Shaila Catherine - Wisdom Wide and Deep: A Practical Handbook for Mastering Jhana and Vipassana

W ISDOM W IDE and D EEP

Wisdom Wide
and Deep

A Practical Handbook
for Mastering Jhna and Vipassan

S HAILA C ATHERINE

Foreword by P A -A UK S AYADAW

W ISDOM P UBLICATIONS B OSTON

Wisdom Publications

199 Elm Street

Somerville MA 02144 USA

www.wisdompubs.org

2011 Shaila Catherine.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Catherine, Shaila.

Wisdom wide and deep: a practical handbook for mastering jhna and vipassan / Shaila Catherine.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-86171-623-X (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. MeditationBuddhism. I. Title.

BQ5612.C39 2011

294.34435dc23

2011022681

ISBN 9780861716234

eBook ISBN 9780861718528

15 14 13 12 11

5 4 3 2 1

Author photo by Janet Taylor. Cover design by Pema Studios. Interior design by Gopa&Ted2.
Set in Diacritical Garamond Pro 11.5/14.75.

Wisdom Publications books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

This book was produced with environmental mindfulness. For more information, please visit our website, www.wisdompubs.org. This paper is also FSC certified. For more information, please visit www.fscus.org.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction to Section II:
Concentration Beyond the Breath

17. Liberating Insight:
Contemplating Three Universal Characteristics

LIST OF MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS

LIST OF TABLES

Many of these tables, plus additional, expanded, and updated tables, may be found at www.imsb.org.

PUBLISHERS ACKNOWLEDGMENT

T HE PUBLISHER gratefully acknowledges the generous help of the Hershey Family Foundation in sponsoring the publication of this book.

I S IT POSSIBLE for people today to attain the deep absorption states of jhna? Can modern meditators directly know and see ultimate realities, and personally realize the liberating fruit of vipassan? Decades of teaching both monastics and laypeople from all over the world have demonstrated to me that the answer is yes.

Effective methods for practicing jhna and vipassan have been preserved and mastered by generations of dedicated monastic and lay practitioners, but until recently have been little known in the West. Many years ago my teacher asked me to plant the seeds of this approach in the West. Under my guidance, Shaila Catherine, one of my American lay students, has since 2006 thoroughly practiced the detailed methods of both jhna and vipassan. I encouraged her to write a book based on her own experience of this training, and I am very pleased with what she has done.

Wisdom Wide and Deep is a beautifully written handbook that describes an effective approach to the path of jhna and vipassan. This book introduces meditation practices adapted from the fifth-century meditation manual The Visuddhimagga, supported by the philosophical structures of Abhidhamma analysis, and securely rooted in the Buddhas teachings. This method is distinguished by its emphasis on the initial development of the meditative absorptions called jhna, and the precise discernment of the ultimate realities of mind and matter. Once the mind is concentrated and psychophysical processes are seen clearly, insight practice becomes efficient, transformative, and exceedingly effective for realizing liberating knowledge. Wisdom Wide and Deep skillfully guides dedicated meditators to experience the stability of deep concentration, to recognize the subtle nature of material and mental processes, and to realize the exquisite peacefulness that arises from genuine insight knowledge.

This is a handbook that respects both the ancient tradition and the needs of contemporary lay practitioners, without compromising either. Shaila Catherine presents the Buddhas teaching by blending scriptural references, personal examples, and timeless stories with detailed meditation instructions. She writes with an authority that comes from genuine meditation experience, and a clarity that is informed by her own personal experiences of this training. The combination of Shailas pragmatic style and theoretical knowledge produces a striking invitation for the reader to apply these instructions and master the complete practice for awakening.

I highly recommend Wisdom Wide and Deep to any serious meditator who wants to practice what the Buddha discovered and taught.

Pa-Auk Sayadaw

P A -A UK S AYADAW is the abbot of Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Burma. He has spent his life promoting the teachings of the Buddha through study, practice, and realization. He teaches worldwide and is the author of The Workings of Kamma and Knowing and Seeing.

A DETAILED AND COMPREHENSIVE BOOK of this nature represents the work of many individuals who have each brought their insightful and caring attention to these pages.

I am deeply grateful to the Buddhist tradition, past and present, and the countless unknown individuals who have preserved, translated, and articulated these teachings and trainings. It is remarkable that I can sit in a suburban town thousands of years and thousands of miles removed from the culture of ancient India where the Buddha lived and taught, and find my life deeply touched by his teachings. The rich legacy left by generations of meditators includes detailed records of the Buddhas ministry, instruction manuals, and commentaries that remain remarkably relevant to contemporary explorations of mind.

The approach presented in Wisdom Wide and Deep shares the teachings that I was privileged to receive from Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw during a 2008 retreat held at the Insight Meditation Society, in the USA. Venerable Pa-Auk Sayadaw carefully guided me through this training. His mastery of these teachings, his patient and flexible teaching style, his extraordinary devotion to meditation, and the wisdom that he earned during more than seventy years of practice combined to create an astonishing presentation of this profound and systematic approach to direct insight. The Sayadaws assistant, Venerable U Jgara, brought a practical clarity that helped to make these traditional methods relevant and accessible for Western practitioners. Anonymous practitioners at Pa-Auk Monastery have devoted countless hours to a careful editing of Sayadaws teachings and the preparation of detailed English language course material. The publishing team at Wisdom Publicationsincluding Josh Bartok, Laura Cunningham, Eric Shutt, Gopa&Ted2, Joe Evans, Denise Getz, Tony Lulek, and Megan Andersondedicated to a vision that values both contemporary and traditional approaches to Buddhist wisdom, worked diligently to present this book to modern readers. The joy and patience that pervaded each communication, and the respect for the dhamma that I see reflected in their work, has been an inspiration for me at every stage of this project.

I could not have completed this project without the thoughtful assistance of Theresa Farrah, Ann Smith Dillon, Faith Lindsay, and David Collins who poured over early drafts of the manuscript. Their feedback clarified numerous points, streamlined the presentation, and made rarefied practices more accessible to contemporary readers. Glenn Smith captured the essence of this work when he suggested the title