The Foundation of Samadhi - Ajahn Gunhah

[00:00:00] - [Speaker 0]
Welcome to the forest path podcast, a podcast sharing the teachings of awakened meditation masters of the modern era. This episode is a talk given by Achanganha Sukakamu, and it's titled the foundation of Samadhi. It was published as part of Jaidi Jai Sabai delivery '42. You can find links to the original text in the description below. May you all benefit from hearing this gift of Dhamma by a meditation master of the Thai forest tradition.

[00:00:41] - [Speaker 0]
The foundation of Samadhi by Ajangana. Today is the day of entering the Vasa. We start just like school children who are beginning school. Their school started yesterday. Likewise, today is the day for us to start learning.

[00:00:58] - [Speaker 0]
Regard this as like being a child who is in the kindergarten. The place is not yet familiar. The body is not used to it. Consider this a beginning of warming up the mind and the body. Normally, you are independent and live in comfort.

[00:01:15] - [Speaker 0]
May everyone see it like this: We will practice for accumulating goodness and parami. We will walk on the path of the noble Sama Sambuddha. How do you follow the path of the Lord Buddha? The precepts of your seela and the training rules are the path of the noble teacher. The precepts are like a piece of land that you receive to live on.

[00:01:40] - [Speaker 0]
If you don't have land, you haven't got anywhere to stay. Selah is a cause and condition for allowing the dhamma to emerge. Hold the manner of the Lord Buddha and take the noble Vinaya as your code of practice. If you have Vinaya, the Dhamma will gradually arise. Use your good inclination and intention for arousing faith and renunciation.

[00:02:06] - [Speaker 0]
Worship by practicing is difficult and troublesome. You will become tired, hungry, and thirsty. You get deprived of authority and selfishness and can't follow your desires. Make the vineyard your principal and hold the monastery duties and the corrupt like this. At this time, I will do this at that time, I will do that.

[00:02:31] - [Speaker 0]
Everything you do is for making the heart peaceful and for developing complete Sati Sampajanya. Happiness and the ending of suffering are in a peaceful heart, in having complete Sati Sampajanya. A mass of chalices, namely greed, hatred, and delusion, are burning your heart and mind so that you have dukkha and feel hot. The heart is getting burned while the body is still alive. The Lord Buddha wants you to know your emotions and your thoughts.

[00:03:05] - [Speaker 0]
Running after emotions and thoughts is an endless matter. Practice making the heart peaceful regardless of where you are. You have to make the heart peaceful in all postures. Don't let it follow emotions. Lose yourself in distractions or follow your habits that you have picked up over many existences and lifetimes.

[00:03:25] - [Speaker 0]
In the beginning, you train to make the heart become peaceful and at ease. You don't have to get stressed. If you are stressed, it won't work. Samadhi is peace. You have to practice Samadhi.

[00:03:40] - [Speaker 0]
First train Samadhi and don't develop punya right now. Like primary school children, they have to practice by reciting the letters Gogai, Korkai or in a foreign language, A, B, C, D. You are still like children. You can't cast aside the basics because it is important to have this foundation. Train the heart to be at ease and peaceful.

[00:04:07] - [Speaker 0]
For instance, when you do sitting meditation, sit cross legged in polite posture or on a chair. Sit in a comfortable position. Allow the body and the mind to be at ease. Lay aside the past and the future. Release everything from your mind.

[00:04:25] - [Speaker 0]
Start being with your breath. Know when you are breathing in and make it comfortable. Know when you are breathing out and make it comfortable. Everyone's mind is like a monkey. When you take it and tie it down, it will jump around, but it can't go anywhere because you have tied it.

[00:04:45] - [Speaker 0]
In the long run, the monkey will stop and become peaceful. You don't have to think anything. Your duty is to know the in and out breath and nothing else. Your heart will gradually become peaceful. Practicing Samadhi is a light job, it's a task of sitting quietly.

[00:05:05] - [Speaker 0]
But it is more difficult than any other work. Do it regularly. Know the characteristics of each breath in, out, coarse, medium, or refined. Regardless of whether you are peaceful or not, do it steadily, because this is the meaning of training oneself. This is the elementary practice.

[00:05:29] - [Speaker 0]
Normally, you have wants and needs. After doing just a little bit, you want to be peaceful. Practicing Samadhi means letting go of your wants and your selfishness. Do your practice regardless of whether your friends are practicing or not. That's their business.

[00:05:47] - [Speaker 0]
Training the heart to enter Samadhi is not like studying. It is a matter of training your heart and mind to become peaceful. You have to practice like this every day until the heart is peaceful and you can enter and maintain samadhi. The Lord Buddha wants you to cut off external things completely and train the mind, not to socialize and talk within the community. Make a determination.

[00:06:14] - [Speaker 0]
When there is no need, I won't talk to or look at anyone. When there is a reason to talk, I will talk as little as necessary and as possible. I will try to stop myself because normally I talk a lot. My duty is to practice Samadhi and to follow the schedule. If you send the mind outside yourself, your Samadhi practice will lose its continuity.

[00:06:39] - [Speaker 0]
Take a break from any issues regarding your friends, parents, and duties, because this time is a time for you to practice Samadhi. When people are studying, they are learning at school together as a group, as a community. We will learn and practice Samadhi as a group, as a community, to inspire our practice to be firm and straight. When there is harmony whilst doing good, happiness will arise. Try to see yourself.

[00:07:08] - [Speaker 0]
Look at the deficits in your body, speech, and mind so you can really get into training Samadhi. May everyone try not to send the mind outside like you did before you ordained and came to stay at the temple. You had all kinds of thoughts. Here you are determined not to think about home and the affairs of world and the society. You will restrain your mind and make the heart peaceful.

[00:07:35] - [Speaker 0]
A well known Pali teaching says, nati santi parang sukam. There is no greater happiness than peace. Your happiness is down to having a peaceful heart, so do everything to make the heart peaceful. If you chase after external things such as material goods, forms, sounds, odors, flavors, tangible and mental objects. The lord Buddha says that this is not happiness.

[00:08:04] - [Speaker 0]
This is dukkha and delusion. These things are addictive. This is harming your own mind and other people's minds. Make your heart and mind let go of forms, sounds, odors, flavors, tangible and mental objects because they are not long lasting. They just come and go.

[00:08:24] - [Speaker 0]
Even good things will pass away. Your parents and relatives, superiors and grandparents will be parted from you too. Sometimes relatives who are still children have to pass away. Good or bad things are nothing but things that will disappear. Things in your daily life don't amount to anything.

[00:08:43] - [Speaker 0]
The only thing there is is arising, staying, and ceasing. You have to make your heart peaceful. Don't be shaken by objects that affect your emotions in your daily life. Tolerate and endure them. They are simply objects that come and go like the wind that is blowing right now.

[00:09:03] - [Speaker 0]
The rainy season, the cold season, spring, and the dry season, they will pass likewise. You have ordained as monks and come to practice dhamma to make your heart cool down and become peaceful. The lord Buddha practiced to be a role model. He walked away from everything, wealth, utilities, and comforts. He ate only one meal a day, didn't receive money, didn't wear shoes, and experienced the greatest happiness in the world.

[00:09:33] - [Speaker 0]
You think that you are not happy, not peaceful. You do just five minutes of sitting meditation to become peaceful and are not peaceful. The Lord Buddha entered a state of samadhi called nirodha samapati, in which he experienced the happiness of liberation and peace continuously for seven days. After coming here to ordain and practice, you now have to get down to training yourself. You have to see this time and occasion as a time to practice.

[00:10:04] - [Speaker 0]
The Lord Buddha and the Kuru Arjan don't want you to think about tiredness, difficulties, your tongue and belly and drowsiness, clinging to happiness, comfort, your personal preferences as before. Being attached like that means that you don't resist and endure. You can be regarded as a bad person who is not good. Out of loving kindness and compassion for yourself, you have to lead yourself to practice, to seek the dhamma, train the heart, and practice samadhi. Regard today as the beginning.

[00:10:37] - [Speaker 0]
Do a little bit at a time and practice bit by bit, and you will gradually improve. May you reduce your conceit and let go of views. Don't see yourself as I am rich, I am clever, I have a high level of education. May you reduce your conceit and let go of views and be without an I, without a self. Be respectful toward the Dhamma, the teaching of the noble Samasam Buddha, and humble towards the Kruber Ajanta, those who ordained earlier, and respect all your spiritual companions.

[00:11:13] - [Speaker 0]
The Lord Buddha wants you to practice like this. For today, this is enough explanation of the Dhamma, the teaching of the noble Samadhi Samadhi. By the power of the Lord Buddha, the Dhamma, and the noble Sangha, may you have a peaceful heart and be able to enter Samadhi. That concludes the Dhamma teaching, The Foundation of Samadhi, by the venerable Ajahn Ganha. If you'd like to hear more talks by Ajahn Ganha and other meditation masters of the forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism, subscribe to the forest path podcast using your favorite podcast app.

[00:11:57] - [Speaker 0]
And you can also go to everydaydharma.net for more. Thank you for listening. May you all experience insight and peace.