The Venerable Ananda, the Buddha's personal attendant,
spent twenty- five years with the Buddha serving him. The Buddha asked him several
times to strive hard and attain enlightenment. He had known all the Dhamma and
theories of meditation. However, as he enjoyed serving the Buddha and other
fellow bhikkhus, he neglected his own attainment of enlightenment until finally
a great pressure came from the 499 Arahants assembled to hold the first Buddhist
council. They insisted that he should attain enlightenment before the designated
date for the council planned for the third month after the Buddha's passing
away.
Buddha had already said: "Monks, meditate. Don't be heedless. Don't let
your mind be filled with defilements. Don't weep and wail saying: "This
life is full of trouble, full of misery, full of pain, full of agony."
The mind not developed through the practice of mindfulness meditation creates
tension, anxiety and worry. Don't keep crying and repeating the same mistakes.
You cannot run away from reality. Life is not rosy. It has ups-and-downs and
bumps all over. These are facts we face every day.
The practice of mindfulness meditation is similar to a the shock absorbers in
a car. If the shock absorbers are not good, you will see how difficult it will
be when you drive. This vehicle of ours - the body and mind, this combination
- is full of such difficult moments. There is no place to run away from them.
Even if you go to the moon (not an impossibility these days), still you will
go with your body and mind filled with all kinds of impediments still existing
in the mind. You cannot leave them here and go over there. They follow persistently
and doggedly wherever you go, and they keep bothering you, day and night. Most
people experiment with three solutions.
They perceive the problem is "over there, in the world." Therefore,
they think that by correcting the world, trying to solve society's ills, they
can solve their problems. They wish to make the environment "proper, beautiful"
and free from problems. Only then can they live happily. So they get engrossed
and, sometimes, even obsessed, in trying to straighten out society. Of course,
the desire to improve society's ills, itself, is commendable. They see suffering
and become compassionate and then act. They may keep themselves fully occupied
trying to correct the society's ills. They might think that they keep themselves
out of trouble without realizing that they actually are forgetting their own
nagging problems. They continue to have their own pains and suffering unattended
primarily because they do not have time for themselves. These people are very
compassionate, understanding, ready to render their service to the society selflessly
or without any reward from the society. We read many wonderful accounts of many
such noble persons who at the expense of their own attainment of enlightenment
dedicate their lives to the society. External activities might hinder solving
one's own problems.
Although we live in society with people, each one of us has a little world of
our own, views about the world, our own perception and understanding of the
world. Each follows his or her perceptions, and views of the world. We may sometimes
think that all the problems we experience are generated from the outer world.
Therefore, we turn our energies to the world believing involvement in doing
something to correct society will solve our problems.
The second line of thinking which people pursue to solve their problems is to
think that there is no problem at all. They believe that everything is imaginary.
They think: " I exist by myself, I am most important, and I am all alone,
and nothing else matters to me." The third way to solve personal problems
is to run away from our problems.
We may receive temporary solace, temporary comfort thinking either the problem
exists over there in the external world or it does not exist, or diverting our
attention to something, ignoring that there is a problem, or running away from
the problem.
The real solution lies in none of these methods. The real solution, according
to the Buddha's teaching, is to discover a way to purify the instrument, the
agent, which makes the world happy or unhappy, peaceful or miserable, pleasant
or painful. That which creates problems and suffering for everybody. This instrument
is our mind. Purification of this mind is one of the purposes of mindfulness
meditation.
As we all know, all our thoughts, words and deeds originate in the mind. Mind
is the forerunner. All conditions which we experience are mind-made. They are
created in the mind, directed and led by the mind. Mind puts them into action.
"All actions are all led by the mind: mind is their master, mind is their
maker. Act or speak with a defiled state of mind, then suffering follows like
the cart-wheel that follows the foot of the ox. All actions are all led by the
mind; mind is their master, mind is their maker. Act or speak with a pure state
of mind, then happiness follows like a shadow that remains behind without departing."
