The Practice Which Leads to Nibbana

The method of practicing meditation that is taught at Pa Auk Tawya Monastery is based on the explanation of meditation found in the Visuddhimagga commentary. Because of that the method involves several stages of practice which are complex, and involved.

These stages include a detailed analysis of both mentality and matter according to all the categories enumerated in the Abhidhamma and the further use of this understanding to discern the process of Dependent Origination as it occurs in the Past, Present, and Future. Therefore people who are unfamiliar with the Visuddhimagga and the Abhidhamma will have difficulty in understanding and developing a clear picture of the practice of meditation at Pa Auk Tawya. For foreigners who cannot speak Burmese this problem is made even more difficult.

This introduction has been written to help alleviate these difficulties by presenting a simplified example of a successful meditator’s path of progress as he develops his meditation at Pa Auk Tawya. This we hope will enable the reader to understand a little better the more detailed sections of the book which are the actual instructions for those who are practicing meditation. It also must be stressed from the beginning that this book is intended for use by people who are actually undergoing a course of meditation at the center under the guidance of Pa Auk Sayadaw.

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