Ven. Acariya Mun - Spiritual Biography + photos

harmonious being that is so wondrous as to be indescribable. Upon
withdrawing from samãdhi, this calm, concentrated mental focus
then serves as a basis for successfully pursuing investigative tech-
niques to develop wisdom and gain insight into the true nature of
all phenomena. Samãdhi has many levels and classifications. For one
such classification see Note #34, page 475.
samaõa: A contemplative who abandons the conventional obligations of
social life in order to follow a life of spiritual striving. At the time
of the Buddha, a samaõa was considered to embody the ideal of the
wandering ascetic.
saÿsãra: The round of rebirth without beginning, in which all living
beings revolve. Saÿsãra is the name given to the continuous proc-
ess of being born, getting sick, growing old, and dying – an unin-
terrupted succession of births, deaths, and rebirths. It encompasses
the entire universe of sentient existence, from the grossest beings
to the most refined, from the highest realms of the Formless World
to the lowest realms of hell. All existence within this cycle is sub-
ject to change, inherently unstable, and burdened with pain and
suffering, with each state of existence being determined by a being’s
intentional actions of body, speech, and mind (kamma). The attain-
ment of Nibbãna marks the complete transcendence of the world of
saÿsãra.
Sangha: The community of the Buddha’s disciples. On the conventional
level, this means the Buddhist monastic order. On the ideal level,
it refers to those of the Buddha’s followers, whether lay or ordained,
who have attained at least the first of the four Transcendent Paths
culminating in Arahantship.
sankhãra: As a general term, sankhãra refers to all forces that form or con-
dition things in the phenomenal world of mind and matter, and to
those formed or conditioned phenomena that result. As the fourth
component of personality (sankhãra khandha) it refers to thought
and imagination; that is, the thoughts that constantly form in the
mind and conceptualize about one’s personal perceptions. Sankhãra