There are lots of people who are ashamed to talk about their own defilements
but who feel no shame at talking about the defilements of others. Those who
are willing to report their own diseases -- their own defilements -- in a straightforward
manner are few and far between. As a result, the disease of defilement is hushed
up and kept secret, so that we don't realize how serious and widespread it is.
We all suffer from it, and yet no one is open about it. No one is really interested
in diagnosing his or her own defilements...
We have to find a skillful approach if we hope to wipe out this disease, and
we have to be open about it, admitting our defilements from the grossest to
the most subtle levels, dissecting them down to their minutest details. Only
then will we gain from our practice. If we look at ourselves in a superficial
way, we may feel that we're already fine just as we are, already know all we
need to know. But then when the defilements let loose with full force as anger
or delusion, we pretend that nothing is wrong -- and this way the defilements
become a hidden disease, hard to catch hold of, hard to diagnose...
We have to be strong in fighting off defilements, cravings, and illusions of
every sort. We have to test our strength against them and bring them under our
power. If we can bring them under our power, we can ride on their backs. If
we can't, they'll have to ride on our backs, making us do their work, pulling
us around by the nose, making us want, wearing us out in all sorts of ways.
So are we still beasts of burden? Are we beasts of burden because defilement
and craving are riding on our backs? Have they put a ring through our noses?
When you get to the point when you've had enough, you have to stop -- stop and
watch the defilements to see how they come into being, what they want, what
they eat, what they find delicious. Make it your sport -- watching the defilements
and making them starve, like a person giving up an addiction... See if it gets
the defilements upset. Do they hunger to the point where they're salivating?
Then don't let them eat. No matter what, don't let them eat what they're addicted
to. After all, there are plenty of other things to eat. You have to be hard
on them -- hard on your "self" -- like this... "Hungry? Well
go ahead and be hungry! You're going to die? Fine! Go ahead and die!" If
you can take this attitude, you'll be able to win out over all sorts of addictions,
all sorts of defilements -- because you're not pandering to desire, you're not
nourishing the desire that exists for the sake of finding flavor in physical
things. It's time you stopped, time you gave up feeding these things. If they're
going to waste away and die, let them die. After all, why should you keep them
fat and well fed?
No matter what, you have to keep putting the heat on your cravings and defilements
until they wither and waste away. Don't let them raise their heads. Keep them
under your thumb. This is the sort of straightforward practice you have to follow.
If you're steadfast, if you put up a persistent fight until they're all burned
away, then there's no other victory that can come anywhere near, no other victory
that's anywhere near a match for victory over the cravings and defilements in
your own heart.
This is why the Buddha taught us to put the heat on the defilements in all our
activities -- sitting, standing, walking, and lying down. If we don't do this,
they'll burn us in all our activities...
If you consider things carefully, you'll see that the Buddha's teachings are
all exactly right, both in how they tell us to examine the diseases of defilement
and in how they tell us to let go, destroy, and extinguish defilement. All the
steps are there, so we needn't go study anywhere else. Every point in his doctrine
and discipline shows us the way, so we needn't wonder how we can go about examining
and doing away with these diseases. This becomes mysterious and hard to know
only if you study his teachings without making reference to doing away with
your own defilements. People don't like to talk about their own defilements,
so they end up completely ignorant. They grow old and die without knowing a
thing about their own defilements at all.
When we start to practice, when we come to comprehend how the defilements burn
our own hearts, that's when we gradually come to know ourselves. To understand
suffering and defilement and learn how to extinguish defilement gives us space
to breathe...
When we learn how to put out the fires of defilement, how to destroy them, it
means we have tools. We can be confident in ourselves -- no doubts, no straying
off into other paths of practice, because we're sure to see that practicing
in this way, contemplating inconstancy, stress, and not-selfness in this way
at all times, really gets rid of our defilements.
The same holds true with virtue, concentration, and discernment. They're our
tools -- and we need a full set. We need the discernment that comes with Right
View and the virtue that comes with self-discipline. Virtue is very important.
Virtue and discernment are like our right and left hands. If one of our hands
is dirty, it can't wash itself. You need to use both hands to keep both hands
washed and clean. Thus wherever there's virtue, you have to have discernment.
Wherever there's discernment, you have to have virtue. Discernment is what enables
you to know; virtue is what enables you to let go, to relinquish, to destroy
your addictions. Virtue isn't just a matter of the five or eight precepts, you
know. It has to deal with the finest details. Whatever your discernment sees
as a cause of suffering, you have to stop, you have to let go.
Virtue is something that gets very subtle and precise. Letting go, giving up,
renouncing, abstaining, cutting away, and destroying: All of these things are
an affair of virtue. This is why virtue and discernment have to go together,
just as our right and left hands have to help each other. They help each other
wash away defilement. That's when your mind can become centered, bright, and
clear. These things show their benefits right at the mind. If we don't have
these tools, it's as if we had no hands or feet: We wouldn't be able to get
anywhere at all. We have to use our tools -- virtue and discernment -- to destroy
defilement. That's when our minds will benefit...
This is why the Buddha taught us to keep training in virtue, concentration,
and discernment. We have to keep fit in training these things. If we don't keep
up the training as we should, our tools for extinguishing suffering and defilement
won't be sharp, won't be of much use. They won't be a match for the defilements.
The defilements have monstrous powers for burning the mind in the twinkling
of an eye. Say that the mind is quiet and neutral: The slightest sensory contact
can set things burning in an instant by making us pleased or displeased. Why?
Sensory contact is our measuring stick for seeing how firm or weak our mindfulness
is. Most of the time it stirs things up. As soon as there's contact by way of
the ear or eye, the defilements are very quick. When this is the case, how can
we keep things under control? How are we going to gain control over our eyes?
How are be going to gain control over our ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind?
How can we get mindfulness and discernment in charge of these things? This is
a matter of practice, pure and simple... our own affair, something by which
we can test ourselves, to see why defilements flare up so quickly when sensory
contact takes place.
Say, for instance, that we hear a person criticizing someone else. We can listen
and not get upset. But say that the thought occurs to us, "She's actually
criticizing me." As soon as we conjure up this "me," we're immediately
angry and displeased. If we concoct very much of this "me," we can
get very upset. Just this fact alone should enable us to observe that as soon
as our "self" gets involved, we suffer immediately. This is how it
happens. If no sense of self comes out to get involved, we can remain calm and
indifferent. When they criticize other people, we can stay indifferent; but
as soon as we conclude that they're criticizing us, our "self" appears
and immediately gets involved -- and we immediately burn with defilement. Why?
You have to pay close attention to this. As soon as your "self" arises,
suffering arises in the very same instant. The same holds true even if you're
just thinking. The "self" you think up spreads out into all sorts
of issues. The mind gets scattered all over the place with defilement, craving,
and attachments. It has very little mindfulness and discernment watching over
it, so it gets dragged every which way by craving and defilement.
And yet we don't realize it. We think we're just fine. Is there anyone among
us who realizes that this is what's happening? We're too weighted down, weighted
down with our own delusions. No matter how much the mind is smothered in the
defilement of delusion, we don't realize it, for it keeps us deaf and blind...
There are no physical tools you can use to detect or cure this disease of defilement,
because it arises only at sensory contact. There's no substance to it. It's
like a match in a matchbox. As long as the match doesn't come into contact with
the friction strip on the side of the box, it won't give rise to fire. But as
soon as we strike it against the side of the box, it bursts into flame. If it
goes out right then, all that gets burned is the matchhead. If it doesn't stop
at the matchhead, it'll burn the matchstick. If it doesn't stop with the matchstick,
and meets up with anything flammable, it can grow into an enormous fire.
When defilement arises in the mind, it starts from the slightest contact. If
we can be quick to put it out right there, it's like striking a match that flares
up -- chae -- for an instant and then dies down right in the matchhead. The
defilement disbands right there. But if we don't put it out the instant it arises,
and let it start concocting issues, it's like pouring fuel into a fire.
We have to observe the diseases of defilement in our own minds to see what their
symptoms are, why they're so quick to flare up. They can't stand to be disturbed.
The minute you disturb them, they flare up into flame. When this is the case,
what can we do to prepare ourselves beforehand? How can we stock up on mindfulness
before sensory contact strikes?
The way to stock up is to practice meditation, as when we keep the breath in
mind. This is what gets our mindfulness prepared so that we can keep ahead of
defilement, so that we can keep it from arising as long as we have our theme
of meditation as an inner shelter for the mind.
The mind's outer shelter is the body, which is composed of physical elements,
but its inner shelter is the theme of meditation we use to train its mindfulness
to be focused and aware. Whatever theme we use, that's the inner shelter for
the mind that keeps it from wandering around, concocting thoughts and imaginings.
This is why we need a theme of meditation. Don't let the mind chase after its
preoccupations the way ordinary people who don't meditate do. Once we have a
meditation theme to catch this monkey of a mind so that it becomes less and
less willful, day by day, it will gradually calm down, calm down until it can
stand firm for long or short periods, depending on how much we train and observe
ourselves.
