Meditation
“Learn to discern the real from the unreal, the true from the false” THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE (H. P. B)
Through processing the objects of the 5 senses, man evolves concepts in regard to the world in which he finds himself…These concepts once anchored in him will bind him to that particular sphere of existence. Desirous of going higher, attempting to attain higher states of consciousness, man requires more “All-encompassing”-concepts, that allow for a broader vision of things.
Usually in everyday life we build up buffers, which help us to not see a certain spectrum of things,…since, if we would see too much of what is happening around us, we would probably go mad,…we will not be able to function in everyday life, because everyday life requires us to make quick decisions in our dealings with the things around us…But when we start our spiritual journey, gradually we want to remove some of these buffers in order to see more clearly and in order to understand life more deeply. Removing these buffers can be a painful thing and attempting it is usually only advisable in conditions in which we feel quite save.
Clearing Doubts
In order to understand about meditation, we need to define for ourselves what meditation means and where it fits into the scheme of things…what its objective is and what it tries to accomplish… without understanding these things, it is going to be rather difficult to go very far in meditation.
What meditation means usually depends on one’s general conditions. For many people it might be a kind of redemption, or burning up bad kamma, for others it might be a scientific experiment, others might use it just for relaxation, and again others for self-knowledge…it greatly varies according to a persons kamma.
If we have doubts in regard to meditation, we have to learn more on the one hand, and on the other hand do only things or at the very least emphasise things we have no doubts about, things we are clear about…then we can take some light into unknown territory.
We make experiments, to realise more and more the subjectiveness of our experience of the world, as well as to realise the freedom that could come if we make proper use of that knowledge.
As you become more familiar with the powers of the mind, you will start paving the way for the experience of higher spheres of consciousness.
Thus, one of the principle tasks for a meditator is, to create and maintain a force within himself of truth and spirituality ….this force will attract towards him the necessary support for the continuation of his path as well as enabling him to repel all forces contrary to his aim.
Starting
“A Journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”
Imagine you are driving on a road in the middle of the night with the headlights on and the only thing you see is the road about 50m ahead of you…yet if you keep looking at just that small part of the road in front of you, you will reach your destination 100 miles ahead of you.
This is precisely how things are, for long periods of time, for a person walking on a spiritual path.
In the beginning we might be too tired and confused to figure out what to do with our life, how to meditate, what is the meaning and usefulness of the breath-meditation, etc., so we have to rely on the externals, like teachers, schedules, etc….doing what everyone else does,….but only to recover from our own perplexity, ….then slowly we should enquire and use our discernment to understand the religious life.
If we succeed even once in going up the mountaintop …even if trying, we will feel more tired and exhausted than your contemporaries, …having glimpsed a broader vision of life…having gained a birds-eye view of the territory,…we will have an enormous advantage in life towards all our fellow human beings, who, although perhaps for the time being less exhausted, will be groping blindly through life, not knowing where they are going.
Discipline
For a beginner discipline is very important. If the yogis mind will go anywhere here and there, outside of the realm of Dhamma,…being determined on his mental development, he should see to it, that he will have regular meditation sittings and he should arrange his life and his days organised around that discipline…he should go early to bed, so as to be able to get up in the morning to meditate…. Only with that as a base, he should gradually look at distinguishing the qualities of the mind/ mind-states and work towards a refinement of his life and mind for general practice.
Thus the yogi should know (or find out) what he is meant to do and how to behave. When he finds he is lacking in matters of good behaviour, he should stay with other (good) people or when he finds he is too lazy, he might have to stir himself up for a while,…he may look out for challenging situations to strengthen his character, but he should understand discipline as a means, not as an end, for, constantly living in a stirred up way, not being able to appreciate when there is nothing to do, can be a defilement too. The Buddhas advice in this respect: Here a monk considers, ”While I do as I feel like, unwholesome states increase and wholesome states diminish,…what if I were to practice in a more painful manner“…in doing so, on a later occasion he finds wholesome states increasing and unwholesome states diminish, realising which, he considers: “The purpose for which I practiced in a painful manner is fulfilled”,…thus seeing no more danger in doing so, he abandons that painful way of practice, while yet being able to increase in the wholesome and diminish in the unwholesome.
