Bhikkhu Bodhi The Noble Eightfold Path Way to the End of Suffering

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conquer them the meditator will have to be adroit. At times, when a particular hindrance
becomes strong, he may have to lay aside his primary subject of meditation and take up
another subject expressly opposed to the hindrance. At other times he will have to
persist with his primary subject despite the bumps along the road, bringing his mind
back to it again and again.
As he goes on striving along the path of concentration, his exertion activates five mental
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The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html
factors which come to his aid. These factors are intermittently present in ordinary
undirected consciousness, but there they lack a unifying bond and thus do not play any
special role. However, when activated by the work of meditation, these five factors pick
up power, link up with one another, and steer the mind towards samadhi, which they
will govern as the "jhana factors," the factors of absorption (jhananga). Stated in their
usual order the five are: initial application of mind (vitakka), sustained application of
mind (vicara), rapture (piti), happiness (sukha), and one-pointedness (ekaggata).
Initial application of mind does the work of directing the mind to the object. It takes the
mind, lifts it up, and drives it into the object the way one drives a nail through a block of
wood. This done, sustained application of mind anchors the mind on the object, keeping
it there through its function of examination. To clarify the difference between these two
factors, initial application is compared to the striking of a bell, sustained application to
the bell's reverberations. Rapture, the third factor, is the delight and joy that accompany
a favorable interest in the object, while happiness, the fourth factor, is the pleasant
feeling that accompanies successful concentration. Since rapture and happiness share
similar qualities they tend to be confused with each other, but the two are not identical.
The difference between them is illustrated by comparing rapture to the joy of a weary
desert-farer who sees an oasis in the distance, happiness to his pleasure when drinking
from the pond and resting in the shade. The fifth and final factor of absorption is
one-pointedness, which has the pivotal function of unifying the mind on the object. [62]
When concentration is developed, these five factors spring up and counteract the five
hindrances. Each absorption factor opposes a particular hindrance. Initial application of
mind, through its work of lifting the mind up to the object, counters dullness and
drowsiness. Sustained application, by anchoring the mind on the object, drives away
doubt. Rapture shuts out ill will, happiness excludes restlessness and worry, and
one-pointedness counters sensual desire, the most alluring inducement to distraction.
Thus, with the strengthening of the absorption factors, the hindrances fade out and
subside. They are not yet eradicated eradication can only be effected by wisdom, the
third division of the path but they have been reduced to a state of quiescence where
they cannot disrupt the forward movement of concentration.
At the same time that the hindrances are being overpowered by the jhana factors
inwardly, on the side of the object too certain changes are taking place. The original
object of concentration, the preliminary sign, is a gross physical object; in the case of a
kasina, it is a disk representing the chosen element or color, in the case of mindfulness
of breathing the touch sensation of the breath, etc. But with the strengthening of
concentration the original object gives rise to another object called the "learning sign"
(uggaha-nimitta). For a kasina this will be a mental image of the disk seen as clearly in
the mind as the original object was with the eyes; for the breath it will be a reflex image
arisen from the touch sensation of the air currents moving around the nostrils.
When the learning sign appears, the meditator leaves off the preliminary sign and fixes
his attention on the new object. In due time still another object will emerge out of the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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