So Samadhi is useful and is used for both systems in the Buddhist meditation, whether it is calm meditation or insight meditation. But the very firm Samadhi will lead to the jhana state, which will be the basis for developing awareness and insight later. And then samādhi in the lesser degree becomes the factor for developing mindfulness or it is developed within the process of being aware, being attentive, being mindful of whatever you do, of the object, certain object you meditate on in meditation, so that this Samadhi will not be very strong, but it provides clarity and stillness of the mind, but will not lead to any jhanic state,

[01:35]

Because jhana is not necessary for achieving enlightenment. But jhana will be a kind of spiritual game so that you can play with it and have more joy, have more fun. Then, in fact, you should not be confused if you understand the real meaning of samādhi and take concentration as the beginning step, the one quietness, being one with object, in order to be stable. And then you can leave the object when your mind becomes stable, stabilized, And then you don't need object.

[02:39]

Like when you start with the breathing, when you feel now you are one with it, your mind is not distracted, it does not wander, does not go off. And then you say now leave the breathing alone. You just stay with the state of oneness, the state of or the steadiness or the stability at the moment, then you become clearer and become more still. But if you try to hold on to the object, and you may have to make effort to maintain the object, sometimes the breathing becomes very gentle, very even, and it is hard to perceive. Then you make more and more effort to maintain it, to keep it, and then your energy becomes dissipated. Then you lose it. You lose the steadiness, and you become emotionally involved with maintaining the object.

[03:45]

That's why coming to a certain point, the object has to be transcended. Speaking of the different levels of consciousness, when you ask me here, can the idea of laya-vijjana be mispronounced as short-consciousness? You know what I mean? I think I'm being short on time. Yes. I'm wondering how different from Atman theory, in Hinduism, how is it different from the idea of soul? Yes, Aryabhinyana is Mahayana concept, store consciousness. The Atman, the Hindu idea of Atman is the immortal soul, immortal self, which is everlasting.

[04:54]

which is the permanent everlasting entity. It can go out of one body and take in another body. It never dies. it can divide itself too into the small Atman. This is called Sivatman. Like all individuals have the small Atman, which will have certain experience in the samsaric life in the world, in the world of death and birth, until it be... it becomes purified in order to be united with Paramatman, the Supreme Self.

[05:57]

So that is the Hindu idea. And because of that, there is teaching of reincarnation because of the continuity of this Sivatman, the small Atman, wandering around, roaming about in different worlds, experiencing different things, good and bad, negative, positive. Yeah, I think the idea of araya vijnana would be similar to the concept of bhavangva citta in Theravada Buddhism. We talk about the stream of becoming, the stream of existing, But this dream of existing and becoming is now in this life. We don't refer to it as something permanent.

[07:01]

Yes, truly in this life it is flowing, it is running on, like water running, flowing without being disturbed. But we said in Buddhism that this pavankāra-alaya-vijñāna can be, the contents of it can be cleared up by a process of transformation, transformation of consciousness. which will help us to get, to bring out the contents of the Pavanca. And then the Pavanca will be purified, will be pure and luminous. And that is when it turns to be bodhicitta, the enlightened consciousness.

[08:10]

He is no longer Bhavankara or no longer Aranya or Gujjana. This is different from the Hindu. You said that the storehouse consciousness might be there. How can it be? No, I said it is the Mahayana concept. I don't say it is idea. I didn't say that. Sure. Is it mind itself or functional mind itself? In Buddhism we use mind and consciousness as the same process. Vijnana or citta. Vijnana consciousness. Jitta mind, we use these two terms as something synonymous.

[09:19]

But there are different levels of mind or consciousness. So araya vijnana is the deepest level of consciousness or mind. It is functioning. The rosary is described as a function. I think I understand how it's got to do. It is a dysfunctional mind. I was supposed to say it's a function. Why is it dysfunctional? It's like water flowing. It is flowing. What should be the problem? The mind is functioning, it is functioning. Get into the flow of it. You will see.

[10:25]

So, if we have one more question. In your tradition, what kinds of studies do you precede out-of-bounds studies? What kind of study do I do before studying Abhidhamma? In fact, there is no order of studies like that. But normally, the teachers prefer to teach Abhidhamma to those who have experience in meditation. In the curriculum of Buddhist studies in Thailand, Abhidhamma will be studied at the highest level.

[11:54]

So you study different forms at different levels of dhamma in different forms, very simple categories of dhamma, and come to the highest one. And then you study the Pali language, which is the language of the scriptures. So you study something like Dhammapada, and then you study the commentaries, Mangalatatipinni, and you study some other books, but all Indian Pali in the books of discipline. And you study Visuddhimakka, the path of purification. And then you study Abhidhamma.

[12:56]

But mostly, just only the translation. The translation, sometimes they don't understand the meaning. But according to the curriculum, if you can translate it into the Thai language, it is OK. You may understand some meaning of the words, but still cannot really appreciate. So the teacher normally, they prefer to teach those who have experience in meditation, but in the curriculum, they just study Pali normally, study the language and understand some meaning. So if it would be enough for today, we still have Thank you.

[13:56]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_89.1