Buddha's Meditation:

Original Meditation Through Which Buddha Gained Enlightenment

Simona Rich
Table of Contents

Introduction
How Buddha's meditation technique reached the Western world in an undiluted form
A brief biography of S. N. Goenka
Real enlightenment needs work
Warning only pure meditation should be practiced
Five Rules to observe for Buddha's meditation to produce results
Three additional rules for more advanced practitioners
Why some meditation techniques do not lead to full enlightenment
Tranquility and insight
Buddha's meditation technique explained
How Buddha's meditation works
The start of meditation
The only reason why you may infrequently alter your breath
Day's meditation
The middle part of meditation
Next meditation step
The insight meditation
Further meditation
What you should know about sensations
Walking meditation
Reactions should never be blind
Correct self-image
Sensations connect mind and matter
My experiences with Buddha's meditation
 Some advice
The Noble Eight-fold Path
Observe the breath
Meditation equals mental training
Four types of mind
Forget the self to experience happiness
Advice that will make your path easier
Ten perfections to eradicate all suffering
1. Giving
2. Virtue (morality)
3. Renunciation
4. Wisdom
5. Energy
6. Patience
7. Truthfulness
8. Determination
9. Loving-kindness
10. Equanimity
Conclusion about ten perfections
Meditation is strengthened and progress is quicker if you provide free service
Some notes on non-attachment
Why we are inclined to commit negative deeds
Four meditative attainments of absorption
Things to think about
The next step
The sixteen stages of knowledge only read this if you don't plan to go to a meditation center
The sixteen stages of meditation knowledge (together with accompanying experiences)
Final words
One common concern
References
Introduction

The methods of meditation taught in the Theravada Buddhist tradition are based on the Buddha's own experience,
forged by him in the course of his own quest for enlightenment. [] The various subjects and methods of meditation
expounded in the Theravada Buddhist scriptures the Pali canon and its commentaries divide into two inter-
related systems. One is called the development of serenity, the other the development of insight. [] With his mind
unified by means of the development of serenity, made sharp and bright by the development of insight, the
meditator can proceed unobstructed to reach the end of suffering [].

from The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by Henepola Gunaratana

The word Buddha is not a name. It's a quality. Buddha means enlightenment.

Gotama (or Gautama) Buddha is the most well-known Buddha of all the buddhas in the past. Before him there were countless
buddhas, and after him there were many buddhas. According to meditation teachers such as S. N. Goenka (about whom you'll
read more later) what unites all buddhas is that they gained complete self-realization by using one meditation technique. This
book will teach you it.

S. N. Goenka, a renowned Vipassana meditation teacher, says that there are many meditation techniques, though most of them
do not lead to complete self-realization. For example, he says that if you visualize something during meditation, your mind will
be absorbed into that image and you'll experience bliss; however, this technique cannot lead you to the ultimate understanding
of this reality.

Likewise if you repeat mantras, they'll have a very positive effect on you. They'll create a field of high vibration around you
which will serve as the greatest protection against negative energies and events. Yet this technique also will not lead you to
complete self-realization and understanding of this reality, because it does nothing to the inner impurities accumulated in the
unconscious mind, according to Goenka.
I was fortunate enough to come across the meditation technique that leads to complete self-realization. And because the first
person I heard speak about this technique was S. N. Goenka (though there are more teachers teaching it), I will be eternally
grateful to him for his precious message.

The first time I came across this technique I was too immature to grasp its full significance. Sometimes people are not ready to
see the whole truth, and so they see only some details of it, though the truth might be in full display for them. That's what
happened to me with this technique in the past.

However when I got exposed to this technique the second time, its full significance finally dawned on me. That also happened
because this time I was ready for it.

This meditation technique existed many centuries before the birth of Buddha, as Buddha later told; yet it was forgotten. Buddha
had to find it out by himself - he encountered no guru teaching it anymore.

After the death of Gotama Buddha this meditation technique was about to be forgotten because different teachers started
adding their own teachings to it, and they modified the technique according to students' wishes (customer is always right, as
they say). Yes, it was easier for students to practice the altered technique, but it lost its effectiveness because of all the changes
and was soon forgotten.

Fortunately, there were several monks who kept the teaching of Buddha undiluted. They migrated to Burma, where generation
after generation these teachings were kept pure, according to S. N. Goenka and his teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin.

Although the entire lineage of teachers isn't fully known due to the amount of time past, the most important thing is that the
technique remains effective, thus we know it wasn't polluted with modifications. Also, through this technique other people
gained enlightenment (like Webu Sayadaw) which again proves that the technique works. And although there are claims that
this meditation technique might not be Buddha's original meditation, no supporting evidence can be found. On the contrary,
the ancient Pali texts detailing Buddha's teaching mention the two requisites to enlightenment as insight and tranquility, and
that's exactly what this meditation technique is based on.
It's sad to see that Buddhism now mainly focuses on philosophies, though Buddha mainly taught meditation, and not
philosophies. It's similar to how Hatha Yoga was separated from the Eight Limbs of Yoga and was taught as The Yoga, which it
certainly isn't. It's just an aspect of yoga, and not a very significant one. So are the philosophies that are nowadays expanding in
Buddhism. Yes, they are intellectually satisfying and they can make you see the reality in a different way, but they do nothing for
gaining inner wisdom. Only work does this, and not any kind of work, but the work of sitting still and meditating in a particular
way.

If practiced how it was taught by Gotama Buddha, this meditation technique is bound to lead you to liberation. If it's not
working for some person, it's not the technique that's at fault, but the wrong practice of it. Thus in this book I'll try to explain
the technique in as simple words as possible, and in an undiluted form so that everyone that practices it gains results within
days (or even within one or two sittings).

May you get liberated by practicing the teachings of this book!

Simona Rich
How Buddha's meditation technique reached the Western world in an undiluted form
Buddha's original meditation is from Theravada Buddhism and follows the teachings of
Satipatthana Sutta stemming from the Buddha himself. Here's what Bhikku Bodhi, a
renowned American Theravada Buddhist, has to say about this sutta:

The Satipatthana Sutta, the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness, is

generally regarded as the canonical Buddhist text with the fullest instructions
on the system of meditation unique to the Buddha's own dispensation. The
practice of Satipatthana meditation centers on the methodical cultivation of
one simple mental faculty readily available to all of us at any moment. This is
the faculty of mindfulness, the capacity for attending to the content of our
experience as it becomes manifest in the immediate present. What the Buddha
shows in the sutta is the tremendous, but generally hidden, power inherent in
S. N. Goenka this simple mental function, a power that can unfold all the mind's potentials
culminating in final deliverance from suffering.

Unlike gurus coming from India to teach yoga and altering it to appeal to a wider Western audience, thankfully Buddha's
meditation technique wasn't changed. We can thank S. N. Goenka and other teachers trained by U Ba Khin for this.

S. N. Goenka, having learnt this technique in Burma (his country of birth), brought it to the West in its pure form. Yes, the
technique can be very tough. But it doesn't matter, as long as the effort we put in can produce fruit. And if you practice
diligently, as S. N. Goenka often said, you'll surely see beautiful results in your life.
A brief biography of S. N. Goenka
Goenka was born into a rich Burmese family of business people. His wealth kept increasing even in his youth, but his misery
kept increasing alongside the expanding wealth. Eventually Goenka started getting severe migraines that no doctor, not even
the ones he sought out abroad, could cure.

When Goenka came back from abroad disappointed that no doctor could help him, Goenka's friend suggested he try one
meditation technique practiced in Burma, as there was nothing for him to lose by just giving a try. Goenka didn't believe that
meditation could help him eradicate such suffering, which he numbed with daily morphine doses, but thought he would give it
a try, as his friend seemed confident it would work.

The meditation technique Goenka was taught turned out to not be the usual meditation because it required intense effort.
Because of the difficulty of this meditation Goenka was about to lose faith in it and wanted to leave the meditation course,
having been there only for a few days. However, one woman who was practicing in the same group pleaded with him to stay for
one more day, to give the meditation a chance to prove itself. He agreed, and on that very day he started feeling the results
which encouraged him to keep going. Eventually Goenka eradicated the very root of his migraine, together with other roots of
his suffering.

Goenka started teaching this technique to his family, friends, and then the word spread like wildfire. Soon he had hundreds, and
then thousands, and then hundreds of thousands of students. The Buddha's technique was revived not only in India, but it
spread all over the world thanks to this great soul.

Goenka made sure not to add nor subtract anything from this meditation technique. He practiced it as he was given it by his
teacher in Burma. That's why we have this meditation gem in the Western world the gem that was re-discovered by Gotama
Buddha himself.
 In the picture: Gotama Buddha teaching his students.

Real enlightenment needs work

S. N. Goenka, the person who brought this technique to the Western world, always emphasized the importance of individual
work to become enlightened. It's not enough to simply read texts on enlightenment. To do this is satisfying on a mental level,
but it does nothing to your liberation.

Nor can a guru give you liberation. A guru (a spiritual teacher) can only show you the way. A guru can give you a technique, but
in order to get liberated, you must apply the technique to your life. Too often people hope that gurus and other teachers will
take away their pain and suffering, and show them the light. Gurus can only show you how you can end your suffering. It's up to
you to follow their advice to do so.

Each person must work for their own liberation. By thinking that someone else can liberate you you're giving away your power.
To liberate yourself you need to meditate, meditate regularly, and meditate in a particular way. Buddha's meditation that you're
going to read about in this book produces results within days, so you know you're getting closer to the ultimate self-realization.

Goenka compares some meditators and other spiritual seekers with people on a boat, energetically rowing the boat but not
moving an inch, because the boat is fastened by a rope to a tree. Yes, any kind of meditation is good for you, but not all kinds of
it lead you to full self-realization. Some meditation techniques, if modified, do not work at all and you can keep going in circles
for years with some styles of meditation.

Warning only pure meditation should be practiced

This meditation, if used in its pure form and, most importantly, if not mixed with any other spiritual practices, leads one to full
self-realization. This means that no kind of chanting or visualization is allowed when one practices this meditation, because
mixing these things up can produce much more harm than good.

Sometimes by mixing different spiritual practices with this meditation people get unexpected results, some of which are
negative and frightening, and even experienced meditation teachers do not know how to help such a meditator in trouble. So
it's better to keep this meditation pure, especially if you're trying it out on your own, with no teacher present to help you out.

Practicing this meditation in its pure form will also allow you to see its effectiveness. Sometimes when you practice different
spiritual techniques and get results, you don't know due to which technique the results manifested. So if you practice this
technique without mixing it up with anything else and the positive results come, you'll be sure that the results came from this
particular technique.

Give this technique a chance, therefore. Stick to it at least for a few days, to see if it's the technique you'd like to practice
regularly. If you feel after some time that it's not for you, you can surely drop it and try something else.
For any spiritual technique to work it's important to practice it regularly. This, of course, applies to Buddha's meditation too.
Meditation should be considered as important as breathing. What happens when you stop breathing? You die. If you stop
meditating, on the other hand, all the spiritual progress you made might be lost, and should you decide to resume your
meditations, spiritual progress will be slower than before. That's not always the case, but it's surely the trend I see in the emails
I get from my readers, and this proved to be true in my own life.

When I started meditating for the first time, I meditated every single day. Each day meditation got deeper, and I started
acquiring some spiritual powers (called sidhis). For example, my body would heat itself when I would meditate in a cold room.
But then, due to too many spiritual experiences I thought I wasn't ready to go down the rabbit's hole and I stopped.

When I resumed my meditations after some months, all my spiritual attainments were lost and I had to start from the scratch.
What took me days to achieve, now took months. And despite of the advice of spiritual people I met about the importance of
daily meditation, I still decided to stop a few times. I think now I've learnt from my mistakes, and I hope to always keep daily
meditation. I wish the same for you too, because the progress you make daily is too precious to lose because of some days of
laziness. Also if you become frightened in meditation, I'll give you advice about what to do and what meditation experiences to
expect on your way to full self-realization at the end of the book. Read these warnings and steps only if you cannot get access to
an experienced meditation teacher.

As I wrote in the introduction text to this book on my blog, jumping from one spiritual technique to the next can be compared
with digging shallow holes every time you find a suitable place in the hope of finding water. But if you stick to one meditation
technique and do it daily, this can be compared to digging one hole until you reach water to quench your thirst.

Five Rules to observe for Buddha's meditation to produce results

There are some rules Buddha laid down so that your meditations would be fruitful. If you don't observe these rules, meditation
will be hard. You'll keep being distracted because of the mind that has no peace. Here are those rules, and I'll explain them
more in detail below:
 1. celibacy,

2. no intentional harming of any being,

3. no telling lies,

4. no stealing,

5. no taking of intoxicants.

Let me tell you about the first rule. Celibacy is preferred, but not necessary for daily meditation for non-monks. Though it's
essential to refrain from cheating on your spouse or from committing other such wrong-doing. However, if you wish to take
some time off for meditation, please observe celibacy as it will help you to remove more impurities during meditation. The
other four rules are self-explanatory, though I should add for the third rule that any kind of exaggeration in a conversation is a
lie too!

Three additional rules for more advanced practitioners

Buddha recommended three additional rules for serious meditation practitioners. They should be taken only when you caught a
firm hold on Buddha's meditation. So I'm giving these three rules for you to keep in mind, should you wish, after some time, to
take Buddha's meditation further:

1. No eating after noon.

2. No body decoration or entertainment (like singing, dancing, watching movies).

3. No sleeping in luxurious beds and sitting on luxurious seats.

These rules will help you to calm your mind further, and meditation will happen much more easily. For example, if you meditate
on an empty stomach it's very easy to get focused, because an empty stomach doesn't focus your mind on the process of
digestion. If you meditate with a full stomach you'll not be able to focus, because some of the focus will unconsciously go to the
process of digestion.

That being said, you shouldn't meditate if you're starving, because then your thoughts will be about getting food. So if not
eating after noon is impossible at this stage without feeling like you're starving, take it as a sign that you're not ready for
advanced meditation.

Also keep in mind that sometimes you only think that you'll feel like starving if you don't eat after noon. But actually it's not as
hard as it seems. When I did ten hours a day of meditation for ten days in a Vipassana meditation center in Spain I wasn't
allowed to eat after noon. And my body adjusted to that in two days, to my great surprise.

Bodily decoration and entertainment suck you into the Maya, the illusion of this world. So it's only natural for Buddha to
recommend to stay away from such things. And as for avoiding luxurious seats or beds, I think all comforts should be limited,
because the mind that gets such luxury craves for more, whereas if you live in simplicity your mind tends to be calm and
content.

Following these three additional rules, therefore, will allow your meditation to deepen, and soon you'll find yourself meditating
easily, feeling no discomfort whatsoever. The time spent in meditation will become pure bliss.

Why some meditation techniques do not lead to full enlightenment

A puzzled man asked the Buddha: I have heard that some monks meditate with expectations, others meditate with no
expectations, and yet others are indifferent to the result. What is the best?

The Buddha answered: Whether they meditate with or without expectations, if they have the wrong ideas and the
wrong methods, they will not get any fruit from their meditation.

Think about it. Suppose a man wants to have some oil and he puts sand into a bowl and then sprinkles it with salt.
However much he presses it, he will not get oil, for that is not the method.
 Another man is in need of milk. He starts pulling the horns of a young cow. Whether he has any expectations or not,
he will not get any milk out of the horn, for thats not the method. Or if a man fills a jar with water and churns it in
order to get butter, he will be left only with water.

Its like filling a bowl with oil seeds and pressing them or milking a cow by pulling the udder or filling a jar with cream
and churning it. Its the right method.

Majjhima Nikaya

It's silly to claim that only this meditation will lead to full enlightenment. Yet because this meditation technique has caused
people to get enlightened, it means if used in its undiluted form, it will lead everyone to self-realization, should they stick with
the technique.

Though Buddha's meditation leads everyone to full self-realization, nobody knows when each person will achieve it. That's
because of the past karmas. For some people it will take many lifetimes to reach self-realization, and for others years, months,
or even days. The reason I so much respect S. N. Goenka is because he never claimed to be enlightened. In fact, in some of the
books, like The Art of Living, he pointed out that he hadn't yet reached enlightenment. So instead of following the route of rich
gurus who are vague about their spiritual state, he was very honest about it. He, however, was a high meditation adept, and you
can know this by listening to his wisdom, and by witnessing what kind of heritage he left to the world.

Nobody knows, therefore, how long it will take for each person to reach enlightenment. That shouldn't be a discouraging
understanding, though. If you keep working towards your liberation, you'll be assured of a future birth in good circumstances.
You might even be reborn in higher realms, if you manage to achieve certain meditation states, like complete absorption (which
I'll describe later).

Because this meditation technique is known to lead people to liberation, it make sense to practice it in its pure form. It's risky to
spend years meditating in a way that's not known to open your eyes to how things really are. Invest your time wisely, therefore.
If this meditation is not something you're comfortable with, feel free to choose another one, but make sure it's known for
leading some people to full self-realization. Usually meditations of very old traditions are known for this, such as this meditation
as well as Zazen; so I advise you to stick with the proven techniques that worked for thousands of years, rather than taking a
computer-generated audio track which alters brainwaves or similar risky methods which have not been tested for long enough
to actually know their benefit or damages.

Tranquility and insight

Without a blameless happy life of virtue it is not possible to tranquilize the heart or make the intellect keen and clear
for spiritual perfection. The spiritual person is the one of such sensitive and heightened consciousness that he finds
even slight moral guilt burdensome and so he cannot help avoiding all traces of it by a strict adherence to virtue.
Otherwise owing to regret for his errors and preoccupation with them he will not find the right inner environment
and climate for developing the tranquility and insight, which produce the power of perfect equanimity necessary for
changing over from mental slavery to freedom.

adapted from Satipatthana Sutta

Minds of most people are like unruly monkeys. They go here and there, they dwell on that subject for a few seconds and then
jump to the next one without much logic. Minds must be tamed and trained, because only then they stop being the crazy
masters of us. The mind is very powerful, and if tamed it can turn into the most useful tool we can have in this life. Anything is
possible to achieve with an alert and insightful mind, trained to act when we wish it to. We can train the mind in a way Buddha
described, because it's a method that works.

