Wisdom Wide and Deep
Page 1
WISDOM WIDE and DEEP
Wisdom Wide
and Deep
A Practical Handbook
for Mastering Jhāna and Vipassanā
SHAILA CATHERINE
Foreword by PA-AUK SAYADAW
WISDOM PUBLICATIONS • BOSTON
Wisdom Publications
199 Elm Street
Somerville MA 02144 USA
www.wisdompubs.org
© 2011 Shaila Catherine.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Catherine, Shaila.
Wisdom wide and deep: a practical handbook for mastering jhāna and vipassanā / Shaila Catherine.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-86171-623-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Meditation—Buddhism. I. Title.
BQ5612.C39 2011
294.3’4435—dc23
2011022681
ISBN 9780861716234
eBook ISBN 9780861718528
15 14 13 12 11
5 4 3 2 1
Author photo by Janet Taylor. Cover design by Pema Studios. Interior design by Gopa&Ted2.
Set in Diacritical Garamond Pro 11.5/14.75.
Wisdom Publications’ books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
This book was produced with environmental mindfulness. For more information, please visit our website, www.wisdompubs.org. This paper is also FSC certified. For more information, please visit www.fscus.org.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Pa-Auk Sayadaw
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Approaching Deep Calm and Insight
SECTION I. ESTABLISHING CONCENTRATION THROUGH MINDFULNESS WITH BREATHING
1. Clearing the Path: Overcoming the Five Hindrances
2. Leading the Way: Enhancing Five Controlling Faculties
3. Eleven Supports for Developing Concentration
4. Beyond Distraction: Establishing Jhāna through Mindfulness with Breathing
SECTION II. CONCENTRATION BEYOND THE BREATH
Introduction to Section II:
Concentration Beyond the Breath
5. Embodying Your World: Contemplating Thirty-Two Parts of the Body
6. Expanded Perceptions: Ten Kasiṇa Circles
7. Infinite Perceptions: Four Immaterial Jhānas
8. Boundless Heart: Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, and Equanimity
9. Reflections on Death: Contemplating the Corpse
10. Eleven Skills for Jhāna Meditation
SECTION III. DISCERNING ULTIMATE REALITIES
11. Concepts and Reality: Penetrating the Illusion of Compactness
12. Explorations of Matter: Four Elements Meditation
13. Nature of Mind: Discerning Ultimate Mentality
14. A Magic Show: Emptiness of the Five Aggregates
15. Causes and Effects: Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
16. A Thorough Examination: Recognizing the Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause
SECTION IV. REALIZING THE DEATHLESS LIBERATION
17. Liberating Insight:
Contemplating Three Universal Characteristics
18. Release from the Bonds: Ten Fetters, Four Stages of Enlightenment, and Sixteen Knowledges
19. Of Lasting Benefit: Practice in the Midst of Daily Life
Notes
Bibliography
Glossary of Pali Terms and Buddhist Concepts
Index
About the Author
LIST OF MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS
1.1 Mindfulness with Breathing plus Counting
2.1 Recollection of the Buddha
2.2 Reflection on Virtue and Generosity
2.3 Observing Long and Short Breaths
3.1 Observing the Whole Breath
4.1 Seeing the Nimitta
4.2 Entering the First Jhāna
4.3 Emerging, Reflecting, and Progressing
4.4 Developing the Five Masteries
4.5 Entering the Third Jhāna
4.6 Entering the Fourth Jhāna
5.1 Meditating on the Thirty-Two Internal Parts
5.2 Meditating on the Thirty-Two External Parts
5.3 Meditating on Repulsiveness
5.4 The Skeleton
6.1 Developing the Earth Kasiṇa
6.2 Using Elements as Jhāna Subjects
7.1 Disadvantages of Materiality
8.1 A Good Start Each Day
8.2 Cultivating Mettā as a Jhāna Practice
8.3 Breaking Down the Boundaries
8.4 Radiating Kindness for All Beings
8.5 Cultivating Compassion as a Jhāna Practice
8.6 Cultivating Joy as a Jhāna Practice
8.7 Cultivating Equanimity as a Jhāna Practice
9.1 Decomposition of the Corpse
9.2 Meditating on More Corpses
12.1 Identifying the Four Elements through Twelve Characteristics
12.2 Discerning Eight Nonopposing Characteristics
12.3 Analyzing Real Materialities
12.4 Analyzing Nonreal, Nonconcrete Materialities
12.5 Analyzing the Dynamics of Matter
12.6 A World of Matter
13.1 Observing Mind-Body Responses
13.2 Discerning Mental Formations Characteristic of Jhāna
13.3 Discerning the Jhāna Cognitive Process
13.4 Discerning the Mind-Door Cognitive Process
13.5 Discerning the Sense-Sphere Cognitive Process
13.6 A Real World
14.1 Discerning Five Aggregates
15.1 Discerning the Causes for This Human Birth
15.2 Causal Relationships in Sense-Sphere Cognitive Processes
15.3 Causal Relationships in Mind-Door Cognitive Processes
15.4 Further Back in Time
15.5 Discerning Future Existences
15.6 Exploring Causal Relationships between the Twelve Links
16.1 Defining Phenomena by Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause
17.1 Contemplating the Characteristics of Materiality
17.2 Contemplating Phenomena One by One
17.3 Contemplating Material and Mental Phenomena as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
17.4 Contemplating the Five Aggregates as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
17.5 Contemplating Jhāna Factors as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
17.6 Contemplating the Bases and Elements as Impermanent, Unsatisfactory, and Not-Self
17.7 Forty Ways of Viewing Phenomena with the Three Characteristics
17.8 Contemplating the Repulsiveness of Inanimate Material Phenomena
17.9 Contemplating the Repulsiveness of Animate Material Phenomena
17.10 Contemplating Phenomena in Incremental Time Periods
17.11 Focus on Mentality through Seven Exercises
18.1 Contemplating the Arising and Perishing of Causes and Effects According to the Fifth Method
18.2 Contemplating the Arising and Perishing of Causes and Effects According to the First Method
18.3 Contemplating Insight Knowledge
LIST OF TABLES
Many of these tables, plus additional, expanded, and updated tables, may be found at www.imsb.org.
&nb
sp; 1.1 Five Ways to Investigate Hindrances
1.2 Five Hindrances
4.1 Five Jhāna Factors
4.2 Four Jhānas
4.3 Progression of Jhāna Factors
5.1 Body Meditations
6.1 Ten Kasiṇas as Meditation Subjects
7.1 Immaterial Jhānas
8.1 Four Divine Abodes as Meditation Subjects
10.1 Jhāna Potential of Meditation Subjects
12.1 Four Ultimate Realities
12.2 Twenty-Eight Types of Material Phenomena
12.3 Schema of the Material Groups
12.4 Sixty-Three Rūpas of the Eye, Ear, Nose, and Tongue Doors
12.5 Fifty-Three Rūpas of the Body Door
12.6 Sixty-Three Rūpas of the Mind Door
12.7 Parts of the Body Organized by Element
13.1 Fifty-Two Mental Factors
13.2 Mental Formations Associated with Jhāna
13.3 Seventeen Consciousnesses in Sense-Sphere Cognitive Process
13.4 Variable Consciousnesses in Mind-Door Cognitive Process
13.5 Mental Formations Present in Jhāna
13.6 First Jhāna Cognitive Process with Associated Mental Formations
13.7 Formations that Comprise the Impulsion Consciousness of Unwholesome Mental States
13.8 Mental Formations in Wholesome Five-Door Cognitive Processes
13.9 Mental Formations in Unwholesome Five-Door Cognitive Processes
13.10 Mental Formations in Wholesome Mind-Door Cognitive Processes
15.1 Twelve Links of Dependent Arising
15.2 Past and Present Causes
16.1 Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Causes of Twenty-Eight Kinds of Materiality
16.2 Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Causes of the Consciousness Aggregate
16.3 Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Causes of the Feeling Aggregate
16.4 Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Causes of Mental Formations
16.5 Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Causes of Twelve Factors of Dependent Arising
17.1 Forty Ways of Viewing Phenomena with the Three Characteristics
18.1 Four Stages of Enlightenment
18.2 Cognitive Process that Takes Nibbāna as Object
18.3 Schedule of the Removal of Defilements
PUBLISHER’S ACKNOWLEDGMENT
THE PUBLISHER gratefully acknowledges the generous help of the Hershey Family Foundation in sponsoring the publication of this book.
FOREWORD
IS IT POSSIBLE for people today to attain the deep absorption states of jhāna? Can modern meditators directly know and see ultimate realities, and personally realize the liberating fruit of vipassanā? Decades of teaching both monastics and laypeople from all over the world have demonstrated to me that the answer is yes.
Effective methods for practicing jhāna and vipassanā have been preserved and mastered by generations of dedicated monastic and lay practitioners, but until recently have been little known in the West. Many years ago my teacher asked me to plant the seeds of this approach in the West. Under my guidance, Shaila Catherine, one of my American lay students, has since 2006 thoroughly practiced the detailed methods of both jhāna and vipassanā. I encouraged her to write a book based on her own experience of this training, and I am very pleased with what she has done.
Wisdom Wide and Deep is a beautifully written handbook that describes an effective approach to the path of jhāna and vipassanā. This book introduces meditation practices adapted from the fifth-century meditation manual The Visuddhimagga, supported by the philosophical structures of Abhidhamma analysis, and securely rooted in the Buddha’s teachings. This method is distinguished by its emphasis on the initial development of the meditative absorptions called jhāna, and the precise discernment of the ultimate realities of mind and matter. Once the mind is concentrated and psychophysical processes are seen clearly, insight practice becomes efficient, transformative, and exceedingly effective for realizing liberating knowledge. Wisdom Wide and Deep skillfully guides dedicated meditators to experience the stability of deep concentration, to recognize the subtle nature of material and mental processes, and to realize the exquisite peacefulness that arises from genuine insight knowledge.
This is a handbook that respects both the ancient tradition and the needs of contemporary lay practitioners, without compromising either. Shaila Catherine presents the Buddha’s teaching by blending scriptural references, personal examples, and timeless stories with detailed meditation instructions. She writes with an authority that comes from genuine meditation experience, and a clarity that is informed by her own personal experiences of this training. The combination of Shaila’s pragmatic style and theoretical knowledge produces a striking invitation for the reader to apply these instructions and master the complete practice for awakening.
I highly recommend Wisdom Wide and Deep to any serious meditator who wants to practice what the Buddha discovered and taught.
Pa-Auk Sayadaw
PA-AUK SAYADAW is the abbot of Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Burma. He has spent his life promoting the teachings of the Buddha through study, practice, and realization. He teaches worldwide and is the author of The Workings of Kamma and Knowing and Seeing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A DETAILED AND COMPREHENSIVE BOOK of this nature represents the work of many individuals who have each brought their insightful and caring attention to these pages.
I am deeply grateful to the Buddhist tradition, past and present, and the countless unknown individuals who have preserved, translated, and articulated these teachings and trainings. It is remarkable that I can sit in a suburban town thousands of years and thousands of miles removed from the culture of ancient India where the Buddha lived and taught, and find my life deeply touched by his teachings. The rich legacy left by generations of meditators includes detailed records of the Buddha’s ministry, instruction manuals, and commentaries that remain remarkably relevant to contemporary explorations of mind.
