I ran across this sutta while reading the Maha-satipatthana Sutta on accesstoinsight.org:

Sankhitta Sutta: In Brief

It very briefly describes a complete meditative path from composing one's mind inwardly, to goodwill and the brahmaviharas and through satipatthana, utilizing the jhanas. As someone pre-first path (around A&P stage), but concerned about the effect the dark night will have on my life, I find the path outlined here to be interesting.

Some thoughts:

- I hadn't practiced metta in this way before. "Good-will, as my awareness-release, will be developed, pursued, handed the reins and taken as a basis, given a grounding, steadied, consolidated, & well-undertaken." To "hand the reins" to goodwill and take it "as a basis" means, to me, to relinquish control over my actions to that part of me which intends only to do well for all beings. I can recognize that part of me -- it's simply the source of intentions when I do nice things for my friends and others to try to improve their lives and make them happier. I hadn't understood exactly what a "spiritual" practice feels like until I tried giving this part the reins. Now I believe I understand. It also sheds light on some of what Richard was talking about on the AF Trust website with regards to spiritual enlightenment and positive emotions.

- At the same time, trying this, I notice my face becomes radiant, I begin to feel uplifted and happy. My eyes open wide, and I gently and automatically smile. This is very unusual for me, as I tend to be generally depressed, low, or anxious. I also notice piti arising in my body. I think I begin to understand the sutta descriptions of jhanas, and also some of the descriptions in the suttas of the Buddha's disciples being radiant, with clear complexion, etc. (Don't have a reference on hand.) I definitely never got the latter part before.

- Goodwill/metta is only the first part. Having developed the jhanas through metta, the sutta instructs one to develop them through compassion, appreciation (sympathetic joy?), and equanimity. Perhaps this is proceeding from highly affective states through less affective states.

- One then follows into satipatthana practice, again with the jhanas. Does the release reached through this include the dismantling of all the fetters? This I am curious about. The sutta claims the monk given these instructions "in no long time reached & remained in the supreme goal of the holy life for which clansmen rightly go forth from home into homelessness, knowing & realizing it for himself in the here & now."


It would be an interesting experiment for a beginning yogi such as myself to really dedicate him/herself to such a practice.

Any comments?

Thats essentially what I am doing, with Sister Khema for guidance. We are using the Ehipassikho yahoo group for people from the DHO who want to learn how to so this. While I have heard a number of talks about how this practice can lead to path, I haven't seen a description of the state of being after path so I don't have any idea how it compares to MCTB first path.

EDIT - also Bhante Vimalarasi says that his experience with students is that they can get into a first jhana this way (metta with 6Rs) very quickly compared to the harder 'one pointed' stuff and the jhana is wide open in the sense that no experience is being supressed or blocked out and so quite a bit of learning can take place within this type of jhana as there would initially be many interruptions that would have to be released to continue - its more like getting into jhana by learning to let go of the stuff that gets in the way instead of pushing it back under the rug, so to speak. I am a ways from getting there but it seems to be a very nice practice that has lots of 'spill over' into daily life.

Check this thread. i posted something by Sister Khema related to this sutta.


http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/2538169