Dhammakaya meditation

Dhammakaya meditation is an approach to Buddhist meditation developed and taught by the Thai meditation teacher Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro in the early twentieth century. In Thailand, it is known as vijja dhammakaya, which translates as 'higher knowledge of the body of Dhamma'. It is the meditation tradition that is at the center of the Dhammakaya Movement. According to Luang Pu Sodh, the Dhammakaya can be found within every human being, which has the shape of a Buddha sitting within oneself.

In teaching Dhammakaya meditation, Luang Pu Sodh commonly would use the terminology used in the Visuddhimagga, a fifth-century Sri Lankan guide about meditation. The most important aspect of the meditation approach is the focus on the center of the body. The approach has become very popular in Thailand and other parts of Southeast Asia, and has been described as a revival of samatha (tranquility) meditation in Thailand, although the approach consists of both samatha and vipassana (insight) stages.

There are several biographies about Luang Pu Sodh, from temples that refer to Luang Pu Sodh as their teacher. According to these biographies, the principles of Dhammakaya meditation were discovered by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro on the full-moon night of September 1916 at Wat ฺBotbon, Bangkuvieng, Nonthaburi. Though he had practised several other forms of meditation in Thailand with well-known meditation teachers, he felt he had not yet accomplished the purpose for which he had ordained, nor discovered the core of the Buddha's teachings. That night, he decided to take a vow to give his life in meditation until he would discover that core. He then experienced what followers consider a breakthrough in meditation. This he would later describe as a deeper meaning to the Middle Way, about which the Buddha spoke in his first teaching. Besides the original meaning of avoiding two extreme ways of living, Luang Pu Sodh believed there was also a deeper meaning of an inner Middle Way, which could only be discovered through stilling the mind through meditation. Moreover, the center of the body is essential in this process: whatever technique someone might use to meditate, the mind can only attain to a higher level through this center, which Luang Por Sodh precisely describes. This center is also believed to play a fundamental role in the birth and death of an individual. Thus, followers of the Dhammakaya Movement believe that the Buddha became enlightened by using this method, and believe that knowledge of this was lost five hundred years after the Buddha passed away into Parinirvana (his physical death). As its theoretical foundations, temples of the movement refer to the Satipatthana Sutta or the Visuddhimagga, among others.

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