How to develop Four Elements Meditation

How to develop Four-Elements Meditation

Full of practical info, not theory

In the Pali language texts, there are two ways for developing the Four Elements Meditation, in brief and in detail.

The brief method explained here is meant for those of quick understanding. The detailed method is meant for those who have difficulty with the brief method.

The Buddha taught the brief method in the Maha Satipatthana Sutta (the “Greater Discourse on Setting Up the Four Foundations of Mindfulness”): A meditator reviews this very body however it is positioned or placed as consisting of just elements: “There are in this body just the earth-element, the water-element, the fire-element, and the air-element” (The Path of Purification, Visuddhimagga, Ch.XI, para. 41–43) explains further:

First, one of quick understanding who wishes to develop this meditation should go to a solitary place. Then one should advert [turn attention towards] one's entire material body and discern the elements in brief in this way:

Western (British) Sayalay now Beth Upton

“In this body

1. what is hard or rough is [to be regarded as] 'earth element,'
2. what is flowing or cohesive is 'water-element,'
3. what is maturing (ripening) or heat [temperature] is 'fire-element,'
4. what is pushing or supporting is 'air-element.'”

One should advert and give attention to it and review it again and again as [simply] “earth-element, water-element, fire-element, air-element,” that is to say, as mere elements [components, qualities, characteristics], not as a being but as selfless.

 

As one applies attention in this way, in no long time, concentration [stillness] arises, which is reinforced by understanding that illuminates the classification [labelling] of the elements.

 

This is only access-concentration* and does not reach absorption [a fully absorbed or concentrated condition] because it has states with individual essences as its object.

• [*“Neighborhood or access-concentration” (upacāra-samādhi) is the degree of concentration (stillness, centeredness, mental-settling, focus) just before entering the absorptions or jhānas.]

Alternatively, there are these four [bodily] parts mentioned by Ven. Sariputta for the purpose of showing the absence of any self in the Four (great primary) Elements:

“When a space is enclosed with bones, sinews, flesh, and skin, there comes to be the term 'material form' (rupa)” (M. I. p. 190). And one should resolve each of these, separating them out by the hand of knowledge, then discern in the way already stated (above): “In these what is hardness…as its objects.”

 

This is the method taught at Burma's Pa-Auk Meditation Centre. Discern in the body:

• 1. Earth-element: hardness, roughness, heaviness, softness, smoothness, lightness.
• 2. Water-element: flowing, cohesion.
• 3. Fire-element: heat, coldness.
• 4. Air-element: supporting, pushing [for a total of 12 characteristics lumped into four categories called the Four Elements, the dhatu or maha-bhuta].

To learn this meditation, one must begin by learning how to discern each of the 12 qualities or characteristics of the Four Elements one at a time.

Usually, the beginner must first be taught the characteristics that are easier [more obvious] to discern then the more difficult [subtle] ones later. The “Four” Elements are therefore usually taught in this order:

1. pushing,
2. hardness,
3. roughness,
4. heaviness,
5. supporting,
6. softness,
7. smoothness,
8. lightness,
9. heat,
10. coldness,
11. flowing,
12. cohesion.

Each characteristic must be discerned first in one place in the body then one must try discerning that same characteristic throughout the body.

1. To discern “pushing”...  More

I don't get it. Help!

Author Shaila Catherine

Fortunately for us in the United States, Americans have gone to Burma, practiced under Pa Auk Sayadaw, succeeded in attaining the absorptions and insight and on occasion written books about it. They are in America. They teach. We can recommend these seven:

1. Beth Upton (British)
2. Shaila Catherine
3. Stephen Snyder
4. Dr. Tina Rasmussen
5. Dr. Nikki Mirghafori
6. Katie Kalyani (Midwest Samsara)
7. Thomas Dhammadipa (Czech polyglot).

There are also successful monastic disciples of the Great Pa Auk Sayadaw:

1. Ven. Sayadaw U Aggañña (now permanently stationed in Los Angeles)
2. Sayalay Susila (abbess of Appamada Vihari Meditation Center, Penang, Malaysia)
3. Sayalay Dipankara (Burmese traveling nun)
4. Ven. Revata (Pa Auk Forest Monastery, Burma)
5. Ven. Mahinda (Pa Auk Forest Monastery, Burma).

