The first level of Noble Attainments

Question : How much concentration is required for one to develop real insight in the practice and to attain at least Stream-Entry?

Tan Ajahn: Your mind has to enter the fourth jhāna, when it becomes totally detached from the body. And it can see that without the body, it can still be happy. Once it understands this truth, and when it comes out of this jhāna, this fourth level of jhāna, which we call apanā-samādhi, it can then instruct the mind to relinquish the body, to leave the body alone.

Because it knows that it can be happy without the body. Should the body get old, leave it alone. Should the body get sick, leave it alone. Should the body be painful, leave it alone. The mind will have the mental strength to just be detached, to be aware of the physical pain but with no desire to have the pain removed. Because if you have the desire to have the pain removed, you are not leaving the body alone. You are not seeing that the body is not yourself; you are still mistakenly seeing that the body is yourself.

It is just like when other people get sick, you leave them alone right? You don’t expect to go remove the pain from their bodies because you know you cannot do it. So too with your body, it is the same thing. You cannot remove the pain from the body, but you can live with the pain if you have a strong base of calm.

If your mind has come out of the fourth jhāna, then you can have a strong mental equanimity (upekkhā), and remain neutral, peaceful, and calm. Leave the physical pain alone, or even at the time of death, just leave the body alone. Let it die. If you can do this, you can achieve the first level of Noble Attainments, the Stream-Enterer level (Sotāpanna).

You have realized or understood that the body is not yourself, and you can leave the body alone. Your mind is not affected by whatever happens to your body. Your body will seem like it belongs to other people. You treat your body like you treat other people’s bodies.

Question : Is jhāna a must in our meditation practice or is mindfulness practice enough to have insight to see the Dhamma?

Tan Ajahn: Not enough. You see the Dhamma, but you don’t have the strength to let go of your attachments. It is only when you have jhāna, that you have let go of your attachment, but you only let go temporarily in your samādhi. After you come out of your samādhi, your attachment returns.

That is where you use vipassanā. Use the knowledge that the body is not yourself, that the body is impermanent, that if you cling to your body, your mind becomes painful and stressed. If you don’t want this, then you have to let go of the body. If you have jhāna, you will have the strength to let go. If you don’t have jhāna, you don’t have the strength to let go.

By Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto