Wake up America and Meditator guides- reverend father Pramote

[Thanisaro85]

These are the links to reverend father pramote teachings regarding meditation and observing the mind.

There are 2 books which I like to recommend to members here, the context touches on the experiences and some of the queries we have on meditations. Some seasoned meditators may find some solutions when they had stagnant for a while.

The chemistry between the teachers and the students are something to consider, i leave it to members to decide whether his teachings suit individual meditators.

1. Wake up America.

Roughly talk about reverend father started meditation(mindfulness on breathing)since age of 7 till age 29 before he met his teacher, reverend father Dune, which was a disciple for the famous forest monk -Ajarn mun......

Page 34- mistake of becoming unnatural during meditations. Forcing..36..and trying to making the mind still...

Page 41, we are not practicing to make anger and desire to go away...

Page 46, the mind that is aware and the mind that is off thinking is 2 different minds, 2 different stage.


Page 52, let's keep practise until mindfulness start to arise automatically in the mind..


2. Meditation guides.

Content available.



https://www.dhamma.com/download/luangpor-dhamma-books/

[Thanisaro85]

Excerpt from the book Wake up America.

Page 91

Jhana( deep absorption) for  Enlightened??



 A lot of people mistakenly believe that we have to be able to arrive at very deep levels of concentration in order to start seeing the truth, but that’s simply not the case. The Buddha gave some statistical information in one of his discourses.

He said, out of 500 monks who are enlightened beings or arahants, meaning those who have ended their suffering, only 180 are those who have achieved psychic powers and abilities to move into extremely subtle states. In order to be skilled in such things, the mind must be skilled in jhana, the deep absorption states of concentration. The remaining 320 out of 500 were not skilled in such deep states. They were just regular people like us who have this emotion one minute, and that emotion the next minute. One moment restless and the next content, without any sort of special ability for deep absorption, seeing past lives, seeing where the deceased have crossed over to, clairvoyance, clairaudience or any such skills. All these powers require deep levels of concentration. The Buddha said that out of the 500, only 180 were able to do some of these types of things. 
 This can be some encouragement for us. We can see that we don’t have to have any amazing type of concentration. We don’t have to bring our mind to a perfect state of relaxation in order for enlightenment.

[Thanisaro85]

Excerpt from the book Wake up America.

Page 115



For the lesson in training of mind, there are two skills to cultivate One is how people normally perceive meditation: a way to make the mind calm and relaxed. It’s called samatha and it’s not a very difficult thing. I practiced this type of meditation for 22 years before I ever began training in wisdom. I got very good at making my mind peaceful very quickly; however, I still suffered in life. I didn’t gain any wisdom into the way things really are. I’d make myself peaceful for a little while and then I’d go into the world full of worries and restlessness, annoyances and frustrations, just like everyone else. I was able to make myself happy for a short period of time but then sure enough when I went back to work and my daily life, suffering didn’t diminish. There was a very important aspect of Buddhist practice missing. How do we permanently release suffering from our heart so that we don’t come out of this happy meditation and just go back to suffering as usual?

[dharma bum]

Thanisaro85, thank you for posting this. I am finding the book very helpful.

[Thanisaro85]

Thanisaro85, thank you for posting this. I am finding the book very helpful.

🙏🙏🙏

[Dhamma]

This books really explains it all, doesn't it?  Simply fabulous!

For Samatha, I focus on the point between my eyebrows and say a yogi mantra (I'm not the body, I'm not the mind, or something else). This calms me down immensely. So I think I am doing this right.