• Pa Auk Sayadaw, Four Elements (Pt. 2, p. 19) re-edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Our Real Home: On Dying (Ajahn Chah)

Our Real Home: A Talk to an Aging Lay Disciple Approaching Death

Ajahn Chah (translated from the Thai by The Sangha at Wat Pah Nanachat © 1994)

Ajahn Chah was regarded as an arahant.

Now determine in your mind to listen with respect to the Dhamma. During the time that I am speaking, be as attentive to my words as if it were the Lord Buddha himself sitting in front of you.

Close your eyes and make yourself comfortable, compose your mind and make it one-pointed. Humbly allow the Triple Gem [Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha] of wisdom, truth, and purity to abide in your heart as a way of showing respect to the Fully Enlightened One.

Today I have brought nothing material of any substance to offer you, only Dhamma, the teachings of the Lord Buddha. Listen well. You should understand that even the Buddha himself, with his great store of accumulated virtue, could not avoid physical death.

When he reached old age, he relinquished his body and let go of its heavy burden. Now you too must learn to be satisfied with the many years you've already depended on your body.

You should feel that it's enough.

You can compare it to household utensils you've had for a long time — your cups, saucers, plates, and so on. When you first had them, they were clean and shining, but now after using them for so long, they're starting to wear out.

Some are already broken, some have disappeared and those that are left are deteriorating; they have no stable form, and it's their nature to be like that. Your body is the same way — it's been continually changing right from the day you were born, through childhood and youth, until now it's reached old age. You must accept that.

The Buddha said that conditions (sankharas), whether they are internal conditions, bodily conditions, or external conditions, are not-self, their nature is to change. Contemplate this truth until you see it clearly.

This very lump of flesh that lies here in decline is saccadhamma, the truth. The truth of this body is saccadhamma, and it is the unchanging teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha taught us to look at the body, to contemplate it, and come to terms with its nature.

We must be able to be at peace with the body, whatever state it is in. The Buddha taught that we should ensure that it's only the body that is locked up in jail and not let the mind be imprisoned along with it.

Now as your body begins to run down and deteriorate with age, don't resist that, but don't let your mind deteriorate with it. Keep the mind separate.

Give energy to the mind by realizing the truth of the way things are. The Lord Buddha taught that this is the nature of the body, it can't be any other way: having been born it gets old and sick and then it dies. This is a great truth you are presently encountering. Look at the body with wisdom and realize it. More

A Verb for Nirvana

Hey, everybody, I have no respect for cultures!

In the days of the Buddha, nirvana (Pali nibbana) had a verb of its own: nibbuti. It meant to "go out" as a flame goes out.

Fire was thought to be in a state of being trapped (bound) as it burned — clinging to and bound by the fuel it was consuming (burning). To go out was seen as being unbound, released, freed.

To go out could, therefore, be called "unbinding," although that sounds very clumsy. Sometimes another verb was used, pari-nibbuti, using the intensifier pari- to mean "total" or "all-around," indicating that once unbound, unlike fire unbound, one would never again be attached or trapped.

• [Nirvana (nibbana) is experienced while alive by enlightened people, reexperiencing the bliss over and again many times, whereas pari-nibbana (pari-nirvana) is "final" or complete nirvana, gone out for good.]

The Buddha reclines into final nirvana (Burma)

Now that nirvana has become an English word, it should have its own English verb to convey the sense of "being unbound" (liberated, freed, emancipated) as well.

At present, we say that a person "reaches" nirvana or "enters" nirvana, implying that nirvana is a place where one goes.

Nirvana is not a place (not the Christian equivalent of heaven, seventh heaven or, worse yet, nothingness).

Nirvana is realized, touched, glimpsed when the mind stops defining itself in terms of place: here, there, or between here and there.

This may seem like a hairsplitter's problem, a hobby for word-choppers problem — but what can a verb do to our practice?

The idea of nirvana as a place has created severe misunderstandings in the past, and it could easily create misunderstandings in the future.

There was a time when sophists and philosophers in proto-India reasoned that if nirvana is one place and samsara (the "endless wandering" or "Wheel of Life and Death") is another, then entering into nirvana leaves one stuck: Our range of movement has been limited, for we cannot get back to this miserable (impermanent, unfulfilling, impersonal) samsara.

To solve this imaginary problem they invented what they thought was a NEW kind of nirvana: an unestablished one in which one could be in both places — nirvana and samsara — at once.