Buddha warned his students about spending time practicing the wrong method of meditation. He taught that there are two
essential qualities of mind that lead to liberation. These are tranquility and insight, or sometimes they are also known by the
names of concentration and wisdom. Without these two working in perfect harmony one cannot reach full liberation, though
partial liberation is possible by practicing tranquility only.

Let's firstly understand why it's important to develop tranquility. If you develop tranquility, your mind becomes harmonious.
What's more, your mind starts being able to deeply concentrate upon a concept or an object. Harmonious mind stops reacting
automatically to things that happen, and thus you cease being slave to impulses. This harmony and focus gives your mind a
scientific way of analyzing things without getting attached to something or someone, or feeling aversion towards something or
someone. This, therefore, allows you to view things as they really are, and that's important if you want to fully understand the
nature of this reality.

Now let's deal with the benefit of developing insight. We must practice insight meditation in order to understand the real cause
of our suffering. If we understand the root of our suffering, it means we've developed insight. Sometimes people are so
confused that they take something that makes them suffer for what gives pleasure. Developed insight will dispel such illusions,
and you'll see exactly what produces suffering and keeps you in bondage, and what leads to real freedom. By developing clear
insight you'll also stop getting yourself entangled with things that keep you in bondage, and thus you'll stop creating new
karmas. If you keep a clear insight and thus no longer generate new karmas, eventually the old karmas will burn up and you'll
never feel miserable again.

According to Soma Thera, a renowned Buddhist monk from Sri Lanka who wrote The Way of Mindfulness,

This "objective" way of looking at a thing, freed from considerations of the personal reactions to that thing, is the pith
of the method and constitutes what is called "knowing as it is" (yathabhuta anadassana). Also by its quality of
reckoning just what is present, mindfulness cuts down discursive thought and prepares the mind to take in the actual
characteristics of the cognized objects. In this sense, mindfulness lets the objects speak for themselves and unfold
their nature.

Wouldn't it be beautiful to perceive things as they are, rather than project our own views onto them and then react to that? If
we are tranquil and insightful, we're open to let objects speak for themselves, about their essence. This eases the grasp of
subjective judgment, and we are freed from generating impurities as a result of subjectivity.

Both of these practices, tranquility and insight, should be used together in meditation. Only using one will not lead to the end
of suffering. Some meditators, who have more time to spare, choose to first develop the concentration of mind, and thus focus
on an object like their breath to develop tranquility. When they're satisfied with their progress, after some days or even months,
they move on to develop the insight by observing the phenomena occurring in their bodies (I'll explain both parts soon). The
insight can be developed by other ways too, like focusing on nothingness, or some external object, but in this book I'll stick to
the Theravada Buddhism which relies on original Pali (ancient language) texts.

By first practicing tranquility, one can experience a blissful state of mental absorption which I'll describe later in the book. When
this state is reached, passion will disappear from your life. Now you may think that's a bad thing, but actually passion agitates
the mind and prevents you from seeing things how they really are. When the mind is not disturbed by passion, it's tranquil and
joyful, yet the joy is not caused by any external thing but is the permanent joy that's inside.

By practicing insight meditation, one develops discernment. And when that happens, ignorance disappears. Insight and
tranquility are like two wheels taking you to liberation. One wheel will not do both should work in harmony. Or as we read in
the Anguttara Nikaya discourse:

A mind held bound by unconsidered impulse and ignorance can never develop true understanding. But by way of
tranquility and insight the mind will find freedom.

When you develop tranquility and insight you see the ignorance of people who allow passions to control their lives. A mind
taken over by passion is a mind that's not harmonious. It's bent in a particular way, and thus subjective. This subjectivity doesn't
allow one to see the true picture of things, and thus one is bound to make mistakes. Passion is a very intense state which keeps
one in the illusion, or in the Maya, in other words. People who are caught up in this illusion cannot be happy; they'll always
suffer because their vision is tunnel-like, preventing them from seeing the whole picture, and thus preventing them from being
free.

If tranquility is developed more than insight, you might be overtaken with laziness. While if you develop insight but fail to
develop tranquility, your mind can get agitated. Thus both aspects should be developed equally. So take laziness and agitation
as signs that you're overdeveloping some aspect of Buddha's meditation. When you start to become lazy, focus on developing
insight and when you find yourself becoming agitated, get your mind focused.
Insight can be compared with analyzing in a scientific way. You simply observe internal processes, as well as the sensations
(either external or internal). Intellect is at work here, because it notices (but doesn't react to) different kinds of processes in the
body. To develop objective insight, you must not react to any sensation or happening that you experience. Simply analyze it as
the event by itself, without thinking how it's affecting you. More explanations about how to do that follow later.

Concentration, on the other hand, can be compared to a wholehearted acceptance, because by focusing fully on something,
you understand the nature of it (instead of reacting to it). So to successfully focus, you should not react to anything, but accept
everything as it is and merge your mind with the thing of your focus. At first that's hard to do and the mind rebels. The mind
wants to think about this or that, the mind doesn't want to sit in meditation. But if you tame the mind by focusing despite of its
capriciousness, one day the mind will give up and complete tranquility will overtake you. The mind will then become one-
pointed, and you will merge with the object you've been observing.

To combine insight and meditation together, therefore, you should objectively analyze the processes of your body while
remaining fully accepting of anything that happens.

Awareness of any happening within can be considered as the start of insight. So, for example, if instead of getting lost in a
stream of thoughts you become aware of the stream itself. You become aware that you're experiencing a stream of thoughts.
That's mindfulness, and that's also insight. Also, if you become aware of the tingling sensation in any area of your body while
before you never felt anything in that area, that's again mindfulness and insight.

Simply having such insight will not lead you to liberation unless your mind is calm and non-judgmental at the same time. If
you're constantly aware of happenings in your body (this stage will come) and can observe them in an equanimous way, this
kind of state leads to self-realization. Therefore, be always aware of what's happening within, and be always tranquil.

Some meditation techniques do not lead to full liberation because they can't reach the depths of the unconscious mind (which
is actually always conscious), and thus they're not able to purify it at its root level. If the root is not purified, there's no clear
(pure) basis for understanding, and thus full enlightenment cannot be achieved.

Buddha's meditation achieves the purpose of cleaning the base of your being by focusing on body sensations. Most other
meditations miss this crucial point without which full enlightenment cannot be possible, because sensations are the doorway to
the unconscious mind. So when you're aware of sensations and don't judge them, you're actually:

burning karmas in the form of sensations (if you don't react to them) because every sensation is a representation of some
karma;

connecting conscious mind with the unconscious mind (when that happens full awareness will be achieved).

So that's the insight part. To develop tranquility, Buddha recommended focusing on the breath, because again breath connects
the conscious mind with the unconscious one. That's because breath can either be consciously controlled, or it can also
function without our conscious efforts. Thus it can operate in the realm of consciousness and also in the realm of the
unconscious. Buddha's meditation seeks to close this wide gap between the two minds by using the breath and sensations, so
that the conscious and unconscious minds merge, making you totally aware and in absolute control of your unified mind.

So the observation of breathing is the practice of sharpening, focusing the mind, which results in tranquility. In addition to this,
we need to observe the processes within the body so that insight would be developed. Buddha advised to be mindful of these
four things to develop insight:

1. body,
2. feeling,
3. consciousness,
4. mental objects.
However, it's advised to only take one out of these four as the primary object of concentration, and S. N. Goenka taught to take
feeling as what to be observed. So because I know much more about how to focus on the feeling, in this book I covered that.
Know, though, that you can take up any of these four as your primary object of concentration and analysis, though you will need
to seek out more information about them to ensure that you proceed in the correct manner.
Being aware of the body is good for people who place much importance on their bodies. To develop insight this way a meditator
should focus on the impermanence of the body, and the unavoidable death of it. That was easier to do in Buddha's time,
because people were more exposed to dead bodies and human bones. Actually, to really understand the truth about the body,
Buddha taught meditators to visit graveyards for their meditations, and to meditate when you see human bones, or a dead
body. So this meditation would be quite hard to do in modern times! Apart from meditating on dead bodies, it's also advised to
be mindful whenever you're walking, sitting, lying down, or moving in any way. Buddha taught that meditation on the body
would dispel the ignorance of the beauty of the body as well as make one detached from everything in this world. To read more
about this meditation, you should read the Buddhist text called Satipatthana Sutta, which you can find as a free text by googling
it.

This book describes the technique of being aware of feelings/sensations. Soon you'll get to that section. Being aware of feelings
and sensations will allow you to get rid of lust and passion, two things which truly cloud the mind and prevent one from seeing
clearly. Lust and passion are very deep impurities, and though you may not consider yourself lustful nor passionate, the
impurities might lie dormant within, gathered in previous lives, and ready to bear fruit at any trigger. Eliminating them from
your life will feel like cleaning a dusty window, to see the world as it really is. Free from lust and passion you'll be much more in
control of yourself and your life.

Being aware of consciousness allows you to finally realize that consciousness is not continuous, like we think. To practice this
kind of insight it's required to be conscious of everything you do in your waking hours, and, later on, even in sleep.
Consciousness is born and it dies, like a human body, or like a sensation or a feeling. Full understanding of this will open the
door to clearer understanding of what this reality is. Again, this technique is explained further in the Satipatthana Sutta.

Finally, being aware of mental objects allows you to disidentify from them. You'll realize that they're operating by themselves,
instead of originating from some essence within. Satipatthana Sutta covers this technique more in detail too.

Whichever way to insight you will choose, the most important thing is to understand this meditation technique. Once you
master it, you can always select another way to insight, thought it's of course better not to jump from one insight-producing
way to the next. So if you can, stick with the examination of feelings, but if after some weeks or months of meditation you feel
examining feelings and sensations is not for you, you may choose to read more about examining mental objects (thoughts),
consciousness, or the body. Let me add here that:

1. Mental object examination is advisable for people who think they're the ones producing thoughts and who are intelligent.

2. Examining consciousness is good for people who are intelligent and can easily grasp the whole picture of a situation
rather than a detail of it.

3. The focus on the body is good for people who are not intellectually gifted.

4. Focusing on feelings is good for people who are swayed by passions and think that any pain or any other sensation is
theirs, rather than events by themselves.

(Let me just mention that being an analyzing type and very much in my thoughts, mental objects would be a better technique to
choose. I think this would also apply to many readers of this book. Yet I couldn't find a good meditation teacher in the West who
could clearly describe the full technique of how to do this, so it's risky to just rely on translated Pali text about this way to
insight, and not to have any living support should something go wrong.

As for the insight produced by examining the feeling, there are many teachers who can help out if things get complicated. I'll
describe where to find such teachers at the end of the book. Finally, should I visit some country where there are advanced
teachers teaching the insight on mental objects, I'll surely update this book with such information! Burma and Thailand might
be good places to search for such teachers.)

Reading this book will give you a solid foundation to this meditation technique, and full knowledge of one type of insight
meditation (examining feelings and sensations).
Buddha's meditation technique explained
How Buddha's meditation works
This is the only satisfying way for the seeker of truth when the diffuseness of the external world with its thin layer of
culture, comfort and allurement, ceases to be interesting and is found to lack true value. The seeker knows to a
certainty that what he wants is to be found in the realm of the spirit. There alone he feels he would reach the vision
of oneness of the enduring by transcending the diversity of change. And what he wants is inward integrity, intactness,
inviolability, based on the unshakable deliverance of the mind from the sway of all conditioned phenomena. To this
the Way of Mindfulness leads by showing him how to penetrate into the singleness of nature of the Supreme Void,
Nibbana, which is permeated with the one taste of liberation.

-Soma Thera

After writing at length about the philosophy of Buddha's meditation as well as hinting at the technique, let me now fully
describe it.

Buddha's meditation uses the awareness of bodily sensations to change the unconscious mind's habit of automatically reacting
to a sensation with either happiness or misery. In an average person unconscious mind is always agitated - it keeps reacting to
even the smallest sensation, and so there's no peace or correct understanding of reality. For example, whenever pain arises
(even the one you can't consciously feel), the mind becomes unhappy, and whenever the body experiences a pleasant
sensation, the mind becomes happy.

By objectively and equanimously being aware of sensations instead of automatically reacting to them, one retrains the
unconscious mind and it stops reacting. This ceasing of reaction stops the accumulation of new inharmonies in the body (and
also new karmas). The body energy starts vibrating quicker, finally reaching the vibration of love and peace.

Buddha's meditation eradicates all the suffering and leads to complete self-realization. By removing the roots of suffering (you
do so when you keep equanimously observing sensations of your body no matter whether they're pleasant or not) you start
seeing the true reality and not the one tinted by sensations, reactions, and emotions. This absolutely untinted sight also reveals
the inner truths of events, surroundings, things, and people.

Buddha meditated continuously and managed to remove all the roots of suffering. When there was no darkness covering his
understanding, one mental faculty was uncovered he gained insight into the countless of his past lives. He kept going deeper
and deeper with this equanimous awareness, until he eradicated absolutely all impurities. There were left no materials for his
body to be born again, because impurities (inharmonies), according to Buddhism, take the material form as a body of a being.

According to S. N. Goenka, Buddha didn't know if God in the form of conscious creator existed or not, but he nevertheless
addressed God by saying:

I burnt all the materials for building a house for me [meaning body materials]. Therefore I can't be reborn anymore.

(I'm saying this in my own words.)

Births only take place if one still has some impurities and imbalances. When there's total peace and love and absolutely no
impurity in one's mind, there's no way for the birth to occur all the lessons in this reality are learnt, and all the impurities
burnt, so no materials can come together to form a body.

Sun Yogi (sun yoga meditation master who lives in Bengal, India) remarked that in his vision of Babaji (an enlightened Indian
master) he was shown answers to the questions he had all his life. Babaji revealed to him that we're not born yet we're still
developing in the womb of this earth. Only when we become self-realized are we truly born. The whole purpose of this
existence is to become self-realized.

Buddha's meditation's aim is exactly that self-realization. If you follow the technique without altering it in any way, results are
bound to come. You will start seeing positive changes, and you'll start experiencing the clearing of old karmas within days
that's how effective this meditation is. We are blessed to have received this meditation as pure as Gotama Buddha practiced it;
let's use this precious gift for our enlightenment.
The start of meditation
Samatha [insight] meditation is based on the intention and persistent effort on the part of the meditator to
concentrate the mind on some specific object of meditation; the goal being to develop the ability of the mind to
concentrate because when the mind is in a highly concentrated state, it is known to be tranquil and such a mind, it is
thought, would make deep insight possible.

Tipitaka

Buddha's meditation has three parts. The preparatory part involves focusing on your natural breathing to develop mental
tranquility.

To do that, you should...

Sit in a comfortable position, but not so comfortable that you can fall asleep. Preferably it should be a meditative position,
such as lotus or half lotus posture.
Try not to use any back support if you can, because by sitting without any support you'll develop a habit which will allow
you to meditate anywhere. (Because of this reason I also avoid using high cushions to meditate on, lest I sometimes not
have one and this would prevent me from meditating. So even though you may at first experience some discomfort in
meditating in a simple meditation posture without much other support, this would prove to be beneficial when you can't
meditate at home and have no meditation aids.)
Keep your spine straight, but not tense.
Keep your shoulders relaxed.
Close your eyes and let your attention be directed to your breath.
Do not alter your breath in any way, and by no means mix this meditation technique with pranayama (breath exercises).
Simply observe your natural breath as it is.
The only reason why you may infrequently alter your breath
If you find it very difficult to focus on the breath and thoughts forcefully disturb your mental peace, you can sometimes refocus
your attention to your breath by taking a few hard breaths. Once your attention is back on the breathing, you should resume
natural, non-forced breath.

According to the Satipatthana Sutra, if some sensation or thought interferes and you lose yourself in it, when you become
conscious that this happened, analyze that thought or sensation objectively and in a way that leads to the discovery of its root
(this you can do by analyzing without prejudices). Once this thought or sensation disappears, you should go back to your focus
on the breath. So this means you shouldn't be engaged in a mental conversation or lost in sensations. You should, instead, view
them objectively which will lead to their roots, and then they will disappear.

That doesn't mean that if you get lost in a thought you should be upset about it. That would defeat the purpose of this
meditation. The purpose is to always keep your mind even. So when some thought arises, observe it. If you get lost in it and
then you come out of the identification with the thought process, observe the thought process and see how it started, observe
its middle and end. Then come back to the breath.

This observation of thoughts doesn't mean their judgment. It simply means scientific observation, like you would observe
different chemicals being mixed up in a glass tube in a laboratory. You wouldn't desire for one chemical to win over another and
you wouldn't be emotional about the outcome of them mixing up. So that's the attitude you should have about your thought
processes.

This is the way of dealing with thoughts that's described in the main text Theravada Buddhists follow (Satipatthana Sutta). In his
own centers, S. N. Goenka used to teach a simpler technique. He taught then when you become aware that you are distracted
by a thought, simply come back to your breathing, without any aversion to the fact that you were distracted. You may, therefore,
choose to either follow S. N. Goenka's technique, or the one outlined in the Buddhist scripture.

In my opinion, it's easier to focus on Goenka's technique because sometimes it's hard for new meditators not to judge or not to
identify with the thought by analyzing it. I think it's better to keep as much of your focus as possible on the breath, because this
will serve to make the mind peaceful which is the purpose of the tranquility meditation.

S. N. Goenka also taught that if you meditate for a long time, sometimes you'll get seemingly unbearable pains in your back, or
legs, or in another location. If you cannot focus on the breath because of the severity of the pain, then he advised to focus on
the pain and view it objectively, without reacting to it. Keep watching the pain until it disappears, or reduces to the extent that
it no longer interferes with observing the breath. Then focus back on the breath.

So in short, let me summarize two additional steps of this technique:

When thoughts come and you get lost in them, once you become aware that this happened, simply go back to observing
your breath without feeling any aversion or disappointment.
If some intense sensation in your body becomes so unbearable that you cannot focus on your breath, focus on this
sensation and watch it equanimously until it disappears or decreases to the extent that you can refocus on your breath.
It's good to meditate this way for an hour.

