How To Develop Concentration For A Peaceful Life.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH. Meditation Topics There are forty subjects to practice Meditation. You can practice one of these topics. These topics are divided into several groups. Kasina's group The first group is kasiṇa . The word kasiṇa is very difficult to translate so it is best to leave it untranslated. The word kasiṇa means a block, a whole . That is, you can put your mind in the totality of the kasiṇa object. The Buddha taught ten kasiṇa: that is earth kasiṇa, water kasiṇa, fire kasiṇa, wind kasiṇa, green kasiṇa, golden kasiṇa, red kasiṇa, white kasiṇa, space kasiṇa, light kasiṇa. The first four kasiṇa are the four great earth, water, wind, and fire which are often mentioned in Buddhism. Practice earth kasiṇa When practicing earth kasiṇa successfully, you will first attain upacāra samādhi ( Access Concentration). If you continue to practice, you will attain five jhānas, from the first to the fifth. All ten kasiṇa lead to the same result. You can choose one of those kasiṇa to gain concentration or gain Access Concentration and jhānas . If you want to practice earth kasiṇa then you must make a plate of kasiṇa . Take clay of the same color as the sun at dawn, make a plate about a hand's diameter and four fingers (about two and a half inches). Make the surface of the kasiṇa smooth and clean and place it in front of you at eye level (not too far, not too close, not too high, not too low). Focus your mind on that whole kasiṇa and mentally recite “earth, earth, earth” a thousand times. Actually, you made me remember that disc. Sometimes I open my eyes to look, thinking "earth, earth, earth", sometimes I close my eyes, trying to remember the image of the earth disk in my mind. Due to diligent practice, some time later, even when you close your eyes, you will see the earth kasiṇa as clearly as if you were opening your eyes. When you are able to keep the sign or image of the earth disk in your mind, you can no longer look at the earth disc, but just focus on the sign or image of the earth kasiṇa that you remember in your mind. If you continue to pay attention to the image or sign of kasiṇa in your mind, that sign will become more and more clear and sharp. At first the image or sign of the kasiṇa appears to the mind completely like a copy of the kasiṇa disc. For example, on that plate, there are a few protrusions or different colors of light and dark places, we can see it clearly. That is, the earth kasiṇa sign in the mind is like casting the image of the outer earth disk. As your meditation progresses, the earth kasiṇa sign becomes sharper and the marks on that sign disappear. The appearance of the earth kasiṇa becomes smooth and clear and transparent like a disc with the light of the moon or the sun. The meditator continues to focus mindfully on the object until a kind of consciousness arises. This type of consciousness may have never arisen in you before, that is jhāna citta . When the meditative mind appears, before that your concentration is very good. Your mind stays on the sign of the earth kasiṇa for a long time. Practicing Other Kasinas The practice of other kasiṇas is similar. If you want to practice water kasiṇa you can pour some water into the jar and look at the water. If you meditate on the fire kasiṇa you can light a fire and then look at it through a round hole in the wall or through a hole in something so that when you see the fire it is the same size as that of the earth kasiṇa . Kasiṇa wind has two ways. The first is to look at the leaves fluttering due to the wind. The second is to stay in a closed room, open the window slightly and let the wind flow in, feel the wind in contact with the body. If you want to meditate on green kasiṇa , make a plate and paint it blue or draw blue on a piece of paper and use that as your subject. The other colors are similar. In Burma they translate the word nīla as brown kasiṇa, so they make brown kasiṇa. In other countries, the translation is blue, so use green kasiṇa . Reciting the space kasiṇa looks up at the space in the sky through a circular hole. Do the same for the light kasiṇa. If you want to practice any kasiṇa, do that kasiṇa and then focus your mind on the meditation object until you reach Access Concentration or Peace Concentration . Group of 10 Asubha The second group is the ten asubha, that is, meditating on the ten types of corpses to see the filth and hideousness of the corpse. When you see the uncleanness, the uncleanness, the abomination of the corpse, you also see the uncleanness in your own body. There are ten types of corpses used to practice this subject. Meditating on corpses in this day and age is difficult because now we hardly see those ten types of corpses. During the Buddha's time, corpses were placed in cemeteries to rot and eaten by dogs and birds. So at that time one could see different stages of decay and swelling of a corpse. Today we can practice this subject of meditation by looking at pictures or by imagining the different stages of decay of the corpse in these pictures. We must then try to develop a sense of repulsion and uncleanness in the corpse in the picture as well as in our own body. But by practicing meditation on the filthiness and repulsiveness of corpses, we can only attain Upacāra samādhi, Access Concentration and only up to the First Meditation of An Ching. Practicing this subject, we cannot attain the second jhāna, the third jhāna, the fourth jhāna, and the fifth jhāna. Because cadaver recitation is a rough meditation subject and the cadaveric subject always needs the "reach" jhāna factor to keep the mind on the object, so we can only attain the first jhāna which is the jhāna with the 'range' jhāna factor. . Today we can only imagine corpses because we cannot see them directly. There are ten types of corpses. The cadaver is distended, that is, the cadaver is in the distended stage. Bruised corpses, that is, corpses in the stage of turning black and blue. The cadaver is festering, that is, the corpse is in the purulent stage. Corpses with severed arms, legs, or severed limbs. Legs and arms severed by enemies, executions, etc. Corpses are eaten, eaten by dogs, jackals, birds, etc. The corpse was fragmented, because parts of the corpse were scattered everywhere after the animals ate it. The corpse was bitten and scattered into many pieces. The body parts were bitten and scattered in many places. The corpse was left with only blood-stained bones. The corpse was gouged by maggots. Skeleton. I think today we can see skeletons or at least we can buy a plastic skeleton to meditate on the Immortality of the Corpse. Although not a real skeleton, I think the plastic skeleton helps us too. Ten types of impurity meditation help us to get rid of attachment, attachment to the body. Group of 10 Anussati The next group is called the "ten anussati", i.e. ten kinds of recollection. Reciting Buddha : means reciting the virtues of the Buddha. Buddha has nine virtues or qualities and you can choose one of them and focus on it continuously to develop concentration. Mindfulness of the Dharma : yes ?meaning to be mindful of the qualities of the Dharma. Mindfulness of the Sangha : means to be mindful of the qualities of the Sangha. Mindfulness of Precepts : yes ?meaning of keeping your own pure precepts. To be able to practice this meditation subject, you must first keep the precepts pure. Then contemplate the purity of one's precepts. While mindfulness of precepts can be said "my precepts are pure, I have not broken a single precept ". Mindfulness of Giving : that is, you can take your alms-giving as an object. Niem Thien . God here does not mean Gods, but we think of their good qualities such as faith, generosity, wisdom, etc. When we think of our own good qualities, we take them as gods. model or witness. That is, take the gods to demonstrate, as a typical example. For example, think: The gods have such good qualities. To become a God, he must have had faith, charity, wisdom, etc., and now he has those good qualities in me as well. So when you recite this object you think of the good qualities of the gods, and then you see the same qualities in yourself. Therefore, Nien Thien is not actually about the Devas, but about the good qualities of the Devas. Thoughts of Tranquility, Tranquility . It is reciting the pure and peaceful characteristics of Nirvana. In fact, the recollection of the peace of Nirvana can only be fully successful when the meditator has attained Enlightenment. However, unenlightened people can still practice this subject. Contemplation of Death . Life is uncertain, death is certain. Reciting 32 Degradation Body to see the uncleanness, uncleanness of the body. Mindfulness of Breathing : means being mindful of the in-breath and out-breath. The breath can be used as the subject of Meditation or Vipassana meditation depending on how we practice. Today, especially in Burma, people often use beads or rosaries to recite the nine virtues of the Buddha. In China and Vietnam there are ten virtues. Each time they recite a Buddha's Grace, they say a bead. For example, the Application of Offering (Arahaṁ) once a bead, a Bead of Right Understanding, and a Bead of Minh Hanh Tuc... until all the beads are finished. Each string has 108 beads, there are nine blessings of the Buddha, if you recite those nine Buddha favors 12 times, you will have 108 beads. It is also possible to recite the sequence of the nine virtues one by one. Starting with Iti'pi so Bagava, then Iti'pi so Arahaṁ ... until Iti'pi so Buddho, there are 108 beads. Vietnamese people can recite in Vietnamese as follows: Homage to the Tathagata, Pray to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion. Homage to the Buddha of Charity, vow to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion. Homage to Duc Minh Hanh Tuc vows to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion. Homage to Duc Thien Tho, vow to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion. Homage to the World-Honored One. Pray to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion. Homage to the Supreme Being, vow to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion. Homage to Duc Dieu Ngu Truong Phu, vow to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion. Homage to the Thien Nhan Master, vow to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion. Homage to the Buddha, vow to eliminate greed, hatred and delusion. Homage to the World-Honored One, vow to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion. If you recite one word, then one bead, after reciting those ten virtues, you will have 108 beads. Infested with the Beads What does the Commentary say on the