Beginner's Retreat
Three Stages of Spiritual Development
Tape 3
There are three kinds of concentration - proximate concentration (Upacara Samadhi), absorption concentration (Appana Samadhi) and momentary concentration (Khanika Samadhi). Samadhi is the ability of the mind to be on the object. Proximate concentration and absorption concentration can be obtained when you practice Samatha meditation. We will come to Samtha and Vipassana meditation later. Proximate means close to or neighborhood. Close to absorption is called proximate. The second one is Jhana and Magga concentration, absorption concentration. Absorption concentration means the Jhana and Magga (Path) consciousness. Concentration concomitant with Jhanas and Path consciousness is called absorption concentration. The third one is to be had in Vipassana meditation, momentary concentration. That one obtains when one practice Vipassana meditation. It is similar to proximate concentration in Samatha meditation in that it is free from mental hindrances.
You have not yet learned about the two kinds of meditation - Samatha and Vipassana. When you practice Samatha meditation, first you just practice. Then after some practice you may reach the stage of proximate concentration.
Let us suppose you practice Kasina disc meditation. That means you make a disc of color, or of earth, or water and so on. You make a disc and you look at the disc. You keep your mind wholly on the disc. You don't let your mind wander. You don't let the hindrances come to your mind. In the beginning you are not able to do that. Your mind will wander very often. Thoughts will come to you. Later on a time will come when those thoughts do not come to you and your mind can be on that object only. That is the time when the mental hindrances are subdued. That is the time when you are said to have reached proximate concentration. That is in Samatha meditation. This proximate concentration is very strong concentration which leads to the next one which is absorption concentration.
In Vipassana meditation there is no proximate concentration, simply because there is no absorption. In Vipassana meditation you get what we call momentary concentration. It is not called proximate concentration because it is not close to Jhana or to Path consciousness. It is called momentary concentration. This momentary concentration in Vipassana meditation is similar to proximate concentration in Samatha meditation because it is also free from mental hindrances.
When you practice Vipassana meditation the same thing happens. You try to keep your mind on the object, what ever the object is. But your mind goes out very often and you cannot concentrate. Later on you will be able to keep your mind on the object for a long time and you will not be distracted by other objects. When your mind is on the meditation object for a long time (Long time means five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes.), then the hindrances are said to be subdued at that time. When the hindrances are subdued, you are said to have gained momentary concentration. Momentary concentration is for Vipassana meditation. Proximate concentration and absorption concentration are for Samatha meditation.
In order to practice Samadhi one must practice meditation. Without the practice of meditation there can be no Samadhi.
This is constituted of right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration in the Noble Eightfold Path. In the Noble Eightfold Path among the eight factors right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration constitute what we call Samadhi.
The next step in spiritual development is Pabba. Pabba here means knowledge of Kamma alone as one's own property, Vipassana knowledge, Magga knowledge and Phala knowledge. Pabba has different divisions. Kamma alone as one's own property is one kind of Pabba. This kind of Pabba is important for those who practice Vipassana meditation. At least if you practice Vipassana meditation you must have a knowledge that Kamma is my own property. That means everything comes out of something. There must be cause for everything. The cause has its effects. You must have a knowledge of cause-effect relationship between things. Here Kamma alone as one's own property means it is only Kamma that makes us suffer in this life or that makes us happy in this life. Kamma is the only thing we actually possess. Kamma is
our matrix. Kamma is our relative. A knowledge of the law of Kamma is what is meant here.
Another kind of Pabba is Vipassana knowledge. That is the knowledge you gain through Vipassana meditation. When you practice Vipassana meditation, you discover one thing after another. At every age of discovery there is this knowledge. The knowledge by which you see things as they are is called Vipassana knowledge. There are different kinds of Vipassana knowledge.
Then there is Magga knowledge. That is the knowledge or understanding concomitant with Path consciousness. Phala knowledge means knowledge concomitant with Fruition consciousness. Pabba means the knowledge of law of Kamma, knowledge of Vipassana, knowledge concomitant with Path consciousness and knowledge concomitant with Fruition consciousness.
The first can be obtained by study. The law of Kamma we can obtain by study. We can read books or we can listen to talks. We can have discussions. Thus we come to know that Kamma alone is one's own property. This kind of Pabba can be obtained by Study as well as by the practice of meditation.
The others can be obtained only through Vipassana meditation. The 'others' mean Vipassana knowledge, Magga knowledge and Phala knowledge. These can only be obtained through the practice of Vipassana meditation.
In order to attain Pabba and Samadhi you practice meditation. As I said these three steps are to be practiced one after the other - Sila, then Samadhi and then Pabba. Sometimes Samahi and Pabba a may succeed each other very rapidly, but there must be Sila, then Samadhi and then Pabba. We cannot skip one of these or we cannot practice out of sequence.
Why these three? Why did Buddha give these three steps - Sila, Samadhi and Pabba? In order to get free all suffering we need to get rid of all mental defilements. So long as there are mental defilements in our minds, we cannot get free from suffering. We cannot get free from the round of rebirth.
There are different levels of these mental defilements. It is to attack these different levels of these mental defilements that these three steps are designed. These three steps are to be practiced in the order given. And these three steps are designed to counter or get rid of the three levels of the mental defilements.
Let us see the three levels of the mental defilements. What is the first level? It is the transgression level. The second is the coming up level. The third is latent level. We will begin with the latent level. You are here to practice meditation. You are not angry with anybody. But if there is provocation, anger will come up. Someone may make noise around you. Then you become upset and anger comes up. Even when it does not come up in our mind, there is this liability that it will come up. That is what is called the latent level. These mental defilements are lying dormant in our minds. At the present moment they may not be arising in our minds. But they are somewhere there waiting for their chance to come up. That is called the latent level. So we have liability or we have tendency to get all these mental impurities. Let us say right now we have no such mental impurities in our minds. Later on if we see something beautiful and are attached, then attachment comes up more if there is some provocation we will get angry and anger will come up.
When mental impurities come up, they are said to have reached another level which is called coming up level. That means at that moment we really have attachment in our minds. We are really angry at that time. If we can stop at that coming level, we will not go to the next level, transgression level.
That means we are attached to something and we want to get it. If our desire is really strong, we will try to get it by any means, for example by stealing, or even by killing someone and taking it, robbing him. When we do that, we reach the next level, transgression level. Let us say there is anger in our minds. If we can keep anger on that level only and don't let it go to transgression level, then we don't do anything. But if we let it go to transgression level, then we do something. We may hit a person; we may injure someone: we may kill. That is the transgression level.
The defilements have these three levels - latent level or dormant level, the coming up level and transgression level. It is to attack these three levels that the three steps are given by the Buddha - Sila, Samadhi and Pabba.
You take precepts. Let us say you take the first precept, not to kill. But you come across something, say a roach in your house or a mouse. Normally you would kill it, but now you have taken the precepts. So you think, "Now I have taken the precept not to kill, so I will not kill, I will let it go." In your mind maybe you want to kill. You may have some ill will or Dosa in your mind against that animal. But you do not kill. That means you control the bodily action or the verbal action. That Dosa does not reach the transgression stage, so you do not kill. Sila, taking precepts and keeping them, can get rid of that transgression level.
Suppose a person takes the second precept. He finds something he could easily take. But he says to himself, "I have taken these precepts. I will refrain from taking." That means he does not let his Lobha reach the transgression level. Sila can eradicate the transgression level of defilements. Sila can control your bodily actions and your verbal actions.
Sila cannot control what is in your mind. Let us say you have Dosa (anger). You want to kill. That comes up in your mind. That is controlled by the second step, by Samatha. When you practice meditation, you can keep these mental defilements from coming up in your mind. What do you do when you practice Vipassana meditation? You are told to make notes of or to be mindful of whatever comes up in your mind. When you are making these notes and when you have mindfulness, mental defilements cannot come up in your mind, if you are really mindful. In between these moments of mindfulness some mental defilements may come up. But you can deal with these mental defilements as soon as they arise in your mind. Let us say you are meditating and anger comes up. The moment anger comes up you say, "angry, angry, angry or anger, anger, anger". Then anger disappears. So you don't let anger arise or even if it does arise, you are able to eliminate it in a very short moment. So Samadhi or practice of meditation can counter the second level, the coming up level.
