Forest Buddhist monks

[Jhanananda]

Someone just sent me a link to Mahā Boowa's book, ARAHATTAMAGGA ARAHATTAPHALA The Path to Arahantship.  I plan to spend some time reading this PDF to investigate how well Mahā Boowa understood the path to fruition.  Perhaps others here would find reading it, and discussing it here, useful.

[Sam Lim]

I've read this book before. I am now re-reading it. This man seems to have achievements after reading part one only. I believe he is the genuine stuff.

[Jhanananda]

The first sentence in the first paragraph is a good start for me.

At present, all that is left of Buddhism are the words of the Buddha. Only his teachings—the scriptures—remain. Please be aware of this. Due to the corruption caused by the defiling nature of the kilesas, true spiritual principles are no longer practiced in present-day Buddhism.

I agree here as well.

page 10
In essence, earnest effort is synonymous with a meditator’s endeavor to maintain steady and continuous mindful awareness, al- ways striving to keep a constant watch on the mind. When mind- fulness oversees all our mental and emotional activities, at all times in all postures, this is called “right effort”. Whether we’re engaged in formal meditation practice or not, if we earnestly en- deavor to keep our minds firmly focused in the present moment, we constantly offset the threat posed by the kilesas…Largely because they are not sufficiently resolute in applying basic principles of meditation, many meditators fail to gain satis- factory results.

I do not happen to agree with the book's glossary entry for the term 'samadhi.'  The biggest problem that I find in the corruption of the sangha today is allowing the translation of samadhi to be 'concentration.'

Glossary 110-111
samãdhi: Meditative calm and concentration. Samãdhi is experienced by practicing various meditation techniques that are designed to calm the mind’s emotional turbulence and mental distraction by fixing it firmly on a single object of attention and mindfully holding it there until the mind becomes fully absorbed in that single preoccupation to the exclusion of everything else, and thus wholly integrated within a simple, unified state of awareness. By concentrating one’s attention on just one object, distracting thoughts and currents of the mind that would normally flow out into the sensory environment are gradually gathered into one inner point of focus, one still, calm, concentrated state called samãdhi. This does not mean that the mind is striving to concentrate on one point (an outward focus), but rather that by assiduously following the method with mindful attention, the mind naturally, on its own accord, converges into a unified state of awareness. The resulting experience is a feeling of pure and 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 techniques to develop wisdom and gain insight into the true nature of all phenomena.

[Sam Lim]

This principle is seen clearly when the flow of consciousness
that diffuses and permeates the human body is drawn back into
itself and converges into a deep state of samãdhi. Then the entire
body exists as no more than a lump of matter—a log or a tree
stump. When the citta withdraws from samãdhi, conscious awareness
returns to the body, spreading out to permeate every limb,
every part.

The "samadhi" referred to here doesn't sound like concentration to me.

[Jhanananda]

It sounds like he is careful not to mention ecstatic terminology, like: bliss, joy and ecstasy. 

On the other hand their photos do not look so blissful.

[Jhanananda]

Now that I am back in town for a few days I started back on Mahã Boowa's book.  I noticed in the following image that Mahã Boowa (1870-1949) has his right leg a little high for someone who has supposedly spent a great deal of time meditating to arrive at the stages of samadhi.  Perhaps he had just started meditating at this time.

Mahã Boowa 1913 (43 years old).