This talk discusses three interconnected Thai meditation systems that incorporate the attainments and visions of multiple inner bodies—spiritual bodies to be seen within the practitioner’s mind.  The first system, Matchima Baeb Lamdap, was transmitted from Supreme Patriarch Suk Kai Thuean (1733-1822) of Wat Ratchasittharam in Bangkok, who was the fifth Saṅgharāja of the Bangkok era. The second, Sammā Arahaṃ (also known as Vijjā Dhammakāya), was developed in 1916 by Luang Pho Sot Candasaro (1884-1959), the influential abbot of Wat Paknam, Bangkok. The third system, Manomayiddhi (Power of Mind), was founded in 1959 by Luang Pho Ruesi Lingdam (Black Monkey Sage) (1916-1992), the abbot of Wat Tha Sung in Uthai Thani. Although each system conceives of the inner bodies differently, all agree that they are projections of the meditator’s citta, which is seen as a luminous sphere either above the navel or at the heart base (hadaya-vatthu), and are the natural culmination of increasingly refined levels of concentration (samādhi) and attainments of the paths (magga) and fruits (phala) of the noble ones (ariya).

The talk will also introduce the author’s latest book, Seeing the Bodies Within (Shambhala, Boulder CO), which explores Sammā Arahaṃ meditation and discusses the network of meditation monks from Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Suphanburi, and other parts of central Thailand, who influenced the development of the three systems.