The Journey to Nirvana: Understanding Pathama Magga Sphere : หน้า 115/263

the temptation of looking for rewards in corruption or power. Your memory and wits will be sharpened and your thinking will be fluent and creative allowing you to find constructive solutions to problems. However, the Pathama Magga Sphere doesn't lead the meditator to sit on his laurels — it comes with the knowledge that it is only the trailhead to Nirvana and that there is still a long way further to go. Therefore, it is still necessary to cultivate the mind further towards yet higher levels of happiness and success. The meditator needs to 'let go' of the Pathama Magga Sphere and the way that is done is to bring the mind to a standstill at the centre of it. Once the mind is at a standstill, the Pathama Magga sphere will enlarge in size just like ripples on the water's surface enlarge in size after a stone has been thrown in a pond. When the sphere is enlarged, the mind will be able to channel through the centre of the sphere (the "centre of the centre") passing through various inner spheres and bodies as already described, until eventually the Dhammākāya Arahat Body is reached. Attaining the Dhamma Body is our first contact with sa-upādisesa Nirvana which will eventually lead us to enter upon āyatana nibbāna. Some Definitions of Vocabulary concerning Nirvana In the above passages, you will have already have met several new items of vocabulary concerning Nirvana and at this point it is worth pausing in order to clarify their definitions: 1. Nirvana with residual aggregates (Sa-upādisesa Nirvana [Nibbāna]) is our experience of Nirvana as a mental state — that is our living experience of Nirvana — we don’t have to die first and be reborn to attain it. We touch upon Nirvana in our experience when we have purified our mind from all defilements but our five aggregates [khandha] have not yet broken up. Dhammākāya will be manifest inside ourselves imparting the