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I had been chanting ‘OM’ for many days and following all the precepts known as Yama-Niyama in yoga. I used to chant loudly, and after some time, I began chanting in my mind. On the day the nimitta appeared, I remember becoming very calm after chanting. I stopped chanting, even mentally, and decided to observe my breath, which was very short at that time. Then, I focused on my heart, and suddenly, the nimitta appeared."
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That’s interesting. I heard that you need to check the heart to see jhana factors and it’s also possible to see the light in your heart.
When you focused on your heart, did you just think or visualize your heart or did you try to feel it? I’m curious because when I tied to focus on the heart, I tried to feel it.
On the day you saw the nimitta, how many minutes or hours were you meditating?
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No it just beating I feel beat and I observed it . And calming myself…
I think when we do meditation for long time we catch some details… experiential details…and those details help us in next meditation seating…and gradually u master and able to advance urself…
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Is this an anapana nimitta?
A Lay person can definitely enter jhanas. A lay person can enter into all jhanas. That is a possible task.
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In Buddha’s time, citta householder entered all jhanas.
Moderator added link.
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Yes lay person definitely …
I think for nibbana u need to renounce..that’s the condition for nibbana
Do you know Matika Mata, lived in Buddha’s time? She had both nirvana and 4th jhana as a lay person. She was an anagami.
If a lay person becomes an arhant, he will either die (parinibbana) within 7 days or become a monk within 7 days.
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I’m pretty sure it’s stated somewhere that a lay arahant will enter into parinibbana on that very day.
I think if he enters into nirodha sampatti, he could live up to 7 days.
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AN9.7 Sutavāsutta— nine things an arahant cannot do
A mendicant with defilements ended can’t deliberately take the life of a living creature, take something with the intention to steal, have sex, tell a deliberate lie, or store up goods for their own enjoyment like they did as a lay person. And they can’t make decisions prejudiced by favoritism, hostility, stupidity, or cowardice.’
An arahant is not able to live as a householder, accumulating money or possessions with a long-term plan for managing a household. At most, in regard to domestic matters, they may keep their dwelling clean—yet they cannot treat it as a house they own as personal property, and they may leave it at any moment. Ordained monks (arahants included) are also permitted to care for their parents, but not for other relatives—seeking alms for them on a daily basis, yet never storing up food for future days.
I believe that it may be possible for an arahant to survive if they do not manage to be ordained within seven days, though in that case they would be required to live as a mendicant. While in that condition, they would certainly strive to find other monks and enter the Saṅgha. Remaining a layperson once arahantship has been attained is no longer possible.
Possible counterpoints to this view are the following:
- Some commentaries clearly state that unordained lay arahants die within seven days.
- A common basis for a layperson to become an arahant is the confrontation with a serious illness.
- Living for a long time after attaining arahantship may require prior merits and conditions that might be lacking in lay arahants who are unable to be ordained.
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It helps to have people around you that are inclined towards Dhamma, if you can’t find them in real life, which is preferable, online will do fine.
Nothing will take you away from samadhi more than listening heavily to people who don’t value it or if you’re not careful being heavily exposed to them.
May your efforts be fruitful.
Metta
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Online won’t really help much, but it might help more than nothing.
Best to go to Pa-Auk Pyin Oo Lwin if you want to achieve jhāna. You will have a better chance just by demographic odds.
Afraid to go?
Probably another reason stopping you.
By the way… until Sayadaw Kumarabhivamsa was established there… maybe 2016 or 2017, the longest jhānas were normally around 4 hours. However, a new “norm” was more like 7 hours. And one of my friends did much higher (like 48). So it is good to be surrounded by such people of such focus. You can read about the four-minute mile and how it was thought to be impossible until one person broke it. Now it is pretty much a standard for professional Olympian runners.
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