​The 6Rs are crucial and in the experience, the most profound is the Relax step. Many people seem to glaze over the Relax step, not really taking time to understand what it is. It is the relaxing of the mind, body and tightness in both. This we understand.
 
But what does that feel like? I have a suggestion that people on live retreats and possibly online retreats take the time and preparatory step to understand what it feels like to relax. 
 
Relaxing the bodily, mental, and verbal formations - it feels like a clear space, a pristine, thoughtless space with no craving. Body is relaxed but not slouching. Mind is clear, like a cloudless sky, and thoughts are gone, barely wisps if they are present at all. 
 
When people learn to pinpoint the relaxing of the formations in this manner, they can immediately understand the Relax step, as I have understood it and as it has helped me. The suggestion here is to just let mind be and then intend the relaxation. Relax, relax, relax - then, one is able to see what it means to have that open spacious mind so one can quickly go to it as one lets go of the distraction, then sees that open mind.
 
Some people seem to associate the relax step with a sharp intake of air and a letting of breath. This is a reactionary aspect of the Relax step, but not the relax step of stilling formations in and of itself.
 
So, once one understands the feeling of relax, this is what happens.
 
One's object is Metta. One suddenly thinks back to a time with nostalgia or considers the future or thinks about anything other than the Metta. One RECOGNIZES, seeing the distraction. RELEASING is the immediate letting go of the distraction - not attending to it, turning mind's attention now to the RELAX step - the stilling of formations. Mind is now clear, ready to attend to RE-SMILING, or checking if one is still smiling, then RETURNING to the object of meditation, then REPEATING every time one sees mind has been distracting. All of this, as I've once said before, happens in less than 5 seconds. It is a flow as we've seen, a rolling.
 
Now, the other thing to consider is that mind attaches itself to the Metta, or Karuna, or Muditā, or Upekkhā. 
 
Here, it's important to pay attention to mind observing - just watching, not becoming the Metta. It's an object, therefore, one is watching it, not becoming it. The feelings that come up from the object must be observed, and 6R'd if they distract. Likewise, one observes that one was distracted - not becoming the distraction by fighting it or ignoring it. Any such effort will only cause more craving and clinging.
 
Allow the mind to do its work. It will unravel itself.
 
Observation is not focus - it is the mere watching and seeing what occurs, not becoming involved or identifying with the feeling or the object. This then becomes absorption concentration, too much focus, pushing down insights to arise naturally. 
 
This is why relaxing is important - it provides the mind space required for insights to arise. This is how it is seen from my experience.
 
Of course, one caveat - one mustn't just relax during the actual meditation. Once understand what it feels like, one uses it as part of the 6R effort. Then, there is development and progress as it is intended. Besides, one mustn't just relax, relax, relax in the beginning because mind then will become dull with no object. It's only after one's mind has reached stability through the jhānas that mind can then watch its own clarity, luminosity, and radiance - the bright, quiet, clear mind, where at this point all crude formations have been relaxed, and now one lets go of the subtler formations. 
 
Metta
Written by Advanced Meditator

Greetings -  I received this statement from a very advanced meditator after he had a very deep experience. Here is what he wrote me.
​

New Type of Saint
A new version of 'The Path to Nibbana' will be available on Christmas.  More editing and refining of the text has been done, but, more importantly, new sections are  now added that follow in the book after the descriptions of the four stages of sainthood.

The new section describes a new "Saint" type.  Evidently, based on the Anguttara Nikaya, if you attain the noble paths through JHANA practice you will never return to this world and will attain Nibbana in your birth - and that will be a brahma loka or a very high heavenly realm. You can become a Sotapanna through hearing a phrase or by the Jhana practice, but if you attain through Jhana practice you earn a special dispensation.

No Need to be in Jhana Upon Your Death
Also, I found references where the idea that you had to be in a jhana state when you died to be able to be reborn in that jhana realm, show that this is not true. All that is required is that you can get back to that state relatively easily. That means if you can sit and get back to the jhanas then you qualify.  As long as you have kept your precepts and you haven't backslid in your morality and lifestyle your jhanic attainment earns you a place in the brahma lokas in your next life.

Now, that's great news!  Read more in the updated book (12/2017) If you synch your current version on your kindle you should get the update.

You may visit the author and book page that is now set up  at www.thepathtonibbana.com . Here, you can learn more about the meditation and find more places to obtain a copy of the book. You can also find out where to do retreats to attain Nibbana yourself!

We are also announcing that the latest version of the "Path" book has as Appendixes: "A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Meditation" and "Guide to Forgiveness Meditation" at the back of the book. This gives you the beginning instructions and if you run into trouble then you can read the Forgiveness book to find out how to remove obstacles to your Loving-kindness.

So now this book has everything you need even if you never do a retreat at a meditation center you can do the practice on your own at home.  Of course you can always email us at www.dhammasukha.org if you have questions.

