Understanding Dhammakaya Meditation : หน้า 111/115

DHAMMAKAYA MEDITATION Dhammakaya meditation is an approach to Buddhist meditation revived in the early 1900s and practiced by millions of people all over the world. It was described by its founder Phramongkolthepmuni as a samatha-vipassana technique. The identifying feature of Dhammakaya meditation is the meditator’s attention towards the center of the body, at a point two finger breaths above the navel. This point is exactly the same point as the end-point of the deepest breath in mindfulness of breathing meditation (Anapanasati). It is called an approach rather than a method because any of the forty methods of samatha meditation mentioned in the Visuddhimagga can be adapted to it. Origins Dhammakaya meditation was re-discovered by Phramongkolthepmuni on the full-moon night of September 1914 at Wat Bangkungven, Nonthaburi. This well-respected monk had practiced several other forms of meditation popular in Thailand at the time. From 1916 onwards, when he was given his first abbothood, Dhammakaya meditation became associated with his home temple of Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen. Phramongkolthepmuni was the rediscoverer of Dhammakaya meditation tradition. Members of the Dhammakaya Movement believe that the Buddha became enlightened by attaining Dhammakaya, and that knowledge of this was lost 500 years after the Buddha entered Parinirvana.