I am making another worthwhile book available electronically: Path to Nibbana by Ajahn Jodok of Wat Mahathat, Bangkok (known under various names: Phra Dhamma Theerarach Mahamuni, Jodok Ñanasiddhi/Yanasiddhi)
https://github.com/edhamma/jodok-path/ .
A few notes of historical interest (sourced from
Wat Bhaddanta webpage):
- Somdet (one level under the Sangha-raja, like cardinal under the pope, or minister under the king) Phra Phimontham (which would be Thai pronunciation of Vimaladhamma; as far as I know there was a monk in Thai delegation of this name at the 6th council, probably him), along with the Thai prime minister, made a request to the Burmese sangha to send vipassana missionary to Thailand in 1952. Mahasi Sayadaw chose Ajahn Bhaddantha Asabha (who was Burmese) as vipassana emisar to Thailand.
- Ajahn Bhaddantha Asabha on his mission had with him Ajahn Jodok (the author of the book; Thai of Lao roots, as far as I know), who then became the abbot of the royal temple Wat Mahathat (=Mahadhatu) in Bangkok, and the highest vipassana teacher for all Thailand.
- The third part, Manual of chhecking your vipassana kanatthana progress is the same as the often-referenced online text Sixteen Stages of Insight (MCTB also makes a reference to it).
Notes of meditative interest:
- The level of olympic mastery can be glimpsed from the short section Samapati, or Vipassana trance (quoted below): 24 hours or more of fruition. Daniel wanted to stage a friendly contest for these states, and there would be some serious contenders there!
- (Just as a side note, I heard that when lead monks of Wat Chom Tong met with Ajahn Tong, they would start each meeting with 1 hour cessation, all of them; and then discuss monastery business. Like mindfully starting a meeting with one minute of silence — but the pro level).
- He also makes a cursory distinction of 3 kinds of meditative time-lapse: chana(=jhana)samapati, phala-samapati (fruition) and nirodha-samapati (saññāvedayitanirodha). It would be good to resurrect these distinctions, as recent research on "cessation" (e.g. Laukkonen's) seems to ram all cessations together.
There are three kinds of Samapati; Chanasamapati, Phalasamapati and Nirodhasamapati. Here Phalasamapati only will be discussed.
Phalasamapati means seeing the result of the path which you have gained. You can make a wish to enter a Vipassana trance for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 24 hours or longer. The length of time depends on the power of your concentration. If you have good concentration you can stay in the trance state for a long time, but if your concentration is not good you can stay in the trance state for just a short time.
Relationship to Ajahn Tong (of Chom Tong; for those who know):
- Ajahn Tong was a disciple of (among others) Ajahn Jodok. His method of retreats is mostly 1:1 from Ajahn Jodok, including the aditthāna exercises (Exercise 13–15 in the book; the first one is wish for path, second for repeated fruitions, third for extended fruitions).
- Ajahn Tong slightly modified, it seems (or it was not written down, or was just more flexible in this) his instruction for review (Exercises 16), where AJahn Jodok suggests to practice wish for 2-3 stages in a days, thus completing the review of ñ4–ñ11 in 3 days.
The
Afterword (Appreciation of … Phra Dhamma and his teachings) was written by an Englishman George D. Bickell. He met Jodok in Britain in 1964, was monk under him in 1980-1988 (approx); he was reponsible for all English-speaking yogis in the famous "Section 5" of Wat Mahathat. After Jodok passed away 1988, he disrobed and moved to Vienna (Austria), teaching in private, and passed away in 2005. His talks and booklets were collected by his disciples from Vienna in Vipassana-Meditation book (
available as e-book), and are a good read.
One of his U.S. students (whom I don't know) recently penned, under the pseudonym Alex Walking, the book "Sex, Drugs, Enlightenment" (widely available), which has interesting passages, both about Phra George, Phra Thep (Jodok), also vipassana. Just a small excerpt here, on the insight knowledges fractal:
Phra George was surprised one day when I said the mundane insight knowledges were simply the weave of mundane awareness isolated into stages. He immediately agreed. “Usually, though,” he said, “a person arrives at number nine [desire for deliverance] and changes the object of awareness for another one that holds their interest. There’s no moving through it towards equanimity.”
This sequence is the mechanics of subjective reaction: Something attracts one’s attention and then when its fascination finishes the mind begins to drop it. A stage might only last a moment. As the looping, former thread of thought falls in the face of a new, attractive thought; a person has a twinge of not wanting to be stuck on the old one. One senses danger in missing out on the pleasure of variety, and disgust, or simply dispassion, with the last train of thought, follows. Desiring deliverance from the now-boring topic, the mind latches onto the new one. Then analysis of the new mental object starts a fresh cycle.
