TREADING THE PATH TO NIBBANA

        The Teaching of the Compassionate Buddha
                                                           by E.A. Burtt

- Sincere effort is the path to Nibbana (Nirvana) . Thoughtlessness is the path of death. Those who are in earnest, do not die and rejoice in wisdom. Those who are thoughtless will live with fear and be reborn in the cycle of life, illness, and death.
- There is no fire like passion ; there is no evil like hatred ; there is no pain like this bodily existence ; there is no happiness higher than Nibbana (Nirvana) .
- He who gives himself to egotism, personality, and excessive pride, and does not give himself in meditation, forgetting the real aim of life and grasping at pleasure, will in time envy him who exerted himself in meditation.
- All that we are is the result of what we have thought : It is found in our thoughts; it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a kind, pure thought, happiness follows him like a shadow that never leaves him.

                                         
                                             PREFACE

          This little book' s style and contents is filled with forty important methods of meditation from the Buddhist Abhidhamma. With the blessings of Lord Buddha and noble Buddhist monks and the best effort of my meditations, I have tried to gather forty essential methods of meditation from the Buddhist Abhidhamma, both in Thai and English. The objectives for writing these forty methods of meditation are :
          1. To show gratitude to Lord Buddha and my Beloved, Venerable Father Prarach Brahmyan Juntaram of Temple  U-Thaitany, Thailand, who taught me to see the reality of life, to get in touch with Lord Buddha, and to experience ultimate Nibbana with the miraculous psychic power meditation.
          2. To share the knowledge of Buddha's teachings in many simple ways of meditation.
          3. To help myself and others to follow our Supreme Father, Lord Buddha, to attain eternal happiness or Nibbana (nirvana).
          This book will never be completed without acknowledging the miraculous psychic power (Manomayiddhi) of the Venerable Father Prarach Brahmyan, who taught all people at the Chantaram Temple,U-Thaitany, Thailand since 1978.
          I must admit that it was not easy for me to write in English, but with the blessings of Lord Buddha and the kindness of the Venerable Father, I have learned to get in touch with him since he entered Nibbana. He gave me permission to write about Lord Buddha's long forgotten meditation, which was rediscovered by the Venerable Father.
          Without the encouragement and good will of my devoted husband,Boonmee Chunprapaph, M.D., all my Dhamma friends, my good two sons, Benj and Kabil Chunprapaph and others, who helped to create this manuscript, this little book would not have been possible. I appreciate their kind assistance.
          May all your good intentions bring you understanding of the ultimate truth and free you from misery. May this little book about meditation enlighten all readers and strive to uplift the human spirit to the sainthood of eternal happiness-Nibbana in this lifetime.
          I sincerely apologize for any unavoidable mistakes, which may have caused discomfort to anyone, and I will gladly accept any kind advice you may have in the near future.

Who is Buddha ?
          Buddha is the extraordinary, holy, exalted, fully Enlightened One, who arises
in this world for the benefit of the many, for the happiness of the many,
Buddha deep compassion for all beings in the world, for the benefit and happiness
of divine beings in heaven.

KEYS TO IMMEDITAE ENLIGHTENMENT

[ Sotapattphala ]
1. Follow the five guidelines or five precepts listed below to keep oneself from
the misery of evil actions :
- Refrain from killing all beings for any reason
- Refrain from stealing and lying
- Refrain from adultery or sexual misconduct
- Refrain from addiction to drugs and alcohol
2. Have faith and confidence in Lord Buddha, his teachings, and the noble monks,
so we can achieve liberation form the misery of rebirth to attain supreme happiness
of Nibbana.
3. Death is only the spirit passing through this body to a new body and a new
life. We are not afraid of death. We do not own this body. We have no control
over it. So we do not care about the body. What we care about is to have a clear,
clean,calm spirit to be uplifted to higher states of consciousness by meditation.
4. The ultimate goal of life is to reach the eternal, supreme happiness of Nibbana.
We will try our best to realize true happiness, which is awakening inside all of
us by giving up cravings and clinging to our bodies. Life's real purpose is to separate
the spirit from the body.

What is Buddhist Abhidhamma ?
It is the teaching of Lord Buddha about the natural science of ultimate reality of the
mind and body, life after death, and how to develop the mind for eternal happiness
by many kinds of meditation.

Where does Buddhist Aphidhamma come from ?
Abhidhamma is one of three collections called Tipitaka in the Pali language,
which means "Three Baskets."
The first collection is Suttapitaka in which Lord Buddha explained his teachings
in a simple way for tranquility and insight meditation.
The second collection is Vinayapitaka in which Lord Buddha laid down
rules and disciplines for Buddhist monks to follow the code of ethics which
can surely purify one's actions, speech, and thought, then making one's effort
to control body and mind.
The third collection is Abhidhammapitaka, the higher teaching, which
describes the ultimate reality of natural phenomena, including mind and
body, the universe and Nibbana.

What is the meaning of Abhidhamma ?
Dhamma is a Pali word which means "The doctrine or teaching of Lord Buddha
." The teaching of Lord Buddha can guide the person who follows His teaching
to live happily in the present life and better higher peace in future life. One who
practices the doctrine of Lord Buddha can prevent oneself from falling into
the four lower miserable lives (hell, petayoni, asurayoni, and animals).
The prefix, "Abhi," is used in the sense of greatest, excellent, sublime,
distinct, and marvelous.
Abhidhamma, the Buddha's teaching, consists of mental science or the science
of the ultimate truth. The causes and the effects of all conditions, subjects
of meditation, planes of existence, consciousness and body as five aggregates,
and Nibbana, the state of lasting, supreme happiness, which is the ultimate
goal of all beings.