Chapter 5
(Tape 12)
Today we will do two chapters, chapter five
and chapter six because both chapters are small chapters, not like the fourth
chapter. The fourth chapter is a long chapter. Up to the end of the fourth
chapter we have studied how a person practices the first of the kasiÓa
meditation subjects. That is the earth kasiÓa meditation up to the attainment
of jhÈnas. Then we will look at the person who makes the jhÈnas a basis for
vipassanÈ and practices vipassanÈ meditation on them and becomes an Arahant.
Only the jhÈnas are mentioned here, not vipassanÈ in this chapter.
The four jhÈnas - first, second, third,
fourth - are explained in detail in the fourth chapter. That is the four jhÈnas
or five jhÈnas that are attained through the practice of earth kasiÓa
meditation are explained.
You may remember that there are ten kasiÓa
objects for meditation mentioned earlier at the beginning of chapter four.
Chapter five deals with the remaining kasiÓa objects of meditation. We have the
earth kasiÓa in chapter four. In chapter five we will have the remaining nine
kasiÓas.
The next kasiÓa is the water kasiÓa. The
word ‘kasiÓa’ cannot be translated into English. It is very difficult. For the
sake of convenience we translate it as disk meditation. Not all the kasiÓa
objects are disks however. So we will just leave it untranslated and use the
word ‘kasiÓa’. ‘KasiÓa’ means whole or orb. When you practice with the kasiÓa,
you take the whole of the object, not just part of the object. That is why it
is called ‘kasiÓa’. In PÈÄi ‘kasiÓa’ means whole or orb.
Now we want to practice water kasiÓa. What
should we do? “One who wants to develop the water kasiÓa should, as in the case
of the earth kasiÓa, seat himself comfortably and apprehend the sign in water that
is ‘either made up or not made up’.” Water kasiÓa can be practiced without a
made up kasiÓa. One may just look at water and practice water kasiÓa meditation
on it. That is for those who had experience in the past, especially in past
lives. For those who have not had previous experience, they will have to make a
water kasiÓa.
“Someone with no such previous practice
should guard against the four faults of a kasiÓa.” That means the water should
be clear water or colorless. It should not be red or yellow, but it should be
clear water. ‘The four faults of a kasiÓa’ means it should not be mixed with
color. If it is mixed with color, it will become color kasiÓa and not water
kasiÓa. The water has to be pure and clean.
“He should fill a bowl or a four-footed
water pot (something like a kettle) to the brim with water uncontaminated by
soil, taken in the open through a clean cloth [strainer], or with any other
clear unturbid water. He should put it in a screened place on the outskirts of
the monastery as already described and seat himself comfortably. He should
neither review its color nor bring its characteristic to mind.” That means he
should not reflect on its color because it will be color kasiÓa and not water
kasiÓa. You should not reflect on the characteristic of water. Water has the
characteristic of cohesion. Here you are to take water as a concept, not as a
reality.
“He should neither review its color nor
bring its characteristic to mind, apprehending the color as belonging to its
physical support.” Clear is a kind of color. One should not pay attention to it
although one may be seeing it. It is like the earth kasiÓa. You may be seeing
the earth or the color of the earth, but
you do not reflect on it. You do not keep your mind on the color of the earth
but on the earth itself. In the same way here even though there may be some
color in the water, you do not pay attention to color, but you pay attention to
the substance called ‘water’.
“He should set his mind on the [name]
concept as the most outstanding mental datum, and using any among the [various]
names for water (Èpo) such as rain (ambu), liquid (udaka), dew (vÈri), fluid
(salila), he should develop [the kasiÓa] by using [preferably] the obvious
‘water, water’.” Then the footnote states: “English cannot really furnish five
words for water.” In PÈÄi there are many synonyms for water. The author tells
us you can say any of the words.
Student:
You shouldn’t switch words. You should just focus on one word.
Teacher:
that’s right.
Student:
The water should be very still?
Teacher:
Yes.
In English we just say ‘water, water’ or you
could say ‘liquid, liquid’ or you could say some other thing. ‘Water’ is the
word that comes to us naturally when we see the substance.
Student:
so this is similar to mantra practice.
