Bhavanga - Ajahn Thate

A post by Santerisuro at E-Sangha on Ajahn Thate's teaching

.....Here are few words of great forrest meditation master, Luang Por Thate, about bhavanga

The Autobiography of a Forest Monk

"The weather had been incredibly hot when I was organizing the building of shelters and meditation huts at Wat Pah Salawan in Korat. I don't like hot weather but I had gritted my teeth and endured, persevering in my meditation without let up. I had trained my mindfulness so well that there was stillness and calm throughout day and night. Sometimes it would converge and enter the bhavanga and totally disappear for many hours. This, however, is certainly not the way that allows wisdom to be born.I had been trying to correct this tendency for a long time both by my own efforts and by asking others for help. It had never previously succeeded but this time I found a way out for myself. This was by being ready to apprehend the heart when it was right at the point of convergence into bhavanga. At that moment the condition of awareness becomes unmindful and there is the inclination towards indulgence in the pleasure of the tranquillity and happiness. When mindfulness fades the mind will converge into bhavanga. The thing to do is to apprehend it right at the point when it is fading towards indulgence in that refined tranquillity. Catch it there and swiftly set mindfulness on to a coarser object and focus and examine it more externally."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/thate/thateauto.html

Luang Por seems to be saying, that dropping into the state of bhavanga during meditation is not a good thing. At least not always.Luang Por Thates experiences of bhavanga are interesting to contemplate. The bhavanga he is talking about, is equivalent to some kind of a state of samadhi. This samadhi is not jhana... There is no sharp vitaka and vicara. One-pointedness seems to be there. It is just not very stong.The bhavanga state that Luang Por is talking about, is a samadhi state without strong mindfulness. It is like a lucid dream state without any dreams.This are just my own contemplations of Luang Por's words. Not he's own....