If you meditate an hour morning and an hour evening, soon this will form into a habit and will be easy. Please try to find the
time to do this the benefits will be countless if you do; you'll surely have more health, wealth and happiness, because by
devoting two hours of your day (or more, ideally) to this meditation you're devoting hours for self-knowledge. Know thyself is
the age-old advice; if you know yourself, you know the entire universe. You become the master of this life.

What's more, the longer you meditate, the less sleep you will need. Mind rests in meditation more than in sleep, though body
needs sleep as that's its best way to rest.

Depending on how many hours a day you meditate, this first stage of meditation can last only for two or three days (if you
meditate every spare time you find, totaling four hours a day or more), for around five days (if you meditate two to three hours
a day), a week (if you meditate two hours a day) or two weeks (if you meditate one hour a day).

If you find that this first stage of meditation, breath meditation, didn't produce much mental tranquility, you may extend it to
more days until your mind becomes peaceful enough to progress to the next stage. You should definitely feel when your mind
becomes more peaceful (it will feel blissful, I can assure you).

If you can only meditate for less than an hour a day, here's how to tell if the technique will work for you or not. If during this
short time of meditation you start getting unpleasant sensations in your body (like heavy, solid pains in the back, or piercing
pains, or numbness) then it means you were still able to get into contact with your unconscious mind and will be able to start
eliminating impurities from it. If, however, sitting for such a relatively short time makes you aware of no new sensations in your
body, that means you need more meditation time for your mind to become tranquil enough to grasp sensations in your body.
Not feeling any new sensation is therefore a sign that the technique is not yet working in your life, thus no results will follow.
(The feelings are not actually new; you just haven't been aware of them before due to the mind that's not sharp.)

To explain it more clearly, using Buddha's meditation we aim to reach the unconscious and stop its ignorant reactions of
aversion and pleasure by not reacting to body sensations and letting them dissolve. So if your mind is not tranquil enough to
feel these definitely present sensations, it means your conscious mind didn't connect with the unconscious and no change can
take place.

Here's another rule of this meditation:

Keep your body absolutely still.

At first this will be hard to do and you will shuffle around. But try to keep the body still for as long as you can.

After a few days of practice, however, you should resolve not to move for an entire hour. Even though you feel extreme pains,
do not move. This will keep the mind calm, and it will easily connect with the unconscious mind. When this happens, if you
observe sensations in your body with equanimity (I'll explain how to do that soon) , you will be eliminating suppressed
emotions and other misery-causing impurities from your body and life.

So sit with the back straight and observe your natural breath being as still as possible. If you find yourself lost in thoughts,
without any aversion go back to the breathing. It's very important not to react to the fact that thoughts distracted you. Simply
when you become aware of this fact turn your attention back to breathing. Your mind, therefore, shouldn't be agitated, and you
shouldn't become emotional (such as angry at yourself) for the fact that thoughts distracted you.

For the first few days your thoughts are likely to wonder all over the place. But with more days passing they'll start circling
around meditation and spiritual things, and then they'll gradually disappear. Then again, they can appear at any time and you
shouldn't take it as a sign that you're going backwards, or that your progress stopped. I like Zen comparison of the mind with
the sky. Sometimes it's clear (thought-free) and sometimes, even after many clear days, the sky gets full of clouds (thoughts)
again.

Observe your natural breath. Feel how it's going in and going out, what temperature it is when it's coming in, and how it feels
when you breathe it out. Notice any physical sensations accompanying the in-taking of the breath as well as when the breath is
out of your nose.

Day's meditation
During your meditations at first you'll need to focus on your breath. As for the rest of the day, you should also be mindful so
that meditation continues even then. To do so, you should try to be aware of the feelings and sensations that you get in your
body no matter what action you take during the day. Also, when you retire to bed at night, be aware of the sensations in your
body. This awareness alone will give your mind more rest than the sleep itself, according to S. N. Goenka.

To aid the deepening of your mindfulness you can slow down and remove unnecessary activities from your life. The more you
simplify your life, the happier you will get, and the more deeply you'll be able to meditate.

In general, mindfulness directed inwards is the only way to attain inner happiness. Whether you're a Buddhist or a Christian, if
your awareness is directed to external things sooner or later you'll become miserable. Externally directed awareness grabs onto
things that are perishable. This constant unconscious reminder of death only brings out feelings of emptiness and sadness. If,
however, the attention is directed within, inner happiness arises.

Only when one is mindful can the nature of anything disclose itself to him/her. Otherwise we would just be assigning incorrect
labels and subjectively judging anything that occurs.

The middle part of meditation

Goenka calls the middle part of meditation Anapana. It can also be described as the stage of sharpening the mind. Mind later
on will serve like a knife to cut out the roots of impurities in the unconscious. So the mind must be sharp to do that, and
anapana meditation is ideal for sharpening it.

To sharpen the mind, you'll need to direct your awareness to the small part of your face, and only observe the breath there. At
first, you'll need to focus on the area encompassing your nose and below it. So you'll need to focus on the triangular area of
your face at the start of the nose (between the eyes), including the whole nose, and also including the area between the nose
and the upper lip.

If you meditate many hours a day, you should observe your breath in this area for a few days. If you meditate only a couple
hours a day, such as two or three hours, extend this mind sharpening to around four days. And if you meditate an hour a day, do
this mind sharpening for a week. However, you may need to extend the time if you don't feel any sensation in this triangular
area of your face. Let me explain.

The whole purpose of the anapana part of meditation is to sharpen the mind. You know your mind is getting sharper when it's
becoming more sensitive. You know that it's becoming more sensitive when it starts feeling new sensations in the triangular
part of your face that I told you to pay attention to.

At first you're likely not to feel any sensation when you observe the breath in this area. It doesn't mean the sensation is not
there; sensations of all kinds are happening all over your body, in your entire body, every mili-second. But because our minds
are dull and gross, we can't feel those sensations. Minds engaged in thoughts of lust and anger cannot feel finer sensations. Yet
when we observe meditation rules and meditate for a few hours a day the anapana way, the mind gets more and more
sensitive, and eventually feels even the subtlest sensations in the body.

So when you continue sitting in meditation, breathing normally, and observing only the triangular area of your face, eventually
you'll start feeling all kinds of sensations in that area. You might feel tingling, pain, itching, throbbing, pulsing, heat, coolness,
dryness, moisture, tickling, or anything else. When you start feeling these new sensations, know that your mind is getting
sharper.

So you can also determine when you can take the next step of meditation practice by paying attention to how sensitive your
mind became. If, as soon as you turn your attention to the triangular area of your face you feel sensations, it means you
sharpened your mind enough to take the next meditation step.

You should meditate this way the same amount of hours that you meditated focusing on your breath.

Next meditation step

When you feel sensations in the triangular part of your face (give for that at least a few days), you can now make this area
smaller, for the mind to get even sharper.

The smaller an area of sensations you're aware of, the sharper your mind gets. So now take the area that's just between the
nose and the upper lip starting from the place from the tip of your nose, and encompassing the strip of flesh bordering the
upper lip (where a mustache grows).

Again, focus your attention entirely there, and feel how breath touches it, how it heats or cools it, what sensations you get on it.
If you can't seem to feel any sensation there, you can for a little while intensify your breath to feel the breath touching it. When
this makes you feel that area, again make your breath normal.

Work on this area for a few days until you really feel the sensations on this small strip of skin as soon as you start paying
attention to it.

If you want to keep working on sharpening the mind, you can choose an optional step and minimize the area even more,
focusing on the smallest strip of skin that extends between the root of the nose tip and the dent of your upper lip. Work on this
area until you feel tingling sensations there.
The insight meditation
Now we're entering the main part of this meditation technique which is called Vipassana. Vipassana means insight or one
can translate it as exploring what's within you. It works to eradicate the roots of suffering.

Equanimously observing discordant vibrations in the body makes them go away. Equanimous observation purifies body and
mind. This technique teaches you to examine your sensations of the body like a doctor systematically, dispassionately. That is
very important, as any new mental agitation whilst observing sensations will only multiply those sensations and thus keep you
in ignorance and bondage.

Every thought or emotion is accompanied by a sensation in the body (even though you might not be sensitive enough to
observe that yet); so by observing sensations in the body, you also observe the workings of your mind.

Now we're going to use the sharpened mind to cut the impurities of the unconscious mind which cause all suffering. To do so,
you will need to scan the whole body with pure awareness. Your awareness should not be mixed with any mind imbalance, like
anger, or joy, or dislike. You'll need to simply allow your awareness to scan the entire body, on the skin surface.

Start this practice by...

Focusing your attention (with closed eyes, sitting in meditation posture) on the tip of your skull.
Notice any kind of sensations you feel there. Don't intend the sensations, simply observe that area to see if there are any
sensations. If not, move on to the larger part of the skull.
Survey this way the whole scalp area, then move on to the face.
Notice if you get any sensations on your forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, lips, cheeks the entire face.
Then include the ears, the neck.
From there, move your awareness to the right shoulder and then down to include your whole upper and lower arm, and
your hand, including the palm and fingers.
 Do the same with the left arm.
Then place your awareness on the chest area survey the upper chest, the lower chest, the stomach area and the entire
pelvis.
Move your attention to the upper part of the back, and survey the whole back and buttocks.
Then move your attention to your legs part by part examine with awareness your both legs and feet.
Keep directing your awareness to the top of the head and survey the entire body right down to the feet. Then start again from
the top of the skull. Move slowly, taking around ten minutes to survey the entire body. So if you're sitting in meditation for an
hour, you should survey the body around six times this way.

Do this practice for a day, and the next day you'll need to pay more attention to the areas where you get no sensation or
solidified sensations. If the area seems to have no sensation, focus there a bit longer for a minute or two. Do the same for the
areas that seem to have unpleasant, solidified sensations, like pain or pressure. Keep your equanimous attention there for a few
minutes, without feeling upset that the sensation is there, or annoyed, or feeling any other kind of emotion.

After a day of practicing surveying your body with longer stops on dead or solidified places, you should start surveying your
body in a slightly different way. You'll need to start from the top of the head and reach the feet as before, but now instead of
starting at the top of the head again, you'll need to start from the feet and then slowly make your way up. Once you've
completed the whole round (surveying the body from the top of the head to the feet, and from the feet to the top of the head),
you will need to sweep your body energetically.

There are two ways I was advised on sweeping. In India I was taught to sweep imagining that I hold an invisible brush and I
sweep my body with it. In the Vipassana meditation center in Spain I was simply told to sweep my body with awareness. I found
both practices to produce identical results, so it's up to you which one you want to choose.

Sweep your whole body, from head to toe. You can do so by long sweeps taking your whole body; sweep up, and then sweep
down, freeing the energy of the body. If your equanimous awareness eradicates solidified and blind sensations, sweeping will
cause your body to experience free flow.
Free flow (the free flow of energy) will indicate that you managed to dissolve all the current impurities resulting in external
misery. This flow will feel very pleasant, like boundless energy cursing through your body and you won't even feel the limits of
your body. Yet it's important not to get attached to this flow, or to look forward to it in your meditations. Because all
attachments result in misery, and the point of this meditation is to eradicate misery.

Sometimes, after some days of free flow, you'll start feeling solidified sensations again, and the free flow will stop. That
shouldn't be considered as a regress, but as a progress. Because this signifies that you managed to dig up very old misery-
causing impurities. If you keep meditating this way without reacting to either impurities or free flow, eventually even past-life
impurities will resurface and will be eliminated.

Sometimes you may not get this free-flow for months, if there are many current impurities to eliminate. Do not be upset about
it, and do not look forward to the free flow. Take each meditation as it is, and don't have any expectations about what you will
feel during it. Simply meditate.

Further meditation
After weeks, months, or years of this meditation there will come a stage where you get no blind or solidified sensations at all. It
means you accomplished cleansing your outer body of impurities. Now you will need to use the very same technique of body
scanning and sweeping to go deeper. You'll need to explore, from the top of your head to your toes, every single organ and
tissue inside your body. Your awareness will need to penetrate the skin and scan everything underneath it. In organs and tissues
you will find the same solidified and other kinds of sensations. You'll need to equanimously observe them the same way as
described before.

When you manage to dissolve solidified sensations inside your body, you'll need to move to your spine. From the top to the
bottom and from the bottom to the top, you'll need to scan what's inside the spinal tube. There probably are many impurities
there, and you'll need to observe them in order for them to dissolve.

This is Buddha's way of meditating. After scanning his whole body successfully and eliminating all the impurities, he was able to
see his past lives, penetrate the air molecules, understand time and space, and get answers to all his questions.

So now you should always meditate daily by scanning your whole body up and down, down and up, then sweeping it, then
again scanning it. If your mind gets too tired of continuous body sweeps and scans, focus on your breath again. Also if you
notice that you get many thoughts and you're not present when you sweep or scan your body, again focus on your breath. So
use breath as a tool to calm your mind, and when your mind is tranquil, do the scans and sweeps.

Now the meditation technique is explained, and what follows next is some advice and important points you should keep in mind
about Buddha's meditation and his way of life.

What you should know about sensations

It's crucially important not to have any kind of attitude towards a sensation, because by being emotional whilst observing that
sensation you multiply it. You shouldn't even feel happy when you get pleasant sensations, because then you'll become an
addict of good sensations and eventually you'll crave for them. Craving, like anger or any other negative emotion, also produces
misery at the end.

You'll later realize that all the sensations very pleasant and very unpleasant, have the same root. They're just vibrations
vibrating at different rates solidified sensations vibrate very slowly, causing pain, and pleasant sensations vibrate very fast,
causing pleasure. But both have the same nature at the root level, keeping a person the slave of sensations, and in the bondage
of ignorance.

Sometimes you'll get really painful sensations in some parts of the body. Remain equanimous to that, and know that this too
shall pass. All these sensations, be it pleasant or unpleasant, painful or blind, hot or cold, pass after some time. If they arise,
they must pass too it's the law of nature. So simply observe them with knowledge that they will pass. Be like a doctor
examining a patient equanimously pay attention to the condition.

You'll notice after a day, week, or more time of this kind of meditation that some pains and other solidified sensations will
disappear, and then others will appear. Rejoice when this happens, because it means you're working properly. When some
unpleasant sensation disappears, it means you just eradicated one of your miseries.

These solidified sensations are caused by your past reactions to the world. When you react with negativity to something, and
you make a habit of reacting with negativity to a certain thing, you disturb the energies within, and they solidify into an ugly
shape, coloring your reality in a worse way, and making you suffer. Then this solidified unpleasant vibration causes negative
events and toxic people to come into your life. Do not be angry at the people or the situations in life, but look within to
eradicate what's attracting them. So when such a solidified sensation disappears, know that one of your miseries have
disappeared, and you just made your life a bit brighter.

When new solidified sensations come up, know that older misery-causing vibrations are arising. That's a very good thing, and
keep observing them to eliminate them. If you work this way, you may even get solidified sensations from your past life arising
to be eliminated. Little by little, bit by bit, you'll purify your entire mind this way, and then Heaven on Earth will surely
materialize for you.

Sometimes, after eliminating your current misery-causing vibrations, you'll get an absolutely pleasurable flow of vibration. That,
according to Gotama Buddha, is a very dangerous stage, because it's very easy to get attached to this pleasant vibration, and to
develop a craving for it, which would defeat the entire purpose of this meditation. The entire purpose is to eradicate all the
cravings so that one could get liberated. So by no means react to even this pleasurable sensation, knowing fully well that if it
arose, it too must pass after some time.

When the pleasant energy flow finishes, you'll get painful, solidified sensations again. If you manage to pass through this stage,
it means very old misery-causing vibrations got exposed, because you didn't feed them any new food, and they arose asking for
it. So if you react with anger, or negativity, or defeat, that's their food. But if you again simply observe them, knowing full well
that if they arose, they too shall pass after some time, you'll deny them the food, and they too will be eradicated, liberating you
even more.

S. N. Goenka sometimes compared this process with a burning pile of wood. If you keep throwing new wood, the old wood at
the bottom of the pile won't even have the chance to fully burn. So this refers to the old impurities, as well as those
accumulated in past lives. However, if you don't keep throwing new wood into the fire (by not reacting to happenings in the
world and your pains and other sensations), the fire doesn't get any new food so it starts consuming the wood that's at the
bottom, until nothing is left, and the fire disappears. This can be compared to the eradication of all miseries.

Eradicating all these miseries accumulated throughout lifetime (no, many lifetimes!) takes time. I'm afraid it's not a week's or a
month's or even a year's job. It can take years to eradicate all of them, and sometimes the whole lifetime is not enough. That's
why it's so important to meditate this way as many hours a day as you can. The more you meditate, the less misery will be in
your life. Later on you'll find that the people that used to annoy or anger you no longer do so; that the vibrations of some
unpleasant place no longer affect you; that toxic people do not seem to linger around that long. This is all thanks to the
Buddha's meditation, which cuts the root of misery.

Because we live in the Dark Age (Kali Yuga), whatever work you put into self-liberation, it will produce greater fruit than in any
other age because everything is intensified in this age, and people are deeply invested into materialism. Use it to your
advantage, and work for self-liberation as many hours a day as you can.

You'll also find that regular Buddha's meditation makes you more alert in life, you'll need less sleep, and you will be able to
accomplish more work in less time.

Walking meditation
When you establish Buddha's meditation routine, you can carry this practice further to include almost your whole day. Firstly
you can start by introducing this meditation into your walking. When you're walking anywhere, be aware of the sensations in
your body. At first you'll not feel many sensations since the mind is not used to observing them when you walk. The easiest way
to start feeling them is by noticing how the feet feel when coming in contact with the Earth. According to S. N. Goenka, if you
continue being aware of your walking, you will start feeling more and more sensations, and then you may reach a stage where
you're aware of all the sensations of your body.

Active meditation doesn't have to be limited to only walking, though. You can meditate when you're waiting in a queue (by
being aware of the sensations in the body), or when you're doing some manual work. You can introduce this awareness to every
action you take, and also when you're not doing anything. If you inject this meditative awareness into your daily activities, your
progress will be much faster.

A great benefit of Buddha's meditation is calming your mind. Also this kind of practice allows you to train your mind in a
particular way, and so you gradually stop being its slave and become its master, directing it to any goal you want to achieve.
When you achieve complete mastery over your mind there's nothing that's beyond your reach.

Reactions should never be blind

Whenever we ignorantly react to something, we create a new mental impression which takes the mind out of harmony. Buddha
taught to always be aware of the sensations one gets, therefore. When someone says something to you and you get an
unpleasant sensation, you can observe it and see it disappear, instead of reacting with hateful words. However, most people
would totally miss the sensation (which always follows any mind's contact with the world) and would just simply react out of the
habit. This only deepens mental impressions, and deepens mental imbalance. If you come out of this ignorant habit, you will no
longer generate new miseries for yourself. When this new response becomes your daily routine, it becomes the habit of your
unconscious mind too, and so you won't need anymore effort not to react. It will become then natural for you to thoughtfully
respond, or not to respond at all, if that's the best thing to do.

Buddha, therefore, taught not to react. Something happens observe what's happening within. This way your mind will be kept
peaceful, and the correct response will surely follow; the response which is rooted in reality, which springs from the correct,
non-judgmental observation of the processes within.

You might think it would be hard not to react sometimes. For example, maybe you live with a very annoying person who keeps
aggravating the very spot in you that hurts most; maybe he or she keeps criticizing you for something, which drives you crazy.
How could you stop reacting to that?

That's the whole point of daily Buddha's meditation it teaches your mind to change its behavior.

When you simply observe the sensations of your body without reacting to them during meditation, you're also training yourself
not to react to everyday happenings this habit of the mind carries into your daily activities for sure. So if you learn to
equanimously observe the pulsing pain that seems to be tormenting your back, you will progressively learn not to react to even
the most annoying comments people make, and the most heart-breaking situations you may experience. Your mind will
become totally free from ignorance, and even in the darkest hours it won't become unbalanced, thus coming up with best ways
to respond.

That, for course, doesn't mean you'll become a vegetable and allow people to abuse you. Not at all; you'll just stop automatic
reactions that usually come from ignorance and instead you'll give yourself time to think of the best way to act. Such a habit will
surely improve your life and well-being. In fact, people who practice Buddha's meditation are much more active than non-
meditators, because meditation gives one extra energy of a very high vibration (pure cosmic energy).

I can notice the effect of this high energy in my life too. Writing this book, for example, was very easy, pure pleasure; yet some
people think it should take ages and would require much effort to write 100 pages or so. It would, if you're disconnected from
the higher power source and so use the ego to come up with ideas. When you meditate regularly you get an abundance of
energy and inspiration, and it's natural for you to express it in a creative work. It's not hard at all; it feels light and it feels that
you're supposed to do it there's no struggle involved of any kind.

Correct self-image
Buddha discovered that a lot of our suffering is caused by the wrong self-image. He taught that the ego creates a false self-
image that it cherishes most in life. He discovered that people love their false self-images and they are in love only with these
images; when they say that they love someone else, it's really just a way to control a human being to act in the way they want
them to. Buddha said that when you start meditating his way, you'll soon discover this truth and the real change can happen in
your behavior. When this root of selfishness is observed and eliminated, truly selfless actions will follow, and unconditional love
can grow.

When other people have the image of you that's not in harmony with the image your ego created, the ego doesn't like it, and
reacts with hatred or anger. This is absolute craziness; one cannot make correct decisions in life if a self-image held dear is
incorrect.

Buddha's meditation will show you who you really are. You might not like it and you might be shocked to discover some things
about yourself, but that's the reality. If you accept it, you'll have a correct base to make decisions from. You'll also have a chance
to work on the personal features that are unpleasant. So instead of cherishing a false self-image created by the ego (and
influenced by the media) it makes much more sense to observe the processes within and discover the qualities your ego hides
from you.

Sensations connect mind and matter

In your seeing there should be only seeing.

In your hearing - nothing but hearing.

In your smelling, tasting, touching - nothing but smelling, tasting, touching.

In your cognizing - nothing but cognizing.

from the teachings of Gotama Buddha

Observing sensations during meditation doesn't mean that you'll only get to explore your body. Sensations connect mind and
matter, because through sensations the mind comes in contact with the body. The way to reach the deepest layers of your
mind, the unconscious mind, is through sensations. The unconscious mind keeps reacting to the sensations of your body. By
observing these sensations you not only train your unconscious mind to stop automatically reacting to the sensations with
craving or aversion, but you also accomplish an equally important matter you start closing the gap between the conscious and
the unconscious mind, thus making the mind whole, and so a very powerful tool you can use in life. Most people are completely
ignorant about what's happening in the deepest layers of their minds. This technique allows you to explore the workings of the
unconscious mind, to understand it and see exactly how it works, and to get in control of it to drag it into consciousness and
awareness. A united mind is the most powerful thing in this reality.

What's more, when you learn to objectively observe the pain without reacting in any way, the pain loses power over you. It can
no longer overpower you you become its master. This, of course, carries over to the every day life, and you'll find that no
catastrophe and no long-term illness can disturb your inner peace. What can be more empowering than that? Eventually, you
become so detached from pain that you really stop feeling it you just know the pain to be a reality of itself, and not you (like
any other sensation, for that matter).

Contact of mind and matter gives rise to sensations. Observe them, and you will be changing the behavior of your mind. It will
no longer be running on auto-pilot, but you'll become the master of the process, steering it consciously and in a way that the
collision of mind and matter no longer creates suffering.

After some days or weeks of meditation you'll find that if you don't change the posture, the pain due to the posture decreases
and finally disappears. The body will adjust to all kinds of conditions, if you just keep staying in the same position. So, for
example, if the blood supply is cut off in your legs if you sit cross-legged, long hours of meditation will make the body adjust to
that, and your legs won't fall asleep anymore. S. N. Goenka told that throughout years of teaching students he didn't come
across any incident where a student got an injury because of sitting still. Students only found that pains go away if the posture is
not changed throughout their days and weeks of meditation.

I can attest to that too. At first it's even scary to discover that your leg fell asleep and that it takes time for it to wake up.
Sometimes it felt like my leg would explode that's how painful it was. But when I would come out of meditation after two
hours of sitting this way, relax the legs, and within five minutes my legs would feel normal again. So it was a kind of deception of
my body. Yes, it felt painful during the sitting, but I gained much more by sitting this way without moving than if I changed a
posture whenever the pain presented itself. What I gained was more will-power, and more balance of the mind. What I lost was
nothing.

If you continue meditating in the same posture, eventually the feeling that the leg fell asleep or the pain would shorten, until
the body adjusts to the extent that the blood flows normally in your legs though they're crossed. Eventually the posture
becomes so comfortable that you feel totally relaxed when sitting cross-legged.
Some yogis can sit without moving for days, so it's really not damaging to sit without moving for an hour or two.

Your progress is measured not by how many pains you get, or how many pains disappear when you observe them, but by how
equanimously you can observe the pain as well as the sensations that are pleasurable.

If you manage to maintain equanimity, you're progressing for sure, because you're changing the pattern of your mind.

Also, it's important to keep in mind that you shouldn't have any goal when you do Buddha's meditation. It means you shouldn't
even be thinking about getting enlightened, and you certainly shouldn't be using this technique to get rid of some disease.
Having any kind of goal will not produce results, because this technique only works if you simply observe sensations maintaining
equanimity, having no intention or anticipation at all. Yes, psychosomatic diseases are likely to disappear during the process, but
that should be seen as a natural by-product, and not an end in itself.

My experiences with Buddha's meditation

Unless we investigate the world within we can never know reality we will only know our beliefs about it, or our
intellectual conceptions of it.

The Art of Living

The moment I started practicing Buddha's meditation I received many more other-wordly experiences than with practicing any
other meditation. This meditation is not about experiences, but still experiences show that this meditation is effective.

When I started equanimously observing all the sensations, I managed to eradicate many of them (thus eradicating some
miseries) and I managed to get to the old, well-hidden sensations. When I got to them, I started getting weird and unpleasant
dreams. This was a sign that I was digging deep into the unconscious, and clearing out old stuff (relating to early birth and past
lives).

The dreams clearly indicated much inner clearing taking place, because in some dreams I was lead to hidden rooms full of waste
and strange scary animals. The rooms in my dreams indicate all the different corners of the mind, or you can say the nerve
junctions. Now I'm getting to the stuff that was well-hidden all my life and didn't even arise in my childhood, so I assume it's
from past lives. If you don't meditate in this way, you cannot get to such deep misery-causing structures and thus there's no way
to eradicate them.

I now meditate four hours a day two hours when I wake up, and two hours before going to bed. My waking life is peaceful,
and my mind is very balanced. I feel like I'm walking on clouds, yet my reasoning remains strongly grounded in reality. This
makes me feel very balanced and secure within.

Yet I must tell that sometimes, when I really focus on my sensations and new ones come up, some mornings aren't pleasant,
because dreams seem to carry into the waking world. Some supernatural things sometimes happen too, though they don't
frighten me. I'm telling you this so that you aren't caught by surprise. The advice is always the same in such cases do not
react. If you don't react, such things will dissipate when the time is good for that; if you react, you're only making them last.

For example, one night I woke up strongly knowing someone was in my house. I didn't know if that was a real human being, or
only some energy, though. I didn't want to check it, since my bedroom was locked anyway so I didn't feel in danger. Then I got a
vision of a man with white trousers in the dark and I knew he was next to my house. Immediately after the vision I heard a car
being started and someone driving off. I looked at the window just to catch the glimpse of a car in the darkness.

So these kinds of things may happen to you. That simply means that you're melting the sense of I and mine and become
more in harmony with the Universe. So your boundaries are not so defined anymore, and you can, for example, find yourself a
particle in a sound, or you may understand the essence of some non-living thing. It's extraordinary when that happens, but it's
important not to get attached or even react to such happenings. Simply accept them and then stay present.

Da Vinci knew that all the secrets of the Universe are contained in a human being. Not only him, many teachers advised one to
Know Oneself, because with complete knowledge of yourself comes complete knowledge of reality. By knowing yourself your
eyes are fully opened to this Universe. I haven't yet found a better method to reach this full self-knowledge, and the knowledge
of All, than this meditation.
A common man thinks he understands the world. He doesn't even understand himself, let alone the world. A common man has
a false self-image which then reacts to the world in relation to what each experience means to that particular image. So a
common man lives in an illusion. Buddha's meditation will make you see yourself as you are, and not how your ego wants you to
see. So you'll see yourself in totality, and not the edited picture that produces a more acceptable but distorted self-image.
This awareness of who you really are in no way will distort the external world.

Buddha's meditation is hard work. Some days you really feel like skipping meditation, and some hours of meditation will be
spent in agony. It's not for the faint-hearted. This technique, however, leads to full-liberation, and should be followed by those
ready for it. Yes, there are easier spiritual roads, but it's important to fully investigate them and not to fall for spiritual traps.
Sometimes roads that are very easy lead one to bondage instead of liberation.

Some advice

...Siddhattha Gotama, known as the Buddha, the enlightened one, - never claimed to be anything other than a
man. Like all great teachers he became the subject of legends, but no matter what marvelous stories were told of his
past experiences or his miraculous powers, still all accounts agree that he never claimed to be divine or to be divinely
inspired. Whatever special qualities he had were pre-eminently human qualities that he had brought to perfection.

The Art of Living

According to S. N. Goenka, mantras create a protective energetic envelope around you, but within that envelope all your
impurities remain. So it's a protection, but if you want full self-realization, you'll need to drop it to uncover all the impurities and
clean them out. Then this clean energy that's truly yours will be your best protection.

I'm not sure if Goenka is correct here, because the way I see it is this. We are beings of mainly water. So when we chant
mantras, our water starts vibrating in a certain way. So our entire vibration is being changed. Some people claimed that reciting
the name of a particular god (called Japa) for thousands of times a day led them to liberation, like Sarada Devi. But I don't
have enough experience to either deny or confirm S. N. Goenka's claim and because of that I'm not mixing in any mantra chants
with this meditation.

S. N. Goenka also said that you shouldn't do breath exercises during Buddha's meditation, though you may continue pranayama
(breath exercises) together with your yoga practice. He said, however, that in such cases pranayama should be treated as the
yoga practice, and not as meditation in itself.

It's very unfortunate that all enlightened people, especially those who became popular, with time are made into semi-gods or
sometimes divine birth is ascribed to them. This makes it hard for a common human being to believe he could achieve the same
heights. Buddha tried with his life to show that everyone can achieve what he achieved full self-realization, but his teachings
were diluted throughout ages making Buddhism into a complicated mass of scholastic texts, rather than a simple path to
enlightenment, as Buddha intended.

Buddha didn't create Buddhism. He wasn't interested in forming sects and starting new religions. He simply taught people the
meditation technique that fully opened his eyes, and he answered the questions he was asked by the people who came to learn
this technique from him, and gave guidance to them so that they too would achieve liberation.

Buddha's teachings got diluted and changed with time in India, and his real meditation technique was forgotten. But in Burma,
fortunately his technique was preserved generation after generation by a line of meditation teachers. S. N. Goenka was
fortunate to have been introduced to this technique, and thanks to him (who recently passed away) we have access in the
Western world to the pure teachings of Gotama Buddha.

What Gotama achieved, therefore, can be achieved by everyone. Yet Gotama worked hard. He didn't casually decide to sit
under a Bodhi tree in today's Bodh Gaya, and suddenly the enlightenment descended on him. He resolved not to move an inch
and sit in the same meditation posture until he got enlightened, no matter how many days it would take, and no matter if he
would die of starvation because of it or not. With this strong determination he sat in the meditation posture under a banyan
tree without moving at all, and after forty-nine days he reached full self-knowledge.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't eat for a month to reach the same heights, but I hope Buddha's life will serve as an inspiration
to dedicate at least two hours a day for meditation. If some people can sit in meditation for days without moving, you can sit for
two hours without moving for sure! Know though, that Gotama Buddha was already an advanced meditator when he decided
to find the truth within by continuously meditating. So it's out of most of our reach to meditate without any movement for such
a long time. But we all can start on this path, by daily meditation of a few hours.

First you can only meditate an hour in the morning and evening; when you see the benefits, you will probably naturally want to
meditate longer, as happened to me. The longer you meditate, the happier and more at peace you will feel during the day, and
this will encourage you to keep this sacred practice, and to meditate whenever you find time. If you get this beautiful sequence
of events going, your progress will be very fast.

A mere reading cannot bring enlightenment. Much work is required. When impurities within are eradicated, it will be natural to
remember your past lives, and to get in touch with the laws of the Universe on the physical level and not only an intellectual
one. So you will directly experience the workings of natural laws, and this will naturally get you aligned with them, because
you'll have direct knowledge of what happens if you go against them.

When you keep progressing on this path, you'll see an external change in yourself as well. You'll be much more relaxed and at
peace; you'll love human beings and will forgive those who hurt you. You'll encourage them to walk on the path of light, and
you'll never hurt any human being again. Instead of unpredictable and full of misery, your life will become light, peaceful, and a
perfect opportunity to serve and bring more peace and happiness into the hearts of fellow human beings.

Gotama never claimed that he invented this meditation technique. He said that before him many people became buddhas (got
enlightened) using this technique (though the technique was forgotten at his time), and that many will do so after his death. He
called this technique Dhamma, which can be translated as law. It's the law of nature if you practice this technique as it is
given, it must lead to full self-realization.

Gotama Buddha always encouraged people to find the truth within. He said it's not enough to merely agree with what the
saints and sages say. It's important to test every truth you're given. If the teaching is praised by the wise and by applying it you
see its benefits, keep practicing. If you apply it and it produces no benefits or harms you, don't practice it. That was the teaching
of Gotama Buddha.
Gotama Buddha never allowed to be made into some super-natural being in his lifetime. He told that the best way to honor an
enlightened person was not to worship him or her, but to follow the path that leads to enlightenment. He taught that you
cannot achieve full self-realization by devotion to another person, no matter how saintly that person is. Worshiping a person
will not allow you to experience the truth; only by your own internal work can you experience the truth and this experience is
the best thank you to any saintly person.

The Noble Eight-fold Path

Abstain from all unwholesome acts,

perform wholesome ones,

purify your mind -

this is the teaching of enlightened persons.

Gotama Buddha

To know which action is wholesome and which produces misery is easy. Any action that brings harm to others and disturbs their
peace is an unwholesome action. Likewise, the action that brings happiness, peace and harmony to others is a wholesome
action. Also the wholesome action is the action taken to understand oneself, like attempts to remove mental impurities which
produce our miseries.

Buddha taught the path that leads one to become a good human being, full of love and wisdom. Anyone who follows this path
must be freed from misery. This path leads one to the truth.

We must see the reality as it is, but most people see it clouded by their thoughts or emotions, so they miss the entire reality.
You cannot make correct decisions in life if the ground you're standing on wobbles. You must see reality as it is. If you do, you
can then penetrate it with your sharp mind and see the subtler truths, and finally become liberated. Gotama Buddha said that
the best way to achieve this is by observing yourself.

It's habitual for us to always look outside of ourselves, and to blame others for what they did to us, and to ascribe causes of
events to something external. This keeps us in misery and bondage (Maya). When we turn our attention within and start
eradicating the roots of suffering, we realize that nothing external has any effect on us unless there's a trigger in us that attracts
that event. If we remove that trigger, that imbalance within, no external manifestation that's unpleasant can affect us.

If we keep looking outwards never examining ourselves, the darkness within won't be expelled and the dark forces within will
keep controlling our life for us, manifesting negative experiences. In order to know this reality, we must explore the reality
within. That's the only way to understand the nature of existence.

By observing ourselves we become aware for the first time of the conditioned reactions, the prejudices that cloud our
mental vision, that hide reality from us and produce suffering. We recognize the accumulated inner tensions that
keep us agitated, miserable, and we realize they can be removed. Gradually we learn how to allow them to dissolve,
and our minds become pure, peaceful, and happy.

The Art of Living

The Noble Eight-fold Path can be divided into three stages:

1. Moral practice: avoiding all unwholesome actions.

2. The practice of concentration of the mind.
3. Developing insight into one's own nature which results in wisdom.
To practice Buddha's teachings one should start with the number one process of the Noble Eight-fold Path: avoiding
unwholesome actions. Without this step one cannot start, let alone advance in the eight-fold path. It's easy to stop taking
unwholesome actions when you understand that with them you not only harm others, but yourself too. Your mental structure
becomes agitated, you incur deep mental impressions which generate future miseries. If you stop harming others, your own
sufferings will cease.

