Practice — Gradual training

Gradual Training — The overall arc of Buddhist practice is from ethics to collectedness/concentration/indistractability to wisdom insight, or sīla-samādhi-pañña in Pāli. These are inter-related, not always progressing in a linear way. As Ayya Khema said, ‘a little bit of calm gives a little bit of insight; a little bit of insight gives a little bit of calm’. All three components are important on the path of practice. 

     sīla-samādhi-pañña in modern vernacular: 

          ‘Clean up your act, concentrate your mind, use your  

                 concentrated mind to investigate reality.‘ — Leigh Brasington

Sīla (ethics) — This is getting your house in order in terms of conduct in the world. The five precepts are an excellent starting point. Importantly, these are not commandments. The Pāli phrase used is ‘sikkhāpadaṃ samādiyāmi‘, which means to ‘I take upon myself the training rule (lit. ‘training path’)’.

Here our purpose is to modify our behavior in ways that improve well-being for ourselves, others, and both ourselves and others. Understanding evolves over time, and one may take on additional trainings, such as the eight precepts, some of the monastic precepts from the vinaya, other historical sources, or even guidelines we create for ourselves.

Samādhi (concentration) — The essence here to bring one’s mind to a serious level of stillness alongside crystal-clear awareness. Translations I’ve seen include concentration, collectedness, stillness of mind, mental composure, and ‘indistractability’.

The aim is to work with the mind to the point it becomes, as described in MN4, ‘purified, bright, unblemished, mallleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability’ (trans. Bhikkhu Bodhi).

How do you do that? Practicing the jhānas, or meditative absorptions, is recommended. Sammā-samādhi, translated as ‘Right Concentration’ or ‘Perfect Concentration’, is defined by the Buddha in multiple places (e.g. DN22 and MN141) as the four jhānas. Other practices such as working with the Brahma-vihārās can incline the mind similarly.

Pañña (wisdom) — Called ‘wisdom-insight’ by Ayya Khema, pañña points beyond intellectual knowing or understanding, and to an understanding that has been ‘baked in’ or, to borrow a word from Heilein, ‘grokked’. This kind of wisdom comes from direct experience that gives clear insight and ‘in your bones’ knowing.