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Sayadaw explains:
how his method came to be:

“This teaching method has come into being because of the inadequacy of traditional teachings. In traditional teachings and methods there are a many weaknesses, especially concerning the role of ‘I’. In traditional methods, action is essential. And because there is action, there comes the doer of the action, which is the misunderstanding of ‘I’. Whatever you do with ‘I’, you are doing with non-enlightenment and attachment. In this way, you are accepting the enemies as your friends, that’s why, however much you practice, it is very unlikely to get to the goal of real enlightenment.
“Most meditators, (especially in Myanmar), have the idea ‘I must meditate,’or ‘meditation is something I should do’. Their intention is not bad but the weak point is that what they understand and practice is not really meditation - because ‘I’ is meditating. In reality, knowing there is no ‘I’ is meditation. Instead of [trying to accept] the truth of no ‘I’, they practice [various] techniques with ‘I’ and that’s why although they have the right intention, it is nearly impossible they will reach the final goal.
“I see that there are a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to meditation, so I determined to try and solve this problem. Because of my hard work for over 4 years, this explanation appeared and it really works for nearly all people.”

- Quoted from sayadaw's first discussion
with a vietnamese monk, 28.01.07

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AUDIO INDEX:

Click the following CD covers to download the contents Esnips.com, or click here for a complete index for downloading.

In Burmese



In English

Excerpts (click to download):

- 'Know Nothing' - About how sayadaw, himself, practiced
- An Introduction - sayadaw explains about his meditation method and history

- "Anger" - about how the arising of anger is a tests the mastery of our meditation

more...

Short Teachings
- "Pixels" - About how nothing really exists, everything in the universe is made out of pixels

"The Godfather"

more...

Discussions
- With a Vietnamese Monk (no 2) - a very interesting discussion [35 min]

more...

ARTICLES INDEX:

- Real Education
- The Lost Father

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An article by
Sayadaw U Ottamasara
Edited by Florian Dobson
Education in human society is only temporary. If you don’t keep studying, what you put in your memory will soon be forgotten. Meditation is the real education because the truth we come to understand is eternal. To practice we do nothing, and by doing nothing the peace comes naturally, the freedom comes naturally. By knowing nothing, wisdom appears naturally, never to disappear again. Because it came from nature automatically, it is permanent.
By meditating, wisdom will appear more and more fully, [always increasing]. If you read a book written about 4 noble truths or if you listen to my teachings, you will understand only while you are listening. After some time, your understanding will disappear; it is impermanent. If you meditate, the understanding through wisdom that appears in you does not depend on me or on you - it doesn’t depend on what is impermanent so it doesn’t disappear.
This wisdom will begin to appear only when you can abandon your effort – in other words, your ego. Doing without effort is doing without ‘I’, which means accepting and surrendering to nature. We are breaking the limitation of 'I' by staying simply with the emptiness of nature. On the other hand, doing with ‘I’ is going against nature – it is breaking the natural law of emptiness of self. So, by taking ourselves to be ‘I’, we are breaking the natural law and we suffer because of it. We lose our freedom and take on the endless responsibilities of a man. A man has everything to like, dislike, worry and think about. The idea of a man is only a creation of mind (not an eternal God), everything mind creates is only an illusion. So meditation is destroying the false creations of mind, destroying the limitations caused by accepting the mind as ‘mine’. In reality, there is no mine in mind, knowing this is wisdom.
The wisdom, which understands there is no I ,will appear in whoever follows this method exactly. It’s only cause and effect, if you make the right cause, the desired effect will surely appear, it can't go wrong. If there is no effect, you are making the wrong cause; which means you are not following the method exactly. It has nothing to do with who you are, how old you are, or which religion you believe in. The appearance of wisdom will be the benefit for whoever makes the right cause.
I made many causes to change my life and that’s why my life changed forever. If you are in doubt you are making the wrong cause, if you are hoping for the result you are making the wrong cause. Thinking and being interested are also the wrong causes - which result in suffering instead of wisdom. [Ironically] the only right cause is trying to make no other cause than to do and know nothing. This means, not accepting anything that appears, which is the result of the wrong causes we have made previously. So, practically, we must accept ourselves as nothing (empty of ‘I’) and let our mind rest in the moment, moment after moment after moment. This is stopping the mind’s work, or, protecting the mind to be free of action/doing. In this way, our mind can live without making the wrong causes of thinking, hoping for the future, revisiting the past, and being busy in present. Mind will become mind only.
“If you accept knowing something [it is making the wrong cause]; the effect will be something to know will appear endlessly. And along with it, there will be a person [‘I’] who misunderstands that something to exist. In this way, ‘I’ will always be suffering, always being busy with the non-stop [appearance of] endless things to do and thing to know. On the other hand, knowing of nothing is removing the cause of all suffering, because for nothing there is nothing to do or know, it is complete in itself.
Not accepting anything is the cause we have to make, and as a result, the wisdom of emptiness will appear. The appearing of this wisdom is the cause of freedom, the cause of purity of mind, of a peace of mind that can never be imagined by the ego – or ‘I’. The liberation we get by meditating depends on nothing that’s why it is permanent, because nothing can only be nothing. That is why the happiness, freedom, and liberation we get from knowing nothing is permanent. We have nothing to take care of; nothing to do to protect our peace of mind.
“With [the misunderstanding of] 'I', there are endless to do, endless things to think about, to be seen and heard. Because of this misunderstanding, we are always busy; busy with nonsense. Because of non-enlightenment, people will never get freedom, they will always be busy misunderstanding 'I' to be real. So we must practice meditation with the idea of nothing … because freedom appears when knowing nothing is happening.

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An article by
Sayadaw U Ottamasara
Edited by Florian Dobson
If we consider nibbana to be something, it is the only something. There can be nothing else except for nibbana because only nibbana exists eternally. If you want to understand something, you must clear your mind of obscurations, - you must purify 'your mind' to be mind only and stop grasping to the mind as 'mine'.
The quality of mind and the quality of matter are quite opposite. Mind only - or pure mind - is very powerful, its quality of wisdom is unlimited. Mind can know everything, but matter is ignorance, it has no wisdom . That’s why when mind combines with the body of a man it becomes impure and its original power is lost. Man's body is only like the earth it is very heavy and weighs down the mind. So, if we accept ourselves as a man, as 'I', our mind is imprisoned in the body and everything we know is only an illusion, not the real something which is nibbana.
Mind has become very attached to the life of a man, mind [even] thinks 'these are my hands, these are my legs, I am a man and this is my body'. Mind and body are like man and woman, they depend on each other. Man cannot live without woman, woman cannot live without man. So also, a man's body cannot live without the mind, and because of its attachments, mind cannot live without the body. But Man is the creation of mind, so mind has become a slave to its own creation of ‘a man '. Only when mind can detach from its creation, and can stay as mind only, it will become pure and regain its original power. With this power, mind can understand the only real ‘something’ which is nibbana.
To understand the Truth, we must stop the mind from continuously connecting with the body. In other words, the mind must detach from the body and leave behind the field of mind and matter. We must divorce the mind and matter couple and stay with mind only. This is meditation - freeing the mind from matter.
A free mind can understand everything, it understands how to combine with matter in order to create everything, and solve all problems. Humans are mistaken, because they depend on matter [material things], they depend on things like money, beauty, and on one another; but they never depend on the very powerful mind – the father mind.
[In reality], man, woman, and animals are the product of the combination of mind and matter. Mind and matter are like husband and wife and the infinite living beings are like their children. But men and women think 'he is my father', 'she is my mother'. They don’t understand that in reality, the true parents are mind and matter. By accepting ourselves as 'a man', 'a woman' we are accepting ourselves as only the creation and not the creator. Humans use only their human abilities, so they can't understand the infinite creative quality of mind without matter - mind only, which is the very powerful father… the lost father.

Zee: the god father
Sayadaw: yes…
[laughing]
By meditation I discovered the lost father and learned to depend on mind only. Mind is the origin - it is very powerful, it is really the only thing to depend on. People are in trouble because what they depend on is unreliable. The rich depend on their money, the president depends on his power, people depend on others, but nobody depends on mind which is eternal. In meditation I depend only on mind, not 'my mind', only pure, empty mind. Mind is very powerful, that’s why if you want to understand the real something, if you want to know the truth of everything, you must stop depending on yourself as a man and learn to depend on mind only.
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Deadly Weapons and the Middle Way (part 2)

In this country the rebels live in the border region between China and Myanmar, they take up their weapons and rebel against the government’s army. In this way they are inviting trouble. Not only do they have to fight with the government but also with other rebel groups. There is no area where the rebels stay safety near the border. The only way for them to be safe is to retreat from the hostile border region.
This is a good example of how the process of suffering begins. First of all there is the mind, then we have our body with its eyes and ears and other senses. The sense doors are also like a war zone, they are always in contact with the environment, like the rebels and their enemies. If our mind is always connecting with our senses, it will never be at peace - just like the rebels. Only when the mind completely retreats from the hostile border region of the sense doors will it be able to find peace apart from realm of suffering, which is Nirvana.