Sometimes it seems you don't harm others, yet a sharper, subtle mind gained by following Buddha's meditation will show you a
different picture. Sometimes we don't realize we cause suffering and disturb the peace of others. Actions like talking loudly on
the phone in a public place may disturb the peace of others usually people are not interested to hear what's happening in a
stranger's life. Unthoughtfully pushing through a crowd and invading other people's energy fields again disturb their peace. A
boastful sentence can generate misery for another person. There are so many ways we may harm others that we can stay
ignorant to for our entire lives, not realizing that every day we generate suffering for others and thus ourselves too. An ignorant
person may think he does absolutely nothing wrong, yet he's punished by so much misery. Yet if such a person would start deep
self-inquiry and meditation, he may realize that every day he's generating miseries to the human beings he gets in touch with.

By abstaining from harming others in word, action, and thoughts, we cause our mental waters to become completely still
because there's no mental agitation. Only with this still mind can we proceed to the second step of the eight-fold path process,
which is to attain the concentration of the mind.

The mind becomes one-pointed easily if moral practice is in place. The first stage of moral practice is divided into three sections
in Buddhism:

1. right speech,
2. right action,
3. right livelihood.

Right speech means:

No telling lies.
No backstabbing people.
No using words to make people angry at each other.
 Not speaking words that disturb the peace of others.
Not speaking useless words (gossip, meaningless chatter).

Right action means abstaining from:

Killing a living thing.

Stealing.
Sexual misconduct (rape, adultery).
Any intoxication (when one loses one's senses or they're altered by some substance).

Right livelihood should not:

Break the five precepts.

Be of nature that encourages others to break five precepts.
Also, if some work doesn't break five precepts like harming others directly or indirectly but the intention to do so is there, it's
again the wrong type of work. For example, a health food shop owner who hopes that more people would get more obese so
that they would seek out healthy food has the wrong intention, although the profession itself is good.

The minimum five necessities that need to be fulfilled if one wishes to practice the way of Buddha are these:

Abstaining from killing any living being.

Not stealing.
Abstaining from sexual misconduct.
Not lying (or exaggerating).
 Not using any intoxicants.
If you have some time to lay aside all your duties and purify your mind for a few days, you should follow these additional rules
(which I already mentioned, but it's worth mentioning them again):

1. Stop all sexual activities.

2. No eating after noon.
3. Avoid all sensual entertainment (music, movies, plays) and bodily decorations.
4. Not sleep in luxurious beds.
Before summarizing the Noble Eight-fold Path, let me share with you two important quotes relating to this subject:

The destruction of life, bhikkus [students], is threefold, I say: it is conditioned by greed, or by hate, or by delusion
[stupidity, ignorance].

The taking of the not given, too,

Sexual misconduct, too,

False speech, too,

Divisive speech, too,

Harsh speech, too,

Frivolous chatter, too,

Covetousness, too,
 Ill-will, too,

Wrong view, bhikkus, is threefold, I say: it is conditioned by greed, or by hate, or by delusion.

Therefore, bhikkus,

greed is a condition for the arising of karma;

hate is a condition for the arising of karma;

delusion is a condition for the arising of karma.

But when greed is destroyed, there is the end of the arising of karma;

when hate is destroyed, there is the end of the arising of karma;

when delusion is destroyed, there is the end of the arising of karma

Living Word of the Buddha

Here's the second quote:

As for the birds, though the branches they rest on may break, they never fall, but easily fly through the air to any
other tree. For the branches are not their permanent resting-places but only temporary ones. They entirely rely on
their wings and the air. In the same way, men, devas, and Brahmas who have become aryas [the noble ones] and are
freed from the hallucination of wrong views, neither regard their bodies as their self, nor rely upon them. They have
in their possession permanent resting-places, such as Nibbna [full liberation], which is the entire cessation of all
tumbling existences. They also possess the very mighty wings of the Noble Eight-fold Path which are able to bear
them to better existences.
 Ledi Sayadaw Mahathera

The Noble Eight-fold path is a very important guideline for life. Please note it down, and highlight where your faults lie. Or you
may decide to print this list, and that's the reason I'm summarizing these requisites. Try to eradicate these faults, so that your
eyes would be opened to the reality as it really is. Failing to follow these rules causes one's eyes to be covered with Maya
(ignorance) and to have an uncertain rebirth (which might be in an animal realm).

1. Right view

Knowledge about suffering, the arising of suffering, the cessation of suffering, the practice leading to the cessation of suffering.

2. Right thought

Thoughts of renunciation, good-will, non-violence.

3. Right speech

Refraining from false speech, malicious speech, rough speech, frivolous talk.

4. Right action

Refraining from taking the breath (killing any living creatures), taking what has not been given, sexual misconduct.

5. Right livelihood

Giving up wrong ways of living and earning a living by a right way of livelihood.

(Earning money from people's suffering, for example, or having any part in people's suffering through the sale, production, or
handling of something that harms others.)

6. Right endeavor
Generating desire for the non-arising of unwholesome thoughts, giving up the arisen bad and unwholesome thoughts;
generating desire for arising good and wholesome thoughts, maintaining good and wholesome arisen thoughts.

7. Right mindfulness

Contemplating the nature of the body in the body, feelings in feelings, mind in the mind, things in things: ardent, clearly
knowing, and mindful, after removing hatred and sorrow about the world.

8. Right concentration

No more controlled by sense desires, and having no unwholesome thoughts, one attains and abides in the first meditative
absorption, which is detachment-born and accompanied by applied thought, sustained thought, joy, and bliss. This leads to the
second absorption, which is inner tranquility caused by the unification of the mind, and without applied and sustained thought,
but with joy and bliss. This leads to the third absorption that comes when one detaches oneself from joy, and dwells in
equanimity. One is mindful and with clear comprehension, and enjoys bliss in the body. When one gives up bliss and suffering,
joy and sorrow disappears, and one achieves the fourth absorption, which is neither suffering nor bliss, and which is the purity
of equanimity mindfulness.

These eight rules are a must for not only deepening meditation, but for a beautiful life. The more closely you follow the path of
the Buddha, the happier you'll get, and the more ignorance will be dispelled from your life. It's surely the path everyone can
follow, be them Christians, Muslims, or Hindus. This path is also not far from what other religions ask to follow, showing the
universality of true spirituality.

Observe the breath

Breath is like a safe island that protects one against the dangers of passions and negative emotions. It's usual to hear Indian
sages say that if you can control the breath, you can control the mind too. Through the control of breath, in other words, comes
the control of mind. Thus, the practice of pranayama.
Whenever you're meditating and you feel anger, passion, fear or anything else gathering strength, turn your attention to the
breath. You will notice that breath in such a case became unequal, maybe faster and more shallow. If you manage to quickly
turn your attention to the breath, and then to observe the sensation, you'll stop the negative emotion from gathering strength
and it will fail to overwhelm you. So always be attentive to the change in your breath. If you do, you'll cut the roots of all the
emotions that still rule you.

Of course, you cannot expect to be successful at the beginning. There will be times when you allow emotions to overpower you,
and you will take action which they dictate. However, if you don't get angry at yourself for that and keep equanimously
observing future agitations, soon you'll learn to observe the change of breath and the accompanying emotion, and you'll master
those emotions.

Observing sensations instead of reacting doesn't mean we become inactive in life. On the contrary we become capable of a
very powerful action that produces only goodness. Sometimes life requires intense action. For example, if we see some wrong
done on another we must take action to help that person. This action might be physically stopping the wrong-doer. This strong
action, however, won't produce negative effect on anyone if it's taken with love and compassion. It's the intention that counts!
So before taking any action we must examine ourselves to see what cause lies behind the wish to take action. Is it compassion
and love, or is it passion, hatred, or fear? Only take action that springs from goodness, and you'll always benefit everyone
around you, including yourself.

Meditation equals mental training

It's not that easy for some people to maintain five or eight precepts of the Noble Path. A person addicted to sex would engage
in it as soon as craving arises. Likewise a person addicted to drugs will reach for them when craving arises. To avoid breaking the
precepts, it's important to uproot such cravings from the mind.

Cravings of the mind can be uprooted with meditation. Buddha taught how to purify the mind with meditation through
concentration and wisdom. Right concentration practice can also be divided further into right effort, right awareness, and
finally, right concentration.
The right effort part of the practice includes strengthening the mind so that it becomes a useful tool for concentration and not a
master of us. To strengthen the mind we must keep it focused on one object only, for an extended period of time. This way we
make the mind into a useful tool for self-examination. It grows stronger and more reliable the more we train it this way.

Buddha said that the best way to strengthen and sharpen one's mind is by focusing on the breath. Even at the start of training
the mind to focus on the breath it becomes very clear that you're not in charge of your mind. Your mind randomly jumps from
one subject to the next, refusing to focus on the breath. The unruly mind reminds a capricious child who disobeys the mother.
More such attempts at taming the mind show that not only are you not in charge of your mind, but that your mind is in charge
of you. So the tool that the mind is, is the master of a human being who's supposed to be the master of all his or her aspects.

With more regular effort, however, we train the mind to do as we please to completely focus on the breath. This way we stop
being slaves of our capricious minds and make minds into useful servants for deep introspection. The mind gradually learns to
observe the processes within, rather than be entertained by what's happening outside of you.

Right awareness is the second part of the mental training practice. Observing your breath does exactly that it keeps your
awareness on the right object. By training the mind in the way just described we again choose the right awareness the
awareness of what's happening now. The mind always tries to escape the now, either jumping to the future or to the past. If we
follow the mind ignorantly, our awareness is focused on wrong things, the things that already passed, or not yet occurred. Our
ignorance of the fact that the mind lacks inner wisdom makes us follow its wishes, and so we focus on things that are
unwholesome, and we are shaped by such negative exposure. By focusing on the breath, however, we're training our minds to
dwell without any judgment where they should on the present, and on the processes happening now, like breathing. That's
the right awareness because it roots us into pure reality and not mental concepts of it.

The awareness of breath is also extremely useful because it challenges our past conditioning. Instead of the mind hating, liking,
disliking, craving, being angry, being emotionally high, or displaying any other ignorant conditioning, it's trained to objectively
observe. The longer we maintain such awareness, the more impurities arise because we no longer feed the karma process we
no longer react to external happenings. Such impurities arise from deep within; they get exposed because we stopped reacting.
They got exposed so that now we can work on clearing them out with pure awareness. This arising of pains and other
discomforts when practicing objective observing is wrongly interpreted as regress by some. But that's definitely progress, and
the awareness should be maintained so that such impurities vanish permanently. This pure awareness becomes your second
nature, if you practice it regularly. If such a stage comes, your karmas will be burnt up very quickly.

When you manage to focus your mind on your breath for regular periods of time, you'll notice that sometimes your breath
stops altogether. Sometimes you will see lights and other visions, and you will hear other-worldly sounds. You shouldn't pay
attention to these extraordinary experiences though, because such phenomena's purpose is to show that you're making
progress. It shows that you managed to concentrate your mind more than before. So you can see these happenings as marks of
your progress, but do not stray from the path of liberation by stopping to examine these things. They're still in the grips of
Maya, and like external knowledge, the more you focus on them, the more you'll see there's more to explore! This is a labyrinth
without any way-out.

Morality and concentration leads to wisdom, which finally frees the mind of all impurities. Possessing wisdom you cannot make
mistakes, and thus you cannot make your mind impure. If all ignorance vanishes, liberation dawns. By developing wisdom with
the help of morality and concentration you free yourself of all attachments, and thus become joyful from within, free of all
misery.

Real wisdom is seeing things as they really are, and not how we wish them to be or how they appear to be to an impure mind.
The truth that currently we see is just a surface truth; we must penetrate it in order to experience it in its totality, as only that
eliminates ignorance and thus suffering. True wisdom is only the one experienced by yourself, and not the one you heard and
adopted, or the one that seems right on the surface. Whether it's right or wrong is not important; the most important thing is
to test it out for yourself to understand. Only when you know by testing that the truth is truth, that's your true wisdom. That
will be your own insight then your own wisdom. So the only right wisdom is the one that arises out of the personal realization
of truth, and not truths as discovered by the wise. Truths discovered by the wise can serve as an inspiration and a guiding post
to find your own truth, but it's a mistake to adopt a truth that's not experienced by yourself and call it your own. Only your own
experience of truth is the wisdom that can change the nature of the mind; no amount of reading can change the conditioning
of your unconscious mind.
I'm not saying the heard or intellectualized wisdom is bad. It's good; words of wisdom heard from sages are very useful if they
encourage one to search for one's own wisdom within. But if you're just satisfied with what you hear without testing it out, this
won't lead to liberation. As Buddha said:

You have to do your own work;

those who have reached the goal will only show the way.

So for all those who think that there's just one more piece of knowledge left to find in books for one to become enlightened are
very much mistaken. External knowledge is still Maya (illusion). Find the knowledge within as only it turns into wisdom that
liberates.

Four types of mind

Buddha in his meditations discovered that there is not one, but four types of mind. Unlike the western understanding which
places a human mind in the head area, according to Buddha (and in Indian spirituality in general) the mind is in your entire
body. In each particle of the body there is mind, because each particle can feel and has intelligence. Each part of the body is
conscious and reacts to an external stimuli, down to the minutest particle of it. Particles without the mind could in no way react
to an external stimuli, or do any body work. When you meditate, you understand that separate parts of your body respond to
an external phenomena such as sound in a different way. It's not only ears that hear the sound. The whole body reacts to the
sound; but you're only aware of that when you sharpen your mind to a certain degree with the help of breath observation.

Before knowing this philosophy I made my own discovery that the feeling arises because of the self-talk, which acts as a stimuli.
If the self-talk is good, we experience a pleasant feeling in the body; if the self-talk is negative we experience a negative
feeling. Now, thanks to my exposure to Buddha's undiluted teachings, I can understand this phenomena more.

There are, in actuality, four types of mind. Firstly, it's the pure awareness part. The mind is simply aware of what's happening,
without any prejudices seeing things as they are. Then immediately the second part of the mind starts its work, and that's the
mind concerned with judging and labeling, and so it decides if the event was good or bad. According to the verdict of this mind,
the next mind kicks in and we start feeling either a bad or a good sensation, depending on the verdict the interpretation of the
events by the second mind. And the last mind is the one that reacts to that sensation.

Each reaction leaves a scratch in our psyche, and that causes misery. Even if the event was good and the scratch is formed
because of it, it still causes misery in the long-term because we become addicted to good sensations and want to experience
more. So this craving brings misery.

Buddha taught that the real cause of suffering lies in the fourth part of the mind the reacting part. If ignorant reaction ceases,
the misery must cease too. Buddha said that some reactions leave very weak marks and they disappear quickly, producing little
misery. Some last longer, like a line drawn on a sandy beach can stay all day, but disappears by the morning. And some lines can
stay for years (big cravings or aversions), and these produce most misery.

We can know the depth of the scratches on our psyche by going through the day and trying to remember our reactions. Those
few you remember are like the lines drawn on a sandy beach. The ones that are forgotten are almost insignificant ones. Yet
some lines are so deep that we remember those reactions even years after they happened. These are like the lines left on a
stone; they will disappear, but it will take a long time. The less we automatically react, the less such scratches we will make on
our psyche. The more we objectively observe internal sensations, the quicker we will eliminate even deepest scratches of the
past.

Forget the self to experience happiness

So long as we are preoccupied with our wants and fears, our identities, we are confined within the narrow prison of
the Self, cut off from the world, from life. Emerging from this self-obsession is truly a release from the bondage,
enabling us to step forth into the world, to be open to life, to others, to find real fulfillment.

The Art of Living

I found this quote to be absolute truth in my own life. Whenever my attention stays with me and my haves or have nots, misery
arises. Whenever my attention turns away from the little me and its wishes, and turns to ways to help others, and whenever I
serve others in some way, happiness arises. By my own observations I came to the conclusion that people who focus on
themselves are most miserable, whilst people who focus on how to help others are the happiest. Those whose only concern is
their personal well-being will always find a new reason to be dissatisfied with how things are. It's impossible to please the ego,
because the ego cannot be content.

When you continue doing Buddha's meditation you'll realize that what you call I is a collection of separate, though inter-
dependent processes. What you call now as your pain will later on seem as pain that's felt by a certain part of you. This wisdom
will shed light on your being, and you'll no longer feel such definite boundaries of you, as you do now. The more expansive your
awareness of what is you becomes, the happier you will feel, because the rigid understanding will melt and get you into the
flow of life, into harmony with Nature's laws that say that all is always changing, nothing remains the same. When you think that
you are the same you as ten years ago, that's an incorrect understanding which produces suffering. Every second you're a
different being; you're like the river the river looks the same, yet upon closer inspection you see that it's always flowing, no
water stream remains stagnant. Or the candle may look like having the same fire, yet upon closer examination you see the
flames arising and passing away with great rapidity, giving the illusion that it's the same flame. All nature falls under this law
although some shape may look always the same, upon closer examination you notice that it's always changing.

The more you forget your little me, the little worries and egoistic preferences, the happier you will become it's the law.
Would you think it's sane for a little cell within your body to think of itself as the only special being? Or would you say that a cell
is more sane which forgets its specialness and works in harmony with other cells, making up and arm, or a strand of your hair,
or your eye? The cells that are stuck in themselves are called the ones that malfunction and they give rise to disease. Yet the
cells which work in harmony with other cells according to the laws of the body are responsible for a healthy functioning of
some body part.

We are the cells of this universe. The more we work in harmony with nature's laws, the happier we will be because that's what
we're supposed to do. This might seem frightening to some egos, but even if you are still frightened of this concept, simply
practice this meditation technique and you'll find that what you considered a negative thing might turn out a treasure. I, too,
was first absolutely repelled from the path of service, for example. I saw people who forgot their selves and dedicated their lives
to help alleviate the suffering of humanity as lost, poor souls. Yet now I see this as the best use of life; instead of focusing only
on yourself, which must create misery, you forget yourself to really contribute to the well-being of all. Yes, people dedicated to
the service of all are not loud so you don't hear them much praising this way of life. It's the loud marketers which praise the
happiness found in material things that you're more likely to hear. Yet the path of service is the happiest path of all that I know.

