otherpeople have said, not knowing on the level of awareness that we’ve developed on
our own. All of this is classed as avijjā, or ignorance.
No matter how much we may use words of wisdom and discernment, it still
won’t gain us release. For instance, we may know that things are inconstant, but
we still fall for inconstant things. We may know about things that are stressful, but
we still fall for them. We may know that things are not-self, but we still fall forthings that are not-self. Our knowledge of inconstancy, stress, and not-self isn’t
true. Then how are these things truly known? Like this:
Knowing both sides,
Letting go both ways,
Shedding everything.
‘Knowing both sides’ means knowing what’s constant and what’s inconstant,what’s stress and what’s ease, what’s not-self and what’s self. ‘Letting go both ways’
means not latching onto things that are constant or inconstant, not latching onto
stress or ease, not latching onto self or not-self. ‘Shedding everything’ means notholding onto past, present, or future: Awareness doesn’t head forward or back,and yet you can’t say that it’s taking a stance.
Yāvadeva ñāṇamattāya patissatimattāya anissito ca viharati na ca kiñci
loke upādiyati.
‘Mindful and alert just to the extent of knowledge and remembrance, the mind
is independent, not attached to anything in the world.’

123

EPILOGUE

I. There are three sets of results arising from the practice.
Set A
1. Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember previous lives.
2. Cutūpapāta-ñāṇa: the ability to know how the living beings of the world die
and are reborn.
3. Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: understanding how to put an end to the defilements of
the heart.

Set B
1. Vipassanā-ñāṇa: clear insight, through training the mind, into phenomena
in and of themselves, in terms of the four noble truths.
2. Manomayiddhi: psychic power, making things appear in line with yourthoughts – for example, thinking of a visual image that then appears to thephysical eye. Those who are to develop this skill must first become expert at
uggaha nimittas.
3. Iddhividhī: the ability to change such images as you like. Those who are todevelop this skill must first become expert in paṭibhāga nimittas.
4. Dibbacakkhu: clairvoyance, the ability to see great distances. Only people
with good optic nerves – and who understand how to adjust the physicalproperties in the body so as to keep the nerves charged and awake – will be able todevelop this skill.
5. Dibbasota: clairaudience, the ability to hear sounds at great distances. Only
people whose auditory nerves are good – and who understand how to adjust theproperties in the body so that they act as a conducting medium – will be able todevelop this skill.
6. Cetopariya-ñāṇa: knowing the thoughts and mental states of other people.
To do this, you first have to adjust the fluids nourishing your heart muscles so thatthey’re clean and pure.
7. Pubbenivāsānussati-ñāṇa: the ability to remember previous lives, knowing
by means of mental images or intuitive verbal knowledge. To remember past lives,
you first have to understand how to interchange the physical properties in thebody.
8. Āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa: knowing the causes for mental defilement; knowing the124means for putting an end to mental fermentations.

Set C
1. Attha-paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa: acumen in understanding the meaning of various
teachings.
2. Dhamma-paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa: acumen – acquired by means of your own
heart – with regard to all fabricated properties and qualities.
3. Nirutti-paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa: the ability to understand by means of the heart
the issues and languages of people and other living beings in the world.
4. Paṭibhāṇa-paṭisambhidā-ñāṇa: the intuitive ability to respond promptly
and aptly in situations where you’re called on to speak; the ability to respond to an
opponent without having to think: Simply by focusing the mind heavily down, theright response will appear on its own, just as a flashlight gives off light
immediately as we press the switch.
***

Taken together, all of these skills arise exclusively from training the heart andare called bhāvanāmaya-paññā – discernment developed through training themind. They can’t be taught. You have to know them on your own. Thus, they canbe called paccatta-vijjā, personal skills. If you’re astute enough, they can all
become transcendent. If not, they all become mundane. Thus, the principles ofdiscernment are two:
1. Mundane discernment: studying and memorizing a great deal,
thinking and evaluating a great deal, and then understanding on thecommon level of labels and concepts.
2. Transcendent discernment: knowledge that comes from practicing
Right Concentration; intuitive understanding that arises naturally on its
own within the heart, beyond the scope of the world; clear insight; releasefrom all views, conceits, defilements, and fermentations of the mind.

II. Upakāra dhamma: three sets of qualities that are of help
in giving rise to cognitive skill.
Set A
1. Sīla-saṁvara: taking good care of your virtue – your manners and conduct
in thought, word, and deed – following such principles as the ten guidelines(kammapatha).
125

2. Indrīya-saṁvara: being constantly mindful of the six ‘gateways’ – the sensesof sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and ideation – making sure they don’t giverise to anything that would disturb your own peace or that of others.
3. Bhojane mattaññutā: having a sense of moderation in the amount of foodyou eat – not too much, not too little, eating nothing but food compatible withyour physical make-up. And make sure that it’s light food. Otherwise, you’ll haveto eat only half-full or on the small side. As far as food is concerned, if you can getby on only one meal a day, you’ll find it much easier to train the mind.
There are three ways of eating –a. Stuffing yourself full. This interferes with concentration and is termed‘being greedy.’b. Eating just enough to keep the body going. This is termed ‘being
content with what you have.’c. Eating no more than half full. This is termed ‘being a person of few
wants,’ who has no worries associated with food and whose body weighs
lightly. Just as a tree with light heartwood won’t sink when it falls in thewater, so the meditation of such a person is not inclined to lead to anything
low. The senses of such a person – the nerves of the eyes, ears, nose,
tongue, and body – tend toward peacefulness and are well suited forhelping the mind attain peace.
4. Jāgariyānuyoga: awakening the physical properties of the body by developing
the factor that fabricates the body (kāya-saṅkhāra), i.e., adjusting the in-and-out
breath so that it’s thoroughly beneficial to the properties of earth, water, wind, andfire within the body. This is termed developing mindfulness immersed in the body(kāyagatāsati-bhāvanā), as in the verse:
Suppabuddhaṁ pabujjhanti sadā gotamasāvakā
Yesaṁ divā ca ratto ca niccaṁ kāyagātasati.
‘The disciples of the Buddha Gotama are always wide awake, their mindfulness
constantly, by day and by night, immersed in the body’… their mindfulness
charging the body whether their eyes are open or closed.
At the same time, we have to understand how to keep the mind wide-awake
through developing jhāna, starting with directed thought, evaluation, rapture,pleasure, and singleness of preoccupation (see below). The mind will then awakenfrom its forgetfulness. With regard to forgetfulness, the Buddha taught that whenthe mind gets drawn in by its objects, it faints for a spell. If this happens often
enough to become a habit, it gives rise to delusion, leaving us no way to give rise to126the discernment of liberating insight.

Set B
1. Saddhā: conviction, i.e., being convinced of the causes of goodness and of
the results that will come from acting in line with those causes.
2. Hiri: inner shame at the thought of doing evil, not daring to do evil either
openly or secretly, because we realize that there are no secret places in the world.
Even if other people don’t see us doing evil, we ourselves are sure to see.
3. Ottappa: fear of evil, not being attracted to the idea of doing evil; viewing
bad kamma as a poisonous cobra raising its head and spreading its hood, and thus
not daring to go near it.
4. Bahusacca: studying and training yourself constantly, seeking advice fromthose who are knowledgeable and expert in the practice. Don’t associate withpeople who have no knowledge of the matters in which you are interested.
5. Viriya: persistence in abandoning the defilements of the mind – i.e., thehindrances; perseverance in giving rise to good within the mind by developing
such things as the first jhāna. Briefly put, there are three ways to do this: being
persistent in giving rise to the good, in maintaining the good, and in constantly
developing the good that has already arisen.
6. Satipaṭṭhāna: giving your powers of reference a frame and a focal point by
developing mindfulness immersed in the body (‘kesā, lomā…’) or mindfulness ofbreathing, etc.
7. Paññā: discernment; circumspection that’s all-encompassing and fully
reasonable in doing good, in maintaining the good, and in using the good so as to
be of benefit at large – for low-level benefits, intermediate benefits, and ultimate
benefits, with regard to this life, lives to come, and the ultimate benefit, nibbāna.
This is what is meant by discernment.

