This is the repair meditation.
Let us pay our gratitude to the Noble Council of Akanittha Brahma Realm, for giving us this Dhamma.
Let us go to slide number two.
This is the “Lightning Sign” for repairing, which you can see it is starting from this volitional formations - the red line, going to point B - that is the name-and-form (nāmarūpa) point; and then, we are coming down to sorrow (soka); and then, through the underlying tendencies to views (diṭṭhānusayo), we are directing it to the physical nutriment (kabaḷīkārāhāro).
So, you can see on the right side, there is this “beauty” (subha) coming to the body-tie of insistence that this truth (idaṃsaccābhiniveso kāyagantho), and then we add the permanency to that one, and we have discussed these things in the 4-Day Program as well as the Special Program, where, through this line going from “going a bad way through delusion” (mohā agatigamanaṃ) to the “body-tie of misapprehension” (parāmāsakāyagantho).
It is now pointing at the perception. What is actually saying here - you add permanency to beauty then you get the pleasure (sukha). So now you are saying perception is pleasurable.
Now you can see this idea that perception is pleasurable arose via this lamented volitional formations. So, this is a false idea, because we have diabetes, heart problems, viruses or so many problems. So, volitional formations could not construct the body without those sicknesses. So our saying that “perception is pleasurable '' is wrong. So perception is not pleasurable. So there is this resistance-contact with regard to the name-group (nāmakāye paṭighasamphassa) at point B. But why we have this resistance-contact? You know, “paṭigha” means that you have sort of an aversion, like my grandfather's example, so, what we have in point B, that a “view” that “such volitional formations would last” is broken. In other words, you could not construct your body so that it will last.
So now, you are going down, over here sorrow, to the point sorrow.
Let us go into slide number 3.
We take as “self” the “false idea” that “perception is pleasurable.” And we have sorrow. The wrong idea is then transferred to the form via the underlying tendency to views. In slide two you can see this underlying tendency to views; now it is pointing the finger at physical nutriment, and it is saying that the physical nutriment is pleasurable.
There, the sorrow is stamping that the form is pleasurable. In this way, we created designation-contact with regard to form group (rūpakāye adhivacanasamphassa). There is no pleasure in the form. The form only has the “perversion” (vipallāso) that there is beauty while it is ugly.
Now you understand, at both point B as well as the physical nutriment point, that we misguided the consciousness. It is like that a father is telling [his] son, without knowing this particular thing, without understanding I told you these things but they are not true. So the consciousness now becomes pure. Then we ask the pure consciousness to repair the form, which is already subject to ageing. The form is already subject to ageing - you have a body part that is aching or something, and, some sort of a sickness is there in the body, and you are actually asking to repair pointing at the place in your body.
Now we need to pay attention to the line coming from consciousness to ageing, and then going to the form. So you can see this is the line we are talking about in slide number two. Consciousness, there is this faculty of life over here; and the body-tie of misapprehension; and then there is this sorrow; and ageing; and coveting-and-greed and then we are going to physical nutriment.
And let us examine what are the things in that particular line.
Now you can see the “pure” consciousness - consciousness became pure because you are actually saying that it was misguided by this, you know, by saying pleasurable and so on - now pure consciousness, and then we come down in that line you can see faculty of life. Now you can see there is this diagram over here, consciousness to faculty of life; and then we have this intentions of hate coming through that one, and permanency part - you have learned this one in Bhaya-Bherava Sutta in the advanced Program; and then the view of permanency is coming from the body-tie of insistence that this is truth to the faculty of life; and we also have perception of harming written - down arrow from faculty of life to the body-tie of insistence that this is truth.
Now, look at the faculty of life. You need to contemplate about this helplessness of the faculty of life. You see, if the volitional formations are subject to lamentation, they are breaking and so on, then there is no way of maintaining the faculty of life. With intentions of hate as well as the view of permanency. So it is helpless. You could not construct your body properly, you could not construct the faculty of life either. It is helpless. You are moving through that line, so the body-tie of misapprehension. What is inside this body-tie of misapprehension is suffering, although we misapprehended it as pleasure. Remember the pleasure is coming to the misapprehension and we thought is pleasurable, and it is a misapprehension.
And then you are coming down then you are coming to point where it is sorrow. Sorrow is full of wrong views. I have written about this sorrow in a Glossary Item - there is a new thing in the My Experience website, where we have the ability to search glossary items - those glossary items are available in English as well as in Sinhala. So you can search and learn about this sorrow. So it is full of wrong views.
And then we are coming to the ageing, and you understand ageing is suffering. And then we are going to the coveting-and-greed, and then to the form - physical nutriment. Going through this particular path, now you are ordering pure consciousness to repair the body - the form. The body part where you have this sickness, you are asking it to repair. Maybe your heart, your lung, or whatever the body part is.
To do that one, you should have these spiritual powers (iddhipādā). So you ask to repair it, now you are actually going to spiritual powers.
So, let us go into slide number four.
Now here you can see four things marked in this diagram. You can see this, one is “desire” (canda); and then the second one “mind,” marked in yellow, and it is marked in three places; and again you can see the “desire” is marked on the left side as well; and then we have number three - the “effort” and then, “investigation” (vīmaṃsā).
These are actually giving you the four-bases for spiritual power. Just to explain this spiritual powers a little bit, I will tell this part from the Iddipada Samyutta, Connected Discourse of the Buddha. And there is a nice discourse called Concentration due to Desire (Chandasamādhi Sutta). Over here Buddha is saying “Bikkhu if a bikkhu gains concentration, gains one-pointedness of mind based upon desire, that is “canda,” this is called concentration due to desire. He generates desire for the non-arising of un-arisen evil unwholesome states, he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. He generates desire for the abandoning of arisen evil unwholesome states, he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. He generates desire for the arising of un-arisen wholesome states, he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. He generates desire for the maintenance of the arisen wholesome states, for their non-decay, increase, expansion and fulfilment by development, he makes an effort, arouses energy, applies his mind, and strives. These are called volitional formations of striving. Thus this desire and this concentration due to desire, and these volitional formations of striving, this is called “the basis of spiritual power that possess concentration due to desire and volitional formations of striving” (chandasamādhipadhānasaṅkhāra samannāgato iddhipādo).
So, similarly the Buddha in that discourse defines those four spiritual powers.
Now, this concentration due to desire - let us focus on that one, and this one is removing volitional formations as they are not permanent. At this particular point, you need to think about the ten skilled states of the mind. You know, those bad things we do from our body, that is, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. And you are saying I don't want them. So, in other words, if I have killing, you might have learnt from this Potality Sutta, and this in the Advance Course as well, so there you are going from taint of ignorance (avijjāsavā) to the taint to desire (kāmāsavā). At this point of meditation you are saying I don't want to have killing. I don't want to have stealing. I don't want to have sexual misconduct. In other words, I'm not going to go from the taint of ignorance to the taint of sensual desire. And then, you know, those four bad verbal things that we do, lying, harsh speech, frivolous talks and slander. Now, here you are saying I don't want to have false speech. I don't want to go from taint of ignorance to taint of sensual desire. So in other words, you can see I'm not going from this bottom part over here, from the right side of the diagram in slide four, to the left part. If you go to taint of sensual desire, then you are touching the form and reconstruct the consciousness. You are saying, I'm not going to do that.
So in this instance, rather than just saying, you know, I'm not going to do that one, you need to have at least one example. Let us say you have frivolous talks. And you are saying I'm not going to have those frivolous talks - you need to make it practical. And then you know three bad things we do by mind - the wrong view, covetousness and ill-will. So here, you are saying I don't want to have these wrong views. You see, you might have learnt from the advanced Course where we are defining covetousness. So how do we define covetousness? It is the arising of consciousness due to the perception originated from the wrong view (micchādiṭṭhi). This is known as covetousness.
That covetousness is coming from this perception and then coming to the misapprehension, and then it is in this particular line - from the body-tie of misapprehension to consciousness, or the faculty of life. So here, you are saying I don't want the wrong view. So if we have wrong view, again the consciousness will be constructed; I don't want to have that one; and I don't want to have covetousness; I don't want to have ill-will. So then you get rid of those ten unskilled states, you put effort to get rid of those things, you can see, those are volitional formations, whatever volitional formations has got a momentum, that momentum is removed.
Then this one is getting absorbed into the “mind.” The mind (citta samdhi) removes this former momentum otherwise generated by the above flow. Does not let it enter misapprehension (parāmāsa). Both misapprehension and feeling have suffering nature. And you know Greed, Hate, Delusion meditation - whatever thing felt is included in the suffering. Having seen this feeling as suffering, effort is removing the sensual thought, ill-will thought and harming thought.
Now that effort, you need to think as something active from this “birth” (jāti) to “feeling.” So, then you can see this desire (canda) written on the left side of the diagram, that becomes the spiritual power. Now if you have that sort of spiritual power, you don't want to have anything apart from the Nibbana. So you can see your volition will subside as well. And then effort marked as three - here on the mental volition to the faculty of life - you can see that one removes new volition formations. And the effort becomes a spiritual power. It becomes steady. In other words, the hub is stopped rotating. At this particular point, since you are not going to have any new volition formation like going to work and so on, in your mind, you mind might stop as well.
And then, the next one is investigation - vimamsa. The spiritual power of investigation (vīmaṃsā iddhipada), that one removes the satisfaction of “intentions of hate.” The intentions of hate that is coming from this consciousness to the body-tie of misapprehension, that one will be removed. For that to occur, you should understand this perception as an impermanent thing. So that from the perception to the mental volition to consciousness - that flow is stopping. With the understanding that there is no permanency by rotating the hub. Endowed with these spiritual powers, one would order consciousness to repair the body. So your mind is with these spiritual powers now you can ask. Previously you ordered it to repair, now repairing process will continue.
So, depending on your ability it might take about four minutes to go into the end of the third slide, and then you are asking it to repair the body, and then you are going to spiritual power. So, now the consciousness has got the ability to repair, so you may be repairing for four minutes, while you are reaching these spiritual powers. Maybe you can do three times for a day or four times for a day.
Let us pay our homage to the Great Council of Akanittha for giving us this Dhamma.
භාවනාවට යොදා ගත හැකි අමතර සටහන්
