http://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/16/

Hadn't seen these before, they are longer, more wide-ranging, slightly more philosophical/theoretical, more systematic less grim, more funny than his almost-daily ones at his monastery. I think they are really good, I've been listening to the "papanca" series and it addresses some really really interesting things and I really highly recommend it.

couple interesting notes from the papanca series:

stopping all thought is not the goal of buddhism, but stopping thought which objectifies processes into objects is the goal

an experience of "the deathless" is consciousness but without any sensory content

the dhamma eye opening comes down to experiencing the deathless and specifically gaining insight as a result of 'stepping outside of time' and thus ascertaining that 'this chain of cause and effect started before this birth' (paraphrases)

the deathless is attained and the dhamma eye is opened via 'getting into concentration, noticing what intentions are causing stress, dropping those intentions and thus getting as concentrated as possible, then at the deepest possible level of concentration recognizing that intentions either to move from that state or efforts to stay in that state both cause stress and then neither staying nor moving, i.e. dropping all intention' (paraphrased)

Im just finishing part 2 of "The Breath As A Vehicle for Liberation". Absolute gold. Thanissaro Bhikku is describing a lot of what I've been instinctively doing almost since I started (and feeling guilty about, as it was not the strict technique of body scanning taught to me!).

Wonderful stuff. Invaluable.

Thanks Adam.

yes i am on that series too, i was going to make another note about it. he goes into enormous practical detail about all 16 steps and clarifies some really interesting things.

A non-exhaustive list of some of the cooler things talked about in this series:

• How to induce rapture
• "Breath energy", breathing the whole body
• Energy bodies, breath bodies, physical bodies
• Calming the breath down to cessation (of breath)
• Explanations (and quite reasonable ones) of some of his odd translations
• LOTS of great questions and helpful, clarifying answers about the meanings of the 4 tetrads

Im probably missing half of it. Im going to listen to the whole series again in a day or two. This is astonishingly good stuff.

Added: it turns out TB is quite a funny chap as well. Lots of fun for anyone working on Anapanasati

Also, he explains more clearly what to do after the cessation of the breath which is where I'd usually not know what to do. Basically pay attention to the rise and fall of mental stress and drop intentions correlating to the rise.