1. Preface

It is Bro. Teoh’s sincere hope that Dhamma friends, spiritual practitioners, seekers of truth, and cultivators will be able to make use of this enclosed transcript notes on SamathaVipassanāBhavana or meditation to develop a betterunderstanding of the Buddhist meditation as taught by the Buddha so that they may progress along the path of dhamma to become more virtuous, noble and wiser human beings that can be a blessing to all of humanity and mankind. As these notes were compiled based on a direct transcript from the recording done, its wordings will be more like those of a spoken language rather than a written text. Hence we hope readers will be able to accordingly make the adjustmentthemselves to understand its true meaning and intent better and a good way to do this is to listen to the recordings first before reading this transcript notes.

For those who want to listen to the recording they can download the talk at this below link:

MP3 :http://broteoh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Teoh-Klang-140425-Samatha-Vipassana.mp3

PDF :http://broteoh.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Samatha-Vipassana-Bhavana-First-Edition-2015.pdf

Or contact Bro. Ng Swee Aun at sang47500@yahoo.com for further details.

2. Acknowledgement

It is the donors’ sincere intention that this transcript notes be given free to all those who are interested and have the affinity to receive them. I would like to take this opportunity to thank and rejoice in the generosity and wholesomeness of all those Dhamma friends or Kalyanamittas who had donated and helped out in the transcription, typing, typesetting, formatting, proof reading, etc to make this free distribution of dhamma dana possible. Special thank should be accorded to Sis. Ellen Wong who had personally requested for permission from me to do the transcribing and typing of the book documents of this talk herself thereby enabling this dhamma book, ‘Samatha Vipassanā Bhavana’ to be printed.

By the power of all these wholesomeness may all beings be well and happy, free from all suffering and danger and may there be love, peace and joy - deep within their hearts. And may it also paved the way for there to be causes and conditions for all dhamma friends who had donated or helped out and rejoiced in the wholesomeness to realize their good and noble wishes soonest possible.

With Metta always,

By Bro. Teoh Kian Koon

(Dated: 10.6.2014).

3. SAMATHA VIPASSANĀ BHAVANA

(Based on a direct transcript from the recorded talk given by Bro Teoh Kian Koon at Ti-Ratana Buddhist Society, NBC Klang, on 25th April 2014).

3.1 Introduction by Bro. Teh of Ti-Ratana Buddhist Society NBC Klang:

The title of our dhamma talk tonight is ‘Samatha Vipassanā Bhavana’ and these are Buddhist meditation approaches. But in order to attain enlightenment, we understand that we need to cultivate insight wisdom meditation. But before we can cultivate insight wisdom meditation, sometimes meditators may not know the difference between samatha and vipassanā approaches. So tonight Bro. Teoh will share with us his understanding and help show us the difference between these two meditations approaches and how they should be understood so that they can be properly cultivated. Eventually, of course the cultivation of insight wisdom is the only way to realize Nibbāna - to put an end to all suffering. So without taking any more time, we’ll start our pre-puja via paying respect and homage to the Buddha then we will take our 3 refuges followed by the renewal of our 5 precepts.

3.2 Difference between Samatha and Vipassanā Bhavana

Bro. Teoh: Okay - a very good evening to all brothers and sisters in the Dhamma. So it has been almost a month plus since I last came to your centre. Tonight’s dhamma topic is on meditation. I think Bro. Gan emailed me, and suggested this title: ‘Samatha Vipassanā Bhavana’. He also said he will leave it to me to choose whatever topic that I deemed appropriate. I find this topic quite interesting because it is a very commonly misunderstood topic. People tend to have this argument about what type of meditation should one do.

So you’ve heard of these two words? - Samatha and Vipassanā. What is your understanding? What is samatha meditation? Try, never mind, just try, because we are here to discuss this topic so that you really understand. What does the word “samatha” imply?

Response from the floor: Concentration!

Bro. Teoh: Yes! Most of you will understand it as concentration meditation, which is not wrong. Samatha meditation or bhavana is actually more accurately translated as ‘Tranquility’meditation and this word “bhavana” is a Pāḷi word meaning mental training or meditation.

3.3 Meditation as taught by the Buddha

We heard of these three words? - Sila, Samādhi and Pañña. This 1st category of dhamma (Sila, Samādhi and Pañña) is actually the Noble 8- Fold Path, which is the meditation as taught by the Buddha. Then we have the other 2nd category of dhamma: Dana, Sila and Bhavana. You have also heard of these, isn’t it? “Sila” is morality or precepts and is common for both categories. This word “Samādhi” of the 1st category denotes 2 types of path factors by itself. Then “Pañña” is of course “wisdom”. We need to understand these 2 categories of dhamma clearly, before we can go into the meditative understanding of why they classify them that way. “Dana” here means Generosity or what they call Dana Parami. You must have certain amount of generosity so that you can have good merits and good karmic inheritance. According to the Buddha, - in order to develop the meditation successfully, you not only focus on the meditation (which is the cultivation of the Noble Eight Fold Path) itself - but you also need to cultivate both the Dana and Sila paramis to support it.

Bhavana is actually meditation. Any type of mental training can also be termed bhavana. So if you look at both these categories of dhamma, Sila is common to both, isn’t it? But these two (i.e. Samādhi & Pañña) has been combined to become bhavana. So, bhavana, which is meditation, is a combination of samādhi and pañña, because as far as the Buddha is concerned, he is only interested in wisdom, the pañña aspect. So samādhi alone without wisdom is of not much use. It cannot free the mind, it can make the mind very powerful in deep concentration or deep absorption but it lack wisdom to liberate it.

That’s why samatha meditation is very different from vipassanā mediation. So from the word we will try to derive the definition. “Bhavana” is meditation or mental training. And you heard of this word “metta” bhavana, isn’t it? What is Metta bhavana? - What does it mean – it means you are cultivating what? Ah! - A type of meditation that leads to the cultivation of metta, that’s why you call it metta bhavana, or loving-kindness meditation. And this type of meditation develops metta.

So similarly if you say “samatha bhavana”, it means a type of meditation that develops - what? You may define it as concentration, but the Buddha actually defined it as Samādhi. So whatever mental training that helps you to develop “samādhi” is called “samathabhavana”. And what is “samādhi”? You all normally define it as concentration. But the Buddha didn’t really say its concentration. That’s why under the Noble 8-Fold Path, you have the 8 noble path factors, remember? The first one is Samma Ditthi, which is Right View or Right Understanding. Then, you got - Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living (some call it Right Livelihood, but it’s actually Right Living because Living covers Livelihood). Then you have Right Effort – the four types of Right Efforts, then, Right Sati or Samma Sati and lastly Right Samādhi, ok?

They usually classify these two path factors of Right Sati & Samādhi as under the Samādhi grouping and Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Living and Right Effort as under the Sila grouping. Then Right view or Understanding path factor as under the wisdom or pañña grouping. When wisdom develops, you’ll have Right View or RightUnderstanding to straighten your views. Right understanding means right understanding of all the spiritual laws that governs life and existence. So when you understand all the nature’s spiritual laws that govern life and existence you will have Right Views. And there are 3 important spiritual laws under this right view path factor - you heard of the Law of Kamma (Kamma Niyama)? Law of the Mind (Citta Niyama) and Law of Dhamma (Dhamma Niyama). The other two laws are scientific physical law and biological laws, called Utu Niyama and Bija Niyama respectively - and as far as the spiritual training is concerned, we are more interested in the spiritual laws.

3.4 Definition of Right Samādhi & the 3 types of Samādhi

The Buddha classified Bhavana as = Samādhi + Pañña. Samādhi means whatever training of mind that brings about unification of mind, so that you are no longer heedless and distracted, so that you are no longer lost in thought, so that this mind is unified, Collected and unwavering. So Samādhi means the unified mind which is collected and unwavering but not in concentration.