matter of reciting beads? The Commentary makes no mention of rosary recitation. Then when reciting the Buddha's grace, you can use the beads or not, as you like. When you think of the Buddha's virtues, then your mind is free from greed or attachment, without anger and without delusion. The mind becomes calm, still and you will attain Access Concentration. Even though you have attained Access Concentration, you cannot attain the jhānas because the Buddha's Graces are too vast and too profound. In addition, the Buddha has so many qualities that your mind-centered power is not strong enough to enter the jhānas. Therefore, the subject of reciting the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha... only helps you to reach the Concentration . Called Can Dinh because it is on the doorstep about to enter An Chi Dinh . Actually, this cannot be said to be Access Concentration because it has no jhānas here. Because there are no jhānas, it is not really Access Concentration, it is only called Access Concentration when it can go from Access Concentration to An Dinh, but here only reaching that level is the end, so it cannot be called Can Dinh. When you practice subject matter 32, for example, you reach Access Concentration , from Access Concentration the first jhana. This Access Concentration has the ability to lead to the first level of meditation, so the Access Concentration here is really called the Access Concentration. Mindfulness of the breath can lead to Access Concentration and all jhānas. Group of Four Immeasurable Minds The next group is appanamañña (Four Immeasurable Minds). The word immeasurable here means unlimited. The four immeasurable minds are also known as the four brahma dwellings (four abodes of Brahma). When you recite one of these four objects, you are living like a Brahma. That's why it is called "Brahma - living like a Brahma". The first is mettā (loving-kindness) which means wishing all sentient beings to be peaceful and happy. The second is karuṇā (compassionate mind) which means the wish to eliminate, dispel the sufferings of sentient beings. The third is muditā (joyful mind) rejoicing, happy at the success and happiness of others. The fourth is upekkhā (equanimity). Equanimity is the noblest of the four types of consciousness mentioned above. When you recite equanimity, you don't feel loving-kindness, compassion, and joy. Your mind is in a neutral state, unmoved by pleasant or unpleasant objects, unmoved by pain or happiness. People with equanimity try to help everyone, all species; But knowing that each sentient being has their own Karma, even though they always help sentient beings, if sentient beings do not have enough conditions to enjoy what they help, they will still be at ease. The above four meditation subjects are called immeasurable because their object is immeasurable, limitless sentient beings. For example, when you practice loving-kindness recitation, you must radiate loving-kindness to all sentient beings. When you practice compassion, do you wish for all sentient beings to be free from suffering. When you practice rejoicing, you rejoice in the success and happiness of all sentient beings. With equanimity, you must be balanced and at peace with all the vicissitudes of sentient beings. Thus, the four immeasurables all take living beings as their object, and the beings taken as their object must be all sentient beings without limits. That is why it is called immeasurable mind. When practicing loving-kindness meditation, you must first radiate loving-kindness to yourself, and then spread or direct loving-kindness to your ancestors, parents, etc., and finally to all sentient beings without limitation. When we say " May my ancestor have full health, peace, happiness, purity and tranquility"' that is, we have limited to spreading loving-kindness only to the ancestor. In the same way, by spreading loving-kindness to a certain group of people, we are also limited to that number of people, etc. Therefore, when we recite loving-kindness and compassion, we do not stop there, but we expand the mind from time to time from the ancestor to the ancestor. parents, relatives, friends, people we don't know, people who don't like us... until we spread loving-kindness to all sentient beings. Thus, when practicing loving-kindness meditation, one's mind must be directed to all sentient beings without exception. When spreading compassion, joy, and equanimity, too. When you practice the first three immeasurables, you can reach from the level of Access Concentration to the fourth jhāna. When practicing equanimity you can reach from Access Concentration to the fifth jhāna. When you practice loving-kindness meditation, you recite, “ May all sentient beings have full health, peace, happiness, purity, and tranquility .” When reciting compassion you read " May all sentient beings be free from suffering ". Thus, the object of loving-kindness is happy beings, and the object of compassion is suffering beings. When reciting the mind of joy and taking the object, sentient beings are successful and happy. Because you take success and happiness as your object, you say, " May the success and happiness of sentient beings be long-lasting ." When practicing equanimity meditation, how should you meditate? In the Pāḷi language there is a saying “ kammassaka” means that Karma is the inheritance of sentient