If you learn to listen more often to the voice of knowledge, instead of to your fears and desires, your life will start to be guided more by knowledge than by desires and fears. One way of doing that, is by bringing yourself into situations of evolving difficulty, making yourself understand, that solving the task by not listening to the lower will increase the volume of the voice of knowledge, while when you fail to do so you will be forced again to listen to some voice of knowledge from without.
Developing one’s own little tricks is essential….chanting or reciting a mantra (or any type of talking), can cut down excessive thinking, as it cools down the digestive heat and thus cuts or diminishes the chi flow towards the brain (can be also useful when one feels, that one has not eaten enough and thus wants to see to it, that the digestive process goes slow (…going through the day strategy)),….however for achievement of higher mental states (which usually becomes only an option when the conditions are pretty good) any kind of talking is mostly detrimental. Thus in the beginning…using the most refined method one can think of to get rid of suffering, is the one one should take.
We gain some calm and that calm teaches us how to proceed further
Everything on the outside level of a bhikkhu or yogi, is concerned with his practice of sila…and as long and whenever he is perceiving himself as part of a whole, this will be his primary ground of orientation… Yet, a yogi is meditating to make his internal world grow…when he is meditating, he gives predominance to his internal world,…that is his internal world will sooner or later out-grow the importance of his external world (that is why it is important to base one’s meditation practice on a firm ground of sila, otherwise one might become (at least to the outside world) an egoistic- and self-centred person)
Experience gives confidence, which in turn will lead a person away from the rabble into noble seclusion…seeking to follow the truth ever deeper into its den.
Self-knowledge
Nosce te ipsum -know thy self
“In order to become the KNOWER of ALL, thou hast first of SELF to be the KNOWER.”
A true yogi has to be self-oriented, that is not in a selfish way, but in a way of total self examination, he has to perfectly understand himself, so as to come to truly transcend his self (having acquired a superior self, then only he can leave it behind, without having to fear that he will be overwhelmed by anything).
Your sense of who you are determines what you perceive as your needs and what matters to you in life.
So it is important, that we refine our self-knowledge. If we only know our higher aspirations, yet our lower desires push us here and there, remaining unknown mysterious forces, that we don’t want to look at, yet, which dominate much of our life and actions,…investigating these forces, can truly prove to give us back much of our life and safe much time for the development of the higher.
Even for sila both knowledge and self-observation is necessary,…one has to know what a breaking and what a keeping of sila is and one has to observe especially one’s’ bodily and verbal actions….in the same way it is necessary for samadhi to have certain knowledge of what is the right way of practicing (when wholesome states increase and unwholesome states decrease..) and what is the wrong way of practicing.
The benefit of self observation is mastery over oneself. The benefit of mastery of oneself, is mastery of life.
Using life-wisdom for meditation
Working with your meditation subject is really quite a similar thing as an Indian marriage… Your parents choose a wife for you, which you don’t know,…which might be beautiful or not (certainly she won’t be beautiful forever)… and then you have to see, how to make the marriage work….if you only try to understand her, surely it won’t work, if you only look after yourself, sure it won’t work either…You have to try to understand both her and yourself and then make relationship between the two of you a more natural affair… a true dance…and then sometimes union between the two of you will happen….. With the breath meditation it is the very same thing…. if you only sit with one another in the same room for the whole day,…unless you know each other very well,…conflict is likely to appear….if you only investigate into your breath, without ever considering about yourself, the breath meditation is unlikely to work out either…if you approach your breath happily, it is a very similar situation of a husband approaching a wife happily,… it is much more likely to be a good relationship…. And all that of course depends to a big extend on how the wholeness of the life is lived…. if the husband is poor and unemployed, sitting all day at home,… he will have to really do a lot of work on himself and really mould together with his wife , that things won’t fall apart…. but if he is all day busy, or sometimes a whole week gone, he will be so happy to see his wife and his wife will be so happy to see him, so that sometime only a few minutes after meeting each other a union will happen. ….thus a good life conditions a good marriage and a good marriage conditions a good life…and in the same manner a good life conditions a good meditation practice and a good meditation practice conditions a good life.
