Easy but Deep EP.6: The Seventh Base, the Position of the Knower : Stop Still at the Center of the Body, the Seventh Base, Then Believe with Reason
From the teaching of Luang Por Dhammajayo, Wat Phra Dhammakaya — “Easy but Deep” Series, Episode 6
Sunday, 22 May 2011 (B.E. 2554)
The center of the body, the Seventh Base, is the most important position in the life of everyone who has been born as a human being, because it is the only position that can liberate us from defilements and mental fermentations (kilesa-āsava) or from all suffering. At the very least, we can reach the happiness within, a great happiness beyond measure that we have never encountered before in life. The center of the body, the Seventh Base, is the same position where every Buddha, throughout countless asamkheyya, brought the mind to stop still, having let go of everything and released all things, stopping still here alone from the very beginning until attaining Anuttara Sammā Sambodhi and becoming a fully enlightened Buddha. My dear children, the sphere of Dhamma that makes the human body is important. You must believe with reason and principle that we must get, must see, must be.
The Seventh Base : The Position That the Evil One (Māra) Has Concealed from Us
- The center of the body, the Sixth Base: Suppose we take two threads and stretch them taut, one stretched from the navel through to the back, another stretched from the right side through to the left, letting the two threads cross in an X. The point of intersection is as small as the point of a needle. This place is called the center of the body, the Sixth Base, in the middle of our belly, at the same level as the navel. The sphere of Dhamma that makes the human body clear and pure, as big as the yolk of a chicken’s egg, is right here. Everyone has it, even we ourselves have it, our children have it, our grandchildren have it, all people in the world have it. If there were no such sphere of Dhamma, the coarse body could not exist. If this sphere of Dhamma were extinguished, the coarse body would collapse and pass away likewise, that is, we would die. That we are still alive is because this sphere of Dhamma nourishes and upholds us.
- The center of the body, the Seventh Base: This sphere will be seen when we bring the mind to stop still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base, which is two finger-widths above the Sixth Base. Suppose we place the index finger and middle finger one on top of the other, then lay them over the point of intersection of the two threads, two finger-widths higher. This place is called the center of the body, the Seventh Base. When we bring the mind to stop still right here, once it aligns properly, the sphere of Dhamma that makes the coarse human body clear and pure, as big as a chicken’s egg yolk, will rise up and become the sphere of the beginning of the path (paṭhamamagga), held ready for us to enter the middle, meet the Triple Gem within, and go to the sense-base Nibbāna.
- The position the Evil One conceals: Therefore the position of the Seventh Base is very important, which the Evil One (Māra) has concealed so that we do not get to know, see, understand, or stop still here, concealing it until we do not know this position at all — the position that extinguishes our suffering. Moreover, the Evil One pulls our mind out of the Seventh Base, fixing it onto forms, sounds, smells, tastes, bodily touches, and mind-objects, then binds it with the law of kamma, so the mind goes circling among those things, which is what is called causing delay in attaining the path, the fruit, and Nibbāna.
- Luang Pu Phra Mongkolthepmuni (Sodh Candasaro), the Victor over Māra: We therefore have lived our lives wrongly all along out of our own ignorance, until the arising of a fully enlightened Buddha. He had to give up his life to find this position, and only with the ten perfections of the thirty aspects complete and fulfilled did he find this position. Therefore this is no small matter — the fact that we have come to know the Seventh Base must be counted as our merit in being born as human beings, meeting the Buddhism of Vijjā Dhammakāya. Luang Pu Phra Mongkolthepmuni (Sodh Candasaro), the Victor over Māra, gave up his life to rediscover this and passed it down until it reached us, so that we come to know the center of the body, the Seventh Base.
- Cherish this position: Therefore cherish this position well; do not let the mind slip away from the center of the body, the Seventh Base. When the mind slips from this position, it has only suffering, because it has slipped from the position of happiness; slipping from this position, one becomes one who knows nothing. One must remain in this position, must train again and again until skilled, doing it every day without any exceptions, excuses, or conditions whatsoever.
- The first stop is very important: The first stop is very important. Make it still, soft, light, and comfortable, make the mind clear and calm, so that we have inner experience, come to know what “falling into the center” (tok soon) is like, and what the first sphere of Dhamma to appear, called “paṭhamamagga” or the sphere of Dhamma-observing mindfulness (dhammānupassanā satipaṭṭhāna), is like — what its characteristics and mental phenomena are. We must master this, learn to do it repeatedly, slowly, clearly, over and over, lightly and comfortably.
When One Sees the Dhamma, One Sees the Tathāgata
- Gaining possession of the sphere of paṭhamamagga: If we gain possession of the center of the body, the Seventh Base, and of the sphere of paṭhamamagga, the rest becomes easy. Whether it is the sphere of virtue (sīla), concentration (samādhi), wisdom (paññā), liberation (vimutti), or knowledge-and-vision of liberation (vimutti-ñāṇadassana) that we so often hear about — these will appear and arise for us to know, see, be, and possess as such mental states, knowing clearly why it is called the sphere of sīla, called the sphere of samādhi, called the sphere of paññā, the sphere of vimutti, the sphere of vimutti-ñāṇadassana, becoming ever clearer.
- It depends on the first stop: It depends on the first stop. If we know how to place the mind (wāijai pen), giving importance to this position and never letting the mind slip from it — even though we may have slipped from other worldly positions — this position is waiting for us. We must not slip; if we slip, we become one who does not know; slipping, we have only the suffering and torment of life, and the mind will not be bright, clear, and fully pure.
- Seeing body within body up to the body of the Tathāgata: This first sphere of Dhamma is very important. If we practice until skilled and fluent, we will understand the saying, when one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Tathāgata. That is, on the day we reach paṭhamamagga — stopping within stopping, still within stillness, in the very center of the center of the sphere of paṭhamamagga — once aligned properly, we will gradually move inward and see in sequence. We see sphere within sphere, body within body, until we reach the body of the Tathāgata, that is, the Dhammakāya within us, the body of the one who knows, awakens, and is jubilant, the true refuge and recollection of us. It is very beautiful, complete with all the marks of the great man, with a ushnisha like a lotus bud, in meditation posture, seated upon a circle of jhāna, round, flat, and clear, facing outward in the same direction as our own body. That is the true Tathāgata within our body. Therefore, when one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Tathāgata, and one understands the word “Tathāgata” even more deeply.
The Life of the World of Illusion Ends When the Mind Stops Still at the Center of the Body, the Seventh Base
- The inner life and the outer life: The life of the world of illusion will come to an end when the mind stops still at the center of the body, the Seventh Base. We will reach the life in the world of reality, which is the ultimate truth — that which truly exists, the inner life. The outer life is the life of the world of illusion, impermanent, with no essence or substance at all.
- Stopping is success: Therefore the stopping of the mind is important. Luang Pu, the Victor over Māra, always emphasized in his teachings that “stopping is success” (yut pen tua samret), which makes everything clear, both worldly and spiritual, making it clear as if we pull something out of the dark into the open, seeing clearly what it is. The stopping of the mind is therefore very important.
- Life is going into the middle: Life is going into the middle, into the still center of the mind, again and again, in order to be free from being a servant and slave of the Evil One, who uses defilements and mental fermentations to command us into servitude, forcing us to do wrong in body, speech, and mind out of ignorance, then binding us again with the results of kamma, and covering element with element so that we cannot know these things. Thus we waste time wandering in birth and death through countless lives and ages.
- Being born in ignorance is greatly dangerous: Being born in ignorance is extremely dangerous, because life circles within the three realms and the two destinies — the good destiny and the bad destiny — going round and round like this. Therefore, with the arising of a fully enlightened Buddha, these things come to an end through practicing his teaching: let go of everything, release all things, be still alone, still and soft, going on comfortably. Get this point first: know what a still and stopping mind is like, what falling into the center is like, what the first sphere of Dhamma is like, what purity as a clear sphere, correctly aligned, is like. Come to know this well and clearly.
Therefore, for the time that remains, let us train the mind to stop still and soft, lightly and comfortably, the mind clear and calm, supporting the mind to stop still with the soft inner recitation of Sammā Arahang, on and on. Each person sits quietly.
Watch the original video: Easy but Deep EP.6: The Seventh Base, the Position of the Knower (YouTube)
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Source: YouTube ID Ec1f1_EGrLs — Easy but Deep 1 EP.6: The Seventh Base, the Position of the Knower
