Samādhi is Pure Enjoyment

Ajahn Sucitto

Author’s Dedication

On the occasion of my sixty-fifth birthday, I offer these teachings and any good results that may accrue for the welfare of my late parents Charles and Winifred Malcolm.

You gave me all that you had.

Samādhi is Pure Enjoyment

Let’s look at the idea of concentration, or samādhi. When you hear those four little syllables, con-cen-tra-tion, what do they imply to you? It may take a few moments to articulate it, but you might immediately feel a particular set of energies starting to take over. You probably get a sense of doing something, working hard at it to get it right. That’s the normal take. We clench up, get tight, and go for it. It’s intensive practice, a ‘concentration’ camp. No slacking! With this kind of thinking, we rev up the controlling systems, the duty systems, the work systems, and the ‘get-it-right’ systems. Right there is stress. A line of tension starts to form across your brow.

Now such attitudes and tactics may work for a while – but in a few days we will start to tire out. Something in us tightens up, but at the same time something else in us is probably saying, ‘Ah, the heck with this.’ We want to get some enjoyment, so we look for legitimate ways to avoid ‘The Practice.’ We need food for the heart, and if we don’t get our happiness and ease in Dhamma practice, then we’ll get it elsewhere. Read something, eat something or go for a walk to relax. But what if samādhi was a relief, even accompanied by the enjoyment of feeling ‘at home’? What if samādhi was a matter of settling into a unified state? After all, in the suttas it’s defined as ‘unification.’[1] And in the way the Buddha presented it, samādhi is food for the heart, and its immediate cause is happiness – the happiness born of unplugging stress.

So it’s important to question our perception of concentration, and our attitude towards getting it. The ‘getting it’ approach doesn’t work in terms of appreciation of the present – but the present is all that we can fully directly be aware of. We’re directly aware of the present moment through feeling it and being affected by it – and that’s not a matter for thought or a goal, it’s a matter of heart in the present. But if we’re led by a work-ethic that demands achievement, we lose present-moment appreciation and enjoyment; we leave out the heart. And there’s the mistake: because there can’t be any settling and unification without feeling it in the heart.

Of course, the snag is that the heart can be affected by some pretty wild, scared or nasty impressions and impulses, so a clean-up is needed. This becomes apparent as we meditate and find ourselves getting irritable and critical. For instance when somebody opens the door too loudly, or we don’t like the way other people are walking, or the number of cushions they sit on. We find that the heart is out of touch with kindness or empathy; and this faultfinding attitude gets even worse if meditation practice is based solely on intense attention, in which the discriminative faculties are heightened. If the heart isn’t gladdened and brought into play, the balance between head and heart is lost, and we get irritated whenever anything prevents us from getting that intense scrutiny. And by and large, everything – weather, body pain, noise and of course other people – always does just that! In fact ‘getting’ samādhi seems to be the recipe for endless frustration. We may think we need to try harder, but this misses an important point. The heart needs to be purified not through intense attention on an object, but through wise reflection on our attitudes and approach. Then samādhi can come around through an enjoyment that deepens as the heart puts aside its restless negativity and rests on what is bright and peaceful.

Let’s consider the process that leads to concentration in the way the Buddha described it, as being based on right view, right effort and right mindfulness. samādhi is the settling into and enjoyment of the results of those three factors. In one instance he begins with: ‘For one who keeps good moral conduct, there is no need to wish: “May freedom from remorse arise in me.” Bhikkhus, it is in accord with ‘nature’ (Dhamma) that one who keeps good moral conduct will experience freedom from remorse.’[2] So our effort and mindfulness is to maintain integrity in terms of bodily action, words and even intention; then to recognize and draw on the uplifting qualities of such conduct. We dwell on the heart-opening effects of recognizing that ‘no creature need fear or mistrust me.’ Then the sequence of results proceeds with: ‘For one who is free from remorse, there is no need to wish: “May gladness arise in me.” Bhikkhus, it is in accord with nature that in one who is free from remorse, gladness will arise.’ We’re encouraged to put aside other ways of thinking and dwell on feeling free from regret. This affects our bodily tension and restlessness (notice the fidgeting and discomfort that accompanies a deliberate lie); and the body feels calm. Then: ‘For one whose body is calm, there is no need to wish: “May I feel rapture.’’ Bhikkhus it is in accord with nature …’ Here rapture is the buoyant, uplifted, spring-in-the-step energy that affects body and heart. And: ‘For one who is rapturous, there is no need to wish, “May I feel at ease.” This sense of being at ease is the final factor that supports samādhi: ‘Bhikkhus, it is in accord with nature that the mind of one at ease is concentrated [or unified].’ So we don’t begin with the intention: ‘May I be in samādhi’; through this process of bringing happiness into body and mind, the mind is naturally concentrated. That is samādhi.

