Sunrise behind clouds, free public domain CC0 image. Many people want to go to Heaven or at least be born in human worlds but most people do not know what is needed to go there, let alone how to achieve enlightenment. Previously, in a previous article, I explained what happens after death according to the Theravāda teachings. If you have not read it, you really should. It explains the five causes for the five effects to arise (rebirth). In short, your kamma, and wish determine your next birth, but it is often like a raffle. Where do you want to go and what do you need to do to get there?

Downloaded from https://www.needpix.com Interview 1 of 2 Note: Some edits have been made afterwards to make things clear or to protect the anonymity of people. I am sitting here now with one anonymous monk. He has sat for more than 24 hours in 4th jhāna and I wanted to interview him anonymously to inspire others. So we are here with Bhante (Note: All monks can be called “Bhante”). I want to ask a few questions. First is…. You are quite senior and I don’t think you were successful before in meditation. So what did you do in your early years? Did you study? Did you do try meditation, and what type of meditation did you do before to prepare for this? Are you fluent in Pāḷi? Can you elaborate on this?

Is the light a Nimitta and when should one look at it? When one practices meditation based on the breath, it is possible for the light to come and when that happens and it is stable one can use that light to enter samadhi absorption concentration. However, one should know when to look at the light and when not to look at the light. It is very important to know this difference because progress can stop. A long time ago, many teachers were telling their students to never look at the light. The teachers were not very developed and it was passed down from one teacher to another. Somewhere down the line, an experienced teacher gave the proper instruction of “not looking at the light” to someone who was not ready yet. This is proper, but if he had gone further and developed, he could have finally received the instructions to look at the light later on. So it was passed down from lay teacher to lay teacher and that was the general instruction long ago. That has changed, and now there is a push to look at the light as soon as it comes to the meditation yogi even though it is not stable yet. Ths can give little “highs"even if one is not ready, but that is not the way to practice and development will be hindered.

A’capella Inertia Audio Story (free MP3 download) I have decided to make an audio version of this story. I started off by having a computer read this for the purpose of proofreading. Then I started reading it out loud. As I read it out loud with my own natural expressions, I thought that it might be better if an audio version were available.

A Tale of Love and Samādhi Explained: A’capella Inertia A little Valentines story for all of you. The topside title is just a description of what the story is generally about. However, the real title of the story is called, “A’capella Inertia.” This is not a short one, but I think you will like this one very much. It has received high marks and it will take about 30 minutes to read. Those who have successfully subscribed to the blog should already have this formatted story in their email inbox for offline reading. Written in my verbose yet lucid story telling style with a few usual side tracks in between, it tells the story of the first time I fell in love while the end of the story explains why I have decided to write it down as a monk for the general public. In short, there are similar meditation experiences that one can have like the one mentioned in this story. However, this particular “meditative” experience does not happen often no matter how hard you try. You just sort of “fall” into it. Meditation is recommended instead because it is more reliable, sustainable, repeatable, and perhaps, easier to live with. So, here is the story.