If you are really successful with Samatha meditation and you get Jhanas and supernormal knowledges, you can keep the mental defilements further away from your mind. But still there is tendency in you to get attached or to get angry. That tendency can only be eradicated by Pabba. That means only by the practice of Vipassana meditation. When you reach the attainment stage, when you reach realization stage, only then will the mental defilements be totally eradicated. It is Pabba that can eradicate even the latent or dormant level of mental defilements. Since there are three levels of mental defilements, there are three levels of concentration - Sila for the transgression level, Samadhi for the coming up level, Pabba for the latent level. These three steps are given by the Buddha.
This last step, this step of Pabba, consists of right thought and right understanding of the Noble Eightfold Path. Buddha gave us the Middle Way or the Eightfold Path. This Eightfold Path has eight factors. That is why it is called Eightfold Path. These eight factors can be grouped into three - Sila factor, Samadhi factors, Pabba factors. When you give a list of Noble Eightfold Path, you give 1. right understanding 2. right thought 3. right speech 4. right action 5. right livelihood 6. right effort 7. right mindfulness 8. right concentration. The first two constitute Pabba. The third, fourth and fifth constitute Sila. The last three constitute Samadhi.
The Noble Eightfold Path - the factors are given just as a teaching, not that you must begin with right understanding and then go to right thought, right speech and so on. Actually the middle three (right speech, right action and right livelihood) should be practiced first. Then the next three (right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration) should be practiced. And then right understanding and right thought will come. So the Noble Eightfold Path and the three stages of spiritual development are one and the same. They are the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path or the Middle Way. In other words the practice of Vipassana meditation is just the practice of the Noble Eightfold Path. I will explain it in later talks.
Buddha gave us this blueprint for spiritual development. First is Sila. It is like a foundation. The second is Samadhi. It is like a building put on that foundation. The third is Pabba. It is like the topmost part of that building. So Sila, Samadhi and Pabba- these three steps we have to go through if we want to attain enlightenment and achieve liberation from all suffering.
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!
The Importance of Meditation
Now we come to the importance of meditation. Meditation has become more and more popular in this country. Those who are spiritually minded have practiced one kind of meditation or another. So for many people meditation has become a part of their lives, even everyday life. Meditation has become important for them,
Why is meditation important? The purpose of meditation or why we practice meditation I think is to get happiness, to avoid suffering. Everybody wants to be happy. To get happiness people follow many paths. One of the paths people follow is meditation. Many people think by the practice of meditation they will get happiness.
Also people want to avoid suffering as much as they can. In order to avoid suffering they will practice meditation. I was once with a group of people and they were talking about meditation. A man told them he practiced meditation in the morning. Also when he went to work during his lunch-break he went to a nearby church and practiced meditation. And when he went back home he practiced meditation again. Then a woman asked him why he meditated so much. His answer was because I don't want to suffer. So to avoid suffering also people practice meditation.
People want to get happiness with the practice of meditation. What is happiness? Like the word enlightenment, happiness means different things to different people. For the people in the world happiness means enjoyment, enjoyment of the pleasures of life. People think when they enjoy good food they are happy, good company they are happy, when they have wealth, position, power they are happy, and when they have good companions, they are happy. So many people think that happiness comes from possession of wealth, position, power and the enjoyment of pleasures in the world. Most people are after that happiness.
But there is another kind of happiness. That is happiness according to the Buddha. Buddha once said that there are different kinds of happiness in the world. First he said there is happiness to be gained from the enjoyment of life or sensual pleasures. Then there is happiness to be gained from the Jhanas. Lastly there is happiness to be gained from enlightenment. He said the best happiness is the happiness gained from enlightenment or gained from renunciation. For the Buddha true happiness can be obtained not from the enjoyment of the pleasures of life, but through renunciation, through giving up these pleasures of life.
So happiness according to the Buddha simply means peacefulness. Because in the Jhanas there is no happiness according to the world. A person who enters into Jhanas does not enjoy any worldly pleasures. He just enjoys the bliss of peacefulness, collectedness of mind. So according to Buddha happiness means peacefulness.
Happiness according to the world is actually not real happiness because it is bound up with trouble, bound up with worry, anxiety insecurity - everything. You may be enjoying yourself. But in the back of your mind there is something worrying you. Sometimes trouble can come out of the enjoyment of worldly pleasures. Crimes are committed by people because sometimes they want to enjoy something. Sometimes people quarrel with each other because of the enjoyment of something. Enjoyment according to the world or happiness according to the world is full of anxiety, worry and so on. So it is not real happiness. It is illusory. We think it is happiness, but in fact it is not. It is suffering in the guise of happiness. The happiness taught by the Buddha is free from anxiety, worry, free from troubles. That kind of happiness according to the Buddha does not lead to all these anxieties, worries and so on. True happiness is just peacefulness of mind.
True happiness cannot be gained through possession of wealth, position, power and so on. Because if happiness were gained by these things, then rich people would be the very happy people in the world. There are people who are very rich, but they may not be very happy. The richer they become the more anxiety they experience. They have security guards, bullet-proof cars and all of these things. They always have to be afraid of being robbed, being kidnapped or being killed. So true happiness does not lie in wealth, or position, or power. It lies in giving up all these. It lies in contentment. It lies in satisfaction with what people already have.
If we cannot find true happiness in wealth and so on, we must find it somewhere else. What happens to our minds when we are happy or when we are unhappy? Especially when there are mental defilements such as ill will, hatred, worry, anxiety, fear, we are unhappy. When our minds are free from these mental defilements, we are happy. So to be happy means for our minds to be free from mental defilements. When our minds are free from mental defilements, we are happy.
These mental defilements can be subdued or eradicated altogether only by the practice of meditation. Therefore if we want to be happy, we should practice meditation. We can find happiness only in meditation. Therefore everybody who wants to get happiness should practice meditation.
When you practice meditation, you try to keep your mind on one object as much as possible. You try to be mindful. So long as you are really mindful, mental defilements cannot enter your mind, whether they are attachment, greed and others or hatred, ill will and others. When your mind is free from all these mental defilements, you feel peaceful. You feel tranquil. That is what Buddha called happiness. So happiness, true happiness can be gained through the practice of meditation.
What about meditation to get rid of suffering? We must admit that the world is full of suffering. Everywhere you look you see suffering. There is suffering in both senses. If you read a newspaper, if you watch television, if you watch the news, what you find is suffering. People suffer from one cause or another. Somebody is killed or kidnapped or robbed or effected by some calamity. Most of the news is just different kinds of troubles. If you look at it that way, you come to see the world is full of suffering. Also there is disease and insecurity which cause suffering too. This is suffering which is not difficult to understand.
There is another meaning of suffering or of the word 'Dukkha' in Pali. That is unsatisfactoriness. Buddha defined unsatisfactoriness when he said, "Whatever is impermanent is suffering." According to the Buddha everything which is impermanent is suffering - suffering in the sense it is unsatisfactory, it is undesirable. Everything in the world including ourselves is impermanent, has a beginning and an end. Whatever has a beginning and an end is impermanent and so it is suffering. According to this definition even what we call happiness in the world, enjoyment of the senses, is suffering. Because this enjoyment of the senses has a beginning and an end and is therefore impermanent it is suffering or Dukkha. Therefore it is evident that the world is full of suffering. Nobody likes suffering. Everybody wants to avoid suffering. Everybody wants to stay away from suffering.
In order to get away from suffering we must understand what causes this suffering, what causes rebirth in life, what causes different existences because existence itself is suffering. The root of suffering is the three roots of evil - Lobha, Dosa and Moha. Lobha means attachment or greed, or craving, or desire. Dosa means ill will, hatred, anger, worry, anxiety and also fear. Moha is delusion or ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, ignorance of Dependent Origination and so on. So long as these three roots are in our minds, we will be reborn again and again. So we will have suffering again and again.
Buddha not only pointed out to us that the world is suffering, but he also pointed out to us that there is cessation of suffering and there is a cause of this suffering. The cause is Lobha, Dosa, and Moha. Cessation of suffering is the third Noble Truth, Nibbana. He also pointed out there is a way to the end of suffering, to the cessation of suffering.
