The goal of Dhammakaya Meditation is to eradicate the roots of all evil and achieve spiritual attainment leading to Nibbana.
Luangpu explained the process of meditation as bringing "seeing, remembering, thinking, and knowing" into a single-point, at the center of the body.
The identifying feature of Dhammakaya Meditation is the meditator's attention towards the center of the body, the natural home of the mind. The center of the body is the central point of our stream of consciousness, and also the inner source of happiness and wisdom. It is located two finger-widths above the navel in the middle of the abdomen. This is known as the "Seventh Base" of the mind (see page 224).
Every object in nature has its center of gravity, the point where it keeps its balance. For example, the center of gravity for a cup is at the center point of the cup; the center of gravity for a stick is at the middle point of the stick, etc. If we place a cup or a stick sideways or off the center of gravity, it will fall because it is out of balance. The center of gravity of all material objects is always located at the center location.
The goal of a meditator is to "tune" or adjust the mind through a single-point of concentration and to arrive at the point of balance at the center of the body. When the mind reaches its perfect point of balance, it will have a clear-seeing quality that enables it to penetrate into a higher form of knowledge, insight, and wisdom. Think of the mind as the lens of a camera or the dial of a radio receiver. You can adjust the focus of the lens of the camera to capture the clearest picture; you can tune the dial of the radio to find the right wave-length in order to reach a desired station. The same principle applies to the mind: when the "focus" or "wave-length" of the mind is adjusted to the right point, it becomes the most powerful.
Luangpu first taught the Dhammakaya meditation technique to the monks and laypeople at Wat Bang-pla, Nakorn Pathom, in 1917. From 1918 onwards, after Luangpu became Abbot of Wat Paknam, he taught Dhammakaya Meditation consistently at Wat Paknam throughout his life. Dhammakaya Meditation became closely associated with Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen.
Luangpu devoted the rest of his life teaching Dhammakaya Meditation to anyone who was interested. From 1935 to1959, he ran a meditation workshop reserved for super-advanced meditators-those who had reached the supramundane level of absorptions. These gifted meditators meditated as a team in shifts, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Since 1959, Luangpu's disciples had been teaching the Dhammakaya method of meditation to several temples in Thailand, including Wat Paknam, Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Wat Rajorasaram, and Wat Luangpor Sod Dhammakayarama (Ratchaburi). Today Dhammakaya Meditation is being taught throughout the world by Wat Phra Dhammakaya, thanks to Luangpu's top disciple, Khun Yai Chand Khonnokyoong, founder of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, and her leading students, Luangpor Dhammajayo and Luangpor Dattajeevo, Abbot and Vice Abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya respectively.
Samatha Level
Dhammakaya Meditation has both samatha1 and vipassana2 stages (1Samatha: tranquility meditation; perfect concentration; the ability to maintain the focus of attention one-pointedly) (2Vipassana: insight meditation aims to discipline the mind while fostering a profound clarity about the nature of reality. Enlighten-ment can only be attained through vipassana.). The goal of Dhammakaya Meditation at the samatha level is to overcome the Five Hindrances (consisting of sensual desire, ill will, inertia, doubt, agitation). When the mind becomes peaceful and stable as the result of successful practice for tranquility, the mind will overcome the Five Hindrances and reach a state of one-pointedness (samadhi3) (3Samadhi: one-pointedness of mind; meditative practice leading to one-pointed concentration; a state of complete concentration), known as the 'standstill of the mind'-a state where it is free of thought. The indication of reaching this stage is that a bright clearsphere will arise spontaneously at the center of the body. The mind should then be directed continuously at the center of this sphere, helping to transport the mind towards the inner path that leads to eventual attainment.
There are several ways of focusing the attention at the center of the body, namely:
Following down through the seven bases of the mind: the nostril, the inner corner of the eye, the center of the head, the roof of the mouth, the center of the throat, the middle of the stomach, and a point two finger breadths above the navel.
Visualizing a mental image at the center of the body: characteristically, a crystal ball or a crystal-clear Buddha image and repetition of the mantra 'samma-arahang'4 (a Pali word which means 'the Buddha who has properly attained Enlightenment') (4samma-arahang: See page 72).
Those who have difficulty visualizing can also do it without visualization, by simply placing their attention at the center of the body, calmly and relaxingly.
When one visualizes the mental object continuously, the mental object will gradually change in nature in accordance with the increasing subtlety of the mind in the following sequence:
Preparatory Image: the meditator perceives a vague, partial or undetailed version of the image they have imagined. Such a mental object indicates that the mind is in a state of preparatory concentration where it is still only momentarily.
Acquired Image: this is where the meditator is able to perceive the image they have imagined with 100% of the clarity and vividness of the external image it is based on.
Counter Image: once the mind comes even closer to a standstill, so that it is no longer distracted by external things or thoughts but is captivated by the image at the center of the body, the image will change to be one which the meditator can expand or contract at will. The image will change from an image that is colored to one which is transparent. The Acquired Image and the Counter Image, both indicate a state of mind on the threshold of the first absorption (jhana). This threshold state indicates that the mind has become unified or one-pointed.
Although the meditator may start out with as many as forty different paths of practice, once the hindrances are overcome, all methods converge into a single path of mental progress, which leads into meditation at the Vipassana level.
Vipassana Level
Dhammakaya Meditation embarks on the Vipassana level at a higher stage than some other meditation schools. In Dhammakaya Meditation, insight relies on purity of 'seeing and knowing'-penetrative insight into the reality of life and the world. Such insight will allow the meditator to have a deep, penetrative knowledge of the Five Aggregates5 (khanda) (5Five Aggregates: consisting of form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. Luangpu simplifies these as "perception, memory, thought, and cognition", which are the four functional faculties of minds.), the Twelve Sense Spheres6 (ayatana) (6Twelve Sense Spheres: consisting of six internal-external (organ-object) pairs of sense bases, i.c., eye and visible objects, car and sound, nose and odor, tongue and taste, body and touch, mind and mental objects), the Eighteen Elements7 (dhatu) (7Eighteen Elements: consisting of six sense organs (eye, car, nose, tongue, body, mind), six sense objects (visible forms, sound, smell, taste, touch, mental object), and six sense consciousness), the Twenty-Two Faculties8 (indriya) (8Twenty-Two Faculties: multiple intra-psychic processes known as "faculties", "spiritual facultics", or "phenomenological faculties"), the Four Noble Truths9 (9Four Noble Truths: consisting of the truth of suffering, the truth of the origin of suffering, the truth of the cessation of suffering, the truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering), and Dependent Origination10 (10Dependent Origination: one of the central concepts in the Buddhist tradition that all things arise in dependence upon multiple causes and conditions).
Through insight knowledge gained from deep meditation, the meditator sees and knows clearly that all things exhibit the Three Marks of Existence11 (11Three Marks of Existence: consisting of impermanence, suffering, and non-self), and for the meditator, there arises dispassion and detachment and accomplishes sequential shedding of the defilements until an end to defilements can be reached. The meditator sees and knows with the divine eyes what the Buddha himself attained. The process of purification corresponds with that described in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta12 where the arising of brightness is accompanied by the divine eye, the knowing (12Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: Discourse on the Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dhamma, the first teaching given by the Buddha after he attained enlightenment), the wisdom and the knowledge. The meditator will see the nature of the Dhamma in the forms of inner mental phenomena. Thus, in Dhammakaya Meditation, the Buddha's words are taken literally as seeing one's inner body of enlightenment which is in the form of a Buddha sitting in meditation. The level of attainment is usually explained in terms of equivalent inner bodies which start with the physical human body and the transcendental body, and which go in successively deeper layers until reaching the Body of Enlightenment known as Dhammakaya the number of bodies totaling eighteen.
Inner Bodies
It is interesting to note that Luangpu's discovery of "inner bodies" was not out of the scope of the Buddha's discovery, known as "the Dhamma", in his Enlightenment. In a research paper compiled by Dr. James Santucci13 (13Educational Concepts and Practices in Early Southern Buddhism", Hsi Lai Journal of Humanistic Buddhism, CA, Hsi Lai University. Dr. James Santucci taught Sanskrit at Hsi Lai University, which is now University of the West, in Rosemead, California. He is also familiar with the Pali language.), Chair and Professor of Comparative Religion at California State University, Fullerton, he mentioned the transformation of Buddhist meditation practice, producing inner body-"mind-made body or psychic body". Through his understanding, it is possible that all supernatural abilities, such as the 'Threefold Knowledge', 'Eightfold Supra-normal Knowledge', and 'Sixfold Super Knowledge' are developed from this mind-made body.
In 'Samannaphala Sutta, 'Discourse on The Fruits of Homeless Life', the Buddha described the steps of transformation leading to liberation. Here the Buddha spoke of the "mind-made body or psychic body" as the product of the concentrated mind. See excerpt below:
"Having forsaken covetousness in the world, the monk dwells with a mind free of covetousness, and so he abandons all the five hindrances: worldly desires, ill-will and hatred, sloth and torpor, worry and anxiety, and doubt. Once achieved, delight arises, followed by joy, which brings tranquility of the body. From tranquility of the body comes an ease that leads to focused thought. The mind, once focused or concentrated and detached from sensuality, unwholesome mental states, he enters the first Jhana or meditative state. He then progresses to the second, third, and fourth meditative states,
the latter a state beyond mental ease and dejectedness.
The mind concentrated, purified, free of impurities is then directed to knowing and seeing, understands the body as material and consciousness, bound to it. With concentrated mind, he produces a mind-made or psychic body (mano-mayam kayam) and draws that body out of this body. Just as one were to remove a reed from the grass sheath, so too from the mind-made body is extracted a perfected mind-made body.
With concentrated mind (and perhaps due to the perfected mind-made or psychicbody) comes the ability to demonstrate the various psychic powers (iddhi) such as becoming many, walking on water, and flying cross-legged. Other powers are developed, such as clairaudience (dibba-sota), mindreading (cetopariyanana), knowledge of one's previous existences (pubbenivasanussati-nana), the knowledge of the passing away and arising of beings with the "divine eye" (dibba-cakkhu), and most importantly, the gaining of the knowledge of the destruction of the intoxicants (asava-kkhaya-nana) of
sense-desire (kama), of becoming (bhava), and of ignorance (avija), which is another way of stating that the monk has gained liberation (vimutta)."
Although the process explained in this chapter may seem highly technical and complex, the actual meditation practice itself is easy and simple.
Anyone practicing the right way of meditation following the Noble Eightfold Path can attain the supramundane level of absorption-the meditative experience of the Dhammakaya-and gain the higher knowledge described above, regardless of gender, nationality or religion.