(Dhammapada 1-2)
The analogy of the ox pulling the cart is most appropriate to illustrate our
problems. The ox pulling the cart does not enjoy pulling the cart. He is not
happy with this burden; it is not a pleasure. This poor bull pulling the cart
has a terrible time. The whole burden of the cart is on his shoulders, and he
will be in pain. The bull would have done better if he had not been born a bull.
The condition of the bull is compared to the condition of ignorance, and stupidity
- not seeing the truth as is. An unenlightened life is full of ignorance and
given to defilements of all kinds. Therefore, an unenlightened person committing
thoughts, words, and deeds with impure minds suffers very much like the bull
who always suffers by pulling this heavy cart. On the other hand, when we speak
or do something with a pure mind we feel happy, and have no regrets, no pain,
no suffering following us.
Our purpose in life is to improve ourselves everyday and become happy. We do
many things to gain happiness. However, most of the things we do to gain happiness
may generate unhappiness, pain, suffering and trouble because our minds are
not pure. It is the pure mind that can generate happiness, not the impure mind.
Therefore, the first purpose of practicing meditation is to purify our mind;
that generates peace and happiness.
The second purpose of meditation is to overcome sorrow and lamentation. When
a meditator begins to see the truth he or she can bear and conquer sorrow and
lamentation caused by impermanence.
The third purpose is to overcome suffering and disappointment caused by greed
and hatred.
The fourth purpose of meditation is to tread the wise path, the correct path
which leads to liberation from grief, sorrow, disappointment, pain and lamentation.
This is the path of mindfulness - the only path that liberate us from suffering.
The fifth purpose of meditation is to liberate ourselves completely and totally
from mental pain and defilements and to free our minds from greed, hatred and
delusion.
These five purposes are very noble purposes. All other purposes of meditation
may be overlooked because none of them is capable of generating these results
making us really peaceful and happy by eliminating our problems. We don't try
to ignore or avoid them but mindfully we face and tackle them as they arise
in our minds.
Certain people simply want to meditate without having any background knowledge
of meditation. They think knowledge of the theory of meditation is an impediment.
This attitude can be compared to the attitude of a traveler who wishes to go
to a definite destination - let us say Washington DC. The traveler has great
confidence in his ability and believes his confidence alone is sufficient to
get him there. This person may have a vehicle - a car. Then, getting into the
car, sitting behind the steering wheel, he starts to drive. However, there has
been no preparation for the journey. There is no knowledge of the roads or the
conditions of the roads or of the weather. He hasn't even consulted a map. All
he has is a car and confidence and some experience in driving. The car may carry
a sufficient quantity of gas, oil, and other items, so, the traveler gets into
the car and starts driving. He may be on the road for a long time spending a
good deal of money on gas, time and energy. Indeed, driving will lead him somewhere,
but not necessarily to his destination. A wise driver, on the other hand, studies
the map in detail, determines the detours, and may ask others who are more experienced.
If the driver wishes to go to Washington DC and if there is a place called Washington
DC, the driver will find it. Similarly, we need to have a goal in meditation.
We want to reach this goal and realize our purpose. And we do need some guidelines.
We do not necessarily need a great deal of philosophical and speculative theory.
The guidelines are road signs to follow so that we will know (not guess) if
we are heading in the right direction. Certainly confidence is necessary, but
in itself, is not sufficient. In addition, we need understanding and knowledge
of the theory.
Then what is meditation? How do we reach this goal of purifying the mind, overcoming
grief and lamentation, overcoming pain and disappointment, treading the path
leading to liberation from pain, suffering and samsara - this world of birth
and death?
There is a way to attain it. When we refer to "the Way" it may turn
many people off. They might think the speaker is trying to sell something and
trying to deprecate everything in the world, and say "If this is the only
way, we are not prepared to buy it." Now, when you wish to go to Washington
DC, there are a number of ways to get there. Flying is the quickest way these
days, of course. In other times, we would use a car or boat, or only our two
feet. Whatever the means of transportation, we have to cover a specific distance
to arrive in Washington DC. What is essential is that we get there - whether
by slow or fast means. Therefore, "the Way" means "The Way of
Mindfulness" that transverses a certain distance or area to realize our
destination.