So the ‘how to?’ question for those who rightly seek samādhi involves widening the focus to include wise reflection on cause and effect. This is right view. Then to keep bearing that focus in mind; to live with integrity, and feel the results of your attitudes and actions: this is right effort and right mindfulness. In detail: right view recognizes that we are an experience of causes and conditions, a web of potentials, actions and consequences for good and for bad. This naturally gets us interested in what potentials we’re activating in our mind – and those which lead to harmony and contentment and take us out of deceitfulness, distraction and selfishness are going to be our best bet. If we make an effort in that respect then we’re potentizing factors that lead to samādhi. This is because we’re also lessening the potential for hindrances such as worry, denial and selfishness to take over the mind. To pay wise attention to the skilful and bear it in mind is the track to samādhi; and even without arriving at that, this is a fine and skilful way to live.

Right view is one of a natural consequence, of skilful effects proceeding from skilful causes. If we’re mindful of the effect of living with integrity, and dwelling on how that feels in the heart, right view leads on. Right effort then follows as the effort to live with integrity, and, through meditation, to dwell upon and integrate that attitude and attention in terms of body and mind-states. For samādhi, we don’t need to make any further effort than this: to gentle our attitude, to widen to deepen attention and to stay with and firm up in that. This is the kind of attention that you work on as you focus on body, or breathing, or whatever your meditation object is.

There are two pieces in this paradigm that meditators may miss: the focus on the overall subjective feeling (which you lose if you over-emphasize the minutiae of scrutinizing sensations) and the encouragement to open up and enjoy. So consider enjoyment as something to be skilfully developed. Normally enjoyment only gets triggered by exciting or delightful objects that cause the mind to pause, linger and drink in the sight, sound or taste, etc. But with cultivation, we pause, linger on and drink in the effects and attitudes that accompany kind and honest behaviour. We learn to widen, soften and include; and then continue that approach to our breathing and our overall experience of embodiment.

Now that may not seem very precise. That’s because it’s not precise in terms of object definition, which is where we feel most secure. We think, ‘When I can feel so many breaths occurring in my nostrils, then I’m concentrated. That’s samādhi.’ But on its own this approach leaves out the subjective dimension of motivation, attitude and psychological tendencies. So instead of basing samādhi solely on an object, also turn your attention around. Forget about the breath for a moment. Contemplate how you are feeling. Just being here – how does it feel? Are there regrets and grudges? What is your aim and intention? Is there a demanding impatient attitude? When do you feel calm and easeful? What’s the energy like in these attitudes?

Living ethically and with respect for other beings is going to develop caring attitudes, and make us more attentive to what is driving us at any given moment. We may get pushy or manipulative or ‘dogged but dull’, but if we’re attuned to attitudes and the very real consequences that an unskilful attitude has, we’ll recognize that we need to step back and start from somewhere fresher, less driven or dutiful. So wise (or deep) attention is the initial activation for meditation, and it’s based on right view. What is skilful or appropriate to sustain awareness of at this time? This means beginning with collecting the heart in the present, because the present is all there is. Here, now. And because just about anything can occupy that ‘here, now’ space, we might begin with reflecting on the Refuge of Buddha, the potential for awakening; or of Dhamma, the ‘accessible, timeless, encouraging you to come and see’; or of Sangha, all those who experience some degree of realization or are on the Path to do so. Then there is reflection on ethics: to put aside our normal view of ourselves and pick up awareness of our virtues, skills and aspirations. This is a heart matter, it’s not about creating lists of good ideas, but about tuning into a bright tone that is available here and now. This is right effort. Then to bear that tone in mind is right mindfulness.

So you put your mind on the right footing. You change the attitude and perspective that comes from the daily world of time and having some place to go, to one being more steady and collected in the here and now. The time sense is important to be clear about. Notice how the future feels as a direct experience: when there’s something in the future, there’s tension. This could be either because of impatience to get to a desirable state or an achievement, or it could be worry or dread over what might go wrong. In either case you lose the open ease of being in the present. When you think of the future as a definite reality, you believe in the moods that are embedded in that sense, and in the ideas that they create. Worries start to solidify; flexibility and the capacity to deal with what arises begin to dwindle. But how real is ‘the future’? After all, we might be dead tomorrow! Isn’t it more the case that the present will unfold in line with causes and conditions (the right view that the Buddha points out)? So check the time sense; it’s caused by the moods and energies of the present. The visions and ideas are an illusion.