• [This is in a sense possible because when an arhat, a fully enlightened person, experiences nirvana, that person does so in the midst of samsara but now is no longer bound by samsara after it runs its course in this very life. When this revolving record comes to a stop, there will be no more revolving like before. This is bliss, this is peace, this is being unbound, but one might imagine that samsara is everything and, therefore, nirvana must be nothing. This is completely mistaken, as enlightened persons know directly. However, how can anyone explain to those still craving and clinging to sensual pursuit, to the idea (wrong view) of annihilation, or to the wrong view of eternal wandering on?

Simplified depiction of six (of 31) planes of rebirth

However, these sophisticated philosophers misunderstood two important points about the Buddha's teachings. The first was that neither samsara nor nirvana is a "place." Samsara is a process (revolving, cycling, and recycling) creating places, even whole worlds. This is called becoming (bhava). Then wandering through them, these places to experience the results of deeds, this is called rebirth.

Nirvana is the cessation of this miserable process. One may be able to be in two places at once — or even develop a sense of self so infinite that one can occupy all places at once — but we can't feed a process and experience its end at the same time. We are either feeding samsara or not. If one feels the need to course through both samsara and nirvana, we are simply engaging in more samsara-ing (wandering on, revolving) and keeping ourselves trapped.

The second point is that nirvana, from the very beginning, was realized through unestablished consciousness — one that neither comes nor goes nor stays in place.

There is no way that anything unestablished can get stuck anywhere at all, for it is not only non-localized but also undefined.

The idea of a spiritual ideal as resting beyond space and definition is not exclusive to the Buddha's Dharma (Teachings). Issues of locality and definition, in the Buddha's eyes, had a specific psychological meaning. This is why the non-locality of nirvana is important to understand.

Just as all phenomena (all things) are rooted in desire, consciousness localizes itself through passion (craving, clinging, attachment).

Passion is what creates the "there" on which consciousness lands or gets established, whether the "there" is a form, feeling, perception, mental formation (thought-construct), or a type of consciousness.

Golden Buddha deep in meditation, Sukhothai

Once consciousness becomes established on any of these Five Aggregates clung to as self, it becomes attached (stuck, trapped) then proliferates, feeding on everything around it and creating all sorts of havoc.

Wherever there is attachment (clinging, which is just habitual grasping), that is where one gets defined as a "being."

One creates an identity there, and in so doing one is limited there. Even if the "there" is an infinite sense of awareness grounding, surrounding, or permeating everything else, it is still limited. This is because "grounding" and so forth are aspects of place.

Wherever there is place, no matter how subtle, passion is latent, looking for more fuel to feed on.

If, however, the passion can be removed (let go of, abandoned, undone), there is no more "there" there.

One sutra illustrates this with a simile of the sun shining through the eastern wall of a house and landing on the western wall.

If the western wall, the ground beneath it, and the waters beneath that ground were all removed, the sunlight would not land. In the same way, if passion for form, feeling, perception, mental formation, or consciousness, could be removed, consciousness would have no "where" (no place, no there) to land, and so would become unestablished.

This does not mean that consciousness would be annihilated. It simply means that — like the sunlight — it would now have no locality. With no locality, it would no longer be defined.

The Buddha represented not as resting but reclining into complete nirvana (Sukhothai, Thailand)

.

This is why the consciousness of nirvana is said to be "without surface" (anidassanam), for it does not land. Because the consciousness-aggregate (vinnana-khandha) covers only consciousness that is near, far, past, present, or future — that is, connected with space and time — consciousness without surface is not included in the Five Aggregates clung to as self.

It is not "eternal" because eternity is a function of time. And because non-local also means undefined, the Buddha insisted that an enlightened/awakened person — unlike ordinary, uninstructed worldlings — cannot be located or defined in relation to the aggregates in this life.

Moreover, after passing away, one can neither be described as existing, nonexisting, neither existing nor nonexisting, nor both existing and nonexisting. Why? It is because descriptions can apply only to definable things.

The essential step toward this non-localized, undefined realization is to cut back on the proliferations of consciousness.

This first involves contemplating the severe dangers and drawbacks of keeping consciousness trapped in the process of feeding. This contemplation gives a strong sense of urgency to the next steps:

Bringing the mind to oneness in stillness (concentrating it on a single object, which temporarily purifies it), gradually refining that oneness (or coherence of mind), then dropping it to zero.

