The Earth Meditation Device (Chapter 4)

What this chapter covers: This chapter is the master template for all concentration meditation. It explains how to choose a suitable monastery, how to build and use an earth totality device (kasina) to develop concentration, the difference between the learning sign and the counterpart sign, how access concentration leads to full absorption (jhana), the ten kinds of skill in absorption, and the detailed mechanics of all four (or five) levels of deep absorption. Chapters 5 through 10 all refer back to the instructions given here.

Finding the Right Place to Practice

As stated earlier, a meditator should avoid a monastery that is unfavourable for developing concentration and go to live in one that is favourable.

If it is convenient to live with your teacher, stay there while you are getting clear on your meditation subject. If that place is not convenient, you can live in another suitable monastery — a quarter, half, or even a full league away. When you have a question or have forgotten part of the instructions, do the monastery duties early, go for alms on the way, and arrive at the teacher’s place after your meal. Clarify the meditation subject that day. The next morning, pay respects to the teacher, go for alms on the way back, and return to your own place without fatigue.

But if no convenient place exists within even a league, clarify all difficulties about the meditation subject thoroughly. Then you can go far away, avoiding an unfavourable monastery and settling in a favourable one.

The Eighteen Faults of a Monastery

A monastery is unfavourable if it has any of these eighteen faults:

Largeness — People with different aims collect in a large monastery. They clash and neglect duties. The meditation grounds go unswept. Drinking water is not set out. If you set out for alms and notice undone duties, you either do them and arrive too late for food, or skip them and commit a breach of duty. When you go into retreat, you are distracted by the noise of novices and community business. However, you can live in a large monastery where all duties are done and none of these disturbances exist.
Newness — In a new monastery there is much building activity. People criticize someone who takes no part. But you can stay if the other monks say, “Let him do his ascetic duties as much as he likes. We will see to the building.”
Dilapidatedness — In a run-down monastery there is much that needs repair. People criticize someone who does not fix at least his own lodging. When he sees to repairs, his meditation suffers.
A nearby road — Visitors keep arriving day and night. You have to give up your lodging to late arrivals and sleep at the root of a tree or on top of a rock. There is no opportunity to practice. But you can stay if there is no such disturbance.
A pond — A rock pool attracts crowds who come for drinking water. Pupils of city-dwelling elders come for dyeing work. They ask for vessels, wood, and tubs. You are kept on alert all the time.
Edible leaves — Women vegetable-gatherers sing as they pick leaves nearby, disturbing your meditation with sounds of the opposite sex.
Flowers — Where flowering shrubs bloom, the same danger exists.
Fruits — Where mangoes, rose-apples, and jackfruits grow, people come asking for them. If you refuse, they get angry. If they take them by force and you question them, they abuse you and even try to evict you.
Famousness — In a famous monastery, people always come wanting to pay homage, assuming you are an awakened being (arahant). This is inconvenient. But if it suits you, you can stay there at night and go elsewhere by day.
A nearby city — Women carrying water pots bump into you giving no room to pass. Important people spread carpets in the middle of the monastery and sit down.
Nearby timber trees — Wood-gatherers cause the same problems as fruit-gatherers. People come and cut down trees to build houses. If you question them, they abuse you and try to evict you.
Nearby farmland — People use the monastery grounds as a threshing floor. They dry grain in the forecourts. Monastery attendants impound cattle and deny water to crops. Disputes arise and you end up going to the king’s court.
Incompatible persons — Where monks are hostile to each other, when clashes are protested they exclaim, “We no longer count now that this rag-robe wearer has come.”
A nearby port of entry — People constantly arrive by ship or caravan, crowding around and asking for space, drinking water, or salt.
Nearness to border countries — People there have no trust in the Buddha, the teaching, or the community.
Nearness to the frontier of a kingdom — There is fear of kings. One king attacks thinking, “It does not submit to my rule,” and the other does the same. They suspect you of spying and bring about your ruin.
Unsuitability — This means risk from encountering distracting sights or sounds of the opposite sex, or haunting by non-human beings. Here is a story: An elder lived in a forest. An ogress stood in the door of his leaf hut and sang. The elder came out and stood in the doorway. She moved to the end of the walking path and sang. The elder followed. She stood at the edge of a chasm a hundred fathoms deep and sang. The elder recoiled. Then she suddenly grabbed him, saying, “Venerable sir, it is not just one or two of the likes of you I have eaten.”
Lack of good friends — Where you cannot find a good friend as a teacher, preceptor, or equivalent, this is a serious fault.

A large abode, a new abode, One tumbling down, one near a road, One with a pond, or leaves, or flowers, Or fruits, or one that people seek; In cities, among timber, fields, Where people quarrel, in a port, In border lands, on frontiers, Unsuitableness, and no good friend — These are the eighteen instances A wise man needs to recognize And give them full as wide a berth As any bandit-haunted road.

The Five Qualities of a Good Monastery

A favourable monastery has five qualities. The Buddha said:

Not too far and not too near — It has a path for going and coming to the alms village.
Quiet — It is little frequented by day, with little sound and few voices by night.
Free from pests — There is little contact with gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, burning sun, and creeping things.
Easy to obtain necessities — A monk living there easily obtains robes, alms food, lodging, and medicine.
Wise elders in residence — There are elder monks who are learned, versed in the scriptures, and who observe the teaching and the discipline. When you ask them questions, they reveal the unrevealed, explain the unexplained, and remove doubt about the many things that raise doubts.