In the text, there are 3 types of Samādhi, - what are they? The 1st one is Khanika Samādhi, - heard of this word? You all call it momentary concentration. Actually it’s not so correct; it should be moment-to-moment awareness because it is not momentary. You understand the difference between momentary and moment-to-moment or not? Momentary means temporary, just for a moment only I aware. And that one is not Khanika Samādhi because Khanika Samādhi is - moment to moment awareness, the quiet mind, which is the initial stage of sati, or mindfulness. This moment-to-moment awareness is actually moment-to-moment mindfulness but it lack stability. So this is the 1st type of samādhi.

Then what is the 2nd type of samādhi? Upacara Samādhi, - heard of this? When the mind becomes calmer and more stable, then it enters Upacara Samādhi which is access ‘concentration’ or a continuous mindfulness that is more stable.

3.5 The 5 jhanic factors and the 40 meditation objects of concentration

Heard of these 5 jhanic factors? - Vitaka, Vicara, Pīti, Sukha and Ekagatta or one-pointedness of mind. Those who do jhāna, they will have these 5 jhanic factors. Vitaka is initial application of thought or applied thought. So initially you try to apply your thoughts there. Those who do concentration or samatha bhavana, they will have to do that. And there are a lot of objects of meditation that they can use to develop samatha bhavana. Their objects of meditation are generally different from those of vipassanā bhavana.

Samatha bhavana is geared towards focusing, concentration and absorption training. The object they use can take different forms. During the Buddha’s time - before he realized the enlightenment, he actually started his cultivation with samatha bhavana which was very popular at that time in India. Before the Buddha, there was no such thing as vipassanā bhavana as yet; it was all samatha bhavana – which means they are very interested in developing only the concentration of mind - the unification of mind leading to all the absorption, the Jhānas and the one-pointedness mind.

For samatha bhavana – there are generally 40 types of meditationobjects of concentration which were very popular during that time in India. The most popular ones among them are called “kasinas”. You heard of kasina? In Thai, they are called “kasin”. There are 10 types of kasinas - the 6 types of Light kasinas and the 4 elements kasinas. What are the 4 elements? They are: earth element – pathavi, then, you have heat element, tejo, then, apo which is water element, then wind element which is vayo. So they are pathavi, tejo, apo and vayo. Those who want to develop concentration; they will initially choose an object of concentration. Let’s say you choose the water kasina. Then you apply your thought, - initial application of thought on that water element. You focus, then you concentrate and you apply your thought there. This initial application of thought on the water element or light kasina can be done in various ways, - some look at the candle, some look at certain bright lights, some even look at the moon or whatever light that can enable them to develop the countersign to concentrate upon. Some go into meditation and then through the nimitta that arises, they focus on the nimitta light, to develop the concentration of mind. Then they sustain their thought there. This Sustained Thought is Vicara. But this one is still thought-based, understand or not? Whereas when it comes to samādhi, after Khanika Samādhi, is Upacara Samādhi. Note it’s not Vicara, it is Upacara, - which means you sustain your awareness instead of your thought to develop the more stable sustained or continuous awareness/mindfulness”.

Upacara Samādhi is also termed access concentration or meaning the mind is at the threshold of entering or accessing into Appana Samādhi which is deepone-pointedness or continuous mindfulness absorption concentration. So Upacara Samādhi in not a concentration (Appana Samādhi) as yet – there is still awareness and the mind is still fluid – not fixed in concentration or absorption as yet. There is still awareness/mindfulness, and you are still aware; you are not in complete focused attention as yet – meaning not in one-pointedness or full absorption state of meditation as yet. When they go into this very deep state of samatha or Appana Samādhi, their mind state will be very concentrated or calm until like there is no thought and they become unconscious. Their mind is completely blank – like no thought because it is all locked into energy fields through ekagatta or one-pointedness of mind and the mind is very still – like in a trance but this is still a conditioned state within the field of thought.

After vitaka and vicara are established the jhanic factors of pīti (spiritual joy/rapture) and sukha (spiritual bliss) will arise, cumulating into the 1st jhāna. Then as you stabilise the 1st jhāna to go through the higher jhānas, you will experience the fading away of some of the jhanic factors. The first two jhanic factors of vitaka and vicara will be dropped as you develop the 2nd Jhāna. Then when pīti is dropped, you will develop the 3rd jhāna, then when sukha is dropped, the 4th jhāna, and in this 4th jhāna you will abide in equanimity borne of one-pointedness of mind. All these jhanic factors in stages you will drop them until you reach the fourth jhāna. The 4th jhāna is the highest within the 4 form jhānas.

3.6 The 16 Brahma realms

There are four types of form jhānas: first, second, third and fourth. For those who cultivate only this type of samatha bhavana, they cannot develop the Right ‘Samādhi’ and understanding to liberate the mind to become enlightened as yet. So what happens is, after their immediate passing away, if the conditions are there, they will take birth in the Brahma realms. There are 16 Brahma realms. For each of the first 3 jhānas there are 3 realms but for the 4th jhāna there are 7 realms and the top 5 realms are called the Pure Abodes realms where the Anagamis reside. They also develop these jhānas but they know how to release their jhanic concentration or absorption to natural awareness of Upacara Samādhi to cultivate the 4 foundations of mindfulness to liberate their mind via pañña or wisdom - to realize the state of Anagamis, and this is the reason why the Buddha defined Bhavana as = Samādhi+ Pañña because Samādhi alone without paññacannot liberate the mind. Hence Anagamis can also take birth there. So it doesn’t mean that in the Brahma realms, there are no enlightened beings.

So to develop wisdom we need to release the mind out of Appana Samādhi to Upacara Samādhi, which is sustained or continuous awareness that is collected and unwavering. This state is more stable than the moment-to-moment Khanika Samādhi, which is collected and unified but not unwavering as yet. That’s why when you do this type of moment-to-moment mindfulness meditation, while in the retreat via the thought-based ‘noting’ method you may end up with this problem. Because every time you note, - you verbalize via words and concept. And every time you verbalize you dull your mind because you are no longeraware. But when you are in UpacaraSamādhi, there is no verbalization, - you just aware, and the mind is collected and unwavering hence very stable, and this is what you need, to develop vipassanā Bhavana. The mind in upacara samādhi does not waver or stir hence there is clarity to see things as they are to develop the wisdom.

Khanika Samādhi is not stable enough. That’s why you have to stabilise this Khanika Samādhi until it is Upacara Samādhi which is more stable but it must not enter into Appana Samādhi - meaning you have not lost consciousness or awareness as yet. I.e. you do not allow the mind to go into one-pointedness concentration or enter deep state of absorption calmness, otherwise you will be trapped in samatha bhavana and if you do this in a Mahayana temple, the Abbot will come and whack you and tell you that: “We have enough Buddha statues here already, so we don’t need another one”; Because the meditator in Appana Samādhi is just like a statue, - very calm, no thought and no awareness. Their energy field is very strong, because all the energy is focus into one-pointedness and locked inside until they cannot even think or become aware. That’s why after that they can use it to develop psychic ability via energy field leading to all the occult and psychic powers. So samatha Bhavana or meditation got this type of danger.

And this is why, in the olden days, almost all the meditators, they actually got trapped in samatha bhavana. Then even after they have finished mastering the fourth jhāna, they will continue to develop the higher Arupa or formlessJhānas. You heard of Arupa or Formless Jhāna? They are the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth jhānas. The 5th formless jhāna is the sphere of infinite space, and then the 6th one is the sphere of infinite consciousness; the 7th one is the sphere or realm of nothingness. Then the last one is the 8th jhāna – the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception and beings born there live very, very long, for many, many kappas or aeons. In this realm their mind - like doesn’t exist, like there is neither perceiving nor non-perceiving, because it is so still and so silent, but not cessation as yet because it is still a mind or consciousness but without any form; that’s why they are called the Formless Realms. For those who do samatha bhavana, they will have these beautiful jhanic states with a lot of energies and interesting psychic powers or capabilities.