The drawbacks of feeding are most graphically described in SN 12.63, "The Discourse on a Son's Flesh." The process of gradually refining oneness is probably best described in MN 121, "The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness [the Impersonal]," while the drop to zero is best described in the Buddha's famous instructions to Bāhiya of the Barkcloth :

Meeting an independent sadhu

"Regarding the seen, there will be [to you] only the seen. Regarding the heard, only the heard. Regarding to the otherwise sensed, only the otherwise sensed. Regarding the cognized, only the cognized.' That is how to train yourself [Bahiya]. When for you there is only the seen in regard to the seen, only the heard in regard to the heard, only the otherwise sensed in regard to the otherwise sensed, only the cognized in regard to the cognized then, Bahiya, there is no you in connection with that. When there is no you in connection with that, there is no you there. When there is no you there, you are neither here nor there [yonder, beyond] nor between the two. This, just this, is the end of dukkha."

• Dukkha is the Pali term for "stress, pain, suffering, unsatisfactoriness, disappointment," and refers to the inability of all things to fulfill. All things (conditioned amalgams, fabrications, dependently originated constructs) ultimately disappoint. Nirvana is not a "thing" (composite) but rather the unconditioned element free of all suffering.

With no here or there or between the two, you obviously can't use the verb "enter" or "reach" to describe this realization, even metaphorically.

Defilements ended, there is quenching/cooling.

The word nirvana should be made into a verb (cool, slake, quench) or in any case understood as such: "When it is understood that there is no you (self) in connection with that, you nirvana." (One nirvanas).

• [How is this not annihilation? If one understands that all that arises as "self" is dependently originated (conditioned), then it will be understood that all that "goes out" is ignorance. This is awakening.]

That way we can indicate that liberation, unbinding, release is an action unlike any other, and we can head off any mistaken notion about getting "stuck" in total freedom.

• Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff), Wat Metta, California (accesstoinsight.org); edited and expanded by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

I want to be RICH but avoid wrong livelihood

Access to Insight; Dhr. Seven (trans.), Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Right livelihood, right livelihood, what is "right livelihood"?

Right livelihood is the fifth of the factors of the Noble (Ennobling) Eightfold Path. (Noble or aryan means "enlightened"). This factor belongs to the virtue division of the path.

The Buddha's definition

"What is right livelihood? A disciple of the noble ones (enlightened ones), having abandoned wrong livelihood, keeps life going by right livelihood. This is called 'right livelihood' (samma ajivo)" (SN 45.8).

"If one's outgo exceeds one's income,

one's upkeep will be one's downfall."

-Dhr. Seven, quoting wise business advisors

SUTRA: right livelihood

How rich? I want my own rocket.

"Here in this Dharma (Doctrine), Vyagghapajja, a householder knowing one's income and expenses leads a well-balanced life, neither of extravagance nor of miserliness, knowing that one's income will exceed expenses, and expenses will not one's income.

"Just as the goldsmith or apprentice knows, on holding up a balance, that by this much has it tilted down or by that much it has tilted up, even so a householder, knowing one's income and expenses, leads a well-balanced life, neither of extravagance nor of miserliness, assuring that one's income exceeds one's expenses, not one's expenses one's income" (AN 8.54).

Right livelihood's relation to the other factors of the path

Is it good to give our time? Yes, volunteer.

"How is right view the forerunner [of the path to enlightenment]? One discerns (knows and sees) wrong livelihood as wrong livelihood, right livelihood as right livelihood.

"What is wrong livelihood? Scheming, persuading, hinting, belittling, and pursuing gain with gain, this is wrong livelihood...

"One abandons wrong livelihood and enters upon right livelihood: This is one's right effort.

"One is mindful to abandon wrong livelihood to enter and remain in right livelihood: This is one's right mindfulness.

"Thus, these three factors — right view, right effort, and right mindfulness — revolve around right livelihood" (MN 117).

Wrong livelihood for lay Buddhists

Lie, cheat, steal!

"A lay follower abstains from five types of business. What are those five? One abstains from [trade, commerce, attempting to profit from]

1. business in weapons,
2. business in human beings (exploitation, buying and selling humans, prostitution),
3. business in flesh (meat),
4. business in intoxicants (alcohol and drugs of abuse), and
5. business in poison" (AN 5.177). More

Attaining JHANA ("meditative absorption")

Beth Upton (bethupton.com); Dhr. Seven (text); Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha spoke in praise of jhana ("meditative absorption"). He learned and practiced the jhanas in the first years when he first set out on his quest. He exercised them as his last act before reclining into final nirvana.

