Introduction to Dhammakaya Meditation

About five hundred years after the Great Decease of Lord Buddha, there remained no evidence of the Dhammakaya meditation technique. After devoted practice, the Venerable Chao Khun Phra Mongkol-Thepmuni restored the principles of Dhammakaya meditation and taught them. Today the approach has become well-known once again.

The Venerable Chao Khun Phra Mongkol-Thepmuni once said that Dhammakaya meditation would be known all over the country, primarily because it penetrates right to the heart of the practice of purification. Defilements such as greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, wrongview, doubt, sloth, restlessness, shamelessness, and lack of moral dread are uprooted naturally and effectively. Avijja or ignorance becomes Vijja or knowledge.

Dhammakaya meditation is not a new practice, as many believe. It is the original Buddha-Teaching. Dhammakaya meditation is the exact path that the Buddha practiced. It is cited many times in the Tipitaka (Buddhist Canon), and directly follows the Noble Eightfold Path which is classified into the three categories of Sila or morality, Samatha or Right Concentration, and Vipassana or Right Wisdom. In combination with the four Satipatthana or Foundations of Mindfulness, the Samatha (concentration) and Vipassana (insight) will advance to Right Wisdom pertaining to the Sankhara or compounds and Visankhara or non-compounds. The Right Wisdom of the Four Noble Truths will be unfolded. Nirvana or freedom from all conditioning and suffering will, thus, be attained.

Without Lord Buddha, this teaching would never have been known and practiced. Without the Venerable Phra Mongkol-Thepmuni, Dhammakaya meditation would never have been well known again. Various benefits will be gained even at the beginning of Dhammakaya meditation practice.

For truth seekers

This is for all who seek to understand reality or the true meaning of life as well as those who seek inner purification. Wisdom and virtue develop hand-in-hand. As the meditator progresses beyond the distortions of the passions, insight sharpens and understanding deepens.

Dhammakaya Meditation does not require blind faith. You do not have to believe in Buddhism to benefit from it. It is a method for training the mind to become concentrated and keenly aware, focused inward at the center of the body. With practice, you will encounter new experiences for yourself and will develop confidence.

In 1916, Luang Phor Sodh Candasaro (Chao Khun Phra Mongkol-Thepmuni) rediscovered the Dhammakaya approach to meditation which had been lost sometime during the first five hundred years following the passing away of Lord Buddha. The technique leads the meditator directly along the path to enlightenment and emancipation by combining concentration (Samatha) and insight (Vipassana) meditation techniques. It is, thus, extremely focused and effective.

Dhammakaya Meditation practice has become popular and widespread throughout Thailand. This is intended to make the method more widely available to English speakers.

Meditation begins with turning the powers of observation and awareness inward. We are accustomed to perceiving the outside world, but introspection requires special effort. Steeped in science, we have prided ourselves on “objectivity” while remaining largely unaware of inner biases.

Traditional scientific objectivity required isolation from the object observed. Since quantum mechanics was introduced, science has recognized that we are part of the world we perceive and what we see depends on how we look at it. Meditation is like polishing a lens to enable us to see more clearly. Skill in meditation develops the ability to perceive experience directly without the distortions implicit in conceptualization.

Many seekers turn to meditation because of dissatisfaction with life. This is the universally experienced sadness / suffering / tension (Dukkha) on which Lord Buddha based the Four Noble Truths. But, this motivation to ease tensions or cope with anxieties is only a starting point. Many meditation techniques will provide relief on this worldly level, but the beauty of Dhammakaya Meditation is that it leads directly upwards from this plane to more and more refined, purer and purer levels of awareness.

The effectiveness of the Dhammakaya Meditation derives from focusing attention at the center of the body and combining three meditation techniques simultaneously. Meditators often debate the efficacy of concentration (Samatha) versus insight (Vipassana). Dhammakaya Meditation employs elements of both. Higher and higher levels of concentration enable personal insight to progress from a more worldly view to Right Understanding and ultimately to Supra-mundane Right Wisdom.

The Meanings of Dhammakaya

Dhammakaya is the Supra-mundane body of the purist element which is non-compound and not subject to the Three Characteristics of impermanence, suffering and non-self.

The word Dhammakaya appears many times in the scriptures. Here are six examples.

1. In the Pathikavagga Sutta (Thai ที. ปา. 11/55/92), Lord Buddha says Dhammakaya is a name for the Buddha. “Dhammakaya, Dhammabhuto, Brahmakaya and Brahmabhuto are all names for the Tathagata.” The Thai Dighanikaya Commentary (Thai ที. อฏ. 3/50) explains that this is because Dhamma came from his heart via his words.
2. In the Khuddakanikaya, Apadana (Thai ขุ. อป. 32/2/20) Lord Buddha said that Private (Pacceka) Buddhas “...have a lot of Dhammakaya.” The Apadana Commentary (Thai อป. อฏฺ. 1/245) explains that this means that they have a high natural state.
3. Also in the Khuddakanikaya, Apadana, (Thai ขุ. อป. 33/157/284 ) Lord Buddha presents himself as Dhammakaya – already fully developed.
4. Badantacariya Buddhaghosa (Thai สํ. อฏฺ. 2/342-343) explained that Dhammakaya means the Tathagata plus the nine supra-mundane Dhamma – the 4 paths and 4 fruits of the Noble Disciples and Nirvana.
5. The Paramattha Dipani Commentary (Thai อิติ. อฏฺ. 334) explains that anyone who sees Dhammakaya wit h the Insight eye sees Lord Buddha, the Private (Pacceka) Buddhas and the Arahants.
6. The same Paramattha Dipani Commentary (Thai จริยา. อฏฺ. 324) explains that the Dhammakayas of Lord Buddha and the Private (Pacceka) Buddhas and the Arahants are True Self. “The Perfections (Parami) have rid these Dhammakayas of all defilements. They are True Self. Thus, they are ultimate and eternal.

If one looks beyond the specific word “Dhammakaya” for Dhammakaya concepts, they are found close to the heart of Buddhism. Upon hearing the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (The Wheel the Doctrine), Kondañña attained the Dhamma Eye or Dhammacakkhu. And, Lord Buddha’s definitive treatise on meditation, the Greater Sutta on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, begins with the instruction “A monk abides contemplating body in body.” The ultimate verification of Dhammakaya Meditation lies not in the scriptures, but in the thousands of meditators who have repeatedly seen the body in body and attained remarkable results. We invite you to see for yourself.