Take refuge in awakening. Direct awareness is only and always here and now; and conditions change around that sense. Tuning in to that truth grants us a perspective on our historical, functioning personalities. Personality is tethered to the apparent realities of time and place – which are both subject to change in accordance with causes and conditions. And we can notice: when a strong sense of self-consciousness takes over – ‘I am this, I’m not that; I wasn’t that, I will be this’ – the heart/mind loses the right view of causes and conditions, and we get stuck in them. This getting stuck causes us to either grab or drop people, events, memories and feelings. We may try to hang onto them, or defend ourselves from them, or try to perform and make ourselves into something. Or we may compare and compete – but in all these cases, the mind tightens up and loses clarity and confidence. And in truth all that we can have and own is right view and all that we can get rid of is wrong view and suffering. Haven’t you noticed how everything else comes and goes and changes?

As you enter more fully into meditation, the process is one of learning to get comfortable in your body and mind, and then resting them into stillness.

When we get into a good upright and settled posture, we attend within the boundary of the body to clean out its inner divisions – the tensions and staleness – so that it is no longer cramped or unbalanced. For this you can attune to the rhythmic process of breathing in and out and the pulsing, throbbing or dull sensations of the body. Within that realm of direct experience, notice that breathing is taking place. How do you know you are breathing? Just start to be aware of the rhythmic flow of that. It’s simple. Train in receiving the breath-flow, consciously attuning with the word ‘receive’ because it’s the least intense ‘doing’ that can occur. At first your receptivity may not be very clear or sharp or bright. Enhance the receiving; stay with it. Then ask, ‘What can I sense?’ Feel the modulations, the ins and outs of the breathing and the pauses; you can pick that up quite quickly. Focus in terms of patterns, rather than details of experience. This kind of focus is the one whereby you might listen to someone speaking and attend to the tone, the volume and the pauses between their words rather than react to what they are saying. In like fashion, when you’re breathing, simply receive the patterns of sensation and allow yourself to enjoy and rest in their flow. Flow is not a discrete object. You can’t substantiate flow, but things are dynamic, things are flowing. So the response has to be dynamic and flowing.

This means we focus the mind onto breathing and ask, ‘Hmm. What is this like? Why is my breath like this?’ Of course, we may think, ‘I need to adjust the breath to get it right. There’s something wrong.’ Well it’s OK to refine it a little. For example, you might want to slow the breath by lengthening the pause between the in- and out-breaths. Fine, if this leads to ease. But if you make elaborate concoctions or formulations around breathing, it gets so intense that you don’t even want to hear the word ‘breathing’ anymore.

Instead, attend to the breath-flow as it presses and moves through the tissues of the body. If you bring them together, this is ‘breathing through the body.’ It steadily clears and soothes the body. Then: where do you feel your energies come together? Get there. Let the breath pass through that, time and time again. You’ll find yourself neither snagging on it nor moving away from it. Contemplate this breathing in the same way you’d appreciate a painting. Don’t go up to the canvas and hook your nose on it. Keep it at a distance where your eye rests comfortably. That’s going to be different for different people. Your eye may rest comfortably on an object ten inches away, a foot away, two feet away. It depends. Put it where you feel comfortable. The idea of focusing is to settle, so focus in a way in which you feel settled and easy, not confused or sleepy. That’s the only point where you’ll experience a steady breath. This point is really where your awareness can settle. Which means that it’s a matter of attitude as well as a physical point.

Then you’ll find yourself settling in. You’ll begin to experience some kind of sign – the quality of openness without attachment has a characteristic feel, such as brightness. Listen in to that (if it’s something you experience through listening) as if you’re listening to the listening. If it’s tactile, feel it. If it has an emotional base, resonate with it. It is beautiful. Notice the beauty. What is this beauty? It’s where the mind feels gently delighted and uplifted. This is rapture – the threshold of samādhi.

We can’t hold this beauty of rapture. A relationship to beauty is something akin to devotion. We don’t hold it; we’re aware of it in a way that’s both gladdened and respectful. We have to give ourselves to it. Of course, this is something we’re not used to; it’s something that requires trust. Trust your body first of all. The body is something that can be trusted much more than the mind. And as one learns to trust, one learns to receive the blessings of what is good and conducive to the heart’s welfare. This brings joy.