Clearing Away Minor Impediments

A meditator living in such a favourable monastery should clear away any remaining minor impediments. Long head hair, nails, and body hair should be cut. Old robes should be mended, patched, or dyed. A stained bowl should be baked. The bed, chair, and other furnishings should be cleaned.

How to Make the Earth Device

When these minor impediments are cleared, the meditator returns from his alms round, finishes his meal, shakes off any drowsiness, and sits down comfortably in a secluded place. He then focuses on a sign in earth — either made up or naturally occurring.

The original instruction says: “One who is learning the earth totality device (kasina) focuses on a sign in earth that is either prepared or natural. It must be bounded, not unbounded — limited, with a clear edge — about the size of a bushel lid or a saucer. He sees to it that the sign is well grasped, well attended to, and well defined. Having done that, seeing its value and treating it as a treasure, building up respect for it and making it dear to him, he anchors his mind to that object, thinking: ‘Surely in this way I shall be freed from aging and death.’ Secluded from sense desires, he enters upon and dwells in the first deep absorption.”

When Natural Earth Works

If in a previous life a person has already practiced deep absorption on the earth device, the sign may arise spontaneously from natural earth — a ploughed field or a threshing floor. This is what happened to the Elder Mallaka. While looking at a ploughed area, the sign arose in him the size of that entire area. He extended it, attained the five levels of deep absorption, established insight on that basis, and reached full awakening (arahantship).

Preparing a Device from Scratch

If you have no such previous experience, you must make a device yourself. Guard against the four faults: the intrusion of blue, yellow, red, or white colour. Do not use clay of these colours. Instead, use clay the colour of dawn — like that found in the stream of the Ganges.

Background Note: The Ganges here may refer either to the Ganges in India or to the Mahaveli River in Sri Lanka. The clay from the eroded riverbanks of the Ravana River in Sri Lanka is said to be exactly this dawn colour.

Do not make it in the middle of the monastery where novices walk about. Make it on the outskirts, in a screened place — under an overhanging rock or in a leaf hut. It can be portable or fixed.

Portable: Tie rags, leather, or matting onto four sticks. Smear on a disk of the prescribed size using clay picked clean of grass, roots, gravel, and sand, well kneaded. During practice, lay it on the ground and look at it.
Fixed: Knock stakes into the ground in the shape of a lotus bud. Lace them with creepers. If the good clay is insufficient, put ordinary clay underneath and make a disk a span and four fingers across on top with pure, dawn-coloured clay.

The disk must be bounded and delimited. Scrape it smooth with a stone trowel — not a wooden one, which discolours it — until it is as even as the surface of a drum.

Setting Up Your Seat

Sweep the area and bathe. Sit on a well-padded chair with legs a span and four fingers high. Place it two and a half cubits from the disk. If you sit farther, the disk will not appear clearly. If you sit closer, faults in the disk become visible. If you sit too high, you strain your neck looking down. If you sit too low, your knees ache.

Beginning the Practice

Once seated properly, review the dangers of sense desires: “Sense desires give little enjoyment.” Arouse longing for the escape from sense desires — the renunciation that overcomes all suffering.

Then arouse:

Joy — by recollecting the special qualities of the Buddha, the teaching (dhamma), and the community (sangha)
Awe — by thinking: “This is the way of renunciation entered upon by all Buddhas, solitary buddhas (paccekabuddhas), and noble disciples”
Eagerness — by thinking: “In this way I shall surely taste the bliss of seclusion”

After that, open your eyes moderately and begin developing the sign.

How to Look at the Device

If you open your eyes too wide, they get tired and the disk becomes too glaring, which prevents the sign from appearing. If you open them too little, the disk is not clear enough and the mind grows drowsy. Keep your eyes moderately open, as if seeing the reflection of your face on the surface of a mirror.

Background Note: Just as someone looking at their reflection in a mirror does not open their eyes too widely or too narrowly, and does not examine the colour of the mirror or analyse its properties, but simply looks with moderately open eyes and sees the reflection — so too this meditator looks with moderately open eyes at the earth device and occupies himself only with the sign.

What to Focus On

Do not review the colour. Do not give attention to the physical characteristic of hardness. Instead, while not ignoring the colour, set your mind on the name-concept as the primary mental object. The colour is just a property of the physical support. The real focus is the concept evoked by the name.

You can use any name for earth — “earth,” “the Great One,” “the Friendly One,” “ground,” “the Provider of Wealth” — whichever suits your manner of perception. The recommended label is simply “earth, earth.”

Alternate between looking with eyes open and eyes closed. Go on developing this a hundred times, a thousand times, and more, until the learning sign arises.

The Learning Sign

When the image comes into focus with your eyes closed just as clearly as with your eyes open, the learning sign (uggaha nimitta) has been produced.

After this, do not stay sitting in that place. Return to your own quarters and continue developing it there. Keep a pair of sandals and a walking stick handy to avoid delay. If the new concentration vanishes through some unsuitable encounter, put on your sandals, take your walking stick, go back to the original place, and re-establish the sign. Then return and develop it by repeated attention, striking at it with initial thought (vitakka) and sustained thought (vicara).

The Counterpart Sign

As you continue, the hindrances eventually become suppressed. The defilements subside. The mind becomes concentrated with access concentration (upacara samadhi). And the counterpart sign (patibhaga nimitta) arises.

The difference between the two signs:

The learning sign: Any fault in the physical disk is visible in it.
The counterpart sign: It appears as if breaking out from the learning sign — a hundred, a thousand times more purified. It is like a mirror disk drawn from its case, a mother-of-pearl dish freshly washed, the moon’s disk emerging from behind a cloud, or white cranes against a dark thundercloud. It has neither colour nor shape. It is born purely of perception in one who has gained concentration — a mere mode of appearance.

As soon as the counterpart sign arises, the hindrances are fully suppressed, the defilements subside, and the mind is concentrated in access concentration.

Access Concentration versus Absorption

Concentration is of two kinds: access concentration and absorption concentration (appana samadhi).

Access concentration: The mind becomes concentrated through the abandonment of the hindrances. But the factors are not yet strong. The mind alternates between the sign and the life-continuum — like a young child stood on its feet who repeatedly falls down.
Absorption concentration: The factors are strong. Once the mind enters absorption, it interrupts the flow of the life-continuum and carries on with a continuous stream of wholesome mental activity for a whole night or a whole day — like a healthy person who, once standing, can remain standing all day.

Guarding the Sign

The counterpart sign is very difficult to arouse. If you can reach absorption in that same session by extending the sign, good. If not, guard the sign as carefully as if it were the unborn child of a world-ruler.

So guard the sign, nor count the cost, And what is gained will not be lost; Who fails to have this guard maintained Will lose each time what he has gained.

The Seven Factors to Get Right

Guard the sign through seven factors. Avoid the unsuitable kind of each and cultivate the suitable:

Abode — An abode is unsuitable if the sign does not arise in it, or vanishes when it does arise, or if mindfulness fails to become established there. It is suitable if the sign arises and is confirmed, mindfulness becomes established, and the mind becomes concentrated. Try different abodes for three days each and stay where your mind becomes unified. It was due to a suitable abode that five hundred monks reached full awakening while dwelling in the Lesser Naga Cave in Sri Lanka.
Alms resort — A village lying to the north or south of the lodging, not too far (within about one and a half leagues), where food is easily obtained, is suitable.
Speech — The thirty-two kinds of pointless talk are unsuitable; they cause the sign to disappear. Talk based on the ten wholesome topics is suitable, but even that should be kept moderate.
Person — Someone not given to pointless talk, who has the qualities of virtue, and in whose company your unconcentrated mind becomes concentrated, is suitable. Someone obsessed with bodily comforts and addicted to chatter is unsuitable — like muddy water added to clear water. It was because of one such person that the attainments of a young monk living at Kotapabbata vanished entirely.
Food — Sweet food suits one person; sour food suits another.
Climate — A cool climate suits one person; a warm one suits another.
Posture — Walking suits one person; standing, sitting, or lying down suits another. Try each posture for three days and use the one in which your unconcentrated mind becomes concentrated.

Cultivate these seven suitable kinds and avoid the unsuitable. One who practices this way need not wait long until absorption fulfils his wish.

The Ten Kinds of Skill in Absorption

If absorption still does not arise, have recourse to these ten skills:

Making the basis clean
Balancing the faculties
Skill in the sign
Exerting the mind when it should be exerted
Restraining the mind when it should be restrained
Encouraging the mind when it should be encouraged
Looking on with equanimity when appropriate
Avoiding unconcentrated persons
Seeking out concentrated persons
Being resolute about concentration

1. Making the Basis Clean

The “basis” means both internal and external.

Internal: When head hair, nails, and body hair are long, or the body is soaked with sweat, the internal basis is unclean.
External: When old, dirty, smelly robes are worn or the lodging is dirty, the external basis is unclean.

When both are unclean, the knowledge that arises is unpurified — like the light of a lamp with a dirty bowl, wick, and oil. Formations do not become evident, and the meditation subject does not grow. When both are clean, knowledge is purified and the meditation subject comes to growth, increase, and fulfilment.

2. Balancing the Faculties

The five faculties are faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding. If any one of them is too strong, the others cannot perform their functions.

The most important balances are:

Faith and understanding: One who is strong in faith but weak in understanding has blind, groundless confidence. One who is strong in understanding but weak in faith becomes cunning and is as hard to cure as someone sick from the medicine itself. When the two are balanced, a person has confidence only where there are grounds for it.
Concentration and energy: One who is strong in concentration but weak in energy falls into idleness, since concentration favours idleness. One who is strong in energy but weak in concentration falls into agitation, since energy favours agitation. When the two are balanced, neither idleness nor agitation can take hold. Absorption comes with their balance.
Mindfulness: Strong mindfulness is needed in all cases. It protects the mind from lapsing into agitation through faith, energy, and understanding, and from lapsing into idleness through concentration. Mindfulness is as desirable in all cases as salt in all sauces, as a prime minister in all the king’s business.

