The Meditative Art of Attention
Meditative attention is an art, or an acquired skill which brings
clarity and an intelligence that sees the ‘true nature of things’.
Among the variety of techniques in Buddhist meditation, the art of
attention is the common thread underpinning all schools of Buddhist
meditation: Mahamudra in the Tibetan tradition, Zazen in Zen Buddhism
and Vipassana meditation in Theravada. Its ubiquitousness is
illustrated by this Zen story: A monk once asked his teacher, ‘What is
the fundamental teaching in Buddhism?’ the Master replied ‘Attention’.
The student, dissatisfied with the answer said, ‘I wasn’t asking about
attention, but was wanting to know the essential teaching in Buddhism’.
The Master replied, ‘Attention, Attention, Attention’. So, it can be
appreciated that the essence of Buddhist practice is to be found in the
word – attention!
But how to do it? What is the practice? Vague advice to an aspiring
meditator, such as ‘be mindful’ or ‘be attentive’, while offered with
good intention, is unlikely to be effective. It is like the rulers in
Aldous Huxley’s utopian novel Island who taught mynah birds to repeat
‘attention’ in the hope of training the island inhabitants to be
attentive – it just didn’t work. To recognize the fact that most of us
tend to function in a rather inattentive, unfocused way, which results
in a rather superficial experience of life, is to see the necessity for
training the errant attention in a systematic way, under guidance.
This trained attention has the effect of uncovering, or laying bare,
things as they really are. It is the ‘primary’ attention that sees
through the ‘content’ mind to the underlying processes. In laying bare
the reality of psychophysical phenomena, the salient characteristics
are revealed without interfering with them. The art of this ‘bare’
attention is to simply register the predominant object in one’s
experience as it arises without preference or interference, as a
witness. That is, just registering or noting the changing phenomenon
without reaction – be it sensation, sound, thought or a mind-state.
However, if there is a reaction during the observation, as is natural
for the untrained mind, then that too must be noted. This way of seeing
has the potential to uncover the true nature of the phenomenon observed
and thus a non-reactive, unconditioned awareness is acquired that
brings liberating ‘inseeing’ or insight knowledge.
An Orientation to the Six Sense Doors
Being attentive is not a practice that needs to be confined to a
crossed-legged posture. Meditative attention is a dynamic practice of
paying close attention to what you are doing in whatever posture or
situation you happen to be in. The way to orientate yourself in this
practice is to literally ‘come to your senses’. That is, a strategy of
being fully aware of all your activities through a conscious
orientation to the five senses and the ‘sixth sense’ – the mind. The
Six Sense Doors is the name for the five physical senses: eye, ear,
nose, tongue and body and the sixth sense, which is a collective term
for the five kinds of consciousness: eye-consciousness,
ear-consciousness, etc. So, the practice is to be consciously attentive
at the predominant door or sense base. For example, being on guard at
the eye-door allows you to notice the effects of the contact between
the eye and the visible objects and how you are relating to them. This
orientation to any sense door brings awareness of what is happening
during any sense impression and with it the ability to monitor the
associated feelings and consciousness that arise.
The actual meaning of ‘attention’ indicates its practice: ‘to attend
upon’, ‘to be present with’. By being attentive ‘presence of mind’ is
developed. While there are degrees of attention (down to lack of
attention), it can be said that there are two types: natural attention,
which is ‘automated attention’ and the intentionally ‘deployed’
attention that is developed in ‘meditative attention’.
Deployed attention is either passive, or in the sense of being applied,
active. The passive mode is ‘bare attention’, that is just registering
what is happening, in a receptive state of mind, without reaction. The
active mode of attention is applied when any kind of movement or action
is done, including active reflective thought on things observed.
Try this Exercise in Orientating to a Sense-Door
Check! Where is your attention at this present moment? What sense
impression is predominant now? Is it the eye-door as you view the page,
the ear-door attracted by sounds or the touch sensations of the body’s
contact on the chair you’re sitting on. This moment is the time to
establish the habit of being consciously present at a sense door and
notice what is happening during a sense impression.
Choose a sense-door and be attentive to what is happening there. What
feeling is present; what is the quality of that feeling; is it
pleasant, unpleasant or neutral? What thoughts are associated with it?
Take particular notice of the changes. It is useful to make a habit of
checking yourself during your daily routine: what sense door am I at;
what is happening there; what are the associated feelings that arise?
Dependent origination
This strategy of being present at a sense-door ties in with the
practical application and study of Dependent Origination,
Paticcasamuppada. As you experience the series of causal events, you
can intercept them at the linkage of either consciousness, sense
impression and/or feeling. The ability to do this gives you the
potential to be free of the conditioned cycle of suffering that most
people are unknowingly trapped in.
The Law of Dependent Origination is a profound subject, it is the very
essence of the Buddha’s Teachings, illustrated by a famous exchange
between the Buddha and his personal attendant, Ananda. Ananda casually
remarked that he thought it was an easy thing to understand. The Buddha
responded by saying, ‘Not so Ananda, don’t ever say such a thing. It’s
because people do not understand origination, that they are not able to
penetrate it, that their minds are befuddled. Just as a ball of twine
becomes all tangled up and knotted, just so are beings ensnared and
unable to free themselves from the wheel of existence, the conditions
of suffering and states of hell and ruin’.
We can untangle the tangle by ‘insighting’ into dependent origination
through awareness at a sense door. What we are experiencing now is the
result of a series of events that arose because of previous conditions
and is linked as a causal chain of effects, i.e. as cyclic existence.
It is useful to have a working knowledge of the eleven links in the
cycle of Dependent Origination. Even such theoretical knowledge will
point you in the right direction and the potential to be free of the
conditioning it causes:
1. With Ignorance as a condition Karmic Formations or Volitional
Actions arise;
2. With Volitional Actions as a condition Consciousness arises;
3. With Consciousness as a condition Mentality/Materiality arises;
4. With Mentality/Materiality as a condition the Six Sense Bases arise;
5. With The Six Sense Bases as a condition Contact (sense impressions)
arise;
6. With Sense Impressions as a condition Feelings (vedana) arise;
7. With Feelings as a condition Grasping arises;
8. With Grasping as a condition Clinging arises;
9. With Clinging as a condition Attachment arises;
10. With Attachment as a condition Becoming arises;
11. With Becoming as a condition Pain, old age and death arise, i.e.
conditioned suffering.
Here is the enlightenment story of Bahiya, the wooden robed one, who
was able to practise in this way. Bahiya, originally a merchant, was
travelling at sea with all his merchandise and was shipwrecked and cast
ashore naked. He found bark to cover himself and an old bowl, and he
went searching for alms-food. The local people were impressed by his
seeming austerities and his reputation as an ascetic grew. He was
tested when people offered him fine robes, but knowing that they would
loose faith in him if he accepted, he refused, keeping up the
deception. Bahiya was installed in a temple and worshipped as an
Arahant (an Enlightened One) so that in time he came to believe that he
was actually an enlightened being.
He lived impeccably and gained good concentration powers. Sitting in
meditation one day, it is said that a deva, who was a former
blood-relation, was able to persuade Bahiya that he wasn’t really
enlightened at all and that he should go and see the Buddha, an Arahant
who could help him.
Bahiya made a long journey to visit the Buddha at Savatti and reached
the monastery just as the Buddha was about to go on the daily
alms-round. Bahiya asked the Buddha three times to teach him the Dharma
before the Buddha agreed to teach at such an inopportune time.
The Buddha then gave these brief instructions: ‘Bahiya, you should
train yourself in this way:
With the seen, there will be just the seen; with the heard, there will
be just the heard; with the sensed (touched, tasted, smelt) there will
be just the sensed; with the cognized, there will be just the cognized.
When for you, Bahiya, there is merely the seen, heard, sensed and
cognized, then you will not be therein. Then you, Bahiya, will be
neither here nor there nor within both – this is itself the end of
suffering.’
Through this brief instruction, Bahiya was immediately Enlightened –
through non-clinging – thus becoming an Arahant.
Not long after the Buddha had departed, Bahiya was fatally gored by a
cow. When the Buddha returned from his alms-round and found Bahiya
dead, he arranged for his cremation and for a stupa to be built for
him. When asked what the destiny of Bahiya was the Buddha said that
because he had grasped the meditation subject in the teacher’s
presence, and practised as instructed according to the Dharma, Bahiya
had attained Parinibbana, final Enlightenment.
The Technique of Mental Noting
A useful device to support meditative attention is naming or labelling
the various objects during the observation of your own body and mind.
Used judiciously, it is a very useful tool for focusing and sustaining
the attention. The noting is done by repeatedly making a mental note of
whatever arises in your body/mind experience. For example, ‘hearing’,
‘hearing’, ‘thinking’, ‘thinking’, ‘touching’, ‘touching’, etc. This is
a powerful aid to help establish bare attention, especially at the
beginning of the practice, when it is vital to systematically note or
label as much as possible to establish the attention. Otherwise, you
are likely to get lost in unnoticed wanderings with long periods of
inattention. Having succeeded, even partially, in sustaining the
attention, then the mental noting can be dropped, especially if the
noting has become mechanical or is so clumsy that it is interfering
with the subtle attention. Having acquired the ability to monitor your
experience with just bare attention, you will need to return to the
mental noting only when the attention weakens, is lost or needs to be
re-established. The mental noting can be combined with the practice of
orientating to your sense impressions by the naming of the physical and
mental objects as they arise at the six sense doors. Be careful not to
analyse what is being observed, just register or note it without
reaction.
The Four Spheres of Attention
The four spheres of attention are structures or frames of reference
used to support the practice. They are based on the Satipatthana Sutta
and can be used as guidelines or frames of reference to help you direct
the attention as you investigate the various experiences in your body
and mind.
1. Attention to the Body
Directed to apprehending the primary elements of the body (earth, air,
fire and water) i.e., hardness, softness, temperature, fluidity and
movement within the body and/or awareness of the various body postures,
movements and actions in daily activities.
2. Attention to Feelings or Sensations
Noting the qualities of feelings as either pleasant, unpleasant or
neutral while being careful to differentiate the primary feeling from
the emotional story.
3. Attention to the Consciousness and Mind-States
The consciousness is the ‘knowing’ of anything, eg. a physical
sensation and the knowing of it. Particular attention is paid to the
mind-states, eg. happiness, sadness, agitation and seeing their arising
and passing away.
4. Attention to the Mental Content
This is not analysing mental events or classifying them, but using the
attention to passively register the things of the mind – thoughts,
ideas and concepts – as a witness without commentary.
The Two Modes of Meditation
There are two modes of meditation: Calm (Samatha) and Insight
(Vipassana). Calming or serenity meditations use techniques of ‘fixing’
on a single object, excluding all other objects, to produce calm and
one-pointedness. Examples are techniques using visualisation, following
the respiration, mantras and contemplation. The second meditation mode
is made up of practices that develop awareness. That is, paying close
attention to the predominant object in your physical and mental
experience with moment-to-moment awareness. This meditative attention
will lead to insight knowledge.
The ability to successfully manage yourself in meditation depends on
whether you can make appropriate adjustments or ‘fine tuning’ during a
practice session. This ability is based on understanding these two
modes of meditation: for example, if you become strained or tense
during insight meditation, switching to the serenity meditation mode
will calm and relax the mind; or if you became stuck in a becalmed
mind-state in serenity meditation, you can invigorate the mind with an
awareness exercise to give it an investigative edge.
Three-fold Strategy of Practice
It is necessary to appreciate the nature of ‘practice’ as applied to
meditation because it could mistakenly be taken to imply the notion of
control. This is far from the case, as the meditator needs to have a
flowing receptivity to the experience without in any way controlling
it. So ‘discipline’ in the meditation context can be misunderstood as
imposing one’s will to control the practice. Actually, it is no more
than following the directions and persistently applying the
instructions with sensitivity. So correct practice is repeated
performance to develop skills, without controlling or interfering with
the experience. It’s developmental – the way to growth!
It is important at the beginning of the practice to notice how you are
relating to your experience or what your attitude to it is. If it
happens to be reactive or judgmental then it is necessary to change the
way you relate to things, situations or people, by cultivating
qualities of acceptance, empathy and of ‘letting go’. Being more
accepting and allowing, without the struggle to gain something, creates
a natural meditative state that facilitates the practice.
To successfully self-manage your practice it is necessary to take a
holistic approach and to work within a supportive structure. Such a
system is found in the ‘Three-fold Strategy of Practice’, which is a
complete and integrated system supportive of the psychological
wellbeing of the practitioner:
1. Restraint of behaviour in order to harmonise relationships;
2. Recollectedness, especially regarding developing the meditative art
of ‘focusing’;
3. Discernment, which is the wisdom that sees the true nature of mind
and existence.
Restraint and Harmony
Traditionally the meditator must formally undertake, or accept, five
rules of conduct as a prerequisite for meditation. They are the
foundations that good practice is based on, without them good
concentration cannot be attained. These restraints need to be
considered and accepted, as they act as protectors for your well-being
on the meditation path: 1) to refrain from from harming or taking life;
2) to refrain from taking what is not given; 3) to refrain from the
misuse of the senses; 4) to refrain from false and harsh speech; and 5)
to refrain from the taking of intoxicants which confuse the mind. This
is the ethical underpinning of the threefold system. But they are not
to be considered as mere ‘no-nos’ as they are balanced by the
cultivation of positive behaviour: honesty, generosity, kindness, etc.
Recollectedness
The quality of recollectedness or full awareness is acquired through
the development and the managing of three meditation skills: Right
Effort, Right Attention and Right Concentration. Effort is right in the
sense of arousing, sustaining and balancing the effort; meditative
attention is right when there is close and impartial attention to the
various meditation objects as they arise; concentration is right when
it centres upon and intensifies the meditative focus. Too much effort
makes the mind restless; not enough makes the mind slack; too much
concentration restricts the awareness, not enough and the mind loses
its focus; but there can never be too much attentiveness, as the acuity
of attention is the factor which will deepen the practice. The
successful managing of these meditation skills will produce mindfulness
or presence of mind, the prerequisite for a finely tuned discernment.
Discernment and Insight
Discernment is the intelligence that uncovers the true nature of things
by seeing through the ‘content’ mind to the underlying processes. It is
based upon a non-reactive awareness, a perfectly attuned attitude and a
penetrative attentiveness that has the potential to see ‘what really
is’. The outcome of such practice is direct experiential knowledge of
the three universal characteristics of existence: change,
unsatisfactoriness and impersonal process which culminates in a series
of insights freeing one’s view from the distortions caused by
ignorance.
Three-fold Strategy and Mental Impurities
Mental impurities are said to be present in three stratified layers in
the mind: 1) dormant 2) manifest and 3) expressed. These impurities, or
the three poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance, can be dealt with in
three ways: first their expression can be restrained by harmonising
one’s behaviour; secondly, when they manifest in the mind, for example
as angry thoughts, then they can be skilfully suppressed through
concentration practices in serenity meditation; eventually when they
are seen at their primary source or dormant level then they can be
eradicated through insight meditation.
Here’s an example of how the three-fold strategy is used to deal with
our most troublesome negative emotion – anger. First, restrain your
behaviour in a situation where anger arises, thus not giving it a
chance to be expressed; as soon as anger surfaces in the mind as
negative thoughts then a serenity meditation technique will calm the
anger in the mind. But it is only through insight meditation where the
ego-illusion is seen at its primary source, as the notion of ‘me’ and
‘mine’, that the anger at the dormant level can be seen with the
possibility of eradicating it at its source.
The Three Meditation Practices
1. Sitting Meditation – where the primary focus is on the elements of
the body while switching to the other spheres of attention as they
arise.
2. Walking Meditation – where the stepping or foot movements in walking
are noted in detail and the attention is focused on the movements as
the primary object.
3. Daily Activities – the meditator continually labels body movements
and actions.
Linking these three aspects of practice together will create an
unbroken thread of awareness throughout the day, either generally, or
as the practice becomes fluent, a precise and detailed noting of every
action and movement can be sustained.
Instruction for Sitting Meditation
The first step is to find a balanced sitting posture. You should be
relaxed yet your spine should be straight – you may have noticed how a
5-year-old sits up in a balanced way without effort. Allow your head to
balance freely on the spine, checking that it is not pulled back or
fixed. Allow your chin to drop so that your eyes and ears are at about
the same level.
If sitting on the floor, use cushion(s) so that your knees are below
your hips and in contact with the floor (otherwise your spine will
collapse) or else use a chair with a firm base (not a sofa). Slumping
only increases the pressure on the legs and discomfort in the back. Try
radiating loving-kindness above and below and in all directions around
you to check that you are not holding or contracting in the front or
the back, etc. Check that your breathing is free and easy -any
restriction indicates a fixed posture. Turn your awareness to the parts
of your body which contact the cushion, ground or chair, softening onto
the supporting surfaces.
It is useful to spend 5 minutes scanning the body in this way. Note
that there is no such thing as ‘perfect posture’ and postural aches
will come and go as a natural part of the unfolding practice. If pain
becomes overwhelming or is due to injury, mindfully adjust the posture
after noting the various sensations. However, as concentration
develops, sensations of hotness, stiffness and itchiness will arise as
part of the contemplation of feeling and sensation, and it is important
to note them mindfully without fidgeting.
It is important to attend to your posture with wisdom, not insensitive
will-power. Posture will improve with time, but you need to work with
the body, not use force against it. If you have a lot of pain during a
period of sitting, change posture, sit on a small stool or chair, or
stand up for a while.
Checking your posture
* Are the hips leaning back? This will cause a slump.
* The small of the back should retain its natural, unforced curve so
that the abdomen is forward and ‘open’.
* Imagine that someone is gently pushing between the shoulder blades,
but keep the muscles relaxed.
* Note, and gently release, any tension in the neck/shoulder region.
Once you have settled into a comfortable, upright, balanced position
you can begin meditating. On the basis of working from the gross to the
subtle, i.e. from the body to the mind, feel the touch sensations of
hardness or softness from the body’s contact with the ground or chair
(earth element). This will help to anchor the attention to the body,
especially when assisted by the mental label of ‘touching’. Then tune
into the natural rising and falling movement of the lower abdomen,
making a mental note or label of ‘rising’, ‘rising’ concurrent with the
upward movement and ‘falling’, ‘falling’ with the downward movement.
Having established the movement of the abdomen as a base be wary of
clinging to it. If any secondary objects arise, such as thinking,
sensations or mind-states they too must be noted until they disappear.
Then if nothing else takes your attention return to noting the rising
and falling movement of the abdomen as your primary object, but always
be prepared to attend to the secondary objects when they arise.
It is important to be alert to the specific characteristics of the
various elements under observation, eg. the series of sensations from
the movement of the abdomen (wind element) or the specific
characteristics found in pain such as heat, throbbing, etc (fire
element). The traditional sitting posture gives the right environmental
conditions and allows you to focus intensely and apprehend, at a
microscopic level, the body’s elements and the subtle mind events.
Technique in Walking Meditation
While meditation is usually associated with the sitting posture,
Insight meditation (Vipassana) exercises can be practised while
walking. Walking in Insight meditation is essentially about the
awareness of movement as you note the component parts of the steps.
Alternating walking meditation with sitting meditation helps to keep
the meditation practice in balance.
Walking meditation is also a skilful way to energise the practice if
the calming effect of sitting is making you dull or you are becoming
over concentrated. Actually, it can be the preferred mode in Insight
meditation as it is meditation in action.
You will need to find a level surface from five to ten metres long on
which you can walk back and forth. Your arms should hang naturally with
your hands lightly clasped in front. Gaze at a point about two metres
in front of you on the ground to avoid visual distractions. Establish
your attentiveness by first noting the standing posture and the touch
sensation of the feet at the start of the walking track. Then as you
walk keep the attention on the sole of the foot, not on the leg or any
other part of the body.
For the first five minutes you can note just three parts of each step:
‘lifting’, ‘pushing’, ‘dropping’. Mentally note or label each step part
by part, building up so that you are noting all six component parts:
‘raising’, ‘lifting’, ‘pushing’, ‘dropping’, ‘touching’ and ‘pressing’
– concurrent with the actual experience of the movements.
While walking and noting the parts of the steps you will probably find
the mind still thinking. Not to worry, keep focused on the noting of
the steps, so long as the thoughts remain just ‘background thoughts’.
However, it you find you have been walking ‘lost in thought’ you must
stop and vigorously note the thinking as ‘thinking’, ‘thinking’,
‘thinking’. Then re-establish your attention on the movement and carry
on. Be careful that the mental noting does not become so mechanical
that you lose the experience of the movement.
Try to do a minimum walking period of half an hour and build it up to a
full hour. Strategically it is better to do a walking period before a
sitting session as it brings balance into the practice. If you can
alternate the walking and sitting sessions without any major breaks you
will develop a continuity of awareness that naturally carries through
into the awareness of daily activities.
Awareness of Daily Activities
Those who see worldly life as an obstacle to Dhamma see no Dhamma in
everyday actions: They have not discovered that there are no everyday
actions outside of Dhamma.
– Eihei Dogen.
For awareness to deepen, continuity, which gives momentum to the
practice, must be maintained for at least a few hours in the day.
Continuity arises through careful and precise attention to movements,
actions, feelings and mind-states, whatever is prominent, for as long
as possible during the routine of the day.
Nothing can be dismissed as unimportant when noting daily activities:
domestic chores, eating, cleaning your teeth. Repeatedly note any and
every movement and activity in order to establish the habit so that it
becomes second nature to note them in your daily routine. Of course,
this is not easy to establish and so requires patience and perseverance
– especially in being kind to yourself when you feel frustrated by
constant forgetfulness!
If you are having difficulty, set yourself up to do a daily mindfulness
exercise using a ‘trigger’ as a reminder. For instance, you could use
contact with water as a trigger to remind you to be present with
whatever you are doing while you are doing it, for instance washing
your hands, doing the dishes, hosing the garden, washing the dog, etc.
If you succeed only once in paying full attention it might be the start
of establishing the habit of being mindful.
It is helpful to reinforce your efforts in being attentive in daily
life by reviewing or taking stock of your daily notings – but without
making judgements – and recording your practice in a meditation diary.
Awareness of Feelings
The Buddha said, ‘all things converge in feelings’. Awareness of
feelings is the pivotal factor in meditation. A lot of difficulties in
meditation practice stem from the unnoticed or unacknowledged reaction
to unpleasant feelings. We spend most of our lives in unceasing effort
to increase pleasant feelings and to avoid unpleasant feelings. If we
do not acknowledge feelings they linger and we become stuck in some
state – positive or negative. Yet feeling by itself, in its primary
state, is quite neutral when it simply registers the impact of an
object as pleasant, unpleasant or indifferent. Only when there are
emotional additions, such as when one’s personal story is involved,
will there arise fear, hatred and anxiety. Feelings and emotions are
separable. Many of the weaker impressions we receive during the day
stop at the mere registering of faint and brief feelings. This shows
that the stopping at the bare or primary feeling is psychologically
possible.
Attention to feelings, even when they are faint and brief, can be
sustained throughout the day when the mind is calm and alert, because
actually there are many occasions when one is not totally preoccupied
and is able to notice feelings clearly at their primary stage. If,
however, you are unable at first to differentiate the feelings, as a
strategy try asking yourself a checking question: ‘what feeling is
present?’. In this way, you can sort out the jumble of confused
feelings usually present.
It is of particular importance to dissociate the feelings from even the
slightest thought of ‘I’ or ‘mine’. There should be no ego-reference
such as ‘I feel’ nor should there be any thought of being the owner of
the feeling: ‘I have pleasant feelings or I have pain’ but rather
‘There are pleasant feelings’ or ‘There is pain'[MS1]. Awareness of
feeling without the ego-reference allows the meditator to keep the
attention focused on the feeling alone. This is the meaning in the
Satipatthana Sutta of ‘He contemplates feeling in feeling’.
You should first develop an awareness of the feelings when they arise,
clearly distinguishing them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. With
attentiveness there is no such thing as mixed feelings. Attention
should be maintained throughout the short duration of the specific
feeling until the feeling ends. If the vanishing point of feeling is
repeatedly seen with increasing clarity it will become much easier to
catch and finally to stop thoughts and emotions which normally follow
so regularly and are habitually linked: if the feeling is unpleasant a
negative reaction occurs; if it’s pleasant grasping arises. Thus the
mind is mostly just reacting: liking, disliking. The result is that you
are being caught in the conditioned cycle of suffering at the linkage
of feelings and grasping. But there is no need to be. By intercepting
the primary feeling at a sense-door, without the following emotion, the
feeling will go no further, therefore no attachments, no liking or
disliking, end of story, end of suffering.
When ‘bare’ attention, that is, registering the feeling without
reaction in a state of receptivity, is directed to the rising and
vanishing of feelings, the polluting additions are held at bay and
inhibited from further elaboration. So gradually the gross feelings
weaken and fall away – one loses interest – thus dispassion arises,
which is a natural, effortless ‘letting go’.
The Buddha likens feelings to bubbles. If feelings can be seen in their
bubble-like, blown-up and bursting nature their linkage with grasping
and attachment will be weakened more and more until the chain is
finally broken. Through this practice, attachment, which is a kind of
stuckness to feelings, will be skilfully eliminated. This does not mean
that this practice will lead to cold aloofness or an emotional
withdrawal. On the contrary, mind and heart will become more open and
free from the fever of clinging. Out of this seeing, an inner space
will be provided for the growth of the finer emotions: loving-kindness,
compassion, patience and forbearance.
Achieving Balance in Meditation
An image often used to describe the practice of meditative attention is
that of walking a tightrope. To succeed in this art you must pay
attention to your balance. In meditation, this applies especially to
how you relate to things – your attitude. The untrained mind is
constantly reaching out to pull at desirable objects or pushing away
unpleasant objects. The habit of pushing and pulling is the cause of
much distress and imbalance. So keeping your balance will help to
develop a mind that does not cling or reject, like or dislike, and is
without attachment or condemnation.
Developing the ability to adjust and manage your effort in practice is
essential. A certain effort is involved in developing moment-to-moment
awareness, but it should not be an effort to attain anything in the
future. The effort should focus on the present, just paying attention
with equanimity to what is happening in the moment.
The Buddha gave an example of just how attentive we should be. He told
of a person who was ordered to walk through a crowd with a water jug
full to the brim balanced on his head. Behind him walked a soldier with
a sword. If a single drop was spilt the soldier would cut off his head!
So you can be sure that the person with the jug walked very
attentively. That is the quality of attention required in meditation.
Yet, it has to be a relaxed awareness. If there is too much force or
strain the least jostling will cause the water to spill. The person
with the jug has to be loose and rhythmic, flowing with the changing
scene, yet staying attentive in each moment. This is the kind of care
we should take in practising awareness, being relaxed yet alert. This
kind of training helps to maintain your balance and the ability to live
in harmony with others.
Maintaining your balance in meditation is a matter of harmonising three
factors: effort, concentration and awareness. Too much effort makes the
mind restless, while too much concentration narrows the awareness and
restricts the attention to a single point. Effort and concentration are
active factors, while awareness is passive. As you practise, keep in
mind the characteristics of these three factors for applying them
appropriately will allow you to adjust, harmonise and keep your
meditation practice in balance.
Each type of meditation requires a different form of concentration. In
Calm or Serenity meditation (Samatha) the meditator fixes on a single
object, ignoring other objects to become absorbed in one object.
Insight meditation (Vipassana) is a moment-to-moment knowing of various
objects as they arise without fixing on any particular object.
Actually, Insight meditation is really a matter of an intensification
of awareness rather than concentration. So, if you wish to change the
meditation mode, from Serenity to Insight, fixing on a single object
has to be dropped to allow for an open moment-to-moment awareness of
whatever is predominant in your experience.
As Insight meditation is the practice of awareness, it is not necessary
to induce concentration as such, because sufficient concentration will
naturally arise by continuously maintaining the attention. There is no
problem in having too much awareness, as there is in effort and
concentration. It is not something that you can overdo, rather it is
more likely that there is not enough awareness to help balance the
factors of effort and concentration. So, really it’s more important to
put the effort in maintaining the awareness, as continuity of attention
will produce calm and a sweetening of the mind which is the same
benefit gained from concentration meditation.