Before the advent of the Buddha,  AppanaSamādhi was very popular and almost everybody who developed them became very powerful and very famous. That’s why the two teachers that the Buddha learned from – Alara and Udaka, they are actually foremost teachers on this type of formless realms meditation at that time. The first one, Alara, teach the Buddha until the 7th jhāna – the realm of nothingness. Then Udaka, the last one, taught him until the 8th jhāna – the realm of neither perception nor non-perception. But the Buddha realized, that even with all these deep absorption and concentration and very still mind, he still cannot liberate from birth, old age, sickness and death.

So he realized, this was not what he wanted. What he wanted was - to understand life; to understand what is this so called ‘human being’ (or ‘form and mind’) is all about? ‘Who am I, what am I? Then, who dies, what dies?’ If he cannot understand all these he cannot break free from old age, sickness and death, then to him, life has got not much meaning. That’s why he continued to search. Then he realized he needed to have sufficient health. That’s why he reverted back to some form of food and he gave up doing the austere type of meditation. Initially he practices deep austerity cultivation - meaning, he tried not to eat anything, or drink anything for days. He just wants to go into deep meditative states thinking that the bliss can sustain him and that he can realize the ultimate goal of salvation via rebirth - high up in the heavens. To his teachers, Alara and Udaka, those are like their ultimate goals, – their search for eternal life because to them, they know, when they die they will take rebirth up there and they will live for eternity.

But later on, the Buddha came to know that without the enlightenment, there is no liberation from birth and death as yet, - for these are just conditioned state of absorption or concentration that enable these beings to take rebirth in those realms, but after a long period of time, they will still fall to the lower realms. Then finally, they can still go down to hell (apaya-bhumi). He understood all these after he became enlightened.

Then he tried to help, one Maha Brahma, of the first Brahma realms. This Maha Brahma thought he was very great, because he can create things and so he thought he was the creator, ‘God’. Then the Buddha went up there and tried to advise him, by telling him that: “Do you know that you had fallen from the very high realm, to this Maha Brahma realm which is only 3 realms above the sensual realms; so not long, if you continue to be heedless like that, and display all your psychic abilities, you will continue to fall to the devas and human realms and if you are not careful, you will soon go down to the hell realm.”

So that was how the Buddha came to know through his past cultivation and perfections, that this is not the way to liberation of the mind, to enlightenment.

3.7 Importance of cultivating Sati leading to heedfulness

He actually came to understand that, one only needs to develop the mindfulness, leading to the heedfulness to realize the enlightenment following Dhammapada verse 21. That’s why when he finally came out to teach, the Buddha advised his disciples only one thing before his parinibbāna. What did he say? – Yes! ‘Appamadena Sampadetha or Strive on with Heedfulness’. That’s why his teaching focuses on heedfulness. So what is heedfulness? This heedfulness is clearly defined under his Dhammapada verses 21, 22 & 23 of the Appamada vagga (Dhammapada verses section on heedfulness). The Dhammapada verses 21, 22 & 23 of this section are the most important.

Dhp.Verse 21: The Buddha said, ‘Heedfulness is the path to the Deathless andheedlessness is the path to the dead. The heedful never die whereas the heedless are as if dead’. So without heedfulness, spiritually you are as if dead – hence no cultivation or meditation.

Then Dhp.Verse 22: The Buddha continued to give you the assurance by saying: - ‘distinctly knowing the difference between heedfulness and heedlessness, the wiseintent on heedfulness and they will rejoice in the realms of the ariyas’.

And what are ariyas? Ariyas are the noble ones, the enlightened ones. Hence the wise ones who intend on heedfulness are destined to become enlightened.

Then Dhp.Verse 23 guarantees enlightenment and defined clearly what heedfulness is! The Buddha via verse 23 said, - ‘the constantly meditative, ever mindful and steadfast one, they will realize the bond-free Nibbāna’.

If this one also you cannot remember, then it is very difficult for you to meditate to become enlightened, because this is what appamada or heedfulness is all about. If you cannot understand this verse, then how are you going to cultivate? What is constantly meditative? Yes! Constantly cultivating the Noble Eight Fold Path, understand or not? Ever mindful means what? Continuously mindful, understand or not? That’s why you must have Upacara Samādhi, - to have the sustained or continuousawareness to be ever mindful to hold on to this practice throughout the day via the daily mindfulness.

You have to train your mind because the untrained mind is heedless, - thinks a lot, and wanders off very fast. Why does this mind wander off? Those who had attended my Thursday meditation class, they will know. Why is your mind not peaceful? - Because of what? Ah! Mental hindrances - If you have mental hindrances, it means you don’t have the spiritual faculties. What are your five mental hindrances? – They are Sensual Desire, Ill-Will,Sloth & Torpor, Restlessness of mind and Doubt. You become heedless because these hindrances hinder your mind from entering the meditative state of peace and calm. That’s why they are called mental hindrances, understand or not? So the Buddha said when you understand this, then you will know what to do. So what must you do? You have to cultivate the opposite five Spiritual Faculties, isn’t it? Once you have these spiritual faculties cultivated, they will help you overcome the hindrances. And the 5 spiritual faculties are, - Saddhā, Viriya, Sati, Samādhi and Pañña.

The moment you have Saddhā, which is confidence in the Buddha and his teaching, you are very calm, very composed and you are very confident. So Saddhā will help you overcome Doubt and restlessness. Then when you understand that his teaching is so important and wonderful because it can bring about enlightenment, leading to the liberation of mind from all suffering, then your faith will strengthen. The Buddha is such a unique being; he is fully enlightened (not only enlightened), he is the wisest and most virtuous living being ever to be born. And to have such a great being as your teacher, you should count your blessings. That’s how your faith and confidence in him can become so stable, until unshakeable. Then you will arise the Viriya which is a type of spiritual zeal and tenacity to cultivate. With this, you will not be sleepy anymore – i.e. Sloth & Torpor will cease to be.

Then Sati is Mindfulness. When you are mindful, there is no thought hence no more Restlessness, no more Sensual Desire and no more Ill-will, - all these 3 mental hindrances, also gone. That’s why when the spiritual faculties are there, you actually overcome all the hindrances. This means you only need to cultivate these 5 spiritual faculties.

And how do you cultivate them? The Buddha recommended that you develop the Puja (devotional practices) and all the anussati like Buddhanussati, Dhammanussati and Sanghanussati. Then you cultivate the 5 Daily dhamma contemplations to develop the faith and the Viriya, and then you cultivate the mindfulness needed to cultivate the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

So that’s the reason why this spiritual faculty ofSati is very important. You have to cultivate Sati. Then the moment you had developed Sati, you are most of the timeaware without thought. When you have the 5 spiritual faculties developed, technically you no need to train your mind anymore. But the problem is, this Sati doesn’t come by so easily because most of you have been so heedless for so long. These mental hindrances have been there for so long; - All your sensual desires, ill-will, doubts, fears, worries and anxieties will condition your restlessness of mind. That’s why your mind is notunified and cannot be silent because it thinks a lot and it is very heedless. Hence you need to develop heedfulness which can only come to be when the 5 Mental Hindrances had ceased.

During the early days in India, they managed to go into Appana Samādhi, after they had subdued all these 5 mental hindrances. Subdued means what? Ah! Yes! - Suppressed but not rooted out as yet. That’s why when they grow old, when they lost their ability to go into concentration, they suffer because their sakkaya-ditthi or self-delusion, is still there, - avijja or ignorance is still there, understand or not? So, if you depend on energy field or concentration meditation, you can only subdue or suppress the 5 mental hindrances. That’s why when you go into Samādhi, if you don’t develop the ‘Samma Samādhi’ or the Right Samādhi, you will enter Appana Samādhi and you can get trapped there because your appana samādhi can only suppress the mental hindrances and those latent tendencies, or anusaya and asava, and they are still inside your mind, - Not rooted out yet. That’s why no amount of samatha bhavana can bring about the enlightenment unless you know how to release this AppanaSamādhi out into normal Access Concentration or Upacara Samādhi state, to cultivate the daily mindfulness and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to develop the wisdom via insight into phenomena. So this part, hope it is clear by now.

