Ajahn Chah meditation instructions, London

Meditation instructions: developing samadhi

(Ajahn Anan Dhamma, 1/19/21) These are the meditation instructions Thai Theravada Meditation Master Ajahn Chah gave to a lay group in Hampstead Vihara, England.

English Sangha: Amaravati Buddhist Monastery

The focus is developing right samadhi, "collectedness" or "unification," often mis-translated as "concentration," which misleads because this is not about "concentrating," efforting, straining, or trying.

This is about allowing, accepting, and minding -- in the sense of maintaining mindfulness ("dispassionate bare-awareness") in general.

In specific, it is the development of the Four Foundations (categories or subjects) of Mindfulness (satipatthana):

1. body
2. feelings
3. mind
4. dhammas (phenomena, mind objects)

The many exercises under each of these categories constitutes the fourfold establishing of mindfulness according to two famous discourses, the Satipatthana Sutta and Maha-Satipatthana Sutta.