The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

Then having seen the disadvantages of the fourth jhŒna youshould reflect on the advantages of the immaterial jhŒnas as beingmore peaceful.Then you need to expand your nimitta of the earth kasiöa so thatit is infinite or as large an area as you wish, and then remove thekasiöa rèpa by paying attention to the space that is occupied by thekasiöa rèpa as "space, space" or "boundless space, boundlessspace". So that what is left is the space left by the removal of thekasiöa, or the space that the kasiöa occupied, or the space left behindby the kasiöa.If you have difficulty in doing this then you should try to seespace in one part of the earth kasiöa nimitta and when you can dothat pay attention only to space and you will find that it extends andreplaces the earth kasiöa nimitta.Then you need to continue to pay attention to that sign of spaceleft behind by the removal of the kasiöa as "space, space" with initialapplication of the mind. By doing this again and again you willfind that the hindrances are suppressed and that upacŒra concentrationarises with the sign of space as its object. By repeated attentionto that sign you will find that appana jhŒna arises with the sign ofspace as its object. This is the first immaterial jhŒna called the baseconsisting of boundless space.The Base Consisting Of Boundless ConsciousnessThe second immaterial jhŒna is the base consisting of boundlessconsciousness and it has as its object the consciousness associatedwith the base consisting of boundless space.If you wish to develop the base consisting of boundless consciousnessyou must firstly attain the five masteries of the base consistingof boundless space. Then after that you should reflect on thew 79