Teacher:
It is something like that, but the meditator does not concentrate on the sound
‘water’. He concentrates on the substance, on the concept. That is the
difference.
Then he develops the kasiÓa looking at the
water and then closing his eyes trying to visualize it, and then he looks at
the water again like the meditator did with the earth kasiÓa. Then he gets
first jhÈna, second jhÈna and so on as with the earth kasiÓa.
Here the learning sign and the counterpart
sign - “If the water has bubbles of froth mixed with it, the learning sign has
the same appearance.” If there are bubbles of water, or froth, or whatever the
learning sign is the same as that because the learning sign is the exact image
of the real thing. After you get the learning sign or the grasped sign, you may go to any place
and sit down and concentrate on that visualized or memorized image. Then the
faults in the learning sign will gradually disappear and it will become very
clear.
“The learning sign has the same appearance,
and it is evident as a fault in the kasiÓa. But the counterpart sign appears
inactive (That means still.), like a crystal fan set in space, like the disk of
a looking-glass made of crystal. With the appearance of that sign he reaches
access jhÈna (That is neighborhood jhÈna.) and the jhÈna tetrad and pentad in
the way already described.” He dwells upon the counterpart sign again and again
and gets jhÈna - first jhÈna, second jhÈna, third jhÈna, fourth jhÈna, or five
jhÈnas. That means if he eliminates vitakka and vicÈra at the same time, there
are four jhÈnas. If he eliminates the jhÈna factors one at a time, then there
are five jhÈnas.
The remaining kasiÓas are pretty much the
same. With fire kasiÓa you look at some fire. “Herein, when someone with merit,
having had previous practice, is apprehending the sign, it arises in him in any
sort of fire, not made up, as he looks at the fiery combustion in a lamp’s
flame or in a furnace, or in a place for baking bowls, or in a forest
conflageration, as in the Elder Cittagutta’s case.”
“The sign arose as he was looking at a
lamp’s flame while he was in the Uposatha house on the day of preaching the
Dhamma. Anyone else should make one up.” If a person has no practice
previously, he will have to make a fire kasiÓa.
One should build a fire. “He should make a
hole a span and four fingers wide in a rush mat or a piece of leather or a
cloth.” You make a hole. It may be about ten inches in diameter. Then you look
at the fire through that hole. You say ‘fire, fire, fire’. There are different
synonyms for fire. You may take any of those. In the same way the learning sign
and the counterpart sign will appear to you. You dwell on the counterpart sign
and jhÈna will arise. Then first, second, third and fourth jhÈna will come.
Then there is the air kasiÓa. How do we
practice the air kasiÓa? A yogi should practice air kasiÓa by looking at
something or by feeling. When you look at a tree shaking in the wind, you see
that that is wind. That is air. Or as it is said in this book you may sit near
a window and feel the wind touching your body. You may concentrate on that
feeling of air touching your body or the movement of air in the treetops. There
are two ways that you can practice air kasiÓa meditation. Then you can say any
one of the synonyms for wind or air. In English it is just air.
“Here the learning sign appears to move like
the swirl of hot [steam] on rice gruel just withdrawn from an oven. The
counterpart sign is quiet and motionless.” The counterpart sign is always like
that. It is more refined, smoother, and maybe more brilliant, but the learning
sign is just the exact image of the object.
Next is the blue kasiÓa. The PÈÄi word for
blue is nÊla. This word means more than just blue. For example it can mean
black. Hair is said to be nÊla in color. Maybe not the color of the hair of
Western people. I see many hair colors here. It is like the hair of Eastern
people, black. In
Student:
Could it be green?
Teacher:
Yes, if it is very dark. So here we have any color bordering on blue - blue, or
maybe dark green, or something like black.
“One who is learning the blue kasiÓa
apprehends the sign in blue, whether in a flower, or in a cloth, or in a color
element.” ‘Color element’ simply means paint. You may paint on a board blue
color and practice on it.
“One should take flowers such as blue
lotuses, girikaÓÓikÈ (morning glory) flowers, etc., and spread them out to fill
a tray or a flat basket completely so that no stamen or stalk shows, or with
only their petals. Or he can fill it with blue cloth bunched up together; or he
can fasten the cloth over the rim of the tray or basket like the covering of a
drum. Or he can make a kasiÓa disk, either portable as described under the
earth kasiÓa or on a wall, with one of the color elements such as bronze-green,
leaf-green, anjana-ointment black.” Anjana-ointment is the cosmetic women use
to decorate their eyes. What do you call that?
Students:
Eye shadow. Mascara.
Teacher:
Yes, mascara. It can be any color?
Student:
It’s usually dark.
Teacher:
Yes, it must be dark. So any one of these colors will do. He surrounds it with
a different color. Let us say you want to make a blue kasiÓa. The circle should
be blue and the bordering color should not be red, yellow or white, but some
other color. There should be no confusion with the colors of the other kasiÓas.
“After that he should bring it to mind as ‘blue, blue’.” He looks at it and
says ‘blue, blue’. The rrest is similar to the preceding kasiÓa objects.
With the yellow kasiÓa one uses a yellow
cloth, yellow flowers or yellow paint. The only difference is the color.
With the red kasiÓa you use red color - red
flowers, red cloth or red paint. With white kasiÓa you use white flowers, white
cloth or white paint.
Next is the light kasiÓa. “One who is
learning the light kasiÓa apprehends the sign in light in a hole in a wall, or
in a keyhole, or in a window opening.” So it is light coming through a hole.
“So firstly, when someone has merit, having
had previous practice, the sign arises in him when he sees the circle thrown on
a wall or a floor by sunlight or moonlight entering through a hole in the wall,
etc., or when he sees a circle thrown on the ground by sunlight or moonlight
coming through a gap in the branches of a dense-leafed tree or through a gap in
a hut made of closely packed branches. Anyone else should use that same kind of
circle of luminosity just described, developing it as ‘luminosity, luminosity,
or ‘light, light’. If he cannot do so, he can light a lamp inside a pot, close
the pot’s mouth, make a hole in it and place it with the hole facing a wall.
The lamplight coming out of the hole throws a circle on the wall.” He looks at
that circle and says ‘light, light’.
“This lasts longer than the other kinds.”
That means that sunlight or moonlight may change. They may not last long, but
this light which is put in a pot and that falls on the wall will last longer.
“The learning sign is like the circle thrown
on the wall or the ground. The counterpart sign is like a compact bright
cluster of lights. The rest is as before.”
The last one is the limited space kasiÓa.
Here ‘limited space’ is said to differentiate it from ‘infinite space’ which is
the object of the first formless (ar|pÈvacara) jhÈna. After getting the fifth
or the fourth jhÈna, if a person wants to attain ar|pÈvacara jhÈna, first he
has to practice the kasiÓa meditation. Then he makes the sign disappear and he
dwells on the space that was taken by the sign. Then he expands this sign until
the end of the world or the end of the universe.
But here the yogi takes the space which is
limited. It is like looking at a round hole or something like that. “One who is
learning the space kasiÓa apprehends the sign in a hole in a wall, or in a
keyhole, or in a window opening, and so firstly, when someone has merit, having
had previous practice, the sign arises in him when he sees any [such gap as a]
hole in a wall. Anyone else should make hole a span and four fingers broad in a
well thatched hut, or in a piece of leather, or in a rush mat, and so on. He
should develop one of these, or a hole such as a hole in a wall, as ‘space,
space’.” So he looks at the hole and says ‘space, space’.
“Here the learning sign resembles the hole
together with the wall.” So there is a limit. There is a boundary. That is why
in that state attempts to expand it fail. You cannot expand that in the mind
because it has a limited boundary.
“The counterpart sign appears only as a
circle of space.” Here there is no boundary, just a circle of space, and so
attempts to extend it succeed. “The rest should be understood as described
under the earth kasiÓa.”
These are the ten ksiÓas. All of the ten
kasiÓas lead a yogi to attain all four jhÈnas or all five jhÈnas.
The following is general but I think it is
the interesting part of this chapter. We will learn what results we can get
from the jhÈnas based on the practice of kasiÓa meditation.
You know in the book many miracles are
stated like flying through the air, going into the earth, creating storms or
fire. They may be called ‘psychic powers’ now. In order to get those powers
first one has to attain all eight or nine jhÈnas, not only r|pÈvacara jhÈnas
but also ar|pÈvacara jhÈnas also. Then one goes back to the fourth or the fifth
jhÈna and practices in a special way so that the supernormal power or ‘direct
knowledge’ as it is called in this book arises in that person. When the direct
knowledge arises as that person wishes, he is able to see things far away, he
is able to hear sounds far away and so on. Then there are monks who show their
psychic power.
Suppose you want to shake this whole
building. What must you do? Suppose you have power. If you go about it in the
wrong way, you will not be able to do that. In order to shake this building you
must practice jhÈna taking water kasiÓa as an object. If you develop jhÈna on
earth kasiÓa, it will become stronger and you will not be able to shake it. In
order to shake this building you have to practice jhÈna on water kasiÓa. Water
is fluid. If you develop direct knowledge, you will be able to do that. Things
like this are mentioned in the following paragraphs. They are interesting.
Student:
In order to get those psychic powers one has to attain all eight jhÈnas?
Teacher:
Yes.
Student:
Then one comes back to the fourth jhÈna and concentrates on that in a special
way.
Teacher:
Yes. This will be explained later in chapter 13.
Student:
You want to shake this building?
Teacher:
It is interesting. There is a story of a novice. It is said that he had psychic
powers. He went up to the world of the gods and he said: “I will show my power
to you. I will shake your buildings, your mansions so that you will become
afraid.” He tried to do that, but he was not successful. He couldn’t shake them
at all. The celestial nymphs teased him and he went back ashamed. Then he
returned to his teacher and told him that he tried to shake the celestial
mansion and he was unable to do that. His teacher said to him that he got into
the wrong jhÈna meditation. He had practiced jhÈna on the earth kasiÓa. So he
could not shake the mansion. Then he went up again. Once again the nymphs
teased him. But this time their king said: “Do not tease him. Now he has
instructions from his teacher.” So that time he was able to shake the celestial
mansion.
These supernormal powers are mentioned in
the following paragraphs. The first is the results of the earth kasiÓa. “The
earth kasiÓa is the basis for such powers as the state described as ‘having
become one, he becomes many’ (That means you make multiple images of
yourself.), etc.” Let me read about etc.
“Being one he becomes many, or having become many he becomes one again. He
becomes visible or invisible. He goes feeling no obstruction through the
further side of a wall, or a rampart, or a hill as if through air. He
penetrates up and down through the solid ground as if through water. He walks
on water without breaking through as if on solid ground. He travels
cross-legged in the sky like the birds on wing. Even the moon and the sun so
potent, so mighty though they be, does he touch and feel with his hand. He
reaches in the body even up to the heaven of Brahma.” Such things can be done
through direct knowledge.
“Stepping or standing or sitting on space or
on water by creating earth, and the acquisition of the bases of mastery (Those
are the jhÈnas again, the developed jhÈnas.) by the limited and measureless
method.”
“The water kasiÓa is the basis for such
powers as diving in and out of the earth.” So if you want to dive into the
earth, first you enter into water kasiÓa and something like create water in
your mind so that you can get into the earth. “Causing rain storms, creating
rivers and seas, making the earth, and rocks, and palaces quake” - if you want
to read the references I can give you the page numbers. For D.1,78 the English
translation is Dialogues of the Buddha, volume 1, page 88. For M.2,13 the
English translation is Middle length Sayings, volume 2, page 213.
Student:
The footnote says “Sense desires are not called empty (ritta) in the sense that
space, which is entirely devoid of individual essence, is called empty.” So
sense desires are not empty?
Teacher:
Right. Emptiness in TheravÈda teaching is different. Whenever we say ‘empty’,
we mean it as empty or devoid of permanency, devoid of happiness, devoid of
self. It is not that they do not have an existence of their own because desire
is a reality (paramattha). It is an ultimate reality. Desire is a mental
factor. So it has its own existence or entity. But it is free or void of
permanency. It is void of happiness (sukha). It is void of self or ego. So it
is called void or suÒÒa. It is different.
Student:
It is empty in that it is going to change, in that it is not permanent. It is
empty in that sense.
Teacher:
yes.
Student:
It is not empty in that it has momentary existence.
Teacher:
Yes. It has momentary existence.
Student:
Space does not even have momentary existence.
Teacher:
Space is not included in the realities. Space is considered to be a concept,
space and time.
Student:
Is your description of sense desire different from MahÈyana?
Teacher: I
don’t know what ‘suÒÒa’ means in MahÈyana. If it means that sense desire has no
existence at all, that it is something like a concept, then it is different.
What we understand by suÒÒa is that it is devoid of permanency and so on. But it
has its own existence, momentary existence. It arises and disappears. During
that moment it is real. So it is called reality, but this reality has no
quality of permanency and so on, no substance.
“The fire kasiÓa is the basis for such
powers as smoking, flaming, causing showers of sparks, countering fire with
fire, ability to burn only what one wants to burn, causing light for the
purpose of seeing visible objects with the divine eye, burning up the body by
means of the fire element at the time of attaining NibbÈna.”
The ability to burn only what one wants to
burn is to be found in the SaÑyutta NikÈya. In the translation it is to be
found in Kindred Sayings, volume 4, page 196. (In Bhikkhu Bodhi’s more recent
translation it is in The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, volume 2, pages
1319 & 1320.) There a monk did that.
“The Venerable Mahaka went to his lodging
and shut the bolt of the door, performed such a feat of magic power such that a
flame came through the keyhole and the parts about and the parts about the door
bar, and set the grass on fire, but not the cloak. Citta the householder in
alarm with hair on end shook out his cloak and stood aside.” So here the
venerable showed his psychic power. The cloak did not burn but the grass
burned. That is what is said here. This is the ability to burn only what one
wants to burn.
This fire kasiÓa is very useful in trying to
see things with the divine eye. The divine eye is one kind of direct knowledge.
In order to see far away things or to see things in the dark one needs some
light. So first he practices jhÈna based on the fire kasiÓa. Then he goes to
the fifth jhÈna and so on.
‘Burning up the body by means of the fire
element at the time of NibbÈna’ - that means when an Arahant dies if he has this
power, he could will that the body be consumed by fire when he dies. Nobody has
to take care of burning his body. It will burn by itself. In order to do that
before his death he enters into jhÈna on the basis of fire kasiÓa. Then he
wills “May my body burn at death.”
That was done by one of the disciples of the
Buddha. His name was Venerable Bakkula. He was foremost among those that are
free from disease. He was endowed with perfect health. Before he died he
thought “I have not given any duty or any burden to anybody in my life. So when
I die, I will not give them this burden of cremating my body. Let my body
cremate itself.” So he willed that way and then he died. As soon as he died,
the body was consumed by fire. The moment he died the body was burned.
“The air kasiÓa is the basis for such powers
as going with the speed of the wind, causing wind storms. The blue kasiÓa is
the basis for such powers as creating black forms, causing darkness,
acquisition of the bases of mastery by the method of fairness and ugliness, and
attainment of the liberation by the beautiful. The yellow kasiÓa is the basis
for such powers as creating yellow forms, resolving that something shall be
gold.” You may resolve that something will be gold and then it may turn into gold
or look like gold. The reference is Kindred Sayings, volume 1, page 145.
“The red kasiÓa is the basis for such powers
as creating red forms, acquisition of the bases of mastery in the way stated
and attainment of the liberation by the beautiful. The white kasiÓa is the
basis for such powers as creating white forms, banishing stiffness and torpor
(That is banishing sleepiness.), dispelling darkness, causing light for the
purpose of seeing visible objects with the divine eye. The light kasiÓa is the basis
for such powers as creating luminous forms, banishing stiffness and torpor,
dispelling darkness, causing light for the purpose of seeing visible objects
with the divine eye.” The white kasiÓa and the light kasiÓa are almost the
same.
“The space kasiÓa is the basis for such
powers as revealing the hidden, maintaining postures inside the earth and rocks
by creating space inside them, traveling unobstructed through walls and so on.”
“The classification ‘above, below, around,
exclusive, measureless’ applies to all kasiÓas.” They are the different aspects
of the kasiÓas.