Set C
1. The first jhāna. Vitakka: Think of an object for the mind to focus on.
Vicāra: Evaluate the object on which you have focused. For example, once you arefocused on keeping track of the breath, take a good look at the various breathsensations in the body. Learn how to adjust and change whichever part or aspect
is uncomfortable. Learn how to use whichever part feels good so as to be of benefit
to the body and mind. Keep this up continually, and results will appear: The bodywill feel light and full, permeated with a sense of rapture and refreshment (pīti).
Awareness will be full and all-round, with no distracting restlessness. At thispoint, both mind and body are quiet, just as a child lying in a cradle with a doll toplay with won’t cry. The body is thus at ease, and the mind relaxed (sukha).
127

Ekaggataṁ cittaṁ: The mind sticks steadily with a single preoccupation, without
grasping after past or future, comfortably focused in the present. This much
qualifies as jhāna.
2. The second jhāna. Directed thought and evaluation disappear; awarenesssettles in on its sense of ease and rapture. The body is relaxed, the mind quiet andserene. The body feels full, like the earth saturated with rain water to the point
where puddles form. The mind feels brighter and clearer. As awareness focuses
more heavily on its one object, it expands itself even further, letting go of the senseof rapture and entering the third jhāna.
3. The third jhāna has two factors –a. Sukha, its taste: physical pleasure; cool mental pleasure and peace.
b. Ekaggatārammaṇa: Awareness is firm and fixed in a snug fit with its
object. As it focuses strongly and forcibly expands itself, a bright sense oflight appears. The mind seems much more open and blooming than before.
As you focus in with complete mindfulness and alertness, the sense ofpleasure begins to waver. As the mind adjusts its focus slightly, it enters the
fourth jhāna.
4. The fourth jhāna has two factors –a. Upekkhā: equanimity with regard to objects. Past, future, and thegrosser sense of the body in the present disappear.
b. Ekaggatārammaṇa: The mind is solitary, its mindfulness full andbright – as if you were sitting in a brightly-lit, empty room with your work
finished, free to relax as you like. The mind rests, its energy strong andexpansive.
Now withdraw from this level back out to the first and then enter in again. As
you do this repeatedly, liberating insight will arise on its own, like a lightconnected to a battery: When we press down on the switch, the light flashes out
on its own. And then we can use whatever color of bulb we want and put it to use
in whatever way we like, depending on our own skill and ingenuity. In otherwords, the skills mentioned above will appear.
People who develop jhāna fall into three classes:
1. Those who attain only the first level and then gain liberating insightright then and there are said to excel in discernment (paññādhika). They
awaken quickly, and their release is termed paññā-vimutti, release throughdiscernment.
2. Those who develop jhāna to the fourth level, there gaining liberating128

insight into the noble truths, are said to excel in conviction (saddhādhika).
They develop a moderate number of skills, and their Awakening occurs at amoderate rate. Their release is the first level of ceto-vimutti, release throughconcentration.
3. Those who become skilled at the four levels of jhāna – adept atentering, staying in place, and withdrawing – and then go all the way to thefour levels of arūpa-jhāna, after which they withdraw back to the first jhāna,over and over again, until finally intuitive knowledge, the cognitive skills,
and liberating discernment arise, giving release from mental fermentationand defilement: These people are said to excel in persistence (viriyādhika).
People who practice jhāna a great deal, developing strong energy and brightinner light, can awaken suddenly in a single mental instant, as soon as
discernment first arises. Their release is cetopariyavimutti, release throughmastery of concentration.
These are the results to be gained by meditators. But there have to be causes –our own actions – before the results can come fully developed.

129

Duties of the Saṅgha

130

FOREWARD
This year a large number of monks and novices came to be ordained and to live
together here at Wat Asokaram for the Rains – some of them planning eventuallyto leave the monkhood, some of them to stay. This being the case, I wrote down apiece explaining and analyzing our duties for their information, so that they would
have something of religious value to keep and take with them for the progress ofthe community of monks and novices in the days to come.
After the piece was written and read aloud to the group, it seemed appropriate
for use in the area of administering the Saṅgha at large, and so it has been printed
for free distribution as a gift of Dhamma, in order that Buddhism may prosper andthrive for the well-being of us all.
Phra Suddhidhammaraṅsī
Gambhīramedhācariya(Ajaan Lee)
WAT ASOKARAMSAMUT PRAKAANOCTOBER 6, 1960

131

INTRODUCTION
I would like to explain to the community spending the Rains at Wat Asokaram
this year what our duties are, so that our sense of our responsibilities in ourpractice will be in line with the aims and directives of those who have been placedin charge.
The administration of the Saṅgha, as set out by the ecclesiastical authorities ofThailand, is divided into four departments:
I. The Department of Internal Governance.
II. The Department of Education.
III. The Department of Building and Development.
IV. The Department of Spreading the Dhamma.
Each of these departments, if its activities were in line with its aims, would
cause the religion to prosper. But I have come to see that each of them is so
deficient as to be destructive – bringing about, to a great extent, the corruption ofmonks and novices. This is why I would like to give the monks and novices heresome sense of their duties and of the true aims of each of these departments.
Otherwise, governance will turn into ‘covernance’ – covering up what we don’t
want to be seen.
Each of these departments is divided into two sections: the central office andthe offices in the out-lying regions. In the central office, the responsibility of theecclesiastical authorities of both sects, Dhammayutika and Mahanikāya, is to cooperate in firmly carrying out the duties of each department in the area of central
administration. As for the out-lying regions, the responsibility of the ecclesiasticalauthorities on the regional, provincial, district, and township levels, and of theabbots of all temples, is to train the officers of each department in their respective
jurisdictions to be firm in carrying out their stated duties. Any individual who
proves incompetent in a particular area should not be placed in charge of thecorresponding department.
Thus I would now like to explain the duties of each department in a way thatwill bring about order, in line not only with the laws and regulations of theSaṅgha, but also with the Vinaya and the Dhamma – because all of these laws andregulations need to be both Dhamma and Vinaya if they are to lead to the wellbeing of the religion.

132

I. THE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL GOVERNANCE
Governance is of three sorts:
A. Governing by regulations of the Saṅgha.
B. Governing by Vinaya.
C. Governing by Dhamma.
A. Governing by regulations of the Saṅgha is as follows: The ecclesiasticalchief of each region has the right, the authority, and the responsibility toadminister his jurisdiction in accordance with all of his stipulated duties,
including the procedures to be followed in appointing officials on the regional,
provincial, district, and township levels; in appointing the abbots of temples,
preceptors, and minor officials; and in delegating responsibilities on each level.
This being the case, each of these officials should use his powers strictly inaccordance with the regulations and guidelines set down by the Saṅgha
authorities. Anyone who sees that he is unqualified in a particular area should not
accept appointment in that area. At the same time, those who make theappointments, if they see that a particular individual is unqualified, should notappoint him to a position of responsibility. If he is appointed, it will be damaging
to that area and destructive to the religion.
B. Governing by Vinaya: One should explain to those who come under one’s
authority how many Vinaya transactions there are—and what they are—so thatthey will understand how to follow them.
1. Point out, for example, how an āpalokana-kamma is to be performed
so as to be in line with the Vinaya. If there are discrepancies from the norm,
point them out and correct them.
2. Point out how and in what sort of places a ñatti-kamma is to be
performed.
3. Point out what sorts of transactions should be performed as ñattidutiya-kamma, how they are to be performed, where, when, and with howlarge a chapter of monks.
4. Point out what sorts of transactions should be performed as ñatticatuttha-kamma, on what sorts of occasions, and with how large a chapter
of monks so as to be correct according to procedure.
On the whole, there are still great discrepancies in following these procedures
133

even within the individual sects. When we compare the different sects, thedifferences are even greater. This being the case, whose responsibility is it togovern the Saṅgha so that there is uniformity throughout?
To have standards means to weld discipline to justice – or in other words,
Dhamma and Vinaya. For example, we should have standards in the way weworship and chant – how the words are to be pronounced according to the
Magadha and Saṅyoga traditions, and which tradition to use on which occasions.
There should be guidelines concerning this that are consistently followed
everywhere, and similar guidelines concerning the way we dress and use thenecessities of life, so that we will all be orderly and in proper line with one
another. Otherwise, there will be discrepancies, high and low. If there is order,
however, even the differences of high and low will present an acceptableappearance. Having standards is thus an important part of governance. If theauthorities were really sincere about carrying out their duties, instead of simply
letting things slide, it would help lead to the growth and prosperity of the religion.
On the whole, though, there is a tendency in the area of governance not to lookafter things and simply to let them be. This has led to factions and splits within
the monkhood, each group taking offense at the way other groups behave.
Thus close adherence to the Vinaya and to the standards of order would leadto concord with no need for force or compulsion: concord that would come of its
own from the good and noble standards of the religion.
When the lotuses are gathered unbruised,
the water stays clear:
This is where the virtuesof those who can govern appear.
Every official – and every monk and novice as well – should be strict inkeeping his personal conduct within the bounds of the Vinaya, so as not to abolishany of the training rules by means of his behavior. In other words, whatever has
been set down by the Buddha should not be abolished through not observing it;
and at the same time, whatever was not set down by the Buddha should not beestablished as a new observance through the example of one’s behavior.
There are many kinds of standards and procedures related to the Vinaya thatmust be studied, practiced, and observed. Taken together, they are called ‘vinayakamma.’ Some vinaya-kamma are our own personal responsibility in training
ourselves. For example –1. Kāya-kamma: Act only in ways that are correct in light of the Vinaya
and that are called karaṇīya-kicca, things to be done (such as observing theprecepts of the Pāṭimokkha). Whatever goes against the Buddha’s
134

