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When zandtao meditates he goes through the 4 stages of each of the 4 tetrads of zandtao prajna autonomous practice. In this advice he explains why he has stopped calling it MwB even though the meditation still uses Buddhadasa's core infrastructure; in zandtao's view his practice is developed from and in line with Buddhadasa's Anapanasati Bhavana.
Depending on daily life commitments the full practice can be timely so zandtao starts with a summary table of keypoints.
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| Kaya |
Settling |
Minimal Internal Chi Gung [1] - release tension in body. Nei Gung if heart OK |
Short and Long Breaths |
Calming Kaya - one body. ASK kaya |
| Vedana |
Releasing feelings from daily life - sukha |
Releasing past feelings |
Calming feelings - one body and vedana |
Feeling love - vedana conditioner. ASK vedana. |
| Citta |
Using love express brahma-viharas |
Now - Inner Guide |
Concentration |
Releasing mental attachments. Humility. Citta conditioner - one body, vedana and citta. ASK citta. |
| Dhamma |
3 Freedoms - Anicca Dukkha and Anatta. |
Atammayata |
Embody love and integration |
Abiding with 5 Dhamma Comrades leading to tathata. |
The long version does not work on a stool. It is now very much meditation days. The meditation takes a long time in which the objective of the 4 tetrads leading to vision does not always happen. This is not for zandtaomed. |
Tetrad |
Stage |
Key Words |
Key Points |
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First |
1 |
Settling |
External release of attachment |
Kaya |
2 |
Internal Chi Gung [1] Nei Gung if heart OK |
Circulating chi around body - release tension in body. |
3 |
Short and Long breaths. |
Develop a kaya-conditioner routine. Breath - mind and body are one. |
4 |
Calm body |
Oneness - whole body |
ASK |
Be with kaya, matters arising? |
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Second |
5 |
Generally release attachments arising from feeling. [5] Use sukha to transform agitation to love. |
Stopping spinning |
Vedana |
6 |
Release feelings descending the Tai-Chi ridgepole into Mother Earth [2]. Transform feelings arising from vedana to love using sukha - present and past feelings. |
Sukha transforms to love. Leading to mudita |
7 |
Calming feelings.
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Develop sukha as a vedana-conditioner routine
Detailed recognition of feelings and transforming |
8 |
Let Gaia's love arise - let love control vedana. Express and unite sukha with spiritual love from Gaia.
Feel at peace with love and the patriarchy. Oneness of kaya and vedana. |
Use the consciousness that is transformed from vedana to express own love as sukha and unite with love arising in Gaia, have faith in love, and once in these feelings of love look for a feeling of temporary nibbana - nibbana-dhatu |
ASK |
Feeling love and being with vedana, any dukkha - any matters arising? |
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Third |
9 |
Experiencing citta. Seeds 4 brahma-viharas |
Developing supramundane. Seeds of b-v. Seeds of supramundane love. |
citta |
10 |
Now |
Starting to balance love and wisdom in the now. Let the inner guide raise insight. Harmony with Nature. Embodiment. |
11 |
Concentrating mind Oneness of kaya, vedana and citta |
Stability, purity, activeness |
12 |
Liberating the mind from the one conditioning of patriarchy
Releasing consciousness for faith. |
End upadana [6] and kilesa (now). Not attaching to the khandhas - sanna-scanning [4]. Holy khandha. HUMILITY. Citta conditioner |
ASK |
Be with citta, any remaining attachments?
Be with vihara, any matters arising?
Do NOT rush the vihara. |
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Fourth |
13 |
3 Freedoms from attachment, suffering and clinging. Anicca dukkha and anatta, love quenching dukkha - is there nibbana-dhatu arising? |
Integrate mind emotion and body in heart-consciousness |
Dhamma |
14 |
Using 5 Dh Com to dissolve remaining attachment. Be Atammayata |
Dhammajati - Nature itself, laws of nature, duty, rewards |
15 |
Unite with wisdom. Inner guide uses insight to check harmony with nature and embodiment. Unite with love - love-wisdom embodiment. Expand embodiment to Interbeing.
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Chakra embodiment of love and wisdom - [3]. Integrate whole being and then integrate with interbeing. Liberation - love that is free from atammayata - free from patriarchy. |
16 |
Use 3 freedoms - released attachment, released suffering and released clinging as faith joining upwards with light of consciousness and awakening the heart. Abide in the heart on the path with 5 Dhamma comrades. Deep knowing - wisdom. Deep loving. Abide in the united autonomy of 5 Dhamma comrades Use autonomy and 3 freedoms to lead to liberation that then leads to deep seeing - Vision. Seeing, feeling and knowing Nibbana-dhatu?
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Throwing it all back? Chakra ridgepole touching sunnata initially arising out of the balance of love and wisdom -then arising out of abiding in 5 Dhamma comrades. With the 3 freedoms, Liberation leads out to deepseeing, deepfeeling and deepknowing? |
[1] Internal Chi Gung
This is a routine zandtao picked up from Daniel Reid's "A Complete Guide to Chi Gung". zandtaomed's version of this macroscopic orbit is done 3 times.
1) Breathe chi in from Source through the crown chakra down the centre of the body to the tan tien, and focus on the tan tien.
1a) Do this microscopic orbit around the 3 lower chakras on the 2nd and/or 3rd macroscopic orbit. From the tan tien bring the chi forward level with the tan tien then move it up to the solar plexus chakra. Breathe in yellow chi through the chakra and move the chi through the chakra to the back, moving the chi follow the spine down and round to the root chakra and breathe in red chi through the root chakra, move the red chi round to the sacral chakra and breathe in amber chi. Move the chi round level with the tan tien and move it back into the tan tien. Now do the same orbit in reverse, back from the tan tien then move the chi up following the spine until you are level with the solar plaxus chakra. Breathe in yellow chi and move the yellow chi forward through the solar plexus chakra until the chi touches the front of your body. Move the yellow chi down ....
2) From the tan tien breathe in down to the root chakra where you bring in chi from Gaia, and carry the chi along the spine up to focus on the 3rd eye chakra.
2a) During the 2nd and/or 3rd cycle of the macroscopic orbit breathe in light blue chi into the 3rd eye chakra. Move the light blue chi forward until it touches the skull. Move the light blue chi down until you are level with the throat chakra. Breathe in royal blue chi and move the royal blue chi through the throat chakra until the chi touches the spine at the back of the neck. Move the chi around the skull until it reaches the crown chakra, breathe in lavendar chi and move the lavendar chi round the inside of the skull until it reaches level with the 3rd eye chakra. Breathe in light blue chi and move it back to the 3rd eye chakra. Rest and then do the microscopic orbit in reverse. Breathe in light blue chi back through the 3rd eye chakra. When you reach the skull move the light-blue chi down until you are level with the throat chakra. Breathe in royal blue chi and move it forward through the throat chakra ....
3) From the 3rd eye chakra breathe chi up to the crown chakra, and breathe chi in from Source, and carry the chi from Source down the fromt of the head and body to the tan tien and focus again.
4) From tan tien breathe in down to the root chakra where we collect chi again from Gaia and carry it up the centre of the body to the crown chakra and back out to Source.
Do this routine after settling to bring the mind into a readiness of meditation. |
[2] Vedana Release
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In step 5 we have generally released any attached vedana but now we release vedana attachments in a formal way by reversing down the tai-chi ridgepole. To begin with we feel Mother Earth similar to Nicola Amadora's Divine Mother meditation going down and feel grounded in Mother Earth. Once we have some feel of the mother we go to the top of the chakra ridgepole and begin to go down the ridgepole into Mother Earth. Starting with space around the crown chakra we look for attachments, see the attachments and then release them. With our attention we guide this release down into the arms of Mother Earth (Gaia). In the space around the 3rd eye chakra we look for attachments, see the attachments and then release them. With our attention we guide this release down into the arms of Mother Earth (Gaia). We do this with all the 7 chakras so that we feel our bodies are released from any feelings of attachment. Once we have released the vedana attachments we give thanks to the Mother Earth knowing that after we have completely calmed the vedana in step 7 we are going to come back in step 8, and with Gaia's help we are going to feel love before we release mental attachments in the 3rd tetrad preparing for the cultivation of love-wisdom and the development of love-wisdom embodiment.
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[3] Chakra Embodiment
1) Feel mindfulness throughout your body ready for love-wisdom integration. Focus on each part of the body (except where you have brought Gaia's love from tetrad 2) and just be awareness - release any attachments.
2) Create the chakra ridgepole. Use any chakra model but zandtao uses 7 chakras - root-red, sacral - orange, solar plexus - yellow, heart green, throat - dark blue, forehead - light blue, crown of head - lavendar. These 7 chakras create a ridgepole from the root to the crown. Using colours or otherwise bring in love and wisdom to each of the chakras in turn.
3) Once you feel a strong ridgepole of love-wisdom, expand it filling all the space you have just created in 1. So you feel integrated love-wisdom with a strong ridgepole of love-wisdom.
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[4] Sanna-scanning
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Because of Buddhadasa's teaching "removing the I and mine from 5 khandhas" has always been part of practice in step 12. But sanna has been token. As a result attachment to sanna has led to egos over time. Such sanna attachment was Nyanga but has not been part of daily practice. Sanna attachment affects all khandhas so sanna-scanning is now a specific activity in step 12. Be very careful with sanna-scanning, it does not discriminate and all kinds of memories can arise. More discussion on sanna here.
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[5] Buddhadasa
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zandtao has changed the name of this meditation to zandtao prajna autonomous practice - zpap. Why he does not use MwB any more is discussed in this advice.
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[6]Kamupadana
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This was subtle given my age but is important for zandtaomed. Romantic love contains lust, this is natural; there is a conditioning connecting love and lust that is part of romantic love. Spiritual love has no lust but the conditioning can give lust egos with the rise of spiritual love. Disconnect love and lust - spiritual love and lust.
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