A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation: How to Attain Nibbana Through the Mindfulness of Lovingkindness

by Bhante Vimalaramsi

In this booklet are the beginning instructions for Mettà or Loving-kindness Meditation, as part of the 'Practice of the Brahmaviharas' - which Bhante Vimalaramsi calls Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation or TWIM when practiced exactly from the suttas. It is taken from the earliest Buddhist suttas and leads to the supreme goal of awakening - Nibbana! The way Bhante teaches this meditation practice yields very fast results. The warm, happy feeling of Loving-kindness, and the 6Rs practice system Bhante has discovered, gives you deep and profound states of meditation in only a matter of weeks or even days, when practiced consistently. Did you know Lovingkindness will take you deeper much faster than doing Breath Meditation? This booklet gives the preliminary instructions for the practice of Metta and how to handle hindrances. The TWIM 'Jhana' or the 'Tranquil Aware Jhana' is defined for you here, versus the well-known 'Absorption-Concentration Jhanas', which you hear about all the time. But the Buddha in sutta 36 said there was another path- he taught the eight 'Aware' Jhanas. You need to find out what those are! Through this practice, you can experience those deep states within days or weeks, not years or decades. Even just sitting at home. Bhante has students he has never met or taken a retreat who have gone all the way to awakening by using this system at home. Everything is here, and in detail, with many tips and examples, to get the meditator on his way to experiencing awakening in this very life. For more than 40 years Bhante Vimalaramsi researched and practiced many methods without finding any real satisfaction. He went back to the earliest Buddhist teachings, using the Majjhima Nikaya and found what he was seeking. He found the step that had been left out! Find out what that is (hint- to 'tranquilize') Bhante Vimalaramsi's method of “The 6Rs", is the key to the step he found, which is the "Relax" step. In the suttas, it is called "Tranquilize." Bhante Vimalaramsi has been a monk since 1986 and practiced with many of the major Buddhist teachers in Asia. He now teaches all over the world and is the abbot of the Dhamma Sukha Meditation Center near St. Louis, Mo, USA.

Genres: Meditation, Buddhism, Spirituality, Nonfiction

55 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 18, 2015

Reviews

[Nick Imrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is now the third book that I've shelved under the broad and vague topic of 'awakening', otherwise known as enlightenment, and it's really interesting to see how different they all are from each other. It seems like there really are many paths all leading to the same mountain top.

Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book was frankly intimidating and made enlightenment sound more uncomfortable than anything else. Happiness Beyond Thought: A Practical Guide to Awakening was much more reassuring, but I'm still a little confused about how one practises enquiry without analytical thought.

A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation is more like Happiness Beyond Thought than Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha in as much as it promotes gentle persistence rather than monomaniacal effort. I've encountered Loving-Kindness Meditation before, indeed along with breathing meditation is one of the two basic meditations taught at my local Buddhist Centre. But in most places, including in The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science, which is my current meditation practise, metta is presented as a secondary practise. Something to support the real work that you do in mindfulness of breath. What makes Bhante Vimalaramsi's book so interesting is that he says the Buddha actually taught Metta Bhavana - Lovng-Kindness Mediation - much more than he did Mindfulness, and reccomended it as the main practise!

As well as this, Vimalaramsi has the best instructions for practising Metta that I've encountered. I've worried before that just wishing people well often doesn't feel very genuine and I don't feel much in the way of real friendliness when doing this meditation. Vimalaramsi has some fun recommendations for how to generate real loving feelings such as thinking of cute kittens and puppies! He also emphasised, which I hadn't really realised before, that the meditation object is the feeling in your heart! That's what you should be focusing on, not just on whatever 'May you be Happy' chant you have looping in your mind. That's a useful distinction.

Overall this is a short and easy read, and free online! Vimalramsi makes it clear that this is just an introduction, and you should master this before trying for anything more difficult, the instructions for which he is prudently keeping for later.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a nice little book about what I've seen called Metta or Loving-kindness meditation. Feeling the loving-kindness was something I got from this book that I didn't from others I have read. It has really changed my Metta meditation. Don't just say the nice phrases, feel them!

[Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very clear, bright & easy to follow instruction on how to do Metta meditation

[Nagarjuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have spent hours and hours self learning meditation from youtube and blogs. But what has really changed my practice is his teachings. His emphasis on the relax step turned my meditation to a fruitful way. If you have seen this review, read the book along with following his videos on relax step. It is simple - do not focus too intensely because if you do so you are creating a new craving. Instead "know" that you are breathing.

[Damian]

Sorry to not be very metta about it, but the author is not only spreading pseudoscientific misinformation, but also doesn’t practice what he preaches :/
Though I must admit that the method *did* bring me to some profound states of consciousness (early Jhana, or pre-Jhana), so yeah, distill what’s useful and throw out the rest.

[Tazik Shahjahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you’re reading this, chances are you’ve tried meditating and concluded it’s not for you -

today meditation is synonymous with vipassana meditation, or breathwork practices, but actually there’s other kinds that might just be more beginner-friendly??

enter metta (loving kindness) meditation-
pause for a second, and conjure an image of puppies and toddlers frolicking in the sun. if that doesn’t make u feel warm and fuzzy i’m afraid you’re a psychopath and you may as well stop. reading.

for the rest of you - take that image, with all the warmth that shrouds it, and radiate it outwards. got it? ok now go sit on a mat for 30 minutes and become one with that feeling.

it’s still early days: i’ve done a single digit of practice sessions but so far-
i like metta.

however- is this for you?
honestly if this has piqued your interest in the least i recommend just trying it out.

T.W.I.M. is incredibly readable and concise as manuals go, and you can breeze through it in one sitting ~30m)

;now if i sounded authoritative so far i am sorry for misleading you. i dont know what i’m talking about. for legible and accurate explanations, pls refer to chatgpt.)