[Biography] [Anapanasati] [Dhamma] [Path] [Cows] [Intoxicants] [Samvega] [Uttama]

A Manual of the Path Factors

VIII. The Exposition of Right Concentration

Only When the Mental Restlessness Disappears

In learning how to read, one has to begin with learning the alphabet. Only after one has mastered the alphabet can higher education be acquired. Similarly, in the process of mental development, the application of mindfulness is to be practised first. Only when mindfulness is steady, and the mad and deranged mind is got rid of, can the higher stages of meditation be practised properly.

When mindfulness is steady, and one is able to keep one’s mind consistently (for one, two, or three hours daily), on one’s own body, one should practise tranquillity meditation (samatha) to attain one or other of the four jhānas. It is like the higher studies of the Mangala Sutta, Nāmakkāra, Paritta, Grammar, or Abhidhammatthasangaha, which can be studied only after thoroughly mastering the alphabets.

There are twenty-five meditation objects (kammatthāna).

• Ten meditation devices (kasina),
• Ten kinds of loathsomeness (asubha),
• One contemplation of the thirty-two parts of the body,
• Mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati),
• Three kinds sublime abidings (Brahmāvihāra): loving kindness (mettā), compassion (karunā), and sympathetic joy (muditā).

The first jhāna is attained by intense practice of one of these meditation objects by gaining the three stages of initial concentration (parikamma bhāvanā), access-concentration (upacāra bhāvanā) and attainment concentration (appanā bhāvanā).

Meditation by the fixing mindfulness on the respiration to get rid of the mad and deranged mind also leads to the first jhāna.

[It should be noted that the practice of mindfulness of breathing serves the dual purpose of establishing mindfulness, and attaining the first jhāna. For a full explanation of the four jhānas refer to the “The Path of Purification” translated by Bhikkhu Ñānamoli.