The enjoyment of embodied presence – of opening to and settling in the body, rather than thinking about it – causes the mind to stop creating injunctions, controls and distractions, just because the underlying agitations that cause the mind to do all that get soothed by the direct experience of the body. And as the body begins to feel settled, the mind also settles – it doesn’t have conflicting interests and doubts. In this way, release in terms of the body – release from tension and staleness – supports release of mind.

Overall, practising for samādhi entails introducing awareness to body, thought and mood in a mindful way. This requires a clear commitment of intention: to being here, being with the body and the feeling. You use the bodily sense, especially the breathing sense, to get grounded in the here and now. Then, when you are settled into this embodied awareness, you can stand at the door of the heart and be with what arises in the mind without holding, favouring or resisting. You let things pass. This dispassion is also a ‘sign’ that calms the heart; it loses interest in what passes, it doesn’t get involved with them. Pretty soon, the distracting inner visitors stop coming – why should unskilful mind-states arise in the first place? They’re just created by the wrong view of the mind, in which it believes it can have or get rid of things that belong to the world. So release in the mind comes down to release from the mind’s wrong view.

Release is a graduated process. We work on getting the mind to release by changing its behaviour; as we’ve done with attending to Refuge, to the present, to wholesomeness and to being in flow. And for all of this the mind needs a reference, whereby we directly know the stress or ease by sensing how these mind states feel in the body. Whether we feel all up in our heads, brows furrowing, tension around our eyes, or sinking in the chest; or alternatively whether we feel more centred in our bodies, with the face and head muscles relaxed and a sense of open fullness in the chest. Then you can get a feel for what structures such as time and identity do to you. Can you breathe and soften out of them?

All this definitely changes the way the mind operates. And through this change we can check all kinds of psychological and emotional habits, by directly feeling how our attitudes affect us. Attachment to the senses feels rather violent compared with the flow of breathing. Also attachment to routines, systems and customs – silavattaparamāsa: that has to fall away. This attachment hinders how samādhi can integrate into our lives; it fosters a controlling approach that conflicts with life. For example, we may compartmentalize a retreat. We divide our experience into sitting, walking, then free time, then more sitting, walking, free time. This seems logical and systematic, but it sets up the controlling mind, and pretty soon, that mind finds fault with what it can’t control. samādhi gets limited to specific systems and routines. Then we try to recreate the concentration by the system or even the external conditions. We plan: ‘I’ll have my cushion set up straight and my own special walking path that no one else is going to use!’ We create zones in which anything unwanted or unusual has been weeded out. This is a very rigid approach. If we get confused or upset whenever something gets slightly out of pattern – this is no way to live. If you want a sterile experience, you’d better live in a laboratory.

Instead we should learn to be more like a weed, rather than like a precious orchid that can survive only in a hothouse with sprays and special foods. Weeds can live just about anywhere. It’s our controlling and picky personalities that can’t handle the raw stuff anymore, because they’re not in touch with the buoyant current of right view, right effort and right mindfulness.

So we train awareness rather than fuss around conditions. What we always have is body, thought and heart/mind. Then when awareness holds the body, there’s embodiment – somatic presence. When we form skilful concepts and think reflectively with full awareness, there’s wise clarity. And when we relate to what we feel and what moves us with an aware heart, there’s an openness and an inclusion that doesn’t approve or disapprove. It allows what is felt to be felt and to pass. As these bases of awareness become assured, then the mind that is moved feels the steady presence of the body so it doesn’t jump up or recoil from contact. The thinking simply notes rather than babbling and proliferating, and the heart lets conditions pass. After a while sights and sounds don’t even enter the heart; they may be seen or heard, but there’s no resonance or disturbance. This is bare reference, developed mindfulness, or referring to things as they are. When this reference is fully established, awareness can settle into the experience of the peaceful heart. This is the enjoyment of samādhi.

I think of ‘enjoyment’ as ‘receiving joy’; and samādhi as the art of refined enjoyment. It is the careful collecting of oneself into the joy of the present moment. Joyfulness means there’s no fear, no tension, no ‘ought to’. There isn’t anything we have to do about it. So there is stillness. It’s just this.

