When the Buddha achieved the full quenching of burning, the very first consideration was: teaching this isn´t going to work.

The knowledge and vision arose in me: ‘My deliverance is unshakeable; this birth was my last repetition; now there is no repetition of existence.’*

“I considered: ‘This truth that I have attained is profound, hard to see and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, takes delight in attachment, rejoices in attachment. It is hard for such a generation to see this truth, namely, specific conditionality, dependent origination. And it is hard to see this truth, namely, the stilling of all conditions, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of the seamstress, dispassion, cessation, Nibbāna. If I were to teach the Dhamma, others would not understand me, and that would be wearying and troublesome for me.´ ..
´Considering thus, my mind inclined to inaction rather than to teaching the Dhamma.´ (MN 26) (*adapted from Sujato)

For some reason, in this current day, there is a community consensus that dozens of individuals who aren´t monastics have achieved to various degrees what the Buddha taught. First and foremost this is in terms of deep end meditative states, known as jhanas, that are researched as Advanced Concentrative Absorptive Meditation (ACAM). But what is also happening is that states like cessation events and even nibbana, studied as meditative endpoint, are being researched.

When the Buddha was established after trying beginnings, he wasn´t well-known or famous, and only known through a good reputation. Back then the ones achieving the teachings had been few but significant, and that is still the case today and tomorrow. He described various achievements of ennoblement: a stream enterer, a sakadagami, an anagami, an arahant, and a Buddha.

To enter the stream, what it takes is understanding 1) the dependently arisen nature of five aggregates, 2) letting go of clinging to rites and rituals, including supposedly Buddhist ones, 3) developing unshakeable confidence in physics (dhamma) and specifically dependent origination.

The three work goals also achieve each other. With confidence in dependent origination, there can be letting go to clinging to rites and rituals, trusting instead in the result of good actions and the refraining from unskillful actions. Cultivating a livelihood dependent upon dependent origination, one can develop a dependently arisen path revealing how the self itself is constructed out of five dependently arisen heaps. A stream-enterer is also somehow who has cultivated the path once to a meditative endpoint.

Three things develop this eightfold path: even view, even effort, even remembering. With an even effort, one develops an even effort. With an uneven effort, one develops an uneven effort. With an even view, the view can be evened, the effort can be evened, the remembering can be evened. Developing in this way, the effort and remembering can be even each other in a mutually dependent and concentrating cycle. If there is a concentration of view, effort and remembering, that is the last factor of the eightfold path.

If I want to have an even effort of loving-kindness, that is difficult if it is uneven with a view that some person doesn´t deserve it. If one has a view that some person doesn´t deserve such an even effort, and puts in effort, that effort will be met with a hindrance. If someone does have the view and the ability to maintain an even effort, there might not be an even remembering of that effort. In the Metta Sutta, the view, effort and remembering have evened each other out. To even out is to deliver acquittal from fettered mental states.

With the evening of view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, remembering to each other, there is an evened out path that secludes one from a distraction. The seclusion from a distraction is protected by remembering, further developed by effort, its opportunity further investigated by view, the view protected by remembering and sustained by effort.

In seclusion, greed, hatred and delusion don´t get stitched to a consciousness, ceasing the production of a heap of consciousness entangled by defilements. Greed, hatred and delusion not entangling a heap of consciousness, one sees more clearly. Seeing more clearly, one has developed a more even view. Having developed a more even view, one can develop a more evened out effort. Having developed a more even effort, one develops a more even remembering. The path to the even evening out of distractions becomes more even and suitable for jhana.

In jhana one works through experiences from past actions, understanding mental states and their causes and conditions, understanding the nature of phenomena.

This has to be done knowing there is a de facto army of hindrances along the way, personified by Mara or a superego. The meditative states of concentration are right beyond this Mara, which means that right before success the call to stop and sabotage can be strongest.

Something as small as entertaining the conceiving of a distraction gets one under the influence of Mara or the superego, who at the moment of conceiving has a grasp. Dependent upon that grasp, there is the activation of becoming, also known as seven underlying tendencies or unconscious drives, which by their very underlying or unconscious nature, one doesn´t even have direct access to other than seeing how it shapes the repetition of some mental, verbal, bodily action shaping stress. Others might tell the person they have some pattern or one studies the results of unskillful actions. One thus spends marathons of wisdom, effort, remembering cycling around each other to realize evening out without remainder.

