Book excerpt: Knowing and Seeing is teachings given by the Myanmarese meditation master, the Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw, at a two-month retreat for monks and nuns in Taiwan. In strict accordance with the standard Pali Texts, the Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw gives a practical overview of how you develop absorption (jhāna) with mindfulness-of-breathing, the thirty-two parts of your own body and that of others (near and far), repulsiveness of the body, the ten kasiṇas and four immaterial states. He then explains how you use the 'strong and powerful' jhāna concentration to perfect lovingkindness, compassion, appreciative joy, equanimity, recollection-of-The-Buddha, foulness, and recollection-of-death. Next, he explains how, with the light of jhāna, you penetrate the delusion of compactness and see the sub-atomic particles of materiality, and see the ultimate materiality of your own body, that of others, and throughout the universe; how likewise you see the cognitive-processes of your own mind and that of others; how likewise you examine your materiality and mentality of past lives, your present life and future lives (on this and other planes); and how likewise you develop the remaining knowledges till 'Your mind knows and sees Nibbāna directly: it is fully aware of the (unformed) Nibbāna as object.' The Sayadaw also answers questions from meditators at the retreat, on details regarding meditation, related matters, and the Bodhisatta Path etc. Finally, there is a stirring talk where he exhorts us to 'breathe according to The Buddha's instructions', followed by a talk on the most superior type of offering. [From a book published by Pa-Auk Meditation Centre, a Centre of Theravāda Buddhist Tradition]