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Whatever arises, keep reestablishing your attention. Do not take anything as yourself everything is only a vision or a construction of the mind, a deception that causes you to like, grasp, or fear. When you see such constructions, do not get involved. All unusual experiences and visions are of value to the wise person but harmful to the unwise. Keep practicing until you are not stirred by them. If you can trust your mind in this way, there is no problem. If it wants to be glad, you just know that this gladness is uncertain, unstable. Do not fear your visions or other experiences in practice, just learn to work with them. In this way, defilement can be used to train the mind, and you come to know the natural state of the mind, free from extremes, clear, unattached. As I see it, the mind is like a single point, the center of the universe, and mental states are like visitors who come to stay at this point for short or long periods of time. Get to know these visitors well.

Become familiar with the vivid pictures they paint, the alluring stories they tell, to entice you to follow them. But do not give up your seat it is the only chair around. If you continue to occupy it unceasingly, greeting each guest as it comes, firmly establishing yourself in awareness, transforming your mind into the one who knows, the one who is awake, the visitors will eventually stop coming back. If you give them real attention, how many times can these visitors return? Speak with them here, and you will know every one of them well. Then your mind will at last be at peace.

~ Ajahn Chah
A Still Forest Pool

The Essence of Vipassana: Observing Your Mind

Begin practice by sitting up straight and paying attention. You can sit on the floor, you can sit in a chair. At first, you need not fix your attention on much. Simply be mindful of in-and-out breathing. If you find it helpful, you can also repeat "Buddho," "Dharmo," or "Sangho" as a mantra while you watch the breath going in and out. In this awareness of breathing, you must not force. If you try to control your breathing, that is not yet correct. It may seem that the breathing is too short, too long, too gentle, too heavy. You may feel that you are not passing the breath properly, or you may not feel well. Just let it be, let it settle by itself. Eventually the breath will enter and exit freely. When you are aware of and firmly established in this entry and exit, that is correct breathing.

When you become distracted, stop and refocus your attention. At first, when you are focusing it, your mind wants it to be a certain way. But do not control it or worry about it. Just notice it and let it be. Keep at it. Samadhi will grow by itself. As you go on practicing in this way, sometimes the breath will stop, but here again, do not fear. Only your perception of the breath has stopped; the subtle factors continue.

When the time is right, the breath will come back on its own as before.

If you can make your mind tranquil like this, wherever you find yourself on a chair, in a car, on a boat you will be able to fix your attention and enter into a calm state immediately. Wherever you are, you will be able to sit for meditation. Having reached this point, you know something of the Path, but you must also contemplate sense objects. Turn your tranquil mind toward sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, thoughts, mental objects, mental factors. Whatever arises, investigate it.

Notice whether you like it or not, whether it pleases or displeases you, but do not get involved with it. This liking and disliking are just reactions to the world of appearances you must see a deeper level.

Then, whether something initially seems good or bad, you will see that it is really only impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. File everything that arises into those three categories good, bad, evil, wonderful, whatever it is, put it there. This is the way of vipassana, by which all things are calmed.

Before long, knowledge and insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness will arise. This is the beginning of true wisdom, the heart of meditation, which leads to liberation. Follow your experience. See it. Strive continuously.

Know the truth. Learn to give up, to get rid, to attain peace.

When sitting in meditation, you may have strange experiences or visions such as seeing lights, angels, or buddhas. When you see such things, you should observe yourself first to find out what state the mind is in. Do not forget the basic point. Pay attention. Do not wish for visions to arise or not to arise. If you go running after such experiences, you may end up babbling senselessly because the mind has fled the stable. When such things do come, contemplate them. When, you have contemplated them, do not be deluded by them. You should consider that they are not yourself; they too are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not self. Though they have come about, do not take them seriously. If they do not go away, reestablish your mindfulness, fix your attention on your breathing, and take at least three long inhalations and exhalations then you can cut them off.

All the world is on fire,
All the world is burning,
All the world is ablaze,
All the world is quaking.

That which does not quake or blaze,
That to which worldlings do not resort,
Where there is no place for Mara:
That is where my mind delights.

- Bhikkhuni Upacālā (SN 5.7)

Buddha makes it clear that a lay person living as a householder cannot make an end to suffering, at best can make merits attain good rebirth.

Wanderer Vacchagotta asked:
“Master Gotama, is there any householder who, without abandoning the fetters of householdership, makes an end of suffering on the dissolution of the body, after death?”

The Buddha:
“There is no householder who, without abandoning the fetters of householdership, makes an end of suffering on the dissolution of the body, after death.”

Wanderer Vacchagotta asked:
Master Gotama, has any householder, without abandoning the fetter of householdership, passed on to heaven on the dissolution of the body, after death?”

The Buddha:
“There are not only one hundred or two or three or four or five hundred but far more householders who, without abandoning the fetter of householdership, pass on to heaven on the dissolution of the body, after death.”

- Majjhima Nikaya 71

The Liberation Manual: A Guide to Transcend the Mirage of Desires and the Illusion of Mind.

Book by Venerable Panadure Ananda

Liberation Manual: Documentary 🔽
https://youtu.be/tn9cN3F9pzA?feature=shared

So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans near Silāvatī.

Now at that time several mendicants were meditating not far from the Buddha, diligent, keen, and resolute.

Then Māra the Wicked manifested in the form of a brahmin with a large matted dreadlock, wearing an antelope hide. He was old, bent double, wheezing, and held a staff made of cluster fig tree wood. He went up to those mendicants and said, “You’ve gone forth while young, reverends. With pristine black hair, you’re blessed with youth, in the prime of life, and you’ve never flirted with sensual pleasures. Enjoy human sensual pleasures. Don’t give up what is apparent in the present to chase after what takes effect over time.”

“Brahmin, that’s not what we’re doing. We’re giving up what takes effect over time to chase after what is apparent in the present. For the Buddha says that sensual pleasures take effect over time; they give much suffering and distress, and they are all the more full of drawbacks. But this teaching is apparent in the present life, immediately effective, inviting inspection, relevant, so that sensible people can know it for themselves.”

When they had spoken, Māra the Wicked shook his head, waggled his tongue, raised his eyebrows until his brow puckered in three furrows, and departed leaning on his staff.

Then those mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had happened. The Buddha said, “Mendicants, that was no brahmin. That was Māra the Wicked who came to pull the wool over your eyes!”

Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha recited this verse:

“When a person has seen where suffering comes from
how could they incline towards sensual pleasures?
Realizing that attachment is a snare in the world,
a person would train to remove it.”

- SN 4.21 Sambahulasutta🙏☸️
.

Suppose a great mass of fire was burning with ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood. And from time to time someone would toss in dry grass, cow dung, or wood. Fed and fuelled by that, the bonfire would burn for a long time.

In the same way, there are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a condition for grasping. Grasping is a condition for continued existence. Continued existence is a condition for rebirth. Rebirth is a condition for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

Suppose a great mass of fire was burning with ten, twenty, thirty, or forty loads of wood. And no-one would toss in dry grass, cow dung, or wood from time to time. As the original fuel is used up and no more is added, the great mass of fire would be extinguished due to not being fed.

In the same way, there are things that fuel grasping. When you concentrate on the drawbacks of these things, your craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. When grasping ceases, continued existence ceases. When continued existence ceases, rebirth ceases. When rebirth ceases, old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress cease. That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.

- SN 12.52 Upādānasutta🙏☸️

“What is a person’s partner?
What is it that instructs him?
Taking delight in what is a mortal
Released from all suffering?”

“Faith is a person’s partner,
And wisdom is what instructs him.
Taking delight in Nibbāna, a mortal
Is released from all suffering.”

- SN 1.59 Dutiyasutta🙏☸️

Lord Sakka/Indra visits the Buddha

Sakka entered Indra’s hill cave, bowed to the Buddha, and stood to one side. And the gods of the thirty-three did likewise.

Dear sir, I am Sakka, lord of gods. I am the Buddha’s disciple, a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, bound for awakening.

- Digha Nikaya 21

Virtues of the Lay-follower

He has gone for refuge to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha.

He places the Dhamma first.

He gives according to his ability.
He guards his deeds and words.

If he sees a decline in the Dispensation of the Teaching of the Buddha, he strives for its strong growth.

He will not accept any other teacher, not even for the sake of his life.

— Milindapañha, Ch. IV