He became the Buddha, the "Awakened One," because he stopped wasting time with severe austerities and penances punishing the body (extreme asceticism). Remembering that as a baby (and in many previous existences) he had spontaneously entered jhana under a tree, he realized that the bliss and pleasure (piti) born of jhana was not something to avoid the way he was avoiding hedonistic sense pleasures, which he had practiced to the extreme as a Scythian prince before renouncing.

Jhana overview

This turnaround put him on the path of jhana, or serenity, which stabilized and temporarily purified his mind/heart. Then when he practiced insight -- mindfulness and contemplation -- it suddenly paid off and resulted in his great awakening. In fact, we see that in the sutras or discourses (suttas), the very word "meditation" is jhana and its derivative jhayanti or "meditating."

Cultivation (bhavana) usually gets this English language designation today and more rarely our "field of endeavor or intentional work" (kammatthana, kamma = karma = action) or effort with a particular meditation object or theme. Jhana is fundamental to the Buddha's "gradual training."

Let's get started: First Jhana

When one becomes established in right-concentration or samma-samadhi then the application of right-mindfulness becomes fruitful for the practice of insight meditation (vipassana). Insight meditation without at least access- or neighborhood-concentration -- and, of course, "concentration" is a terrible and misleading translation of samadhi but one we're stuck with for the moment -- is fruitless.

It will not produce insight because we are not able to be with our subtle object(s) of attention in a stable way. Therefore, the Buddha's path in brief is virtue (sila) to make the mind/heart settled and pliable, concentration (samadhi) to temporarily strengthen and purify it, and insight (vipassana) to awaken, liberate, and permanently purify it.

What is jhana?

(Beth Upton) Jan. 23, 2023. Here is a brief explanation of what is (and what is not) a jhana. For more information on working with nimittas (meditation learning and counterpart "signs"), take a look here: Working with a nimitta... For more on the jhana factors take a look here: Learning to discern... These videos are only made possible by generous donations. Please consider supporting this work: bethupton.com/support-my-work, patreon.com/bethupton. Find out more about this work: bethupton.com. Shot by Alexis P.N. @GuavaFunk: laffcotchtv.   Contact: alexispn777@gmail.com

Jhana overview

(Beth Upton) Apr 10, 2023. Here is an overview about the jhanas. For information on the benefits of jhana, please take a look here: What is jhana? For information on discerning the jhana factors, please take a look here: Learning to discern...

Practicing the first jhana

(Beth Upton) Feb. 13, 2023. Here Upton speaks about the transition from deep "access concentration" to the first jhana. For information on discerning the jhana factors, take a look here: Learning to discern... For information on practicing mastery, take a look here: Practicing mastery...

Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha

Hellmuth Hecker, Sister Khema (trans.) © 1994; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The following stories, written in German by Hellmuth Hecker, have been translated from the German Buddhist magazine Wissen and Wandel, XVIII 3 (1972), XXLI 1/2 (1976).

While every effort has been made by the translator, Sister Vajira, to conform to the original writing, some changes had to be made for the sake of clarity.

The stories of the famous Buddhist nuns Bhadda Kundalakesa and Patacara have been enlarged and filled in.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Australian monk Ven. Khantipalo for his assistance in improving the style and content of this narrative.

His new translations of verses of the Therigatha and the Dhammapada from the original Pali language have helped to make these stories come alive.

It is hoped that this booklet will serve as an inspiration to all those who are endeavoring to tread in the Buddha's footsteps.

• Sister Khema, Wat Buddha Dhamma, Wisemans Ferry, N.S.W. 2255, Australia, Jan. 1982
• Hellmuth Hecker (dailynews.lk/line/hellmuth-hecker)
  

Bhikkhuni Sujata's Verses of Final Knowledge

With subtle veils adorned,
Garlands and sandalwood bedecked,
Covered all over with ornaments,
Surrounded by my servants,
Taking with us food and drink,
Eatables of many kinds,
Setting off from the house,
To the forest grove we took it all.