ordinances should be discarded. Such things are termed akaraṇīya-kicca,
things not to be done.
2. Vacī-kamma: Any words whose purpose would be incorrect in light of
the Vinaya should not be spoken in any circumstances. Speak only thosewords that would be classed as Right Speech.
3. Mano-kamma: We are bound to have thoughts that tend toward theaccumulation of defilement and lead to transgressions of the training rules,
such as abhijjhā: greed focused on the four necessities of life (food,clothing, shelter, and medicine);byāpāda: ill will;
micchā-diṭṭhi: wrong views that would draw the mind into ways runningcounter to the standards of the Vinaya.
If we don’t correct such mental states, we are bound to break the training rules.
For this reason, we should establish ourselves in all four of the Principles of Purity(parisuddhi-sīla) –a. Pāṭimokkha-saṁvara-sīla: Restraining our thoughts, words, and deeds
so as to show respect for the Pāṭimokkha and all of the major and minor
training rules.
b. Indrīya-saṁvara-sīla: Keeping watch over our senses of sight, hearing,
smell, taste, feeling, and ideation, so as to keep them quiet and restrained,
and to do away with any defilements pertaining to the training rules.
c. Ājīva-parisuddhi-sīla: Maintaining our livelihood in an honest andabove-board manner, not asking for anything, by word or deed, incircumstances ruled out by the Vinaya; training ourselves to have few
wants; keeping our conduct in line with the standards of the Vinaya;
searching for the necessities of life with the proper attitude in all threestages of the search –(1) Pubba-cetanā: When the thought first occurs to the mind, keep
it in line so as not to deviate from the Vinaya.
(2) Muñcaya-cetanā: When going through the actions ofsearching, maintain purity in thought and deed.
(3) Aparāpara-cetanā: Once the desired item has been obtained,
use it in line with the regulations laid down in the Vinaya. This iscalled –d. Paccavekkhaṇa-sīla: Reflecting carefully before using things. The actof reflection gives results on many levels:135

– We should first reflect on our thoughts, words, and deeds while
using the item to see if they are in line with the Vinaya.
– Then we should reflect further, in line with the standard formula
for reflection, seeing that all things are made up of impersonal
elements or properties, foul and repugnant; that they are inconstant,stressful, and not-self – not beings, not individuals, not ‘my self’ oranyone else’s.
suñño sabbo:
All things are empty, with no one in charge.
When we consider things correctly in accordance with the standards of the
Vinaya, we are genuinely exercising good internal governance over ourselves. The
ultimate standards for judging clearly whether or not we are governing ourselves
well are as follows:(1) Whatever maxim or rule leads one to behave with a mind tinged bypassion for material pleasures is neither Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(2) Whatever behavior aims at the creation of suffering for oneself or forothers is neither Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(3) Whatever behavior leads to the accumulation of defilement is neither
Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(4) Whatever behavior leads to overweening ambition is neither
Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(5) Whatever behavior leads away from contentment with little isneither Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(6) Whatever behavior aims at entanglement with others is neither
Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(7) Whatever behavior leads to laziness and carelessness is neither
Dhamma nor Vinaya.
(8) Whatever behavior makes one a burden to others is neither Dhamma
nor Vinaya.
A person who behaves in any of the above ways has not truly taken the Buddha
as his teacher, for as the Buddha said, the Dhamma and Vinaya are our teachers in
his place. Any behavior that does not follow the Buddha’s teachings should be
regarded as akaraṇīya-kicca, something not to be done. We should restrict our
behavior to those things that should be done in our own areas of responsibility.
For example, behave so as to extract yourself from passion for material pleasures;
so as to gain release from suffering; so as not to accumulate defilements withinyourself; so as to have few wants: If you happen to receive many possessions, share136them with others. Behave so as to be content with what you already have andknow how to care for and repair what you have so that it will become better.
Behave in a way that leads to physical and mental solitude. Be persistent andenergetic in doing good in line with your duties. Behave so as not to be a burden
to others – so as to be light in body and mind. To behave in these ways is to beproperly established in the Dhamma and Vinaya.
To be able to conduct yourself in this manner means that you are able togovern yourself. And when a person can govern himself, he develops authority
from within, in the area of the Vinaya, enabling him to govern others well.
This is what is meant by ‘governing by Vinaya.’
C. Governing by Dhamma: This means to govern with one’s own inner quality
as a person, i.e., having rectitude constantly in the heart; keeping the mind firmly
established in Right View by fostering discernment in the mind through thepractice of meditation; developing Right Concentration so as to wipe out the
fetters of lust (methuna-saṅyoga) – which include, for example, sensual desire(kāma-chanda), a willingness to give in to sensual moods, which tends towardmental pain and stress. When a person’s mind falls under the power of such
fetters, it means that there is no quality to him. For the mind to lack quality meansthat it has fallen in with the mental hindrances (nīvaraṇa) –1. Kāma-chanda (sensual desire) or sexual lust: indulging in sensual
moods, taking pleasure in sensual desires that arise within and lead one totake pleasure in sensual objects – a sign that the heart isn’t trained in theproper way in Right Concentration. This then leads to paṭigha: The mind is‘struck,’ sometimes to its satisfaction, sometimes not, which is the basis for–2. Byāpāda: ill will.
3. Thīna-middha: discouragement, apathy, laziness; not making theeffort to center the mind in the factors of jhāna; not developing a theme of
meditation in the mind. The mind thus inclines toward lethargy anddiscouragement, abandoning its duties and responsibilities. This makes it
restless and a prey to distraction, unable to put a halt to its train of thought
and bringing mindfulness to stillness. This is called –4. Uddhacca-kukkucca. When this is the case, then no matter how much
Dhamma one may study, the heart is still dark and blinded. Whatever one
knows or sees is unclear. One’s conduct is lax and lacking, unable toprogress to the qualities of the higher attainments. For the heart to becaught on a snag like this is termed –5. Vicikicchā: doubt, uncertainty, indecision, an inability to go forward137

or turn back. When this is the case, the mind is classed as having no quality.
In other words, it lacks the concentration that will give rise to discernment
and the skill of release.
Those, however, who can escape from the hindrances and center the mind intojhāna or concentration will give rise to discernment: the power to keep theirdefilements within the bounds of rectitude and to unbind their goodness so that it
can govern others effortlessly, achieving their own well-being and that of others
through the power of their governance. They will awaken from the mundane
world, and the supreme good – Dhamma – will appear within them. This is what
it means for the heart to have quality.
Most of us, by and large, have no constant quality in our hearts. Instead, we golooking for quality in things outside and so can never succeed or find security.
When this is the case, we’re unfit to govern ourselves – and if we’re unfit togovern ourselves, then to govern others for the sake of their betterment will be
extremely difficult.
This concludes our discussion of the Department of Internal Governance andthe duties of the contemplatives who accept responsibility in this area.
This is all there is to the Department of Internal Governance. Whoever has
responsibilities in this area must constantly bear his duties in mind if he is tocontribute to the true prosperity of the religion. Otherwise, the establishment of
this department will be empty and in vain, yielding no full-fledged benefits.
The point to remember is that the governance of the Saṅgha in Thailand is ofthree sorts:
A. Governance by regulation and law – the legislative act setting up theconstitution of the Saṅgha; the Saṅgha directives and by-laws.
B. Governance by Vinaya.
C. Governance by Dhamma.
This is all it comes down to. If we were to discuss this point in detail, there
would be much more to say.
Now, however, we will go on to discuss Part II for the edification of Buddhistsat large.

138II. THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Education in Buddhism – of the kind that gives proper knowledge conduciveto the prosperity of the religion – is of three sorts, as follows:
A. Sutamaya-paññā: Discernment acquired through study.
People who are learned (bahusuta) – who have studied and memorized a great
deal – fall into two groups. The first group contains those who have studied in linewith the curriculum of the Department, i.e., the official textbooks known as Nak
Dhamma [literally, Dhamma expert] levels l, 2, and 3; or the Pali courses, levels 39. Whether or not one passes the examinations is not important. What is
important is the knowledge gained. This sort of education gives rise to one level ofunderstanding, termed sutamaya-paññā – discernment acquired through study.
The second group contains those who study on their own – listening tosermons, reading textbooks, studying the Vinaya, Suttas, and Abhidhamma;
discussing questions with one another (dhamma-sākacchā), which can lead tounderstanding on a higher level, so that one may apply one’s knowledge totraining oneself.
Both groups are classed as being on the elementary level of education in the
study of memorized doctrine.
The study of memorized doctrine (pariyatti dhamma) is of three sorts –1. Studying like a snake (alagaddūpama-pariyatti): This refers to a person who
has studied and is thoroughly knowledgeable, but who makes himself venomous.
The deadly venom of a monk is sensual defilement, which includes rāga – passion
and delight in sensual objects; dosa – irritation, displeasure, a strong mental
poison that makes the heart murky, annihilating whatever merit is there,
destroying its own goodness. When this happens, the really deadly poisons appear:
kodha – anger; and moha – delusion, confusion about one’s own good and evil,
seeing right as wrong and wrong as right, being unreasonable and misguided in
one’s views. All of this is classed as delusion, a poison buried deep in the heart.
Thus to gain an education without then conducting oneself in line with the
Dhamma can be called studying like a snake. Such a person makes himself into a
cobra’s head, spreading his venom into anyone who comes near. To consort withsuch a person is to consort with a fool and can poison the mind, drawing it into
evil and unskillful ways, such as searching for well-being with reference only tothis lifetime, without looking for what is more worthwhile – one’s well-being in
139