Posted Question from the Dhammasukha group thread

I have some questions about the Karaniya metta sutta. The actual sutta talks about sending loving-kindness to all beings and the benefits from doing this. At the end, it mentions 'not being reborn in the womb again'. I know bhante talks about the benefits of Loving-Kindness and that it should be something that one should practice all the time. The sutta seems to make the daily practice of Loving-Kindness a priority. Could you comment on this in relation to what Bhante is teaching in regards to going through the Jhanas and the goal of not being reborn again and attaining nibbana if not in this life but in a higher realm. 
R.K. Japan

Answer:

Yes - the sutta and the sutta text talk about radiating metta to all directions - and there are many styles that have developed like sending metta to beings in different realms or beings in this room, the house , the city etc.

The early suttas say that you pervade Metta as a meditation practice in developing the jhanas by pervading the 6 directions and then all around with the feeling of Metta. As you go deeper this goes automatically to compassion and then joy and finally to equanimity.  This IS the practice of the Brahmaviharas and it is the basis for Bhante's teaching.

Now the first process Bhante has students work with is a spiritual friend. Why is this? It is to develop your Metta with just one object and learn the 6Rs.  If you start with all of the directions your mind will tend to wander around to all kinds of things and it will lose energy quickly. It becomes quite scattered and one cannot build tranquility in a deep way.

So Bhante has you-- ingeniously I think -- work with just one thing: either yourself first and then a spiritual friend. You work with that friend in your mind until samatha/tranquility is developed up to the 4th jhana. When you have attained that then your meditation is changed because now you know what to do. The power of your Metta has become strong enough to pervade to all beings in all directions. You now are changing your practice to exactly what it says to do in the suttas quite literally.

So you work with your spiritual friend until you have enough collectedness and then you go to pervading all six directions. You start with 5min in each direction up/down/left/right front/back and then to all directions at once for the rest of your sitting. You continue you this practice until you reach the base of Nothingness. After this there will be a few more tweaks which we won't get into here. And then Nibbana is next!

Born in a Womb.- Going beyond this
As to being born in a womb.  What is the goal of the BrahmaVihara Meditation?  The goal is the attaining of divine abiding of equanimity.  When you have attained this jhana you are destined to be reborn into the formless realms. You don't have a body there, not even a fine material body.  Thus your rebirth is not from a womb.

In fact as soon as you attain the first jhana your rebirth in your next life will be no lower than the first "form" or rupa realm of the First Jhana.  This is a fine material realm and you become a deva which is a being which appears in that realm fully developed - not born in a womb.

So it can be interpreted to mean a few different things. Each jhana is a progressive level of success and with each jhana there comes the benefit of not being reborn from a flesh body in your next life.

But the real goal of the brahmaviharas is to go through to the 8th jhana of Neither perception- nor-non perception and finally to cessation and attain Nibbana for the first time and become a Sotapanna.  A Sotapanna only has at most seven lifetimes left before they completely get off the wheel and are not reborn again anywhere ever again.

I hope that gives you the answer to your questions.

When we are in the world and not specifically sitting in meditation you do want to be radiating lovingkindness to everyone you see, to all beings everywhere.  Just keep Metta in your mind and radiate it as you go about your daily affairs.

When you sit down to do the more formal practice you will start with the Friend for some time and then you will move on to directions.

And it isn't that hard to move from the level of Friend to the directions - Many people can do this in an online retreat and definitely on a 7 to 10 day retreat at our center. Many get to the 7th and 8th jhana in only a 10 day retreat. When this practice is done correctly it is quite fast.

Feb 7, 2017 was the launch date for my first book "The Path to Nibbana". Two years of blood, sweat and tears and lots of people helping me made this possible.

I wanted to document what I have experienced here at Dhamma Sukha on retreats and my training with Bhante Vimalaramsi learning this amazing meditation practice called Tranquil Insight Wisdom Meditation. This meditation is based the earliest Buddhist teachings that are documented in the suttas like the Majjhima Nikaya and the Samyutta Nikaya (We use Bhikkhu Bodhi's Translations).

In the suttas is the practice of the Brahmaviharas which starts with Metta and proceeds through all the Divine Abidings of Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity. The meditator practices this technique while incorporating Bhante's interpretation of Right Effort which is the 6Rs, to let go of hindrances. You go on a journey through the eight tranquil aware jhānas and, finally, the mind completely stops and Nibbāna is seen for the first time. "Just like the moon comes out from behind the clouds the stainless eye of Dhamma eliminates the Taints of Craving."

This book takes you through the meditative progression Also, students can use it as a guidebook to practice the meditation on their own if they cannot make it to a retreat.

Other practices are highlighted here and how the Buddha may have thought about them using the suttas as the judge. Are there many ways to Nibbāna or is it a complex mix of subtle practices that gets you there? Have his practices been changed and altered over time and "improved" by students that came later?  All I can say is how can you improve on the All Supreme Buddha who spent countless lifetimes perfecting his wisdom. 

There is nothing held back in this book and I hope it will surprise you and motivate to learn more about the Path to Nibbāna!

The Book is available on Amazon in 6X9 Paperback at 240 pages and as a kindle file. It is inexpensively priced. Copies for Charitable Free Distribution may be requested from info@dhammasukha.org .