Kulaprabha

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The Six Element Practice is a meditation specifically aimed at countering conceit - specifically, the conceit of ‘I’. Whenever we act, speak, think from a standpoint of ‘me’, ‘mine’, ‘I’ …. or ‘not mine’ etc… then we are being swept into the ‘tides of conceiving’. This phrase ‘the tides of conceiving’ is to be found in a story about how the Buddha once met a young monk called Pukkasati. The young man had been ordained into the Order but had never met the Buddha. And the Buddha didn’t say who he was. They shared a potter’s shed for a night’s lodging and they meditated together. All night. The Buddha was impressed by the young man’s meditation practice and he offered, as an elder monk, to teach him some more about meditation. The rest of the sutta is a description of the six element practice and its benefits. Specifically it’s ability to counter the tides of conceit which follow from harbouring the wrong view of I, me and mine.

Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation of this sutta uses the phrase ‘tides of conceiving’. It’s available in his translation of the Majjima Nikaya. Alternatively there is a translation by the Ven Thanissaro Bikkhu available on the Access to Insight website here. You just need to know that this translation uses ‘property’ instead of Bhikkhu Bodhi’s  ‘element’; and  ‘tides of construing’ instead of Bodhi’s  ‘tides of conceivings’.  Not as good, I think, but it’s still good and it’s available to download.

In the Western Buddhist Order the Six Element practice is a meditation that we do particularly in the time leading up to our ordination ceremony and in the context of our ordination retreat. These short talks were given on retreat as introductions to the meditation practice.

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01 The Practice in Our System of Meditation (2:50) 

02 Why Do the Practice (3:20)

03 Effects of the Practice (5:34)

04 Suggested Approach to the Practice (9:25)

A lead-through by me of the full meditation practice is on Free Buddhist Audio. I’ve restricted access to it to members of the WBO or to people who are soon to be ordained into the WBO.

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