Meditation with ‘knowing nothing’ means practicing to stay without going to the border region of the sense doors. By knowing nothing, the mind resides in the heart center making no connection with the rebels in the border region. In this way you are safe and experience peace of mind. If you connect with the rebels it means you are looking for trouble. Like, dislike, and non-enlightenment are what keep connecting you with the rebels. Without the knowing of nothing, being interest in something will take your mind to the border region and it is the cause of suffering.

Deadly Weapons and the Middle Way (part 1)

Teaching by Sayadaw U Ottamasara
edited by Florian Dobson

Meditation is like surrendering your weapons; the weapons of like, dislike, and non-enlightenment. If you disarm yourself the minds of other people can feel it. The mind can sense if there is no like, dislike, and non-enlightenment in the mind of another. For example, I can feel if there is anger or suspicion in your mind.
It is the nature of mind to be able to know about other minds. That's why, if you are angry with someone, that someone is also angry with you. It is because of the connection between minds.
Meditation means disarming your mind. Whatever I say, whatever I do, wherever I go, there is no like, dislike and non-enlightenment. So I can stay anywhere, I can do anything. Because there is no weapon in my mind, there is no cause to bring me harm so I am out of danger. If you harbor strong like, dislike, and non-enlightenment, it is the invitation for trouble. That is why I compare them to weapons.
After I practiced meditation, there is no desire, no like, no dislike, no hatred, and no non-enlightenment in my mind. I have given up all deadly weapons that can cause trouble. That’s why I am eternally safe. If there is a cause, there will always be an effect. There will be no trouble if there is no cause for it.
Like, dislike, and non-enlightenment are the cause of all trouble and all suffering. People have to suffer from worry because they are guilty of carrying the concealed weapons of like, dislike, and non-enlightenment. Because of this crime they are sentenced to live a mortal life (in samsara).

Meditation is the practice of remaining innocent. By cutting of any association with like dislike and non-enlightenment, we are removing the cause for guilt and suffering and on the path out of samsara. The only reason we continually pick up the weapons of like dislike and non enlightenment is because of our old habits – our attachment. That’s why Buddha said if there is attachment there will be suffering - trouble. If there is enlightenment and nonattachment there will be no suffering - no trouble. That is the essence of the four noble truths.

Concentration Meditation (part 1)

There are two types of meditation. One is the development of mental concentration (samatha bhavana, or samadhi). The other type of meditation is insight meditation (vipassana). Samatha meditation is essential in attaining jhana or absorption concentration. It is different from insight meditation in its methods, its objects, its results, its benefits.
Samatha meditation is practiced by those aiming for absorption concentration (jhana). Noble persons also attain psychic powers through concentration practice.

It is this concentration meditation (samatha) (anencabhi sankhara) that give results in the brahma plane in the form sphere and formless sphere.

Sankhara paccaya vinnanam
Anencabhisankhara paccaya brahma vinnanam.
Dependent upon conditional activities, rebirth consciousness arises.
Dependent upon conditional activities, that are concentration meditation with attainment of jhana, rebirth consciousness in the form and formless brahma planes arises.

Some meditators practise insight meditation based on pure vipassana method.
Some practise concentration meditation first, and then go on to insight meditation.

