Re: Nimitta

Dear Bryan,

At Pa Auk monastery a  course is followed in which adepts practise all. However, the monks I know of in Sri Lanka chose one that they liked or is recommended by their teacher. The colour kasinas such as the blue one tend to be easier to practise because they are beautiful and attractive.
In the chapter on temperaments in the Vimuttimagga, the predecessor of the Visuddhimagga, it is said: ''A person with a hate temperament should practise the four immeasurables, because these overcome hatred. Alternatively, he should practise the colour totalities, because the mind is attracted to them.''

A detailed description of the method of practice of Kasina meditation as practised at Pa Auk monastery is given in page 62 - 66 of Knowing and Seeing available at http://www.paaukforestmonastery.org/books/1PAS%2001%20Knowing%20and%20Seeing%204th%20Rev%20Ed%20-%20pamc%20112014.pdf:P. 63:

''It says in the suttas, that the white kasiṇa is the best of the four colour kasiṇas, because it makes the mind clear and bright.  For that reason, let us first discuss how to develop the white kasiṇa. You should first re-establish the fourth jhāna, so the light of concentration is bright, brilliant, and radiant. You should then use the light to discern the thirty-two parts of the body internally and then externally in a being nearby. Then discern just the skeleton. If you want to discern it as repulsive you can, if not, simply discern the external skeleton. Then take either the whitest place in that skeleton, or, if the whole skeleton is white, the whole skeleton, or the back of the skull, and concentrate on it as `white - white'. Alternatively, if you want to, and your concentration is really sharp, you can, if you have seen the internal skeleton as repulsive and reached the first jhàna, take the skeleton as white, and use that as your preliminary object. You can also discern first the repulsiveness in an external skeleton, and make that perception stable and firm, thus making the white of the skeleton more evident. Then, you can change to the perception of it to `white -white', and instead develop the white kasiṇa. With one of the objects of white in the external skeleton as object, you should practise to keep the mind calmly concentrated for one or two hours. Because of the strength and momentum of the fourth-jhàna concentration based on (mindfulness-of-breathing), you will find that your mind will stay calmly concentrated on the object of white. When you are able to concentrate on the white for one or two hours, you will find that the skeleton disappears and only a white circle remains. When the white circle is white as cotton wool, it is the uggaha-nimitta (taken-up sign). When it is bright and clear like the morning star, it is the paṭibhāga -nimitta (counterpart sign). Before the uggaha-nimitta arises, the skeleton nimitta from which it arises is the parikamma-nimitta (preparatory sign). Continue to note the kasiṇa as `white - white' until it becomes the paṭibhāga-nimitta. Continue concentrating on the paṭibhāga-nimitta until you enter the first jhāna. You will find, however, that this concentration is not very stable and does not last long. In order to make it stable and last along time, you need to expand the nimitta. ...''