This way of Mindfulness does not, however, lie in a geographical area or in
space. It is in our own mind. We have to do certain things. That doing is also
"the Way" -- the way to cultivate our minds to accomplish this journey.
Cultivating the mind means practicing mindfulness. When no mindfulness is present,
when we are unmindful all the time, we are entrapped by "red herrings."
We are caught in all kinds of confusion. We don't understand things as they
really are. To enable us to get to our destination, we need a clear understanding
of where we are. Clear understanding is born from mindfulness. No matter what
else we do or other practices we engage in they have their own purposes and
goals. We learn that they do not purify the mind.
The very word meditation means cultivation. We know what we mean when we say,
"We cultivate a land." We know that there has to be a land and some
means of cultivating it. We have to do certain things, such as cutting down
the trees to clear the land, remove weeds and other things, and till it over
and over and fertilize it. Then we can plant seeds and nourish it and grow certain
crops. Similarly in the practice of meditation, we need to mentally cultivate
the mind. We do not need to sit in one place just waiting for something to happen.
We may wait indefinitely, or for a very long time, without anything happening.
We might say that we have spent so much time in meditation. Sitting in one place
doing nothing is not meditation. And also simply watching our breath all the
time is inadequate and insufficient. Of course, mindfulness of breath is an
important part of meditation. Simply watching the breath without any mindfulness
may be called the practice of tranquillity meditation, however, it is not Right
Concentration without mindfulness. We begin, however, with watching our breath.
This meditation which is totally distinct to Buddhism is called Vipassana meditation
or Insight meditation. There are guidelines for the practice of Insight or Vipassana
meditation. These guidelines are given in the Sutta called the Four Foundations
of Mindfulness.
These Four Foundations of Mindfulness are: Mindfulness of the Body, Mindfulness
of Feeling, Mindfulness of the mind and Mindfulness of Mental Objects. We will
explain them in turn.
Let me take the first part - Mindfulness of the Body. Mindfulness of the body
is divided into six sections. The first of them is Mindfulness of breathing.
Now, why is the breath included in the mindfulness of the body? The breath is
a part of our body. This body, as we know it, is made up of four basic elements:
the element of extension (solid parts), the element of cohesion (the liquid
part), the element of heat (radiation) and the element of air (oscillation or
movement). Therefore, when we try to practice mindfulness of the body we begin
with the mindfulness of the breath which is the element of air.
In this meditation, we do not dwell upon some imaginative fairy land. We are
not trying to induce self hypnosis. We are not trying to discover the hidden,
mystical elements of the universe. We are not trying to become absorbed in the
whole universe. We are not trying to become "One" with the whole universe.
All these are interesting words. We are trying to use this personality of ours:
our own body and mind. We watch mindfully this body and mind and their activities,
we investigate them because they are what we carry with us wherever we go. This
body and mind is our laboratory. All we have to work with is there -- the raw
material, chemical substance, gases, heat, air, water, extension -- all are
there. It is in this body, in this personality that we find all this. My laboratory
is my body and mind. I always try to watch them within me. I cannot work in
your laboratory. You have to work in your own laboratory. Most of us forget
our own laboratories and try to get into somebody else's laboratory. We try
to see what so-and-so is eating, what so-and-so is doing, whom so-and-so is
associating with, where so-and-so is going, what so-and-so is reading, how much
money so-and-so has, etc. We always forget our own laboratories. We may never
know what is in this laboratory within ourselves. We, in this practice of Insight
meditation, become introspective, mindful and careful to watch what is happening
here in this mind and body in the present moment. That is what Vipassana meditation
is all about; methodical investigation in the laboratory within ourselves.
©by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana