White Kasina
It is mentioned in the suttas that the white kasina is the best of the four colour kasinas because of its ability to make the mind clear and bright. For that reason we will show how to develop that particular colour kasina first. To develop the white kasina you should firstly re-establish the fourth jhana based on mindfulness of breathing. Then when the light produced by that concentration is bright, brilliant, and radiant discern the 32 parts of the body internally. Then discern the 32 parts...
Falling into Bhavanga
In this book we have written briefly about how to develop appana jhana using several different traditional meditation subjects such as mindfulness of breathing, skeleton meditation, and white kasina. These meditation subjects all produce two classes of concentration upacara concentration and appana concentration. The concentration that precedes close to the entering into jhana concentration is called upacara concentration and the concentration present when one has entered into jhana is called...
The Light Kasina Meditation
The light kasina can be developed by seeing the light as it streams into a room through a crack in the wall and falls on the floor, or as it streams through the spaces between the leaves of a tree and falls on the earth, or by looking up through the branches of a tree and seeing the light in the sky above. If you have difficulty in developing the sign in these ways then you can get an earthen pot and place a candle or lamp inside it and face the opening of the pot towards a wall so that a beam...
The Khanika Samadhi Of Cittavisuddhi
There are some respected teachers who believe that a suddha vipassana yanika individual does not need to develop samadhi, but can proceed to do vipassana practice with only khanika samadhi momentary concentration . For this reason let us explain a little about the khanika samadhi of a suddha vipassana yanika individual at the time of attaining citta visuddhi and the khanika samadhi present at the time of true vipassana practice. A samatha yanika individual who has developed one of the jhanas...
Insight And Momentary Concentration
The visuddhimagga says that a meditator should try to develop the insight knowledges from sammasana nana comprehension by groups upwards only after he has completed five kinds of discernment. These are 1. rupa pariggaha discerning of rupas. 2. arupa pariggaha discerning of namas. 3. nama rupa pariggaha discerning of namas and rupas. 4. paccaya pariggaha discerning of dhammas which are causes and dhammas which are results of the present namas and rupas. 5. addhana pariggaha discerning of dhammas...
The Fire Kasina Meditation
To develop the fire kasina you can use the flames of a fire, a candle, of any other fire that you have seen. If you have difficulty then you should make a screen with a circular hole in it that is about one foot across. Then you can position that screen in front of a wood or grass fire in such a way that you can just see the flames through the hole in the screen. Without paying attention to the smoke or the fuel that is burning just concentrate on the perception of the flames of the fire and...
Analysing The Rupa Transparent Elements
The organ of the eye contains several kinds of rupas which are interspersed like rice flour and wheat flour mixed together. In the eye there are two kinds of transparent elements mixed together the eye transparent element and body transparent element. This means that the cakkhu dasaka rupa kalapas and kaya dasaka rupa kalapas are interspersed. The kaya dasaka kalapas which contain body transparent element are found spread throughout the six sense bases and are interspersed with the cakkhu...
Colour Kasina
There are four colours used as a basis for kasina meditation and they are blue, red, yellow, and white. Of these four colours the one translated as blue nila can also be translated as black, or brown. All four of these kasinas can be developed by using the colours of different parts of the body. For example according to the Abhidhamma commentary the colour of the head hair, body hair, and iris of the eyes can be used to develop the nila kasina up to the fourth jhana or fifth jhana. The four...