Now, as for how we do breath meditation: The texts say to breathe in long and
out long -- heavy or light -- and then to breathe in short and out short, again
heavy or light. Those are the first steps of the training. After that we don't
have to focus on the length of the in-breath or out-breath. Instead, we simply
gather our awareness at any one point of the breath and keep this up until the
mind settles down and is still. When the mind is still, you then focus on the
stillness of the mind at the same time you're aware of the breath.
At this point you don't focus directly on the breath. You focus on the mind
that is still and at normalcy. You focus continuously on the normalcy of the
mind at the same time that you're aware of the breath coming in and out, without
actually focusing on the breath. You simply stay with the mind, but you watch
it with each in-and-out breath. Usually when you are doing physical work and
your mind is at normalcy, you can know what you're doing, so why can't you be
aware of the breath? After all, it's part of the body.
Some of you are new at this, which is why you don't know how you can focus on
the mind at normalcy with each in-and-out breath without focusing directly on
the breath itself. What we're doing here is practicing how to be aware of the
body and mind, pure and simple, in and of themselves...
Start out by focusing on the breath for about 5, 10, or 20 minutes. Breathe
in long and out long, or in short and out short. At the same time, notice the
stages in how the mind feels, how it begins to settle down when you have mindfulness
watching over the breath. You've got to make a point of observing this, because
usually you breathe out of habit, with your attention far away. You don't focus
on the breath; you're not really aware of it. This leads you to think that it's
hard to stay focused here, but actually it's quite simple. After all, the breath
comes in and out on its own, by its very nature. There's nothing at all difficult
about breathing. It's not like other themes of meditation. For instance, if
you're going to practice recollection of the Buddha, or buddho, you have to
keep on repeating buddho, buddho, buddho.
Actually, if you want, you can repeat buddho in the mind with each in-and-out
breath, but only in the very beginning stages. You repeat buddho to keep the
mind from concocting thoughts about other things. Simply by keeping up this
repetition you can weaken the mind's tendency to stray, for the mind can take
on only one object at a time. This is something you have to observe. The repetition
is to prevent the mind from thinking up thoughts and clambering after them.
After you've kept up the repetition -- you don't have to count the number of
times -- the mind will settle down to be aware of the breath with each in-and-out
breath. It will begin to be still, neutral, at normalcy.
This is when you focus on the mind instead of the breath. Let go of the breath
and focus on the mind -- but still be aware of the breath on the side. You don't
have to make note of how long or short the breath is. Make note of the mind
staying at normalcy with each in-and-out breath. Remember this carefully so
that you can put it into practice.
The posture: For focusing on the breath, sitting is a better posture than standing,
walking, or lying down, because the sensations that come with the other postures
often overcome the sensations of the breath. Walking jolts the body around too
much, standing for a long time can make you tired, and if the mind settles down
when you're lying down, you tend to fall asleep. With sitting it's possible
to stay in one position and keep the mind firmly settled for a long period of
time. You can observe the subtleties of the breath and the mind naturally and
automatically.
Here I'd like to condense the steps of breath meditation to show how all four
of the tetrads mentioned in the texts can be practiced at once. In other words,
is it possible to focus on the body, feelings, the mind, and the Dhamma all
in one sitting? This is an important question for all of us. You could, if you
wanted to, precisely follow all the steps in the texts so as to develop strong
powers of mental absorption (jhana), but it takes a lot of time. It's not appropriate
for those of us who are old and have only a little time left.
What we need is a way of gathering our awareness at the breath long enough to
make the mind firm, and then go straight to examining how all formations are
inconstant, stressful, and not-self, so that we can see the truth of all formations
with each in-and-out breath. If you can keep at this continually, without break,
your mindfulness will become firm and snug enough for you to give rise to the
discernment that will enable you to gain clear knowledge and vision.
So what follows is a guide to the steps in practicing a condensed form of breath
meditation... Give them a try until you find they give rise to knowledge of
your own within you. You're sure to give rise to knowledge of your very own.
The first thing when you're going to meditate on the breath is to sit straight
and keep your mindfulness firm. Breathe in. Breathe out. Make the breath feel
open and at ease. Don't tense your hands, your feet, or any of your joints at
all. You have to keep your body in a posture that feels appropriate to your
breathing. At the beginning, breathe in long and out long, fairly heavily, and
gradually the breath will shorten -- sometimes heavy and sometimes light. Then
breathe in short and out short for about 10 or 15 minutes and then change.
After a while, when you stay focused mindfully on it, the breath will gradually
change. Watch it change for as many minutes as you like, then be aware of the
whole breath, all of its subtle sensations. This is the third step, the third
step of the first tetrad: sabba-kaya-patisamvedi -- focusing on how the breath
affects the whole body by watching all the breath sensations in all the various
parts of the body, and in particular the sensations related to the in-and-out
breath.
From there you focus on the sensation of the breath at any one point. When you
do this correctly for a fairly long while, the body -- the breath -- will gradually
grow still. The mind will grow calm. In other words, the breath grows still
together with the awareness of the breath. When the subtleties of the breath
grow still at the same time that your undistracted awareness settles down, the
breath grows even more still. All the sensations in the body gradually grow
more and more still. This is the fourth step, the stilling of bodily formations.
As soon as this happens, you begin to be aware of the feelings that arise with
the stilling of the body and mind. Whether they are feelings of pleasure or
rapture or whatever, they appear clearly enough for you to contemplate them.
The stages through which you have already passed -- watching the breath come
in and out, long or short -- should be enough to make you realize -- even though
you may not have focused on the idea -- that the breath is inconstant. It's
continually changing, from in long and out long to in short and out short, from
heavy to light and so forth. This should enable you to read the breath, to understand
that there's nothing constant to it at all. It changes on its own from one moment
to the next.
Once you have realized the inconstancy of the body -- in other words, of the
breath -- you'll be able to see the subtle sensations of pleasure and pain in
the realm of feeling. So now you watch feelings, right there in the same place
where you've been focusing on the breath. Even though they are feelings that
arise from the stillness of the body or mind, they're nevertheless inconstant
even in that stillness. They can change. So these changing sensations in the
realm of feeling exhibit inconstancy in and of themselves, just like the breath.
When you see change in the body, change in feelings, and change in the mind,
this is called seeing the Dhamma, i.e., seeing inconstancy. You have to understand
this correctly. Practicing the first tetrad of breath meditation contains all
four tetrads of breath meditation. In other words, you see the inconstancy of
the body and then contemplate feeling. You see the inconstancy of feeling and
then contemplate the mind. The mind, too, is inconstant. This inconstancy of
the mind is the Dhamma. To see the Dhamma is to see this inconstancy.
When you see the true nature of all inconstant things, then keep track of that
inconstancy at all times, with every in-and-out breath. Keep this up in all
your activities to see what happens next.
What happens next is dispassion. Letting go. This is something you have to know
for yourself.
This is what condensed breath meditation is like. I call it condensed because
it contains all the steps at once. You don't have to do one step at a time.
Simply focus at one point, the body, and you'll see the inconstancy of the body.
When you see the inconstancy of the body, you'll have to see feeling. Feeling
will have to show its inconstancy. The mind's sensitivity to feeling, or its
thoughts and imaginings, are also inconstant. All of these things keep on changing.
This is how you know inconstancy...
If you can become skilled at looking and knowing in this way, you'll be struck
with the inconstancy, stressfulness, and not-selfness of your "self,"
and you'll meet with the genuine Dhamma. The Dhamma that's constantly changing
like a burning fire -- burning with inconstancy, stress, and not-selfness --
is the Dhamma of the impermanence of all formations. But further in, in the
mind or in the property of consciousness, is something special, beyond the reach
of any kind of fire. There, there's no suffering or stress of any kind at all.
This thing that lies "inside": You could say that it lies within the
mind, but it isn't really in the mind. It's simply that the contact is there
at the mind. There's no way you can really describe it. Only the extinguishing
of all defilement will lead you to know it for yourself.
This "something special" within exists by its very nature, but defilements
have it surrounded on all sides. All these counterfeit things -- the defilements
-- keep getting in the way and take possession of everything, so that this special
nature remains imprisoned inside at all times. Actually, there's nothing in
the dimension of time that can be compared with it. There's nothing by which
you can label it, but it's something that you can pierce through to see -- i.e.,
by piercing through defilement, craving, and attachment into the state of mind
that is pure, bright, and silent. This is the only thing that's important.
But it doesn't have only one level. There are many levels, from the outer bark
to the inner bark and on to the sapwood before you reach the heartwood. The
genuine Dhamma is like the heartwood, but there's a lot to the mind that isn't
heartwood: The roots, the branches and leaves of the tree are more than many,
but there's only a little heartwood. The parts that aren't heartwood will gradually
decay and disintegrate, but the heartwood doesn't decay. That's one kind of
comparison we can make. It's like a tree that dies standing. The leaves fall
away, the branches rot away, the bark and sapwood rot away, leaving nothing
but the true heartwood. That's one comparison we can make with this thing we
call deathless, this property that has no birth, no death, no changing. We can
also call it nibbana or the Unconditioned. It's all the same thing.
Now, then. Isn't this something worth trying to break through to see?...
Revised: Mon 10 September 2001
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/kee/condensed.html