"On the night of the full moon—Magha Puja—I decided to sit in meditation as an offering to the Buddha. A little after 9 p.m., my mind became absolutely still. It seemed as if breath and light were radiating from my body in all directions. At the moment, I was focusing on my breath, which was so subtle that I scarcely seemed to be breathing at all. My heart was quiet; my mind still. The breath in my body didn’t seem to be moving at all. It was simply quiet and still. My mind had completely stopped formulating thoughts—how all my thoughts had stopped, I had no idea. But I was aware—feeling bright, expansive, and at ease—with a sense of freedom that wiped out all feeling of pain.
After about an hour of this, teachings began to appear in my heart. This, in short, is what they said: ‘Focus down and examine becoming, birth, death, and ignorance to see how they come about.’
A vision came to me as plain as if it were right before my eyes: ‘Birth is like a lightning flash. Death is like a lightning flash.’
So I focused on the causes leading to birth and death, until I came to the word avijja—ignorance.
Ignorance of what? What kind of knowing is the knowing of ignorance? What kind of knowing is the knowing of knowledge? I considered things in this manner, back and forth, over and over until dawn.
When it all finally became clear, I left concentration. My heart and body both seemed light, open, and free; my heart, extremely satisfied and full."
~ Ajaan Lee, recollecting his meditation at Chieng Dao Cave on Magha Puja night, 1932.
Prior to that, he'd already been making an all-out effort to meditate both day and night.
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In practicing meditation, the mind is what gives the orders. In other words, we should have a base or a frame of reference, contemplating the breath so that it becomes refined—because the more refined something is, the higher its value.
Our breath sensations are of five sorts:
(1) The first are the breath sensations that flow from the head down to the tips of our feet.
(2) The second are those that flow from the tips of the feet to the head. These two sorts take turns running back and forth like a rope over a pulley that we pull up and down.
(3) The third sort are the breath sensations that flow throughout the body. These are the sensations that help ventilate the body, receiving our guests—the breath permeating in through the skin—and expelling the inner breath, keeping the pure, beneficial breath in the body and expelling the harmful breath out through the pores.
(4) The fourth sort is the breath in the upper abdomen, guarding between the heart, lungs, and liver on the one hand, and the stomach and intestines on the other. It supports the upper organs so that they don’t press down on the lower ones and keeps the lower organs down so that they don’t push up and crowd the upper ones. This sort of breath we have to observe in order to see in what way it’s heavy on the left or right side.
(5) The fifth sort are the breath sensations flowing in the intestines, helping to warm the fires of digestion, just as if we were steaming fish or other foods to keep them from spoiling. When our food is cooked, it can be of use—like the steam condensing on the lid of a pot—to enrich the blood that nourishes the various parts of the body. Whichever kind of nourishment should become hair, nails, teeth, skin, etc., the blood sends to those parts.
These breath sensations are always flowing in waves through the intestines to disperse the heat of digestion. When we eat, it’s like putting food in a pot on the stove and then closing the lid. If there’s no ventilation in the pot at all, and we simply add fire, it won’t be long before our stomach is wrecked and our intestines ruined, because we’ve closed the lid so tightly that no air can pass in or out, until the heat becomes too strong and burns our food to a crisp. Our body won’t get any benefit from it. On the other hand, if the heat is too low, our food won’t cook through. It’ll spoil, we’ll get an upset stomach, and again our body won’t get any benefit.
These sorts of breath sensations help keep our digestive fires just right for the body.
If we look at these five sorts of breath sensations in the correct way, we’re sure to reap two sorts of results: (1) In terms of the body, those of us with many diseases will have fewer diseases; those of us with few diseases may recover completely. Diseases that haven’t yet arisen will have a hard time arising.
(2) In terms of the mind, we’ll become contented, happy, and refreshed.
At the same time, meditation can help free us from bad kamma because unskillful mental states won’t have a chance to infiltrate the mind. Our life will be long, our body healthy. If we keep developing our meditation to higher and higher levels, the four properties (dhātu) of the body will become clear and pure.
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From
1. The Autobiography of Phra Ajaan Lee, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#autobiography
2. Inner Strength & Parting Gifts: Talks by Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo, translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
https://www.dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#inner_strength
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