So, Samadhi is useful and is used for both systems in the Buddhist meditation, whether it is calm meditation or insight meditation. But, a very firm Samadhi will lead to the Jhana state, which will be the basis for developing awareness and insight later. And then Samadhi, 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

[01:13]

you do, of the certain objects 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 Jhana state, 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 Samadhi

[02:20]

and take concentration as the beginning step, the one pointedness 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, 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, it does not go off, and then you say now leave the breathing alone, you just stay with the state of oneness, the state of steadiness or stability at the moment, then you become clearer and become more still, but if you try to hold on to the object, you may have

[03:21]

to make effort to maintain the object, sometimes the breathing becomes very gentle, very even, and it is hard to perceive, and you make more and more effort to maintain it, to keep it, and then your energy becomes dissipated, and you lose it, you lose the steadiness, and you become emotionally involved with maintaining the object, that's why coming to a certain point, the object has to be transcended. You were speaking of different levels of consciousness when you last met here, and the idea of a laya vijnana, I think it's pronounced store consciousness, do you know what I mean? I'm not sure about that, but I was wondering how different from Atman theory, in Hinduism, how is it different from the idea of soul?

[04:24]

Yes, Arya Vijnana is Mahayana concept, store consciousness. The Atman, the Hindu idea of Atman is the immortal soul, immortal self, which is everlasting, 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 into the small Atman, which is called Shiva Atman, like all individuals have the small Atman, which will have certain experience in the

[05:38]

samsaric life in the world, in the world of birth and death, until it becomes purified in order to be united with Brahmatman, the supreme self, so that is Hindu idea, and because of that there is teaching of reincarnation, because of the continuity of this Shiva Atman, the small Atman wandering around, roaming about in different worlds, experiencing different things, good and bad, negative, positive. I think the idea of Arya Vijnana would be similar to the concept of Avangajita in Theravada Buddhism,

[06:43]

we talk about the stream of becoming, the stream of existing, but the stream of existing and becoming is now in this life, we don't refer to it as something permanent, yes, surely in this life it is flowing, it is running on, like water, running, flowing without being disturbed, but we said in Buddhism that this Pavanka Arya Vijnana 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 Pavanka, and then the Pavanka will be purified, will be pure and luminous,

[07:57]

and that is, then it turns to be Bodhicitta, the enlightened consciousness, it is no longer Pavanka, no longer Arya Vijnana, this is different from the Hindu. You said it, I think I heard you say it, the storehouse consciousness, an idea, how can it... No, I said it is the Mahayana concept, I don't say it is an idea, I didn't say that, sure. Is it mind itself or function of mind itself? In Buddhism we use mind and consciousness as the same process, Vijnana or Citta, Vijnana consciousness,

[09:10]

Citta mind, we use these two terms as something synonymous, but there are different levels of mind or consciousness, so Arya Vijnana is the deepest level of consciousness or mind, it is function. You are also able to describe that as concept. I don't understand how it is possible to... If it is function of mind, how is it possible to say it is a concept? Why it is functioning, it is like the water flowing, it is flowing, what should be the problem?

[10:13]

The mind is functioning, it is functioning. Get into the flow of it, you will see. So, if we have one more question. In your tradition, what kinds of studies do you pre-seed out of Jnanas? What kind of study I do before studying Abhidhamma? In fact there is no order of studies like that,

[11:21]

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. So you will study different forms, at different levels of Dhamma, in different, from the 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.

[12:26]

So you study something like the Dhammapada, and then you study the commentaries, and you study some other books, but only in Pali, in the books of discipline. And you study the Suttimaka, the path of purification, and then you study Abhidhamma. 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 okay. You may understand some meaning of the words, but still cannot really appreciate it. So, the teacher normally, they prefer to teach those who have experience in meditation,

[13:32]

but in the curriculum, they just study Pali normally, study the language and understand some meaning. So, I think that would be enough for today. We still have...

[13:55]

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