The Liberating Practice of the Fire Kasina, with Daniel Ingram

Author and meditation teacher Daniel Ingram speaks with host Michael W. Taft about how the Fire Kasina practice can be used as an insight practice. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristics, and detailed instructions for doing the Fire Kasina practice

Daniel Ingram is an emergency medicine physician and long-time dharma practitioner. He is the author of the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha — now out in its second edition- and also the main force behind the radical dharmaoverground website, which specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation.

The book Michael mentions is Theravada Meditation by Winston King

Daniel explains how jhanas and ñanas can be matched across systems in this video.

The Fire Kasina website

Show Notes

0:25 – Introduction

2:13 – Michael’s experience with the fire kasina at Denman Island, realizing the practice can lead to awakening

5:34 – Setting the general context for using any kind of kasina, and how it fits in with Theravada practice

9:25 – How and why Daniel started kasina practice, objects he used; whether there’s something special about the fire kasina

14:22 – Elemental imbalance, taking other elements (air, water, earth) besides fire; once you can do one element really well, you can get all the other colors and elements

17:00 – Using kasina practice to enter the jhanas or develop jhanic factors; how insight slips into concentration practices

21:21 – Beginning to describe the stages of working with a fire kasina, and what it means for jhanic factors (and the nanas)

23:48 – The appearance of the red dot nimitta and its characteristics

27:45 – The first jhanic factors that come with tracking and steadying the red dot nimitta; changes in the color of the nimitta and the dropping of sustained thought (being second jhanic factors); the second vipassana jhana’s correlation with the Arising and Passing Away

30:33 – The appearance of the black/dark dot and entering the murk; the gifts and challenges of practicing with the murk; Neko’s triad of patience, faith, and curiosity

37:57 – Learning color, image, and movement control in the murk; bringing in insight elements

42:08 – Exiting the murk and entering fourth jhanic territory; what the transition from third to fourth jhana looks like

47:20 – Things a practitioner can look for to know when they’ve made the transition to fourth jhana / fourth jhanic factors

52:22 – Descriptions of the first through fourth ‘screens’, how the screens don’t perfectly correlate with the jhanas

54:16 – Moving from fourth jhanic territory to awakening; cultivating the three characteristics

1:02:50 – The challenge of taking the fire kasina to the immaterial type jhanas

1:04:38 – What’s most exciting to Daniel about this practice and why he continues to do it

1:09:21 – Community and learning resources for people who want to work with kasina practice; warnings about doing the practice intensely or without a support system when one has a serious mental health diagnosis

1:14:51 – Outro

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