If we want to get rid of suffering, we must get rid of those that cause suffering. We must get rid of Lobha, Dosa and Moha. There are many people who think that what the Buddha taught is more than 2500 years old, and so it may not be applicable to modern times. But the problem of Lobha, Dosa and Moha is universal. It is there all the time. People during the days of the Buddha had this problem of Lobha, Dosa and Moha. Modern man also has this problem. Although they may assume different forms now, the basic root of the problem is the same - Lobha, Dosa and Moha. So Buddha's teachings Buddha's method of meditation to get rid of suffering is as applicable to the people of modern times as to the people of the Buddha's time. So his teachings are always fresh and they are never outmoded.
Whether we are Buddhist or not, we have this problem of Lobha, Dosa and Moha. A Buddhist has this problem of Lobha, Dosa and Moha. A Christian has this problem of Lobha, Dosa and Moha. If we want to get rid of the roots of evil whether we are ancient or modern, whether we are Buddhist or not, we have to practice the way shown to us by the Buddha. Therefore meditation is important for all people, for all people who want to get happiness and who want to get rid of suffering.
What kind of meditation did Buddha teach? Broadly speaking there are two kinds of meditation. One is called Samatha meditation and the other is called Vipassana meditation. The first is called tranquility meditation or calm meditation. The second is called insight meditation.
Samatha meditation is a kind of meditation which leads to strong concentration. When you practice Samatha meditation, you get strong concentration, attainment of meditative absorptions (Jhanas) and attainment of supernormal powers (Abhibbas). Samatha meditation, if properly practiced, will lead you to the attainment of Jhanas (meditative absorptions). If you are successful, Samatha meditation will lead to supernormal powers like remembering past lives, reading others' minds and so on. The practice of Samatha meditation can lead you to the attainment of psychic powers.
But Samatha meditation does not necessarily lead to insight. That is insight into the impermanent nature, the unsatisfactory nature, the insubstantial nature of things. Samatha meditation is not meant to lead into the insight of the nature of things, and so does not lead to the realization of truth. Samatha alone without Vipassana cannot lead you to the realization of truth. What it can lead to is the meditative absorptions and the supernormal powers.
According to the Buddhist books Samatha meditation can be found outside of Buddhism. It can be found even when there is no Buddha in the world or when his teachings were not available. In olden days even before the Buddha Samatha meditation was practiced by many, many people. The Buddha before he became the Buddha, when he was a Bodhisatta, practiced many kinds of Samatha meditation. So Samatha meditation is good for the attainment of strong concentration, for the attainment of absorptions and supernormal powers. But it cannot lead to the realization of truth, to the penetration into the nature of things, and so it cannot lead to the cessation of suffering.
There are forty subjects of this meditation. We will talk about them a little later.
There is another kind of meditation which you are familiar with. That is Vipassana meditation. Vipassana meditation is a kind of meditation which leads to the penetration into the impermanence, the unsatisfactoriness and the unsubstantial nature of things. That in turn leads to the realization of truth, total destruction of the defilements and final release from all suffering.
Vipassana alone will not lead you to the attainment of the meditative absorptions and supernormal powers (Abhibbas) because it is not meant for this. But it will lead you to seeing the true nature of things, to seeing the three common characteristics of all things in the world, and to the realization of truth, and to the destruction of all suffering, to the destruction of all mental defilements.
This meditation can be found only during the time of the Buddha or when his teachings are still available. This meditation was discovered by the Buddha. It was not in existence before he became the Buddha. He discovered this meditation. So Vipassana meditation can only be found during the time of the Buddha or during the time when his teachings are still available.
Everybody who gains enlightenment must go through this type of meditation. There can be no enlightenment without Vipassana meditation according to Buddha's teachings because only Vipassana can lead you to the destruction of mental defilements and to the realization of truth.
If you read books on Buddhism, you may find that many people during the time of the Buddha became enlightened just after listening to the Buddha. Sometimes Buddha preached to them only a verse of four lines.
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!