Dhamma

What does early Buddhism actually look like in daily life? Five areas any layperson can develop — generosity, virtue, meditation, Dhamma knowledge, and sense restraint — grounded throughout in the suttas.

The suttas call certain noble disciples body-witnesses (kayasakkhi). The classical Theravada reading ties the term to the formless attainments. I suggest a different reading — that the body-witness is one who contacts the cessation of perception and feeling — which I think makes more sense of both the texts and the term.

It is tempting to call nirodha samapatti, the cessation of perception and feeling, a form of Nibbana: the mind shuts down and all formations come to rest. In one sense that is right; in another it is not. Here is what the suttas mean by Nibbana, which senses the cessation attainment fits, and why it may still be the closest thing to a taste of final Nibbana in this life.

Nibbana is often treated as mystical and unfathomable. I don't share that view — rare and difficult to attain, yes, but more concrete and down-to-earth than it's sometimes made out to be. Here's what I mean by it and four common misconceptions worth clearing up.