Seeing the Bodies Within

An in-depth examination of the Samma Araham tradition, a distinctive Theravada Buddhist meditation system that emphasizes visualization, mantra, and the discovery of the spiritual bodies within us. Discovered in a vision by the monk Luang Pho Sot Candasaro in 1916, Samma Araham is a thriving meditation tradition in its native Thailand, but little understood in the West. In this fascinating overview, Jak Cholvijarn weaves together Candasaro’s life story, the historical context that shaped his influential teachings, and the enduring legacy of the Samma Araham meditation system that he established. Drawing on Candasaro’s own writings and sermons, Cholvijarn presents the entire Samma Araham meditation system in all its intricate detail, demonstrating how the practice incorporates elements of both canonical Buddhist texts like the Satipatthana Sutta, as well as the regional boran kammatthana or “old meditation” practices that once thrived in Southeast Asia. Detailed descriptions of the meditative journey into a series of eighteen “inner bodies,” each corresponding to different levels of Buddhist teaching reveal a colorful, mystical side of the Theravada tradition that has gone underappreciated in the age of mindfulness and insight meditation.