3. Skill in the Sign

This is the skill of producing the sign of mental unification when it has not yet arisen, developing it when it has arisen, and protecting it once developed. Protection is what matters most here.

4. Exerting the Mind

When the mind is slack from over-laxness of energy, do not develop the tranquillity, concentration, or equanimity factors of awakening (bojjhanga). Instead develop investigation-of-states, energy, and happiness.

The Buddha gave this simile: If you want to make a small fire burn up, put dry grass, dry cow-dung, and dry sticks on it, blow on it, and do not scatter dust on it. Putting wet fuel on a small fire will not make it burn.

Seven things lead to the investigation-of-states factor: asking questions, making the basis clean, balancing the faculties, avoiding people without understanding, seeking out people with understanding, reviewing the field of profound knowledge, and being resolute about it.

Eleven things lead to the energy factor:

Reviewing the fearfulness of the lower realms of existence
Seeing the benefits that depend on energy
Reflecting: “The path taken by all Buddhas and great disciples must be taken by me, and it cannot be taken by an idler”
Being worthy of the alms food you receive
Reflecting on the greatness of the Teacher: “My Master praises the energetic”
Reflecting on the greatness of the heritage: “The Good Teaching must be acquired by me, and it cannot be acquired by an idler”
Removing dullness and drowsiness through attention to perception of light, changing posture, and going into the open air
Avoiding idle persons
Seeking out energetic persons
Reviewing the right endeavours
Being resolute about energy

Eleven things lead to the happiness factor: recollection of the Buddha, the teaching, the community, virtue, generosity, and deities; recollection of peace; avoiding rough persons; seeking out refined persons; reviewing encouraging discourses; and being resolute about happiness.

5. Restraining the Mind

When the mind is agitated from excessive energy, do not develop investigation-of-states, energy, or happiness. Instead develop tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity.

The Buddha gave this simile: If you want to put out a large fire, put wet grass, wet cow-dung, and wet sticks on it, sprinkle it with water, and scatter dust on it. Putting dry fuel on a large fire will not extinguish it.

Seven things lead to the tranquillity factor: using good food, living in a good climate, maintaining a comfortable posture, keeping to the middle way, avoiding violent persons, seeking out tranquil persons, and being resolute about tranquillity.

Eleven things lead to the concentration factor: making the basis clean, skill in the sign, balancing the faculties, restraining the mind when needed, exerting the mind when needed, encouraging a listless mind through faith and urgency, looking on with equanimity when things are going well, avoiding unconcentrated persons, seeking out concentrated persons, reviewing the deep absorptions and liberations, and being resolute about concentration.

Five things lead to the equanimity factor: maintaining neutrality towards living beings, maintaining neutrality towards inanimate things, avoiding persons who show favouritism, seeking out persons who maintain neutrality, and being resolute about equanimity.

6. Encouraging the Mind

When the mind is listless due to sluggish understanding or failure to attain the bliss of peace, stimulate it by reviewing the eight grounds for a sense of urgency:

Birth
Aging
Sickness
Death
The suffering of the lower realms
The suffering in the past rooted in the cycle of rebirth
The suffering in the future rooted in the cycle of rebirth
The suffering in the present rooted in the search for food

Also create confidence by recollecting the special qualities of the Buddha, the teaching, and the community.

7. Looking On with Equanimity

When the mind follows the path of serenity smoothly — occurring evenly on the object, neither idle nor agitated nor listless — do not try to exert, restrain, or encourage it. Simply observe. Be like a charioteer when the horses are running evenly.

8-10. Avoiding, Seeking Out, and Being Resolute

Avoid people who have never practised renunciation, who are busy with many affairs, and whose hearts are scattered. Periodically seek out people who have practised renunciation and attained concentration. And be resolute about concentration — give it importance, tend toward it, lean and incline toward it.

The Five Similes for Balanced Effort

If absorption still does not come, reflect on these five similes about balanced effort:

The Bee. A bee that is too eager rushes to a flowering tree, overshoots the blooms, turns back, and arrives when the pollen is gone. A bee that is too timid flies too slowly and also arrives too late. But a clever bee sets out at a balanced speed, arrives easily at the flowers, and takes as much pollen as it pleases.

The Surgeon’s Pupil. Students learning to use a scalpel practice on a lotus leaf floating in water. One who is too eager applies the blade too hard and either cuts the leaf in two or pushes it under. One who is too timid does not dare touch it. But one with balanced effort shows a perfect stroke.

The Spider’s Thread. A king announces a reward for anyone who can draw out a spider’s thread four fathoms long. One person pulls too fast and breaks it. Another is too afraid to touch it. But a clever person starts from the end, pulls with balanced effort, winds it on a stick, and wins the prize.

The Skipper. A skipper who is too bold hoists full sails in a high wind and sends his ship adrift. One who is too cautious lowers his sails in a light wind and goes nowhere. But a skilled skipper hoists full sails in light wind and takes in half his sails in strong wind, arriving safely at his destination.

The Oil Tube. A teacher offers a prize for filling an oil tube without spilling. One person pours too fast out of greed and spills. Another is too afraid to pour at all. But one who pours with balanced effort fills the tube and wins.