The Buddha’s Enlightenment (part 1)

Six years after he had renounced worldly pleasures, on the full moon day of Vesakha (May), in the first watch of the night, with his mind purified and tranquil, he possessed the first knowledge that could see aeons of previous existences of beings (pubbe-nivasænussati ñæ¼a) in aeons of world-cycles. He saw how each being came to be in a certain place, with a certain name, clan, caste, etc. Then, passing away from that life, he saw how this being came into existence elsewhere, with another name, in another clan, caste, etc. His purified mind saw how beings passed away from one existence and were immediately reborn in the succeeding existence. He saw beings beautiful and ugly, good and evil, rich and poor, etc. He saw beings being reborn in woeful states because of their evil deeds. He saw beings being reborn in human and celestial planes because of their good deeds. In the second watch of night, he achieved the divine power of the eye (dibbacakkhu nana) He realized the four noble truths which are the noble truth of suffering, the noble truth of the cause of suffering, the noble truth of cessation of suffering, the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Thus in the last watch of the night, in the year 103 maha era , he attained extinction of moral intoxicants (asavakkhaya nana) , and attained Buddhahood. He was delivered from the defilements of craving and ignorance. He realized that for him there would be no more rebirths, that he had been delivered. Wisdom arose; he had been enlightened at the age of thirty five years. He had become the Buddha, the Gotama Buddha.

The birth of the Buddha (part 1)

Prince Siddhattha Gotama, the Buddha-to-be or the bodhisatta, was born on the full moon day of May in the year 623 B. C. in Kapilavatthu , in what is now known as Nepal, to King Suddhodana and Queen Mahamaya of the aristocratic Sakyan clan.
On the day of the naming ceremony at the palace, seven of the eight brahmins, the masters of astrology, looked at the birth stars of the baby and raised two fingers and said the baby would become either a universal monarch or a Buddha. But the youngest Brahmin looked at the stars and the signs and raised only one finger and predicted the baby would definitely renounce the world and become a Buddha.
As a prince, Siddhattha Gotama, the Buddha-to-be, had an extremely luxurious life. He was fairer and more handsome than all others. His clothes were of the finest and softest fabric; food was from the most tender rice and meat. There were three palaces, one for the summer, one for the winter and one for the rainy season. He was entertained all the time by beautiful maidens, dancers and musicians.

Birth of the Buddha (part 2)

At the early age of sixteen, he married his beautiful maternal cousin, Yasodharæ.
When he was twenty nine years of age, he visited the park and on the way he saw what he had never before seen in his life in the palace - the fragile aged person, the diseased disabled person, the dead, and the hermit. The first three sights were signs that awakened and reminded him of the inescapable reality and inevitability of living beings. The hermit reminded him of the necessity of pursuing the path that was peaceful and free from the turmoil of life.
On his return to the palace that day, it was reported to him that a son had been born. News of the birth of his son came as a disappointment to him as he felt it would be an impediment (rahu) in his search for the ultimate peace. So the grandfather, King Suddhodana, named the baby Rahula .
The time had come and he could no longer find the palace alluring.

The Renunciation

He decided he would follow the path that night in search of deliverance from all worldly suffering. As the Prince Siddhattha had a final glance of his wife and his new born child, both of whom were fast asleep, great compassion for the two loved ones overwhelmed him. Yet he knew he had to leave so that he would find the path which would help beings reach the ultimate peace. In the silence of the night, at the age of twenty nine years, the Prince Siddhattha headed to the banks of the river Anomæ where he shed his princely clothes and ornaments and cut off his princely hair. He donned a yellow robe and became an ascetic, a wanderer and seeker of truth. He made his charioteer go back to the palace,
along with his royal horse Ka¼¥haka. But the loyal horse died of sorrow at having to part with its master on its way back to the palace.

The Buddha's search for truth

The first two teachers he met as an ascetic could only give the recluse Siddattha Gotama a high state of mental concentration which could not lead to actual enlightenment. The recluse Siddattha Gotama found that no one could teach him what he was looking for, and realized he had to depend on his own to gain what he was seeking. The recluse then practiced extreme self-mortification. He tried to hold his breath and because of this, wind blew from his ears with great noise. He felt as if his head were beaten with great violence and would explode. He tried taking only a morsel of food every day. As a result, his eyes became sunken, the skin became shrivelled, the belly skin touched the backbone, and hair fell off, the golden complexion, which used to be light and fair, became black. When the recluse walked to pass urine or excreta, he would stumble at that very spot and fall down . Even though he was experiencing utmost pain, his mind was pure. But he found that his painful austerities were futile and only led to exhaustion. After practising for six fruitless years, he became convinced that self-mortification only weakened one’s intellect and also knew that self-indulgence only hindered mental progress. The recluse Gotama recalled how, as an infant, during his father’s ploughing ceremony; he sat under a rose apple tree and was absorbed in contemplation of his own breath , which resulted in the attainment of the first jhana. He decided to nourish himself with balanced food intake so that he would gain the physical state fit enough for the practice to gain enlightenment. He practised contemplating his own in-breath and out-breath which enabled him to gain concentration.