Witnessing your own experience – Noting impartially whatever you are
experiencing, while you are experiencing it, thus creating a
‘witnessing’ consciousness.
Letting go – Rather than seeking gratification of wishes, impulses
and desires, there has to be at least some degree of letting go to
create the space to see.
The Removal of the Censor – An attitude of acceptance of all thoughts,
feelings, emotions and sensations into awareness without discrimination
or selection.
An Attitude of Neutrality – A neutral registering of physical and
mental events without the slightest posturing or positioning towards
them.
Being Receptive – Meditation is not about being aloof from the
experience but being alert, sensitive and intimate with what is
observed, from a place of receptivity.
Loving-kindness Meditation
Loving-kindness meditation can be brought in to support the practice of
awareness to keep the mind open and sweet. It provides a good balance
which compliments insight meditation. Loving-kindness was the taught by
the Buddha to develop selfless or altruistic love. Hatred cannot
co-exist with loving-kindness. It dissipates if we supplant it with
thoughts based on loving-kindness.
It is a fact of life that many people are troubled by negative mind
states yet do little about developing skills to deal with it. Yet even
when the mind goes sour it is within most people’s capacity to arouse
feelings of loving-kindness to sweeten it. Loving-kindness, as a
meditation practice, specifically retrains the mind to overcome all
forms of negativity. It brings about positive attitudinal changes by
systematically developing the quality of ‘loving-acceptance’. In this
way, it acts as a form of self-psychotherapy, a way of healing the
troubled mind to free it from its pain and confusion.
Loving-kindness is practised as the first of a series of meditations
that produce four qualities of love: Friendliness (metta), Compassion
(karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The
quality of ‘friendliness’ is expressed as warmth that reaches out and
embraces others. When loving-kindness matures it naturally overflows
into compassion, because it empathizes with people’s difficulties; one
needs to be wary of its the near enemy, pity, which merely mimicks the
quality of concern without empathy. The positive expression of empathy
is an appreciation of other people’s good qualities or good fortune
rather than feelings of jealousy towards them, which is the enemy of
appreciative joy. This series of meditations comes to maturity in the
state of on-looking equanimity. This equanimity has to be cultivated
within the context of this series of meditations or else it tends to
manifest as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. It remains
caring and on-looking with an equal spread of feeling and acceptance
toward all people, relationships and situations without discrimination.
Systematic Loving-kindness Practice
To receive its full benefits, loving-kindness meditation needs to be
developed systematically to the level of meditative absorption or
one-pointedness. The aim of the practice is to develop the five
absorption factors of concentration: the first two are causal factors –
applied thought and sustained thought, followed by three effects –
rapture, ease-of-mind and one-pointedness or unification of mind. The
five absorption factors counteract the five mental hindrances or
obstacles for the meditator: applied thought, by arousing energy and
effort, overcomes the hindrance of sloth and torpor; sustained thought,
by steadying the mind, overcomes skeptical doubt which has the
characteristic of wavering; rapture, with its uplifting effervescence,
prevails over feelings of ill-will; ease-of-mind, by relieving
accumulated stress, counteracts restlessness or agitation of mind;
while one-pointedness holds the mind’s wanderings in the sense-fields
to inhibit sensuality. Achieving deep concentration with this positive
mind set will tend to imprint the new positive conditioning while
overriding the old negative patterns. In this way, old negative habits
are changed, freeing one to form new positive ways of relating.
How to do loving-kindness meditation
The practice begins with developing loving acceptance of yourself. If
resistance is experienced then it indicates feelings of unworthiness
are present. No matter, this means there is work to be done, and the
practice itself is designed to overcome any feelings of self-doubt or
negativity. Then you are ready to develop loving-kindness to others.
Four types of people are chosen to send your loving-kindness to:
1. A respected, beloved person – such as a spiritual teacher;
2. A dearly beloved – which could be a close family member or friend;
3. A neutral person – somebody you know but have no special feeling
towards, eg. a person who serves you over a counter;
4. A hostile person – someone you are currently having difficulty with.
Starting with yourself, then moving systematically from person to
person in the above order will break down the barriers between the four
types people and yourself. It will break down the divisions within your
own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience.
Just a word of caution, it is best to choose a member of the same sex
or if you have a sexual bias to your own sex then a person of the
opposite sex. This avoids the risk of arousing the near enemy of
loving-kindness, lust. Try different people to practise on as some
people do not easily fit into the above categories, but do keep to the
prescribed order.
Ways of arousing feelings of loving-kindness
Visualization – Bring up a mental picture. See yourself or the person
the feeling is directed at smiling back at you or just being joyous.
By reflection – Reflect on the positive qualities of a person and the
acts of kindness they have done. And to yourself, make an affirmation,
a positive statement about yourself, using your own words.
Auditory – This is the simplest way but probably the most effective.
Repeat an internalized mantra or a word or phrase such as
‘loving-kindness’.
The visualizations, reflections and the repetition of loving-kindness
are devices to help you arouse a positive feeling of loving-kindness.
You can use all of them or one that works best for you. When the
positive feeling arises switch from the devices to the feeling, as it
is the feeling that is the primary focus. Keep the mind fixed on the
feeling, if it strays bring it back to the device or if the feeling
weakens or is lost then return to the device, i.e. use the
visualization to bring back or strengthen the feeling.
The second stage is Directional Pervasion where you systematically
project the aroused feeling of loving-kindness to all points of the
compass: north, south, east and west, up and down, and all around. This
directional pervasion can be enhanced by bringing to mind friends and
communities in the cities, towns and countries around the world.
Non-specific Pervasion tends to spontaneously happen as the practice
matures. It is not discriminating. It has no specific object and
involves just naturally radiating feelings of universal love. When it
arises the practice has come to maturity in that it has changed
preferential love, which is an attached love, to an all-embracing,
unconditional love!
Loving-kindness is a heart meditation and should not be seen as just a
formal sitting practice removed from everyday life. So take your good
vibes outside into the streets, at home, at work, into your
relationships. Applying the practice to daily life is a matter of
purposefully directing a friendly attitude and having openness toward
everybody you relate to without discrimination.
May you be happy hearted!
Daily Meditation Practice
The image most often associated with meditation is that of a sitting
Buddha fixed in a crossed-legged posture. While such a representation
is undoubtedly inspirational and aesthetically pleasing, it
unfortunately suggests to the uninitiated that meditation is a static,
‘statue-like’ pursuit practised only in meditation halls.
If meditation is to have any relevance to everyday life it has to be
done at home. This does not just mean your residence but wherever your
attention happens to reside. To meditate at home requires a ‘hands-on’,
dynamic approach that is not restricted to any particular time, place
or posture. It should be integrated into the ordinary activities of
life and become the basis for a meditative lifestyle in the home and
everyday life.
Yet it has to be acknowledged that integrating meditation into daily
life is not easy. Therefore you need to purposefully set yourself up to
do it; good intention is not enough. There has to be commitment. So
consider your priorities: what is more important, hours sitting in
front of the TV screen or half an hour or so of sitting meditation? The
regular daily home sit is the anchor for the practice. Even if it is
only used as a form of mental hygiene, as in ‘unstressing’, daily
practice will greatly contribute towards harmonizing your family and
work relationships.
It is important to maintain the daily meditation sits at home as a way
of sustaining and stabilizing your practice. With a busy life it is
easy to convince yourself that you really haven’t the time to maintain
regular sitting or when you are feeling tired that you should just drop
it. Naturally, when you get stressed or overtired there is resistance
to facing the stress by meditating. But it is usually only an initial
resistance you have to face before you go through it. Also, do not
evaluate your practice, thinking if the meditation isn’t of
sufficiently good quality you are wasting your time. It is all grist
for the mill, you must persist as it is vital to maintain the habit of
practice to get the long term benefits.
It is worth quoting from His Holiness, the Dalai Lama for the more
compassionate aspect of the practice:
‘I myself feel and also tell other Buddhists that the question of
Nirvana will come later. There is not much hurry. But if in day-to-day
life you lead a good life, honestly with love, with compassion, with
less selfishness then automatically it will lead to Nirvana. Opposite
to this, if we talk about Nirvana, talk about philosophy but do not
much bother about day-to-day practice, then you may reach a strange
Nirvana but will not reach the correct Nirvana because your daily
practice is nothing. We must implement the teaching in daily life.’
There is a saying that the beginning and the end of a journey are
essentially the same. This is especially true of meditation. For there
is nowhere you need to go to discover your true nature other than where
you can be now, meditating at your home-base.
This Moment!
We can be grateful to the Buddha for these teachings, but it is by
actually implementing the teaching by eating the admired fruit, that
you receive the benefits. While it is not easy, yet it is not
complicated and there is nothing much else you need to know in order to
put into practise the basic instructions you have just read. Start now
by paying attention to what is happening in your body and mind at this
moment! Delaying in the hope of finding better instructions or
expecting ideal conditions to somehow manifest before you can practise
is just prolonging the ordeal. The work is in the present, so the
blessing is of the present.
by Ven. Pannyavaro
Balance in Meditation
Do It Yourself
Long Term Meditation
Idea of Meditation
Progress of Insight
Kindness Meditation
Insight Meditation
Shamatha Meditation
Practice of Concentration
Mahamudra Meditation
Meditation Instruction
Meditating in the City
Introduction of Meditation Practice
Simple Light Meditation
View, Meditation, and Conduct
Healing Meditation
Concentration: Preliminaries
Pure Practice
Teaching on Meditation
Clarity and Non Duality
Introduction to Meditation
Shamata and Vipashyana Meditation
Tibetan Meditation
The Reason we practice meditation