Just so with meditation. One monk forces his energy and the mind lapses into agitation. Another sees the danger in over-effort, slacks off, and the mind lapses into idleness. But one who frees the mind from even slight idleness and slight agitation, confronting the sign with balanced effort, reaches absorption.

How Absorption Arises in the Mind

While guiding the mind in this balanced way, knowing “Now absorption will succeed,” there arises mind-door adverting (manodvaravajjana) with that same earth device as its object, interrupting the life-continuum (bhavanga). This is triggered by the constant repetition of “earth, earth.”

After that, either four or five mental impulses (javana) arise on that same object. The last one is an impulse of the refined-material realm. The earlier ones are of the sense realm, but they have stronger initial thought, sustained thought, happiness, bliss, and mental unification than normal. They are called:

“Preliminary work” — because they are the groundwork for absorption
“Access” — because they occur near to absorption, just as we speak of “village access” for a place near a village
“Conformity” — because they conform to the preliminary work before them and the absorption after them
“Change-of-lineage” — because the last of these transcends the limited sense-sphere lineage and brings into being the exalted refined-material-sphere lineage

The sequence runs: the first impulse is preliminary work, the second is access, the third is conformity, the fourth is change-of-lineage — and the fifth is the absorption consciousness. Or, if direct knowledge is swift: access, conformity, change-of-lineage, and then the fourth is absorption. Either way, absorption fixes only in the fourth or fifth impulse. Beyond that, impulse lapses and the life-continuum takes over.

Background Note: The Elder Godatta, an expert in the higher teaching (abhidhamma), argued that absorption could also arise in the sixth or seventh impulse, since each succeeding state is strengthened by repetition. The commentaries reject this view. Just as a person running toward a cliff edge cannot stop once his foot is on the edge, there can be no fixing in absorption in the sixth or seventh because of the nearness of the life-continuum.

That first absorption lasts for only a single moment of consciousness. After that, it lapses into the life-continuum. Then the life-continuum is interrupted by adverting for the purpose of reviewing the deep absorption.

The First Deep Absorption

At this point: “Quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon and dwells in the first deep absorption (jhana), which is accompanied by initial thought and sustained thought, with happiness and bliss born of seclusion.”

This first deep absorption:

Abandons five factors (the five hindrances)
Possesses five factors (the five jhana factors)
Is good in three ways (beginning, middle, and end)
Has ten characteristics
Uses the earth device as its object

The Five Hindrances Abandoned

No deep absorption arises until these five hindrances (nivarana) are abandoned:

Sensual desire (kamacchanda)
Ill will (vyapada)
Dullness and drowsiness (thina-middha)
Restlessness and worry (uddhacca-kukkucca)
Doubt (vicikiccha)

Although other unwholesome states are also abandoned at the moment of absorption, these five are specifically obstructive:

A mind affected by sensual desire does not become concentrated on a single object
A mind pestered by ill will does not flow uninterruptedly
A mind overcome by dullness and drowsiness is unwieldy
A mind seized by restlessness and worry is unquiet and buzzes about
A mind stricken by doubt fails to mount the path to absorption

”Secluded from Sense Desires”

The word “quite” in “quite secluded from sense desires” carries the meaning of absoluteness. It shows that sense desires and this deep absorption are incompatible opposites. When sense desires exist, absorption does not occur — just as when there is darkness, there is no lamplight. Absorption is reached only by letting go of sense desires — just as the far bank of a river is reached only by letting go of the near bank.

“Sense desires” includes both:

Sense desires as objects: Agreeable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches
Sense desires as defilement: The inner craving, greed, and lust for those objects

“Quite secluded from sense desires” indicates bodily seclusion — withdrawing from sense objects. “Secluded from unwholesome states” indicates mental seclusion — freeing the mind from the inner defilements.

The Five Factors Present

The five factors present in the first deep absorption are:

Initial thought (vitakka) — directs the mind onto the object. Its characteristic is the initial impact of the mind on the object, like striking a bell.
Sustained thought (vicara) — keeps the mind anchored on the object. Its characteristic is continued pressure, like the ringing of the bell after it is struck.
Happiness (piti) — refreshes the mind and body because the effort has succeeded. It pervades the meditator with joy.
Bliss (sukha) — the actual pleasant experience of the object. It intensifies the associated states.
Mental unification (ekaggata) — centres the mind evenly and rightly on the single object.

Initial thought and sustained thought work together but are different. Initial thought is like a bird spreading its wings to take off. Sustained thought is like the bird gliding with outspread wings after it is airborne. Initial thought is like a bee diving toward a lotus. Sustained thought is like the bee buzzing above the lotus after arriving. Initial thought is like the hand that grips a tarnished dish firmly. Sustained thought is like the hand that rubs it with polish. Initial thought is like the fixed pin at the centre when drawing a circle. Sustained thought is like the pin that revolves around it.

The Five Kinds of Happiness

Happiness (piti) is of five kinds:

Minor happiness — only raises the hairs on the body
Momentary happiness — like flashes of lightning at different moments
Showering happiness — breaks over the body again and again, like waves on a seashore
Uplifting happiness — powerful enough to levitate the body and make it spring into the air
Pervading happiness — completely pervades the whole body, like water filling a bladder or a huge flood filling a cave

It is pervading happiness that is meant here, since it is the root of absorption and matures into association with absorption.

The story of the Elder Maha-Tissa. He went to the shrine terrace on the evening of the full-moon day. Seeing the moonlight, he faced the direction of the Great Shrine at Anuradhapura, thinking: “At this very hour the four assemblies are worshipping at the Great Shrine!” By recalling what he had formerly seen there, he aroused uplifting happiness with the Buddha as its object. He rose into the air like a ball bounced off a plastered floor and alighted on the terrace of the Great Shrine.

The story of the clan daughter of Vattakalaka. Her parents were going to the monastery to hear the teaching but told her, being pregnant, to stay home. She stepped onto a balcony and saw the lamp offerings at the Akasa-cetiya Shrine at Girikandaka, lit by the moon. She saw the four communities circumambulating the shrine and heard the massed chanting of the monks. She thought: “How lucky they are!” Seeing the shrine as a mound of pearls and arousing uplifting happiness with the Buddha as its object, she sprang into the air and came down on the shrine terrace before her parents even arrived. When they asked how she came, she said: “I came through the air, not by the road.” When they protested that only those whose defilements are destroyed travel through the air, she replied: “A strong sense of happiness arose in me with the Buddha as its object. I knew no more whether I was standing or sitting, only that I was springing up into the air.”

Happiness versus Bliss

Where happiness and bliss both exist, they differ:

Happiness is the contentedness at getting a desirable object
Bliss is the actual pleasant experience of it once gotten

Happiness belongs to the mental formations aggregate. Bliss belongs to the feeling aggregate.

If a person exhausted in a desert heard about an oasis at the edge of a wood, they would have happiness. If they went into the shade and drank the water, they would have bliss.

When this fivefold happiness is conceived and matured, it perfects tranquillity. When tranquillity is conceived and matured, it perfects bliss. When bliss is conceived and matured, it perfects concentration.

Good in Three Ways

The first deep absorption is good in three ways:

The beginning (purification of the way): The mind is purified of obstructions. Because it is purified, it makes way for the state of serenity. Because it has made way, it enters that state. These are three characteristics of the beginning.
The middle (intensification of equanimity): The meditator looks on with equanimity at the purified mind. He looks on with equanimity at it as having made way for serenity. He looks on with equanimity at the appearance of unity. These are three characteristics of the middle.
The end (satisfaction): Satisfaction that none of the states exceeded the others. Satisfaction that the faculties had a single function. Satisfaction that the appropriate energy was effective. Satisfaction in the sense of repetition. These are four characteristics of the end.

What “First Deep Absorption” Means

It is “first” because it starts the numerical series and because it arises first. The word “jhana” means both “lighting up” the object and “burning up” opposition. The disk of earth is called the “earth totality device” in the sense of entirety. The sign acquired with the disk as its support, and the deep absorption acquired through that sign, are both called by the same name.

Discerning the Conditions of Attainment

Once absorption is attained, the meditator must discern exactly how he attained it — like a hair-splitting archer or a cook.

The archer: A very skilled archer who splits a hair notices exactly how his feet were placed, how he held the bow, the bowstring, and the arrow. From then on he recaptures those exact conditions and splits the hair again without fail.

The cook: A skilled cook serving a king notices which sauce the king chooses, reaches for, takes more of, or praises. From then on he prepares only that kind and earns his reward.

So too, the meditator must note the food he ate, the person he attended on, the lodging, the posture, and the time. When absorption is lost, he recaptures these conditions and regains it.

Purifying the Absorption

Simply recapturing the conditions is enough to reach absorption — but not to make it last. Absorption lasts only when the mind is completely purified from obstructive states beforehand.

When a monk enters absorption without first:

Completely suppressing sensual desire by reviewing the dangers of sense pleasures
Completely calming bodily irritability
Completely removing dullness and drowsiness
Completely abolishing restlessness and worry
Completely purifying other obstructive states

…he soon comes out again. He is like a bee entering an unpurified hive, or a king entering an unclean park.

But when he enters after fully purifying his mind, he remains in the attainment even for a whole day — like a bee in a clean hive, like a king in a spotless park.

So let him dispel any sensual lust, and resentment, Agitation as well, and then torpor, and doubt as the fifth; There let him find joy with a heart that is glad in seclusion, Like a king in a garden where all and each corner is clean.

Extending the Sign

To perfect the development, the meditator should extend the counterpart sign. Extension can be done from either the access plane or the absorption plane, but should be done consistently on one or the other.

The method: Do not extend the sign carelessly, like stretching a piece of cloth. First, mentally delimit successive sizes — one finger, two fingers, three fingers, four fingers — and extend it by the amount delimited. This is like a ploughman who marks the area to be ploughed before ploughing, or monks who observe boundary marks before fixing a boundary.

After the initial delimitation, extend further — a span, two spans, the veranda, the surrounding space, the monastery, the village boundary, the town, the district, the kingdom, the ocean, and finally the entire world-sphere or even beyond.

Just as young swans first learning to fly soar a little distance at a time and gradually increase it until they eventually reach the sun and moon, so too a meditator who extends the sign by successive delimitations can extend it to the limit of the world-sphere or beyond.

The extended sign then appears to the meditator like an ox hide stretched out with a hundred pegs, covering the earth’s ridges and hollows, rivers, scrubland, and rocky ground in whatever area it has been extended to.

Mastery of the First Absorption

A beginner who has reached the first deep absorption should enter it often without reviewing it excessively. If he over-reviews, the first absorption factors remain crude and weak. They do not become conditions for higher practice. While striving for the unfamiliar higher absorption, he falls away from the first and fails to reach the second.

The Buddha gave this simile: A foolish mountain cow thinks, “What if I walk where I never walked before and eat grass I never ate before?” Without placing her front foot securely, she lifts her hind foot. She never reaches the new grass, and she cannot get back safely either. So too, a foolish monk who has entered the first absorption but has not repeated, developed, or cultivated its sign, tries to reach the second. He fails to enter the second. Then he tries to return to the first. He fails at that too. He has fallen between the two, like the foolish cow.

The Five Kinds of Mastery

Therefore, before moving on to higher absorptions, the meditator must acquire mastery in five ways:

Mastery in adverting — He can turn his mind to the first absorption wherever, whenever, and for as long as he wishes, without difficulty.
Mastery in attaining — He can enter the first absorption wherever, whenever, and for as long as he wishes, without difficulty.
Mastery in resolving (duration) — He can remain in absorption for exactly the time he determines — exactly one finger-snap or exactly ten finger-snaps.
Mastery in emerging — He can emerge from absorption quickly, at the exact moment he intends.
Mastery in reviewing — He can review the absorption factors after emerging, without difficulty.

The story of the Elder Buddharakkhita. Eight years after his ordination, this elder was sitting among thirty thousand monks with supernormal powers who had gathered to attend upon the illness of the Elder Maha-Rohanagutta at Therambatthala. He saw a royal supanna bird swooping from the sky to seize an attendant royal naga serpent who was getting rice gruel accepted for the sick elder. The Elder Buddharakkhita instantly created a rock, seized the naga by the arm, and pushed him inside it for protection. The supanna bird struck the rock and flew off. The senior elder remarked: “Friends, if Rakkhita had not been there, we should all have been put to shame.” This story illustrates the mastery of resolving duration and emerging — the speed with which the elder entered absorption, controlled its duration, and emerged.

The Second Deep Absorption

When mastery over the first absorption is achieved, the meditator emerges from it and regards its flaws: “This attainment is threatened by the nearness of the hindrances. Its factors are weakened by the grossness of initial thought and sustained thought.” He brings the second absorption to mind as quieter and ends his attachment to the first.

As he reviews the factors of the first absorption with mindfulness and full awareness, initial thought and sustained thought appear gross. Happiness, bliss, and mental unification appear peaceful. He brings the same sign to mind as “earth, earth” again and again, aiming to abandon the gross factors and obtain the peaceful ones. The second absorption arises.

“With the stilling of initial thought and sustained thought, he enters upon and dwells in the second deep absorption, which has internal confidence and mental unification, without initial thought, without sustained thought, with happiness and bliss born of concentration.”

This second absorption:

Abandons two factors: initial thought and sustained thought
Possesses three factors: happiness, bliss, and mental unification

Internal Confidence

The second absorption is described as having “internal confidence” (ajjhattam sampasadanam). This means faith that is born internally, generated in one’s own mental continuum. The first absorption also has faith, but it is not called “confident” because initial thought and sustained thought create disturbance — like water ruffled by ripples and wavelets. In the second absorption, faith is strong because it has found solid footing in the absence of initial and sustained thought. And concentration is fully evident because it has strong faith as its companion.

”Born of Concentration”

Although the first absorption was also born of associated concentration, only this second absorption deserves to be called “born of concentration.” This is because its concentration is fully confident and extremely immobile, free from the disturbance of initial and sustained thought.

The Third Deep Absorption

When mastery over the second is achieved, the meditator emerges and regards its flaws: “This attainment is threatened by the nearness of initial and sustained thought. The happiness in it, that mental excitement, proclaims its grossness.” He brings the third absorption to mind as quieter.

As he reviews, happiness appears gross. Bliss and mental unification appear peaceful. He develops the sign again, and the third absorption arises.

“With the fading away of happiness, he dwells in equanimity, mindful and fully aware. He feels bliss with his body. He enters upon and dwells in the third deep absorption, on account of which the Noble Ones announce: ‘He dwells in bliss who has equanimity and is mindful.’”

This third absorption:

Abandons one factor: happiness
Possesses two factors: bliss and mental unification

The Ten Kinds of Equanimity

Equanimity (upekkha) is of ten kinds:

Six-factored equanimity — the equanimity of one whose defilements are destroyed, remaining naturally pure when desirable or undesirable objects appear at any of the six sense doors
Equanimity as a divine abiding — neutrality towards beings
Equanimity as a factor of awakening — neutrality among mental states that arise together
Equanimity of energy — neither over-strenuous nor over-lax effort
Equanimity about formations — neutrality about grasping at conditioned phenomena
Equanimity as a feeling — neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling
Equanimity about insight — neutrality about further investigation once the three characteristics are clearly seen
Equanimity as specific neutrality — the equal efficiency of mental states arising together
Equanimity of deep absorption — producing impartiality towards even the highest bliss
Purifying equanimity — equanimity purified of all opposition

Of these, it is equanimity of deep absorption that is meant in the third absorption. It has the characteristic of neutrality, the function of being unconcerned, and it manifests as uninterestedness. Its proximate cause is the fading away of happiness.

