Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Exploring the Dhamma, as understood from the perspective of the ancient Pali commentaries.
User avatar
pitakele
Posts: 258
Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 11:27 pm

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by pitakele »

Some interesting recollections
Past Lives and Karma

One day Bhante said that in the past, not only did he perform wholesome activities, but unwholesome ones as well. He was having migraine headaches even after becoming a monk, and wanted to know the cause. He told me that after a deep meditation, he realized what had happened in the past to make him suffer so much from migraine: during the time of the Crusades, he was a German soldier and there was a battle with the Romans in a German village. One Roman soldier, short in height, approached him and he gave a blow to his head with the club which killed him.

Then in the life after, he was in the Army again and this time he fell from the horse he was riding and had injuries. He could remember lying down, near a monument, taking his last breath and thinking, ‘Why did all this happen to me and why did I join the Army?’ He then passed away, as did his horse.

In another life, he remembered he was in a church during a battle. Fire surrounded the church and he could not get out. Through the window he saw the bell ringer jumping from the tower. He too jumped out, was injured and died. Afterwards he became a ghost, and whilst roaming around he saw the villagers coming to put the fire out. They saw him as a ghost. He was shy and slipped away to another place where he met a friend who was also a ghost and they had this brief conversation, ‘Ah! You are here?’ ‘Yes I am also here.’

In a recent previous life, he remembered he was a farmer and was arranging hay at a high place in a barn. He fell and had a serious head injury and, as he was taking his last breath, he saw his two children and wife weeping and crying. He mentioned that the sight was devastating.

So it shows after the first incident of killing the Roman soldier, in his following lives he always had head injuries or died, and in this life he suffered from migraine headaches.

He mentioned he faintly remembers in one life he was writing books, probably Dhamma books, and in another life he was going on piṇḍapāta, but was not sure whether it was in Lord Buddha’s time.

He repeated these incidents a few times when we were looking after him, and each time the details were the same. There wasn’t any variance which may have resulted from decaying memory.

http://ven-nyanavimala.buddhasasana.net ... rience.htm
aniccā vata saṇkhārā - tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho
thang
Posts: 241
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:37 pm

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by thang »

pitakele wrote: Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:18 am Some interesting recollections
Anumodana !
I hadn't read these last chapters.
"Bhikkhus, whatever the Tathāgata speaks, _ all that is just so and NOT otherwise."
User avatar
pitakele
Posts: 258
Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 11:27 pm

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by pitakele »

Regarding quietness of mind and deep concentration
Regarding quietness of mind and deep concentration, here comes a warning. Even though Ven. Ñāṇavimala praised and commended jhānas, he related this story to me as a warning of the ‘wrong jhāna trap’:

‘I stopped in Meetirigala and spent a few days there,’ he said, ‘they gave me a nice kuṭi to stay in. In the evening I sat in meditation and the practice went smoothly so I decided not to get up. But then, after what could have been a few hours, I heard the temple bell ringing and opened my eyes. The temple bell rings there only for the meals so I felt strange. I was sure it was still evening. In fact the light outside my window was something in between daylight and night so I felt it was dusk. Then I listened carefully to the singing of birds. They sing somewhat differently in the evening and at dawn, at the break of the day. Well, after a while I realized it wasn’t dusk, it was dawn. So, it seemed I spent the whole night sitting in meditation without even realising that all those hours had slipped by.

And here is the real problem. Even though I had a pleasant abiding (he used these words often when talking about jhānas: pleasant abiding), I wasted all that time. I wasn’t fully aware of the passage of the time. In other words, I felt I wasn’t sleeping but I nevertheless wasted all these hours. Just feeling good, but not investigating body, feeling, mind and mind states. So one should be aware of the danger of concentration that is too deep.’

http://ven-nyanavimala.buddhasasana.net ... ending.htm
aniccā vata saṇkhārā - tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho
thang
Posts: 241
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:37 pm

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by thang »

I have heard that he often emphasized Gradual Training.

He had said,
If you have difficulties at the present level of practice then take one step back and practice at that level.
Bhikkhu Bodhi says,
In this first talk with me he emphasized that the Buddhist training is a gradual path, which one has to traverse in stages, and he said that it’s crucial to lay a solid foundation at each preliminary stage before attempting to scale the next stage. During his many years in robes he must have seen dozens of Westerners come to Sri Lanka, ordain as monks, and rush off to attain arahantship (full liberation) on a fast-track schedule, only to wind up back in civilian clothes, with a plane ticket to their home country, before their first year as a monk was over. He might have had this in mind when he warned me not to be in a hurry to reach higher stages before mastering the lower, simpler, more elementary ones.
Samita told me that Ven. Ñāṇavimala had claimed that jhāna (meditative absorption) is necessary as a basis for vipassanā and that there can be no genuine insight not rooted in the jhānas. Since I was just beginning to read the Nikāyas in Pāli, and had been struck by the role that the jhānas played in the ‘gradual training’ sequence of the Majjhima Nikāya, I felt this report conveyed an important point.
List of Suttas for Bhikkhus as recommended by Ven. Nanavimala.
MN 107,39,53,59,27 - The Gradual Training for a bhikkhu
MN 125 - The Gradual Training for jhāna.
A 10.61 - If you have difficulties at the present level of practice then take one step back and practice at that level.
MN 61 - Sīla for laypeople - eight precepts for monks - Pātimokkha for ariyas - ariyakanta sīla. This Sutta is describing a different kind of sīla which is purity in kāya, vāca and mano (tīṇi sucaritāni). Based on this sīla pīti will arise.
MN 7 - Reflecting on the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. This leads to a step by step progress as follows: Saddhā, pāmujja, pīti, passaddhakāya, sukha, samādhi. This process is how one comes to samādhi with joy and Dhamma, understanding as a basis.
MN 40 - more or less the same as M7, but based on purity of the twelve qualities.
MN 64 - how to practice for Sammāñāṇa and Sammāvimutti with jhāna as the basis
"Bhikkhus, whatever the Tathāgata speaks, _ all that is just so and NOT otherwise."
thang
Posts: 241
Joined: Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:37 pm

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by thang »

Does anyone know how ven. Nyanavimala treated commentaries?
Did he discourage Nimitta developing and why?
"Bhikkhus, whatever the Tathāgata speaks, _ all that is just so and NOT otherwise."
User avatar
Zom
Posts: 2707
Joined: Fri May 08, 2009 6:38 pm
Location: Russia, Saint-Petersburg
Contact:

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by Zom »

I have heard that he often emphasized Gradual Training.
Oh really, now he is the first monk I know who says at least something about the thing ))
User avatar
Eko Care
Posts: 1107
Joined: Mon Mar 18, 2019 7:13 am

Re: Bhante Ñāṇavimala : the Mahā Kassapa of this age

Post by Eko Care »

Zom wrote: Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:59 pm something about the thing ))
:goodpost:
Post Reply