Kammatthana
Kammaṭṭhāna ( Pali , Skt .: karmasthana; lit. “area of practice”; similar term: Bhāvanā - development of the mind ; in Thai : กรรมฐาน , spoken: [ kamˑmáˑtʰǎːn ]) denotes in the figurative sense a place within the mind where one can withdraw to to work on his spiritual development. Kammatthana is a meditation practice that is focused on every aspect of "blindness", "the spirit turbid passions" ( kilesa ), by desire ( Tanha ), of ignorance or "not seeing" (avijja - see three mental poisons ) from removed from the heart, thereby disrupting the mind's connection to the cycle of repetitive births and subsequent death.
Kammaṭṭhāna also often denotes a special direction in the Thai forest tradition , as it was practiced by the famous meditation masters Ajahn Sao Kantasilo and Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta .
More precisely, these are the 40 objects of meditation ( bhāvanā ), as they are written down in the third chapter of the Visuddhimagga . A meditation teacher gradually mentions all 40 Classical Objects to the practitioner for deepening, depending on the temperament of the student and his or her spiritual progress:
- The first ten Kammatthana are the ten Kasina Exercises, there are things that you can see directly:
- Earth (1), water (2), fire (3), wind (4), blue (5), yellow (6), red (7), white (8), light (9), limited space (10) .
- The next ten objects are the "disgusting objects" ( Asubha ):
- Bloated corpses (1), blue discolored (2), purulent (3), split open (4), gnawed (5), scattered (6) or chopped up and scattered (7), bloody (8), corpses eaten by worms (9) and the skeleton (10).
- The ten observations ( Anussati ) follow :
- the first three are the Three Gems , (1) Buddha , (2) Dhamma, and (3) Sangha ;
- the next three are the virtues (4) of morality ( sīla ), (5) generosity ( dāna ) and (6) the heavenly beings ( deva );
- This is followed by (7) death, (8) the body ( kāya ), (9) the breath ( prāna ) or breathing in and out ( ānāpāna ) and (10) peace.
- Furthermore, there are the four "divine abiding states " ( brahmavihāra ): (1) goodness ( mettā ), (2) compassion ( karunā ), (3) compassionate ( muditā ), (4) equanimity ( upekkhā ),
- the four "incorporeal regions" (arūpâyatana) : (1) infinite space, (2) infinite consciousness, (3) infinite nothing, (4) neither perception nor non-perception,
- the idea of disgust for food ( āhāre patikūla-saññā ),
- and the analysis of the four elements ( catu-dhātu-vavat-thana ): earth ( pathavī ), water ( āpo ), fire ( tejo ) and air ( vayo ).
The honorable Ajahn Man has stressed in his writings repeatedly that, although it is actually in Kammatthana a technical term, and for the Dhutanga - Monks has a special meaning, yet the true basis of Kammatthana in anyone who ordained monks or lay people, can be found. It has been taught to the new monk during the ordination ceremony since the time of the Buddha. There are the five basic kammaṭṭhāna about the components of the body: head hair ( kesa ), body hair ( loma ), nails ( nakhā ), teeth ( dantā ) and skin ( taco ), on which a further meditation - guided by a responsible teacher - can build.
swell
- Nyānatiloka: Buddhist Dictionary . Verlag Beyerlein & Steinschulte 1999, ISBN 3-931095-09-6
- Acariya Maha Boowa: Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera, a Spiritual Biography . Wat Pa Baan Taad, 3rd edition 2005, Baan Taad, Amphoe Muang, Udon Thani, 41000 Thailand, ISBN 974-92007-4-8 (freely available from the above address, or 4MB pdf download here )
- Acariya Maha Boowa: Patipadā: Venerable Acariya Mun's Path of Practice . Wat Pa Baan Taad 2005, Baan Taad, Amphoe Muang, Udon Thani, 41000 Thailand, ISBN 974-93757-9-3 (freely available from the above address, or 8MB pdf download here . The first six chapters are translated into German, pdf -Download here .)
literature
- Kamala Tiyavanich: Forest Recollections . Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 1997, ISBN 974-7100-40-1
- Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah: The Buddhist sanits of the forest and the cult of amulets . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1987, ISBN 0-521-27787-6