Now you look at these 5 Spiritual Faculties, faith or saddhā is number 1. That is the reason why all cultivation starts with the strengthening of your faith. That’s the reason why you are told to chant “Namo Tassa Bhagavato, Arahato, Sammasambuddhassa x3”; meaning ‘Homage to Thee, the Blessed One, the Worthy One and the Fully Self- Enlightened One x3’ to renew your faith in the Buddha then you take refuge to cultivate affinity with the TripleGems. Then you renew your Five Precepts to avoid all evils - because when you keep your precepts, you will have fewer problems. Fewer problems mean what? - Less fear, less worry, less anxiety, leading to less restlessness of mind, hence less mental hindrances, understand or not? Then via Sati, you develop the silent mind, to be more and more aware, so that you are not heedlessly lost in thought anymore; so that you are more and more peaceful, silent, and heedful most of the time ‘to see things as they are’ clearly. When sati or mindfulness is developed until it is very stable, it will become Upacara Samādhi, which is what you need to develop wisdom. Khanika Samādhi alone is not stable enough; - even if you can have moment-to-moment awareness while in a retreat, but the moment you return to your daily life after the retreat, chances are you cannot maintain the continuity of mindfulness to cultivate sati-sampajanna in your daily life, because your senses are so much more active as compared to retreat conditions. In your daily life, - every moment of sense experience, when you see something, hear something, or think of something, your mind can still waver because it is still not collected and unwavering as yet. Especially so, when you are still holding on to your wrong views and opinions, and when people step on your ‘toe’ or your ‘tail’ then straight away you will react. It can still react because your mind without the upacara Samādhi in daily life is not collected and unwavering as yet. That’s why you still cannot develop vipassanā insight knowledges via the direct seeing as yet.

3.8 Vipassanā Bhavana and the 2 types of Sati

Now we come to Vipassanā Bhavana. Vipassanā got two words: the first word is “Vi”. What is the meaning? “Vi” is the 3 universal characteristics of nature: Anicca, Dukkha, & Anatta, or Impermanence, Suffering and Non-Self or Empty Nature; whereas the word “passanā” - its meaning is “to insight into”. Hence the meaning of vipassanā is “to insight into the 3 Universal Characteristics of Impermanence,Suffering state and Non-Self nature of all phenomena”. And this is how one develops wisdom. So Vipassanā Bhavana is a type of meditation that will enable you to insight into the 3 characteristics of nature to become enlightened. And to do that you need the silent mind that has sati and samādhi - throughout the day in your daily life. When you can have this type of daily mindfulness, your mind will be very stable because it is always in sati and this is Sati Sampajanna.

And Sati, there are 2 types. For those who are not from our Tuesday or Thursday Classes, I think you may not understand. The first type is without an egoic centre, - It is just awareness, - a general spacious awareness. You just silent your mind then the awareness, which is your True Mind, is like one with everything. Then you can be aware of all things. Even in the midst of your daily life, this spacious awareness can be there. But because you have to live life, you have to arise the second type of awareness or sati called ‘Specific Phenomenon Awareness’ - meaning the mind and that specific phenomenon is one, like body and mind as one; phenomenon and mind as one in complete harmony or flow. Let’s say, if you want to be with your physical phenomenon, - i.e. your physical body and your mind, they move as one. That is specific phenomenon awareness, understand or not? Like you walk, you just walk - body and mind as one and when you develop anapanasati, - mind and the breath as one. And all these are specific phenomenon awareness whereas the other one is just a general spacious awareness. You just silent, - all of your senses are open, then whatever that arise via consciousness, that awareness or mindfulness can detect it. Under retreat condition or in the middle of the night during quiet moment, - this spacious awareness can be realized. Then when you are in the midst of cultivating daily mindfulness, if you had already developed this sati until so stable, your this generalspacious awareness will be there all the time and you just aware.

Then you can experience the world, all of the phenomena world of consciousness, whether physical, mental or nature’s phenomena, - they will like ‘flow’ by, and your mind will detect them through the specific phenomenon awareness. That’s why your mind can be with the moment, with everything that arises. When there is a moving car, or nature’s phenomena: like the wind, the breeze, the tree branches, their leaves, and all those things that sway or move, or even those without movement, like any perception, etc, - your awareness can be with it. When this happen, the way you live your life will be different. Throughout the day you will be like fully aware and heedful, - i.e. the ‘nature’ within just aware; form and mind perceive and flow via heedfulness and it doesn’t think anymore. If it needs to recall from memory like where your office is or how to go home, then it will know, then it will just move, spontaneously. There is no more chattering like before. So these two types of Sati or awareness, you have to develop them until very stable.

Then when sati and samādhi are there, - it’s collected and unwavering, then during every moment of sense experience, this mind doesn’t waver anymore, understand or not? That’s why it can stay silent, calm, peaceful, and ‘see thing as they are’ without thought. Then it will awaken to the Truth and the reality. That’s how it can insight into phenomena. When sati is stabilized, until samādhi also very stable, then wisdom will definitely arise. It will keep on arising, and wisdom is the basis of enlightenment. The insight knowledges will allow you to understand things very clearly, then you straighten your views, until no more wrong views, no more self-delusion, no more sakkaya-ditthi, no more avijja. Then the whole of Dependent Origination is understood thus realizing that there is – ‘Hey no you! Hey no me’; the human being which is the 1st aspect of the 5 aggregates of form and mind are conditioned arising, causal phenomenon hence - not really ‘you’, because it is not a permanent unchanging entity. And all these you will come to understand them clearly, even the mental 5 aggregates of form and mind which is the 2nd aspect of the 5 aggregates of form and mind, you will also understand. Then you will ‘see’ and witness all the Dhamma, like the Four Noble Truths, the Three Evil Roots, the Five Hindrances of Mind, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, etc, - clearly inside your meditation, within this form and mind. If you use this stabilized Sati to cultivate the Noble Eight Fold Path, then it becomes heedfulness or appamada. This will bring us to another important aspect of the dhamma.

Sometimes you may have mindfulness, but you may not be heedful, understand or not? Mindfulness is awareness, the silent mind. Those who do tai chi, yoga or even qigong, when they are doing those movements, they also have a lot of mindfulness. But if they use it for something else; - like to develop yoga, to develop dan-tian energy, to develop the tai chi-quan movements for self-defense or whatever, then it is not samma sati, understand or not? It’s sati, but it’s not samma sati.

It is only Samma sati - when one uses it to cultivate wisdom to liberate their mind via cultivating the Noble 8-fold path. And according to the Buddha, the essence of his teaching is the Four Noble Truths. Within these Four Noble Truths, which one is the meditation? The 1st Noble Truth talks about suffering, isn’t it? So it is not the meditation. The 2nd Noble Truth which explained the cause of its arising is also not meditation. Similarly the 3rd Noble Truth says ‘suffering need not be, enlightenment in the here and now is possible, and that is - Nibbāna can be realized in the here and now’. This is again not meditation. It’s only in the 4th Noble Truth, the Buddha said, ‘there is a Noble 8-Fold Path, if you cultivate this Noble 8-Fold Path, it will lead to the end of all suffering, which is the enlightenment’. So this is the meditation, and this is the only way out of suffering because within the Noble Eight Fold Path, you’ve got this Samma Sati, where the Four Foundations of Mindfulness is.