1 ‘Unification of mind … is concentration’ (Middle-Length Discourses 44.12)

2 All the quotes in this paragraph are from Numerical Discourses 10.2

Notes on Cultivating Samādhi

Cultivating samādhi is a matter of careful and steady practice. Like any skill, it’s something that few people get right on first or even twentieth attempts, so it should be developed methodically as something enjoyable in its own right. samādhi can be developed through mindfulness of the body, and the most helpful attitude is one of getting interested in the direct experience of the body and working with it, rather than to trying to force the mind to concentrate. This sets up a good relationship that educates the mind and makes it more receptive. This in turn tends to cause the mind to be steady and attentive, and hence it quietens down.

In outline the three processes that I will outline are: grounding attention in the direct feel of your body, then simplifying the mind’s knowing (so that thinking becomes minimal) and then enjoying the experience of that. These themes can be developed over the years through a range of techniques, but below are some guidelines that may assist this process.

*   *   *

Begin with grounding: sit in a balanced and alert way that encourages an upright spine along with relaxation of the face, chest, hands – all the soft muscular tissue on the front of the body. Begin with focusing on the tailbone and the pelvic floor, feeling the contact between the base of your body and what you’re sitting on.

With that contact there are sensations and energies. Focus on how they give you the sense of groundedness. Can you settle into and explore that contact?

Take some time to get that base established and rested. From there, trace with attention the spinal axis that draws up from that base. You might imagine that base is a root and there’s a stem growing out of it. Can you feel your sacrum and your lumbar vertebrae? Flex them a little to sense how your pelvis and spine interact, and find the angle with which your spine feels awake, engaged but not stressed. If the lumbar vertebrae are snugly resting on the pelvis, the spine is well supported. If the spine is held in way whereby the in-curve of the lumbar region is maintained, then the weight of the chest and shoulders is transferred down through the pelvis into the floor and the spine isn’t stressed.

Having properly established the spine, bring the rest of your upper body into balance by drawing your awareness slowly upwards. Give more attention to the back and let the front of your body be soft and receptive. Form a connection between your lumbar spine and the centre of your chest. Draw in the area of your spine immediately between your shoulder-blades, as if it’s also connected to the breastbone. Feel your neck as an extension of the spine; as your skull balances on it and your chin turns down very slightly, your neck-muscles can lengthen and relax.

Stay a while with the impression of the bodily form as a single unit. Get comfortable with that, relaxing whatever muscles you don’t need to use, such as in your face, shoulders and fingers. Simplify and get comfortable.

At any time in this process, thoughts and emotions will arise, diverting or impairing your attention. The advice is to not get involved with the topic, but acknowledge the mood that is driving a thought – such as irritation or anxiety. Then make a mental pause, relax a little on the in-breath and bearing the mind-state in mind, breathe out slowly and fully. Do this a few times.

*   *   *

When you’ve settled more fully in your body, sharpen your attention. Focus on the play that occurs between the abdomen and the chest as you breathe in and out. You can imagine them being two cavities, two balloons whose skins meet at the diaphragm. With the in-breath, the balloon of the abdomen swells and pushes out. As it pushes the diaphragm, the chest swells forwards, sideways and upwards. You can feel the muscles around your ribs separating and the shoulders shifting.

With the out-breath there is a softening and relaxing that begins in the chest and continues in the abdomen. Let the breath go all the way out, feeling the relaxing effect in the lower gut. Allow a pause to occur between the out-breath and in-breath. Contemplate how breathing in happens: there is a pull in the lower gut that swells the abdomen. Let it happen. Don’t make any effort to breathe and in fact keep your chest, throat and nose passive. Feel the pull of the breathing process steadily drawing air in through the nostrils, as if it’s drawing a thread through the body. As the in-breath completes itself, allow a pause and a hovering, and note when and how the out-breath begins. You may feel a release mechanism switching on somewhere above the palate and behind the nasal cavities. Allow the out-breath to continue, imagining that its thread is being slowly drawn through the body.

Notice how the breathing enters your throat. Keeping the voice box relaxed, contemplate the throat as a large open tube. Feel the movement of the breath through the throat, up into the floor of the mouth and as it is pulled through the nostrils.

The more you give interest to the details of the process, the less time and energy the mind will have to chatter and dream. So, starting simply and, picking up what you can feel of your body, then of the breathing, aim towards a filling your awareness with the rhythmic bodily sensations associated with breathing. Also notice the shift and play of energy. When you breathe in, the sensations become stronger, they are energized. You’re inspiring, energizing. Then breathing out, the sensations and the energy soften. The energy that’s been gathered gently suffuses the entire body.