beings. That means you can help sentient beings according to your ability, but if you can't do that then you have to accept it. So when thinking about equanimity you read " beings have Karma as their inheritance, they suffer or are happy according to their Karma" . No one can interfere with the Karma of another. Group of Contemplation of Impure Food The next group is the visualization of impure food. After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha thought of teaching sentient beings, but he saw that his teaching was like going against a stream, so he did not want to teach. So when practicing the visualization of unclean food, no one wants to do this. So when you go into a restaurant, don't say I enjoy the food. Once during a course of meditation, an American attendant should have said to me, " Have a nice meal " or " Please enjoy your food, " but he didn't, because he knew that: the Buddha spoke. Don't enjoy the food. You must develop the visualization of impure food for the purpose of eliminating Craving for food. Contemplation of impure food can be practiced in many ways. For example, think: how hard you must try to get food. For ordinary people, who are not monks, you have to cook, cooking is suffering. For monks, they have to go for alms, go to many houses, and each place receive a little food. When going, monks must watch out for dogs, horses, cows, vehicles, etc. When you eat, the food is mixed with saliva and brought down to the stomach. If you take a piece of already chewed food out of your mouth, you won't want to eat it again. Thus, at the moment of chewing the food becomes unclean, but since you do not see the food in your mouth, you are ready to swallow it. When you take food out of your mouth, you don't even want to look at it, and you don't dare show it to anyone. Thus, visualization of impure food can develop in many ways. But just visualize it, but visualize it too much, when you just chew it, you have already released it and can't eat it. When you meditate on the impurity of food, what results do you achieve? You can only attain Access Concentration, you cannot attain the jhānas because concentration on impure food is not strong enough to attain the jhānas. Because while doing this meditation you think about many impure aspects of food, the mind cannot concentrate so strongly that the jhānas cannot be reached. Four Elements Analysis Group The next group is tetrahedral analysis. With this meditation subject, you can take parts of the body such as hair, hair, nails, teeth, skin etc. to see the four elements. There are 32 components in the body, of which 20 are of the earth element and 12 are of the water element . First you have to understand what the four elements are, then you try to understand which parts of the body have the properties of earth, water, etc. For example, if you have a feeling of hardness, you can conclude This is the earth element. When you feel sticky or wet you can conclude this is the water element etc… So try to see these elements anywhere in the body. When you see the elements in the body, you lose the idea of ​​the whole body. Such practice can also help you see the non-self nature of things. Practicing analytical meditation on the four elements can help you achieve Access Concentration, but not the jhānas. Since it is not easy to understand the four elements, it is very difficult to understand the four elements because these characteristics are so profound that concentration is not strong enough to reach the jhānas. Colorless Group Finally, the formless group is the four formless jhānas . If you do not study and study the Abhidhamma, you cannot understand what is formless. So you have to study Abidhamma to understand formlessness. Practicing formless meditation helps you to attain formless jhānas. The meditator must overcome the state of form (finished the form jhāna) and concentrate on the subject of the base of boundless space , the base of boundless consciousness , etc. For those who do not know the Abhidhamma first, it is difficult to understand. I don't talk much about this. Above are 40 meditation topics. If you want, you can practice one or more of these topics. Among the forty subjects, there are four that the Buddha called "protection", they protect the monks from the intrusion of defilements. The four topics are: Reciting the Buddha's Grace, Mindfulness of Death, Mindfulness of Loving-kindness, and Reciting the Dead Body. According to the Commentary, forty meditation subjects can be found in other religions and in other times. But vipassana is only found during the time when the Buddha's teachings were spread, which means that only the Buddha taught Vipassana. Meditation can be taught by many other teachers. Therefore, Meditation is the popular meditation of other doctrines and religions. Although we focus on Vipassana meditation, we cannot say that Meditation has no value. Meditation has its own place on the path of spiritual development. Because Meditation has its own value, the Buddha taught Meditation, but remember one thing: it is not our goal to just practice Meditation. We can practice Meditation whenever we can, but we have to turn to Vipassana meditation to get rid of defilements.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).BUDDHIST DHARMA WHEEL GOLDEN MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.24/9/2021.