That’s why within the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, when you do Dhammānupassanā, the last foundation, - there are five categories of practices. You develop mindfulness on the Five Hindrances, the Five Aggregates of Form & Mind, the Six Internal Sense Bases and the Six External Sense Bases, etc, - to understand how the Five Aggregates of Form & Mind, which is consciousness and its content arise via contact of mind with their respective sense bases and how the Dependent Origination creates the phenomena world of consciousness. Then after that, how the Seven Factors of Enlightenment come to be, how you develop the mindfulness on the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, before you go into the mindfulness ofthe Four Noble Truths. So finally you still come back to the 4th Noble Truth, which is the Noble 8-Fold Path.

That’s why whatever meditation you do, if it doesn’t bring you back to the Noble 8-Fold Path, then it’s not the meditation as taught by the Buddha, understand or not? You can develop all of your fantastic concentration and the various psychic abilities via appana samādhi, and then start the cultivation of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, - but if you do not complete the cultivation of all the Noble 8-Fold Path factors, you are still not a true noble one because you still do not have the right views with regards to what life and existence is. Then you may not have the noble right speeches, actions and thoughts to live the noble life of an ariya or enlightened one. Which means the way you live your life, as a human being - you are still not the refined type, because you don’t have the right view to condition the right thought. The noble ones or the enlightened ones are very noble in their understanding of life, in the way they arise their thought, in the way they arise their speech, in the way they communicate with people, and in the way they act and live, and they will have the right efforts to constantly purify all of their wrong thought, wrong speech, wrong action and wrong livelihood. And they also arise their right effort to constantly improve and refine upon whatever goodness that they already have. Then they will also have Samma Sati, Samma Samādhi leading to the complete Noble 8-Fold Path cultivation. So this will summarize what you need to understand to develop the meditation as taught by the Buddha.

Don’t go and separate these two, - Samatha and Vipassanā bhavana for they are actually one. You remember what Ajahn Chah said? He said, it’s like a pole, - they have two ends, correct or not? When you lift this end, the other end will follow you. So these 2 ends act as one single pole for it to be effective.

That’s why without sati leading to samādhi which is Upacara Samādhi, you cannot actually cultivate Noble 8-Fold Path. That’s why sati leading to heedfulness is what you need to have. And when you have sati cultivated and stabilized, samādhi will be the result. And samādhi is only needed initially so that this mind is collected and unwavering, - so that it’s not disturbed when it experience a sense object or Sense experience. Like when you see something, hear something or think of something, the mind is still collected and unwavering during this time, even though you may not have the wisdom as yet. I.e. you don’t have equanimity enlightenment factor borne of wisdom as yet.

So initially, you need to silent your mind and stabilize the sati until it becomes upacara samādhi, then every moment of life experience, while you go through life and live life, no matter what type of people you encounter, how difficult a character they may have, how disturbing or how unfriendly that person or the life situation is, you can still maintain this collectedness of mind and your mind is unwavering to enable you to see things as they are; So that you can also see how your mind stir and get itself entangled, leading to the suffering due to your wrong view or self-delusion. You can then trace their origination factors of your wrong thoughts like fear, anger, selfishness etc then retrospectively reverse them via wisdom or understanding to solve your problem. This is how you develop wisdom via the mindfulness of the 6 internal sense bases and 6 external sense bases cultivation.

That’s why under the Dhammānupassanā, the first category of cultivation is to be mindful of the hindrances of mind. That’s why you must be aware when the hindrances are still there, - meaning you have not rooted them out yet because your spiritual faculties are still not stable enough. That’s why you have to train diligently until the spiritual faculties become “balas” or powers - the Unshakeable spiritual faculties. You heard of this word “balas”? When these five spiritual faculties become unshakeable, they will cumulate to become powers, the five spiritual powers. That’s why in the 37 factors of enlightenment, these five spiritual faculties are repeated as a pair. It occupied 10 out of 37 and this sati is repeated almost everywhere within the 37 factors. Sati also appears in the Noble Eight Fold Path, the 7 Factors of Enlightenment and all the 4 foundations of mindfulness sections. Without sati, you cannot start, you cannot investigate dhamma and you cannot be heedful. And without heedfulness, you are as if dead. Then without sati you cannot cultivate the Noble Eight Fold Path because you don’t have Samma Sati to cultivate the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

That’s why without sati, you are as if dead, you are spiritually dead and heedless. That’s why everything starts with sati; even all of meditations you start by training yourself to develop sati, via silencing this heedless mind. The moment you are silent, you don’t think, - sati or awareness is already there. The reason why you are not aware is because you are lost in thought, preoccupied with the heedless thinkingconditioned by your mental hindrances. Your mind is very, very – busy-body, heedlessly entangling itself, because everything you come to perceive, you want to give meaning. That’s why sensual desire and ill-will will keep on arising to make you stressed up and tired. Then this state of mind can make you sleepy, lethargic, and tired because your mind is not trained and your spiritual faculties are not stable as yet. Then without sati, you are always restless, lost in thought, with a lot of problem; you think a lot, worry a lot, and most of the time you are busy thinking, planning and worrying about life. That’s why you never live because you don’t have sati and samādhi and you also don’t have wisdom, that’s why you keep on entangling yourself in life, - every moment and every instance of it, yet you cannot understand what is going on, you only complain. Then you judge people, but you never judge yourself. You say, ‘why this guy like that one’ and ‘why they are not sensitive to all those things’, ‘why are they so selfish, etc’. So when you check your mind you will come to realize that your own mind chatters so much and you are always so heedlessly lost in thought.

This is not the way to live life, isn’t it? You ask yourself, ‘is that life?’ - Throughout the day, always thinking, planning and worrying about life so much so, you never really live life! Constantly chasing after this, chasing after that; wanting this and wanting that; trying to do so much things and like you’ve got so much unfinished business and problems to look into and worry about. You not only worry about your own health, your own financial problem; you also worry about your career, your business, and your relationships with your loved one; you worry about your children and their future, and then later on your grandchildren as well. Then your properties, your wealth, your cars, businesses, investments and all your other possessions - busy having to look after and worry about them. Like your cars - having to keep them going, then every time got problem you will say: “Die-lah, got to send to workshop again!” First thing you think off - is money, then after that you complain –‘why this car like that one? - stupid car’. Surely it will be like that because you seldom maintain your cars. But if you really take care and maintain them, then it will last you a while. But no matter how well you maintain them, they still have a life span, understand or not? So if you need to change the car and you have the means, then you can change, you don’t have to complain – so problem solved.

Like this body, take care of it while you can, but don’t attach and don’t cling to it, understand or not? And then use it with understanding so that you don’t have to worry about it getting old, getting sick or die. With wisdom you will come to understand that this form and mind of ours is a beautiful vehicle and tool for us to useto live life, to experience all of the beauties and wonders of life so that we can truly live from moment to moment, with joy, love and understanding - with clarity of mind, peace and heedfulness, without all the usual agitation and problems, like before; plus without having to worry about life, anymore; - like every day also so “kan chiong” (“anxious” in Cantonese), - chasing after this, chasing after that, scolding your children, yelling at your loved ones, complaining and getting angry, etc. Is that life? That is really suffering, isn’t it? Constantly arising all the fear, the worries, and the anxieties, etc. and sometime no mood to eat also, understand or not? At night want to sleep also cannot sleep, - depression leading to insomnia. Some of them even say, ‘take sleeping pill also cannot sleep’.

I have quite a number of these people coming to my weekly meditation classes. They don’t know me, but they were introduced to me by other dhamma friends (kalyanamittas). They used to tell me – ‘Bro Teoh, I got something that I really got to consult you’. I said - what is it? And then they will describe to me how their depression and all those related things are affecting them and causing them so much suffering. So I said, ‘you must’ve seen psychiatrist before, right’? He said, yes! – ‘seen many and some see until their medicine also no more effect’. They also relate to me the way it had tormented them, it was really terrible. Many of them said the psychiatrists gave them anti-depressant and sleeping pills, and after taking them also cannot have proper sleep, - at the most, half hour or one hour of sleep only. After that, wide awake, and they said – “It’s really agony, because inside there so much fear,anxiety,unhappiness, sorrow, grief & misery and the suicidal thought that said ‘might as well die’ keep on arising”. You may ask, ‘how come they end up like that’?

I always gave them the following very useful advices to make them understand:-

1. “It’s only a thought, how come it has such great power to make living being so miserable and so confused? Who gave it such power?” It is you through your own delusion that gave it such power. So do wake up - for Life need not be like this. Life can be meaningful and good.

2. Thought is like a ‘tool’ for you to use to live life so use it wisely to arise the appropriate right thoughts to bring about the good life of love, happiness, joy and peace instead of arising all the deluded wrong thought of anger, hatred, envy, jealousy, fear, worry, anxiety, grief, sorrow and lamentation, etc, to harm yourself and to hurt yourself and to make yourself so unhappy and so miserable.”

3. “Each and every one of us holds the ‘key’ to our own life destiny and to be happy and unhappy is our choice, so choose wisely. Choose to be happy! Then why are you still not happy?” It is mainly because they don’t have the dhamma to guide and advise them. They made the wrong choice via their own delusion and lack of proper right understanding. So cultivate the opposite virtuous right thoughts of love, compassion, happiness borne of contentment, gratitude, sincerity, respect, generosity and honesty, etc, to bring back joy, love, peace and happiness to your life.

If you don’t meditate, you cannot understand, that’s why the Buddha said ‘the heedless are as if dead’, - and this is very dangerous, because spiritually you are as if dead. You never live.

With this I will end my talk, then if you have any questions, you can ask, and we can discuss them together.

4. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

4.1 Q1: Bro. Teoh, I just want to ask regarding this Vipassanā and Samatha bhavana, - do you think jhānas are necessary to realize the enlightenment?

Bro. Teoh: Sadhu! - This is a very good question. One thing I can assure you is, even with all the jhānas, you still may not be enlightened. So that question answers itself, understand or not? The Buddha to be initially developed all the eight jhānas but he was still not enlightened. So he became enlightened not because of the jhānas, understand or not? So the answer is very simple, you don’t have to, because these jhānas are absorption meditation. When you get into this jhanic state, the energy field is very strong, your head is fully in concentration via one-pointedness, and all the energy are locked and ‘killed’ into one point. Then they say ‘I got no thought’, understand or not? Who say ‘I got no thought’? The thought that is in one-pointedness say ‘I got no thought’. That’s why, ‘no thought is stilla thought’ inside there because this thought is held together by energy field until the brain cannot think. The Five Hindrances are all subdued. They are like very calm, very peaceful, and like enlightened. But it’s a conditioned state, as I had always said. And a conditioned state is not a free mind, understand or not? So just like a glass of water, if you don’t shake it, don’t stir it, the dust will settle down, like clear. That’s why they also have a lot of clarity but their minds are not agile, and their minds are not free, understand or not? Their minds are in concentration, - a conditioned state, and they are very calm, very peaceful, with no mental hindrance because all suppressed. They have clarity but they don’t have a ‘free’ mind. That’s why if the mental hindrances which are suppressed cannot come out, the evil roots also cannot come out, then you cannot understand the Truth. You cannot see that the Evil Roots are the roots of all evil, and how they make you evil, you also cannot see your mental hindrances because they are all suppressed. You don’t even know that there are mental hindrances, because your mind is in a conditioned state of AppanaSamādhi. But as they grow old, they will lose their ability to develop this type of concentration, and then they can become miserable again. They will come to realize that they had lost their ability to maintain that type of Appana Samādhi. And without the appana Samādhi, they have to confront old age, sickness and death. They have to confront the hindrances again. That’s why some of them become miserable. Like Devadatta, - remember? He lost his psychic after he tried to kill the Buddha but he only manages to injure the Buddha. Then after that, he lost his psychic ability and his ability to enter jhāna. That’s why he became miserable. Then when he was about to die, he wanted to see the Buddha to ask for forgiveness. The Law of Kamma is so powerful that he can’t even reach the Buddha. According to the Scripture, I think the ground opened up. Even Cinca also experienced the same karmic fruition, and they both got swallowed in.

4.1.1 The 2 types of Jhānas – absorption and wisdom jhāna

So the answer is, you don’t need to have the jhānas to become enlightened, but nowadays you have to be more careful because now they talk about two types of jhānas. One is absorption jhāna, and the other one is borne of wisdom - you heard of it or not? There are two schools of thought. They said, wisdom jhānas - you can also develop them via sati or awareness, and you can also experience all the eight jhānas. So to them, these 8 types of jhānas are not Appana Samādhi jhānas but pure jhānas that can be experienced via sati or awareness only. What they are trying to tell you is, starting with vitaka and vicara you then develop sati and when you are in sati you are just aware, then pīti and sukha can also arise - then you enter the 1stjhāna but without the one-pointedness energy field, understand or not? Then when vitaka and vicara is no more the mind enters the 2ndjhāna; then when pīti is no more the mind in sati enters the 3rdjhāna followed by the relinquishment of sukha then the mind enters the 4thjhāna which is a state of Upacara Samādhi, you can experience all these. Ekagatta or appana samādhi will not arise because you never concentrate or focus. So while experiencing Pīti and Sukha and if you are just aware in upacara samādhi then you can come to know their nature, - they are conditioned arising and they always come and go, hence realizing their impermanent characteristic. Then in the 4th Jhāna they don’t go into Ekagatta but instead they go into passaddhi/upacara samādhi – a form of tranquility or stillness which is like Equanimity, because they say in this state the mind is non-reactive and in uppekha. Then the 5thjhāna is, they said when you are aware of infinite space, then you stay with that infinite space consciousness. This one without the energy field, understand or not?

So they said Venerable Sariputta actually experienced those jhānas. That is how they interpret the sutta. But it’s up to you, understand or not? Because what is important is, Buddha never actually brought up all these things. The jhānas meditation was mainly derived from the commentaries, which are essentially adopted from the Hindu practices, understand or not? The Buddha only teaches the Five Spiritual Faculties, Seven Factors of Enlightenment and the 4 Noble Truths, - very simple. And in the 4th Noble Truth the Buddha never said that Samma Samādhi is Samma ‘Jhāna,’ otherwise he might as well put the word Jhāna there, understand or not? Why did he choose a different word, samādhi? For Samādhi is unification of mind, collectedness of mind and the unwavering mind. And there are three type of samādhi which you will go through as you develop the silent mind. When you do “noting”, initially it becomes like moment to moment awareness but it’s not really a continuous awareness as yet, because the noting is by the thought. That’s why this one which you termed khanikha samādhi is not stable. In a retreat maybe, - when you slowed everything down, then you become more calm and more mindful, especially when you don’t verbalize anymore. Actually if you are so conditioned by the noting method then there will be a lot of verbalization and concepts while doing the noting. Not until you can stabilize that mindfulness until everything is like a flow, - with no words and nothing; then ‘body and mind’ as one, ‘phenomena and mind as one’, and then you enter Upacara Samādhi which is more stable. And this one you can carry it out into your daily life to cultivate the daily mindfulness – sati sampajanna. And this one, you don’t have to slow things down, - even at normal speed or pace of life you can still be aware because the moment you are silent, no matter how fast the fan speed or phenomenon is, the awareness is there and it can be with it, - be with the moment with it. Even the TV screen, - I remember I tested it 20 to 30 years ago, I was ‘looking’ at it via sati in complete silence, and the movements were so fast like lightning speed and yet the awareness can still be with it and it’s like everything ‘slowed’ down, it’s like a flow inside there. Then there is no perception, nothing, it’s just aware – fully aware.