If your breathing feels irregular or trapped, or not flowing completely, take a few slow and deliberate outbreaths. Slowly breathe all the way out until you feel you’ve finished your breathing. Then try to breathe out a little bit more. As you do so, relax down through the pelvic floor and … pause. Sustain that paused state; restrain the in-breath for five or ten seconds to allow the in-breath energy to build up. Then let your breath come in slowly, as if you’re breathing through a straw. Feel the power of the in-breath, flooding, filling and the energy flooding the body. Then let the breathing relax again. Let it settle down, then repeat the process a few times if it’s helpful. It may help to release some tensions or some restrictions in the breathing.

At any time in this process, thoughts and emotions will arise as before. They may be restless or bored, or be telling you of important things you have to do. Name the mood that is driving a thought and feel how it is affecting your bodily experience. It may make your body feel dull, or slightly tense. Notice how sense-desire brings a tingling energy to the body. Investigate: what does ill-will feel like? Or sadness? Widen your focus to include the entire body, and use the breathing to ventilate these moods. As you do so, notice how unattractive and unnecessary much normal mental activity is. Without getting negative about your mind, step back from its activities and appreciate the spacious awareness that this brings.

*   *   *

As you focus on the energy of the breathing process, you can sense that energy in areas of the body that aren’t associated with respiration. For example, with the in-breath you may feel a slight pulling or tingling behind the eyes and the forehead. Notice how these areas feel when you’re breathing in, and when you’re breathing out. With the in-breath, something brightens. Then it softens with the out-breath. There’s an energetic flow there.

With time and practice, you can note that flow in other parts of your body. Its effect can most readily be sensed in the temples of the head, the palms and fingertips and the soles of the feet. Keeping attuned to the rhythm of the breathing, pick up the flow that your mind feels comfortable with. Let this breath-energy gently massage the body and the mind. The calming effect that this has on the mind, coupled with the sense of bodily ease, will make it possible to let your attention rest on one particular point in your body and feel energy streaming through that and through the entire body. The most natural places for attention to settle may be the centre of the chest, or the spot behind the bridge of the nose, or the nose-tip, or the centre of the forehead.

Spend time sensing and appreciating the flow of breath energy. Feel it moving through and bathing the flesh, bones and cavities of the body.

Cultivate widening the ‘lens’ of your attention. Focus on one point, and without losing that point, steadily widen attention to include surrounding areas of the body. Cultivate an attitude of appreciation and goodwill.

Open the felt boundaries of the body and extend your aware energy through the entire field of what you can perceive. Let the boundaries of the body be relaxed, as if they are porous. Deepen the appreciation of that.

The mind might become very bright and emotionally charged. Quieten it by a sense of emotional withdrawal, aiming for a position or attitude that supports steadiness. When the mind comes into steady ease, the breath-energy and the mental state blend. The impression may be of light or space, or it may be of ringing silence. This impression can be rested in, in order to deepen calm. The calm mind can then review its normal concerns and energies and realize their conditioned and ephemeral nature.

*   *   *

When it’s time to withdraw from deep meditation, attend to the physical sense of the body, the skeletal structure and posture. Centring around the spinal axis, slowly half-open your eyes with no particular focus. Your energy and interest may go out into the visual field. The eyes often want to focus on something. Acknowledge that and then soften the gaze and widen the focus so that things become less differentiated. Be aware of the overall visual field; be aware of shapes and colours rather than discrete objects. How does that feel?

Get a sense of the boundaries of your body, the pressure of the body on its seat, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Use a simple repeated word, like ‘Buddho’ to engage the thinking process and then slowly move your head to engage the eyes in focusing. As you conclude your session, bring to mind a mood of appreciation and goodwill.

Further resources

This book and many others from Venerable Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Sumedho, and their disciples are freely offered and available in various electronic formats as well as in print. You can find them via our monasteries and through the websites listed below, along with other resources such as audio talks, meditation instruction and retreats. Everything is free of charge, and everyone is welcome.

For books and audio:

www.forestsanghapublications.org

www.amaravati.org

For a list of Ajahn Chah community monasteries worldwide:

www.forestsangha.org

For further Theravada Buddhist literature including English translations of much of the Pali Canon:

www.accesstoinsight.org

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Samādhi is Pure Enjoyment

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Table of Contents

Samādhi is Pure Enjoyment

Samādhi is Pure Enjoyment

Notes on Cultivating Samādhi