Hi,
Sabbe_Dhamma_Anatta wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 1:37 pm
Please kindly share any experience (or) knowledge about hadaya-vatthu (whatever it may mean to you) as a convenient anchor point during meditation.
I practice along the lines of traditional, pre-reform Theravada meditation system, and
hadaya-vatthu plays an important role there. Basically,
hadaya-vatthu is one of the key places to observe sensations that arise in response to contact with meditation basis (
ārammaṇa), in the practice of the second
satipaṭṭhāna. I am writing a treatise on the method, where I quote an ancient manuscript “An Explanation Relating to the Teaching”:
By your leave, here and now I will practise following the teachings of his honourable majesty the Omniscient Buddha.
I wish to invoke the honourable characteristic (phra lakkhaṇa) of the minor rapture (khuddakā pīti), in the room of the virtues of the Omniscient Buddha, to appear for me through the door of sight (cakkhudvāra), through the door of imagination (manodvāra) and through the door of touch (kāyadvāra) while I am sitting in meditative training (bhāvanā). If I still cannot invoke the honourable characteristic (Thai phralaksana) of the honourable minor rapture (Thai phrakhutthakapiti), even if my skin shrivels, my blood dries up, my nerves shrink, my back collapses, my bones crumble, but my life can still continue, I will make a further attempt to invoke the honourable characteristic of the honourable minor rapture. When I sit in training (bhāvanā) with my pledge I will gladly perform a preparation (parikamma) ‘buddho, buddho, buddho’, and then a hundred times more, a thousand times more; I will perform a preparation ‘buddho’ one hundred times, one thousand times; I will maintain retention (sati) at my heart-base (hadayavatthu hong)...
May I request the [selective] recognition (saññā) to arise. May this be a means for attaining Nibbāna (nibbāna paccayo hotu).
(Adapted from the translation of the ancient manuscript Kham Pariyai Khuen Tham [An Explanation Relating to the Teaching], dated 1783 CE, in the article: The Old Meditation (
boran kammatthan), a pre-reform Theravāda meditation system from Wat Ratchasittharam: The
pīti section of the kammatthan matchima baep lamdap. / Skilton, Andrew Trevor; Choompolpaisal, Phibul. In: Aséanie, Vol. 33, 01.2017, pp. 83–116, p. 101.)