So when you develop the meditation with understanding, all these you will come to understand, - the ‘Form and Mind’, which is the ‘human being’ will come to understand. Then that ‘Nature’ within that is capable of the direct seeing via the sati will understand, - it will ‘see thing as they are’, without words, without thought, without concept. Then it will awaken; and then after that of course it has to use words to communicate and to express them, understand or not? Otherwise ‘the being’ no need to say anything, because it understands and it doesn’t need words, - for words are only needed for communication, for expression, and to conceptualize it for you to have an idea of what these things are. That’s why idea is not the Truth, - not the Reality, understand or not? Do you have any more questions?

4.2 Q2: Bro Teoh, thank you for the very enlightening talk. Now my question is, most of us here I should say - 99%, are lay people. So we tend to fall into this category of – heedlessness and you had shared with us tonight here, a lot of very good advices and dhamma understanding. For those monks (the sangha), maybe they will know how to practice, and they can make it. For us, can you please help us via explaining to us how we all, as ordinary lay people who are heedless most of the time to also do it?

Bro. Teoh: Yes! I think your question is very relevant. I used to answer this type of question in a very straight forward manner. It’s not whether you are a lay person or whether you are a Sangha member, understand or not? It’s ‘you’ - as an individual; if you are sincere and have the will and determination to develop this, - then can do it and you will diligently do it and then your 5 spiritual faculties can be developed very fast, understand or not? But if it is just an excuse, that, as a lay person, I’ve got no time, then it is very difficult.

Remember? - The last time I came here to give a talk, on “Understanding Life – its meaning and purpose”? I said, ‘When you very young, - you got a lot of time, a lot of energy, but you got no money’, then as you grew up, you go and work. You got a lot of money - because you work but then you got no time because you spent all your time working for money; Even though you still got energy at that time, and you can really live and enjoy life but then you say, ‘after I retire only I enjoy life’, understand or not? Then when you retire, you’ve got a lot of time, correct or not? And a lot of money, but no more energy, then you complain – “Aiyo, I should have enjoyed my life when I was young.”

Ah! Coming back to meditation, it is quite similar isn’t it? When you are young and working you will give the excuse by saying, ‘No time! - now too busy because I need to work, everyday 9 to 5 plus so where got time’?

But then who said, – ‘need to work cannot meditate’? The Buddha already explained to us the domains of meditation. I. e. Meditation can be done in any posture, anytime, anyplace and any circumstances, understand or not? To develop the spiritual faculties, do you need to be a monk? You don’t need, isn’t it? The faith in the Buddha and his teaching is through your own reflection and contemplation. If you are serious about life, like what happened to me, when I was also a lay person back then; I was also married, I also got children, and yet I cultivate, full-time, non-stop. And it can be done!

So, never allow yourself to allow the thought to create the excuses for you to be heedless, understand or not? Because a lot of people listened to their thoughts and allow the thoughts to justify via saying – ‘okay wait till when I retire, I will go full time’. Then later on the thought will say, ‘I still cannot retire because I still got not enough money to retire and moreover my children still need to depend on me for support’. It is common to hear this nowadays isn’t it? Because initially you will say ‘they need me to fund their tertiary education’, then after they come back, married already – ‘they still depend on me because they need me to pay the first down payment deposit of their first home, otherwise they cannot afford to buy’. And then after that, you may say your grandchildren also depend on you. Then where does it end? Life is to be developed through understanding and live, understand or not? So if you give priority to life than your focus will be different. To me, if I don’t understand life, I would rather not live. I will not come to this world, understand or not? If I want to come, I must come with the understanding of life so that I know how to live, so that my life is more meaningful, understand or not?

Like during our recent Cameron Highlands retreat that Bro Teh and some of you went, - life was so meaningful and beautiful when they were there and those who went, they will know because at the retreat they experienced that big difference between heedful living and heedless living. Those who are heedful, they are so peaceful, so mindful and aware, awake and relaxed, - no need to worry about anything, understand or not? But how come when you come back to your daily life or routine, your problems and your worries start again? It is because you had become heedless again and your thought starts to proliferate again. All of the things that you are concerned about, like your business, your career, your health, your relationship, your problems and daily routine etc, through memories, - everything like start to come back and haunt you again. Then your fear, your worry, your anxiety, etc will start to manifest again. So whymust life be this way? It is because you don’t understand life, understand or not? You had allowed thoughts to heedlessly create and project via your self-delusion and ignorance to arise all those sufferings – mainly because you grasp and cling and gave meanings to so many things that had arisen within the phenomena world of consciousness. That’s how you project your own fear, your own worry, and your own anxiety. You project into the future to arise the fear and then you recall the unhappy past, - which are your ‘scars’ of memories. Then you never live life, because you are never with the moment to understand the reality of life and existence that will unfold to you the secret of life so that you know how to live life. To be with the moment, and at peace with everything, to experience all of the beauties and wonders of life – that’s Life, understand or not? There is no more problem in life if you understand, you only have to perceive everything as the way it is. Understanding the reality of what is! – And don’t try to create the opposite via wanting things your way. Then not able to accept the reality of the moment, - that is the cause of suffering according to the Buddha. So the cultivation is actually very simple, - just like what the Buddha had taught us. First is to cultivate the Five Spiritual Faculties, and this one, you can do it through your Pujas, - pre-and post Puja. Every morning, have a good religious routine, - when you wake up, pay respect to Triple Gems, develop the chanting, chanting the salutation to the Buddha, or whatever Bodhisattva that you have affinity with, then you take refuge, and you renew your Five Precepts and then you meditate for about 30 to 45 minutes.

This is how you train your mind in sati – i.e. as you pay respect, you develop sati, and then as you calm and compose your mind you develop the faith or what they call, saddhā. Then from there you reflect and contemplate on the 9 great virtues of the Lord Buddha and how wonderful his teaching is. Then you determine strongly to cultivate diligently, - then viriya, which is a type of spiritual zeal or tenacity will arise. So once you have these two, then you silent your mind to develop mindfulness or sati via your bowing, sitting, walking, standing and lying down - all of your four postures and anapanasati etc. Then after that, via your daily life, you connect all the movements between the 4 postures to cultivate the daily mindfulness. Don’t try to be aware but instead just silent your mind and you will be aware, naturally. But initially when the hindrances are too strong, you only need to develop the spiritual faculties to counter them, understand or not? Then if you really want to meditate, you have to de-condition this heedless thinking via applying the appropriate skillful means like mind sweeping method, metta etc that I had taught you all.

That book, - the 12th of September 2013 transcript, on ‘Understanding the meditation as taught by the Buddha’, I think only those who came for the Thursday meditation class they got the book. It is all very clearly explained in that book. To de-condition your heedless thinking you have to initially do the mind-sweeping method (combined with metta), from your forehead down, - you know how to do, isn’t it? You just feel your forehead, silent everything then relaxes; then you move on to your eye muscles, and again feel & relax; then facial muscles, do the same. Then you radiate love and metta to develop the wholesome mind, the inner peace, leading to the inner well-being.

You can then recite: ‘May I, this body and mind of mine, be well and happy,well and happy’. - Feel the well-being and happiness within your entire being and then silence your mind, and have more and more moments of this silence, to de-condition your heedless thinking. Then as you develop this, you just feel and relax, -don’t think. As you sweep through your whole body, you are actually de-conditioning this heedless thinking because it has got no chance to think anymore, understand or not? Just feel – if there is any tension, any tightness or any stress within, just relax them. Always feel & relax, don’t think hence no more thought, only awareness and silence. So if you do this exercise long enough, you will become very calm, and very peaceful, and when you become very calm and very peaceful, sati will start to develop on its own naturally, understand or not? And when sati starts to develop, you can stabilize it via anchoring it to an object of meditation, - either Anapanasati or any suitable object of meditation that you are familiar with. Then finally when your breathing had become very subtle and quiet, then don’t go and do sitting and touching via verbalization - instead you should just silent your mind and stay silent. Then if you can, you move your sati or awareness to your heart area and feel, just aware, and then see what happen. A lot of thing will happen. Then you will develop the stability of mindfulness. Your mind will enter sati.