A person preoccupied with their little desires, hatreds, and aversions is like a stone in the river of life. Water flowing round it will
keep annoying it and it will keep complaining of being struck by the water all the time, and for being stuck. Yet a person who
forgets the little me and focuses on helping others is like a small twig freely carried with the river of life. It progresses fast,
changing scenery provides an exhilarating ride, and water that carries it becomes its friend and not an enemy. That's being in
the flow of life, and it's only possible when the Me me me concept so respected in the West is transcended and becomes We
we we.

That doesn't mean you should deny yourself happiness. It doesn't mean you should stay in horrible surroundings and forget
about your well-being. It only means that your viewpoint now includes other living beings, and you take actions which will not
hurt them. So of course you should work to make your circumstances better, but not because of only your benefit, but because
your improved circumstances will make you happier and in turn you'll release a better energy which others will feel and will be
positively affected by. And by staying in negative circumstances you're actually making disservice to others because we're all
connected, so people who get in touch with you will feel this negative energy and thus will be negatively affected by it. By
making your life better, know that you're making better the lives of other people too, as you're a small particle of a huge being
called Life we are all connected.

Choose actions through which your search for a better life will make others happy too. So, for example, instead of luring others'
customers to buy your service, you can, without looking at the competition, infuse your work with so much love that customers
naturally come to you and are inspired and happy to acquire your work of love. That's working in harmony with Life to create a
better one, and positively affecting many more lives along the way.
Advice that will make your path easier
Ten perfections to eradicate all suffering
Acharn Sujin, an advanced female teacher of Buddha's meditation, advises to work on developing ten perfections which will
greatly help in eradicating all the suffering from your life. The development of these perfections will in turn make it easier for
you to sit in meditation.

Here are the ten perfections you should aim for:

1. generosity,
2. morality,
3. renunciation,
4. wisdom,
5. energy,
6. patience,
7. truthfulness,
8. determination,
9. loving-kindness,
10.equanimity.
These ten perfections not only help with your spiritual progress, but with any other progress for that matter. Let me describe
each one of them, so that there will not be any misunderstandings. If you notice you have already some perfection, keep it and
increase it. If you notice some of the perfections are missing from your life, work to awaken them in your being.

If you fail to awaken and develop these ten, it would be easy for any of the three impure roots to stay in your being, thus
causing troubles in your life and stalling your spiritual progress. These three roots are greed, hate, and delusion. We should
develop these ten perfections not because we wish them to produce great results in our lives, but so that they would help us to
see reality by eradicating the negative roots which bring us suffering.

I took a great description of these ten perfections from Paramatthadipani, the Commentary to the Basket of Conduct
Cariyapitaka Khuddhaka Nikaya, combined with the explanations of the perfections of Acharn Sujin, as well as my own
understanding:

1. Giving
Giving has the characteristic of relinquishing; its function is to dispel greed for things that can be given away; its manifestation is
non-attachment, or the achievement of prosperity and a favorable state of existence; an object that can be relinquished is its
proximate cause.

Note: only if one gives things away without any thought of personal benefit can this be called real generosity and helps in
getting rid of mental defilements. You should give with a thought of it helping you to eradicate your defilements, according to
the Vipassana meditation teacher Acharn Sujin. Giving should not always be material. The best giving is the giving of knowledge
about how eradicate people's suffering. So if you teach the laws of nature to people, that's the best giving you can offer to
others.

Giving should be done not only when asked, but when unasked too. If you know that someone needs something, give without
asking to be given. This is true giving. Also, you shouldn't be sad if you know someone needs something but you don't have the
thing that they need. Only give when you have, and when you need to give. You should only give things that would benefit
others, and in no way hurt them.

We should only give when we decide that our gift will be used properly. A person who would abuse our gift will bring suffering
to themselves and may do so to others. So we should be like doctors giving the right medicine to sick patients, according to
Acharn Sujin.
Another wonderful giving is teaching people in a way that they would be free from their fears.

2. Virtue (morality)
Virtue has the characteristic of composing; coordinating and establishing are also mentioned as its characteristic. Its function is
to dispel moral depravity; its function is also blameless conduct; its manifestation is moral purity; according to the Buddhist
Basket of Conduct, shame and moral dread are its proximate cause. It's easy for ignorant people to extinguish our growing fire
of spirituality, like it's easy for people to extinguish the hope that you can achieve a better life.

To develop morality it's very beneficial to be in the company of wise people. Avoid ignorant people at all costs, as they're very
likely to mislead you if you listen to them. That especially applies when one is just starting to develop morality. You should avoid
people who have wrong views about life, and who do not understand the causes of effects in their lives and attribute effects to
something superstitious. It's interesting to note that this advice echoes the advice of people wanting to achieve enlightenment
through Hinduism's path too. (E.g., many Hindu swamis recommended to avoid ignorant people at all costs, like Ramakrishna
Parahamsa. He said that to deal with the material world in any way is first required to oil yourself in spirituality, so that the
material world won't stick to you anymore. If you're not well oiled, the world may stain you in a way you won't be able to
wash it off.) Buddha in one of his texts is quoted as saying to avoid the company of fools at all costs.

Morality is two-fold. One aspect of it is the avoidance of evil, and another aspect the right conduct one should follow. To know
what to avoid and which conduct to follow we may reflect on lives of saints, like that of Buddha or Jesus, though deep within
each of us we have a perfect teacher of conduct which may sometimes be inaccessible due to accumulated impurities.

Morality develops when one leads a simple, selfless life; when one eats only to extinguish the hunger and not to please the
palate. When one gives to others who are in need; when one lives in very simple, almost ascetic, surroundings; when one stays
alone and works on eliminating impurities accumulated throughout this and past lives. Enduring any kind of suffering such as
pain also purifies the mind and develops patience. Staying free from worries and anxieties calms the mind and you become
more wholesome.
To develop morality one should see dangers in the slightest of personal faults, and work to eradicate them.

Here are other ways to develop morality, according to Acharin Sujin:

1. by the purification of ones inclinations;

2. by the undertaking of Buddhist rules of behavior;
3. by not committing any offenses;
4. by making amends for offenses.

3. Renunciation
Renunciation has the characteristic of departing from sense pleasures of existence; its function is to verify the
unsatisfactoriness they involve; its manifestation is the withdrawal from them; a sense of spiritual urgency is its proximate
cause.

To develop renunciation it's necessary to observe and then give up thoughts of sensual pleasures, hate, and harming of others.
It may seem that the world would lose its taste if we give up sensuous thoughts, but that's not what would happen. These gross
sensual thoughts cover up the sweet taste of truth. We can never get to it if we keep thinking thoughts that agitate the mind -
thoughts that are full of lust, anger, or clinging.

Such thoughts will not be easy to give up. But it becomes easier when we notice impermanence and futility of clinging to
anything that eventually changes or dies, like our youth, a job, or some person. When we see the ignorance of clinging to any
aspect of impermanent life, eventually this wisdom grows to take over all aspects of our being. Then real renunciation can take
place. That's the right way to attain it.

If you force yourself not to think this or that thought, it will gain more power over you. It's better to keep observing and
inquiring into the nature of things, and the understanding of their impermanence will naturally make you detached from them.
Being detached from sensual pleasures doesn't mean not having any pleasures in life. It simply means that they don't have the
power to affect you. Of course, total renunciation is the quickest path to liberation, but that's not possible for most people and
is not a requirement for liberation. You can be detached from the world even though you have plenty of responsibilities. That's
still renunciation, though a mental one. A good example of how to renounce the world and still live in it is given by a Hindu holy
person Parahamsa Ramakrishna. He said that we should be like women who are paid to take care of someone else's children,
yet who have children of their own. When they take care of someone else's children, they give all the love and attention to
them, yet in their hearts they're always with their own children who're waiting at home.

If you find that you keep craving for more of hatred, or pleasure, or anger, it means there's a strong mark left on your
consciousness that's hard to remove. Keep meditating the Buddha's way, and eventually it will get removed. That's important
because if you keep being attached instead of healing the imprint, you'll leave an even stronger imprint on your consciousness,
which will be even harder to remove and will make you more miserable.

A good example of renunciation that Acharn Sujin provides is about your clothes. If you no longer feel the necessity to buy more
clothes and you think your old clothes are more than enough, that's an example of renunciation. Or, for example, if you no
longer are interested in forming new intimate relationships with men or women, that's again a good example of renunciation. If
you no longer need to get daily coffee or eat chocolate, that's again renunciation. All these ways of detachment uncover
happiness within.

To develop renunciation we should aim at being contented with what we have, and give away that which we can live without.
These two small changes can significantly contribute to our liberation. There's no need to renounce everything and live like a
monk. A monk too can be attached to sense-pleasures, just as a householder. And a householder can be more detached from
sense-pleasures than a monk. No need, therefore, to leave everything and go to some remote place, though if that's what your
heart longs for, you can do so. It's a matter of detachment and not appearance which may falsely indicate one's level of
liberation.

So whether you find yourself addicted to some food (or generally to over-eating), sex, or attached to the approval of others,
assess your weaknesses and focus on their opposites. This will make it easier for you to gradually detach from them. These
attachments, however, should not be suppressed. If they arose, they should be released, because if you don't do that, they
might come and overwhelm you much more powerfully in the future. Keep, however, your mind focused on the opposite of
each sense-pleasure. That's the right way of eliminating all addictions and attachments.

Attachments can also be reduced by not taking any effort to get what you like seeing, hearing, or touching. So if you come
across this object that you like, that's fine. But if it's not in your environment, don't actively seek for it.

When we really try to become more detached, the mind gets scared. It will try to convince us that the world will be bland
without attachments to sense-pleasures. It may even look bland for real, for some time. However, if we persist in our
renunciation, eventually we start seeing things as they really are, and our minds become calm and happy. So, for example, it
may seem really hard and useless to give up attachment to tasty food. Yet we gain numerous benefits if we eat only to satisfy
our hunger. Such control of the taste faculty gives us great health, beautiful body, a long life, the ability to see things clearly, and
increased willpower.

Detachment from all sense-objects leads to the highest calm and well-being, according to Acharn Sujin. One cannot be
completely free from attachments if one doesn't have wisdom that penetrates into the nature of things of attachment. When
one has had countless births and is nearing to enlightenment, it might feel that you've had too much of sensual objects and so
you no longer want them; it's a bit similar to the experience when you eat too many sweets, and you become sick just by
thinking of having more. Some people are at the kindergarten level when it comes to attachments. They love them. Yet some,
having been born again and again to enjoy all these sensual things, eventually get sick of them all.

4. Wisdom
Wisdom has the characteristic of penetrating the real specific nature of any thing, like the penetration of an arrow shot by a
skillful archer; its function is to illuminate the objective field, like a lamp; its manifestation is non-confusion, like a guide in a
forest; concentration on the Four Noble Truths is its proximate cause.

Suffering arises only because of clinging to the physical phenomena. According to Gotama Buddha, people are intoxicated with
sensual pleasures and because of their ignorance of the real nature of such pleasures, they suffer. People who are still ignorant
and do not want to develop wisdom would not be interested in teachings that describe the right way to live. Only people who
already are awakening and acquired some wisdom would want to hear such teachings, the teachings that can show a way to
liberation and an end to their miseries. That's the way to know if someone is awakened or fast asleep. Even if a sleeping person
hears teachings that lead to liberation, they won't be interested in that and would certainly not apply the lessons. That's why
Jesus said to listen for people who have the ears to hear, and to see for those who have the eyes to see. These are new eyes and
new ears of an awakened person. An awakened person is the one who is born anew.

You know you acquired wisdom when you see the truth of anything you focus on. Wisdom is like a light illuminating the whole
room. It penetrates the depths of any object. Only wisdom can end ignorance; wisdom is the opposite of ignorance as harmony
is the opposite of chaos.

Wisdom takes a long time to develop. It starts developing when a person begins to wish to know the nature of reality. The
ability to listen to wisdom is the first step in acquiring it; yet most people can't even listen properly. So development of wisdom
takes a very long time, and requires energy and determination to grow in one's life. Another step in developing wisdom is total
awareness of the reality you're experiencing now, which is again very hard to accomplish, since most people view their realities
through a tinted glass, or jump to the past or future.

Attachment to sense objects will keep arising as long as wisdom is not developed. To develop wisdom, we should always reflect
on anything that happens to us. For example, if we see a person clinging to something, we should examine whether such
clinging exists in us too. If a person is angry at us, we should examine if anger still holds power over us. This way, instead of
reacting to something happening without wisdom, we will go within and develop the inner knowledge.

5. Energy
Energy has the characteristic of striving; its function is to fortify; its manifestation is incapability of being fatigued; an occasion
for the arousing of energy, or a sense of spiritual urgency, is its proximate cause.
Every consciousness that arises is accompanied by energy. Whether attachment to a positive or a negative event happens,
energy must be there for the attachment to take place. To end misery, we should only allow energy to flow towards developing
these ten perfections. Energy can be spent to look at the world with awareness, to notice and pay attention to the current
reality. Right energy use always helps you develop more wisdom.

For people who do not try to spiritually develop, it's natural for the energy to flow towards maintaining or gaining new
attachments. But when one gains wisdom, the energy stops flowing towards these misery-causing phenomena, and instead is
directed to developing kindness, giving, patience, and other perfections.

According to Buddhist texts such as Expositor, energy is responsible for courage as well as for cowardice; for activity as well as
for laziness.

When energy is developed it becomes a power. It accompanies wisdom always, and thus one sees the reality as it really is. The
lapses of ignorance and seeing things one-sidedly will cease. You know that energy is becoming stronger when you're not afraid
to speak out the truth, no matter what consequences await you for doing that. Energy is also growing when you start teaching
people the right way to live, without being afraid of those who will misunderstand you and will criticize you.

You can also check if your energy is developing by whether you can stop being angry quickly. It helps even more if the
awareness of your arisen anger is there. The person who cannot control her anger, however, hasn't even started developing her
energy for perfections. The person who's aware as soon as the anger arises has already halved his misery. This awareness and
energy, if developed, will lead to loving-kindness towards anyone who tries to disturb our peace.

We should use energy to:

avoid unwholesome actions and qualities which have not yet arisen;
overcome those unwholesome actions and qualities which have already arisen;
develop wholesome actions and qualities that haven't yet arisen;
maintain those wholesome actions or qualities that have already arisen in us, and to cause them to increase.
It's good to examine yourself daily to see what defilements you still have, and what good qualities you're developing. Daily
examination will open your eyes to big defilements, defilements that are lessening, and virtues that are growing in you. If you
don't examine yourself this way, you might not notice that you're accumulating new defilements or decreasing your virtues.

Once you find some defilement that you have, such as anger, hatred, or laziness, examine it. Try to understand why you still
have it, and think of ways to eradicate it. Try to be aware as soon as the defilement arises, and aim at the opposite of it. So if, for
example, you're becoming lazy, focus on your energy and do something to shackle laziness.

6. Patience
Patience has the characteristic of acceptance; its function is to endure the desirable and undesirable; its manifestation is
tolerance or non-opposition; seeing things as they really are is its proximate cause.

Patience is a beautiful quality to develop which should be practiced not only on negative events of your life, but also on positive
events. Only then wholesome patience develops. If you manage to develop patience, in all circumstances of your life you'll be
calm and at peace. You'll not be agitated when something negative happens, and you won't be over-excited when something
good manifests. That's the ultimate mastery of mind. People are quick to wish for the evenness of mind in negative
circumstances, but they don't understand that they do equal damage to themselves when they jump out of joy as a result of
something positive happening. That's still mental agitation, that's still conditioned reaction to some external event. This also
creates misery and bondage, though people are slow or not willing to notice that.

We can know that our patience is developing when our minds are not disturbed when we find ourselves in difficult situations,
and also when we're not swayed by something that appeals to us.

We should apply patience to everything we do. For example, when we're about to say something, we should have patience to
stay quiet and think over what we were about to say. Is it going to be helpful? Is it constructive? Is it at all useful to say it? Only
after considering these questions should we decide whether we should voice what's on our minds.

Patience, if developed to a high degree, dispels anger once and for all, according to The Basket of Conduct:
 The perfection of patience should be considered next. Patience is the unimpeded weapon of the good in the
development of noble qualities, for it dispels anger, the opposite of all such qualities, without residue. It is the
adornment of those capable of vanquishing the foe; the strength of recluses and brahmins; a stream of water
extinguishing the fire of anger; the basis for acquiring a good reputation; a mantra for quelling the poisonous speech
of evil people; the supreme source of constancy in those established in restraint. Patience is an ocean on account of
its depth; a shore bounding the great ocean of hatred; a panel closing off the door to the plane of misery; a staircase
ascending to the worlds of the gods and Brahmas; the ground for the habitation of all noble qualities; the supreme
purification of body, speech and mind.

Although it may seem that people who display bouts of power and energy in the form of words, and show energy in their
actions are powerful, in reality the most powerful person is that who is patient and tranquil. He doesn't waste his power; all the
power is stored within. He uses this power wisely, and therefore whenever he uses it, it creates intense effects. Whether a word
he utters, or an action he takes, it produces much bigger results than any impatient person constantly using energy can
produce.

Patience is indeed the medicine against the poisons coming forth from an evil person's mouth. If we react to toxic words with
speech, we're only increasing the fire of destruction. If we don't react but display patience, we are as though throwing water
and distinguishing the fire of anger and its negative effects. That's the best way to neutralize the poisons of negative people.

A good way to look at toxic people who wish to harm us is this. If such people are not present, how can you fully develop
patience? Look at such people, therefore, as an opportunity to further develop the beautiful quality of patience. In this way of
seeing this situation, the toxic person becomes a helpful tool to develop a good quality in yourself.

