The Dhammakaya Tradition : หน้า 85/200

The Dhammakaya Tradition The Dhammakaya Tradition is a Buddhist meditation method taught by Phramongkolthepmuni in the early 20th century. Dhammakaya meditation encompasses both the samatha (tranquility) and vipassana (insight) levels. The goal at the samatha level is to overcome the Five Hindrances12 and reach a state of one-pointedness known as the ‘standstill of the mind’. Although the meditator may start out with as many as forty different paths of practice, once the Hindrances are overcome, all methods converge into a single path of mental progress which leads into meditation at the vipassana level. Dhammakaya meditation embarks on the vipassana level at a higher stage than some other meditation schools. In the Dhammakaya Tradition the level of attainment is usually explained in terms of equivalent inner transcendental bodies—numbering eighteen—which start with the physical human body and the subtle human body and going in successively deeper layers until reaching the Body of Enlightenment known as the Dhammakaya. The process of purification in the Dhammakaya Tradition corresponds with that described in the Dhammacakkapavattana13 Sutta where the arising of brightness is accompanied by the divine eye, the knowing, the wisdom and the Knowledge. 12 Five Hindrances (panca nivaranani): negative mental states that impede success with meditation and lead away from enlightenment. They consist of sensual desire, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness, and doubt 13 Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta: The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma, a Buddhist text considered to be a record of the first teaching given by the Buddha after he attained enlightenment.