When your mind enters sati, you technically don’t need the object of meditation to become mindful anymore, understand or not? The object of meditation is just a skillful mean to anchor your mind so that your mind does not heedlessly wander off. That’s why Anapanasati is aware of the in and out breath, - every time it wanders off, bring it back, every time it wanders off, bring it back, until this mind is trained - so that this heedless habitual thinking and reaction of mind, doesn’t happen anymore, understand or not? That’s why after some period of training, sati will arise and then it becomes Khanika Samādhi – moment to moment awareness. Then when it stabilises further until it becomes continuous, no more thought, then it will become Upacara Samādhi.

Then when you have continuous mindfulness, it can then enter absorption and go into Appana Samādhi, - you can experience it. During the early day, I did it, I went into it. And I can shut off my sense door consciousness. This hearing consciousness, I can shut it off. When I get into this absorption state of appana samādhi, this energy field can shut off the hearing consciousness, and that is why I cannot hear anything, like complete cut off, - they call this cittaviveka.

4.3 Three types of peace - Kayaviveka, Cittaviveka and Upadhiviveka

You hear of these three words? – Kayaviveka, cittaviveka and upadhiviveka. You know what is “viveka”? - Renunciation or seclusion. Kayaviveka is physical seclusion – meaning as a monk, when you enter monkhood, you actually renounce the world, you give up everything - your wealth, your property, your relationship, your whatever, and you renounce them all. Then after that, you seclude your mind, you go into what they call AppanaSamādhi – which means you, go into concentration or one-pointedness concentration and absorption to seclude that mind from the external world and that is mental seclusion or renunciation, - the mind doesn’t want to come out into the world. That’s why it is very peaceful inside, understand or not? So this is called mental seclusion or Cittaviveka. The first type of peace, come from renunciation of the physical thing, and this type of peace is dependent on the environment. If the environment is peaceful, the setting is peaceful, then you are peaceful, because you are conditioned by the environment. Also after you had renounced or give up on all the things that may make you restless and stressful you become a monk, - then you become more peaceful, isn’t it? Because you go to a secluded place, a monastery, which is very conducive, also because everybody there keep their precepts. So this physical renunciation or seclusion will bring about a type of peace call kayaviveka that will enable you to cultivate much easily.

Then you develop seclusion of mind, by going inside. The mind dwells inside and does not come out, because it’s very peaceful but this one, you cannot live life. You’re trapped inside, its energy field - is a conditioned state and then you enter Appana Samādhi. But the Buddha said, the most important peace is the third type of peace, - borne of wisdom. Not through secluding yourself. They call it Upadiviveka – a type of peace that can arise via cultivating Insight or Vipassanā meditation leading to the awakening. When you awaken, you will realize the Truth and you are no longer deluded, and your mind liberated. That type of peace, you can live life, - anywhere, any place, any time, you are always at peace, no matter what happens to the world, for the world is the world and people are just way they are. You are always at peace with the world because you know this ‘form and mind’ is not ‘you’ and everything that arise is conditioned arising, causal phenomena, empty, with noreality, and they follow nature’s law, exhibiting their 3 universal characteristics of anicca, dukkha and anatta. Then you will also know, the most important laws that governs life and existence are the Law of Kamma and the Law of the mind or Dependent Origination and via these you will know how the mind works and functions and how to use it to develop the appropriate wholesomeness of mind, so that you can follow the advice of the Buddha ‘to avoid all evil, do good, and then purify this mind’ until it becomes enlightened.

And this is how you train your mind to develop the wisdom to live life. As a lay person, it can also be done, and what you need is, to develop these spiritual faculties of saddhā, viriya leading to sati. Train via the mind-sweeping method to de-condition the heedless thinking, then develop the spiritual faculty or sati, and when sati stabilised, samādhi will come about to enable you to see things as they are, and then you will be very heedful, calm and peaceful throughout the day, with this Upacara Samādhi to make your mind collected and unwavering. And you no need to think like before anymore, understand or not? Your mind is so different now - because most of the time you are just aware, relax, peaceful and heedful, and it seldom really need to think anymore. Even as I speak and share this whole two hour of dhamma talk with you all, I hardly think. At times I only need to recall from memories, those facts and words that I need to use in the sharing like recalling the title of the talk some of your names etc. But because I’m very familiar with this type of dhamma sharing, it has become a part of me and I don’t have to think, because if I have to think, Icannot share, understand or not? Because all these come out from my understanding that is straight from the heart or ‘nature’ within.

So I hope I had answered your question? Even as a lay person, don’t be discouraged. I do understand sometimes you become gullible, because you always hear people say, - and sometimes they are very convincing too; - I remember during the early days when I was at Brickfields listening to dhamma talks, and they used to tell us, - ‘for us lay people, you just don’t have a chance so don’t go and dream’. Why? – Because they will tell you ‘the Monks full time also cannot do it’. - So convincing isn’t it? If Monk full time also may not be able to do it then what is your chance, they say? But what is a monk? It’s not the one with the robe on isn’t it? It’s the one that has the faith, the sincerity and the determination to train their mind according to the advice of the Buddha and that is the true monk, understand or not? There is a ‘monk’ in you already, if you have the determination to cultivate the spiritual faculties and to develop the meditation diligently because meditation can be cultivated in the midst of life. And meditation, as explained by the Buddha, can be cultivated by any human being, as long as it has a mind and a body, then it can develop the understanding. And for human being it is easier because we live in a world where there is suffering and the possibility of enlightenment - there are these two extremes. Also because our human mind is also very unique because it can be developed until it becomes a Sammasambuddha, the fully enlightened one on one extreme. But via heedlessness, it can also go to the other extreme, and fall into aviji hell. So all these are what the human mind is capable of. So our realm is very special. And they call it the “Sensual Realm of Happiness” – “Kamaloka sukhati”. Sukhati is the Happiness. Kama is sensual and loka is realm. Ours is considered as a Happy Realm, whereas the other four realms below us are termed the woeful realms and they are: the demons, the petas, animals, and the hell realm. These are the four suffering realms called “Kamalokadukkhati”. In these realms they really suffer. Demons, has a lot of anger, and they suffer a lot too. Animals are born into the animal realm because of their delusion. The hungry ghosts or petas, they are full of greed and delusion. And the beings in the hell realm, they have all the three evil roots of: greed, hatred & delusion. Okay so shall we end?

Sādhu! Sādhu! Sādhu!

5. Closing Puja (in Pāḷi)

Sharing of merits with the devas; Transferring of merits to departed ones; Invoke the blessing for the nation; followed by Invoking Aspiration via power of merits.

Table of Contents

1. Preface

2. Acknowledgement

3. SAMATHA VIPASSANĀ BHAVANA

3.1 Introduction by Bro. Teh of Ti-Ratana Buddhist Society NBC Klang:

3.2 Difference between Samatha and Vipassanā Bhavana

3.3 Meditation as taught by the Buddha

3.4 Definition of Right Samādhi & the 3 types of Samādhi

3.5 The 5 jhanic factors and the 40 meditation objects of concentration

3.6 The 16 Brahma realms

3.7 Importance of cultivating Sati leading to heedfulness

3.8 Vipassanā Bhavana and the 2 types of Sati

4. QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

4.1.1 The 2 types of Jhānas – absorption and wisdom jhāna

4.3 Three types of peace - Kayaviveka, Cittaviveka and Upadhiviveka

5. Closing Puja (in Pāḷi)