For you to accumulate perfection of patience easier, you can also tell to yourself that there's no use in brooding over things that
passed. Yes, some person might have been angry at us, but now it's over. Why to continue ruining your mental peace about the
event that's no longer there? Let the dead bury the dead, as Jesus said. Another way of looking at toxic people is this. They
should be viewed as ignorant children, beings devoid of knowledge. They know no better; they don't understand the effects of
karma. So they display anger and other emotions that hurt others. As they know no better, we shouldn't be angry at these
ignorant children. If we really start viewing such individuals as children who are still growing in the womb of earth, it becomes
easier to forgive them and to be patient with them. Also, if we're angry at them, what separates us from them in terms of
behavior? Nothing much. Imagine a parent being angry at a child who yet doesn't know how to walk. That would be foolish.
Instead, a mother may laugh and lovingly look at her child's attempts to take a first step. We further read in The Basket of
Conduct:

When the wrong-doer is endowed with noble qualities, I should not be angry with him. When he does not have any
noble qualities, then I should regard him with compassion. Because of anger my fame and noble qualities diminish,
and to the pleasure of my enemies I become ugly, sleep in discomfort, etc.

It's easy for good reputation to be destroyed by anger. Anger also quickly burns up current good qualities in a person. Thus it
shouldn't be allowed to rule you, and you can get rid of anger by practicing patience. The Basket of Conduct notes that the
person who mastered patience and thus destroyed anger has no enemies.

7. Truthfulness
Truthfulness has the characteristic of non-deceptiveness in speech; its function is to verify in accordance with facts; its
manifestation is excellence; honesty is its proximate cause.

Telling truth can only happen when you see truth. We should see things as they are, and not try to fool ourselves that
something bad is not so bad, or that something negative that we do is actually positive. Only when we see things as they are
and not try to fool ourselves can we hope that our speech will reflect this too.

Truthfulness cannot arise if we refuse to see ourselves as we really are. If we wish to overlook our negative qualities and
exaggerate our positive qualities in our minds, we won't be able to speak only truth. Thus we should not only see the external
reality as it really is, but we should also be able to view ourselves as we truly are.

This beautiful habit of examining oneself with the eye of truth will also carry over into the ability to examine others as they truly
are. That's real insight, instead of a false projection onto someone. So this truthful sight will enable us to penetrate the depths
of any being, and see them for who they really are.

Truthful speech is a powerful speech. In Hinduism it is known that a person who speaks nothing but the truth increasingly
energizes her words, and with time everything such a person says comes true.

Truthfulness can only arise when you sincerely want to develop it. All positive qualities require firstly a wish for them to arise. So
if you keep thinking about the beauty of only telling the truth, and seeing everything in the light of truth, soon truth will fill your
life.

All impurities start when we bend the truth. It's very easy to tell a white lie, to exaggerate something. But this ease shouldn't be
mistaken for the equally easy fruit this practice bears. Whenever we lie in any way, we become more and more ignorant, and
it becomes easier for us to commit further misery-causing deeds.

If you have an opportunity to leave the busy life and stay in some place where you can be alone, this can help you a lot in
developing the habit of only saying things that are true. That's because when you stay in silence for some days, you become
more conscious of what words you use after the silence, and thus you're much more aware of the thought processes that might
give birth to a lie.

In The Basket of Conduct we read that:

With truthfulness as the foundation, he is capable of purifying and fulfilling all the requisites of enlightenment.

Truthfulness, therefore, is a firm ground from which a tree of enlightenment grows. If the ground is unsuitable, no good seed
will sprout. Keep this base clean, therefore, so that it would serve as a perfect mirror to how things are, and would show you
the impurities you still hold. Someone who exaggerates even a little bit cannot attain full liberation.

8. Determination
Determination has the characteristic of determining upon the requisites of enlightenment; its function is to overcome their
opposites; its manifestation is unshakableness in that task; the requisites of enlightenment are its proximate cause.

Determination is a wonderful quality to have. Determination should never be forceful. It should be silent. Silent determination
must give the fruit you wish for. Determination by being silent and accepting your conditions makes the path unobstructed to
your goal. Yet if you're forcefully determined and do not accept your circumstances, you're like a heavy stone at the bottom of
the river, unable to move.

Determination can be applied to any goal to achieve it, and in meditation you should apply determination to understand the
nature of this reality, to pierce through reality, to see things as they are, and to not react to any sensation, image, or thought
that appears during your meditation hours. Determination will surely grow if you keep trying to develop it. It's like a muscle. It
should be developed daily for its healthy growth.

You know you're fully determined when you see no way back. Then success is assured to you. From my own life I can illustrate
this truth. When I made up my mind that my blog must succeed and must make me financially independent, I didn't have any
alternative plan just in case. There was no either or. The blog had to be a success that's all I thought about. That was my
extreme determination which indeed made my goal come true. The same kind of determination is applied by people towards
enlightenment. When you become disenchanted by the gifts of this world and see that they're impermanent and not the
ultimate reality, you gradually give them up, one by one, until a strong determination arises to pierce through this reality to
become fully liberated. When this full determination to become self-realized comes, the liberation must follow.

9. Loving-kindness
Loving-kindness has the characteristic of promoting the welfare of living beings; its function is to provide for their welfare, or its
function is to remove resentment; its manifestation is kindliness; seeing the agreeable side of beings is its proximate cause.

To develop loving-kindness it helps to see everything as temporary. For example, if a person is angry at us, we shouldn't be
angry in return. We don't know if it's the last time we see that person; we don't know when death will visit him or her.

Everyone makes mistakes. We shouldn't be angry at the person who makes mistakes that are different to the mistakes we make.
We all still make mistakes, and so we should be forgiving towards each other.

The quality of loving kindness promotes determination towards enlightenment and the wish to benefit fellow human beings.
The more we develop loving kindness, therefore, the stronger our resolve becomes to be fully liberated.

Loving-kindness comes naturally to those who have removed many impurities. It's our true nature. It's now covered up by many
impurities such as hatred and anger, but deep within this beautiful quality exists in each human being. You will notice that the
more loving-kindness you reveal within, the quicker your mind can settle in meditation. The mind becomes peaceful when there
is no hatred or ill-will. By developing loving-kindness you will also stop hating your enemies and instead wish them well and may
even take action that would help to remove their ignorance and which could give them peace. That's true loving-kindness.

Loving-kindness also develops compassion, whilst the failure of developing loving-kindness produces sorrow.

10. Equanimity
Equanimity has the characteristic of promoting the aspect of neutrality; its function is to see things impartially; its manifestation
is the subsiding of attraction and repulsion; reflection upon the fact that all beings inherit the results of their own karma is its
proximate cause.

As equanimity causes one to realize that one reaps what one sows, this knowledge of the universal law in turn further grows
equanimity. The firm inner knowledge of this law of nature makes your mind less judgmental and calmer. That doesn't mean
that you would not feel sad about crippled children or beggars. You'll just understand why they are so, and so you'll save mental
agitation.

A person who's agitated in the mind cannot do much good; it's likely that whatever action she takes with such imbalanced mind
will be the wrong one. Yet an equanimous person, without being disturbed by what he sees, will take the right action which will
benefit humanity. Thus equanimity is in no way indifference. It's simply an even mind born out of understanding of how things
are.
When the mind is in the unshakable state of equanimity, it's easy to see the solutions to all your problems, and the path
becomes straight to achieve complete self-awareness. When the mind is unshakable it's under no delusion. Most people keep
imbalancing their minds by replaying dramas of the past and remembering people who hurt them. They hurt themselves more
than their enemies when they do that, because they give no peace to their minds. The mind which knows no harmony will
never come up with anything good or creative. It will keep trying to bring itself into balance, but probably will just sway to the
other extreme in the process. Thus we see people jumping in joy one day, and crying in sorrow the next. That's not life, but
suffering; it's complete madness. Better to be aware of any mental disturbance and not ignorantly react, so that the mind would
remain even and so that equanimity would develop.

A truly equanimous person won't get upset when things don't go her way and she won't be talking in one manner to one
person, and in a different manner to another. All people and all circumstances will bear the same weight in her mind, and thus
there would be no mental disturbances, enabling her to be who she is when she faces any circumstance or person.

When you advance in developing your equanimity, it's good to test it out to see how much you've progressed. Maybe that will
mean to you having a conversation with the person you used to hate. Or maybe that would mean staying in a place that used to
get on your nerves. If you see that such events no longer affect you, be sure that your equanimity has developed to a high
degree. The practice of equanimity at all times also burns your karmas.

Some people who really want to develop equanimity spend their entire lives seeking things that might still show their rough
sides, and using equanimity to polish their behavior. So they endure the abuse watching if the anger is arising, and they put
themselves through trials requiring huge patience. I'm not telling you to take this route, but it's good to use any happening in
your life as a tool to further develop this good quality in you. Anything that agitates your mind can serve this purpose, even the
overly positive happenings.

Conclusion about ten perfections

These ten perfections will give you enough strength to walk the path to liberation without serious hindrances. Serious
hindrances are defilements in the mind, and these perfections, together with daily meditation, help to melt them.
The reason the path gets easier if you try to develop all ten perfections is because there are many defilements in the mind. It's
easier to get rid of them if there's no room for wrong conduct. Also, certain perfections eliminate certain defilements. For
example, the perfection of giving eliminates the sin of greed. Thus you should try to practice all ten perfections every day.

Meditation is strengthened and progress is quicker if you provide free service

Karma yoga, which is work without pay and without any expectation, simply doing the best and leaving up to God the rest,
really quickens your path to self-discovery. It also deepens meditation naturally. Many people who served for great causes
reported much easier meditation times and quicker spiritual progress. That especially applies to selfless activities that help
others to spiritually progress.

You can serve for free in donation-based meditation courses, in shelters of the sick, in orphanages, and many other places. If
you try to help the humanity, your spiritual path will surely become easier. Work as such is the best spiritual work for the
happiness of your soul. Though you should make sure to select an organization which really tries to selflessly help the world.

Some notes on non-attachment

Some people are under the false opinion that non-attached person is cold and indifferent to everything, sitting like a vegetable
and not doing anything. That's a totally mistaken view of non-attachment. A non-attached person is more alive than a person
full of attachments. A person full of attachments is sound asleep, and thus ignorant. Such a person runs after every pleasing
sense object and runs away from unpleasant sense objects. He thinks he's making decisions, yet he's just a doll played by his
karmas.

The non-attached person is the one in control of his life. Such a person usually has more energy, and thus does much more
good to the world than the person using up energy for acquiring or avoiding sense-objects. He can be the most loving, and the
hardest of workers, yet he never clings to the objects that are in his view, or to the results of his works. Because of this lack of
clinging his mind is at peace and even, and thus he avoids making mistakes. Also, because of this lack of clinging he saves a lot
of energy which can be used to further serve the world.
I see some people taking up Buddhism and becoming cold and withdrawn from the world. That's just an external facade and
doesn't mean they understand Buddha's teachings. It's what's inside that counts. So if a man is cold towards women and won't
even look at them, yet in his mind uncontrollable passions arise, that's nothing to do with non-attachment. Yet a man who is
married and treats his wife lovingly can be totally non-attached in his heart, sharing his unconditional love with the whole
world, yet not clinging to any manifestation of it.

After some time of Buddha's meditation you may understand that the purpose of non-attachment is to keep your mind
balanced. Keeping your mind balanced is the most important thing, because only when the mind is completely still, can you see
an accurate reflection of the world. And when you sharpen the mind, you can also penetrate and discover the essence of this
reality. Yes, it may seem pleasurable to go after sense objects, but this must then also include being disgusted and wanting to
avoid other sense objects. This always imbalances the mind, and then the mind sees only the distorted version of the reality,
and this causes you to make mistakes. Then life becomes full of suffering. This truth will become obvious to you if you continue
meditating daily.

That's the reason it's so important not to react to the negative behavior of others. Like Buddha said, you don't need to accept
the gifts of anger or hatred from people. So don't accept negative gifts thrown at you. Refuse them. This you do by refusing to
react to their provocations. If you can do so, you're truly a master of your mind and life.

Why we are inclined to commit negative deeds

According to Buddhist texts such as Nidana Sutta and Mula Sutta, the negative roots encouraging us to commit negative deeds
grow out of three causes:

1. desire for sense-pleasures;

2. desire for becoming this or that;
3. desire to get rid of something.
But these desires do not themselves cause us to commit negative deeds. They're actually offsprings of:
Lust
Ill-will
Ignorance
One of them must be dominant in each person. It's good to reflect on this, and to notice which root-cause of suffering is
dominant in you.

Sometimes you cannot come up with the answer straight away. Regular meditation, however, will make you much more aware
of your actions and the workings of your mind. This will soon show you in the bright light which root cause is responsible for the
energy behind the negative deeds.

Here are some pointers as to understand which root cause might be fueling your actions.

When we desire something and are deluded into thinking that nothing else matters but that desire, we are sure to be driven by
lust, whether the desire is for the person or a thing.

If we hate circumstances or people who we think prevent us from getting our desires, this hate is fueled by ill-will.

And because we're caught up in blindly desiring some object and hating those who we see as obstacles to get the object, this is
rooted in ignorance.

Usually people's greatest curse is their ignorance. The more we meditate and inquire into our essence, however, the more
wisdom we gain, and thus the more ignorance we dispel.

Buddhists do not believe in absolute evil. What they call evil is the mind of a person who's unawakened and thus full of negative
roots that cause misery. However, every person can become awakened by cultivating the ten perfections already mentioned in
the book.
Four meditative attainments of absorption
Buddha always advised his disciples to develop four meditative attainments of absorption he called Jhanas. Jhanas can also be
explained as states of deep mental unity caused by the mind being fully focused on some object to the extent that the mind
becomes the object.

Jhanas can only be experienced when the mind is purified from unwholesome states which obstruct the possibility of inner
peace. Buddha called these unwholesome states five hindrances. They are:

1. sensual desire;
2. ill will;
3. sloth and lethargy;
4. restlessness and worry;
5. doubt.
The states one should develop to achieve the first meditative attainment of absorption (jhana) are these:

1. applied thought;
2. sustained thought;
3. joy;
4. happiness;
5. one-pointedness.
Cultivated, these steps lift you up to total tranquility and insight, and by meditating on one object you can achieve the first
experience of total absorption (becoming one with some object).

These attainments help the meditator to become deeply serene, which helps to develop insight.
By focusing your attention on an object you allow negative qualities of the mind to burn up, such as restlessness and
impatience. At the same time positive qualities such as wisdom and deep focus grow. When a sufficient quantity of negative
qualities burns up, you feel yourself one with the object of your concentration. So, as you see, the more negative qualities you
eliminate, the quicker you'll experience absorption, and absorption itself helps to further burn the negative qualities of the
mind.

When, during such absorption, you use insight to explore the phenomena that's happening to you, this helps to burn the
impurities even more, finally leading you to liberation.

You know you've achieved the first absorption when you stop being a slave to the five mentioned hindrances and, due to
continuous applied thought and sustained thought, you experience joy and happiness when meditating alone. You also
experience complete one-pointedness of mind and can hold this state with ease it's naturally there.

To develop this first absorption further, here's what Buddha recommends:

1. Live alone.
2. Avoid pointless talk.
3. Spend time only with spiritual people.
4. Eat only suitable food.
5. Meditate in a suitable posture.
In addition, it's also helpful to clean the place of meditation and to have a thorough shower before meditating. Clean place and
clean body clarify the mind.

Only when the first absorption is perfected can you expect to reach the second absorption. The first absorption is perfected
when your mind can become one-pointed and stay so for as long as you want.

Anguttara Nikaya text gives this description of the four meditative absorptions:
1st meditative absorption

There is the case where a monk quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful qualities enters and
remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and
evaluation. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from
withdrawal. There is nothing of his entire body un-pervaded by rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal.

2nd meditative absorption

Furthermore, with the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, he enters and remains in the second jhana:
rapture and pleasure born of composure, unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation
internal assurance. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born
of composure. There is nothing of his entire body un-pervaded by rapture and pleasure born of composure.

3rd meditative absorption

And furthermore, with the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, and alert, and senses pleasure in the
body. He enters and remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, Equanimous and mindful, he has a
pleasant abiding. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture,
so that there is nothing of his entire body un-pervaded with pleasure divested of rapture.

4th meditative absorption

And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure and stress as with the earlier disappearance of elation and
distress he enters and remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither-pleasure-nor-
pain. He sits, permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness, so that there is nothing of his entire body un-
pervaded by pure, bright awareness.
Although some Buddhist texts describe the development of four jhanas as requiring different objects of concentration, in
Theravada tradition it's told by notable meditation teachers such as Sayadaw U Pandita (Mahasi Sayadaw's student) that
following the Buddha's meditation (of focusing on breathing, body sensations, etc.) will lead to continuously deeper absorption,
gradually taking you from one to the fourth mental absorption.

Things to think about

Here's a quote that can open your eyes to the way of true Buddhism, which is not what it currently is.

Buddha simply lived the right life wanting to get the insight into the truth. He didn't start Buddhism; Buddhism was started after
his death. So no need to convert to Buddhism and shave the head to become a monk. Actually, Buddha wasn't approving of
monk-hood.

As we read in The Basket of Conduct:

He gave up his wealth, his circle of relatives, and he left his home, in the same way as someone who enters the state
of monk-hood, although he did not become a monk. He lived in the same way as a monk. The Bodhisatta did not cling
to the state of monk-hood, he was averse to favors and praise that accrue to the monk. The monk must accept the
reverence that people show him, and he strives for the excellence of the status of monk-hood. The Bodhisatta was
just a monk at heart, he had the mentality of a monk, and in this way he lived in utmost happiness.

Here's one more quote to ponder on:

There is, oh bhikkhus [students], in the ocean a blind turtle. He plunges into the water of the unfathomable ocean
and swims about incessantly in any direction wherever his head may lead. There is also in the ocean the yoke of a cart
which is ceaselessly floating about on the surface of the water, and is carried away in all directions by tide, current,
and wind. Thus these two go on throughout an incalculable space of time. Perchance it happens that in the course of
time the yoke arrives at the precise place and time where and when the turtle puts up his head, and yokes on to it.
 Now, oh bhikkhus, is it possible that such a time might come as is said?

In ordinary truth, Lord, replied the bhikkhus, it is impossible; but time being so vast, and an aeon lasting so long, it
may be admitted that perhaps at some time or other it might be possible for the two to yoke together, as said: if the
blind tortoise lives long enough, and the yoke does not rot and break up before such a coincidence comes to pass.

