When I asked Guru D whether he and his assistants studied the Buddhist texts, he said that they taught on the basis of the guru's experience. He tells his followers that it is not necessary to study the texts because if one meditates, one will learn it all

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firsthand as he has. He also told me that "Books are the ruin of Buddhism." By which he meant that there are too many books written about Buddhism by people who have no personal experience with these truths. A teacher on his staff confirmed this when she told me that "books are discouraged" because they represent worldly wisdom. Somewhat paradoxically, although he shuns the texts and books, his teaching and that of his assistants seems almost precisely textual. While supposedly based on his own experience, his dhamma teachings and meditation instructions follow the textual tradition of meditation very closely although simplifying it somewhat. The only text to which I actually heard him make reference was the Satipatthana Sutta, which seems to serve as the basis of his method. He is fond of saying that "the path is very clear". And in keeping with this he sets out a fairly simple explanation of the dhamma and a basic technique of meditation. When I visited his center on a Poya day he delivered a dhamma sermon that summarized his fairly orthodox message. He said that one must realize that "all is within this fathom-long body." Although we think that reality is outside, it is actually inside, controlled by the mind. The mind creates the body and our attachment to the body. Most suffering is caused by our ignorance of this process which leads to attachment and aversion.

　　 His teaching about meditation is equally conventional. The most important form of meditation for his group is anapanasati. He stresses the jhanas also as a part of the path through samadhi to vipassana. All this he bases on the Satipatthana Sutta and largely ignores other texts. He said, for example, that the lists of meditation topics from the Visuddhimagga are not so important and have more to do with scholasticism. He does not require his followers to adhere to any special rules beyond the normal Sila.

2. A second key feature of this movement is the emphasis that it places on the availability of the goals of meditation. This feature has much to with both the status of the guru and the popularity of this movement with the laity. If Guru D's teachings about the dhamma and meditation are more or less conventional, his ideas about the possibility of attaining the goals are fairly radical. The only important goal of meditation, he says, is enlightenment and the stages of the noble persons or ariya puggala. He does not teach meditation to help people with secondary goals or problems such as stress. He feels that lay people can attain the goal. "Why not?" he says, "The technique is simple and the path is very clear. All that is needed is for people to be keen enough." He discusses the relevant mileposts for attainments -- meaning the 4 Noble persons -- and he explains that these mileposts have been reached by his followers. He teaches that reaching these goals is not difficult, people just have to eliminate the hindrances and develop other positive factors. "It can be done," he said. In fact he claims that many of his followers have attained all of these stages. When I pressed him a bit about these goals, he said that the stage of Streamenterer "is a simple thing" that any of his followers can attain. Again speaking very textually, he said that this stage only requires one to overcome three hindrances: doubt, attachment to rituals and rules (sila), and self-view. Lowering the bar about as far as possible, Guru D emphasized how simple this process is, saying "Any layman can do it."

　　 One Poya when I visited Guru D's center I saw how far he carries this teaching about the availability of the goal. After he had delivered a lengthy dhamma sermon, he

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instructed the audience (numbering about 800 people) to divide up into three groups for discussion and meditation: beginners, intermediates, and ariya puggalas. Although most of the people in the audience gravitated toward one of the first two groups, a significant number of people reported to the group for the ariya puggalas which was appropriately sub-divided into four sections, one for each of the higher stages from Streamenterer to Arahant. Holding breakout groups for ariya puggalas surely sets this group apart from contemporary Buddhist orthodoxy and shows how far it has gone toward a sectarian or emergent religion status.

　　 All of these breakout groups were led by nuns, and I spoke to two of these teachers, the one in charge of the arahants (who had only about four or five people in her group) and another nun who teaches the foreign meditators. Both of them said that the higher stages of the path are perfectly attainable, even by foreigners. The second teacher supported this claim by referring to the Satipatthana Sutta which says that if one practices diligently the goal can be reached in seven days. This nun also said that many of the nuns had gone far beyond the stage of Stream Enterer, and that the guru had also.