This equanimity also exists in the first and second absorptions, but there it is overshadowed by initial thought, sustained thought, and happiness — like a crescent moon invisible during the day because it is outshone by the sun. Here in the third absorption, it appears with its function fully evident, like the crescent moon shining clearly at night.

Why Mindfulness and Full Awareness Are Mentioned Here

Mindfulness and full awareness also exist in the earlier absorptions. But there the mind’s progress is easy, like walking on level ground, so their functions are not prominent. In the third absorption, the mind’s progress requires constant mindfulness and full awareness because of the subtlety of this level — like walking on a razor’s edge.

Furthermore, if this third absorption were led away from happiness, it would return to happiness — like a calf taken from its mother who runs back if not prevented. And the bliss here is exceedingly sweet. But the meditator does not become greedy for it, thanks to the influence of mindfulness and full awareness.

”He Feels Bliss with His Body”

Although in the third absorption there is no deliberate concern about feeling bliss, the meditator feels bliss associated with his mental body. After emerging, he also feels physical bliss, since his material body has been affected by the superior matter produced by that mental bliss.

The Noble Ones — the Buddhas and their awakened disciples — praise the possessor of the third absorption because he has equanimity toward exceedingly sweet bliss and is not drawn to it by craving. He is mindful with established mindfulness. He feels with his mental body the undefiled bliss beloved of the Noble Ones.

The Fourth Deep Absorption

When mastery over the third is achieved, the meditator emerges and regards its flaws: “This attainment is threatened by the nearness of happiness. The mental concern about bliss proclaims its grossness.” He brings the fourth absorption to mind as quieter.

As he reviews, bliss (mental joy) appears gross. Equanimity-as-feeling and mental unification appear peaceful. He develops the sign again, and the fourth absorption arises.

“With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, he enters upon and dwells in the fourth deep absorption, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and has purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.”

This fourth absorption:

Abandons one factor: joy (mental bliss)
Possesses two factors: equanimity-as-feeling and mental unification

When Were Pleasure and Pain Abandoned?

The four kinds of feeling were abandoned at different access stages — not all at the moment of the fourth absorption:

Bodily pain was abandoned at the access to the first absorption
Mental grief was abandoned at the access to the second absorption
Bodily pleasure was abandoned at the access to the third absorption
Mental joy is abandoned at the access to the fourth absorption

They are mentioned together here so that neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling can be readily grasped. This feeling is subtle and hard to recognize. Just as a cattle-herder trying to catch a difficult ox pens all the cattle together and lets them out one by one until only the target remains, the Buddha collects all five feelings together. What is not bodily pleasure, not bodily pain, not mental joy, and not mental grief can then be recognized: “This is neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling.”

Reinforced Cessation

Although these feelings cease at the access stage, in the absorption itself they undergo “reinforced cessation” — they are not merely absent but are thoroughly beaten out by opposition:

In the first absorption, the whole body is showered with bliss from pervading happiness. Bodily pain has absolutely ceased — beaten out by opposition.
In the second absorption, the conditions for mental grief (initial thought and sustained thought) are absent. Grief cannot re-arise.
In the third absorption, the happiness that conditions bodily pleasure has ceased entirely.
In the fourth absorption, the conditions for mental joy are fully surmounted by equanimity at absorption strength.

Purity of Mindfulness Due to Equanimity

The mindfulness in this absorption is completely purified. Its purification is brought about by equanimity — specifically, equanimity as specific neutrality. Not only mindfulness but all associated states are purified here. But the teaching highlights mindfulness.

This equanimity exists in the three lower absorptions too, but there it is like a crescent moon in the daytime — outshone by the glare of initial thought, sustained thought, and happiness, and lacking the support of equanimity-as-feeling. In the fourth absorption, it is like the crescent moon at night — utterly pure because it is no longer outshone, and because it has equanimity-as-feeling as its ally. Since equanimity is purified, the mindfulness and all other associated states are purified too — like the moon’s radiance shining clearly.

The Fivefold Reckoning of Deep Absorption

Everything described above follows the fourfold reckoning, which counts four levels of deep absorption. There is also a fivefold reckoning.

In the fivefold system, the meditator proceeds more gradually:

First absorption — same as in the fourfold system
After mastering the first, he regards only initial thought as gross (not sustained thought). He abandons initial thought alone. The second absorption arises with four factors: sustained thought, happiness, bliss, and mental unification.
After mastering the second, he regards sustained thought as gross. He abandons sustained thought alone. The third absorption arises with three factors: happiness, bliss, and mental unification.
The fourth absorption in the fivefold system corresponds to the third in the fourfold system
The fifth absorption in the fivefold system corresponds to the fourth in the fourfold system

In summary: what is the second absorption in the fourfold reckoning splits into the second and third in the fivefold reckoning. The third and fourth of the fourfold system become the fourth and fifth of the fivefold system. The first remains the first in both.

This is the fourth chapter, “The Description of the Earth Totality Device,” in the section on the Development of Concentration in the Path of Purification, composed for the purpose of gladdening good people.