The approach presented in Wisdom Wide and Deep shares the teachings that I was privileged to receive from Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw during a 2008 retreat held at the Insight Meditation Society, in the USA. Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw carefully guided me through this training. His mastery of these teachings, his patient and flexible teaching style, his extraordinary devotion to meditation, and the wisdom that he earned during more than seventy years of practice combined to create an astonishing presentation of this profound and systematic approach to direct insight. The Sayadaw’s assistant, Venerable U Jāgara, brought a practical clarity that helped to make these traditional methods relevant and accessible for Western practitioners. Anonymous practitioners at Pa-Auk Monastery have devoted countless hours to a careful editing of Sayadaw’s teachings and the preparation of detailed English language course material. The publishing team at Wisdom Publications—including Josh Bartok, Laura Cunningham, Eric Shutt, Gopa&Ted2, Joe Evans, Denise Getz, Tony Lulek, and Megan Anderson—dedicated to a vision that values both contemporary and traditional approaches to Buddhist wisdom, worked diligently to present this book to modern readers. The joy and patience that pervaded each communication, and the respect for the dhamma that I see reflected in their work, has been an inspiration for me at every stage of this project.
I could not have completed this project without the thoughtful assistance of Theresa Farrah, Ann Smith Dillon, Faith Lindsay, and David Collins who poured over early drafts of the manuscript. Their feedback clarified numerous points, streamlined the presentation, and made rarefied practices more accessible to contemporary readers. Glenn Smith captured the essence of this work when he suggested the title Wisdom Wide and Deep. Additionally, more than a dozen friends, students, and teachers provided valuable feedback on one or more sections of this work, including Annie Belt, John Kelly, Noa Ronkin, Leslie Knight, Anne Macquarie, Sayalay Anattarā, Sayalay Muditā Vihāri, Susan Larson,
Janet Taylor, James Macdonald, Jami Milton, Christopher Titmuss, Lila Kate Wheeler, and anonymous readers at Pa-Auk Monastery.
The tables were composed with material gathered from several sources. I drew on the Pa-Auk course material, worksheets from an Abhidhamma course taught by Andy Olendzki at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and charts of Buddhist lists that twelve members of Insight Meditation South Bay had collaboratively drafted for our web site (www.imsb.org). Several tables were inspired by the elegant clarity of tables included in Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation of A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma and Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw’s The Workings of Kamma. My respect and appreciation is especially extended to Maureen O’Brien, whose artful and careful attention to each chart transformed rather mechanical details into a presentation that exposes the refreshing beauty of well-organized, systematic thought.
This project has been silently supported by a continuous influx of encouragement and generosity from my meditation community and family. Many volunteers at Insight Meditation South Bay, most notably Lois Gerchman, took on additional duties in order to free up my time for writing. My siblings, Lisa and Philip, provide a continuous source of strength in my life. My mother, Elizabeth Tromovitch, has supported every phase of this work with endless love, patience, and encouragement.
I offer copious thanks to the many named and unnamed people who generously contributed their time and wisdom to this project. May they be happy and well.
INTRODUCTION
Approaching Deep Calm and Insight
One who stops trains of thought
As a shower settles a cloud of dust,
With a mind that has quelled thoughts
Attains in this life the state of peace.
—THE ITIVUTTAKA1
THIS BOOK, Wisdom Wide and Deep, follows my first, Focused and Fearless: A Meditator’s Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity, which contains the initial instructions for developing concentration in daily life, overcoming obstacles such as restlessness and distraction, building conditions for tranquility and calmness, and establishing the deep meditative absorptions called jhāna. Wisdom Wide and Deep extends the training of concentration and insight by drawing extensively on the wisdom preserved in two traditional sources—The Visuddhimagga, a traditional manual for Buddhist practice, and the Abhidhamma, a branch of Buddhist philosophy that emphasizes a systematic and analytical approach to understanding the mind. The structure for these practices and many illustrations are derived directly from the teachings that I received from the meditation master Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw of Burma (Myanmar). Wisdom Wide and Deep is not, however, a strict presentation of Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw’s work. Rather, I have infused each topic with related teachings, personal examples, and wisdom gleaned from other Buddhist sources that have also supported my path of practice as a Western lay practitioner.