Immediate though Extremely Subtle

Although Nibbāna is immediate, the number of people who have actually seen it is infinitesimal. This is because Nibbāna is extremely subtle – so subtle that the Buddha, after first awakening, grew discouraged at the prospect of teaching it. [See MN 26: Pāsarāsi Sutta, The Noble Search.]

Fortunately for us, the Buddha abandoned his hesitation and devoted himself to forty-five years of tireless service for the benefit of those who wished to practise and realize the fruits of his teachings.

Nevertheless, the subtlety of the goal is what requires a gradual path of practice in which one’s powers of concentration, mindfulness, and discernment become steadily heightened to the point where they lead to a direct realization of the goal. This means that an important part of the path will include practices that enable us to increase the subtlety of our powers of perception and will direct our search for the peace of Nibbāna to the point where searching is no longer necessary. [See Itivuttaka 54 and 55.]

The Buddha taught numerous gradual practices that lead to the Awakening that puts an end to searching. An entire section in the Saṃyutta Nikāya (Chapter 43), the Connected Discourses on the Unconditioned lays out many such practices, beginning with
1) mindfulness directed to the body;
2) serenity and insight;
3) concentration with thought and examination; concentration without thought, with examination only; concentration without thought and examination;
4) the emptiness concentration, the signless concentration, the undirected concentration (suññata samādhi, animitta samādhi, appaṇihita samādhi);
5) Four Foundations of Mindfulness;
6) Four Right Strivings;
7) Four Bases for Spiritual Power;
8) Five Spiritual Faculties;
9) Five Powers;
10) Seven Factors of Enlightenment; and
11) The Eightfold Path.

These methods form the foundation of practice in the Theravāda tradition.

This reflection by Luang Por Pasanno is from the book The Island, “Practices and Perspectives I,” (pdf) pp. 228-229.