future lifetimes – or for highest well-being: the liberation of nibbāna.
2. Studying for the sake of emancipation (nissaraṇ’attha-pariyatti): When we
have studied the Dhamma and Vinaya and learned what is good and evil, right andwrong, beneficial and unbeneficial, we see that we shouldn’t do whatever is wrong
or harmful to ourselves and others. Instead, we should develop whatever isgracious and good, benefiting ourselves and others in any of the following three
ways: Having learned the factors that promote well-being in the present life, weshould give rise to them for ourselves and others. Having learned what isnecessary to bring about our well-being in future lifetimes – going to a good
destination or the heavenly realms in the next life – we should conduct ourselves
accordingly. As for the supreme well-being – nibbāna – when we have learned
what sort of person it will appear in and how to behave so as to be worthy of it, weshould foster the qualities within ourselves necessary to bring all these forms ofwell-being about.
The qualities leading to these forms of well-being are four –a. Chanda: a willingness and readiness to abandon all unskillful mental
qualities. Whether or not we can actually abandon them in line with ourintentions, we should always show a willingness to abandon them, to follow
the practice and to develop our strength of character step by step. This ischanda, a factor that lures and propels us into making future progress.
b. Viriya: persistence in making the effort to relinquish the evil within
ourselves; an unwillingness to lie wallowing in our evils; persistence infostering virtue within ourselves, in maintaining and developing the virtues
we already have, and in using them for the well-being of others. This istermed viriy’iddhipāda – persistence as a factor leading to success.
c. Citta: Whatever task we undertake, we should be fully intent on it andnot shirk our duties. We should try to develop our virtuous actions so thatthey reach the goal, the supreme well-being to which we all aspire.
Whatever happiness is appropriate to us in this life, we should bring it
about through our own intentness of purpose. Whatever happiness shouldarise in future lifetimes, we should set our hearts on striving to cultivate it.
As for the happiness unrelated to worldly baits (nirāmisa-sukha), we should
focus our whole attention on correctly developing the path to reach it. We
will then be able to attain our goal without a doubt.
d. Vimaṁsā: The circumspect discernment gained from our studies
should be put into practice in line with the factors of the noble path. Before
doing anything in thought, word, or deed, we should be circumspect incarefully applying appropriate attention and only then go ahead and act.
We should give rise to the mental virtue termed Right Concentration.
140

Concentration gives rise to discernment; and when the discernment ofliberating insight arises within us it leads to the happiness free frommaterial baits (nirāmisa-sukha). To be circumspect and thoroughly awarethat whatever will not be beneficial to ourselves or others should not be
done, and that whatever will lead to our own well-being and that of others– in this life, in the next, or in the ultimate sense – should be fostered
within ourselves through our own circumspection and discernment: This isvimaṁs’iddhipāda - circumspection as a factor leading to success.
When we do this, we will reap two sorts of results: iddhiriddhi – the powerthat arises from being established in these four qualities; and puññariddhi – theinfluence that arises from our own inner virtue. Iddhiriddhi is authority;
puññariddhi is kindness. To have these two qualities is to be a person with twoeyes, two ears, two nostrils, two arms, two legs – puriso, a complete human being,
who can help others become complete in their hearts as well.
This is what it means to be a person who studies for the sake of emancipation.
3. Studying to be a storehouse keeper (bhaṇḍāgārika-pariyatti): This refers to
the education of a person who has already finished the training – i.e., an arahant,
one who has gained release from all defilements. Why does such a person have to
study? For the sake of the work of the religion, so as to be of assistance in helping
Buddhism to prosper. When was it ever the case that a person had to bethoroughly acquainted with all aspects of formulated Dhamma and customs
before doing away with mental effluents (āsava)? Some people are born in lowerclass families, others in upper-class families. Some have a great deal of social
sophistication, others don’t. Still they are able to free their minds from theeffluents by means of the practice, for in practice it isn’t necessary to know a great
deal of formulated Dhamma. Even a person who knows only a fair amount canstill put an end to the effluents.
So when such a person sees that he can be of help to people and Buddhists atlarge, he must educate himself. His study is for the sake of gaining a sense of thedifferences in societies, in communities, and in types of individuals; to gain a senseof time and place; to know the varieties of beliefs and customs that people adhere
to in different regions. When he becomes thoroughly and properly acquainted
with all customs and conventions, he can then deal effectively with other people
for their benefit. This is why he must study and take an interest in such things.
Education of this sort is thus called studying to be a storehouse keeper, and is an
aspect of the Department of Education.
These, then, are the three forms of studying memorized Dhamma.

141

B. Cintāmaya-paññā: Discernment acquired through reflection .
When we have studied – in whichever way – we mustn’t stop there. We shouldtake all the Dhamma we have learned and chew it over with our own discernment.
To chew things over in this way – thinking and evaluating – may give rise to aflavor different from that of our previous education. We think things through,exploring on our own, instead of simply believing what other people say or what is
written in books. We believe our own sense of reason, discovered within ourselves
and termed paccattaṁ – individual and personal. This sort of education grows outof the earlier sort, in the same way that a person who has learned how to read andwrite the letters of the alphabet can then go on to use that knowledge to read
textbooks and gain knowledge more valuable than the alphabet on its own.
To make a comparison with food, this second form of education has more
flavor than the first. The first sort of education is like taking food, arranging it
according to type – main-course dishes in one group, desserts in another – andthen finding delight simply in seeing it arranged. The second form of education –thinking, evaluating, reasoning things through – is like arranging the food andthen tasting it. The person who does this gets much more use out of the food thanthe person who arranges the food and simply sits looking at it: He can suffuse his
body with nourishment and know whether or not the food tastes good, whether
it’s sour or sweet, very sweet or just a little sweet – all on his own. This is what itmeans to pursue this second form of education properly. To study in this way
gives rise to the flavor of the Dhamma, which can then be used to suffuse the heartwith nourishment. When the heart is suffused with the nourishment of goodqualities, it gains energy and strength in the area of the Dhamma, termed –1. Saddhā-bala: conviction in the worth of good qualities. Ourconviction in the right actions we perform and in the results they will bringus becomes a dominant strength in the heart.
2. Viriya-bala: The quality of perseverance becomes dominant. We
become resolute and courageous in practicing what is good.
3. Sati-bala: Our powers of mindfulness become expansive in the great
establishing of mindfulness.
4. Samādhi-bala: The mind develops the steadiness and strength termed‘heightened mind’ (adhicitta), beyond the power of the hindrances.
5. Paññā-bala: the discernment of Right View, which comes from thesense of reason fostered in the heart through circumspection. Discernmentis strength that can make the mind energetic, competent, and powerful.
Discernment acquired through reflection can give rise to the flavor of the
Dhamma through the act of thinking, but for thought to be truly nourishing and142

energizing, we must go on to the next level, developing discernment throughmeditation, so as to be complete in our practice.
C. Bhāvanāmaya-paññā: Discernment acquired through meditation.
Coming to know ourselves: We should study and investigate ourselves so as togain knowledge exclusively within by centering the heart in concentration. To
study ourselves by ourselves means to study by means of our own inner alphabet –the various parts put together out of the four properties (dhātu) within the body,the five khandhas, and the six sense media (āyatana). To study on this level means
to study with and within the mind, investigating the inner alphabet:
A = Kesā, hair of the head.
B = Lomā, hair of the body.
C = Nakhā, the nails that grow from the ends of the fingers and toes.
D = Dantā, the teeth that grow in the mouth along the upper and lower
jaws.
E = Taco, the skin that enwraps the various parts of the body.
All five are things that a contemplative should study. Usually, before we
become ordained, we don’t even know our own inner ABC’s, much less how tospell. So our preceptors, out of concern for us as their sons in the monkhood,teach us these five things even before we become monks and novices. But if weneglect them after our ordination, it shows that we have no respect for educationand no reverence for the teachings of the Lord Buddha. This is the cause fordegeneracy in the Department of Education. To be able to read all 32 parts in
one’s body, and to teach others to do the same, is to qualify as a member of theSaṅgha, or as a true disciple of the Lord Buddha.
We should study all four or all six of the properties within us – earth, water,
wind, and fire – as a basis for tranquility meditation, giving rise to jhāna in themind by thinking about and evaluating the parts of the body until we gain anunderstanding of earth, water, wind, and fire, together with space andconsciousness, the overseer of the house. Study the five khandhas – body, feelings,
labels, mental fabrications, and consciousness. Study the six sense media – eyesand visual objects, ears and sounds, nose and smells, tongue and tastes, body andtactile sensations, intellect and thoughts – by keeping careful restraint over them.
The mind will then enter the jhānas, beginning with the first, which is composedof directed thinking, evaluating, rapture, pleasure, and singleness of
preoccupation. Such a person thus goes on to a higher level of education,comparable to high school or secondary education. When the heart becomes
quiet, a cool and refreshing sense of pleasure called rasa, the flavor andnourishment of the Dhamma, will appear in it. Attha: We will realize the aims of143