Having enjoyed and sported there,
We turned our feet to home
But on the way I saw and entered
Near Saketa, a monastery.
Seeing the Light of the World
I drew near, bowed to him;
Out of compassion the All-Seeing One
Then taught me Dharma there.

Hearing the words of the Great Sage,
I penetrated Truth:
The Dharma passionless,
I touched the Dharma of Deathlessness.
When the True Dharma had been known,
I went forth to the homeless life [as a nun];
The three True Knowledges are attained,
Not empty are the Buddha's Teachings!

(Therigatha 145-150) Verses of the Elder nuns. More

CONTENTS

• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• The Verses of Final Knowledge of Bhikkhuni Sujata
• Queen Mallika
• What Cannot Be Got: The Buddha's Words to King Pasenadi on Queen Mallika's Death
• Khema of Great Wisdom
• Bhadda Kundalakesa, the Former Jain Ascetic
• Kisagotami, the Mother with the Dead Child
• Sona, With Many Children
• Nanda, the Half-sister of the Awakened One
• Queen Samavati
• Patacara, Preserver of the Vinaya

 

Abbreviations of Source References 

A .... Anguttara Nikaya
D .... Digha Nikaya
Dhp .... Dhammapada
M .... Majjhima Nikaya
S .... Samyutta Nikaya
Sn .... Sutta Nipata
Thag .... Theragatha
Thig .... Therigatha
Pac. .... Pacittiya (Vinaya)
J. .... Jataka
Ud. .... Udana
Mil. .... Milindapañha
Jtm. .... Jatakamala
Bu. .... Buddhavamsa
Divy..... Divyavadana
Ap. .... Apadana

Sutra: Advice to Rahula at Mango Stone

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Ambalatthika-Rahulovada Sutra: "Instructions to Rahula at Mango Stone" (MN 61, Mi 414), based on Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Wisdom Quarterly

Family: Rahula, the Buddha, and Ananda

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was staying near Rajagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, at the Squirrels' Feeding Ground.

At that time Ven. Rahula [the Buddha's son, a monastic* in training at age 7 (Comy.)] was staying at the Mango Stone. Then the Blessed One, arising from his meditative seclusion in the late afternoon, went there. Ven. Rahula saw him approaching from afar and set out a seat and water to wash his feet.

The Blessed One sat down on the seat prepared for him and washed his feet. Ven. Rahula, bowed and sat respectfully to one side.

Then the Blessed One, having left a little bit of water in the water dipper, said to Ven. Rahula: "Rahula, do you see this small amount of water remaining in the dipper?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"That's how little of a monastic* there is in anyone who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie."

Having tossed away the little leftover water, the Blessed One said to Ven. Rahula: "Rahula, do you see how this small amount of water is tossed away?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"Rahula, whatever there is of a monastic in anyone who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie is tossed away just like that."

Having turned the water dipper upside down, the Blessed One said to Ven. Rahula: "Rahula, do you see how this water dipper is turned upside down?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"Rahula, whatever there is of a monastic in anyone who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie is turned upside down just like that."

Having turned the water dipper right side up, the Blessed One said to Ven. Rahula: "Rahula, do you see how empty and hollow this water dipper is?"

"Yes, venerable sir."

"Rahula, whatever there is of a monastic in anyone who feels no shame at telling a deliberate lie is empty and hollow just like that.

"Rahula, it's like a royal elephant: mighty, of good pedigree, accustomed to battle, its tusks like chariot poles. Having gone into battle, it uses its forefeet and hindfeet, its forequarters and hindquarters, its head and ears, its tusks and tail. But it keeps protecting its trunk. The elephant trainer notices and thinks:

"'This royal elephant has not given up its life to the king.' But when the royal elephant...having gone into battle, uses its limbs and his trunk, the trainer notices and thinks: 'This royal elephant has given up its life to the king. There is nothing it will not do.'

"In the same way, Rahula, when anyone feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no harm (wrong), I tell you, he will not do. Thus, Rahula, train yourself, 'I will not tell a deliberate lie even in jest.'

"What do you think, Rahula, what is a mirror for?"

"For reflection, venerable sir."

"In the same way, Rahula, bodily, verbal, and mental actions (deeds, karma) are to be done with repeated reflection.

"Whenever you want to do a bodily action, reflect on it: 'This bodily action I want to do, would it lead to my harm, the harm of others, or both? Would it be an unskillful bodily action, with painful consequences, painful results?' If, on reflection, you know that it would lead to self-harm, the harm of others, or to both, that it would be an unskillful bodily action with painful consequences, painful results, then any bodily action of that sort is absolutely unfit for you to do.

