[ThomasMannfanny]

Dear Paul 3

Your are welcome. 'Akincannayatana' means realm of nothingness. The Buddha has mentioned these things as well. And there are more. For example, realm of infinite space (Akasanancayatana), realm of infinite consciousness (Vinnanancayatana), realm of nothingness (Akincannayatana), or realm of neither perception nor non-perception (Nevasannanasannayatana).

As you have practiced by dissociation, you can ignore things, more and more. Until at one stage, you can ignore so many things and enter into realm of nothingness. But it is still not the way, because there still are things right there, but you just ignore them. For example, a deer staying closed to tigers, such deer practices to close its eyes and its mind. Until one day, it says that there are no tigers near it. But, in fact, the tigers are still there and still closed to it, the deer just does not open eyes and mind to see it.

What you did until this stage was not easy. You wrote for quite long and I need time to read and understand them. However, I slept for only few hours last night and had low fever today. I will come back to share comments later. In the meantime, I can share what I learnt from a respectful monk as follows:

Before the Buddha’s era, there are three groups of persons who search and do for happiness as follows:

First Group
They create happiness by doing whatever they desire. If they are hungry, they eat. If they feel bored, they listen to music or go travel or talk to friends, etc. This group includes animals as well. For example, if a dog is hungry, it eats and then is happy.

Second Group
This group is smarter than the first group. They think that as long as we rely our happiness to something outside which are out of control, we will never find the true happiness. So, they try to control their desire. They control their desire so that they do not need anything. They do good things and do not do bad things. They do donations and sacrifice things.

Third Group
This group is smarter than the second group. They think that as long as we still associate with or feel with someone or something, we will never find the true happiness. This is because if we associate with or feel with someone or something, we can feel good or bad, and happy or unhappy. So, they practice to feel clam, silence and nothing, i.e. not to feel other things. (Your practice of dissociation is within this third group.)

That’s it. Before the Buddha’s era, there are only these three groups. Once the Buddha was enlightened, the Buddha taught that these three groups misunderstood and cannot find the true happiness because they do not know. They do not know what? They do not know the four noble truths. The first truth is ‘suffering’ (Dukkha). (I cannot explain the whole four noble truths within this short time and with my remaining energy tonight. But will try some.)

If we consider our body and mind, we will see that both are subject to the three Characteristics Common to All Conditioned Things ( ‘Samannalakkhana’), i.e. unstable (‘Anicca’), suffering (‘Dukkha’), and notself (‘Annatta’). Please see my explanation on the three Characteristics Common to All Conditioned Things on body and mind in this below thread (in comments 16 and 21).

http://www.buddhismwithoutboundaries...rvation./page2

As the truth is that our body and mind are ‘suffering’ by nature, how could these three groups make them to be happy. If body and mind are not self, how could they make them happy?

The way to the true happiness is the Four ‘Satipatthana’ so that we will know the four noble truths. If our body and mind are not self, and we truly accept this, we will not hold both. For example, would anyone view that your watch is yourself? No, we would view that our watch is not and separated from ourselves. If we view and truly accept that our body and mind are not and separated from ourselves, then there are still sufferings in this world, but there is no one to take those sufferings. (This paragraph would be very or too difficult to understand at this stage.)

What you did is dissociation from other things. Why you did it? Because you wanted to be happy, you did not want to be unhappy, and the dissociation made you happy. So, what you did was for ‘self’. Although you do this to the end until you die, you still have ‘self’ to hold. As you have self, you will reborn in this wheel of birth and can be suffering.

Apart from the above, what I can tell you is that you should try doing ‘Satipatthana’ which I already explained some in the above mentioned thread (in comments 16 and 21). Doing mediation does not mean that such is always Buddhism. (I will explain this later.)

I slept for only 3 hours yesterday as had much work to do last week and this week and cannot consider anything difficult now. Anyway, I will come back to finish reading your comments to see whether I can share anything more.

Lastly, when I enter into Dhamma web boards, I always feel thankful to the webmasters as they gave chances and did much merit and many helps to so many people. In this case, you may probably thank to A-D and other webmasters.