The Territory

#	Pali Name	English Name	Mental State
			States marked by suffering
1	Niraya	Hell	State of extreme aversion, hatred, and psychological torment.
2	Tiracchana yoni	Animalistic	State of instinct-driven behavior, survival fear, and delusion.
3	Peta loka	Hungry Ghosts	State of intense craving, greed, and insatiable psychological hunger.
4	Asura	Titans	State of jealousy, envy, and combative ego.
			Incredibly rare and privileged human state
5	Manussa loka	Humans	An ideal state for making merit. There is a lot of cause for practice due to the availability of suffering, which also presents many opportunities to develop paths out of suffering for others and oneself. Rather than focussing on making money, status, the fundamental focus is to build merit and develop skill to the potential windfall of moving beyond any of the states mentioned in this list in this very life. The best way to make merit is to meditate.
			Start of heavenly sense pleasures
6	Catumaharajika	Devas of the Four Great Kings	State of basic virtue, generosity, and protective mindfulness.
7	Tavatimsa	Devas of the Thirty-Three	State of strong merit, leadership, and communal joy.
8	Yama	Yama Devas	State of refined sensual bliss, free from conflict and hardship.
9	Tusita	Joyful Devas	State of pure contentment; the mental abode of future Buddhas before awakening.
10	Nimmanarati	Devas Delighting in Creation	State of mastering creative powers and enjoying self-made pleasures.
11	Paranimmitavasavatti	Devas Wielding Power over Others’ Creations	State of supreme sensual refinement and control. [Can bind beings by exploiting control over their perceptions, precisely before the jhanic mental territories. This mental state is a foe in contemplative traditions and will introduce the most powerful hindrances, including to the Buddha right before his full enlightenment.]
			Breakaway Territory
12	Brahma-parisajja	Retinue of Brahma	State of initial concentration (First Jhana), with mild rapture and happiness.
13	Brahma-purohita	Ministers of Brahma	State of medium First Jhana concentration.
14	Maha-Brahma	Great Brahmas	State of strong First Jhana concentration, marked by deep loving-kindness.
15	Parittabha	Devas of Limited Radiance	State of weak Second Jhana, possessing inner tranquility and one-pointedness.
16	Appamanabha	Devas of Measureless Radiance	State of medium Second Jhana concentration.
17	Abhassara	Devas of Streaming Radiance	State of highly developed Second Jhana, characterized by intense rapture and joy.
18	Parittasubha	Devas of Limited Glory	State of weak Third Jhana, marked by equanimity and subtle happiness.
19	Appamanasubha	Devas of Measureless Glory	State of medium Third Jhana concentration.
20	Subhakinna	Devas of Refulgent Glory	State of highly developed Third Jhana, experiencing profound peaceful happiness.
21	Vehapphala	Very Fruitful Devas	State of Fourth Jhana, characterized by perfect equanimity and mindfulness. [Given the equanimity, it is one of the best places for developing insight]
22	Asannasatta	Unconscious Beings	State of suspended mental activity; pure physical form without consciousness.
			5 states in which anagamis reside
23	Aviha	Durable Devas	State of a Non-Returner Anagami with the a dominant faculty of faith.
24	Atappa	Untroubled Devas	State of a Non-Returner with dominant energy/effort.
25	Sudassa	Beautiful Devas	State of a Non-Returner with dominant mindfulness.
26	Sudassi	Clear-Sighted Devas	State of a Non-Returner with dominant concentration.
27	Akanittha	Peerless Devas	State of a Non-Returner with dominant wisdom.
			Immaterial mental states Upon first access, these states can induce ontological shock. In Leigh´s book on Right Concentration, he descibes a musician getting to the immaterial state of no-thingness without much context at a vipassana retreat. She felt greatly relieved finding out about the jhana´s and their description.
28	Akasanancayatana	Sphere of Infinite Space	Mental state resting entirely on boundless space. (like seeing the Grand Canyon but then literally infinitely more distant)
29	Vinnanancayatana	Sphere of Infinite Consciousness	Mental state resting entirely on the realization of boundless consciousness.
30	Akincannayatana	Sphere of No-thingness	Mental state resting entirely on the perception of no-thingness.
31	Nevasannanasannayatana	Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception	Mental state so subtle that perception can barely be said to exist.

Nibbana as the unconditional

Seeing the suffering of a friend
Wishing for an unconditionally supportive effort
Compassion
Suffusing them
Alleviating their suffering
At the deepest root

Gladness
At seeing their happiness
Not expecting anything in return
One is moved

To strengthen the wish
Absolving self
In the face of such force
There is jhana

It can´t be empathy
Which can get one entangled

Uninterested in any personality view
Compassion is free from entanglement
Keeping the practitioner
Harmless and secluded

In its heavenly abodes
Not bound to any condition
Imagining it unconditional
Its friends Loving-Kindness, Joy, Equinimity
Close by

Still one notices one can fall away
Nibbana without clinging is realized when there is no possibility of grasping against it
What does it mean to grasp against it?

Sure approaching unconditional compassion is nice, but…
This grasping at it, also often is an attempt to direct it
Condition it

A quality of the unconditional is that it is undirected
If it wasn´t undirected, it wouldn´t be unconditional

A quality of it is that is isn´t about a me or you
If it wasn´t empty of self
It wouldn´t be unconditional

A quality of it is that it is signless
Without concept or map
If it could be captured by what is conditioned
It wouldn´t be unconditional

Seeing how unconditional love
Dissolves conditions against
Itself
The five heaps of me
Conditionally arisen
A disease
Cease part by part

Understanding how this arises upon that
How this ceases upon that

Conditions arising from ignorance
Ignorance as dust in an even view
Uneven efforts
Proliferate it
If mindfulness is not at bay

Ignorance as dust shapes consciousness
Dusted consciousness shapes the mentality-body
The mentality-body shapes the six sense bases
The six sense bases shapes the contact
The contact shapes the experience
Dependent upon dust, the experience can get attached to a consciousness
If, dependent upon dust, an experience is attached
The experience is only experienced
as experience shaped by dust

The experience is lost
And so too the consciousness
Attached to it
Who doesn´t know
How it got shaped into its heaps
Looking at shaped perceptions
Reflecting on dusty consciousness
Its shaped intentions
Make it feel lost

Feeling lost, it may stitch becoming
upon stitchings of becoming

Or, it sees the bottomless burial
of deaths, upon deaths
becomings upon becomings

Upon surfacing
Surfacing from a dust, ignorance
evened out
The body, experiences, perceptions, intentions, consciousness
Dependently arisen, shaped
As thieves
Into a spiral
Into heaps of stitched up experiences
into heaps of consciousness
Away from the deathlesss underneath

A deathless ground
Underneath the underneath
The gradual extinguishment