MAJOR BUDDHISM CONCEPTS

(1) DANA (Generosity, Alms-food Offering)

Different Aspects of Dana The Most Venerable Mingun Sayadaw, 1991

(2) PANNA (Wisdom)

PANNA U Nu

(3) REBIRTH AND RE-INCARNATION

"What happens after death and Who can Ledi Sayadaw, 1956
remember "
How Rebirth Takes Place Sayadaw U Thitilla
Reincarnation Stories in Burma Mahasi Sayadaw, 1995
What Rebirth is: (Editorial) The Light of
Dhamma,1963
What is Reborn? Francis Story, 1956
The Case for Rebirth Francis Story, 1960

(3) SAMADHI
What is Samadhi? U Nu, 1985

(4) SILA
What is Sila? U Nu, 1985

MINGUN SAYADAW
Chapter VI: Paramita
(Perfections)
Edited and Translated by
U Ko Lay and U Tin Lwin
Yangon, Myanmar
1991
Volume One, Part One, Anudipani

The Perfection of Generosity or Generous Offering (Dana Parami)

For the edification of those aspirants who ardently strive for attainment of perfect Self-
enlightenment of a Buddha, or for Self-enlightenment of a Pacceka Buddha, or for the
enlightenment of a disciple of a Buddha, we provide herewith miscellaneous notes on
different aspects of Generosity, which forms a part of the conditions for obtaining
enlightenment. These notes are given in the form of answers to the following questions:
 (i) What things are called Dana?
 (ii) Why are they called Dana?
 (iii) What are the characteristics, functions, manifestations and proximate causes of
Dana ?
 (iv) How many types of Dana are there?

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  (v) What are the elements that strengthen the beneficial results of Dana?
 (vi) What are the elements that weaken the beneficial results of Dana?
(This form of treatment will be adhered to when dealing with other Perfections too)

1. WHAT THINGS ARE CALLED DANA?

In brief, it should be answered that 'the volition to give a suitable thing to give' is called
Dana, The meaning will become clearer in the following passages.
2. WHY ARE THEY CALLED DANA?
The volition is called Dana because it is responsible for an act of generosity to take
place. There can be no generosity without the volition to give; an act of generosity is
possible only when there is the volition to give.
In this connection, by volition is meant
(i) the volition that arises at the time of donation. It is called munca cetana,
'relinquishing' volition, munca meaning relinquishing. It is only this volition, which
accompanies the act of relinquishing, that forms the true element of generosity.
(ii) The volition that arises in anticipation before one makes the donation is called
'Pubba cetana'. This type of volition can also be considered as Dana, provided that the
object to be given is at hand at the time the intention, "I shall make an offering of this
object," occurs. Without the object to be given being actually in one's possession,
cherishing the thought of giving may be called 'pubba cetana' but cannot qualify as Dana: it
can only be a benevolent thought of ordinary merit.
How volition comes to be taken as synonymous with Dana is based on the grammatical
definition of Diyati anenati danam, that which prompts giving is generosity, dana. (Volition,
here, is definitely the determining cause of giving).
Things to be given are also called Dana from the grammatical definition of Diyatiti
danam which means objects which could be offered as alms.
Following these grammatical definitions, Texts of the Canons mention two kinds of
dana, namely, volitional dana and material dana. In this connection, questions have been
asked why objects to be offered are called dana, since only volition is capable of producing
results and material object is not. It is true that only volition is productive of results because
volition is a mental action; but as explained above, volition can be called dana only if it
arises when there exist suitable things to be given. Therefore, material object for giving is
also an important contributory factor for an act of giving to qualify as generosity, dana.
For example, we say 'rice is cooked because of the firewood'. Actually, it is the fire that
cooks the rice. But there can be no fire without firewood. So fire burns because of firewood;
and rice is cooked because of fire. Thus taking into consideration, these connected
phenomena, it is not incorrect to say 'rice is well cooked because of good firewood'.
Similarly, we can rightly say 'beneficial result is obtained because of objects of offering'.
Because things to be given away feature importantly in acts of generosity, the
Canonical Texts mention different types of Dana depending on different objects to be
offered. Thus in expositions on the Vinayawe find four types of dana, namely offerings of
food, robes, dwelling places and medicines. Although the Vinaya is not concerned with
enumeration of types of dana, since the Buddha allows four kinds of requisites to the
Sangha, the offerings made to the Sangha are naturally listed under these four heads;
hence this classification in the Vinaya expositions of four types of dana, which is primarily
based upon different kinds of object of offering.
According to the classification in the exposition on the Abhidhamma, everything in the
world comes under six heads corresponding to the six sense objects, there are six kinds of
dana depending upon whether it is a gift of visible object, of sound, of smell, of taste, of
touch or of mind-object or dhamma. Here also, although there is no direct mention of six

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kinds of dana in the Abhidhamma Teachings, if gifts were to be made of each of the sense
objects, there would be six kinds of offering; hence this classification in the Abhidhamma
expositions of six types of dana.
In the Suttanta classification, there are ten kinds of dana, namely, offering of various
kinds of food, of drink, of transportation, of flowers, of perfumed powder, of scented
unguent or ointment, of bed, of dwelling places and of facilities for lighting. Here again, the
actual teaching in the Suttas relates only to the ten classes of objects which may be offered
as alms. But when these ten objects are offered as alms, there would be then ten kinds of
offering; hence this classification in the Suttanta expositions of ten types of dana.
Maintaining that the Buddha teaches only these ten objects for offering one should not
consider that these are the only gifts to be given; and that other gifts are not allowable. One
should understand that the Buddha merely mentions the ten things most commonly offered
as alms in practice; or as any material thing can be classified as belonging to one or the
other of the ten types of gift, one should take it that by these ten objects are covered also
any object which is in daily use by the noble recipient.
From what has been said above, it should be well noted how a material object is an
important contributory factor (for the arising) of volitional generosity. It will be seen that the
various types of generosity which will be described hence forth include many that relate to
objects of offering.
As a resume of this chapter, it should be remembered that volition is dana because it
prompts giving; the material thing is dana because it is a suitable thing to give.
3. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS, FUNCTIONS, MANIFESTATIONS AND
PROXIMATE CAUSES OF DANA?
(a) Dana has the characteristic of abandoning ( Lakkhana).
(b) Its function (kicca-rasa) is destruction of attachment to objects of offering; or it has
the property of faultlessness (sampatti-rasa)
(c) Its manifestation is absence of attachment i.e. a sense of freedom from attachment
that appears in the mind of the donor, or knowing that dana is conducive to good
destination and wealth i.e. on thinking of the effects of giving, the donor senses that his act
of generosity will result in attainment of rebirth in the human or Deva world and attainment
of great wealth.
(d) The proximate cause of giving is having objects of offering in one's possession.
Without having anything to give, there can, be no act of charity, only imagining that one
gives. Thus objects to be offered are the proximate cause of Dana.
4. HOW MANY TYPES OF DANA ARE THERE?
The subject to be dealt with under this head is quite vast; it will entail considerable
exercise of mental alertness and intelligence to study them.
Types of Dana in Groups of Twos.
(1) Offering of material things (Amisa dana) and the gift of the teaching (Dhamma
dana). (a) Offering of material things such as alms rice etc. is known as Amisa dana. It is
also called Paccaya dana (when the things offered are the requisites of bhikkhus).
Teaching the Buddha Dhamma in the form of talks, lectures etc. is giving the gift of
Dhamma. The Buddha said that this is the noblest of all types of dana. (This classification
of dana into two types is made according to the objects of offering).
In relation to this division of types of dana, it is necessary to look into the question of
what type of dana accrues to one who sets up pagodas and statues of Buddha.
There are some who maintain that although setting up of pagodas and statues of
Buddha involves relinquishing of large amount of wealth, it cannot be an act of generosity,
dana; because they say, for an act of giving to become dana, three conditions must be
fulfilled: there must be a recipient; there must be an object for offering and there must be a

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donor. In setting up pagodas and statues of Buddha there is obviously the donor, but who
receives his gift, they asked. In the absence of any one to receive the gift, how can it be an
act of generosity, dana?
From their point of view, the pagodas and Buddha statues are not objects to be given
as an act of dana; rather, they serve as aids to recollection of the attributes of the Buddha.
A builder of pagodas and Buddha statues has no particular receiver in mind to give them
away; he builds them to help produce vivid visualization of the Buddha in the mind of the
worshipper enabling him to practise the Recollection of the Virtues of the Buddha. It should
therefore be considered, they maintain, that setting up of pagodas and Buddha statues is
related to the Buddhanussati Meditation, cultivation of the Recollection of the Virtues of the
Buddha, and is not an act of generosity.
There are, again some people who maintain that as the person who builds pagodas
and installs Buddha statues undertakes these works in order to honour, to make homage to
the most Homage-Worthy Buddha, his act must be considered as an act of honouring the
Buddha (apacayana), one of the ten qualities contributing to merit (Punnakiriya vatthu).
They further say that since this kind of merit, namely, honouring those who are worthy of
honour, is a practice of morality (caritta sila), it should come under (observance of) sila and
not under (cultivation of) Buddhanussati Meditation.
But neither the Merit of Buddhanussati Meditation nor the merit of honouring
(apacayana) involves relinquishing of objects of offering; whereas building a pagoda and
installing Buddha statues require an expenditure of a large sum of money. Hence these
works of merit must be considered to come under Dana.
Here the question may be asked, 'if it comes under will it be an act of dana when there is
no recipient for it?' According to the Texts, whether an offering should be regarded as an
act of dana may be decided by an analysis of its features under four heads: characteristic,
function, manifestation and proximate cause. We have already provided above what these
four features are for a true act of dana. Now applying this test to the present problems, we
find the characteristic of abandoning since the person who builds the pagoda and installs
the Buddha statues relinquishes a large sum of money; as its function, there is destruction
of attachment to the objects of offering by the donor; the donor senses that his act of
generosity will result in attainment of rebirth in the human or deva world and attainment of
great wealth; and finally, as the proximate cause, there is the object to be offered. Thus all
the four features necessary for an offering to be truly an act of dana are present here and
we may therefore conclude that building a pagoda and installing Buddha statues is a true
act of generosity.
As to the question of who receives the gift, it will not be wrong to say that all the Devas
and human beings who worship at the pagodas and Buddha statues in memory of the
virtues of the Buddha are the recipients of the dana. At the same time, as they serve as
objects of worship for the Devas and human beings in their recollection of the virtues of the
Buddha, they also form the objects of offering. All the various material things in the world
are utilized in different ways depending on their nature; food materials are utilized for
consumption; clothing materials are utilized for wearing; materials for religious devotion
and adoration are utilized as objects of veneration.
If wells and tanks are dug near public highways, the general public could use them for
drinking water, washing etc. The donor would have no particular recipient in mind when he
dug the wells and tanks. When, as he intended, the wayfarers passing by the road make
use of his gifts, no one could say that his gift is not an act of dana; even if he did not
finalize it with a libation ceremony. (See below).
Now to wind up the discussion, it is quite proper to say that the builder of a pagoda with
Buddha statues is a donor, the pagoda and Buddha statues are objects of dana, and

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Devas and human beings who pay homage to them in adoration are the recipients of the
dana.
An additional question may be asked, 'Is it really proper to refer to pagodas and
Buddha statues as objects of dana; may it not be sacrilegious to classify them as such?'
Just as bookcases and shelves are used in the monasteries for holding Cononical Texts
which are looked upon as sacred (Dhamma-cetiya), so also pagodas and Buddha statues
form storehouses for keeping sacred relics and objects of veneration. So it may be
answered that it is quite appropriate to designate them as objects of generosity, dana.
Whether a libation ceremony is essential for an offering to qualify as an act of
generosity
The point to consider here is whether it constiutes an act of dana when it is not
finalised with a libation ceremony. Actually there is no mention of this requirement in the
Texts. The practice is, however, of long standing tradition.
In the Commentary on Chapter 'Civarakkhandhaka of the Vinaya Mahavagga, we
find the following reference to this tradition of libation ceremony. "There was a split among
the bhikkhus of a monastery prior to the time of offering of robes after the Buddhist Lent.
When the time arrived lay devotees came and offered robes, piled up in a heap, to one
group of bhikkhus. The devotees then went to the other group of bhikkhus and performed
the ceremony of libation, saying, "We offer to the other group of bhikkhus." As to how the
robes should be distributed among the Sangha, the Great Commentary says that if it was
in a region where they set no great store by the ceremony of libation, the robes belonged to
the group (of bhikkhus) which had been directly offered the robes. The group which
received only 'the libation' had no claim to the robes. But if it was in a region where they set
great store by the libation ceremony, the group which received only 'the libation' had a
claim to the robes because the ceremony of libation was performed with them; the other
group to which the robes were offered directly had also a claim on them since they had the
robes already in their possession. Therefore the two groups must divide the robes equally
among them. This method of distribution is a practice followed by tradition in regions on the
other side of the Ocean."
'Regions on the other side of the Ocean, from Sri Lanka implies 'the Jambudipa', i.e.
India. Therefore it should be noted that the ceremony of libation is a practice traditionally
followed by the people of India.
Considering that there are regions where they set a great store by the ceremony of
libation and there are regions where they set no great store by the ceremony of libation, it
cannot be said that an offering constitutes an act of generosity only when it is finalized by a
ceremony of libation. The ceremony is important only for those who follow the tradition of
libation; it is clear that no significance is attached to it by those who do not follow the
tradition. It should be noted therefore that a libation ceremony is not a primary factor for the
successful completion of an act of generosity.
(b) With respect to the gift of the teaching, Dhamma dana, there are, nowadays,
people who are unable to teach the Dhamma, but who, bent on waking a gift of the
teaching, spend money on books, palm-leaf scripts etc. (of Canonical Texts) and make a
gift of them. Although such a donation of books is not truly a gift of the teaching, since a
reader will be benefitted by reading in the books practices and instruction which will lead
one to Nibbana, the donor may be regarded as one who makes a gift of the teaching.
It is like the case of one who has no medicine to give to a sick person, but only a
prescription for a cure of the illness. When the medicine is prepared as prescribed and
taken, the illness is removed. Although the person does not actually administer any
medicine, because of his effective prescription, he is entitled to be regarded as one who
has brought about the cure of illness. Likewise, the donor of books on Dhamma who

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personally cannot teach the Dhamma enables the readers of his books to attain knowledge
of the Dhamma and thus is entitled to be called the donor of the gift of Dhamma.
Now, to conclude this section, the pair of gifts mentioned above, namely, amisa-dana
and Dhamma-dana may also be called amisa-puja, honouring with material things and
Dhamma-puja, honouring with the teaching; the terms mean the same thing.
The word 'Puja' means 'honouring' and is generally used when a younger person
makes an offering to an older person or a person of higher status. Depending on this
general usage, some people have stated that dana should be divided into 'puja-dana' and
anuggaha dana'; puja-dana, honouring with an offering when the gift is made by a
younger person or a person of lower status to an older person or a person of higher status;
and 'anuggaha-dana' offering to render assistance out of kindness 'when a gift is given by
an older person or a person of higher status to one who is younger or of lower status.
But as we have seen before in the chapter on 'Prediction', the word puja can be used
for both the high or the low and the word 'anuggaha' is likewise applicable to both cases. It
is true that generally, 'anuggaha' is used when the giving is made by the high to the low or
by the old to the young. But we must, however, remember the usages of 'amisanuggaha'
and 'Dhammanuggaha' to describe the assistance rendered and support given, for the
progress and development of the Buddha's Teaching. Here the word anuggaha is
employed even though the gift is being made to the highest and the noblest Teaching of
the Buddha. Thus it should be noted that the division into pujadana and anuggaha-dana is
not an absolute division into two aspects of dana, but rather a classification following
common usage.
(2) Offering of one's own person (Ajahattika-dana) and Offering of external properties
(Bahira-dana). Offerings of one's own person means giving away of one's own life and
limbs. Offerings of external properties include giving of all the external material
possessions of the donor.
Even in these modern times, we read sometimes in the newspapers news of offerings
of one's own limbs at the Pagoda or of 'honouring with the gift' of burning oneself after
wrapping up the whole body with cloth and pouring oil on it. Some comments have been
made on such kinds of dana involving one's limbs. According to them, such offerings of
one's life and limb are deeds to be performed only by great Bodhisattas and are not the
concern of ordinary persons. They doubt if such offerings made by ordinary persons
produce any merit at all.
Now to consider whether such views are justified or not. It is not as if a Bodhisatta can
suddenly make his appearance in this world. Only after gradually fulfilling the required
perfections to the best of his ability, an individual grows in maturity and develops himself
stage by stage to become a Bodhisatta. Ancient poets have written thus: Only by gradual
venture, one ensures continuous improvement in rebirths to come. Therefore we should
not hastily condemn those who make offerings of parts of their body or the whole of their
body. If a person, through unflinching volition and faith, very courageously makes an
offering of his own body, even to the extent of abandoning his life, he is actually worthy of
praise as a donor of the gift of one's own person, Ajjhattika-dana.
(3) Offering of property (Vatthu-dana) and Granting of safety (Abhaya-dana). Vatthu-
dana is concerned with offering of material things. Abhaya-dana means granting of safety
or security with respect to life or property. This is usually an exercise of mercy by kings.
(4) Vattanissita-dana and Vivattanissita-dana. Vattanissita-dana is offering made in
the hope of future worldly wealth and pleasures, which mean suffering in the cycle of
existences. Vivattanissita-dana is concerned with offering made in aspiration for Nibbana
which is free of the suffering of rebirth.
(5) Dana tainted with fault (Savajja-dana) and Dana untainted with fault (Anavajja-

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dana). Offering of meals with meat obtained from killing of animals is an example of dana
tainted with fault. Offering of meals which does not involve killing of animals is dana
untainted with fault. The first type is an act of generosity accompanied by
demeritoriousness; the second type is dana unaccompanied by demeritoriousness.
We see the case of some fishermen, who having accumulated wealth from fishing
decide to give up the business thinking 'I shall abandon this demeritorious fishing work and
adopt a pure mode of livelihood' . Engaging in other occupations, they find their prosperity
declining; reverting to the old vocation, they grow in wealth again. This is an example of
Dana tainted with fault (Savajja-dana) done in previous lives coming to fruition in the
present life. Since that act of dana was associated with the act of killing, at the time of its
fruition too, success is achieved only when associated with act of killing (fishing) when not
associated with an act of killing, the previous dana tainted with fault cannot come to fruition
and his wealth declines.
(6) Offering made with one's own hands (Sahatthika-dana) and Offering made by
agents on one's behalf or made by others under one's instruction (Anattika-dana). (That
Sahatthik-dana brings more beneficial results than the Anattika dana can be read in the
Payasi Sutta of Maha Vagga, Digha Nikaya, of the Pali Canon).
(7) Offerings made with proper and careful preparations (Sakkacca-dana) and
Offering made without proper and careful preparation (Asakkacca-dana). As an example,
offering of flowers may be cited. Having gathered flowers from trees, a donor creates
garlands of festoon with them, and arranges them to look as beautiful and as pleasant as
possible, and makes his offering of flowers, then it is a sakkacca-dana, offering made with
proper and careful preparations. Without such careful preparations, when flowers are
presented as they have been gathered from trees, thinking that the mere gift of the flowers
is sufficient in itself, then it is asakkacca-dana, offering made without proper and careful
preparations.
Some ancient writers have translated 'sakkacca-dana' and 'asakkacca-dana' into
Myanmar to mean 'offering made with due respect' and 'offering made without due respect'.
This rendering has, as often as not, misled the modern readers to think that it means
paying due respect or without paying due respect to the receiver of the offering. Actually,
'paying due respect' here means simply 'making careful preparations' for the offering.
(8) Offering associated with wisdom (Nanasampayutta-dana) and offering
unassociated with wisdom (Nanaavippayutta-dana). Offering made with clear
comprehension of volitional acts and the results they produce is said to be an offering
associated with wisdom; when an offering is made without such comprehension and
awareness, by just following examples of others making donations, it is Nanavippayutta-
dana. It must be mentioned that just awareness of cause and its ensuing effect, while an
offering is being made, is sufficient to make it an offering which is associated with wisdom.
In this connection, an explanation is necessary with respect to some exhortations which
run like this: 'Whenever an offering is made, it ,should be accompanied by Insight
Knowledge, Vipassana Nana, in this manner: I, the donor of the gift, am anicca, of
impermanent nature; the object of offering is also anicca, of impermanent nature; and the
recipient of the gift is also anicca, of impermanent nature. The impermanent I am offering
the impermanent gift to the impermanent recipient. Thus you should contemplate whenever
you make an offering of gifts.'
This exhortation is made only to encourage.., the practice of developing Insight
Knowledge, Vipassana Nana. It should not be misunderstood that an act of generosity is
not one associated with wisdom, if the donor does not practise contemplation as exhorted.
As a matter of fact, whoever wants to develop real Vipassana-nana should first of all
discard the notion of I, he, man, woman, i.e. the illusion of I, the illusion of Self to discern

7
that they are merely material aggregates and mental aggregates. Then one has to go on
contemplating so as to realise that these aggregates of mind and matter are of the nature
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality. Without differentiation into
aggregates of mind and matter, if one were to contemplate on conventional concepts of 'I
am anicca; the object of offering is anicca; the recipient is anicca', no real Insight
Knowledge would be possible.
(9) Offering made hesitatingly and only after being urged is Sasankharika-dana;
Offering made spontaneously without being urged is Asankharika-dana. Here urging
means prompting or entreating earnestly someone to give when he is hesitating or
reluctant to do so. When offering is made only with such prompting. But a simple request
should not be taken as urging. For example, a person who has not made any decision yet,
whether he will make a donation or whether he does not wish to make a donation, is
approached by someone with a request for some alms contribution; and that person gives
willingly without any hesitation. This is a spontaneous gift in response to a simple request;
it is therefore in Asankharika-dana (one without prompting), and should not be called a
Sasankharika-dana (just because it is made after a request).
Another person is similarly approached and similarly requested to make a contribution;
he is reluctant at first and refuses to do so. But when the request is repeated with a
prompting 'Do make a gift; please don't flinch' he makes a contribution. His dana made as
a consequence of urging is of Sasankharika-dana type (one with prompting). Even in the
case where no one has made an approach to request for dana, if one first thinks of making
an offering, and then shrinks away from the idea, but after much self- persuasion, self-
inducement, finally makes the gift, his dana is of Sasankharika type too.
(10) Offering made while one is in a joyful mood with a happy frame of mind is
Somanassa-dana; Offering made with a balanced state of mind, neither joyous nor
sorrowful but equipoised is Upekkha-dana. (When the act of giving is accompanied by
pleasure, it is Somanassa-dana; when it is accompanied by equanimity it is Upekkha-
dana).
(11) Offering of property earned in accordance with Dhamma by just means is
Dhammiya-dana; Offering of property earned by immoral means such as stealing, robbing
is Adhammiya-dana. Although earning of property by immoral means is not in accord with
dhamma, offering as alms of much property is nevertheless an act of merit; but the good
results accruing from this type of dana cannot be as great as those obtained from the first
type, the dhammiya-dana. A comparison can be made of these two different results with
types of plant that will grow up from a good seed and from a bad seed.
(12) Offering made with hopes of gaining worldly pleasures is Enslaving dana, Dasa
dana, the offering that will enslave one. Being a slave to craving for sense-pleasures, one
makes this kind of dana to serve one's Master, the Craving to fulfil its wishes. Offering
made with aspiration for attainment of the Path and Fruition, the Nibbana, is dana for
freedom, Bhujissa-dana (offering made in revolt against the dictates of the Master, the
Craving).
Sentient beings in the endless round of existences desire to enjoy the delightful
pleasures of the senses (visible objects, sounds, smells, tastes, touch). This desire to revel
in the so called pleasures of the senses is called Craving. Every moment of their existence
is devoted to satisfying that Craving; fulfilling the needs of that Craving, they have become
its servants. Continuous striving, day and night throughout their life for wealth is nothing but
fulfillment of the wishes of the Craving which demands the best of food, the best of clothing
and the most luxurious way of living.
Not content with being a slave to Craving in the present life, working to fulfil its every
need, we make acts of dana to ensure luxurious living in future. This type of offering

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accompanied by a strong wish for enjoyment of worldly pleasures continuously for lives to
come, is definitely an enslaving dana, Dasa dana.
This type of dana in fulfillment of the wishes of Craving and which ensures servitude to
Craving throughout the endless round of existences is performed, thinking it to be the best,
before one encounters the Teachings of the Buddha. But once we are fortunate enough to
hear the Buddha Dhamma, we come to understand how powerful this Craving is, how
insatiable it is, how much we have to suffer for fulfilling the wishes of this Craving. Then
resolving 'I will no longer be a servant of this terrible Craving, I will no longer fulfil its
wishes, I will rebel against it, I will go against it and in order to uproot, to eradicate this evil
Craving, one makes offerings with aspiration for attainment of the Path and Fruition, the
Nibbana. This dana is called dana made for freedom, Bhujissa-dana (offering made in
revolt against the dictates of the Master, Craving).
(13) Offering of things of permanent, immovable nature such as pagodas, temples,
monasteries, rest houses and digging wells, tanks etc. is Thavara-dana. Offerings of
movable nature, meant for temporary use such as food, robes etc. movable gifts is
Athivara-dana.
(14) Offering made with accompaniment of supplementary materials that usually go
along with such on offering is Saparivara-dana. For example, in offering robes, as main
item of gifts when it is accompanied by suitable and proper accessories and requisites, it is
a Saparivara-dana; when there are no other objects of offering besides the main item of
robes, it is a gift without accompanying things, Aparivira-dana. The same differentiation
applies to offerings made with other forms of gifts.
The special characteristic marks on the body of Boddhisattas who have large retinue
attendant upon them are the benefits that result from Saparivara type of dana.
(15) Offering made constantly or regularly such as offering of alms food to the Sangha
every day is Constant dana, Nibaddha dana; offering made not constantly, not on a
regular basis but only occassionally when one is able to is Anibaddha dana, occasional
offering.
(16) Tarnished offering, Paramattha-dana Untarnished offering, Aparamattha-dana.
Offering which is tarnished by craving and wrong view is Paramattha-dana; offering which
is not corrupted by craving and wrong view is Aparamattha-dana. According to the
Abhidhamma, one is corrupted when led astray by wrong view alone; but wrong view
always coexists with craving. When wrong view corrupts and leads one astray, craving is
also involved. Therefore both craving and wrong view are mentioned above. And this is
how craving and wrong view bring about corruption. Having made an offering, if one
expresses an ardent, wholesome wish, 'May I attain speedily the Path and Fruition,
Nibbana as a result of this act of merit', the offering becomes one of Vivattanissita type
[see type (4) above], and it could serve as a strong sufficing condition for attainment of the
Path and Fruition, Nibbana. But instead of making such a wholesome wish for Nibbana,
when one, corrupted and led astray by craving and wrong view, aspires a result of this act
of merit, may I become a distinguished Deva such as Sakka, the king of Tavatimsa abode,
or just a Deva of the durable divine realms, his dana cannot serve as a sufficing condition
for attainment of Nibbana and is classed as mere Paramattha-dana, the dana which is
bereft of the sufficing condition for attainment of Nibbana, being tarnished by craving and
wrong view. The dana which is not tarnished by craving and wrong view but is made with
the sole purpose of attaining Nibbana is classed as Aparamattha-dana.
Much Charity can also be practised outside the Teaching of the Buddha; but dana of
Paramattha type is only possible then. It is only within the Teaching of the Buddha that
dana of Aparimattha type can be practised. So while we are blessed with the rare
opportunity of meeting with the Teachings of the Buddha, we should strive our utmost to

9
ensure that our offerings are of the Aparamattha type.
(17) Offering made with what is left over, what is interior, wretched is Ucchitthadana;
Offering made with what is not left over, what is not inferior, wretched is Anucchittha-dana.
Suppose, while preparations are being made for a meal, a donee appears and one donates
some of the food that has been prepared before one has taken it it is considered to be 'the
highest gift' (agga-dana) and it is also an anucchitha-dana since the offering is not the left
over of a meal. If the donee arrives while one is eating the meal, but before eating is
finished, and one makes an offering of the food taken from the meal one is eating, that is
also considered to be an Anucchittha-dana;, it can even be said to be a noble gift. When
the offering is made of the food left over after one has finished eating, it is a gift of the
leftover, an Ucchittha-dana; a wretched, inferior one. It should be noted, however, that the
humble offering made by one who has nothing else to give but the leftover meal could well
be called an Anucchittha-dana, It is only when such an offer is made by one who can well
afford to make a better gift that his gift is regarded as a wretched, inferior one, Ucchittha-
dana.
(18) Offering made while one is still alive is Sajiva- dana; Offering which is meant to
become effective after one's death: 'I give such of my property to such and such a person.
Let him take possession of them after my death and make use of them as he wishes' is
Accaya-dana.
A bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) is not permitted to make an Accaya type of dana, i.e. he
cannot leave his properties as gifts for others after death. Even if he should do so, it does
not constitute an act of dana; the would-be recipient also has no right of possession to
them. If a bhikkhu gives from his property to another bhikkhu while he is still living, the
receiver is entitled to what is given him; or while the bhikkhu is still alive, some bhikkhu
who is on intimate terms (Vissassagaha) with him can take it and come to possess it; or if
he owns something jointly (dvisantaka) with another bhikkhu, when he dies the surviving
bhikkhu. becomes the sole owner. Unless these conditions are fulfilled, namely, giving his
property during his lifetime, taking possession of it by reason of intimacy while he is still
alive, or possessing it through dual owner ship, the bhikkhu's property becomes the
property of the Sangha, the Order of Bhikkhus, when he dies. Therefore if a bhikkhu makes
an Accaya-dana, saying 'I give such my property to such and such a person when I die. Let
him take possession of them', it amounts to giving a property which by then belongs to the
Order of Bhikkhus. His giving does not form an act of dana and the would-be recipient is
also not entitled to its ownership. It is only amongst the laymen that such kind of gift,
Accaya-dana,, is possible and legal.

PANNA
( Chapter IV)

From "BUDDHISM: THEORY AND PRACTICE"

By U Maung Nu
Former Prime Minsiter of Burma
:
Now we have come to the most important part of the Buddha's
teachings. This is the part, which the Buddha Himself valued most.
Throughout forty five years of Buddhahood, the Buddha had, as
far as the writer had read, delivered only one Sutta, in which He tole
about the infinity of Cakkavalas and beings. (Somewhere in the
introduction of this book. it has been explained that a group of 31

10
abodes of being is called a Cakkavalas.) In that Sutta, the Buddha had
told how Cakkavalas were destroyed when seven suns appeared. In
that Sutta, the Buddha said that some of the beings from the
Cakkavalas, which were destroyed, were reborn as Brahmas, in one of
the abodes of Brahmas, which were not destroyed. That is all.
However, it was the great commentators, who, after explaining in
their commentaries, what the Buddha meant by 'some,' added that all
the beings from the Cakkavalas, that were destroyed, were reborn in
the remaining portions of the Brahma abodes in accordance with the
Jhanas, which they had acquired. It was there commentators, who also
added that the Cakkavalas were sometimes destroyed by water and
storms. These great commentators are revered and highly respected by
the whole Theravada Buddhist World.
That Sutta is a very short one. It was delivered in order to
emphasize the infinity of beings that were running through endless
rebirths and their attendant sufferings.
Again, throughout the forty five years of Buddhahood, the
Buddha had, as far as the writer had read, delivered only one Sutta, in
which He explained the formation of the world and the appearance of
life. He also added, in that Sutta, that all human beings were
descended from these first beings of the world. This Sutta was
delivered to a Brahmin, who was excommunicated by his fellow
Brahmins for having chosen to join the order of Buddhist monks. This
Sutta was delivered to emphasize the equality of all human beings and
the superfluity of castes.
At one time, a monk asked the Buddha certain questions and
threatened that he would not practise the teachings of the Buddha and
leave the order if those questions were not answered. The Buddha was
never in the habit of refusing to answer questions, that pertained to the
acquisition of Panna (Magga). However, since the questions were
found to be superfluous, the Buddha asked the monk if He had ever
told him, before he joined the order that these questions would be
answered, if he joined the order. The monk replied in the negative.
Then the Buddha said it was not proper to ask superfluous questions
without practicing Bhavana for the end of suffering and gave the monk
the following illustration. It would not be proper, if a man, who was
seriously shot with an arrow, persisted in saying that he would refuse to
be treated, until and unless he knew whether the man who shot him
was black or brown, whether the arrow was made of teak or oak,
whether the string or the bow made of ox hide or deer hide and so on.
The man would certainly die before he could know all the things that he
wanted to know. Therefore the monk should not waste his time in
asking superfluous question. He must do what was most essential. He
should concentrate on practising the Bhavana that would liberate him
from sufferings.
If one studies the teachings of the Buddha, it will be found that
the great bulk of the teachings deals with sufferings, cause of
sufferings, end of sufferings and way to end of sufferings.
In the chapter on Sila, 4 types of Kusala have been mentioned. It
will be useful to mention them here again. They are:—

11
 1. Kusala for rebirths in abodes of human beings and Devas.
2. Kusala for rebirths in abodes of Brahmas who have body and
mind.
3. Kusala for rebirths in abodes of Brahmas who have mind and no
body.
4. Kusala for the end of rebirths.
Out of these four, the Buddha did not value 1, 2 and 3, as much
as He valued 4, for the simple reason that 1, 2 and 3 could not put a
stop to sufferings. Therefore the Buddha always enjoined upon his
disciples that, whether they were offering Charity or observing Sila or
practising Samadhi, they must never lose sight of their goal, namely,
the end of sufferings.
In this chapter, the writer will deal, as fully as he can, with the
methods for acquiring Panna, that can put an end to sufferings.
Then what is Panna?
Panna is the synonym for Magga and Phala. In the foregoing
pages, only Magga has been explained. Phala has not yet been
explained. Phala means minds that are concentrating on Nibbana. As
soon as the Yogi acquires Magga, his mind is detached from its usual
Arammanas, namely, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought. The
two minds or in certain cases, three minds that follow Magga mind, are
called Phala. They also will concentrate on Nibbana. Then the mind will
revert to one of its six usual Arammanas. If, after its reversion, the yogi
practises Vipassana Bhavana as before, he will regain Phala. This time
Phala may be longer than the 1st Phala after Magga. The duration of
Phala depends upon the strength of Samadhi or mental concentration,
which the Yogi has acquired. More of this will be told later.
4 different kinds
There are four different kinds of Magga and Phala. They are as
follows:
1. Sotapatti Magga and Phala.
2. Sakadagami Magga and Phala.
3. Anagami Magga and Phala.
4. Arahatta Magga and Phala.
Ten Ropes
Under the 7th difference, Ten ropes that tie all beings to endless
rebirths, have been mentioned. How the maggas smash these ropes to
pieces had also been mentioned. However, in order to refresh the
reader's memory, something of these should be mentioned here again.
1) Sotapatti Magga cuts 3 ropes, namely, Ditthi, Vicikiccha,
Silabbatapramasa. The person, who gets Sotapatti Magga, is called
Sotapanna. Since 3 vital ropes have been cut, the Sotapanna shall not
have more than seven rebirths and their attendant sufferings.
2) Sakadagami Magga does not cut any of the remaining ropes.
But it weakens them. The person who gets Sakadagami Magga is
called Sakadagami. Since the remaining ropes have been weakened,
Sakadagami shall not have more than two rebirths and their attendant
sufferings.
3) Anagami magga cuts 4 of the seven remaining ropes, namely,
Kamaraga, Patigha, Issa, Macchariya. The person, who gets Anagami

12
Magga, is called Anagami. Since these ropes have been cut, an
Anagami shall not have more that one rebirth and its attendant
sufferings.
4) Arahatta Magga cuts the remaining 3 ropes, namely, Mana,
Bhavaraga, Avijja. The person, who gets Arahatta Magga, is called
Arahanta. Since there are no more ropes that had tied him to rebirths,
an Arahanta shall not have any mor rebirth and its attendant sufferings.
Five most important points
The five most important points for a Yogi, who wants to practise
Vipassana Bhavana, for the achievement of Panna or Magga and
Phala, are as follows:
1. A qualified instructor.
2. A firm faith.
3. Iron discipline.
4. Transparent honesty.
5. Unflagging diligence.
1. A qualified instructor
A qualified instructor is a person, who has himself got at least
Sotapatti Magga and has studied Buddhism fairly well.
In the Bhavana centres in Burma, there are generally some
instructors-instructors for male Yogis, for female Yogis and for monk
Yogis.
A Yogi must see the instructor once a day and relate to him all
the experience regarding the practice of the Bhavana. After hearing, the
instructor gives the Yogi necessary help. If the Yogi is following the
wrong path. he sets him right, If the Yogi is on the right path, the
instructor says so. If the Yogi is shirking, the instructor finds it out during
the interview and tells him to work harder. If a Yogi is found to be
dejected due to lack of progress, the instructor gives him some words of
encouragements if the Yogi is making progress, the instructor
congratulates him.
2. Firm faith
It can not be said that every Yogi, who comes to the Bhavana
centre, has firm faith in the Yogi Bhavana. Some have all the good
points, namely, obedience, faith, discipline, honesty and diligence. They
set good examples to others. Some come in order to give the Yogi
Bhavana a trial. After some time, only when they get certain good
results, their faith in the Bhavana increases. And they remain in the
centre, till they acquire Magga and Phala. Some people, who do not get
good results, through lack of diligence or some other faults, run away
from the centre.
Of all insights, Magga and Phala are most delicate. Therefore,
Yogis, who are practising for them, are required to have a very firm
faith.
3. Iron discipline
From the time the lessons in Bhavana are given to the Yogi, till
he leaves the centre, after he has acquired Magga and Phala, a Yogi
has practically no rest, except when he sleeps for the day.
The Yogi at the centre usually gets up at about 3 a.m. He
practises Bhavana right up to about 11 p.m. This insufficiency of sleep,

13
under normal circumstances, may affect the health of a person. But it
does not affect the health of a practicing Yogi, because of his mental
concentration. As the concentration improves, the Yogi will become
more and more alert. He will always feel fresh.
General conversation on worldly affairs, smoking, reading of
newspapers are strictly prohibited at the centre.
The Yogis are required to obey these rules of the centre strictly.
4. Transparent honesty
Transparent honesty is very helpful to a Yogi. If he feels too
indolent to carry on the practice or if he feels dejected, he must say so
to the instructor.
In relating to the instructor his experiences regarding the practice
of the Bhavana, a Yogi must be strictly truthful. Those, who have read
about the Bhavana, may sometimes be tempted to say, as their own
experiences, certain facts which they had read in the books.
5. Unflagging diligence
Once an experienced instructor said Magga and Phala were
nothing but the sum total of 40 % faith, 40% diligence and 20% the rest,
namely, instructor, discipline and honesty.
A Yogi, who has these five most important points, can hope to
get Sotapatti Magga and Phala in about 2 months. Some had got them
in about a month or 20 days. However, if the Yogi is determined to get
Magga and Phala, the writer wishes to advise him to set aside 2
months.
The Buddha, in one of His Suttas, in the compilation, called
Nidanavagga Samyutta, said that Magga and Phala, which could put an
end to sufferings, could be achieved only though massive diligence and
not through perfunctory efforts.
Some people do not have any centre. Moreover since they are
working, they do not have whole-time to devote to the Bhavana. In such
a case, instead of doing nothing, something should be done. Every
night before going to bed, they should practise Bhavana for about an
hour. This kind of practice may not give him Magga and Phala, but if he
persists in regularly doing it, he may reach certain stages of instants of
insight on his way to Magga and Phala, in due course.
The writer had come across a doctor a few years ago. He had no
opportunity to go to the centre to devote whole-time to the Bhavana.
Therefore he practised Bhavana for about 2 hours every night. After
about two and half years, he got Sotapatti Magga and Phala.
Even if a person does not get Magga and Phala, he will get some
other good results. The regular practice of the Bhavana, for about a few
hours every day will give him peace of mind and relaxation. In future, if
he gets an opportunity to practice whole- time, at a centre, these few
hours of daily practice will help him in acquiring Magga and Phala very
quickly. Even if he does not get Magga and Phala in this life time, for
lack of opportunity for properly practising Bhavana, these few hours of
daily practice will not be in vain. They will be very helpful to him in the
life hereafter
One very valuable result of these few hours of daily practise must
also be mentioned. A person, who persists in this kind of daily practice,

14
will slowly but steadily overcome fear of death.
Vipassana
What does a Yogi do, if he practises Vipassana?
The Buddha had set 4 steps for a Yogi, who wants to practise
Vipassana. These 4 steps are called 4 Satipatthana. They are as
follows:
1. Kayanupassana Satipatthana.
2. Vedananupassana Satipatthana.
3. Cittanapassana Satipatthana.
4. Dhammanupassana Satipatthana.
Satipatthana is a combination of two words -- Sati and Patthana .
Sati means awareness or mental concentration. Patthana means
extreme steadfastness. Therefore Satipatthana means extremely
steadfast awareness.
Kayanupassana is a combination of words -kaya, nu, and
Passana. Kaya means body. Nu means constant. Passana means
perception. Therefore Kayanupassana Satipatthana means extremely
steadfast awareness for the constant perception of everything
pertaining to the body.
Vedana means feelings. Therefore Vedananupassana
Satipatthana means extremely steadfast awareness for the constant
perception of everything pertaining to feelings.
Citta means mind. Therefore Cittanapassana Satipatthana means
steadfast awareness for the constant perception of everything
pertaining to mind.
Dhamma means thought. Therefore Dhammanupassana
Satipatthana means steadfast awareness for the constant perception of
everything pertaining to thoughts.
1. Kayanupassana Satipatthana
Under this, 14 methods are mentioned. These 14 methods are as
follows:
1. Anapanassati 1
2. Iriyapatha 1
3. Sampajanna 1
4. Patikula-manasikara 1
5. Dhatumanasikara 1
6. Sivathika 9
Total - 14
It will be too much for the beginners to study all of these 14
methods. Therefore, only two, namely, Iriyapatha and Sampajanna, will
be mentioned here. These two will be quite helpful to the Yogis.
Iriyapatha
A man has roughly 4 postures, namely, walking, standing, sitting
and lying. He must be always aware of these postures. If he is walking,
he must be aware that he is walking and so on.
These postures are matter. It is the mind that is aware of these
postures. Steadfast awareness of these matter and mind, till the Yogi
perceives Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta of these is called Iriyapatha method.
Sampajanna
1. Whenever a Yogi is going forward or going backward,

15
 2. Whenever he is looking straight or looking sideways,
3. Whenever he is bending his body and limbs or stretching his
body and limbs.
4. Whenever he is touching anything,
5. Whenever he is eating or drinking or licking,
6. Whenever he is answering call of nature,
7. Whenever he is talking or keeping quiet, he must never lose his
awareness of any of these. Even when he is sitting still and
therefore, has no movements, he must be aware of the fact that
he is sitting still.
The movements are matter. It is the mind that is aware of these.
Steadfast awareness of these matter and mind till the Yogi perceives
Anicca, Dukkha, and Anatta of these is called Sampajanna method.
2. Vedananupassana Satipatthana
According to Buddhism, there are 3 different kinds of feelings,
namely, Sukhavedana, Dukkhavedana and Upekkhavedana.
Sukhavedana means pleasant feelings. Dukkhavedana means
unpleasant feelings. Upekkhavedana means feelings of indifference.
It is easy to know pleasant and unpleasant feelings. But it is not
easy to find out feelings of indifference. It is a mental state, where there
is neither love nor hatred, neither solicitous regard nor evil desire.
When people see a stranger whom they neither love nor hate, they
generally have a semblance of this feeling of indifference. In fact,
however, the real meaning of Upekkha goes deeper than that. In the
absence of a better word, Upekkha is translated as feelings of
indifference. The writer is of the opinion that Upekkha should be
translated as javanaless Vithi, (See 1st difference, Introduction for the
explanation of Javanaless Vithi. It is the kind of mental state, which only
Arahantas and persons who are having 4 Rupa Jhana, all of Arupa
Jhanas and Sankharupekkha Nana, can have. Arupa Jhanas, which
can cause rebirth as a Brahma, having mind and no body, have been
explained under 2nd difference in the introduction. Sankharupekkha
Nana will be explained later.)
When the Yogi has pleasant feelings, he must be aware that he
has pleasant feelings. When he has unpleasant feelings, he must be
aware that he has unpleasant feelings. When he has feeling of
indifference, he must be aware that he has feelings of indifference.
It is the mind that feels. And it is also the mind that is aware of
feelings. A Yogi must be constantly aware of the feelings and of the
mind that is aware of these feelings, till he perceives Anicca, Dukkha,
Anatta of these minds.
The Yogi must also be aware of any bodily reaction, such as
itching pain, ache, numbness, tiredness, cold, heat and so on, that
gives rise to any kind of these feelings.
3. Cittanupassana Satipatthana
Every being has different kinds of mind. The Yogi must be aware
of them.
 a) If he has minds, impregnated with sexual desires, he must be
aware of them.
 b) If he has minds that are free from such desires, he must be

16
 aware of them
 c) If he has minds, full of anger, he must be aware of them.
 d) If he has minds, which are free from anger, he must be aware
of them.
 e) If he has minds, which are filled with doubts, he must be
aware of them.
 f) If he has minds, full of indolence, he must be aware of them.
 g) If he has minds that are full of restlessness, he must be
aware of them.
 h) If he has minds, impregnated with Jhanas, he must be aware
of them.
 i) If he has minds, that are devoid of Jhanas, he must be aware
of them.
 j) If he has minds, which are filled with Samadhi, he must be
aware of them.
 k) If he has minds, which are devoid of Samadhi, he must be
aware of them.
 l) If he has minds that are free from mental defilements, he must
be aware of them.
 m) If he has minds that are not free from mental defilements, he
must be aware of them.
A yogi must be constantly aware in order to perceive Anicca,
dukkha and Anatta of these minds and also of the minds that are aware
of them.
4. Dhammanupassana Satipatthana
The Yogi must be constantly aware of all the thoughts, in order to
perceive Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta of the thoughts and also of minds that
are aware of these thoughts.
If the Yogi practises strictly in accordance with these 4
Satipatthana, with unswerving faith and unflagging diligence, he will
very clearly perceive Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta of Matter and Mind.
Vipassana, in simple English, means clear perception of Anicca,
Dukkha, Anatta of Matter and Mind. Therefore, when a Yogi says, that
he is practising Vipassana, he means to say that he is making an effort
to see Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta of Matter and Mind, by using 4 methods
of Satipatthana.
Here, at this stage, it will be useful to point out an important
distinction between Samatha Bhavana and Vipassana Bhavana. In
Samatha Bhavana, a Yogi concentrates on something, such as an
object or a person or an idea, outside of himself. In Vipassana
Bhavana, a Yogi concentrates on his body and mind.
A Yogi will not certainly know how to practise Vipassana
Bhavana after studying 4 Satipatthana. He should be given a detailed
instruction as to what he should do and should not do, while practising
Vipassana. However, before this detailed instruction is given, a Yogi
should know some preliminaries.
Preliminaries
Continence is the essence of life at the meditation centre. Eat
what you are given. Stay where you are kept. Give up everything that
has nothing to do with the practice of Vipassana Bhavana

17
 The following are the few important points, which a Yogi should
remember.
1. May the Atthanga Sila, which I am observing, be helpful to me
for acquiring Magga and Phala."
While contemplating on the meaning of the wish, the Yogi should
quietly say it three or four times.
2. If the Yogi had made derogatory remarks against Vipassana
Bhavana, he should, after doing obeisance to the Buddha, Dhamma
and Sangha ask for forgiveness. If he had made fun of persons who
had practised Vipassana Bhavana, he should apologise to them. If he
has no opportunity for seeing these persons, he must express regret for
having done so, to the instructor.
3. It will be helpful, if the Yogi can say this once or twice. ' offer
myself to the Buddha,' Some Yogis get frightened, as a result of seeing
some apparitions, during their practice, and they can not continue their
practice for some time. Many of these cases are nothing but figments of
their imagination. Therefore if a Yogi has offered himself in the
beginning, such incidents will not take place. Even if these do take
place, the fright can be quickly controlled.
4. The Yogi should formally ask the instructor to have no restraint
whatsoever to correct him if he happens to be on the wrong path.
5. After receiving instructions and before starting the practice, it
will be very helpful, if he can contemplate on the following for a few
moments.
a) Nibbana, which means the end of all sufferings, is good.
b) Magga, which can bring about the end of all sufferings, is also
good.
c) By virtue of Vipassana Bhavana, I shall get Magga, which can
bring about the end of all sufferings.
d) I am now right on the path, which the Buddhas, Pacceka
Buddhas and Arahantas had passed through.
6. It will be helpful if he can think of the virtues of Buddha,
Dhamma and Sangha. It will give him feelings of elation.
7. It will be helpful if he can concentrate on a corpse, which he
had seen, and say to himself, "I will also die like him one day.' It will
keep away sexual desires.
8. The Yogi should not forget the Brahmas and Devas also. He
should do a bit of Metta Bhavana, by saying four or five times, after
concentrating on them, 'May Brahmas and Devas, who are near and far
away, have peace of mind'
9. When he practises, he can sit in any way he prefers. He may
sit on a chair or squat on the floor.
Vipassana Bhavana
When a Yogi practises Vipassana Bhavana, he must make
constant efforts to be aware of whatever he sees, hears, smells, tastes,
touches, thinks and whatever movements he makes. Since, however,
he can not be aware of all these, in the beginning, before he acquires
Samadhi, it will be very helpful, if he can concentrate on one particular
Arammana. This Arammana must be one, that is always present and is
also very easy to concentrate on. While he is concentrating on it, he will

18
gradually acquire Samadhi. Only after he has acquired sufficient
Samadhi, he can advance to the next step of having his constant
awareness for whatever he sees hears, smells, tastes, touches, thinks
and whatever movements he makes.
Then what is the best Arammana to start with?
Inhaling and exhaling are considered by some to be the best
Arammanas to start with. Those, who find it easier to concentrate on
inhaling and exhaling, may do so. However, through long experience,
the Mahasi Sayadaw, who is the head of a famous Yogi Bhavana
centre, in Burma, believes that rising of the abdomen, when one inhales
and falling of the abdomen when one exhales, are easier Arammana
than inhaling and I exhaling. The writer accepts the judgement of the
Mahasi Sayadaw. '
Therefore the Yogi must concentrate on rising and falling of the
abdomen. While concentrating on rising and falling, as he acquires
more and more Samadhi, he will become increasingly aware of some
other things, such as movements of certain parts of his body, which he
had never been aware of before. This awareness of rising and falling
and also of movements of his body, is called Kayanupassana
Satipatthana.
As his Samadhi gains momentum, he becomes increasingly
aware of feelings and his bodily reactions, such as cold, heat, aches,
pains, numbness, touch etc., that give rise to one feeling or the other.
This awareness of feelings and bodily reactions, that give rise to
feelings, is called Vedananupassana Satipatthana.
As his Samadhi gains more and more momentum, he becomes
increasingly aware of the minds that appear. If he wants to move a limb,
he becomes aware of the desire to move the limb before he actually
moves. As soon as a sexual desire appears, he at once knows that it is
sexual desire and so on. This awareness of all kinds of minds as soon
as they appear, is called Cittanapassana Satipatthana.
As his Samadhi gains more and more momentum, he becomes
increasingly aware of his thoughts. In the beginning, while he is
concentrating on rising and falling, his mind wanders. During that
wandering, he reaches his home, meets his wife, asks her to cook a
favorite dish, sits together with his wife, takes the lunch and so on. He
is not aware that his mind is wandering till he finishes the "mental lunch
with his wife. However, when his Samadhi becomes sufficiently strong,
he is aware that his mind is wandering before he steps, as it were, on
the threshold of his home. This awareness of all his thoughts as soon
as they appear is called Dhammanupassana Satipatthana.
Vipassana Bhavana begins
The following is the detailed instruction given to the Yogis, by the
Mahasi Sayadaw, the chief of Thar-tha-na Yeik-thar, a Yogi Bhavana
Centre in Burma.
Concentrate on the abdomen. You will see, it is rising and falling.
If rising and falling are not noticeable, put the palm of your hand on the
abdomen for a few minutes. When you can notice rising and falling, you
can take away the palm.
Then, when the abdomen rises because of inhaling, you must say

19
mentally "Rising." When the abdomen falls because of exhaling, you
must say mentally "Falling." While it is rising and falling, you must be
fully aware of rising and falling, you must inhale and exhale as usual.
You must not make any special effort. If you do so, you will soon be
tired out.
While concentrating on rising and falling, your mind may wander
away. As soon as you become aware of your thoughts, call them by
their appropriate names. For example, if you are planning. say mentally.
"planning, planning, planning." If you are solving a problem, say,
"solving, solving, solving.' If your mind is wandering, say, "wandering,
wandering, wandering." If you are meeting somebody during mental
wandering, say, "meeting, meeting, meeting." If, during the mental
wandering, you are talking to somebody, say, "talking, talking, talking."
You must call the thoughts by their appropriate names repeatedly, till
they disappear. When these thoughts disappear, concentrate on rising
and falling. While concentrating on this, if you want to swallow your
saliva, say, "wanting to swallow" If you swallow it, say, "swallowing." If
you want to spit, say, "wanting to spit." If you spit, say, "spitting," After
that, concentrate on rising and falling. While concentrating on it, if you
want to bend your head, say, "wanting to bend." When you are bending,
say, "bending, bending;' When you bend, bend slowly. If you want to
raise your head, say, "wanting to raise," When you raise, say, "raising,
raising, raising." Raise slowly. After that concentrate on rising and
falling.
If a part of your body is aching because of too much sitting,
concentrate on that spot and say," aching, aching, aching" slowly. The
ache may disappear after some time. If, however, you want to change
your position, because it grows worse, say, "wanting to change." Call all
the movements of your body by their appropriate names. For example,
you want to raise your leg. Then say, "wanting to raise." While you are
raising it, raise slowly, while saying "raising, raising" at every
movement. If you want to stretch your leg, say, "wanting to stretch."
And as you stretch slowly, say, "stretching, stretching, stretching" at
every movement. If you want to bend your leg, say. "wanting to bend."
And as you bend slowly, say, "bending, bending" at every movement.
When you want to put it down, say, "wanting to put it down." As you put
it down slowly, say, "Putting down. putting down" at every movement.
As you put down your leg, if a part of it touches something, say
"touching." After that, concentrate on rising and falling. While you are
thus concentrating, you may fell hot on a part of your body. Do as you
have done in the case of aching. Make constant effort to be aware.
Awareness must not cease even for a moment.
Some people may have very strange experiences. Whenever
their Samadhi gains momentum, they have unbearable pains, such as
pain just above the abdomen; pain in the flesh as if they have been
pierced with a sharp knife; burning sensation throughout their whole
body; itching as if little insects are running to and fro on their body;
intense cold throughout their body. However, these unbearable pains
and sensations stop as soon as they stop their efforts at awareness.
And these pains come back again, as soon as their Samadhi regains

20
momentum.
If you have similar experiences, firstly concentrate on these
pains. If they do not disappear in spite of the concentration, do not pay
attention to them. Just concentrate vigorously on rising and falling. Do
not worry. Do not be afraid. These are not extra-ordinary pains. These
are just ordinary pains. These were there even before these Yogis
come to the centre. Due to lack of concentration, they were not aware
of them, Some other matters in which they were interested had
submerged these pains. When these interests are driven away by
concentration, these pains become conspicuous. Therefore, if you
come across such experiences, do not stop your Bhavana out of fright.
Carry on. These pains can not endanger you. They will certainly
disappear, if you persist in your Bhavana.
While concentrating on rising and falling, some people find
themselves to be swinging inadvertently. If you have a similar
experience, just say, "swinging, swinging", while you are concentrating
on it. If, in spite of this concentration, swinging becomes wilder, either
lean against a wall or lie on your bed, while concentrating on it,
Swinging will disappear.
Sometimes, while you are concentrating, you may have very
queer sensation from head to toe. And you get very easily frightened
even by small harmless noises. This sort of thing usually happens,
when your concentration becomes very good.
If, while you are concentrating, you want to drink water, say,
wanting to drink water." If you want to get up from your seat, say,
"wanting to get up". When you get up, you must be aware of every
movement of your limbs. Concentrating on the body that slowly rises
up, you must say, "rising, rising, rising"· at every movement. It you have
stood up, say, standing up." If you look at the jug, say, 'looking' or
seeing.' If you want to go to the jug, say, 'wanting to go.' While you are
going, say, going, going at every step. Or you may say 'left, right'. You
must be fully aware of every step, from raising to dropping. If you are
walking slowly, say, 'Raising' when you raise your feet and say,
'dropping' when you drop your feet.
When you can master the two stages of 'raising' and 'dropping,'
pick up one more stage like this. Say 'Raising' as soon as you raise
your feet. Say 'Stepping' as soon as you step. And say 'Dropping' as
soon as you drop. Remember three stages ... raising, stepping and
dropping. You must be fully aware of these three stages. Whenever you
see the jug or something else, say, 'seeing or looking'. If you stand near
the jug, say, 'standing'. When you want to stretch your hands towards
the glass and the jug, say, 'wanting to stretch'. When you stretch your
hands slowly towards the glass or the jug, say, 'Stretching, stretching,
stretching' As soon as your hands touch the glass or the jug, say,
'touching.' When you want to pour water into the glass, say,'wanting to
pour'. When you pour water slowly into the glass, say, 'pouring,
pouring.'
When you want to bring the glass to your mouth, say 'wanting to
bring'. As you slowly bring the glass towards your mouth, say, 'bringing,
bringing, bringing.' As soon as the glass touches your mouth, say,

21
touching.' When your lips feel cold, say, cold, cold.' While you are
drinking slowly, say, 'Drinking, drinking, drinking.' As water is going
down the mouth and the throat, your mouth and throat feel cold. You
must be fully aware of it and say all the time, 'cold, cold, cold.' When
you are slowly putting back the glass or the jug, say, 'putting back,
putting back.' When you want to drop your hands, say, 'wanting to
drop.' When you slowly put your hands down, say, 'dropping, dropping,
dropping'. If your hands touch your body, say, 'touching, touching.' If
you want to turn back, say, 'wanting to turn'. When you turn slowly, say,
'turning, turning, turning'. When you walk back to your place,
concentrate on the steps, just as your did when you came towards the
jug. When you want to stand , say, 'wanting to stand.' While you are
standing, say, 'Standing, standing, standing.' After standing there for a
while, concentrate on rising and falling.
When you want to sit, say, 'wanting to sit.' When you are walking
to the place where you are going to sit, concentrate on your steps as
before. When you reach that place say, 'reaching.' When you turn
slowly, say, 'turning, turning.' When you want to sit, say, 'wanting to sit'.
When you sit slowly, say, 'sitting, sitting, sitting.' You must be fully
aware of every movement of sitting. Just after you have sat, there may
be some movements of your hands and legs. Say appropriately, while
you are concentrating on every movement . After that concentrate on
rising and falling.
It you want to sleep, say 'wanting to sleep'. When you are lying
down on your bed, concentrating on every movement of your body, say
'lying, lying, lying'. When your head or body touches the pillow or bed,
say 'touching'. Just after you have laid on your bed, there may be some
movements of your hands and legs. While concentrating on every
movement, say something appropriately. After that, concentrate on
rising and falling.
While you are lying on the bed, you must be fully aware of every
movement of your body: all feelings and all bodily reactions that give
rise to feelings: all kinds of minds that appear: and all kinds of thoughts.
When you have nothing particular to be aware of, then concentrate on
rising and falling.
When you want to sleep, say 'wanting to sleep, wanting to sleep.'
When your eye-lids become heavy, say 'becoming heavy, becoming
heavy'. If your Samadhi is good, sleepiness may go and you may
become fully awake. Then concentrating on your becoming fully awake,
say ''becoming awake, becoming awake.' After that, concentrate on
rising and falling. However sleepy you may be, you must not stop
concentrating. It must be carried on at any cost till you finally fall asleep.
It is not possible to concentrate when you are asleep.
However, as soon as you are awake, you must be aware of it and
say becoming awake. "In the beginning, it will be difficult to be aware,
as soon as you are awake. If. therefore, you can not be aware of it, try
to be aware of something as soon as you can. If you are thinking, you
must be aware of it and say 'Thinking, thinking.' After that, concentrate
on rising and falling. If you hear a certain sound, say hearing, hearing.'
Then concentrate on rising and falling. You must be aware of all the

22
movements, such as turning. bending, stretching and call each
movement appropriately. If you think of the time, say 'Thinking.' If you
want to get up from bed, say 'wanting to get up.' Be fully aware of all the
movements that lead to your getting up from bed. As you slowly get up
from bed, say getting up, getting up' while concentrating on every
movement of your body. Say 'sitting, sitting' as soon as you have sat
up. After that concentrate on rising and falling.
When you wash your face, when you take bath, when you
answer your call of nature, you must be fully aware of everything —
whatever you look at. whatever you see, whatever you hear, whatever
you think, whatever you touch, whatever you pick up, whatever you do,
not even excepting the cleaning of excreta with toilet paper. When you
are washing your hands, you must be aware of the movements of the
hands. You must be aware of the cold, if water is cold: you must be
aware of the heat, if water is hot. After washing your hands, when you
tidy your dress, you must be fully aware of every movement. When you
come out of the bath room, concentrate on every step, as before.
When you are eating, if you see something, say "seeing, seeing."
When you smash or cut or roll your food, say "smashing" or cutting' or
"'rolling." When you touch your food, say touching." When you slowly
bring food to your mouth, say bringing, bringing, bringing." If you bend
your head, say "bending." If the food touches the mouth, say 'touching
When you open your mouth, say "opening. When the food is put into
the mouth, say "putting." When you close your mouth, say "closing".
When you drop your hands, say "dropping, dropping." If it touches the
plate, say "touching." When you raise your head, say raising." While
you are chewing your food, say "chewing, chewing, chewing." If you get
the taste of the food, say tasting, tasting." When you swallow, say
"Swallowing, swallowing." If the food touches the throat, say "touching,
touching." In this manner, try your best to be aware of everything while
you are taking your food.
In the beginning, it may not be possible to be aware of
everything. Do not get disappointed, if you can not concentrate
properly. After you have built up Samadhi, It will be easy to concentrate
on many more things than those that have been mentioned here.
(When you say something appropriately for what you are aware
of, say mentally. You need not say aloud. Words, mentioned here as
being appropriate, need not necessarily be taken. The Yogi may
choose any words to suit his convenience. So long as the words convey
to him the meaning of what he is aware of, it is correct.)
Higher form of concentration
After a few days, you will think that concentration on rising and
falling has become very easy you may fell that, in addition to these two,
you can put in one more Arammana to concentrate on. At that stage
you have built up Samadhi to a certain extent. Therefore you naturally
feel that way.
You may concentrate on your sitting posture, besides rising and
falling. Then concentrating on rising, failings and sittings, you must say,
"rising, falling, sitting." Just as you are fully aware of rising and falling,
while you are saying, "rising, falling." you must be fully aware of sitting,

23
while you are saying "sitting."
While you are lying on your bed, concentration should be
transferred from sitting to lying. In this posture, you must say "rising,
falling, lying." You must be fully aware of lying, just as you are fully
aware of rising and falling.
When your samadhi becomes stronger, you may feel like adding
one more Arammana for your concentration. Then you must
concentrate on that part of your body, that touches the bed, besides
rising, falling and lying. In this case, you must say, "rising, falling, lying,
touching." You must be fully aware of all of these for -- rising, falling,
lying and touching. If you are sitting on a chair, say "sitting" instead of
lying.
If it suits you more, while sitting, you may say, ''rising, sitting,
falling, sitting:'' and while lying, you may say "Raising, lying, falling,
lying."'
While concentrating on one of the above sets of 4, if you happen
to see ordinary objects such as chairs, bed, table etc., in the room, you
need not be aware of these ordinary objects. Go on with concentration
on one of these sets of 4. While concentrating on one of these sets, the
sight of such ordinary objects can not lead your mind astray into some
train of thought. However, if you intentionally look at some objects, even
if they are ordinary, you must be aware of seeing them and say "seeing,
or looking." After that, concentrate on one of the sets of 4.
If you see a special sight, such as a woman or a man, even if you
do not look at it intentionally, you must say "seeing, seeing" many a
time, before you come back to your set of 4.
In the case of the sound too, above rules apply. Do not mind
ordinary sounds. Go on with your concentration on one of the sets of 4.
However, if you happen to have listened intentionally, say "listening,
listening" several times, before you come back to your set of 4. When
you hear distinct sounds, such as singing, barking of dogs, crowing of
cocks, chirping of birds, you must say "hearing, hearing" several times,
before you come back to your set of 4.
If you are not aware of the fact that you are seeing of hearing,
and as a result of this un-awareness, if you do not say "seeing" or
"hearing," the sight or sound may lead your mind astray into some train
of thought. Such train of thought of thought may give rise to greed,
anger, lust etc. If, because of this un-awareness, you are thinking or
planning or having lust, say some appropriate words, as soon as you
become aware of any of them, before you come back to your set of 4. If
you do not cut off your train of thought, by being aware of it, it is quite
possible that you may find it difficult to concentrate even on your usual
set of 4.
Sometimes, it may happen like this. You will suddenly stand up,
for getting to make note of your desire to stand up. You suddenly pick
up an object from the floor, forgetting to make note of your desire to
pick it up. You lie down suddenly on your bed, forgetting to make note
of your bodily movements. You remember only after you have sat, or
picked up the object, or laid on the bed, that you had forgotten to make
note of your desire to sit: to make note of your desire to pick up; to

24
make note of bodily movements. As soon as you are aware that you
have forgotten to make note of any of these, say "forgetting, forgetting,"
After that, come back to your set of 4.
In the beginning, before you acquire Samadhi, you will find this
kind of concentrating in accordance with 4 Satipatthanas, uninteresting
and dull. You must be fully aware of this and say "uninteresting,
uninteresting" or "feeling dull, feeling dull." Sometimes, you may doubt if
this kind of concentration can lead to the annihilation of all mental
defilements. Be aware of these doubts and say "doubting, doubting."
Sometimes you expect that soon your Samadhi will become good. Be
fully aware of it and say "expecting, expecting." Sometimes you may
recall in the afternoon what you had experienced in the morning. You
may recall in the evening, what you had experienced in the afternoon.
Be aware of it and say "recalling, recalling." If you are trying to analyse
these past experiences, you must be fully ware of it and say "analysing,
analysing." you may feel disappointed, if your awareness is poor. Be
aware of it and say "feeling disappointed, feeling disappointed." You
become happy, when awareness becomes better. Be aware of it and
say "feeling happy, feeling happy." In this way, you must be fully aware
of whatever mental state you have. After making note of all the mental
states, Whenever they appear, go back to your set of 4.
You must be fully and constantly aware of everything from the
time you become awake, till you finally fall asleep at night. You must
never lapse into unawareness, even for a moment.
In the beginning, you may sometimes feel sleepy. You will be
required to make great effort to keep yourself awake, every now and
then. However, when your Samadhi becomes stronger, you will not feel
sleepy. You will be cheerfully alert. The writer had seen a monk, who
did not even have a wink for seven days and remained cheerfully alert.
In this course of instruction, 4 methods of Satipatthana are fully
mentioned.
 (1) Making constant efforts to be fully aware of all bodily
movements is called Kayanupassana Satipatthana.
 (2) Making constant efforts to be fully aware of all feeling and
pains, aches, touches etc., that give rise to feelings, is called
Vedananupassana Satipatthana.
 (3) Making constant efforts to be fully aware of all desires to do
something, to have something and to be aware of all mental
states, is called Cittanapassana Satipatthana
 (4) Making constant efforts to be fully aware of all thoughts, is
called Dhammanupassana Satipatthana.
Summary of instruction.
 (1) Be fully aware of all bodily and verbal movements, whether
they are big or small.
 (2) Be fully aware of all the feelings, whether they are pleasant
of unpleasant or indifferent.
 (3) Be fully aware of all mental states, whether they are good or
bad.
 (4) Be fully aware of all of your thoughts.
 (5) When you have nothing to be aware of, always go back to

25
 your set of 4 -- rising, sitting, falling, sitting. (If you are lying on
the bed, use, "lying" instead of "sitting.")
Special note for Yogis
When sight or sound or smell or taste or touch or thought comes
into contact with your eyes or ears or nose or tongue or body or mind,
you must be aware of the contact at once. However, never concentrate
on sight, sound or smell or taste or touch or thought. You must
concentrate on the fact of your seeing or hearing or smelling or tasting
or having a touch or thought. As soon as one of these arammanas
come into contact with the appropriate sense organ, you must divert
your attention from the Arammana to the tact of seeing etc. Outside
Arammanas must be shut off from your consciousness, as far as
possible, by means of constant awareness. You have been asked to
say, for instance, "seeing, seeing," when you see something. While you
are saying "seeing, seeing, seeing" you must be concentrating on the
fact of seeing, and not on the sight. You must do likewise, in the case of
other Arammanas. Your mind must stand still on your body and mind..
You must not allow it to be distracted by any outside Arammanas.
If you faithfully, earnestly and diligently follow the instruction, you
will go up one stage of insight after another, till you finally reach Magga
and Phala. "Insight" will be explained later on.
Can we really reach Magga and Phala through awareness?
It will be necessary to explain how you can acquire Magga and
Phala only through awareness. If this is not explained, you are liable to
doubt it. You are liable to doubt also if you will ever get even a glimpse
or Nibbana during your lifetime. Therefore it is quite essential to explain
to you how important awareness is to you, if you are in quest of Magga
and Phala.
Mental defilements such as love, attachment, hatred, anger
sexual desire etc., are originally nowhere in your mind. Only when eyes
and sight, ears and sound, nose and smell, tongue and taste, body and
touch, mind and thought, come into contact with each other, these
defilements arise.
For example, let us say there is a woman in a part of the United
States. Mr. A has never seen her. He has never heard of her. In fact, he
does not even know that she has existed. Can Mr. A have love or
attachment or hatred or sexual desire for this woman? No. only when
he sees her, it she happens to be a charming lady, he will have either
love or attachment or sexual desire for her. If she happens to be an
ugly, arrogant, uncultured lady, he will have anger or hatred for her.
When persons are not making constant efforts to be aware, in
accordance with 4 Satipatthana, whenever they see, whenever they
hear, whenever they smell, whenever they taste, whenever they fell
touch, whenever they think, they generally have one or the other of
mental defilements. Only on very, very rare occasions they may have
such benevolence as Metta, compassion, piety and so on. According to
the Buddha, mind revels more in vice that in virtue.
If you concentrate on the fact of your seeing and not on the
person, as soon as you see him, by saying "seeing, seeing, seeing"
several times, the train of thought that always follows six Arammanas,

26
such as sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought, cannot take
place. if the usual train of thought can not take place, there will be
nothing that will give rise to mental defilements. Therefore, either greed
or anger or lust etc., does not arise at all.
In the beginning, since your Samadhi is not firm as yet, you may
not be able to keep the mental defilements out completely. Your
awareness of the fact, that you see something, takes place long after
the train of thought had followed the sight. However, when your
Samadhi becomes firm, as soon as you see a sight, the awareness of
the fact of seeing is automatic. Verbal confirmation of your awareness
of seeing is also automatic. Therefore the sight, or for that matter,
sound, or smell or taste or touch or thought remains as it is and train of
thought that usually follows arammanas, has no chance to come in.
Since train of thought has no chance to come in, you do not know what
you see. And since you do not know what you see, mental defilements
can not arise at all.
Two or three different minds can not take place simultaneously.
Only one mind can take place at a time. Therefore so long as there is
mental awareness, no train of thought can take place. When there is no
train of thought, there can be no mental defilements, since it is the train
of thought that invariably given rise to these mental defilements.
Kindly forgive the writer, if he is found to be redundant. He is
trying to emphasize one very important point here, that constant
awareness can shut out mental defilements that usually arise, as a
result of seeing, hearing etc.
This keeping out of the mental defilements by means of constant
awareness is the 1st important point of awareness. The Buddha praised
and called the person who could thus keep Out mental defilements by
means of constant awareness, Tadamganibbuta. It means a person
who is temporarily devoid of mental defilements.
Awareness has two other important points.
2nd important point will be dealt with now. The mind, that is
constantly aware, always stands still on either the body or the mind.
The mind that always stands still on either the body or the mind, can
perceive Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta of body and mind. How they are
perceived will be explained later on.
Let us now come to the 3rd important point. Those persons, who
have constant awareness, gain one insight after another, till they finally
gain Magga and Phala. The its, which they gain, are in the following
order.
 1. Namarupa-paricehedanana
 2. Paccaya-pariggahanana
 3. Sammasanana
 4. Udayabhayanana
 5. Bhanganana
 6. Bhayanana
 7. Adinavanana
 8. Nibbidanana
 9. Muncitukamyatanana.
 10. Patisankhanana

27
  11. Sankharupekkhanana
 12. Anulomanana
 13. Gotrabhunana
 14. Magganana
 15. Phalanana
These insights will be explained later on.

(3) REBIRTH AND RE-INCARNATION

Question 3: On the death of a sentient being, is there a 'soul' that wanders
about at will?

ANSWER: When a sentient being leaves one existence, it is reborn either as

a human being, a Deva, a Brahma, an inferior animal, or as a denizen of one
of the regions of hell. The sceptics and the ignorant people hold that there are
intermediate stages--- Antarabhava--- between these; and that there are
beings who are neither of the human, the Deva or the Brahma worlds, nor of
any one of the states of existences recognized in the Scriptures,--- but are in
an intermediate stage. Some assert that these transitional beings are
possessed of the five khandhas: *
Some assert that these beings are detached 'souls' or spirits with no material
envelopes and some again, that they are possessed of the faculty of seeing
like Devas and further, that they have the power of changing at will, at short
intervals, from one to any of the existences mentioned above. Others again
hold the fantastic and erroneous theory that these beings can and do, fancy
themselves to be in other than the existence they are actually in; thus, to take
for example one such of these suppositious beings. He is a poor person —
and yet he fancies himself to be rich. He may be in hell—and yet he fancies
himself to be in the land of Devas, and so on. This belief in intermediate
stages between existences is false, and is condemned in the Buddhist
teachings. A human being in this life who by his Kamma is destined to be a
human being in the next will be re-born as such; one who by his Kamma is
destined to be a deva in the next will appear in the land of devas , and one
whose future life is to be in hell, will be found in one of the regions of hell in
the next existence.
The idea of an entity or "soul" or spirit "going", "coming" , " changing",
"transmigrating" from one existence to another is that entertained by the
ignorant and the materialistic, and is certainly not justified by the Dhamma:
there is no such things "going", "coming", "changing", etc.,, as between
existences. The conception which is in accordance with the Dhamma may
perhaps be illustrated by the picture thrown out by the cinematograph, or the
sound emitted by the gramophone, and their relation to the film or the
sound—box and disc respectively.
For example, a human being dies and is reborn in the land of devas. Though
these two existences are different, yet the link or continuity between the two
at death is unbroken in point of time. And so in the case of a man whose
future existence is to be the nethermost hell. The distance between hell and
the abode of man appears to be great. Yet, in point of time, the continuity of "
passage " from the one existence to the other is unbroken, and no intervening
matter or space can interrupt the trend of this man's kamma from the world of

28
human beings to the regions of hell. The "passage" from one existence to
another is instantaneous, and the transition is infinitely quicker than the blink
of an eyelid or a lightning-flash.
Kamma determines the realm of rebirth and the state of existence in such
realm of all transient beings (in the cycle of existences which have to be
traversed till the attainment at last of Nibbana)
Kammas in their results are manifold, and may be effected in many ways.
Religious offerings (Dana) may obtain for a man the privilege of rebirth as a
human being, or as a deva, in one of the six deva-worlds according to the
degree of the merit of the deeds performed. And so with the observance of
religious duties (sila). The five jhanas or states of enlightenment, are found in
the Brahma worlds or Brahma-lokas up to the summit, the twentieth Brahma
world. And so with bad deeds, the perpetrators of which are to be found,
grade by grade, down to the lowest depths of the nethermost hell. Thus, our
kammas, past, present and future, were, are, and will ever be the sum-total of
our deeds, good, indifferent or bad, according as our actions are good,
indifferent or bad As will be seen from the foregoing, our kammas determine
the changes in our existences.
"Evil spirits" are therefore not beings in an intermediate or transitional stage
of existence, but are really very inferior beings, and they belong to one of the
following five realms of existence, which are namely World of men; World of
devas, the regions of Hell; --Animals below men ; and Petas.
They are very near the world of human beings. As their condition is unhappy,
they are popularly considered as evil spirits. It is not true that all who die in
this world are reborn as evil spirits, though human beings who die sudden or
violent deaths are apt to be reborn in these lowest worlds of devas.
* Khandha: The 5 'groups' are called the 5 aspects in which the Buddha has
summed up all the physical and mental phenomena of existence, and which
appear to be the ignorant man as his Ego, or personality, to wit: (1) the
Corporeality-group rupakkhandha), (2) the Feeling—group (Vedana-
kkhandha). (3) the Perception-group (sanna-kkhandha), (4) the Mental—
Formation group (Sankhara-kkhandha), (5) the Consciousness-group
(vinnana— kkhandha). "Whatever there exists of corporeal things, whether
one's own or external, gross or subtle, lofty or low, far or near, all that belongs
to the Corporeality-group. Whatever there exists of feeling ... of perception . .
of mental formations ... of consciousness . . all that belongs to the
Consciousness-group '' (S VIII. 8f) ("Buddhist Dictionary", Nyanatiloka.)

Question 4: Is there such a thing as a human being who is reborn and who is
able to speak accurately of his or her past existence?

ANSWER: Certainly, this is not an uncommon occurrence, and is in

accordance with the tenets of Buddhism in respect to kamma. Such a person
is called a jatisara puggalo from jati, existence, sara, remembering and
puggalo, rational being.
The followings (who form an overwhelming majority of human beings) are
unable to remember their past existences if, and when reborn as human
beings.
1. Children who die young.

29
 2. Those who die old and senile.
3. Those who are strongly addicted to the drug or drink habit.
4. Those whose mothers, during their conception, have been sickly or
have had to toil laboriously, or have been reckless or imprudent
during pregnancy. The children in the womb being stunned and
startled lose all knowledge of their past existences.
The following are possessed of a knowledge of their past existences. viz:—
1. Those who are not re-born (in the human world) but proceed to the
world of devas, of Brahmas, or to the regions of hell, remember their
past existences.
2. Those who die sudden deaths from accidents, while in sound health
may also be possessed of this faculty in the next existence, provided
that the mothers, in whose wombs they are conceived, are healthy,
clean-lived and quiet women.
3. Again, those who live steady, meritorious lives and who (in their past
existences) have striven to attain, and have prayed for this faculty
often attain it.
4. Lastly, the Buddha, the Arahants and Ariyas attain this gift which is
known as pubbenivasa-abhinnana.
Question 5: Which are the five Abbhinnana? Are they attainable only by the
Buddha ?

ANSWER: The five Abhinnana (Psychic powers) (Pali Abhi=excelling;

nana=wisdom) are:
1. Iddhividha, Creative power,
2. Dibbasota, Divine Ear;
3. Cittapariya-nana, Knowledge of others' thoughts,
4. Pubbenivasanussati; Knowledge of one's past existences; and
5. Dibbacakkhu, The Divine eye.
The five Abhinnana are attainable also by Arahants and Ariyas and not only
the above, but by ordinary mortals who practise according to the Scriptures;
as was the case with the hermits, etc., who flourished before the time of the
Buddha and who were able to fly through the air and traverse different
worlds.
In the Buddhist Scriptures we find, clearly shown, the means of attaining the
five abhinnana ; and even now-a-days, if these means are carefully and
perseveringly pursued, it would be possible to attain these. That we do not
see any person endowed with the five abhinna today, is due to the lack of
strenuous physical and mental exertion towards their attainment.

HOW REBIRTH TAKES PLACE

Every birth is conditioned by a past good or bad kamma (action) which predominates at the
moment of death. Our forms are only the outward manifestations of the invisible kammic force,
and this force carries with it all our characteristics which usually lie latent, but may rise to the
surface at unexpected moments. The death of a person is merely the temporary end of a
temporary phenomenon, the present form perishing and another taking its place in accordance
with the thought that was most powerful at the death moment.

30
One unit of consciousness perishes only to give birth to another, persistently flowing on like a
river. When a person is about to die, no renewed physical function recurs as from the
seventeenth thought moment reckoned backwards from the point of death. The material
qualities of the body which are produced by kamma, temperature, mind and nutriment from
food, arise no more, this critical stage being comparable to the flickering of a lamp just before it
becomes extinguished. Now to this dying man one of three things appear very vividly before his
mind's eye, namely, kamma, kamma nimitta or gati nimitta.
KAMMA
By kamma is meant some action of his, whether good or bad; and if it is his WEIGHTY KAMMA,
which is one of the four kinds of kamma, or action, that condition the future birth, such weighty
kamma will certainly produce results in this life or in the next. Weighty kamma can be good or
bad; such a thing as jhanic practice, for example, being good, and killing, which is bad,
especially so in the case of the most serious crimes involving matricide, patricide, the murder of
an arahant or the mere wounding even of a Buddha. As said above, weighty kamma such as
that just mentioned, will for certain produce results in this life or the next.
If a dying man has no such weighty kamma as the object of his dying thought he may take an
action, kamma, done immediately prior to the death moment; this is known as asanna, DEATH
PROXIMATE KAMMA. Owing to the great part it plays in determining the future birth, much
importance is attached to the type of object of the final dying thought moment; and the custom
of reminding the dying man of his good deeds, and making him do good deeds on his death-
bed, still prevails in Burma, Ceylon and other Buddhist countries.
Sometimes a bad person may die happily and receive a good birth, if fortunately he remembers
or does a good act at the last moment, but although he enjoys a good rebirth this does not
mean he will be exempt from the effects of the evil deeds he performed during his previous
lifetime. On occasions, a good person may die unhappily by suddenly remembering an evil act
of his, or by harbouring some unpleasant thought perchance compelled by unfavourable
circumstances. These, however, are exceptional cases, for as a rule the last thought moment is
conditioned by the general conduct of a person. In any event it is always advisable to remind the
dying person of his good deeds, and to turn his attention away from all worldly bonds and
worries.
HABITUAL KAMMA is next in priority of effect. It is the type of action that one habitually
performs and remembers, and these habits, whether good or bad, become second nature as it
were, tending to form the character of a person. In one's leisure moments one frequently reverts
to a characteristic type of thought; a miser, for instance, will constantly be thinking of his money
and may not be able to detach his mind from his cherished possessions; a social worker will be
interested in his social activities; a spiritual adviser will be always intent on his spiritual work.
Thus each one of us may be dominated by our habitual doings, especially at our death moment.
In the absence of all these as objects of the dying thought moment, some casual act is
presented from the accumulated reserves of the endless past. Each being has his reserve fund,
so to speak, of CUMULATIVE KAMMA which may at any time become the object of the dying
thought moment.
So one of these four actions, kammas, naturally appears very vividly before the mind's eye of
the dying man. i.e., weighty kamma, death proximate kamma, habitual kamma, cumulative
kamma.
KAMMA NIMITTA
In the case of kamma nimitta the object of the dying thought moment is that thing appearing in
the form of a sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which has been dominantly associated
with the performance of a particular kamma, such as knives in the case of a butcher, patients in
the case of a doctor, an object of worship in the case of a devotee, etc.
GATI NIMITTA

31
This means that the object of the dying thought moment takes the form of some sign of the
place where the dying man will take rebirth, a thing which frequently happens to dying persons.
Symbols of one's destiny may be forests, mountainous regions, mother's womb, celestial
mansions, etc. When these indications of the future birth occur, and if they are bad, they can be
turned into good. This is done by influencing the thoughts of the dying man so that his good
thoughts may now act as good proximate kamma, and counteract the influence of the bad
kamma which would otherwise affect his subsequent birth.
Taking kamma, kamma nimitta or gati nimitta for its object, the dying man's thought process
reaches the actual death consciousness, the final conscious state in this life. With the cessation
of this final conscious state, death actually occurs. Death is merely the temporary end of a
temporary phenomenon, it is not the complete annihilation of the being. Although the organic life
has ceased, the force which hitherto actuated it is not destroyed; just as electric light is only the
outward visible manifestation of invisible electric energy, even so are we only the outward
manifestation of invisible kammic energy. When the electric light bulb breaks, the light is
extinguished but the current remains, and light again becomes manifest upon concurrence with
another suitable bulb. In the same way the kammic force remains entirely undisturbed by the
disintegration of the physical vehicle.
The final conscious state in a life that is ceasing, conditions the immediately succeeding
conscious state; however, this immediately succeeding conscious state will be occurring in and
as the very first state of consciousness in the new life, and so the process continues. The
succeeding consciousness inherits all the past activities, but the new being, which is the present
manifestation of the stream of kammic energy, is not the same as the previous one. However, to
the extent that it inherits the same past causal conditions, neither can it be said to be entirely
different.
The stream of consciousness flows on, the transition of the flux being so instantaneous that
there is no room whatsoever for an intermediate state. According to Tibetan Buddhist works,
there is an intermediate state where beings remain for some days or for some weeks, or until
the forty-ninth day; and according to Theosophical teachings, between every two lives we have
a beautiful holiday in heaven, called Devachan, in which we think over all that happened to us in
our previous life and digest all our experiences gained in our past lives.
According to Buddhism the continuity of flux at death is unbroken in point of time, and there is
no breach in the stream of consciousness. The only difference between the passing of one
thought moment to another, and of the dying thought moment to the rebirth consciousness, is
that in the former case the change is invisible and in the latter case a marked perceptible death
is visible. Rebirth is instantaneous.
You may ask, is the place always ready to receive this rebirth?' The answer is that in the same
way as a point in the ground is always ready to receive the falling stone, so is there always an
appropriate place to receive the rebirth which is conditioned by kamma.
STORIES OF REBIRTH AND REINCARNATION
VENERABLE MAHASI SAYADAW
Extracts from 'The Great Discourse on The Wheel of Dhamma'
The reason why we bring out these evidential stories of modern times
is because there are some people who maintain that there is no such thing
as afterlife. Some are undecided and perplexed, not being able to conclude
whether there is afterlife or not. In spite of clear accounts of renewed
existences in the scriptural literature, many are sceptical of what was
written of ancient times. In order to provoke faith in kamma and its resultant
effects and belief in afterlife and to remain steady with such conviction, we
have brought out these stories. Similar stories abound, which we can
produce, but enough has been said to accomplish our aim.

32
 A DHAMMA TEACHING SAYADAW
From 1291 to 1301 B.E. we were resident at Taikwine Taikkyaung
monastery of Moulmein. At that time there was a dhamma-preaching
Sayãdaw of great repute. At the traditional feeding ceremony, a week after
the death of a lawyer donor of his, he gave the following sermon at the
merit-sharing service for the departed one.
"This life of mine is transitory, but my death is truly permanent. I must
die inevitably. My life will end only in death. Life alone is impermanent;
death, on the other hand, is definitely stable, permanent."
This contemplation on death was used as the theme of his sermon.
We were present on the occasion of that ceremony and had heard his
sermon personally. Within a few days after this event, we heard the sad
news of the demise of the dhamma-preaching Sayãdaw. We had thought
then that he would have passed away contemplating on death as he had
preached only a few days ago. We heard that the Sayãdaw had met a
violent death at the hands of assassins who had stabbed him with a
dagger.
About three years later, a certain young boy from Mergui came to
Moulmein accompanied by his parents. He had been worrying his parents,
asking them to take him to Moulmein. On arriving at the monastery of the
former Sayãdaw, the boy informed his parents that in his previous
existence he was the presiding Sayãdaw of that monastery. He could tell
every thing about the monastery and whatever he said was found to be
true. He remembered all the leading monks from the nearby monasteries
and addressed them by names he had used to call them previously.
When he was asked by mentioning the name about a certain man,
who was a close disciple of the late Sayãdaw, the boy replied, "Afraid,
afraid." When questioned what he was afraid of, he recounted how that
man in association with some persons had stabbed him to death, how he
had run away from them, and coming to the river bank and finding a boat,
he made his escape riding on the boat. Later, arriving at the village on the
Mergui coast, he said he entered the house of his present parents.
The visions he saw of how he had fled from his assassins, how he
found a boat on the river bank, how he took a ride on it and came to the
house of his parents, were all gati nimittas (signs of destiny) which had
appeared to him at the approach of death. This is also a notable incident
which confirms the fact that attachment brings forth new existence.
BORN A BUFFALO FOR THE SUM OF 40 KYATS?
In a certain town in Monywa district, there lived a man who was
engaged in the business of money-lending during the British regime. He
asked for the return of a loan from a certain farmer who replied he had
already repaid the money he had borrowed. The moneylender repeatedly
insisted that the farmer had not yet repaid the loan. Finally, he declared,
"May I become a buffalo in your house if I had really asked for a double
payment of the forty kyats which you said you had already returned." With
this oath, he pressed again for the return of his loan. The poor farmer was
thus forced to make knowingly a double settlement of the loan he had
taken.
Soon after, the moneylender passed away. And there was born in the
house of the farmer, who had made a double payment of his loan, a young

33
buffalo. Guessing that the moneylender had made a rebirth in his house as
a buffalo, the poor farmer called out to the young buffalo, "Sayã, Sayã,
please come,' in the same way he used to address the old moneylender.
The young buffalo answered his call and came to him. Believing now that
the old moneylender had really become a buffalo in his house according to
his oath, the farmer started to talk about this incident. Thereupon, the
daughter of the departed moneylender went to court suing the poor farmer
for defaming her father.
The judge who heard the case sent for the appellant, the defendant
and the young buffalo together with witnesses for both sides. In the court,
the farmer called out 'Saya, Saya, please come' to the buffalo in the same
way he used to address the moneylender. The buffalo responded to his call
by coming to him. The moneylender's daughter used to address her father
as 'Shi, Shi'. In the court when she said 'Shi, Shi', the buffalo went to her.
The judge came to the conclusion that the poor farmer was making an
honest statement (without any intention of defamation) and accordingly
discharged the case.
From this story it is not hard to believe that a human being may be
reborn a buffalo. It is plain, therefore, that tanhã will cause rebirth. It should
be observed also that swearing a false oath is liable to land one in dire
calamity.
NGA NYO'S SMALL MEASURE OF RICE
There was a village of about 400 houses called Chaungyo, ten miles
north-west of Taungdwingyi. Two young men of the village, Nga Nyo and
Ba Saing, who were friends earned their living by going round villages
selling betel leaves. Coming back one day from the rounds, Ba Saing went
short of rice on the way. He borrowed a small measure of rice from Nga
Nyo to cook his dinner. After dinner, while they made their way back to the
village leisurely in the moonlit night, poor Ba Saing was bitten by a
poisonous snake and met instant death. It was sometime between 1270
and 1280 B.E. when the two friends were about the ages of twenty or so.
Probably because he hung into the thought of the loan of the small
measure of rice, at the time of his death, he was born a cockerel in Nga
Nyo's house. Nga Nyo trained it to become a fighting cock and entered it in
fighting competitions. The first three competitions were won by Nga Nyo's
cock which unfortunately lost the fourth fight because its opponent
happened to be older and stronger than itself. Nga Nyo expressed his
disappointment and anger by holding his cock by its leg and thrashing it
against the ground. Bringing the half-dead cock home, he threw it down
near the water-pot where Nga Nyo's cow came and touched it with her lips
(as if expressing her sympathy).
The poor cock died afterwards and took conception in the womb of the
cow. When the calf had grown up considerably, it was bought for four kyats
by his friends for a feast which Nga Nyo would also join. While they were
butchering the calf and cutting up the meat in preparation for their feast, a
couple from Taungdwingyi, a clerk and his wife, happened to arrive on the
scene. Expressing her sympathy for the calf, the clerk's wife said, "If it were
my calf, I wouldn't have treated it so cruelly. Even if it had died a natural
death, I wouldn't have the heart to eat its flesh. I would just bury it."
Sometime afterwards, a son was born to the clerk's wife. The child

34
remained without speech till he was seven when, one day his father told
him, "Son, do utter some words and talk to us. Today is pay day. I'll buy
and bring back some nice clothes for you." Keeping his promise, the father
came back in the evening with some pretty garments for his son. He said,
"Here, Son, these beautiful clothes are for you. Do speak to us now." The
boy then uttered, "Nga Nyo's measure of rice."
The father said, "Son, just talk to us. Not only a measure, but a whole
bag of rice we will pay back the loan for you." Thereupon the boy said, "If
so, put the bag of rice on the cart. We will go now to settle my debt." After
putting a bag of rice on the cart, they set off on their journey. The father
asked the son, "Now, where to?" The child directed his father to drive
towards the north of Taungdwingyi. Eventually they came to Chaungyo
village when the son said, "That's it. That's the village," and kept directing
his father through the village lanes until they came to Nga Nyo's house.
Upon enquiring whether it was indeed U Nyo's house, U Nyo himself
confirmed it by coming out from the house. As he approached the cart, the
child hailed him, "Hey Nga Nyo, do you still remember me?" The elderly
man was offended to be rudely addressed as 'Nga Nyo' by a mere child,
the age of his son, but became pacified when the clerk explained, saying,
"Please do not be offended, U Nyo. This child is under some strange
circumstances."
When they got into the house, the boy began, "So, Nga Nyo, you don't
remember me? We were once together going round the villages selling
betel leaves. I borrowed a small measure of rice from you. Then I was
bitten by a poisonous snake and died before I could return the loan. I then
became a cockerel in your house. After winning three fights for you, I lost
the fourth fight because my opponent was much stronger than I was. For
losing that fight, you beat me to death in anger. Half dead, you threw me
down near the water pot and a cow came and kissed me. I took conception
in her womb and was reborn a cow. When I became a heifer, you all killed
me to eat. At that time a clerk and his wife, who are now my father and
mother, came nearby and had expressed sympathy for me. After my death
as a cow, I was born as a son to my present father and mother. I have now
come to repay my debt of the measure of rice."
All that the child recounted were found to be true by U Nyo who wept,
feeling repentant for all the ill-treatment he had meted out to his former
friend.
With this story we want to stress again that unless tanhã has been
rooted out, repeated rebirths in new existences are unavoidable.
TERRIBLE LIFE NOW AS A DEMON, NOW AS A COW
About 1300 B.E., there was resident in the Payãgyi monastery of
Mandalay a student bhikkhu called U Ar Seinna. He was of good build,
clear complexion and full of faith in the dhamma. He was a good student,
too, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the study of Pitaka literature. While
washing the alms-bowl, one day, he addressed his colleagues, "I urge you
to take care, Revered sirs, to be of good behaviour while you are living on
the alms-food of the donors. I am living a heedful life, having had the
personal experiences of three existences."
One of his colleagues was curious and asked him about his previous
lives. He recounted thus, "I passed away from human life to become a

35
female demon. I suffered terribly in that life, having scarcely anything to
eat, no decent place to live in, roaming here and there to look for a resting
place. From a female demon, I became a draught cattle. I was herded in
the same pen with a team mate, whose nostrils were running with putrid
nasal fluid. As its nasal smell was becoming unbearable, I goaded it to
keep it away from me and the owner beat me up for it, thinking I was
bullying the other cattle, domineering over it. When I passed away from
that existence, I regained human life and becoming agitated with religious
emotion, have now taken to the life of a bhikkhu."
This story also serves to emphasise the fact that as long as tanhã
persists, rebirth is inevitable. It also shows what a horrible life is that of
demon and how, handicapped by the inability to communicate, a cattle is
liable to be misunderstood by man and could be subjected to maltreatment
consequently. These accounts should serve to cause terror and incite
religious emotions in us.
REGAINING HUMAN LIFE AFTER BEING A CATTLE AND A DOG
About 1310 B.E. the head Sayãdaw of a village monastery in Monywã
district was shot to death by a rebel leader who accused the Sayadaw of
'ill-treating' his underling. The Sayãdaw is now in human existence, a
bhikkhu again. We hear that he had even passed some of the scriptural
examinations. This bhikkhu recounted, "I became a cattle after being shot
to death, then a dog and now a human being again." To go down from the
level of a bhikkhu in human life to that of a cattle, a dog, is very degrading,
If tanhã remains uneradicated, it is possible to go down the ladder of
existence further still. There is the instance of Bhikkhu Tissa who became
a body louse in the time of the Buddha. Thus realizing that anyone with
tanhã remaining uneradicated (ditthi and vicikicchã also still intact) is liable
to be subjected to rebirths, it is essential to strive for complete eradication
of tanhã or in the very least, to work for elimination of ditthi and vicikicchã.
EVEN REBIRTH AS A CROWING LIZARD IS POSSIBLE
In about 1323 B.E. there appeared in Pha Aung We village near
Daiku, a strange young child who said that he was previously the presiding
monk of the Ywã Waing village about two miles away. The child was
intelligent with good retentive memory. When taken to the monastery which
he said he was resident in, he appeared to know all the articles in the
building and was able to identify each object by recalling the name of its
donor. What he said was found to be all true. He said he had become a
crowing lizard in the monastery when he died as the presiding monk. As
the crowing lizard, he met his death when he leapt across from the
monastery to a palm tree nearby. He missed the tree and fell to the ground
breaking his thigh. The injury caused him death. When he died, he rode
along on the cart of a farmer from Pha Aung village who had his field near
his monastery and stayed in the house of the farmer. What he said about
riding on the cart was the appearance of gati nimitta, sign of destiny as
death approached.
This story should also cause the realization that with tanhã still
lingering, fresh existence could arise and taking fright from this realization,
one should develop ariya magga to rid oneself of tanhã.

36
 WHAT
REBIRTH IS
EDITORIAL

Vol. X, No. 2, 1963

With regard to the question of Rebirth there can be two views; one, that
life continues, in some form or other after death; the other, that life ends
with death, and that there is nothing left after death. There are many
people in the world to-day who hold the latter view and reject the former
for the simple reason that there is no direct proof or that it is impossible
to demonstrate that life ends in one place, and then manifests itself or is
re-born in some other place. Experiments have been made, and are still
being made, but scientists have not been able to understand the
mysteries in the working of the life-force within the body that is before
them. Here some say that animals, which are the victims of their
experiments, have no life-force which can continue after death. But
what of human beings? Methods of observation have been vastly
improved within recent years by medical men and biologists. Yet no
light has been thrown on this question of Rebirth.
Turning now the other view, namely, that life ends up with death, and
that there is no rebirth, is there any direct proof of this? Has this been
demonstrated? There is no such proof, and this has not been
demonstrated. This important fact is too often forgotten or over-looked
by seekers after truth, by honest materialists and those who, owing to
their habit of arguing against the doctrine of Rebirth, casually assume
that there is no rebirth. They have no valid proof which would warrant
them in coming to such a conclusion.
To explain this fact the following dialogue from Payasi Sutta - III, Digha
Nikaya, is cited here:-
Brahmin: Venerable Sir, one day my servants brought a criminal to me
and I had him put alive into a big jar. When its mouth had been closed
with a piece of wet leather and sealed with clay, it was put into the
furnace and the fire was kindled.
When I knew that the criminal was dead I ordered the servants to take
out the jar and to unbind its mouth. I watched carefully for the soul to
come out. But no soul appeared. From this evidence I concluded that
there is no life after death.
Thera: Permit me to question you. Do you remember ever to have
dreamt during your siesta that you were enjoying yourself in gardens or
in groves?
Brahmin: Yes, Venerable Sir, I can remember such a dream.
Thera: During your siesta were you not surrounded by your
attendants'?
Brahmin : Yes, Venerable Sir, they were attending me.

37
Thera: Did they see your soul leaving your body to go to these gardens
or re-entering on its return?
Brahmin: They have not said so, Venerable Sir.
Thera: Then, Sir, if they cannot see your soul either leaving or entering
your body while you are still alive, how can you see any other soul at its
departure for another life?
Brahmin: Venerable Sir, I shall have reason to retain my view.
Thera: What reason?
Brahmin : Once, Venerable Sir, a felon was brought to me by my
ministers. I ordered them first to weigh him, then to strangle him with a
string and afterwards to weigh him again. They did so. While he was
alive he was light and supple, after his death he became stiffer and
heavier. This too concerns my view.
Thera: Suppose, Sir, that you weigh an iron-ball when it is red-hot and
again weigh it when it is cool. Tell me when will it be lighter and more
plastic.
Brahmin: Venerable Sir, when it is red-hot it will be lighter and more
plastic.
Thera: In the same way, Sir, this body, when it has heat, vitality and
consciousness, is lighter and more supple than when it is in any other
state. You have still no reason to deny the continuance of life after
death.
Brahmin: But still I cannot believe that it is possible.
Thera: Have you any other reason for your disbelief?
Brahmin: Yes, Venerable Sir, I have. Once when a criminal was caught
and brought to me I ordered my men to kill him by stripping off his skin,
flesh and sinews, and even to separate the marrow from the bones.
They did so. I watched intently for his soul to leave him but it was of no
avail. But now that body had eyes but could not see, it had ears but
could not hear, a nose but could not smell, a tongue but could not taste,
a body but could not touch proves that the soul neither issues nor
remains at death but destroyed, and with it the possibility of future birth.
Thera: Well Sir, I will tell you a parable. Once a trumpeter, taking with
him his conch-shell trumpet, went into the country. In the middle of the
village, having sounded it three times, he laid it on the ground and
seated himself close by. The villagers who had never heard a trumpet
before, came and asked what sound that was. He said it was the sound
of the conch-shell trumpet. Then, standing the trumpet first on one end
and then on the other end, turning it on this side and on that, they
struck it and cried, "Speak Sir, trumpet! speak !'
The trumpeter watched their foolish efforts and at last he took it up and
blew it thrice. Then they understood that it made sound only in
conjunction with three other things, a man, his effort and the air. In the
same way this body in union with heat, vitality and consciousness can
walk and sit and talk. But without these three it can do nothing. The
possibility of the continuance of life in other bodies does not seem to
me to be disproved by your arguments.
Brahmin: But still it seems to me, Venerable Sir, that this continuance is
impossible.
Thera: What other reason have you for your view?

38
Brahmin : Once, Venerable Sir, I had a certain felon flayed alive that I
might see his soul pass out. But I did not see it when I had his skin,
flesh, and nerves stripped off, his bones broken and their marrow
extracted. But although he was now certainly dead still I had not seen
his soul pass out of his body.
Brahmin : Sir, I will tell you a parable. A fire-worshipper who had to go
out on business, asked his pupil, a little boy, to keep up the fire or to
rekindle it if it should go out, and he showed him some sticks, a hatchet
and the fire drill. Presently the fire went out. Wishing to rekindle it the
boy took the hatchet and chopped the sacks at the fire-drill into very
small pieces. At last even he powdered them and scattered their dust in
the wind, but he got no fire. Meanwhile the fire-worshipper returned and
with great surprise saw what had happened. He told the boy that by this
method he would never get fire and showed him how to make it. Like
that foolish boy, Sir, you are searching for future in vain by means of
wrong views which can only bring you suffering and ruin.
What is Death?
According to Buddhism death is "the temporary end of a temporary
phenomenon." It is not the complete annihilation of the being, for
although the organic life has ceased, the Kammic force which hitherto
actuated it is not destroyed. Our forms are only the outward
manifestations of the invisible Kammic force. This force carries with it all
characteristics which usually lie latent but may rise to the surface at any
moment. When the present form perishes another form takes its place
according to a good or bad volitional impulse (Kamma that was the
most powerful) at the moment just before death.
At death the Kammic force remains entirely undisturbed by the
disintegration of the physical body and the passing away of the present
consciousness conditions the coming into being of a fresh one in
another birth. The stream of consciousness flows on. "Life, then, in the
Buddhist view of things, is like an ever-changing river, having its source
in birth, its goal in death receiving from the tributary streams of senses
constant accretions to its flood, and ever dispensing to the world around
it the thought-stuff it has gathered up by the way." (Compendium of
Philosophy, p. 12) The continuity of flux at death is unbroken in point of
time, and there is no breach in the stream of consciousness and so
there is no room whatever for an intermediate stage between this life
and the next or between any two lives. The only difference between the
passing of one ordinary thought-moment( or one unit of consciousness)
to another and of dying thought-moment (consciousness) to the rebirth-
consciousness is that in the former case the change is invisible and in
the latter case a marked perceptible death is visible. Rebirth takes
place immediately.
It may be asked: Is the place always ready to receive their rebirth? The
answer is: As a point in the ground is always ready to receive the falling
stone, so there is always an appropriate place to receive the rebirth
which is conditioned by the natural law of Kamma.
Death being a momentary incident, rebirth is immediate. Some years
ago it might have been doubtful about such rapidity in the transmission
of the life-force; but in these days of scientific methods of investigation

39
we know of such rapid transmission of energy in wireless telegraphy
and telephony. Solid walls do not prevent the radio waves from
reaching an appropriate receiving set within a room. The transmission
of the life-force from one existence to another may be compared to a
receiving set that responds to the particular wave-length sent out from a
distance of thousands of miles. It is more like the tuning-fork which
vibrates in response to a particular note of a particular wave length in
the musical scale. So long as a musical note sets up vibrations in the
air, so long will some tuning-fork that is responsive to that particular
note, vibrate in unison.
When the vibrations of the musical note cease the tuning-fork will cease
to vibrate to that note. And so it is with that restless Kammic force or
life-force which continues to bring about births through appropriate
germ-plasms or other life-conditions till that restless Kammic force
ceases to exist in the peace of Nibbana.
Is the New Being the Same as the Previous One?
In the words of the late Bhikkhu Silacara, "This new being which is the
present manifestation of the stream of Kamma-energy is not the same
as, and has no identity with the previous one in its line; the aggregate
that makes up its composition being different from, and having no
identity with, those that make up the being of its predecessor. And yet it
is not an entirely different being, since it has the same stream of
Kamma-energy, though modified perchance just by having shown itself
in that last manifestation, which is now making its presence known in
the sense perceptible world as the new being."
If we were to obtain a quick motion picture of any particular individual's
life from his birth to his death, the most striking fact that would attract
our attention would be the changefulness that we should find running
right through the series of pictures. The infant changes to the child, the
child to the adult, and the adult to the decrepit old person who collapses
to death. This change goes on in every part of the individual's body;
and not only that but in the mind also. So that any adult individual who
surveys his existence will realise that the child that was, is now no
more. That child had a different body, in size as well as in form,
different likes and dislikes, and different aspirations. That child is almost
a stranger to the present adult individual. And yet the adult individual is
responsible for whatever he has done in his childhood because there is
a continuity or identity in the process of life-force from childhood to
manhood as a child becomes a man.
In exactly the same way the new being has the same stream of Kammic
energy or life force as its predecessor, so it is responsible for whatever
its predecessor has done. This new being has as much identity with the
previous one as the adult individual of to-day has with the child that
was; nothing less and nothing more.
This is well expressed in the Milinda Panna. King Milinda asked
Arahant Nagasena if he who is reborn remains the same or becomes
another. "Neither - the same nor another", was the answer he received.
"Suppose, O King, that a man were to light a lamp, would it burn the
night through?
"Yes, it might do so, Venerable Sir".

40
"Now is it the same flame that burns in the first watch of the night, Sir,
and in the second ?"
"No, Venerable Sir."
"Or the same that burns in the second watch and in the third?"
"No, Venerable Sir."
"Then is there one lamp in the first watch, and another in the second,
and another in the third ?"
"No, the light comes from the same lamp all the night through".
"Just so, O King, is the continuity of a person or a thing maintained.
One passes away, another comes into being; and the rebirth is, as it
were, simultaneous. Thus, neither as the same nor as another does a
man go on to the last phase of his self-consciousness."
Asked for another illustration, Arahatta Nagasena gives that of milk
which, once it is taken from the cow, after a lapse of time, turns first to
curds, and then from curds to butter, and then from butter to ghee. Just
as it would not be correct to say that the milk was the same thing as the
curds, or the butter, or the ghee, but that they are produced out of it, so,
he points out, continuity of a person or a thing is maintained in the
same way.
There is also the illustration of the wave of water in the lake or the
ocean. A certain mass of water is raised up as a wave. As the wave
passes on, or seems to pass on, a moment or so later it is not the same
mass of water that forms the wave, but a different mass altogether. And
yet we speak of the wave "passing on."
The Present being, present existence, is continued by how one faced
circumstances in the last, and in all past existences. One's present
position in character and circumstances is the result of all that one has
been up to the present; but what one will be in the future depends on
what one does now in the present. The true Buddhist regards death as
a momentary incident between one life and its successor, and views its
approach with calmness. His only concern is that his future should be
such that the conditions of that life may provide him with better
opportunities for perfecting himself. Holding, as he does, the great
doctrine of Kamma, he perceives that it is within the power to alter or
modify the quality of the life-force that continues in the next birth, and
that his future environment will depend entirely on what he does, upon
how he behaves, in this and in his previous lives.
Memory of Past Lives
Buddhism teaches that with the practice of concentration and
meditation, memory can be trained. By meditation and mind-culture one
can acquire the power to see the rebirth as a link or a succession of
links, in a chain of births; one also can acquire the power of looking
back into one's previous lives. Not only this, but further Buddhism
teaches that through enlightenment or true wisdom, one can see the
end of this chain of births.
There are on record instances of people who have possessed
wonderful memories, some for what they had once read, others for
music and so on. Still others there are who have remembered their past
lives. The average person's memory is very poor indeed. There are not
many, who can recount the day's activities correctly and in detail. How

41
then can they remember their youth, childhood, infancy, foetal life, and
their past life before this present one? The fact that they do not
remember their past activities, is no proof that they did not exist in the
past. We hear of Australian aborigines who can never learn to count
more than two; they say "one, two, more", and some of them cannot
remember things from one day to another.
What would you think if one of these men were to come to you and say:
"There never was a yesterday, for I cannot remember it; and there can
be no tomorrow or some of us would have seen one." You would think
him very foolish indeed for imagining he could have grown to manhood
in one day, and you would probably wonder how he explained the fact
that he knows certain things belong to him, and recognises his
relatives, his friends and his enemies at sight if he has not seen and
known them before today.
It would seem so clear that he brought over the knowledge from the
yesterday he cannot remember, and it would seem strange to you that
he did not notice how babies grow into children, and children into men
and women, since no baby grows into a man or woman in one day.
Now there are people among us, who are very wise in many ways, yet
they treat the theory of Rebirth in exactly the same way that the
Australian aboriginal treats the, to him, theory of past yesterday. Merely
because they cannot remember their past lives, they deny that there
can have been any past lives.
To students of Buddhism this seems a very foolish position, for they are
taught neither to accept nor reject any teaching until they have
examined all the evidence for it, and have experimented with it
themselves to see if it is true. Having proved by these means that it is
true or untrue, a Buddhist should live accordingly as if he believes or
disbelieves; but he must never judge others or be impatient if they can
not see things as he sees. He must be tolerant to all, even to the
intolerant, and he must always remember that what is proof to one
person may not be proof to another. What each needs is experience to
see, to hear, to feel for himself; and, having done so, he has no right to
ask others to believe before they also have experienced.
It is common to read in the Buddhist literature of the Buddha and many
of his disciples speaking not only of their own past lives but those of
others also, and often, too, of their future lives. Having attained his final
enlightenment and developed higher spiritual powers, the Buddha
declares, "I recalled my varied lot in former existences as follows: first
one life, then two lives, then three, four, five, ten, twenty up to fifty lives:
then a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, and so forth." He
also says; "With clairvoyant vision, I perceived beings disappearing
from one state of existence and reappearing in another. I beheld the
base and the noble, the beautiful and the ugly, the happy and the
miserable passing according to their deeds." (Sutta No. 36, Majjhima
Nikaya I, 248).
There are several discourses in which the Buddha clearly states that
the beings who have done evil are born in woeful states; and those who
have done good are born in blissful states. All the Jataka stories which
are not only interesting but of psychological importance, deal with the

42
 Buddha's previous lives. By following his instructions the Buddha's
disciples also developed certain spiritual powers and were able to
remember their past lives to a great extent.

Buddhist Meditation
FRANCIS STORY
(The Anagarika Sugatananda)
Director in Chief, Burma Buddhist World Mission
Copyright © 1986 Buddhist Publication Society

The mental exercise known as meditation is found in all religious systems. Prayer
is a form of discursive meditation, and in Hinduism the reciting of slokas and mantras
is employed to tranquilize the mind to a state of receptivity. In most of these systems
the goal is identified with the particular psychic results that ensue, sometimes very
quickly; and the visions that come in the semi-trance state, or the sounds that are
heard, are considered to be the end-result of the exercise. This is not the case in the
forms of meditation practiced in Buddhism.
There is still comparatively little known about the mind, its functions and its
powers, and it is difficult for most people to distinguish between self-hypnosis, the
development of mediumistic states, and the real process of mental clarification and
direct perception which is the object of Buddhist mental concentration. The fact that
mystics of every religion have induced on themselves states wherein they see visions
and hear voices that are in accordance with their own religious beliefs indicates that
their meditation has resulted only in bringing to the surface of the mind and
objectifying the concepts already embedded in the deepest strata of their
subconscious minds. The Christian sees and converses with the saints of whom he
already knows; the Hindu visualizes the gods of the Hindu pantheon, and so on. When
Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the Bengali mystic, began to turn his thoughts
towards Christianity, he saw visions of Jesus in his meditations, in place of his former
eidetic images of the Hindu Avatars.
The practiced hypnotic subject becomes more and more readily able to surrender
himself to the suggestions made to him by the hypnotiser, and anyone who has
studied this subject is bound to see a connection between the mental state of
compliance he has reached and the facility with which the mystic can induce whatever
kind of experiences he wills himself to undergo. There is still another possibility latent
in the practice of meditation; the development of mediumistic faculties by which the
subject can actually see and hear beings on different planes of existence, the
Devalokas and the realm of the unhappy ghosts, for example. These worlds being
nearest to our own are the more readily accessible, and this is the true explanation of
the psychic phenomena of Western Spiritualism.
The object of Buddhist meditation, however, is none of these things. They arise
as side-products, but not only are they not its goal, but they are hindrances which
have to be overcome. The Christian who has seen Jesus, or the Hindu who has
conversed with Bhagavan Krishna may be quite satisfied that he has fulfilled the
purpose of his religious life, but the Buddhist who sees a vision of the Buddha knows
by that very fact that he has only succeeded in objectifying a concept in his own mind,
for the Buddha after his Parinibbana is, in his own words, no longer visible to gods or
men.
There is an essential difference, then, between Buddhist meditation and

43
concentration and that practiced in other systems. The Buddhist embarking on a
course of meditation does well to recognize this difference and to establish in his own
conscious mind a clear idea of what it is he is trying to do.
The root-cause of rebirth and suffering is avijja conjoined with and reacting upon
tanha. These two causes form a vicious circle; on the one hand, concepts, the result
of ignorance, and on the other hand, desire arising from concepts. The world of
phenomena has no meaning beyond the meaning given to it by our own interpretation.
When that interpretation is conditioned by avijja, we are subject to the state
known as vipallasa, or hallucination. Sañña-vipallasa, hallucination of perception; citta-
vipallasa, hallucination of consciousness, and ditthi-vipallasa, hallucination of views,
cause us to regard that which is impermanent (anicca) as permanent, that which is
painful (dukkha) as a source of pleasure, and that which is unreal (anatta), or literally
without any self existence, as being a real, self-existing entity. Consequently, we place
a false interpretation on all the sensory experiences we gain through the six channels
of cognition, that is, the eye, ear, nose, tongue, sense of touch and mind cakkhu, sota,
ghana, jivha, kaya and mano (ayatana). Physics, by showing that the realm of
phenomena we know through these channels of cognition does not really correspond
to the physical world known to science, has confirmed this Buddhist truth. We are
deluded by our own senses. Pursuing what we imagine to be desirable, an object of
pleasure, we are in reality only following a shadow, trying to grasp a mirage. It is
anicca, dukkha, anatta -- impermanent, associated with suffering, an insubstantial.
Being so, it can only be the cause of impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality,
since like begets like; and we ourselves, who chase the illusion, are also
impermanent, subject to suffering and without any persistent ego-principle. It is a case
of a shadow pursuing a shadow.
The purpose of Buddhist meditation, therefore, is to gain more than an
intellectual understanding of this truth, to liberate ourselves from the delusion and
thereby put an end to both ignorance and craving. If the meditation does not produce
results tending to this consummation -- results which are observable in the character
and the whole attitude to life -- it is clear that there is something wrong either with the
system or with the method of employing it. It is not enough to see lights, to have
visions or to experience ecstasy. These phenomena are too common to be impressive
to the Buddhist who really understands the purpose of Buddhist meditation. There are
actual dangers in them which are apparent to one who is also a student of
psychopathology.
In the Buddha's great discourse on the practice of mindfulness, the Maha-
Satipatthana Sutta, both the object and the means of attaining it are clearly set forth.
Attentiveness to the movements of the body, to the ever-changing states of the mind,
is to be cultivated in order that their real nature should be known. Instead of identifying
these physical and mental phenomena with the false concept of "self," we are to see
them as they really are: movements of a physical body, an aggregate of the four
elements, (mahabhutas) subject to physical laws of causality on the one hand, and on
the other, a flux of successive phases of consciousness arising and passing away in
response to external stimuli. They are to be viewed objectively, as though they were
processes not associated with ourselves but belonging to another order of
phenomena.
From what can selfishness and egotism proceed if not from the concept of "self"
(sakkayaditthi)? If the practice of any form of meditation leaves selfishness or egotism
unabated, it has not been successful. A tree is judged by its fruits and a man by his
actions; there is no other criterion. Particularly is this true in Buddhist psychology,

44
because the man is his actions. In the truest sense they, or the continuity of kamma
and vipaka which they represent, are the only claim he can make to any persistent
identity, not only through the different phases of this life but also from one life to
another. Attentiveness with regard to body and mind serves to break down the illusion
of self; and not only that, it also cuts off craving and attachment to external objects, so
that ultimately there is neither the "self" that craves nor any object of craving. It is a
long and arduous discipline, and one that can only be undertaken in retirement from
the world and its cares.
Yet even a temporary retirement, a temporary course of this discipline, can bear
good results in that it establishes an attitude of mind which can be applied to some
degree in the ordinary situations of life. Detachment, objectivity, is an invaluable aid to
clear thinking; it enables a man to sum up a given situation without bias, personal or
otherwise, and to act in that situation with courage and discretion. Another gift it
bestows is that of concentration -- the ability to focus the mind and keep it steadily
fixed on a single point (ekaggata, or one-pointedness), and this is the great secret of
success in any undertaking. The mind is hard to tame; it roams here and there
restlessly as the wind, or like an untamed horse, but when it is fully under control, it is
the most powerful instrument in the whole universe. He who has mastered his own
mind is indeed master of the Three Worlds.
In the first place he is without fear. Fear arises because we associate mind and
body (nama-rupa) with "self"; consequently any harm to either is considered to be
harm done to oneself. But he who has broken down this illusion by realizing that the
five khandha process is merely the manifestation of cause and effect, does not fear
death or misfortune. He remains equable alike in success and failure, unaffected by
praise or blame. The only thing he fears is demeritorious action, because he knows
that no thing or person in the world can harm him except himself, and as his
detachment increases, he becomes less and less liable to demeritorious deeds.
Unwholesome action comes of an unwholesome mind, and as the mind becomes
purified, healed of its disorders, bad kamma ceases to accumulate. He comes to have
a horror of wrong action and to take greater and greater delight in those deeds that
are rooted in alobha, adosa, and amoha -- generosity, benevolence and wisdom.
Anapana Sati
One of the most universally-applicable methods of cultivating mental concentration is
anapanasati, attentiveness on the in-going and out-going breath. This, unlike the
Yogic systems, does not call for any interference with the normal breathing, the breath
being merely used as a point on which to fix the attention, at the tip of the nostrils. The
attention must not wander, even to follow the breath, but must be kept rigidly on the
selected spot. In the initial stages it is advisable to mark the respiration by counting,
but as soon as it is possible to keep the mind fixed without this artificial aid, it should
be discontinued and only used when it is necessary to recall the attention.
As the state of mental quiescence (samatha) is approached, the breath appears
to become fainter and fainter, until it is hardly discernible. It is at this stage that certain
psychic phenomena appear, which may at first be disconcerting. A stage is reached
when the actual bodily dukkha, the sensation of arising and passing away of the
physical elements in the body, is felt. This is experienced as a disturbance, but it must
be remembered that it is an agitation that is always present in the body but we are
unaware of it until the mind becomes stabilized. It is the first direct experience of the
dukkha (suffering) which is inherent in all phenomena -- the realization within oneself
of the first of the Four Noble Truths, Dukkha Ariya Sacca. When that is passed there
follows the sensation of piti, rapturous joy associated with the physical body. The

45
teacher of vipassana, however, is careful never to describe to his pupil beforehand
what he is likely to experience, for if he does so, there is a strong possibility that the
power of suggestion will produce a false reaction, particularly in those cases where
the pupil is very suggestible and greatly under the influence of the teacher.
Devices in Meditation
In kammattana, it is permissible to use certain devices, such as the earth or colour
kasina, as focal points for the attention. A candle flame, a hole in the wall, or some
metal object can also be used, and the method of using them is found in the Pali texts
and the Visuddhi-magga. In the texts themselves it is to be noted that the Buddha
gave objects of meditation to disciples in accordance with their individual
characteristics, and his unerring knowledge of the right technique for each came from
his insight into their previous births. Similarly with recursive meditation, a subject
would be given which was easily comprehensible to the pupil, or which served to
counteract some strong, unwholesome tendency in his nature. Thus, to one attracted
by sensual indulgence, the Buddha would recommend meditation on the impurity of
the body, or the "cemetery meditation." Here the object is to counterbalance attraction
by repulsion, but it is only a "skillful means" to reach the final state, in which attraction
and repulsion both cease to exist. In the Arahant there is neither liking nor disliking: he
regards all things with perfect equanimity, as did Thera Maha Moggallana when he
accepted a handful of rice from a leper.
Beads
The use of the rosary in Buddhism is often misunderstood. If it is used for the
mechanical repetition of a set formula, the repeating of so many phrases as an act of
piety, as in other religions, its value is negligible. When it is used as means of holding
the attention and purifying the mind, however, it can be a great help. One of the best
ways of employing it, because it calls for undivided attention, is to repeat the Pali
formula of the qualities of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, beginning "Iti'pi so Bhagava
-- " with the first bead, starting again with the second and continuing to the next
quality: "Iti'pi so Bhagava, Arahan -- " and so on until with the last bead the entire
formula is repeated from beginning to end. This cannot be carried out successfully
unless the mind is entirely concentrated on what is being done. At the same time the
recalling of the noble qualities of Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha lifts the mind to a lofty
plane, since the words carry with them a meaning the impresses itself on the pattern
of the thought-moments as they arise and pass away. The value of this in terms of
Abhidhamma psychology lies in the wholesome nature of the cittakkhana, or
"consciousness-moment" in its uppada (arising), thiti (static) and bhanga
(disappearing) phases. Each of these wholesome cittakkhana contributes to the
improvement of the sankhara; or aggregate of tendencies; in other words, it directs the
subsequent thought-moments into a higher realm and tends to establish the character
on that level.
Samatha Bhavana
Samatha bhavana, the development of mental tranquillity with concentration, is
accompanied by three benefits; it gives happiness in the present life, a favorable
rebirth, and the freedom from mental defilements which is a prerequisite for attainment
of insight. In samatha the mind becomes like a still, clear pool completely free from
disturbance and agitation, and ready to mirror on its surface the nature of things as
they really are, the aspect of them which is hidden from ordinary knowledge by the
restlessness of craving. It is the peace and fulfillment which is depicted on the features
of the Buddha, investing his images with a significance that impresses even those who
have no knowledge of what it means. Such an image of the Buddha can itself be a

46
very suitable object of meditation, and is, in fact, the one that most Buddhists
instinctively use. The very sight of the tranquil image can calm and pacify a mind
distraught with worldly hopes and fears. It is the certain and visible assurance of
Nibbana.
Vipassana Bhavana
Vipassana bhavana is realization of the three signs of being, anicca, dukkha, and
anatta, by direct insight. These three characteristics, impermanence, suffering and
non-self, can be grasped intellectually, as scientific and philosophical truth, but this is
not in itself sufficient to rid the mind of egoism and craving. The final objective lies on
a higher level of awareness, the direct "intuitional" plane, where it is actually
experienced as psychological fact. Until this personal confirmation is obtained, the
sphere of sense perception (ayatana) and sensory-responses remain stronger than
the intellectual conviction; the two function side by side on different levels of
consciousness, but it is usually the sphere dominated by avijja which continues to
determine the course of life by volitional action. The philosopher who fails to live
according to his philosophy is the most familiar example of this incompatibility
between theory and practice. When the direct perception is obtained, however, what
was at its highest intellectual level still merely a theory becomes actual knowledge, in
precisely the same way that we "know" when we are hot or cold hungry or thirsty. The
mind that has attained it is established in the Dhamma, and pañña, wisdom, has taken
the place of delusion.
Discursive meditation, such as that practiced in Christian devotion, is entirely on
the mental level, and can be undertaken by anyone at any time. It calls for no special
preparation or conditions. For the more advanced exercises of samatha and
vipassana, however, the strictest observance of sila, the basic moral rules, becomes
necessary. These techniques are best followed in seclusion, away from the impurities
of worldly life and under the guidance of an accomplished master. Many people have
done themselves psychic harm by embarking on them without due care in this respect.
It is not advisable for anyone to experiment on his own; those who are unable to place
themselves under a trustworthy teacher will do best to confine themselves to
discursive meditation. It cannot take them to enlightenment but will benefit them
morally and prepare them for the next stage.
The Practice of Metta Bhavana
Metta bhavana is the most universally beneficial form of discursive meditation, and
can be practiced in any conditions. Thoughts of universal, undiscriminating
benevolence, like radio waves reaching out in all directions, sublimate the creative
energy of the mind. With steady perseverance in metta bhavana a point can be
reached at which it becomes impossible even to harbor a thought of ill-will. True peace
can only come to the world through minds that are at peace, If people everywhere in
the world could be persuaded to devote half an hour daily to the practice of metta
bhavana, we should see more real advance towards world peace and security than
international agreements will ever bring us. It would be a good thing if, in this new era
of the Buddha Sasana, people of all creeds could be invited to take part in a world-
wide movement for the practice of metta bhavana and pledge themselves to live in
accordance with the highest tenets of their own religion, whatever it may be. In so
doing they would be paying homage to the Supreme Buddha and to their own
particular religious teacher as well, for on this level all the great religions of the world
unite. If there is a common denominator to be found among them, it is surely here, in
the teaching of universal loving-kindness which transcends doctrinal differences and
draws all being together by the power of a timeless and all-embracing truth.

47
 The classic formulation of metta as an attitude of mind to be developed by
meditation is found in the Karaniya Metta Sutta (Sutta Nipata, Khuddaka-patha) [See
appendix]. It is recommended that this sutta be recited before beginning meditation,
and again at its close, a practice which is invariably followed in the Buddhist countries.
The verses of the sutta embody the highest concept to which the thought of loving-
kindness can reach, and it serves both as a means of self-protection against
unwholesome mental states and as a subject of contemplation (kammatthana).
It is taught in Buddhism that the cultivation of benevolence must begin with
oneself. There is a profound psychological truth in this, for no one who hates or
despises himself consciously or unconsciously can feel true loving-kindness for
others. To each of us the self is the nearest object; if one's attitude towards oneself is
not a wholesome one, the spring of love is poisoned at its source. This does not mean
that we should build up an idealized picture of ourselves as an object of admiration,
but that, while being fully aware of our faults and deficiencies, we should not condemn
but resolve to improve ourselves and cherish confidence in our ability to do so.
Metta bhavana, therefore, begins with the thought: "May I be free from enmity;
may I be free from ill-will; may I be rid of suffering; may I be happy."
This thought having been developed, the next stage is to apply it in exactly the
same form and to the same degree, to someone for whom one has naturally a feeling
of friendship.
In so doing, two points must be observed: the object should be a living person,
and should not be one of the opposite sex. The second prohibition is to guard against
the feeling of metta turning into its "near enemy," sensuality. Those whose sensual
leanings have a different orientation must vary the rule to suit their own needs.
When the thought of metta has been developed towards a friend, the next object
should be someone towards whom one has no marked feelings of like or dislike.
Lastly, the though of metta is to be turned towards someone who is hostile. It is here
that difficulties arise. They are to be expected, and the meditator must be prepared to
meet and wrestle with them. To this end, several techniques are described in the
Visuddhimagga and elsewhere. The first is to think of the hostile personality in terms
of anatta -- impersonality. The meditator is advised to analyze the hostile personality
into its impersonal components -- the body, the feelings, the perceptions, the volitional
formations and the consciousness. The body, to begin with, consists of purely material
items: hair of the head, hair of the body, skin, nails, teeth and so on. There can be no
basis for enmity against these. The feelings, perceptions, volitional formations and
consciousness are all transitory phenomena, interdependent, conditioned and bound
up with suffering. They are anicca, dukkha and anatta, impermanent, fraught with
suffering and void of selfhood. There is no more individual personality in them than
there is in the physical body itself. So towards them, likewise, there can be no real
ground for enmity.
If this approach should prove to be not altogether effective, there are others in
which emotionally counteractive states of mind are brought into play, as for example
regarding the hostile person with compassion. The meditator should reflect: "As he (or
she) is, so am I. As I am, so is he. We are both bound to the inexorable Wheel of Life
by ignorance and craving. Both of us are subject to the law of cause and effect, and
whatever evil we do, for that we must suffer. Why then should I blame or call anyone
my enemy? Rather should I purify my mind and wish that he may do the same, so that
both of us may be freed from suffering."
If this thought is dwelt upon and fully comprehended, feelings of hostility will be
cast out. When the thought of loving-kindness is exactly the same, in quality and

48
degree, for all these four objects -- oneself, one's friend, the person toward whom one
is neutral, and the enemy -- the meditation has been successful.
The next stage is to widen and extend it. This process is a threefold one:
suffusing metta without limitation, suffusing it with limitation, and suffusing it in all of
the ten directions, east, west, north, south, the intermediate points, above and below.
In suffusing metta without limitation (anodhiso-pharana), the meditator thinks of
the objects of loving-kindness under five heads: all sentient beings; all things that have
life; all beings that have come into existence; all that have personality; all that have
assumed individual being. For each of these groups separately he formulates the
thought: "May they be free from enmity; may they be free from enmity; may they be
free from ill will; may they be rid of suffering; may they be happy. For each object he
specifies the particular group which he is suffusing with metta: "May all sentient beings
be free from enmity, etc... May all things that have life be free from enmity, etc." This
meditation embraces all without particular reference to locality, and so is called
"suffusing without limitation."
In suffusing metta with limitation (odhiso-pharana), there are seven groups which
form the objects of the meditation. They are: all females; all males; all Noble Ones
(those who have attained any one of the states of Sainthood); all imperfect ones; all
Devas; all human beings; all beings in states of woe. Each of the groups should be
meditated upon as described above: "May all females be free from enmity, etc." This
method is called "suffusing metta with limitation" because it defines the groups
according to their nature and condition.
Suffusing with metta all beings in the ten directions is carried out in the same
way. Directing his mind towards the east, the meditator concentrates on the thought:
"May all beings in the east be free from enmity; may they be free from ill will; may they
be rid of suffering; may they be happy!" And so with the beings in the west, the north,
the south, the north-east, south-west, north-west, south-east, above and below.
Lastly, each of the twelve groups belonging to the unlimited and limited
suffusions of metta can be dealt with separately for each of the ten directions, using
the appropriate formulas.
It is taught that each of these twenty-two modes of practicing metta bhavana is
capable of being developed up to the stage of a appana-samadhi, that is, the
concentration which leads to jhana, or mental absorption. For this reason it is
described as the method for attaining release of the mind through metta (metta
cetovimutti). It is the first of the Four Brahma Viharas, the sublime states of which the
Karaniya Metta Sutta: "Brahmam etam viharam idhamahu" -- "Here is declared the
Highest Life."
Metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha: [see Nyanaponika Thera, The Four Sublime
States, Wheel 6.] loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and detachment,
these four states of mind represent the highest levels of mundane consciousness.
One who has attained to them and dwells in them is impervious to the ills of life. Like a
god he moves and acts in undisturbed serenity, armored against the blows of fate and
the uncertainty of worldly conditions. And the first of them to be cultivated is metta,
because it is through boundless love that the mind gains its first taste of liberation.

Appendix
Lovingkindness as a Contemplation
Metta Sutta

49
From the Sutta Nipata, verses 143-52 (Spoken by the Buddha)

What should be done by one skillful in good

So as to gain the State of Peace is this:
Let him be able, and upright, and straight.
Easy to speak to, gentle, and not proud,
Contented, too, supported easily.
With few tasks, and living very lightly,
His faculties serene, prudent, and modest,
Unswayed by the emotions of the clans;
And let him never do the slightest thing
That other wise men might hold blamable.
(And let him think:) "In safety and in bliss
May creatures all be of a blissful heart.
Whatever breathing beings there may be,
No matter whether they are frail or firm,
With none excepted, be they long or big
Or middle sized, or be they short or small
Or thick, as well as those seen or unseen,
Or whether they are dwelling far or near,
Existing or yet seeking to exist,
May creatures all be of a blissful heart.
Let no one work another one's undoing
Or even slight him at all anywhere;
And never let them wish each other ill
Through provocation or resentful thought."
And just as might a mother with her life
Protect the son that was her only child,
So let him then for every living thing
Maintain unbounded consciousness in being,
And let him too with love for all the world
Maintain unbounded consciousness in being
Above, below, and all round in between,
Untroubled, with no enemy or foe.
And while he stands or walks or while he sits
Or while he lies down, free from drowsiness,
Let him resolve upon this mindfulness
This is Divine Abiding here, they say.
But when he has no trafficking with views,
Is virtuous, and has perfected seeing,
And purges greed for sensual desires.
He surely comes no more to any womb.

50
 THE CASE FOR REBIRTH*
FRANCIS STORY
Director in Chief, Burma Buddhist World Mission
Vol. VII, No. 2, 1960

PART ONE
The doctrine of reincarnation, the ceaseless round of rebirths, is not, as
many people imagine, confined to Buddhism and Hinduism. It is found in some
form or another in many religious and philosophical systems and in many parts of
the world.
In the oldest records of man's religious thinking we find traces of a belief in
the 'transmigration of souls'. Some of the forms it took were naturally primitive
and crudely animistic; there is for instance a theory that the ancient Egyptians
embalmed their dead to prevent the Ka, or soul, from taking another body. If idea
existed in Egypt it almost certainly must have been familiar also to the
Babylonians and Assyrians, who shared many of the most important religious
beliefs of the Egyptians.
Coming to later times we find reincarnation prominent in the Orphic cult of
Greece in the 6th century B.C., when it formed part of the teaching of
Pherecydes of Syros. In the Orphic view of life man is a dualism, part evil and
part divine. Through a succession of incarnations the individual has to purge
himself of the evil in his nature by religious rites and moral purity. When this is
accomplished he becomes liberated from the 'circle of becoming' and is wholly
divine.
This corresponds very closely to the Buddhist, Hindu and Jain teaching, and
there may have been a connection, between them; but it is not possible to
establish one on historical evidence. Although by the 6th century B.C. the
doctrine had already been developed in the Brahmanas and Upanishads, and
may have travelled West along the trade routes, there is still a possibility that
arose spontaneously in Greece. The emphasis on ritualism differentiates it from
the Buddhist view, but it is significant that it was at about the same time in both
Greece and India that the idea of reincarnation first became linked with a scheme
of moral values and spiritual evolution. The connection of Orphism with the
mysteries of ceremonial magic must not be allowed to blind us to the fact that it
represented a great advance in religious thinking. Hitherto, reincarnation had
been regarded in primitive cults as a merely mechanical process, to be
controlled, if at all, by spells, incantations and physical devices. This is the idea
still prevalent among undeveloped peoples in certain parts of Africa, Polynesia
and elsewhere, where, far removed from Indian influences the idea of
metempsychosis must have sprung up spontaneously.
Through Orphism reincarnation came to be taught by, among others,
Empedocles and Pythagoras. In the hand of the latter the Orphic mysticism
was converted into a philosophy. This philosophical aspect of the teaching was
inherited by the Platonists, while its mystical character was preserved in the
traditions of Gnosticism.
In many respects Greek Gnosticism resembled Hinduism; it was syncretic

51
and eclectic, capable of absorbing into itself ideas from outside sources while at
the same time it impregnated with its own thought the beliefs peculiar to other
systems. Its influence was felt over many centuries, persisting into the Middle
Ages of Europe. In the early centuries of the Christian era we find it in the
teachings of men as dissimilar in the general character of their outlook as
Plotinus, Cerinthus and Marcion.
Clement of Alexandra about the second century C.E., wrote very largely from
the Gnostic standpoint. He combined reincarnation with the necessity of striving
for an enlightened moral elevation; a result that could be achieved only through a
development taking place not merely in the present life but in past and future
incarnations as well. This belief was shared by Pre-existiani, a sect that
numbered among its adherents some of the roost advanced thinkers of the
period, including Justin Martyr and the great theologian Origen. They represented
a very powerful intellectual movement, one in which the natural freedom of Greek
intellectualim was struggling for survival in a world that was sliding towards the
Dark Ages. Many of their ideas survived in Neo-Platonism; but for the most part
they were driven under ground to find an insecure refuge in the suppressed
teachings of the so-called heretical sects that came to be known collectively as
the Cathars, or 'Illuminati'.
A not dissimilar doctrine of transmigration is found in the Kabbalah, where it
goes under the Hebrew name Gilgul. It forms an integral part of the Kabbalistic
system and is one of the features that distinguish Kabbalism from primitive Judaic
thought. The Hekhaloth, a Kabbalistic work of the Gaonic era, gives Gnostic and
Pythagorean ideas along with the orthodox stream of Talmudic teaching. The
result may be regarded as Hellenised Judaism, but modern research on the
Kabbalah tends to suggest that its original sources may be much older than has
hitherto been granted. It may in fact preserve a very ancient Rabbinical tradition
which was not intended for the masses. Much of its philosophical content is of a
high order and reveals a creative expansion of Jewish thought in which
reincarnation occupies a significant place.
The idea of a transmigrating soul is the central theme of the Bhagavad
Gita: "As the soul in this body passes through childhood, youth and old age, even
so does it pass to another body. As a person casts off worn-out garments and
puts on others that are new, so does the incarnate soul cast off worn out bodies
and enter into others that are new" (Gita, Chapter II Vs. 13 and 22).
Throughout the Upanishads the idea of "soul" (atman) in this sense
persists; it is the totality of selfhood and personal identity which transmigrates,
occupying successive bodies, becoming now a man, now a god or an animal, yet
in some way preserving its uniqueness as the personal ego throughout. Because
of certain difficulties attaching to this concept. however, it was somewhat
modified in Vedanta, the last phase of Upanishadic thought. In its place arose the
theory that the atman, as an unborn, unoriginated principle not in any way
affected by the activities, good or bad, of the phenomenal being was not identical
with the individual at all, but with the "Supreme soul", the Paramatman or
(neuter) Brahman.
Mahavira, the founder of Jainism (the Nigantha Nataputta of the Buddhist
texts), held unequivocally to the "individual soul" theory. Jainism teaches that
there are an infinite number of individual souls transmigrating in happy or
unhappy states according to their deeds. But whereas in Vedanta release, or
Moksha, comes with the realization that the "I " is really identical with the

52
Pramatman or Brahman (the idea summarised in the formula "Tat tvam asi"—
(Thou art that), in Jainism it is believed to come only with the complete cessation
of rebirth-producing activities. Since automatic and involuntary actions are
considered to bear resultants as well as those performed intentionally, the Jain
ideal is complete inactivity. As will be seen later, the Buddhist doctrine
concerning what it is that undergoes rebirth, and the nature of the moral law that
governs Kamma and Vipaka, or actions and results, differs from both these
theories and eliminates the teleological and ethical difficulties to which they give
rise.
The faith in survival after death which is basic to religious thought has its
natural correlative in reincarnation. If life can extend forward in time beyond the
grave it must surely be capable of having extended from the past into the
present. "From the womb to the tomb" has its complement in "from the tomb to
the womb", and to be born many times is no more miraculous than to have been
born once, as Voltaire pointed out.
The opposite view, that a being comes into existence from non-existence,
implies that it can also—and most probably will— come to an end with the
dissolution of the body. That which has a beginning in time can also cease in time
and pass away altogether. The doctrine of a single life on earth therefore holds
out no promise of a future life in any other state; rather does it make it
improbable. But if we accept that there is survival of some part, no matter what,
of the personality after death we are accepting also a very strong argument for its
existence before birth. Reincarnation is the only form that after-death survival
could logically take.
So it is not surprising that wherever religion has developed beyond its
simplest beginnings some idea of spiritual evolution through a series of lives is
found to be a part of its message. The doctrine of reincarnation together with that
of the moral law of cause and effect not only provides an explanation of life's
inequalities and the crushing burden of suffering under which countless millions
of people labour, thus disposing of the problem raised by the existence of pain
and evil in the world; it also gives a rational and practical hope where none
existed before. It is, moreover, the supreme justification of moral values in a
universe which otherwise appears to be devoid of ethical purpose. It is evident
that the Orphic and Gnostic cults recognised this fact when they introduced the
concept of moral values into their theology.

PART TWO
In all these systems of thought rebirth is seen, as it is in Buddhism, to be the
only means of spiritual purgation. It is necessary for the moral and spiritual
evolution of the individual that he should, through a variety of experiences, by his
consciously-directed efforts struggle upwards from the lower planes of sensuality
and passion to a state of purity in which his latent divinity becomes manifest. That
the Cathars, the Kabbalists and others mixed up this reasoned and enlightened
doctrine with the practice of what was later to become known as ritual magic, and
with theories of the immortal soul that were frankly animistic, is no argument
against the essential truth of their belief. Reason has to emerge slowly and
painfully from unreason. It was in like manner that the true principles of science
were unfolded at the time when scientific method was growing up alongside the
occult practices of the astrologers and alchemists. We may smile at the
alchemist's faith that he could find a means of transmuting base metals into gold,

53
but in this age of nuclear physics the idea does not seem quite so crazy as it
once did. The alteration of atomic patterns in the structure of metals is no longer
entirely outside the range of possibility. The alchemist's methods may have been
hopelessly wrong; his basic assumption was not. Similarly, the transformation of
the base metal of human nature into the pure gold of divinity is still a possibility. It
is only a question of finding the right key to unlock the doors of the mind.
To understand how the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth differs from all of those
that have been mentioned, and why the term "rebirth" is preferable to
"reincarnation" or "transmigration", it is necessary to glance at the main principles
of Buddhist teaching.
These are summed up in the Four Noble Truths:
1. The Truth concerning Suffering
2. The Truth concerning the cause of Suffering
3. The Truth concerning the cessation of Suffering
4. The Truth concerning the Way to the cessation of Suffering.
The first proposition is nothing more than a self-evident fact: that suffering is
inherent in all forms of existence. No one can go through life without experiencing
physical pain, sickness, disappointment and grief; none can escape old age and
death. Suffering is even more prevalent in the life of animals than in that of
human beings, and Buddhism takes into account all forms of sentient life. But
aside from these obvious aspects of the universal world-suffering there is the fact
that all conditioned existence is unstable, restless and lacking in fulfillment. It is a
process of becoming which never reaches the point of completion in being. This
in itself is suffering. In brief, life even at its best is unsatisfactory.
In the formula of the Three Characteristics of Being, all phenomenal
existence is defined as being impermanent, fraught with suffering, and devoid of
self-essence. These three characteristics derive from one another; because
existence is transitory it is painful; because it is transitary and painful it can have
no enduring essence of selfhood. There is no "soul" in the sense of a total
personality-entity, for what we call the self is merely a current of consciousness
linked to a particular physical body. This current of consciousness is made up of
thought-moments of infinitesimal duration succeeding one another in a stream of
inconceivable rapidity. The psychic life of the individual is just the duration of a
single moment of conscious ness, no more. We are living all the time what is in
reality a series of lives. The life-stream is the rapid succession of these
consciousness-moments, or momentary existences, resembling the running of a
reel of film through a projector. It is this which gives the illusion of a static entity of
being where nothing of the kind exists. The general characteristics of personality
are maintained, but only in the same way that a river maintains the same course
until some thing diverts it or it dries up. Thus there is no "immortal soul" that
transmigrates just as there is no river, but only the passage of particles of water
flowing in the same direction. Anatta, soullessness, is therefore bound up with
Anicca, impermanence, and Dukkha, suffering. The three Characteristics are the
three aspects of the same central fact.
Yet this state of soullessness is capable of producing rebirth. How can this
be so, if there is no transmigrating entity—no "soul" to reincarnate? The answer
is to be found in the Buddhist system of ethico-psychology, the Abhidhamma.
There it is shown that the act of willing is a creative force, which produces effects
in and through the conditions of the physical world. The thought-force of a
sentient being, generated by the will-to-live, the desire to enjoy sensory

54
experiences, produces after death another being who is the causal resultant of
the preceding one. Schopenhauer expressed the same idea when he said that in
rebirth, which he called "Palingenesis", it is the will, not an ego-entity, which re-
manifests in the new life. The being of the present is not the same as the being of
the past, not will the being of the future be the same as the being of the present.
Yet neither are they different beings, because they all belong to the same current
of cause and effect. Each is part of an individual current of causality in which
"identity" means only "belonging to the same cause- effect continuum". Since
mind and body are alike continually undergoing change —or, more precisely,
they are made up of constituent factors which are arising and passing away from
moment to moment— this is the only kind of self-identity which connects the
various stages of a single life through childhood, youth, maturity and old age.
Buddhism presents a dynamic view of existence in which the life-continuum is
merely the current of momentary existences, or successive units of
consciousness, linked together by causal relations, both mental and physical.
The process may be likened to a current of electricity, which consists of minute
particles called electrons. An electron is much lighter in weight than an atom of
the lightest chemical element, hydrogen, yet waves of these particles in the form
of an electric current can produce many different effects in heat, light and sound,
and can produce them on a tremendous scale. In the same way the units of
consciousness constitute an energy-potential which in the Buddhist view is the
basic energy of the universe, operating through and in conjunction with natural
laws.
So we see that mental force is a kind of energy, which Buddhism has linked
with moral principles by way of Kamma, actions, and Vipaka, moral resultants.
Buddhism maintains that the physical universe itself is sustained by this mental
energy derived from living beings, which is identical with their Kamma. The
energy itself is generated by craving. It operates upon the atomic constituents of
the physical world in such a way as to produce bodies equipped with organs of
sense by means of which the desire for sensory gratification, produced by past
experiences, may be satisfied again. In this world the mind-force which produces
rebirth has to operate through the genetic principles known to biology; it requires
human generative cells and all the favourable physical conditions of heat,
nutrition and so forth, to produce a foetus. When it does so, the foetus and the
infant that it later becomes bear both biologically- inherited characteristics and
the characteristics carried by the past Kamma of the individual whose thought-
force has caused the new birth. It is not the question of a "soul" entering the
embryo, but of the natural formation of the foetus being moulded by an energy
from without, supplied by the causative impulse from some being that lived
before. It is only necessary to conceive craving-force as an energy- potential
flowing out from the mind of a being at the moment of death, and carrying with it
the kammic characteristics of that being, just as the seed of a plant carries with it
the botanical characteristics of its type, and a mental picture is formed that
corresponds roughly to what actually takes place. Mind force is creative, and its
basis is desire. Without desire there can be no will to act; consequently the "will"
of Schopenhauer is identical with the Buddhist Tanha, or Craving.
The second of the Four Noble Truth's, therefore, is that the cause of suffering
in the round of rebirths is Craving. But one cause alone is not enough to give rise
to a specific result. In this case, craving is con joined with ignorance. The mind
generates craving for sensory experience because of ignorance of the fact that

55
these experiences are impermanent, unsatisfactory and so themselves a source
of suffering. So the circle of becoming, without discernable beginning and without
end, is joined. This wheel of existences does not exist in time; time exists in it.
Hence it does not require a point of beginning in what we know as time. It is the
perpetuum mobile of cause and effect, counter-cause and counter-effect, turning
round upon itself.
But although, like the revolution of the planets round the sun, it goes on
perpetually simply because there is nothing to stop it, it can be brought to an end
by the individual of himself, through an act of will. The act of will consists in
turning craving into non-craving. When this is accomplished and Nibbana, the
state of desirelessness, is reached, there is no more rebirth. The life- asserting
impulses are eliminated and there is no further arising of the bases of
phenomenal personality. This is the objective set forth in the third of the Noble
Truths; that concerning the cessation of suffering.
The Way to that cessation, which is the Noble Eightfold Path of self-discipline
and meditation leading to perfect purity and Insight-wisdom, is the subject of the
last of the Four Noble Truths, and gives epistemological completeness to the
whole.
The Buddhist system of thought is thus presented as a reasoned
progression from known facts to a conclusion which is ascertainable by the
individual and is also accessible to him as a personally-experienced reality. The
round of rebirths, or Samsara, does not come to an end automatically, neither is
there any point at which all beings revolving in it gain their release by reason of
its ceasing, for it has not temporal boundaries. But anyone can bring to an end
his own individual current of cause and effect, and the whole purpose of the
Buddha's Teaching was to demonstrate the theoretical and practical means by
which this can be achieved. The painful kind of "immortality" conferred by rebirth
in conditioned existences is not to be regarded as a blessing, but rather as a
curse which man pronounces upon himself. Nevertheless, by understanding it we
are able to gain assurance that there is in truth a moral principle governing the
universe; and by learning to use its laws in the right way we become able to
control and guide our individual destinies by a higher spiritual purpose and
towards a more certain goal.

PART THREE
Of late years interest in the doctrine of rebirth has been greatly stimulated by
the publicity given to several cases of people who have remembered previous
lives. For a long time past it has been known that under deep hypnosis events in
very early infancy, outside the normal range of memory, could be recovered, and
this technique has been increasingly employed for the treatment of personality
disorders. It cannot be used with success on all patients because of the
involuntary resistance some subjects show to hypnotic suggestion, which inhibits
the cooperation necessary to obtain deep trance. But where it can be applied it
has definite advantages over the usual methods of deep psychoanalysis, one of
them being the speed with which results are obtained.
The technique is to induce a state of hypnosis and then carry the subject
back in time to a particular point in childhood or infancy at which it is suspected
that some event of importance in the psychic life may have occurred. In this state,
known as hypermnesia, the subject becomes in effect once more the child he

56
was, and re-lives experiences that have long been buried in the unconscious.
Memories of earliest infancy, and in some cases pre-natal memories, have been
brought to the surface in this way.
Some practitioners have carried experiments in regression even further, and
have found that they were uncovering memories that did not belong to the current
life of the subject at all, but to some previous existence. In cases where nothing
could be proved, the rebirth explanation has been contested, and various
theories such as telepathy, fantasies of the unconscious, and even clairvoyance,
have been put forward to account for the phenomena. But apart from the fact that
many of the alternatives offered call for the acceptance of psychic faculties which,
if what is claimed for them is true, themselves bring rebirth nearer to being a
comprehensible reality, none of them alone covers all the phenomena which
have been brought under observation. If, for example, xenoglossy, the ability
shown by some subjects under hypnosis to speak languages unknown to them in
their normal state, is to be explained by telepathy we are brought face to face
with a supernormal faculty of the mind which itself contributes to our
understanding of the manner in which mental energy may operate processes of
rebirth. But although telepathy has now been acknowledged as one of the
unexplained phenomena of parapsychology, along with clairvoyance,
telekinesis and psychometry, it cannot legitimately be expanded to include all
the phenomena these experiments have disclosed. To account for all of them on
these lines it would be necessary to combine every one of the known extra-
sensory faculties into one concept, that of a freely-wandering, disembodied
intelligence, independent of spatial and temporal limitations, if we are to apply
here the scientific law of parsimony, the more likely alternative is the obvious one
that they are simply what they purport to be— memories of previous lives.
As to the theory that the memories are products of the unconscious mind, it
cannot survive the proof to the contrary which comes from the revelation of facts
that could not have been known to the subject in his present life. These are
objective and circumstantial and they exist in abundance, as any reading of the
literature on the subject will confirm.
The best-known example of this kind is the case of Bridey Murphy in
America, which raised a hurricane of controversy when it broke into the news a
few years ago. It was followed some time later by a similar case in England in
which the subject Mrs. Naomi Henry, remembered under hypnosis two previous
existences. The experiments were carried out under test conditions by Mr. Henry
Blythe, a professional consultant hypnotist. In the presence of several witnesses
tape recordings were made of the sessions, which were held under the
supervision of a medical practitioner, Dr. William C. Minifie, who testified that the
hypnotic trance was genuine. It has been said of these recordings that they
provide "what must surely be the most thought-provoking, absorbing and
controversial angle ever offered" on the subject.
What happened was this. Mrs. Naomi Henry, a thirty-two-years-old Exeter
house wife, the mother of four children was cured of smoking habit by hypnotic
treatment given by Mr. Henry Blythe, of Torquay, Devon. He found her to be "an
exceptionally receptive hypnotic subject", so much that without informing her of
the purpose of his experiment he began a series of sessions in which he
succeeded in taking her back beyond her present life.
Mrs. Henry remembered two previous existences. In the first she gave her
name as Mary Cohan, a girl of 17 living in Cork in the year 1790. Among other

57
circumstances she told how she was married against her wishes to a man named
Charles Gaul, by whom she had two children, Pat and Will. Her husband ill-
treated her, and finally caused her death by a beating which broke her leg. Whilst
describing these events in the trance she was evidently re-living the intense
emotional experiences of the past with the vividness of a present reality rather
than of a mere memory. Intervening time had been obliterated and she was once
more the illiterate Irish girl she had been over a century and a half before. Her
marriage, she said, took place in St. John's Church, in a hamlet named 'Grenner'.
Several of the facts at she related were afterwards verified on the spot, but no
village of the name of 'Grenner' could be traced. Eventually, however, some
records dating back to the 17th century were found in the possession of a parish
priest, and in them mention was made of a Church of St. John in a village named
Greenhalgh. The name is pronounced locally just as Mary Cohan gave it—
"Grenner".
Next she remembered a life in which she was Clarice Hellier, a nurse in
charge of twenty-four children at Downham in 1902. After relating what she
remembered of this life she went on to describe her last illness, her death and her
funeral, which it seems she had been able to witness. She was even able to give
the number of the grave, 207, in which she had been buried.
When Mrs. Henry emerged from her trance she had no recollection of what had
taken place and it was only when she heard the recording that she learned
the purpose of the experiments. The authenticity of this case has been
established beyond reasonable doubt.
One of the most remarkable men of recent times, Edgar Cayce, obtained
evidence of an even more striking nature. Born in Christian Country, Kentucky, in
1877, he suffered as a young man from psycho-somatic constriction of the throat
which deprived him of his voice. Orthodox medical treatments having failed, he
was treated by hypnotic suggestion, which was not a recognised form of therapy
in those days. In deep trance his voice returned to normal and he diagnosed his
own condition. Not only did he describe the physiological symptoms in terms of
which he knew nothing in his waking state, but he also prescribed treatment.
His self-cure was so remarkable that he was persuaded, rather against his
will, to try prescribing for others whose illness would not respond to medical
treatment. This he did with great success, using technical terms and prescribing
remedies, which, as a man of only moderate education, he was quite unfamiliar
with in his normal state. Some times the medicines he prescribed were
conventional remedies in unusual combinations; sometimes they were
substances not found in the standard pharmacopoeia. Cayce himself was
puzzled and somewhat dismayed by his abnormal faculty, but since it was
proving of benefit to an increasing number of sufferers he continued to use it,
only refusing to take any payment for the help he rendered. He soon found that a
hypnotist was unnecessary; his trances were really self-induced, and he worked
thereafter solely through auto-hypnosis.
One day while Cayce was giving a consultation a friend who was present
asked him whether reincarnation was true. Still in the trance, Cayce immediately
replied that it was. In answer to further question he said that many of the patients
who came to him for treatment were suffering from afflictions caused by bad
Kamma in previous lives. It was because of this that they resisted ordinary
treatment. Asked whether he was able to see the past incarnations of his patients
and describe them, he said that he could.

58
 When he was told what he had said in the trance, Cayce was more
disturbed than before. The thing was getting decidedly out of hand. He had never
heard the word "Kamma," and his only idea of reincarnation was that it was a
belief associated with some "heathen" religions. His first reaction was to give the
whole thing up, as being some thing supernatural and possibly inimical to his
Christian faith.
It was with great difficulty that he was persuaded to continue. However, he
consented to be questioned further under hypnosis, and after having given some
readings and more successful treatments he became convinced that there was
nothing irreligious or harmful in the strange ideas that were being revealed. From
that time onwards he supplemented all his diagnoses by readings of past Kamma
of his patients. It was then found that he was able to give valuable moral and
spiritual guidance to counteract bad Kammic tendencies, and his treatments
became even more effective. He was now treating the minds as well as the
bodies of the patients who sought his help.
When Cayce discovered that he was able to treat people living at great
distances, whom he had never seen, the scope of his work broadened until it
ultimately extended all over the United States and beyond. Before he died in
1945 Cayce, with the help of friends and supporters, had established an
institution, the Cayce Foundation, at Virginia Beach, Virgina. It is now operating
as a research institute under the direction of his associates. Cayce left a vast
number of case-histories and other records accumulated over the years, and
these are still being examined and correlated by the Foundation. For further
information on Edgar Cayce, his work and the light it throws on rebirth the reader
is refereed to Many Mansions by Gina Cerminara, "Edgar Cayce, Mystery Man of
Miracles" by Joseph Millard, and numerous publications issued by the Cayce
Foundation.
There is a great deal in the evidence to suggest that Cayce in his hypnotised
state had access to lost medical knowledge, as well as the power to see the
previous lives of others. In the Buddhist texts of a very early date there are
references to advanced medical knowledge and techniques of surgery in some
ways comparable to our own. Jivaka, a renowned physician who was a
contemporary of the Buddha is recorded as having performed a brain operation
for the removal of a living organism of some kind. But there are still older records.
The Edwan Smith Papyrus (c.3500 B.C.) describes the treatment of cerebral
injuries, and the writing attributed to Hippocrates include directions for opening
the skull. The great Egyptian physician, Imhotep, who lived about three thousand
years before the Christian era and was a many-sided genius comparable to
Leonardo da Vinci, had such skill in medicine that he become a legend. He was
deified under the Ptolemies and identified with Asklepois, the god of healing, by
the Greeks; but there is no doubt whatever that he was an actual historical
personage. Without venturing beyond what is naturally suggested by Edger
Cayce's statements concerning rebirth, and their linking up with the often unusual
but brilliantly successful treatments he prescribed, it is possible to see that there
might be a direct connection between the knowledge possessed by these ancient
physicians and the abnormal knowledge released from Cayce's unconscious
mind tinder hypnosis.
But even Cayce was not altogether unique. Egerton C. Baptist, in "Nibbana
or the Kingdom?" quotes the following from "Life and Destiny" by Leon Denis:
"In 1880 at Vera Cruz, Mexico, a seven- year-old child possessed the power

59
to heal. Several people were healed by vegetable remedies prescribed by the
child. When asked how he knew the things, he said that he was formerly a great
doctor, and his name was Jules Alpherese. This surprising faculty developed in
him at the age of four years."
In Buddhism, the faculty of remembering previous lives and of discerning the
previous lives of others is one that is developed in the course of meditation on
selected subjects. But it is acquired only when a certain precisely-defined stage
of Jhana, or mental absorption, has been reached. The subject is dealt within the
Canonical Texts of Buddhism, and at considerable length in the Visuddhi-Magga
of Buddhaghosa Thera**. Those who have practised meditation to this point in
previous lives without having attained complete liberation from rebirth may be
reborn with the faculty in a latent form. In the case of others, hypnosis seems to
provide a short-cut technique to releasing some at least of the dormant memories
of former lives, just as it provides a short cut to result ordinarily reached by deep
psychoanalysis. There is much to be done in the way of more extensive and
systematic investigation before definite conclusions can be tabulated. The chief
difficulty is to obtain suitable subjects or the tests.

* The WHEEL, Publications Nos. 12-13, Buddhist Publication Society,

Kandy, Ceylon.
** Please see Visuddhi-Magga by Bhikkhu Nanamoli.
Note—For chapters IV, V and VI please see The WHEEL Publications Nos.
12—13

Three Fundamental Concepts:

What is Sila?
By U Nu
President, Burma Pitaka Association, 1985

In His exhortation to the first group of sixty monks, who

were ready to set out on the Buddha's mission to disseminate
the dhamma, the Buddha said thus: "Monks! Teach the
dhamma, the beginning, the middle, the end of which are
replete with goodness".
What did the Buddha mean by the beginning, the middle,
the end, which are replete with goodness?
The beginning is sila.
The middle is samadhi.
The end is panna
Sila, samadhi, panna form the main bases of the
Buddha's discourses. Therefore, this foreword will deal with
sila, samadhi, panna.
What is sila ?
Sila is good practice. A good practice is a practice that
keeps one well and benefits one.
How does it keep one well?
Sila keeps one from killing, stealing, committing adultery,
taking intoxicants. In this way, it keeps one from doing evil
deeds.
Sila keeps one from telling lies, setting one against the

60
other, using rough and abusive words, indulging in unbeneficial
talk. In this way, sila keeps one from saying evil words.
How does it benefit one?
There are four types of Kusala (good) Kamma. They are
as follows:
1. Kusala Kamma leading to rebirth in human and deva
bhumis.
2. Kusala Kamma leading to rebirth in rupa brahma
(Brahmas with mind and body) bhumis.
3. Kusala Kamma leading to rebirth in arupa brahma
(Brahmas with mind only) bhumis.
4. Kusala Kamma leading to the achievement of
maggas, that can put an end to endless rebirths, with their
concomitants, such as old age, disease, death, separation etc.
Anyone, who wishes to acquire any of these four types
of Kusala Kammas, must, first of all, have sila.
A question can be raised at this stage. Is it not possible
for one to make dana, which is also a Kusala Kamma, without
taking sila?
Of course, dana can be made without taking sila.
However, if sila is taken before dana, the quality of dana
becomes very much improved, since sila can keep one from
evil deeds and evil words. Dana without sila will be an ordinary
dana. Dana with sila will become a dana, which has the
quality of dakkhinavisuddhi (purity of charity). In the matter of
receiving benefits, the latter will earn more.
That is the reason why the monks ask the donors to take
sila, before the latter offer their gifts to the former.
Therefore, if someone asks "Why is sila so called?", one
can answer thus, without fear of contradiction. Sila is so called
because it keeps one from bodily and verbal evils. It is also so
called because it helps one in his efforts to gain all or any of
the four Kusala Kammas.
Two types of sila
There are two types of sila. One is for the monks and
the other is for laymen.
Sila for monks
A monk, who keeps the following four kinds of sila, is
called a monk with sila.
1. Patimokkha samvara sila,
2. Ajiva parisuddhi sila,
3. Indriya samvara sila,
4. Paccaya sannissita sila.

1. Patimokkha samvara sila

Self control to refrain from breaking any of thevinaya
rules (rules for the monks), prescribed by the Buddha, is called
Patimokkha samvara sila.
2. Ajiva parisuddhi sila
Self control to refrain from adopting the wrong mode of

61
gaining a living is called ajiva parisuddhi sila.
3. Indriya samvara sila
Self control to restrain or subjugate the senses arising in
the sense-organs, namely, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body,
mind is called indriya samvara sila.
4.Paccaya sannissita sila
Self control to have appropriate contemplations,
whenever any of the four necessaries of the monk's daily life is
used or taken, is called paccaya sannissita sila. Clothing, alms-
food, dwelling place, medicine are four necessaries. For
example, when the monk puts on his robes, he must remember
that he puts it on, not to adorn himself and that he does so to
protect himself against heat and cold, and also to cover up his
private parts.
Sila for laymen
A layman, who keeps panca sila or Ajivatthamaka sila, is
said to be a person with sila.
Five vows for panca si/a
1. I vow to refrain from killing.
2. I vow to refrain from stealing.
3. I vow to refrain from committing adultery.
4. I vow to refrain from telling lies.
5. I vow to refrain from taking intoxicants.

Eight vows for ajivatthamaka sila

1. I vow to refrain from killing.
2. I vow to refrain from stealing.
3. 1 vow to refrain from using improper means to satisfy my
sensual desires. (Committing adultery and taking intoxicants
are improper means.)
4. 1 vow to refrain from telling lies.
5. I vow to refrain from setting one other.
6. I vow to refrain from using rough words.
7. I vow to refrain from indulging in talks.
8. I vow to refrain from earning livelihood.

Comments
Panca sila means sila, which requires one to take five
vows.
Ajivatthamaka sila means sila, the eighth vow of which
requires one to refrain from earning a wrongful livelihood.
These two silas are minimum silas for a Buddhist.
Therefore they are called nicca silas. Nicca means always. A
Buddhist must keep either of the two silas always.
Atthanga uposatha sila
When other silas are mentioned, they are simply
mentioned as Panca sila, Ajivatthamaka sila, Navanga (nine
vows) sila, Dasa (ten vows) sila. When, however, Atthanga sila
is mentioned, it is mentioned as Atthanga Uposatha Sila. Why?
It has three different meanings.

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 They are as follows:
1. Having eight vows,
2. Sila that should be kept,
3. The days, on which atthanga sila should be kept.
Therefore Atthanga Uposatha Sila means eight vows of
sila, which should be kept on the days which are fixed for
keeping that sila.
Three ways
According toCatumaharaja Sutta, Devaduta Vagga, Tika
Nipata, Anguttara Nikaya, there are three ways of fixing days
for keeping Atthanaga Uposatha Sila. They are as follows:
1. Pakati. It means the ordinary way for fixing uposatha days.
2. Patijagara. It means the way for awakening one frequently
from his unbeneficial pursuits, by keeping sila on the days
preceding and following the uposatha day.
3. Patihariya. It means the extraordinary way for fixing the
uposatha days.
For lack of space, only the first way, namely, Pakati, will
be explained.
Pakati way
In fixing the days, the lunar month is used. A lunar month
has two parts, namely, waxing (of the moon) part and the
waning (of the moon) part. According to the pakati way, three
days in each part, namely, the eighth, the fourteenth, or the
fifteenth, are fixed for keeping atthanaga uposatha sila.
Therefore there are six pakati uposatha days in a month for
keeping atthanaga sila. The Commentary includes also the fifth
day of each part. Therefore according to it, there are eight
pakati uposatha days.
In Burma, 8th waxing, full moon, 8th waning, full waning
days are generally fixed for keeping uposatha sila.
Three aims
Atthanaga uposatha sila has three aims. They are as
follows:
1. To give one extraordinary benefits in the form of good as
well as high rebirths.
2. To awaken one from his unbeneficial pursuits.
3. To reduce one's physical and mental tensions.
Advantages of sila
In Digha Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya and Vinaya, the
Buddha taught that there are five advantages of sila. They are
as follows:
1. One with sila never loses sight of the good consequences of
keeping sila, and the evil consequences of violating it. Because
of this vigilance, his wealth and influence will increase.
2. The good reputation of one with sila spreads far and wide.
3. One with sila can meet anybody, can attend any
congregation, with clear conscience and dauntlessness.
4. On the threshold of death, the memory of akusala kammas
makes one without sila very wretched. However, the memory

63
 of kusala kammas makes one with sila free from
wretchedness. Just as the prospects of receiving a golden cup,
after one throws away his old rotten earthenware, make him
feel elated, the prospects of receiving a new good rebirth, after
the old, rotten body is given up, make one with sila feel elated.
5. On his death, one with sila gets a good rebirth, either as a
human being or as a deva.
Disadvantages of lack of sila
1. Good persons and good devas feel extremely disgusted with
one, who has no sila, or who has broken his sila.
2. His friends will break off their dealings with him.
3. He feels miserable on account of his disrepute as a man
without sila.
4. He feels unhappy when persons with sila are praised.
5. Because of absence of sila, he looks as dismal as a piece of
clothing made of coarse hemp.
6. Some persons, who follow his example, will be in trouble for
a long time. They will feel miserable as if they are wearing the
clothing made of coarse hemp.
7. Kusala Kamma from charity to persons without sila is very
meagre. It is like the cost of the clothing made of coarse hemp.
8. Just as a huge pit, which is being filled with night-soil for a
great number of years, will be found very difficult to clean, a
person without sila will be found very difficult to rehabilitate.
9. He will be as useless as a piece of bamboo which is used in
handling the corpse during cremation.
10. Because of his lack of sila, the thought that people around
him will be plotting against him will haunt him. This thought will
keep him in a perpetual state of panic.
11. He will be as useless as a dead person.
12. He cannot hope to get jhanas, maggas and phalas.
13. Just as the young son of a beggar will not aspire to become
a king, a person without sila will not have any desire to practise
samatha and vipassana bhavanas , in order to acquire jhanas,
maggas and phalas.

Three Fundamental Concepts:

What is Samadhi?
By U Nu
President, Burma Pitaka Association, 1985

It is a well-known fact that mind does not ordinarily stay fixed on one
object. It is flitting about in all directions. If, however, one can culture one's own
mind in a proper way, it stays fixed, without flitting about even once, on an object,
from a few hours to a few days. This kind of mental concentration on an object is
called samadhi.
Two kinds of samadhi
There are two kinds of samadhi. They are—
1. Upacara samadhi.

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2. Appana samadhi.
Appana samadhi is another name for Jhana. Upacara samadhi is samadhi
that precedes appana samadhi.
Upacara samadhi is defined as samadhi which is close to appana samadhi.
It helps appana samadhi to take place.
Appana samadhi is defined as samadhi which fixes cittas (thought-
moments) on the mental object. As soon as the appana samadhi takes place, it
appears as if one's cittas are continuously running into the mental object.
What is samadhi good for?
There are five nivaranas (obstacles in the path of one's mental progress).
They are as follows:
1. Kamacchanda. Hankering after five kamagunas, namely, good sight,
good sound, good smell, good taste, good touch.
2. Byapada. Harbouring evil desires to ill-treat or destroy others or to bring
others into trouble.
3. Thina-middha. Feeling of indolence, particularly for doing good and
meritorious deeds.
4. Uddhacca-kukkucca. It has two parts. The first part is flitting about of
cittas in all directions. The second part is worrying over past commissions and
omissions.
Is the Buddha really omniscient? Are his teachings good enough for putting
an end to all mental deferments, namely, greed, anger, ignorance of the four
Ariya Truths. Can there be persons who have really got one or some all or of the
four maggas?
Through introspection one can discern that one's mind is continually filled
with one or the other nivaranas. These are the mental defilements—
(a) that give one untold miseries while one is alive;
(b) that will cause one's rebirth to take place in one of the four Apaya
bhumis, on one's death;
(c) that prevent a person from perceiving the true nature of mind and
matter.
Samadhi or extraordinary mental concentration can keep these nivaranas
out. That is the reason why one has to culture one's mind to get samadhi. The
Buddha clearly illustrated, in Samannaphala Sutta, how one would feel when
one was free from these nivaranas. The discourse was delivered to King
Ajatasattus.
Extracts from the Samannaphala Sutta
"King! Let us first of all take the example of a man who borrows a sum of
money for his business. After some time he makes a profit, so he can not only
return the money he has borrowed, but also he can give some to his family.
Therefore the man is very happy.
"King! I will give you a second example. A man is very seriously ill. He has
lost his appetite and his strength. After some time, he recovers. He regains his
appetite as well as his strength. Therefore that man is very happy.
"King! I will give you a third example. A man is imprisoned. After some
time, he is released. No harm has been done to him and to his possessions.
Therefore this man is very happy.
"King! This is the fourth example. There is a slave. He is not free. He is
under the control of his masters. After some time he is set free. He can go
wherever he likes. This man who has been freed is very happy.

65
 "King! This is the fifth example. A man is going on a very perilous journey.
He carries with him silver, gold and precious stones. After some time he reaches
his destination without harm. Therefore the man is very happy.
"King! Just as the debtor sees the debt and its attendant evil; just as the
sick man sees his illness; just as the prisoner sees the place of confinement; just
as the slave sees his state of bondage; and just as the traveller sees the perilous
journey, the monk clearly sees these nivaranas very clearly when he has them.
"King! Just as the borrower sees the freedom from indebtedness and its
attendant advantages when he is free of debt; just as the patient sees the
absence of sickness when he regains his health; just as the prisoner sees the
absence of confinement when he is released; just as the slave sees his freedom
when he is set free; and just as the traveller sees the peaceful place when he
reaches his destination, the monk also clearly sees the absence of these
nivaranas when he has entirely kept them out by means of Samadhi.
"King! The monk, who clearly sees the complete absence of Nivaranas in
him, will have Pamojja (joy). He, who has joy, will have Piti (flood of joy). He, who
has flood of joy, will have Passaddhi (calmness). He, who has calmness, will
have Sukha (happiness). He, who has happiness, will have Samadhi (mental
concentration)."

What should one do to get samadhi?

There are forty methods for acquiring samadhi. They are known in
Buddhism as "Forty Samatha Bhavanas". Samatha means mental concentration.
The term Samatha is used here, in order to distinguish the forty bhavanas from
vipassana bhavana.
The following are forty samatha bhavanas:
1. 10 kasina bhavanas.
2. 10 asubha bhavanas.
3. 10 anussati bhavanas.
4. 4 brahmavihara bhavanas.
5. 4 aruppa bhavanas.
6. 1 sanna bhavana.
7. 1 vavatthana bhavana.
Total 40
Bhavanas and Samadhi
1. Out of the forty bhavanas, only thirty bhavanas, namely, ten Kasina
bhavanas, ten Asubha bhavanas, two Anussati (Kayagata Sati and
Anapanassati) bhavanas, four Brahmavihara (Metta, Karuna, Mudita, Upekkha)
bhavanas, four Aruppa bhavanas, will enable the yogi to get Appana Samadhi
(Jhana).
2. Out of the above thirty bhavanas, only ten Kasina bhavanas and
Anapanassati bhavanas will enable the yogi to go up to the fourth Rupa Jhana.
3. The ten Asubha bhavanas and Kayagata Sati bhavana will enable him to
acquire only the first Rupa Jhana. The yogi cannot go higher than the first Rupa
Jhana by means of these eleven bhavanas, because the objects of these eleven
bhavanas are highly abominable.
4. Out of the four Brahma-vihara bhavanas, Metta, Karuna, Mudita
bhavanas will enable the yogi to go up as high as the third Rupa Jhana. He
cannot go up to the fourth Jhana by means of these three bhavanas. This is the
reason: Metta, Karuna, Mudita Jhanas are associated with Sukha Vedana. The

66
fourth Jhana is associated with Upekkha Vedana. If, therefore, the yogi wants to
go up to the fourth Jhana, he must change his object, after he has acquired the
third Jhana, by means of one of these three Brahmavihara bhavanas. For
example, the yogi is practising Metta bhavana. The object on which he
concentrates is the mental image of the person, whom he loves and respects. Up
to the time of achieving the third Jhana, the yogi uses the same object. If,
however, he wants to achieve the fourth Jhana, he must give up his original
object of the mental image of the person, whom he loves and respects. He must
concentrate on the mental image of a person, to whom he is indifferent. And
while he has the third Jhana, the Jhanangas (parts of the Jhana) are Sukha
Ekaggata. However, from the very moment when the yogi achieves the fourth
Jhana, the Jhanangas will be Upekkha, Ekaggata.
5. Four Arupa bhavanas will enable the yogi to go as high as the fourth
Aruppa Jhana.
6. The remaining ten bhavanas, namely, Buddhanussati, Dhammanussati,
Sanghanussati, Silanussati, Caganussati, Devatanussati, Upasamanussati,
Marananussati, Patikkula-sanna, Dhatu Vavatthana, will enable the yogi to get
only Upacara Samadhi. The yogi cannot get Appana Samadhi (Jhana) by means
of these ten bhavanas. This is the reason. The nature of the objects of these ten
bhavanas is not similar to that of the objects of other thirty bhavanas. It is very
deep.
Rupa and arupa jhanas
There are two types of jhanas, namely, rupa jhanas and arupa jhanas.
Rupa jhanas are jhanas that take place as a result of concentrating one's mind on
a corporeal object. And arupa jhanas are jhanas that take place as a result of
concentrating one's mind on an incorporeal object. There are four rupa jhanas
and four arupa jhanas.
Four rupa jhanas
1. First rupa jhana,
2. Second rupa jhana,
3. Third rupa jhana.
4. Fourth rupa jhana.
Four arupa jhanas
1. Akasanancayatana jhana,
2. Vinnanancayatana jhana,
3. Akincannayatana jhana.
4. Nevasannanasannayatana jhana.
Four rupa and four arupa jhanas are called attha samapatti (eight
attainments). One, who has these eight attainments at his beck and call, can
have abhinnas (supernormal powers). One, who has either anagami magga or
arahatta magga and these eight attainments at his beck and call, can enter into
nirodha samapatti (attainment of suspension of Consciousness).
Due to lack of space I regret my inability to explain, (1) how each of the 40
bhavanas are practised, (2) how jhanangas are formed, (3) how some jhanangas
are obliterated. However, one important bhavana, from the 40 samatha
bhavanas, will be taken and explained, in order to give the readers a very rough
idea of how the samatha bhavanas are practised. Let us take pathavi kasina.
Pathavi kasina
Pathavi means earth. Kasina means a sight object which must be observed
in its entirety.

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 How is it made?
In the centre of a piece of cloth, paint a disc with earth. The diameter of the
disc should be about nine inches. Put this cloth on a wooden frame. This is
pathavi kasina. Then fix it on a suitable post. A portable kasina can also be
made. It can be kept on a suitable table or hung at a suitable place on the wall of
a room.
The place where one is going to practise the bhavana must be clean. The
person who practises is called a yogi. The yogi must be clean also. He should
take a bath and put on clean clothes before the practice.
The chair on which the yogi sits should be kept about 3 feet 9 inches away
from the pathavi kasina. The yogi can adjust the distance to his convenience. If
the chair is too close, the flaws on the surface of the earthen disc may interfere
with his concentration. If it is far away, the visibility of the Kasina may be poor.
The chair must be neither too high nor too low. If too high or too low, the
bending or raising of the head may easily cause a strain on the neck of the yogi.
The yogi may squat on a dais, if he prefers.
Before he begins, it will be helpful if he contemplates, for a little while, on
the evils of attachment to sensual pleasures. For a few moments, he should
remember the fact that samadhi, which he is going to acquire, will eventually lead
him to the liberation from these attachments and endless suffering. He should
also think of the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.
This will give him feelings of elation. He should also make himself aware of
the fact that the meditation which he is going to practise is not an ordinary one
but that it is a mediation practised by all Buddhas, Pacceka-Buddhas and Arahats
for liberating themselves from endless suffering.
How to concentrate
While gazing at the Kasina, if the yogi opens his eyes too wide, his eyes
will be strained. Because of the strain, the yogi will find it hard to get a mental
picture of the earthen disc. If his eyes are too narrow, he may not see the disc
properly. Therefore, he may fail to get a mental picture of the disc.
The best way to look at the disc in the Kasina is to look as one looks at
one's face in the mirror. Just look at the earthen disc naturally, without any effort.
While the yogi is looking at the disc, he must not concentrate on the colour,
nor on the hard nature of the earthen disc. He must concentrate on the earth, of
which the disc is made, saying mentally "Pathavi, pathavi". If the yogi prefers, he
may say "Earth, earth" or the word "earth" in his own language.
While concentrating on the disc, the yogi will find that, very frequently, his
mind is flitting about in all directions. The fact that the yogi is aware of his mental
restlessness is a step forward, because most of the time in one's life, one does
not know that mind is flitting about.
The first stage
The first stage of mental concentration is called upacara samadhi. When
that stage is reached, nivaranas (obstacles in one's mental progress) become
entirely absent.
Jhana stages
After the upacara stage, Jhana stages take place, roughly in this way.
When one is not in a jhana state, he has either bhavanhga cittas or vithi
cittas. Bhavanga citta is subconscious mind. Vithi citta is conscious mind.
When he is asleep or when he is unconscious, he has bhavanga cittas.
Even when he is awake, he has bhavanga cittas, as soon as the seventeen

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thought-moments, which a thought process (i.e., a set of vithi) is composed of,
come to an end. The bhavanga cittas last till the next set of vithi cittas take place.
They are a vital continuum in the absence of vithi cittas.
Limitless Jhana cittas
However, it is different when one is in a jhana state. His jhana cittas are not
like ordinary vithi cittas which are limited to seventeen thought-moments at a
time. Sometimes, under extraordinary circumstances, the vithi cittas are less than
seventeen in a set. Jhana cittas are limitless. If, for example, he is in a jhana
state for one hour; his jhana cittas take place, one after another, for lone hour.
Bhavanga cittas have no chance to take place during that period.
Jhanangas
Moreover, one point, which distinguishes jhana cittas from ordinary vithi
cittas, should also be mentioned.
There are what is known as cetasikas (mental concomitants). They are 52
in number. Whenever a citta (mind) takes place, appropriate cetasikas, out of
these 52, also take, place simultaneously. When they take place with ordinary
vithi cittas, these cetasikas are ordinary cetasikas. They have no power to
prevent nivaranas from taking place in the mind. When, however, they take place
in jhana cittas, these cetasikas are transformed. They are no longer ordinary
cetasikas. They are known as jhanangas. Jhanangas mean parts of a jhana.
These jhanangas are six in number. They are as follows:
1. Vitakka
2. Vicara
3. Piti
4. Sukha (vedana)
5. Upekkha (vedana)
6. Ekaggata

1. Vitakka is a jhananga which paves the way for the bhavana object to
appear in the mind.
2. Vicara is a jhananga that examines the bhavana object. Vitakka is
forceful. Vicara is delicate.
3. Piti is a jhananga that gives emotion of joy.
4. Sukha is happiness.
Sukha is also so called because it eliminates bodily as well as mental pain.
The distinguishing mark of sukha is pleasantness. Its function is to strengthen the
four other jhanangas that are associated with it. Its phenomenon is its capability
to maintain the concentration of the other four jhanangas. Its proximate cause is
passaddhi. Passaddhi means tranquillity.
5. Upekkha means equanimity. It is also defined as the zero point between
love and hatred.
6. Ekaggata means one-pointedness of mind, which is concentration.
Jhanas and jhanangas
The following tables will show how these jhanangas are associated with
jhanas.
Rupa jhanas and jhanangas
1 First rupa jhana Vitakka, vicara, piti, sukha, Ekaggata
2 Second rupa jhana Piti, sukha, ekaggata
3 Third rupa jhana Sukha, ekaggata

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 4 Fourth rupa jhana Upekkha, ekaggata
Comments
Upacara samadhi is close to nivaranas. Therefore, it is very much
unstable, even though it can prevent them from entering the mind. The first jhana
is next to upacara samadhi. Since there is upacara samadhi between it and
nivaranas, the first jhana is comparatively safer than upacara samadhi, from the
inroads of nivaranas.
The second jhana removes vitakka and vicara of the first jhana. As a result
of the removal, it is two jhanangas away from the nivaranas. Therefore it is more
stable than the first jhana.
The third jhana removes piti of the second jhana. As a result of the
removal, it is three jhanangas away from the nivaranas. Therefore it is far more
stable than the second jhana.
The fourth jhana replaces sukha with upekkha. As a result of the
replacement, it is four jhanangas away from nivaranas. Therefore it reaches the
zenith of stability, among the rupa jhanas.
Arupa Jhanas and jhanangas
1 A kasanancayatana jhana upekkha, ekaggata
2 Vinnanancayatana jhana upekkha, ekaggata
3 Akincannayatana jhana upekkha, ekaggat
4 Nevasannanasannayatana jhana upekkha, ekaggata
Comments
Upekkha of the first arupa jhana is more stable than that of the fourth rupa
jhana. Upekkha of the second arupa jhana is more stable than that of the first
arupa jhana. In this way, the third is more stable than the second. And, finally, the
fourth is more stable than the third. Therefore the fourth reaches the zenith of
stability, among the rupa as well as the arupa jhanas.
Advantages of jhanas
Visuddhimagga mentions five advantages of Jhanas. They are as follows:
1. One who has a jhana or jhanas will have bodily and mental tranquillity.
Visuddhimagga gives the following quotation from the teachings of the Buddha:
"Cunda! I do not teach that jhanas can uproot anusayas, I teach that jhana
can give one bodily and mental tranquillity."
2. One who has either upacara samadhi or appana samadhi jhana, will
speedily perceive the anicca, dukkha, anatta nature of his mind and body, if he
practises vipassana bhavana. Visuddhimagga gives the following quotation from
the Buddha's teachings;
"Monks! Cultivate samadhi. Monks! One who can concentrate on an object
well will perceive the true nature of mind and matter."
3. One who has a complete mastery over the eight jhanas (four rupa and
four arupa jhanas) can achieve abhinnas (supernormal psychic powers), provided
that he has appropriate adhikara. (Adhikara means help. The yogi must have, in
many of his previous existences, successfully practised to achieve abhinnas.
These practices will positively help him, in his present existence, to achieve
abhinnas.) Visuddhimagga gives the following quotation from the teachings of the
Buddha: "After having achieved the necessary samadhi, if the yogi resolves that
he wants to acquire a particular abhinna, he will get it. provided that he has
adhikara."

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 4. If a yogi acquires jhana and keeps it with him, he will be reborn as a
brahma on his death. Upacara samadhi can cause him to be reborn as a human
or a deva.
5. An anagami or an arahat, who has complete mastery over the eight
jhanas, can achieve nirodha samapatti.

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