"But if on reflection you know that it would not cause harm...it would be a skillful bodily action with pleasant consequences, pleasant results, then any bodily action of that sort is fit for you to do.

"While you are doing a bodily action, reflect on it: 'This bodily action I am doing, is it leading to self-harm, to the harm of others, or to both? Is it an unskillful bodily action, with painful consequences, painful results?' If, on reflection, you know that it is leading to self-harm, to the harm of others, or to both...give it up.

"But if on reflection you know that it is not...you may continue with it.

"Having done a bodily action, reflect on it: 'This bodily action I have done, did it lead to self-harm, to the harm of others, or to both? Was it an unskillful bodily action, with painful consequences, painful results?'

"If, on reflection, you know that it led to self-harm, to the harm of others, or to both, it was an unskillful bodily action with painful consequences, painful results, then confess it, reveal it, lay it open to the Teacher or to a knowledgeable companion in the supreme [monastic] life. Having confessed it...exercise restraint in the future.

"But if on reflection you know that it did not lead to harm...it was a skillful bodily action with pleasant consequences, pleasant results, then stay elated and joyful, training day and night in skillful mental states.

• [The same is then said for verbal and mental actions.]

"Rahula, all those Brahmins and [wandering ascetic] monastics in the course of the past who purified their bodily, verbal, and mental actions did it through repeated reflection on their bodily, verbal, and mental actions in this way.

"All those Brahmins and monastics in the course of the future who will purify their bodily, verbal, and mental actions will do it through repeated reflection on their bodily, verbal, and mental actions in this way.

"All those Brahmins and monastics at present who purify their bodily, verbal, and mental actions do it through repeated reflection on their bodily, verbal, and mental actions in this way.

"Thus, Rahula, train yourself: 'I will purify my bodily actions through repeated reflection. I will purify my verbal actions through repeated reflection. I will purify my mental actions through repeated reflection.' This is how to train yourself."

That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, Ven. Rahula delighted in the Blessed One's words. More

*NOTE: Throughout ancient cultures, the terminology of music was used to describe the moral quality of people and actions. Discordant intervals or poorly tuned musical instruments were metaphors for wrongdoing (harm). Harmonious intervals and well-tuned instruments were metaphors for good. In Pali, the term sama ("even") described a tuned instrument. There is a famous passage (AN 6.55) where the Buddha reminds Sona Kolivisa — who had been over-exerting himself in his spiritual practice — that a lute sounds appealing only if the strings are neither too tight nor too loose but "evenly" tuned. This image has special resonance with the Buddha's teaching on the Middle Way, which avoids the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self mortification. It also adds meaning to the term samana ("monastic" or "wandering ascetic"), which the texts frequently mention as being derived from sama. The word samañña ("evenness," the characteristic or quality of being in tune) also means the quality of being a monastic: The true monastic is always in tune with what is proper and good.

• See also: MN 62, MN 147

The Teaching of the Enlightened Elders

Access to Insight (accesstoinsight.org) edited by Wisdom Quarterly, June 25, 2020

What is Theravada Buddhism?

Ther-a-va-da (\terra-VAH-dah\) means the "Teaching of the Elders." The "elders" (male theras and female theris) are the enlightened direct disciples of the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama.

This school of Buddhism is based on the Ti-pitaka ("Threefold Collection" of sutras and texts), the Pali language canon, which scholars generally agree contains the earliest surviving record of the historical Buddha's teachings [Note 1].

For many centuries, Theravada has been the predominant Buddhist tradition of continental Southeast Asia (Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) and Sri Lanka, those countries surrounding ancient India.

Today, Theravada Buddhists number well over 100 million worldwide [2]. In recent decades Theravada has begun to take root in the West.

Many Buddhisms, one Dharma-Vinaya

The Buddha — or "Awakened One" — called the teaching revealed the Dharma-Vinaya, "the Doctrine and Discipline" leading to awakening or enlightenment and complete liberation (nirvana).

To provide a social structure supportive of the practice of Dharma-Vinaya, or Dharma (Pali Dhamma) for short, and to preserve these teachings for humans and devas (light beings), the Buddha established the monastic order of monks and nuns — the Sangha ("Community") — which continues to this day to pass the teachings on to subsequent generations.

As the Dharma continued its spread across ancient pre-India after the Buddha's passing into final nirvana, differing interpretations of the original teachings arose. This led to schisms within the monastic community and the emergence of as many as 18 distinct schools or sects of Buddhism [3].

One of these schools eventually gave rise to a reform movement that called itself Mahayana (the "Great Vehicle" [4]). It disparagingly referred to all other Buddhist schools as inferior Hinayana ("Lesser Vehicle") schools.

They all went extinct, and Theravada is a revival of the original teachings of the historical Buddha, a getting back to basics of what the Buddha taught. It is not one of the early non-Mahayana schools [5].

But it is often treated as such because it is closer to them than the very Hindu-influenced syncretism that is Mahayana, which amounts to a kind of Asian Catholicism, Christianity, or Krishna-centric Hinduism hybrid.

To avoid the pejorative and incorrect assumption that Theravada is a Hinayana school, the terms Lesser Vehicle and Great Vehicle are avoided. More neutral language distinguishes these two branches of Buddhism.

Because Theravada historically dominated Southern Asia, it is sometimes nicknamed "Southern Buddhism," while Mahayana, which migrated northwards from Central Asia and India into China, Tibet, Japan, and Korea, is loosely called "Northern" Buddhism [6].

Pali: The Language of the Buddha and Theravada Buddhism

The language of the canonical Theravada texts is Pali (Magadhan, lit., "text"), which is based on a dialect of Magadhi, a Middle Indo-Aryan likely spoken in what was to become central India during the Buddha's time [7].

Ven. Ananda, the Buddha's relative and close personal attendant, committed the Buddha's sutras to memory and became a living repository of the teachings [8].

Shortly after the Buddha's passing into final nirvana (circa 480 BCE), a large number of the most senior monastics — including Ananda — convened to recite and verify all the sutras they had heard during the Buddha's 45 year teaching career or dispensation [9].

Most of these sutras therefore begin with the words Evam me sutam, "Thus have I heard." Ananda is declaring that he heard these firsthand from the Buddha himself, who either said them to an audience with Ananda present or repeated what he had said to an audience when Ananda was not present. More

• Theravada Buddhism: A Chronology

1. Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction (5th edition) by R.H. Robinson, W.L. Johnson, and Ven. Thanissaro (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2005), p. 46.
2. This estimate is based on faulty data appearing in CIA World Factbook 2004. South Asia's largest Theravada Buddhist populations are found in Thailand (61 million Theravadans), Burma (38 million), Sri Lanka (13 million), and Cambodia (12 million). [Over 1 billion Buddhists are left uncounted in officially communist China.]
3. Buddhist Religions, p. 46.
4. Mahayana today includes Zen, Ch'an, Nichiren, Tendai, and Pure Land Buddhism [and Vajrayana traditions of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Siberia, Mongolia].
5. Guide Through the Abhidhamma Pitaka by Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1971), pp. 60ff.
6. A third major branch of Buddhism emerged much later (ca. 8th century CE) in India: Vajrayana, the "Diamond Vehicle." Vajrayana's elaborate system of esoteric initiations, tantric rituals, and mantra recitations eventually spread north into Central and East Asia, leaving a particularly strong imprint on Tibetan Buddhism. See Buddhist Religions, pp. 124ff. and chapter 11.
7. Modern scholarship suggests that Pali was probably never spoken by the Buddha. [Because he moved to the kingdom of Magadha, he would have certainly spoken Magadhan or Magadhi Prakrit, a form of Pali.] In the centuries after the Buddha's passing, as Buddhism spread across India into regions using different dialects, Buddhist monastics increasingly depended on a common tongue for their Dharma discussions and recitations of memorized texts. It was out of this necessity that the language now known as Pali emerged. See Bhikkhu Bodhi's introduction in Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 1999), pp. 1ff, and n. 1 (p. 275) and "The Pali Language and Literature" by the Pali Text Society (palitext.com/subpages/lan_lite.htm, 15 April 2002).
8. Great Disciples of the Buddha by Ven. Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 1997), pp. 140, 150.
9. Buddhist Religions, p. 48.
10. Brahmanism's Vedas, for example, predate the Buddha by at least a millennium (Buddhist Religions, p. 2). [They became the basis of later Hinduism or Indus-ism.]