Then the Buddha said:

Bhikkhus, the occurrence of such a strange thing is not to be counted a difficult one; for there is a still greater, a
harder, a hundred times, a thousand times more difficult thing than this lying hidden from your knowledge. And what
is this? It is, bhikkhus, the obtaining of a human existence again by a man who has expired and been reborn once in
any of the four realms of misery. The occurrence of the yoking of the blind tortoise is not worth thinking of as a
difficult occurrence in comparison therewith. Because only those who perform good deeds and abstain from bad
actions can obtain the existence of men and devas. The beings in the four miserable worlds cannot discern what is
virtuous and what vicious, what good and what bad, what moral and what immoral, what meritorious and what
demeritorious; consequently, they live a life of immorality and demerit, tormenting one another with all their power.
Those creatures of the hells and the ghost world in particular live a very miserable life on account of punishments and
torments which they experience with sorrow, pain and distress. Therefore, oh bhikkhus, the opportunity of being
reborn in the abode of men is a hundred times, a thousand times harder to obtain than the encountering of the blind
turtle with the yoke.

A quote from the original Buddha's teachings.

I included this quote to emphasize the importance of Buddha's meditation. Regular Buddha's meditation dispels ignorance and
assures you won't be reborn in any of the lower realms. If a person achieves certain meditation heights, she or he might even
choose what existence she or he wants to experience after death. Full liberation, however, means that the person will no longer
be reborn into any realms and will become merged with all Life.
The next step
If you read this book and you think that this meditation is definitely worth a try, I strongly recommend starting it in a group
dedicated to this meditation technique. Such groups are all over the world, and what's better, they are donation-based. Actually
first-time students don't have to pay a penny unless they find the meditation beneficial.

You can find a center near you by going to the website Dhamma.org.

If you live in a small country, it may mean there's no permanent center there, or the few courses such centers offer can get
booked out far in advance. In such a case I would highly advise you to visit a nearby country that has more centers and thus
centers are not over-booked.

Although you can start meditating on your own, it's really beneficial to go to such a center first. That's because in the center
you'll have to dedicate ten hours of your waking time for meditation only, as well as for listening to the discourses of S. N.
Goenka on a video tape. This will help you get established in this meditation, and form a beneficial routine. Sitting in meditation
for one or two hours at a time will also get your body used to this practice, and at home you'll find it much easier to continue.

Dhamma centers provided the first introduction to Buddha's meditation for me. At first I didn't fully understand the significance
of the teaching, but nevertheless gained spiritual benefits. My second time at such a center was a much more fruitful one,
though, and I came out of the center understanding this technique.

I highly recommend visiting any Dhamma center. The two centers I personally visited where near Madrid, Spain, and in Igatpuri,
India (near Mumbai). The latter center is the first Dhamma center in the world; it's massive and if you come for registration
early and request a private hut, you may get one. Otherwise you'll have to share a room with one other person (men and
women are separated in all centers). The center in Spain had only dorm rooms.

Usually centers in Asia have private rooms, whilst centers in Europe, for example, dorms. However, in the UK they have private
rooms too, and I heard that in some states in the US there are private rooms also. Sometimes you will need to meditate in your
room, whilst at most times all of the meditators will be meditating in a hall. You'll have to observe complete silence throughout
your stay.

Some centers are very small and they're rented (so not permanent places). In such centers amenities are usually limited, and
sometimes the energy is not really high. Nevertheless if that's the only center that you can stay in, please do so. You'll still get
more spiritual benefit than starting out on your own.

If at the moment you cannot spare ten days for such an experience, nevertheless book a far-in-advance date. You must commit
to it, otherwise you'll forget about it as you'll be bombarded with things to do every day. So do not delay this go to
Dhamma.org (I'm not affiliated with them in any way, by the way), select a country you choose to do the meditation in, and
book a date. You'll need to fill the application form and wait for an acceptance email to arrive.

The sixteen stages of knowledge only read this if you don't plan to go to a
meditation center
I'm giving these sixteen stages of knowledge so that you'd not be shaken if some new understanding about reality arises, or
some unexpected development occurs. In general it's not recommended to read this list, unless a person practices alone, and
difficulties arise, yet they cannot get access to any experienced meditation teacher. That's because when people read this list, it
becomes a goal for them to get to the next new experience on the list. Meditation should not have a goal; meditation with the
goal cannot make you liberated.

So again, please read this list only if you don't plan to go to the Dhamma meditation retreat.

As you read these pages remember that, without exception, no matter what stage has been reached or what new phenomenon
has been experienced, this principle of insight meditation applies across the board: just go on with the work of noticing mental
and material phenomena as they appear, without evaluating or naming those things; then let them go.

Don't cling to any experience. Whatever happens, don't be swayed or impressed by it, no matter how blissful or terrible. This
advice applies even to those who have reached the first level of enlightenment. If you honestly follow this rule and don't let the
mind talk you into making exceptions, you can be assured your practice will be correct and you will reach the end of the path as
soon as possible.

The sixteen stages of meditation knowledge (together with accompanying experiences)

(These steps actually apply to the progress of any effective meditation technique, and not only to Buddha's meditation.)

1.Knowledge to distinguish mental and physical states.

To explain further, this is when you become aware of the consciousness of seeing something or feeling something, and
separate it from the actual thing or sound.
Many people are so identified with what happens that they don't feel the separate action of the mind and the body. This
awareness marks the first meditation progress step.

2.Knowledge of the cause-and-effect relationship between mental and physical states.

For example, sometimes you become aware that you are breathing and you acknowledge this fact. That's a body causing
a thought.
Whilst sometimes you envision having a meal and then go to prepare it; that's a thought causing a body movement.
Awareness of these two separate causes means that the second step of insight meditation knowledge is achieved.

3.Knowledge of mental and physical processes as impermanent and non-self.

At this stage you become aware of the impermanence of any phenomena.
If you get pain, you know that it originated, it lasted for some time, and it will surely pass away.
The same is with a thought.
 The same is with any situation or event.
This observation finally makes you come to the conclusion that such processes are impermanent and not you.
At this stage there can be experiences that may distract you from the path. Some of them may seem very joyful and
extraordinary, yet you shouldn't pay importance to them and you should keep meditating with a tranquil mind. Such
experiences can be (they start more or less in this order but not always):
1. Experiencing light with closed eyes.
2. The feeling of absolute terror (do not react be a tranquil observer of this impurity manifestation).
3. The beginning of non-stop crying (let your body get rid of this impurity in the form of tears).
4. Feeling itchy as though ants are crawling all over your body.
5. Feeling as though your whole body is stiff.
6. The body starts trembling and shaking.
7. The feeling that the bed or ground under you is shaking.
8. The feeling that ripples of energy are flowing through your body (may be very pleasant, but do not get attached to this
sensation).
9. The body might start swaying back and forth or to one side and another.
10.It might feel like the body is extending or moving up.
11.Suddenly your body seems very cold.
12.Your mind becomes totally tranquil.
13.You might become drowsy.
14.There might be a state of total peace and tranquility which is interpreted by some meditators as enlightenment, but it
isn't.
15.All fidgeting stops and one feels calm and collected. (You will surely feel when this is reached. So if you're wondering if
you've reached this stage, it means you haven't yet.)
16.Concentration increases.
17.Forgetfulness vanishes.
18.Your thoughts become clear; there's no confusion left.
19.At this stage even negative people realize the profoundness of Buddha's philosophy and can give up negative habits.
20.You start feeling comfortable during meditation and due to this feeling you may want to practice meditation for a long
time.
21.There might be a wish to share with others your meditation attainments.
22.Meditator feels proud and happy with the results of meditation; it's likely such happiness was never felt before.
23. Now the stage comes where a meditator feels a wish to give back to the person who introduced him or her to
meditation, or to serve in meditation centers and give one's time to other good causes. There's a profound sense of being
grateful and a profound longing to give back. At this stage some people become formally initiated into Buddhism thus
becoming nuns or monks.
24.There's absolutely no thought of stopping meditation practice.
25.There's longing to go to a peaceful and quiet place and dedicate one's days to spiritual practices.
26.One now is practicing meditation whole-heartedly.
27.Now comes a risky stage where a meditator becomes too involved with meditation and practices all the time. Some
meditators practice for hours, and don't care about the needs of the body. Because of the poor treatment of the body
the comprehension becomes wobbly, and this becomes a distraction; the meditator may not be able to focus as before.
Buddha went through this stage and almost died because he didn't eat anything. Then the realization came to him that
the poor treatment of his body couldn't lead him to enlightenment.
28.If the above stage is passed, the focus comes back, and the meditator might find herself too much focusing on every
thought. This sometimes tricks her into jumping from the past to the future. As clear happenings of the past manifest on
the mental screen, the meditator risks getting lost in thinking about the past. At this stage a meditator might start vaguely
remembering her past lives.
29.The meditator reaches a stage where he thinks his knowledge is all correct, and might even argue with his meditation
teacher.
30.There can arise a next stage when a meditator finds herself commenting on every happening of the body. So when she is
aware she's breathing in, she mentally says I'm breathing in and when she becomes a little bit interested in something,
she might comment I'm becoming a little bit interested in this.
31.The meditator might start analyzing everything one studied in the past (analyzing acquired knowledge, that is).
32.The meditator becomes neutral, indifferent. He's neither pleased, nor displeased in his meditations and daily life.
33.The mind becomes undisturbed and peaceful.
34.There may come complete indifference to the needs of one's body.
35.Whatever happens externally, meditator is not affected by that. But instead of being mindful, he dispassionately analyzes
external events.
36.Then comes a stage in which a meditator gains satisfaction from every object. He's satisfied with the way he is, with what
he sees, with what visions he gets with everything.

4.Knowledge of arising and passing away.

At this stage every event is seen from the start to the beginning, clearly, identifying its stages. For example, you know
when your abdomen starts rising when you breathe in, and when it falls.
At this stage you might also see clear, bright light when you meditate.
 During meditation the body might start bending backwards and forwards, as though you're about to fall asleep.
At this stage if a meditator has good concentration sometimes her breath will cease for a few seconds or minutes.
It may feel then that you're falling into the void, yet the physical body remains motionless.

5.Knowledge of the dissolution of formations.

At this stage you're able to perceive when the consciousness itself is born and dies, moment after moment.
Sometimes the body movements (like abdomen rising and falling) may seem to disappear, and then the awareness of
them seems to disappear too.
At times you're aware of the rising and falling of the abdomen, but the feeling of Self disappears.
There might be a feeling of warmth in the whole body.
Consciousness might disappear for some time.
At this stage during non-meditation hours you may perceive external objects to be moving or shaking.
Everything may appear vague, shapeless in the external world.
You might perceive the vibration of the air.

6.Knowledge of the fearful nature of mental and physical states.

When the acknowledgment of objects ceases together with consciousness, the meditator might be overwhelmed with
fear of shade he never experienced before.
When the meditator feels that she's nothing, intense fear can overtake her.
Sometimes fear that seems nerve-based can accompany a meditator in daily actions.
 Sometimes even a normal material item like a glass of water starts making meditators afraid. This eventually makes a
meditator reassess what the material reality really is.
(Some meditators manage to stay tranquil despite this feeling of fear.)

7.Knowledge of mental and physical states as unsatisfactory.

Now the meditator enters a stage where negative and irritable feelings suddenly arise.
The consciousness appears and the world stabilizes, but the meditator sees the world in a different way.
He sees impermanence and suffering in every experience.

8.Knowledge of disenchantment.
Now to the meditator all objects become mundane.
There's a feeling of boredom and sadness. It may feel as though the meditator has been separated from something much
loved.
At this stage the meditator understands that the only satisfactory existence is complete enlightenment, and begins to
work harder to achieve it.
At this stage there's no wish to see people and to talk, and the meditator will want solitude.
There might be loneliness and sadness.
If there was ever a desire to become rich and famous, this desire vanishes now.
The meditator becomes disenchanted by all worldly offerings because she understands that everything is impermanent
and will decay after some time.
All the feelings of attachment disappear at this stage.
 The wish to achieve full self-realization grows.

9.Knowledge of the desire to abandon the worldly state.

The meditator feels uneasy, restless, impatient.
Sometimes it feels as though ants are crawling all over the body and one feels itchy everywhere.
There might be a wish to give up meditation.
At this stage it seems that the progress it backwards and not forwards, and some meditators because of this mistaken
assumption stop their meditations.

10.Knowledge which investigates the path to deliverance and instills a decision to practice further.
At this stage body sensations may become unbearable. For example, a meditator might feel that needles or knives are
piercing his body.
The body may feel very stiff, or very heavy.
The meditator may feel drowsy or the body may feel hot.

11.Knowledge which regards mental and physical states with equanimity.

There's neither fear nor gladness at this stage; only indifference remains.
The meditator feels neither happiness nor sadness.
The mind and consciousness are as clear as a mirror.
The meditator can remember past things easily and the concentration becomes deep.
 Her mind remains deeply tranquil and undisturbed by external events for a very long time.
This itself starts feeling satisfying and it's easy to forget the time.
At this stage various diseases such as paralysis are cured.

12.Knowledge which conforms to the Four Noble Truths.

Knowledge comes from inside. Meditator starts understanding steps to enlightenment and truths about this reality.
The Four Noble Truths are about the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin or suffering, the truth of the ending of
suffering, and the truth of the path leading to the end of the suffering.
These four truths will reveal themselves to the meditator all at once, and it would feel as though the light has been
extinguished, and the meditator might find herself in the void.

13.Knowledge of deliverance from the worldly condition.

Now one becomes completely separated from the world.
The body, mind, and consciousness become totally tranquil. There's no more feeling of one possessing a mind or a body,
and so awareness naturally grasps the enlightenment as its object.
Once that's achieved, a person can be considered enlightened, yet the meditator is not established in the enlightenment
state completely. She enters in and out of this state.
Now the meditator is hanging between physical and non-physical existence.

14.Knowledge by which defilements are abandoned and are overcome by destruction.

No defilements of mind are left at this stage.
 There's clear and complete knowledge of the next step.
The knowledge of universal laws is clear and complete.
The meditator has no doubt about life after death and what happens when one dies.
The meditator understands everything about the reality and can stay in the enlightenment stream for a little time.
This stage is the last stage of awareness, before a person fully enters into enlightenment.
First it might feel strange to lose all sense of the mind and body and it might feel like falling into a deep black hole.
Then the meditator becomes surprised at this, and then finally the lightness dawns, and the meditator becomes
completely happy and at ease.
No worldly happiness can be compared to this real happiness, when one no longer has burdens of defilements and
identification with mind and body.

15.Knowledge which realizes the fruit of the path and has enlightenment as object.
The mind comes to know what has happened (the meditator reached enlightenment).
Now at this stage mental defilements are prevented from reoccurring.

16.Knowledge which reviews.

At this stage the meditator contemplates the defilements that have been eradicated, how the path to enlightenment was
followed, and that enlightenment was achieved.

Final words
I'm not a Buddhist, nor do I intend to become one. I chose to stick to Buddha's meditation and create a book about it because
his meditation makes sense, and it's effective I started feeling results from day one. Because it's hard to not get lost in the
jungle of Buddhist texts, one can only witness how much there was added to Gotama's original teachings. Furthermore, every
enlightened person explained their understanding in slightly different terms, which is perfectly normal as every human being
expresses himself in a unique way.

Buddha's understanding of no-soul is questioned to this day. It's hard to even know if he believed that there was some essence
within or not, because his words got lost in translation and mistranslation. What's more important to do is to experience the
truth yourself, because no words of other people will disclose full reality. Whatever the truth is, it's important to know it, rather
than hide from it and fear what's waiting at death.

I know some people don't like Buddhism because it denies soul. Some Buddhists claim that soul exists, some are kind of vague
about it, and some deny the existence of it. It doesn't matter. What matters is that we have in our hands the tool using which
we can attain complete knowledge of ourselves. So let's not be discouraged by the hundreds of texts contradicting themselves,
but stick with this tool of meditation only. Whatever we dig out, it's the truth. No need to burden our minds with too much
philosophy.

Because of this reason I do not repeat to myself that the self is impermanent. It might be, it might not be. The way I see it, it's a
self-suggestion and repeating it will only convince one of this reality more. Better to leave out all such affirmations and to just
focus on the technique of Buddha's meditation and discover truth for ourselves.

One common concern

I know some people who say that meditating this way and any other Eastern practice for that matter, will annihilate personality.
Since I've been involved in Eastern practices for quite a few years, I can only say that they remove the ego, and leave the
beautiful aspects of you. If by eliminating personality it means the elimination of ego, it's all good. So by being involved in
spiritual practices of the East I found myself getting more and more in the flow of life, and yes, not thinking much about the self,
and that created even more happiness. That doesn't mean you lose understanding of who you are. You know more than ever
about who you are, because you're no longer holding onto the illusion that you are your occupation or your name. You are This.
You are the same as the Universe. If eliminating a small personality means expanding your awareness into greater beingness
and more life, I don't see any harm in this, only the benefit. After all, behind all these preferences and takes on life, lies the
quiet observer the awareness itself.

People who are enlightened do not become crazy and do not stop acknowledging their bodies. They just become fully aligned
with the energy that they are, whilst unenlightened people are kept cut off from the source of this energy, thus thinking they
are separate bodies who will die. Buddha after his enlightenment taught many people how to meditate, and how to achieve
liberation. He wasn't a vegetable sitting and doing nothing. That's not what enlightenment is about. Enlightenment means fully
opening your eyes to the reality. It means absolute awareness.

The more ego you eliminate, the happier you become and the more you understand the world. It seems that the more you
meditate, for example, the more you zoom out of the details to see the whole picture. So you see what this reality really is.

May Buddha's meditation help you open the doors to complete self-knowledge and understanding about this reality!

With love,

Simona Rich
References

1. The Art of Living

2. The Perfections Leading to Enlightenment
3. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha
4. Paramattha Dipani
5. Deeds of Merit by Sujin Boriharnwanaket
6. Buddhist Thought
7. In The Buddha's Words
8. Mula Sutta
9. Keys to Living Well
10.The World's Wisdom
11.The Way of Mindfulness
12.Satipatthana Sutta
13.The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment
14.The Middle Length Discources of the Buddha
15.Mahasatipatthana Sutta
16.Buddhist Scriptures
17.Vipassana Dipani
The End.