The Buddha’s Enlightenment (part 3)

The buddha one day, put some sand particles on his thumb nail, and asked his attendant monk, the venerable Ananda, who was also his first cousin, ‘Ananda, which do you think is more, the number of sand particles on my thumbnail and those on the earth ?’

The venerable Ananda answered, ‘Lord, the number of sand particles on your thumb nail and that of those on the earth are beyond comparison. The number of sand particles on the earth is incomparably more than that on your thumb nail.’
The lord then went on, ‘It is just like that Ananda. The number of beings that are enlightened whenever a Buddha appears in the world is as small as the number of sand particles on my nail.

The number of beings that do not get enlightened even when a Buddha appears in the world is as much as the sand particles of the earth.’
It is therefore not an ordinary matter that a Buddha has appeared in the world. It is also indescribably fortunate to hear the teachings of the Buddha even though he has passed away. If an effort is not made to be liberated, then we go on and on, going floating and sinking in the stream of samsara.

Those with aggregates known as deities and man are said to be floating in the stream of the samsara. When they have a chance to listen to the teachings of the Buddha, when they have teachers who show them the path, they may be saved from suffering.

Those with aggregates known as beings of the woeful states, are said to have sunk in the stream of samsara, because when they are in animal forms or when they are in hell, even if a Buddha appears in the world, they cannot hear the dhamma and cannot be saved through guidance onto the path to deliverance.

The Buddha’s Enlightenment (part 2)

As a Buddha, seeing the universe with his divine eye, he saw beings were so overwhelmed by ignorance that he thought he would give up his desire to help beings escape from suffering.
Only upon being insisted by a brahma did he resolve to guide beings onto the path to enlightenment.

Once the venerable Mahæmoggallana reported to the Buddha that he had seen a hungry being peta. The Buddha replied that he saw at the beginning of his Buddhahood all forms of hungry being petas, and hell-beings in all forms of woe. But he knew nobody would believe him and therefore kept silent about those beings.

‘I do not argue with the world, Moggallæna, but only the world comes and argue with me,’ the lord Buddha had said.

The teachings taught by the Buddha during his forty five years as a Buddha is the dhamma.

His disciples, the monks, are the samgha. A Buddha does not always appear in the world to guide beings to get liberated from suffering. After a Buddha has appeared and has entered parinibbana, innumerable world cycles take place where there is no Buddha. These world cycles where no Buddha appears are known as suñña kappæ.

We have traveled in the samsara in various forms in various planes. All beings have been brahmas, deties; all beings have screamed in boiling lava of hell, all beings have, in the long samsara, been kings, beggars, the rich, the poor;all beings have, in the long samsara, been animals of all kinds.

When a Buddha appears in the world and if we are not among beings that attain enlightenment, then we go on and on, in the endless cycle of death and rebirth which is samsara.

Traditions; East and West

By ZeroXer

There seems to be quite a stark contrast between meditation centers in the East, and those in the west. Of course the traditions that originated in the east and have moved westward, have to a great extent preserved their tradition, but those traditions that have originated in the West have some very interesting points of distinction.
In the East, the largest traditions which encourage the practice of meditation are Hinduism and Buddhism. Within these main traditions, there are many sub-sects, which have become particular to a certain region. For example Tibetan Buddhism varies quite a lot from Korean Zen, yet both fall under the broad category of Buddhist practice.
It will be interesting to explore the different styles of philosophy, practice, and meditation centers in the various geographical region.

Views on Meditation

By ZeroXer

Meditation is becoming a more frequently hear term these days. But what it refers to remains somewhat ambiguous. When something of such an esoteric nature reaches the mainstream of a consumer-based society such as ours, there is bound to be a great space for misrepresentation. The terminology surrounding the topic, such as Emptiness, Enlightenment, and Oneness, just doesn’t have a foundation in western culture. Nevertheless, some interesting interpretations of, and variations, on the concept of meditation have evolved. There is even an extensive array of technologies to assist in the practice that was once considered only properly undertaken solitarily in a remote location. In the following blog posts, we will be exploring the effect modern society has had on the practice of meditation and the advantages and disadvantages of combining it with modern scientific method.