the Dhamma and our own aspirations as well.
Studying on this level will give rise to a higher level of knowledge termed
liberating insight (vipassanā-ñāṇa) – clear comprehension in terms of the four
noble truths – enabling us to go beyond suffering and stress. This is termed theskill of release. We will gain a special knowledge that is apart from all of themundane things we have learned: This is transcendent knowledge that, beginningwith liberating insight, enables us to escape one after another the fortress walls of
the citadel of Death.
The citadel of Death has ten walls –1. Self-identification (sakkāya-diṭṭhi): assuming the truth of our views;
assuming that the body is our self or belongs to us.
2. Doubt (vicikicchā): uncertainty about the paths and fruitions leading
to nibbāna.
3. Attachment to habits and practices (sīlabbata-parāmāsa): groping
about, i.e., undependability in our behavior, which leads us to clutch atvarious beliefs, searching for absolute standards of good outside of the actsof our own heart and mind.
4. Sensual passion (kāma-rāga): desire caused by the power ofdefilement.
5. Irritation (paṭigha): annoyance coming from the mind’s sense of being‘struck’ or disturbed.
6. Passion for form (rūpa-rāga): attachment to certain kinds of physicalphenomena.
7. Passion for formless phenomena (arūpa-rāga): attachment to mental
phenomena, such as feelings of pleasure.
8. Conceit (māna): construing ourselves to be this or that.
9. Restlessness (uddhacca): distraction, the mind’s tendency to get
engrossed or carried away.
10. Ignorance (avijjā): delusion; being unacquainted with cause andeffect, or with what’s true.
All ten of these factors are walls in the citadel of Death. No one who lacks
discernment will be able to destroy them, which is why the Buddha was especiallyinsistent on this level of education, teaching the monks to study it from the very
day of their ordination so that their education would be complete.
To summarize, there are three aspects to this third level of education –1. Learning the alphabet: Studying in line with the labels we have for the144various parts of the body, such as hair of the head, etc.
2. Learning to spell: Taking the consonants – such as the four properties ofearth, water, wind, and fire – and then adding the vowels – feelings, labels, mental
fabrications, and consciousness – so that there is awareness of the six sense media,
enabling us to know that there are good sights, good sounds, good smells, good
tastes, good tactile sensations, and good ideas in the world, and that sometimes
things that are not so good can also come in through the six sense media. The
awareness that enters in and interacts in this way can be called paṭisandhiviññāṇa – consciousness connected with physical phenomena, interacting withphysical phenomena, enabling us to know all levels of good and bad. When we areable to evaluate and choose what is good and bad within ourselves, we qualify as
being able to ‘read,’ knowing thoroughly all the ways our inner alphabet works inpractice.
3. Learning to make sense of it all: The word ‘sense’ (attha) here has twomeanings:
a. Realizing the results that come from our education.
b. Comprehending all the various parts into which we are analyzed – the32 parts of the body, the properties, the khandhas, and the six sense media– or, what it all comes down to, the body and mind, plus the activity ofthought, word, and deed. To put it briefly, all things are achieved throughthe heart.
mano-pubbaṅgamā dhammā:
The heart comes before all else. All things are excelled by the heart andmade from the heart. A trained heart is the most superlative thing there is.
When we have tasted within ourselves the flavor and nourishment of all
dhammas – mundane and transcendent (the flavor of deathlessness, whichsurpasses all flavors of the world) – then,kevala paripuṇṇaṁ parisuddhaṁ brahmacariyaṁ:We have performed the entirety of the holy life. Our training in the holy
life is perfect and pure.
This is what it means to graduate, to finish our higher education in the
Buddha’s teachings.
Whoever has duties in the area of education, then, should attend to them.
Otherwise, Buddhism is sure to degenerate because of our own lack of educationas contemplatives. If this happens, the Department of Education established by145

the Saṅgha authorities will be futile and worthless because we don’t clearly
understand its meaning and aims.

146

III. THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDING & DEVELOPMENT
This department is another important area, in that it works for theconvenience of the Saṅgha through improving, repairing, and maintaining thephysical surroundings in which we live. To be specific, its duties are to build andrepair, inspect and maintain our dwellings or monasteries so that they will qualify
as senāsana-sappāya – comfortable, amenable places for contemplatives to stay.
Meditating monks by and large tend to have fixed notions about this area,
believing that to sponsor or do construction work for the sake of Buddhists atlarge is to devote oneself to merely material concerns, and that such work thus
shouldn’t be done. Some even believe that work of this sort closes off the paths
and fruitions leading to nibbāna. Nevertheless, these people have not gone beyond
the material benefits they criticize. For this reason, we should examine the area ofbuilding and development to see whether or not it is appropriate and accords with
the Vinaya.
I would like to divide the duties in this area into two sorts, in line with the two
major duties that those who are ordained should take an interest in –A. The duty of study (gantha-dhura): Those monks who are gāmavāsī, orvillage dwellers, are responsible for improving, repairing, and developing theplaces in which they live, for the sake of the common good of Buddhists at large.
When building, they should have a sense of scale, order, and beauty so that theirbuildings will fit in with their physical surroundings. For example, monks’quarters, restrooms, meeting halls, and ordination halls should be arranged, in so
far as possible, in an orderly way, in keeping with their functions. Once built, theyshould be kept clean and in repair so as to contribute to the beauty of theirsurroundings. If anything is lacking, and one is in a position to search for it byproper means, then obtain and maintain it in a righteous manner for the sake of
one’s own convenience and that of the group. All of these activities form a part ofthe duty of study: improving and developing the place in which we live.
B. The duty of meditation (vipassanā-dhura): This refers to those monks
termed araññavāsī, or forest dwellers, who search for secluded areas appropriate
for meditation, such as those mentioned in the Pali: under the shade of a tree; in a
secluded dwelling; under a lean-to, far from settled areas; in a quiet tower; underan over-hanging rock; in a cave; in a forest; in a cemetery; or in a desertedbuilding. One should learn how to select such a place appropriate for one’s needand how to keep it clean and neat for the sake of one’s convenience as a meditator
147

while living there. This is ‘building and development’ in the forest: Observing theprotocols of the Vinaya in caring for one’s dwelling, improving and maintaining
order in one’s surroundings – and improving oneself while living there. This isbuilding and development on the external level, one sign of a person who knows
how to maintain himself in physical seclusion.
As for internal building and development, one should build a shelter for themind: vihāra-dhamma, a home for the heart. One should foster magga, the path
to one’s home; and phala, the goodness that arises in the heart as a result. The
shelter along the way is Right Concentration: the first, second, third, and fourth
jhāna. These four jhānas are the true shelter for those who are ordained.
Once we have been ordained as contemplatives, we should realize that we
come under this particular department and so should perform our duties
properly. But by and large we don’t understand the true aims of the various
departments and so grope around in external matters, without building ordeveloping any internal qualities that can give the heart shelter. When the heart
has no internal quality as its shelter, it will go living outside, building and helping
only other people. If the heart is entangled with external matters, then after death
it will be reborn attached to physical objects and possessions. Those who areattached to their monasteries will be reborn there as guardian spirits. Those whoare attached to their quarters, their ordination halls, their meeting halls, theirbodies, will be reborn right there. This is called sensual clinging: Whatever object
we cling to, there we will be reborn. For example, there is a story told in the
Dhammapada Commentary of a monk who received a robe that gave him greatsatisfaction and of which he became very possessive. When he died he was reborn
as a louse right there in the robe, all because he had no inner quality as a dwelling
for the heart.
So for our building and development to go beyond physical objects, we should
build and repair a shelter for the heart. Only then will we be qualified to take on
external duties – and in performing our duties, we should be careful not to let our
inner home become overgrown with the weeds of defilement, or to let the termitesof the hindrances eat into it. Don’t let vermin, lizards, or lice – character flaws(mala) – take up residence inside. Roof the home of the heart – jhāna – withrestraint of the senses so that the fires of passion, aversion, and delusion don’tburn it down.
To purify the principles of our conduct (sīla) is to clear and grade our property.
To give rise to jhāna is to build a home for ourselves. To develop discernment
within the mind is to light our home. We will then be safe both while we stay andwhen we go. When we are able to do this, it will lead to the true prosperity of thereligion.
This is what it means to observe our duties in the area of building and148

development.

149

IV. THE DEPARTMENT OF SPREADING THE DHAMMA
Ways of spreading the Dhamma fall into three categories:
A. The first category: Study (pariyatti)
This refers to the appointment of monks in the various divisions to teach andtrain the populace at large. In addition, the establishment of syllabi such as the
Nak Dhamma courses, and the appointment of teachers to instruct in accordancewith them, can also be classed as a means of spreading the Dhamma.
Spreading the Dhamma can give rise to many sorts of benefits – well-being inthis life, well-being in lives to come, and acquaintance with the supreme wellbeing – nibbāna. These are the aims of spreading the Dhamma by means of study,
which is one aspect of the good that Buddhism has to offer.
1. Here, for those of us who are interested in well-being with regard only tothis life, I would like to point out the way, which has four factors –a. Initiative (uṭṭhāna-sampadā): We should be persistent and diligent in
our work and our duties, making our living by means that are moral andupright, in line with the principles of Right Action.
b. Maintenance (ārakkha-sampadā): We should take good care of thepossessions we have earned, and take good care of ourselves – which wehave also worked hard to earn – so as not to fall into ways that are evil orwrong.
c. Having admirable friends (kalyāṇa-mittatā): We should associate withgood people and avoid associating with immoral people who would lead us
astray and cause our possessions to be squandered away.
d. An appropriate lifestyle (samajīvitā): We should spend our earnings
wisely and provide for our needs in a proper way. We should avoid
spending our earnings in wrong ways that would soil how we live.
These four principles form the way to our well-being in this lifetime, but weshouldn’t be short-sighted or unrealistic, for the reality of each and every humanbeing born is that we will all have to die and be parted from the happiness foundin this world.
2. This being the case, we must provide for our well-being in the lives to come.
The way to happiness in the lives to come, as taught by the religion, is as follows –150

a. Conviction (saddhā-sampadā): We should be consummate in ourconvictions, believing that there is good and evil, believing in (puñña), andbelieving in the principle of kamma. We should then avoid doing evil, andcultivate goodness as far as we are able.
b. Virtue (sīla-sampadā): We should be true to our moral principles andtrain ourselves to be pure in our actions in terms of thought, word, anddeed. Whatever we do should be done with honesty and rectitude.
c. Generosity (cāga-sampadā): We should be consummate in our
generosity, making donations to others, for instance, as we are able. To
make sacrifices in this way, the Buddha teaches, is a noble treasure, bearing
dividends both in this life and in lives to come. If we don’t make sacrificesin this way, our possessions will bear us fruit only in this lifetime. At death,they will vanish. We won’t be able to transfer them for use in the next life,
just as Thai currency or any national currency can’t be used outside theboundaries of its country. When a person travels abroad, he won’t be able
to use his native currency at all unless he has the discernment to exchange
his money beforehand and deposit it in an appropriate bank. Only then will
it be of use to him when he goes abroad. In the same way, people ofdiscernment deposit their possessions in the bank called the field of merit(puññakkhetta): When they sacrifice their wealth in this way, it becomes anoble treasure, bearing dividends on the road ahead. And this doesn’t apply
only to possessions: When a person crosses the border from one country
into another, even his native language won’t be of any use. The Buddha
thus taught us a foreign language – chanting and the meditative practice ofdeveloping goodwill – to serve us as language in the world to come.
d. Discernment (paññā-sampadā): We should be circumspect andknowledgeable in all our actions. Otherwise, we will act under the influenceof such forms of delusion as chandāgati – being prejudiced by affection,with no reasonable thought for right or wrong; bhayāgati – being
prejudiced by fear, with no thought for what is reasonable; dosāgati – being
prejudiced by anger and dislike, with no thought for right or wrong; andmohāgati – being prejudiced by delusion, mistaking right for wrong, andwrong for right. To act in any of these ways means that we have no
discernment. For this reason, whatever we may do in the area of making
merit, we should first examine and contemplate things properly before
acting. Only then will we qualify as being consummate in our discernment.
These four practices open the way to a good destination in the next life, i.e., inheaven, but even then we will still have to go whirling along the cycle of death andrebirth.
151

3. If we have strong conviction, we will be able to develop ourselves so as to go
beyond this to the level of the supreme well-being (paramattha), attaining thelevels of transcendent virtue. This sort of virtue is something that all Buddhists
should aim for. The necessary prerequisites are two:
conviction and perseverance.
When we possess these qualities, they will serve as our tools – regardless ofwhether we are sharp-witted or dull, men or women, people with many
defilements or with only a few. Once this is our aspiration, we should then develop
two practices that form the path to nibbāna –a. tranquility meditation: developing stillness in the mind;
b. insight meditation: developing discernment in the mind; gaining
internal insight, seeing through to the natural condition of the Dhamma
that lies within us.
The natural condition of the Dhamma is this: birth, momentary existence,
disbanding – like a wave on the sea. When the wind blows, great waves rise on theocean. The same holds true with human life: The natural condition of thekhandhas within us behaves like a wave. This is called the natural condition of the
Dhamma.
Another condition, though, stays as it is, whether or not there are waves – justas the water of the sea, when there is no wind, is smooth, level, and clear. Thisnatural condition in the heart – a condition that doesn’t take birth, doesn’tchange, doesn’t disband, and doesn’t die, but simply stays as it is – lies within eachand every one of us.
These two practices – tranquility and insight meditation – lead to the supreme
well-being, nibbāna. The two natural conditions lie within each of us. Those whoknow how to spread the Dhamma into themselves, teaching and counselingthemselves, will attain well-being without a doubt.
B. The second category: Practice (paṭipatti)
Spreading the Dhamma by practicing it, without having to use words, simply
behaving well so as to be an example to others through one’s manners andbehavior: This is an important factor in spreading the Dhamma. Our Lord
Buddha, for example, was once staying in a forest with a following of 500 monks.
As twilight fell, he rested, inclining on his right side, while the monks all did
walking or sitting meditation. No one was talking. Everything was still. Just then, agroup of wandering ascetics came into the forest and, seeing this, were completely
152

won over. They felt so inspired by the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, andSaṅgha that they were willing to become disciples. Later, they were of great help in
spreading the religion. This shows that good and proper practice is an extremely
important force in spreading the Dhamma.
Not only human beings, but even animals are able to follow the example ofothers’ behavior, as when a man with a crippled leg leads a horse with sound legs
around on a tether: In no time at all, the horse will learn to walk with a limp. As
the leader goes, so go his followers; as the mold is shaped, so are the items molded.
Good behavior is thus a way of spreading the religion that has a deep and tellinginfluence on the hearts of those who come after. This is one of our true duties
within the religion. Even if our defilements may be heavy and thick, we can still beof service to others in this way.
So in spreading the Buddha’s teachings, it’s not enough simply to get up anddeliver a sermon. A person of discernment teaching the Dhamma can convinceothers of its value in a variety of ways: by his manners, as already mentioned; or byādesanā-pāṭihāriya – the marvel of knowing another person’s thoughts; or byanusāsanī-pāṭihāriya – the marvel of teaching that, when put into practice, gives
the promised results. All of these are means of spreading the Buddha’s teachings.
C. The third category: Psychic Marvels (iddhi-pāṭihāriya)
In some areas of religious work, spreading the Dhamma is done via the mind –as, for example, when the Venerable Culapaṇṭhaka performed a psychic marvelthat astounded those who saw, inspiring conviction, reverence, and awe in theirhearts. Those who had never before felt inspired by the Buddha’s teachings
suddenly became inspired because of those events.
Other instances were performed by the Buddha himself, as when he went tobreak the pride of the three Kassapa brothers. He went out in the rain without
getting wet, did walking meditation in the flood without getting wet, which led theelder Kassapa to abandon his stubborn pride – and when he had abandoned his
pride, the Buddha was able to teach him the Dhamma. Kassapa and his followers
saw the Dhamma appear within themselves, experienced the paths, fruitions, andnibbāna, and proclaimed themselves followers of the Buddha. They were then of
great help in spreading the religion.
Another example is when the Buddha subdued the bandit, Aṅgulimāla. AsAṅgulimāla ran chasing after him, the Buddha radiated goodwill through thepower of jhāna, causing the earth between them to rise and fall in great waves
until Aṅgulimāla, tired from his running, called out in surrender. The Buddha
then instructed him to the point where he was so impressed and convinced that
he was eventually able to make his heart attain the Dhamma.
153

There are many other examples of this sort by which the Buddha was able toproclaim the religion so that it has lasted into the present day. If we take spreading
the Dhamma to be simply a matter of words, it wouldn’t have been – and won’t be– enough.
***Thus, spreading the Dhamma is done in three ways:
A. By deed – showing others the Dhamma through the example of one’s
manners and behavior; being correct and gracious in one’s words and deeds;
keeping restraint over one’s senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling, andideation so as to be an inspiring example to those who see.
B. By word – teaching and explaining the Dhamma out loud, giving rise tounderstanding and inspiration in those who hear.
C. By thought (psychic feats, manomayiddhi). When one has seen with thepower of intuitive understanding that a person is ready to receive the Dhamma,
one should spread thoughts of goodwill, dedicating the fruits of one’s merit to that
person. This way of spreading the Dhamma can be done both in public and in
private, with those who are near and those who are far away. It can help certain
human and divine beings, and inspire conviction in those whose dispositions lie
within the net of the Dhamma, all without having to say a word.
This has been termed, ‘anointing with the waters of goodwill.’ The goodwill
lying in the heart is like a cooling current. Wherever this coolness is directed
through the power of a serene heart, it can draw other beings, both human anddivine, to become inspired to develop the qualities of their hearts in line with theirvarying dispositions. Even if we have yet to meet them, and have simply heard
news, we can still cause their hearts to become cool and refreshed, contributing totheir welfare and happiness. Spreading the Dhamma in this way is beneficial bothto us and to others.
To be able to do this, though, we must first give rise to sufficient quality in ourown hearts. If the quality isn’t yet there, then build it and dedicate it first of all tothose to whom you owe ‘kamma debts.’ Spread this goodness to fill the body.
Spread this goodness to fill the mind. This sense of fullness is what is meant by
rapture (pīti) – i.e., full of what is skillful. Goodness fills the heart, refreshing itwith what is skillful. When goodness fills the body and mind, it’s like water filling atank or saturating the earth. Wherever the earth is saturated with water, there thetrees and vegetation flourish. But if we don’t have enough goodness within, we’re
like a tank without any water: No matter how far the faucet is opened, only wind
will come out. The coolness of wind and the coolness of water are two very154

different things. The coolness of wind can cause trees to wither and can send dust
clouds flying, but the coolness of water is useful in many ways: It can be used towash clothes, to bathe the body, to drink, or to sprinkle on the ground, nourishingplants and softening the earth. Not only that, it can also give a deep sense ofrefreshment. In the same way, people who practice the Dhamma, even if they
don’t speak a word but simply spread thoughts of goodwill, can be of great benefit
to people at large. This is termed mettā-pāramī – the perfection of goodwill.
So when goodness arises within us, we can work for the welfare of others evenwhen we sit with our eyes closed, perfectly still. But it’s the nature of ignorantpeople to believe that such a person is simply saving his own skin. They haven’t
looked deep inside.
The teachers of the past thus made a comparison with thunder and rain. Somepeople can teach others, but they themselves have no inner goodness. Such people
are called thunder without rain. They can cause others to feel awe and respect, but
can give no sense of cooling refreshment. Some people are like rain without
thunder. They rarely speak, but spread thoughts of goodwill, dedicating their
merit to others. They have received their own full measure of inner goodness andso can give goodness and inspire conviction in the hearts of others even whensimply sitting still. Those who find peace and calm in the shelter of such an
influence will, in turn, feel the highest form of respect. Some people are like rainwith thunder, and others, rain with thunder and wind to boot: This, for those whoare able, is ideal. Such people, after having developed their own inner goodness,
are able to teach others, spreading the Dhamma by thought, word, and deed,giving results in many ways: People who are stubborn and fixed in their opinions
will be able to soften in an instant, just as giant trees bend before the wind. At thesame time, teachers of this sort can be an example to others through their
behavior and the kindness of their hearts, feeling no envy for the goodness ofothers, but only compassion, providing a cooling shelter for all sorts of people.
This is the consummate way to spread the Dhamma, causing the religion toprosper in the true and proper way.
The field of spreading the Dhamma is extremely important. Those whopractice it will get results in two ways:
1. By knowing how to use authority – the power of the mind – so as to
be of benefit.
2. By knowing how to use kindness – the goodness of the heart – so as tobenefit their fellow human beings, with no need for power of any sortwhatsoever.
Only those who can act in this manner are qualified for the Department of155

Spreading the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma and Vinaya.
***

When the duties of all these departments are fully observed by a community, agroup, or an individual, they will help our religion to prosper and thrive. But aslong as we are unable to fulfill these duties, the establishment of directives foreach of the various departments is meaningless and can lead, I’m afraid, only tothe disappearance of the Buddha’s teachings, as happened in India. This is why I
have asked to explain our organization and duties so that we will all be thoroughly
acquainted with them.
It will be ideal if each individual can observe the duties of all four departments;
and, to be true to the Dhamma, each of us should regard all of these duties as his
own personal responsibility. If we pay attention only to the directives and rules
without reference to the Dhamma, we’ll be deficient in our duties, and theestablishment of the various departments will be a waste of time. All the thought
and consideration devoted to our welfare will be fruitless.
So we should use our authority and inner quality in observing our duties firmly
and properly for the sake of the good order of the religion.
If I were to explain things at length, there would be much more to say; but I
will stop for the time being with this condensed discussion of the main points at
issue, which should be enough to serve us as an adequate guide.
If there is anything in any way wrong or defective in what I have written here, I
ask the reader’s forgiveness.
Peace.

156

GLOSSARY
Abhidhamma (Piṭaka): The third of the three collections forming the Pali
Canon, composed of systematic treatises based on lists of categories drawn fromthe Buddha’s teachings.
Āpalokana-kamma: A procedure to use in conducting communal business of
the Saṅgha, in which certain non-controversial issues are settled simply with aninformal announcement. The following terms – ñatti-kamma, ñatti-dutiyakamma, and ñatti-catuttha-kamma – refer to procedures where the issue must be
settled by a formal motion stated once, twice, or four times, giving all the monkspresent the opportunity to object to the motion before it is carried.
Apāya: State of deprivation; the four lower realms of existence: rebirth in hell,
as a hungry ghost, as an angry demon, or as a common animal. In Buddhism, noneof these states are regarded as eternal conditions.
Arahant: A ‘worthy one’ or ‘pure one,’ i.e., a person whose heart no longer has
any defilements and is thus not destined for further rebirth. A title for the Buddha
and the highest level of his Noble Disciples.
Ariyadhana: Noble Wealth, i.e., qualities that serve as capital in the quest forliberation: conviction, virtue, shame, compunction, erudition, generosity, anddiscernment.
Āsava: Fermentation; effluent. Four qualities – sensuality, views, becoming,and ignorance – that bubble up in the heart and flow out, leading to the flood offurther becoming.
Attha: Meaning, sense, aim, result.
Avijjā: Ignorance; counterfeit knowledge.
Āyatana: Sense medium. The six inner sense media are the eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body and intellect. The six outer sense media are their respective objects.
Bhagavant: An epithet for the Buddha, commonly translated as ‘Blessed One’or ‘Exalted One.’ Some commentators, though, have traced the word
etymologically to the Pali root meaning ‘to divide’ and, by extension, ‘to analyze,’and so translate it as ‘Analyst.’
Brahmā: An inhabitant of the higher heavens of form and formlessness, aposition earned – but not forever – through the cultivation of virtue andmeditative absorption, along with the attitudes of limitless goodwill, compassion,
appreciation, and equanimity.
Dhamma: Event; phenomenon; the way things are in and of themselves;
157

quality – both in its neutral and in its positive senses: (1) the basic qualities into
which natural phenomena – mental and physical – can be analyzed; the terms inwhich things are known by the sense of ideation. Also, any teaching that analyzes
phenomena into their basic terms. This is one sense in which the Buddha’s
doctrine is his ‘Dhamma.’ (2) The quality of one’s heart and mind, as manifest by
the rectitude, fairness, compassion, composure, discernment, etc., revealed in
one’s actions. The manifestations can be enumerated and prescribed as principles(again, ‘dhamma’ – another sense in which the Buddha’s doctrine is his Dhamma)that can then be put into practice and developed as means of removing everything
defiling and obscuring from the heart so that the quality of deathlessness canbecome fully apparent within: This is the Buddha’s Dhamma in its ultimate sense.
Dhātu: Element, property, potential. Basic forces that, when aroused out of
their latent state, cause activity on the physical or psychological level. In
traditional Thai physics, which is based on the physics of the Pali Canon, the fourdhātus of earth, water, fire, and wind are said to permeate all matter in latent or
potential form. To become manifest, they have to be aroused. Thus, for example,
the act of starting a fire is explained as the arousal of the fire-dhātu (tejas), which
already exists in the air and in the object to be ignited. The lit fire then clings to
the fuel, and the object will be on fire. The fire will continue burning as long astejas has sustenance to cling to. When it runs out of sustenance or is forced to letgo, it will grow quiet – returning to its normal, latent state – and the individual
fire will go out.
On the level of the human body, diseases are explained as resulting from theaggravation or imbalance of any of these four physical properties. Diseases areclassified by how they feel: Fevers are attributed to the fire property, dizziness andfaintness to the wind property, constipation to the earth property, etc. Well-being
is defined as a state in which none of these properties is dominant. All are quiet,
unaroused, balanced and still.
There are a number of lists of dhātus given in the Pali Canon. The six dhātus
are the four physical properties plus space and consciousness. The 18 dhātus are
the six senses, their respective objects, and the acts of consciousness associatedwith each.
Gotarabhū-ñāṇa: Change of lineage knowledge – the glimpse of nibbāna thatchanges one from an ordinary, run-of-the-mill person to a Noble One.
Indrīya: Faculty; pre-eminent or dominant quality. The five faculties –conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment – arequalities that, when they become dominant in the mind, can lead to Awakening.
The 22 qualities that can dominate consciousness are: the senses of vision,
hearing, smell, taste, touch, ideation; femininity, masculinity, life; pleasure, pain,
joy, sorrow, equanimity; conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration,158