“No kasiÓa can be developed by any living
being described as follows: ‘Beings hindered by kamma, by defilement, or by
kamma-result, who lack faith, zeal, and understanding, will be incapable of
entering into the certainty of rightness in profitable states.”
“Hindered by bad kamma refers to those who
possess bad kamma entailing immediate effect [rebirth].” It is given in the
footnote that it is the five kinds of grievous kamma - killing one’s mother,
killing one’s father, killing an Arahant, causing blood to congeal in the body
of the Buddha, and causing schism in the Community, in the Sa~gha. These are
said to be very grievous offenses. A person who has done any one of these cannot
escape rebirth in hell in the next existence. It is said here that if anyone
has done any of these, he will not be able to develop jhÈna.
The fourth one is important. Here it say
‘intentional shedding of a Buddha’s blood’. It is believed in the TheravÈda
tradition that we cannot wound a Buddha. We cannot injure a Buddha. The most we
can do is hit him and have the blood congeal under the skin. Sometimes you hit
yourself and there is a bruise. No blood comes out. What is that?
Student: A
contusion.
Teacher:
That is what is meant by the PÈÄi word ‘lohituppÈda’, not injuring him, not
shedding the Buddha’s blood. Buddha will not bleed.
Then by defilement - that means those who
have fixed wrong view or who are hermaphrodites or eunuchs. These people cannot
attain jhÈna even though they practice meditation. ‘Wrong view’ means no cause
view, moral inefficacy of action, and nihilist view. ‘No cause view’ means
there is no cause for something to happen. Anything can happen without a cause.
That is called ‘no cause view’. If you deny the cause, you deny the effect. In
reality these three kinds of wrong view are the same.
The others deny the effect. If you deny the
effect, you also deny the cause. Then third one is the nihilist view. There is
nothing. Whatever you do will not constitute a kamma. The second one is moral
inefficacy of action and the third one is nihilist view - no cause, no doing.
There is no result from the practice of giving; there is nothing like respect
to the Elders, to parents and so on. You don’t have to pay respect to your
elders, something like that. There is no this world, no other world; there are
no holy men who have practiced and attained to the spiritual attainments and so
on. That is what is called the ‘nihilist view’ here. If a person has one of
these wrong views or he is a hermaphrodite or a eunuch, he will not be able to
attain jhÈna.
“By kamma result: who have had a
rebirth-linking with no [profitable] root-cause or with only two [profitable]
root-causes.” That means when a person takes rebirth, there is a type of
consciousness which arises. With that consciousness roots may arise. There are
six roots - three good roots and three evil roots. The roots of evil are
attachment, hatred and delusion. The roots of good are the opposites of these
three. When a person takes rebirth, his rebirth consciousness may not be
accompanied by any of these roots at all or it may be accompanied by two or
three of the good roots. There is no rebirth consciousness which is accompanied by any of the evil
roots. If a person’s rebirth consciousness is not accompanied by any of these
roots, then he cannot attain jhÈna in that life. ‘Two roots’ means non-greed
and non-hatred without wisdom or understanding (ÒÈÓa). So our rebirth
consciousness must be accompanied by paÒÒÈ in order for us to attain jhÈna in
this life or enlightenment in this life. Otherwise it is impossible for us to
attain jhÈna or enlightenment. This is called ‘by kamma-result’.
“Lack faith: are destitute of faith in the
Buddha, Dhamma and Sa~gha.” (Maybe in the practice also.)
“Zeal: are destitute of zeal for the
“
‘Will be incapable of entering into the certainty of rightness in profitable
states’ means that they are incapable of entering into the Noble Path called
‘certainty’ and ‘rightness in profitable states’.” That simply means such
people are incapable of attaining enlightenment, attaining jhÈnas.
“And this does not apply only to kasiÓas;
for none of them will succeed in developing any meditation subject at all. So
the task of devotion to a meditation subject must be undertaken by a clansman
who has no hindrances by kamma-result, who shuns hindrance by kamma and by
defilement, and who fosters faith, zeal and understanding by listening to the
Dhamma, frequenting good men, and so on.” So in order to practice successfully
you should be free from these defects. This is the fifth chapter.