discernment; the realization that ‘I shall come to know the unknown,’ final
knowledge, the state of final-knower.
Jhāna: Absorption in a single object or preoccupation. Rūpa-jhāna isabsorption in a physical sensation; arūpa-jhāna, absorption in a mental notion orstate. When Ajaan Lee uses the term jhāna by itself, he is usually referring torūpa-jhāna.
Kamma: Acts of intention that result in states of being and birth. ‘Kamma
debts’ are the moral debts one has to others either through having been a burden
to them (the primary example being one’s debt to one’s parents) or from having
wronged them.
Kammapatha: Ten guidelines for moral conduct – not killing, not stealing,
not engaging in sexual misconduct, not lying, not speaking divisively, not usingcoarse or vulgar language, not speaking idly, not coveting, not harboring ill will,holding right views.
Kasiṇa: An object stared at with the purpose of fixing an image of it in one’s
consciousness, the image then being manipulated to fill the totality of one’s
awareness.
Kesā: Hair of the head; the first in the list of 32 parts of the body used as ameditation theme for counteracting lust.
Khandha: Aggregate – the component parts of sensory perception; physicaland mental phenomena as they are directly experienced: rūpa – sensations, sense
data; vedanā – feelings of pleasure, pain, and neither-pleasure-nor-pain that result
from the mind’s savoring of its objects; saññā – labels, perceptions, concepts,
allusions; saṅkhāra thought-fabrications (see below); viññāṇa – sensory
consciousness or cognizance. In Ajaan Lee’s writings, this last khandha refers to
the act of attention that ‘spotlights’ objects so as to know them distinctly and pass
judgment on them.
Magga: The path to the cessation of suffering and stress. The fourtranscendent paths – or rather, one path with four levels of refinement – are thepath to stream entry (entering the stream to nibbāna, which ensures that one will
be reborn at most only seven more times), the path to once-returning, the path tonon-returning, and the path to arahantship. Phala – fruition – refers to themental state immediately following the attainment of any of these paths.
Mala: Stains on the character, traditionally listed as nine: anger, hypocrisy,
envy, stinginess, deceit, treachery, lying, evil desires and wrong views.
Methuna-saṅyoga: Fetter of lust. Seven activities related to sex that, if a monkfinds joy in them, render his celibacy is ‘broken, cracked, spotted, and blemished’
even if he doesn’t engage in sexual intercourse: 1) He consents to being anointed,
rubbed down, bathed, and massaged by a woman. 2) He jokes, plays, and amuses
159

himself with a woman. 3) He stares into a woman’s eyes. 4) He listens to the voicesof women outside a wall as they laugh, speak, sing, or cry. 5) He recollects how heused to laugh, converse, and play with a woman. 6) He sees a householder orhouseholder’s son enjoying himself endowed with the five sensual pleasures. 7) Hepractices the celibate life intent on being born in one or another of the deva
realms, (thinking) ‘By this virtue or practice or abstinence or celibate life I will be adeva of one sort or another.’Nibbāna: The ‘unbinding’ of the mind from sensations and mental acts,
preoccupations and suppositions. As this term is also used to refer to theextinguishing of a fire – which, in the time of the Buddha, was seen as clinging to
its fuel while burning, and letting go when it went out – it carries the connotationsof the stilling, cooling, and peace that come from letting go. (See dhātu.)Nirāmisa-sukha: Literally, ‘un-raw’ pleasure, or pleasure ‘not of the flesh.’ The
bliss and ease of nibbāna, a pleasure independent of sensations or mental acts.
Nirodha: Disbanding, stopping, cessation. In the absolute sense, this refers to
the utter disbanding of stress and its causes. In an applied sense, it can refer to thetemporary and partial suppression of defilement and stress attained in tranquility
meditation.
Nīvaraṇa: Hindrance; any of five mental qualities that hinder the mind fromattaining concentration and discernment: sensual desire, ill will, torpor & lethargy,
restlessness & anxiety, and uncertainty.
Pāli: The name of the most ancient recension of the early Buddhist texts now
extant and – by extension – of the language in which it was composed.
Pāṭimokkha: The basic monastic code, composed of 227 rules for monks and
311 rules for nuns.
Puñña: Inner worth; merit; the inner sense of well-being that comes fromhaving acted rightly or well, and that enables one to continue acting well.
Puññakkhetta: Field of merit – an epithet for the Saṅgha.
Sambhavesin: Usually, this term is used to describe a being seeking a place tobe born; generally regarded as an abject state. Here, Ajaan Lee uses the term todescribe the mind when it is searching for an object to fasten onto.
Saṅgha: The community of the Buddha’s disciples. On the ideal level, thisrefers to all those, whether lay or ordained, who have reached at least the path tostream entry (see magga). On the conventional level, it refers to the Buddhist
monkhood. In Thai, it also refers to the central administration of the Thai
monkhood and to any individual monk. Traditionally, Saṅgha does NOT refer toall Buddhists. The traditional term for the entire ‘assembly’ of the Buddha’s
followers – ordained or not, awakened or not – is buddha-parisā. The reason forthis distinction is that Saṅgha is one of a Buddhist’s three refuges, whereas not all160

members of the buddha-parisā can be taken as refuge.
Saṅkhāra: Fabrication – the forces and factors that fabricate things, theprocess of fabrication, and the fabricated things that result. As the fourth
khandha, this refers to the act of fabricating thoughts, urges, etc. within the mind.
As a blanket term for all five khandhas, it refers to all things fabricated by physicalor psychological forces.
Stūpa: Originally, a tumulus or burial mound enshrining relics of the Buddha
or objects associated with his life. Over the centuries, however, this has developed
into the tall, spired monuments familiar in temples in Thailand, Sri Lanka, andBurma; and into the pagodas of China, Korea, and Japan.
Suttanta (Piṭaka): The second of the three collections forming the Pali
Canon, composed of discourses and other literary pieces related to the Dhamma.
Tejas: See dhātu.
Vinaya (Piṭaka): The first of the three collections forming the Pali Canon,
dealing with the disciplinary rules of the monastic order. The Buddha’s own namefor the religion he founded was, ‘this Dhamma-Vinaya’ – this Doctrine andDiscipline.
Vipassanūpakkilesa: Corruption of insight; intense experiences that canhappen in the course of meditation and can lead one to believe that one hascompleted the path. The standard list includes ten: light, psychic knowledge,
rapture, serenity, pleasure, extreme conviction, excessive effort, obsession,indifference, contentment.
***

If these translations are in any way inaccurate or misleading, I ask forgivenessof the author and reader for having unwittingly stood in their way. As forwhatever may be accurate – conducive to the aims intended by the author – I
hope the reader will make the best use of it, translating it a few steps further, into
the heart, so as to attain those aims.
The translator

161

Sabbe sattā sadā hontu
Avera sukha-jīvino
Kataṁ puñña-phalaṁ mayhaṁ
Sabbe bhāgī bhavantu te
May all beings always live happily,
free from animosity.
May all share in the blessingsspringing from the good I have done.

162

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Translator’s Preface
What is the Triple Gem?

2
3
4
6

Introduction
I. Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
II. Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmiIII. Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi
Summary

7
11
15
23
45

The Path to Peace & Freedom for the Mind50

Introduction
The Path
Discussion
VirtueDiscussion
Concentration
Discussion
Discernment
Discussion

51
53
53
75
77
81
82
86
86

Basic Themes

91

Prologue
Introduction
I. Recollection of the Buddha
II. Goodwill
III. The Foul: Tranquility Meditation
A. ‘Among the forty themes, breath is supreme.’
B. Focal points for the mind
C. Images
D. The Ten Corruptions of Insight
IV. Mindfulness of Death: Insight Meditation
163

92
101
105
108
110
110
112
114
115
119

Epilogue

124

Duties of the Saṅgha

130

Foreward
Introduction
I. The Department of Internal Governance
II. The Department of Education
III. The Department of Building & Development
IV. The Department of Spreading the Dhamma
A. The first category: Study (pariyatti)
B. The second category: Practice (paṭipatti)
C. The third category: Psychic Marvels (iddhi-pāṭihāriya)

Glossary
Dedication

131
132
133
139
147
150
150
152
153

157
162

164