(that situation might also be one reason why perhaps more lay people (and perhaps busy monks) are successful with the breath meditation than (most other) monks…) …the only question that might than arise is,…do I really want to live a life like this, or can I attain something higher (or do I perhaps need to first free myself of something lower ?).
Dissolve and Bind
…dissolve and bind is the ancient formula of alchemy, knowing this, a yogi learns to weave his life, breaking down the sway of conventional reality, by producing a momentum of spiritual reality
If you are not so happy with your life, you must dissolve everything you are and everything you think you are…..and then build on that something or someone you want to be … ….modern vipassanā traditions are perhaps good at dissolving old patterns of mind, but often they leave people without anything better to bind the mind together again….due to this many people might go from better to worse. Dissolving old patterns has to go hand in hand with a healthy re-pattering of the mind,…giving the mind a worldview of growth.
You use a meditation subject as a reminder, for what you want to develop… perhaps unity, oneness of mind, concentration… etc….but whenever nonsense starts to arise, things you don’t wish for, you contemplate that as impermanent, suffering and non-self, danger etc… you try to understand the proximate cause of that problem…. (weaknesses of body, lack of inspiration, aversion towards the meditation subject…etc.)
In the suttas there is by far not such an emphasis on only impermanence and suffering, as is in the modern view of Buddhism, especially as depicted by the Vipassanā schools….there is an equal emphasis on developing…the 5 indriyas, the factors of enlightenment, the noble eightfold path and the jhānas.
Meditation-Conditions
From meditation methods to meditating The methods are only there to bring people in touch with a new sphere of experience…When a person starts becoming familiar with the new type of experience, he slowly has to let go of formalised methods, by learning to grasp the principles. Grasping the principles, he will become capable of working out his own method.
So…how to meditate is principally the wrong question… What are the conditions, under which meditation-experiences can manifest,… would be a much better question to ask. And often the answer to this is quite a different one, than we would like hear…This is also a basis, for understanding what ascetic practices are there for, which is, what an ordinary scholar won’t be able to understand.
Often meditation starts really working only when we are finally willing to go against the grain, that is, if you want to hide always, ….to go amongst people…. and when you are finally comfortable with people, …you seek seclusion, ….if you want comfort for its own sake, you go into the forest….if you are beating yourself up all the time for not working hard enough, you find a way of making holiday…travel a bit or do something with friends, …if you want your life nice and need and organised,…surprise yourself more often by doing something different…. if you find you are living a messy life without any structure, …try to build a structure into your life. This is the method of coming out of an unwanted ‘status quo’ into the sphere of magic and ‘the unordinary’.
Then, further, in order tune into the subtle and to get hold of the mind, a yogi who is reasonably healthy may use some minimum sense perception…the smoke of an incense, a butterfly on a wall being bend by the wind, ripples on water, the sound of the wind, some animals playing etc. ….some field, where he can move his mindfulness back and fro,…or even things like drawing a mandala or anything else are equally valid things…as the mind becomes more subtle,…its capabilities increase and possibilities of using it for more important tasks become available. But once a yogi owns his mind he first should find out how to not loose it again.
For that a sane base of right living is again very essential, for ..living life in a natural and balanced way, leads to meditating in a natural and balanced way…and being able to respond to various situations in the 5 sensory world, leads to being able to respond to various situations in the inner world. Further on, there is religious devotion. Religious devotion is a mental state, which can keep the mind soft, when there is great suffering and oppression….thus to bring one-self into an environment where religious devotion is supported can greatly help one’s’ spiritual progress
Developing and keeping going the spark of inspiration
Calmness of the body has to be perfectly balanced with inspiration of mind, …thus one should find ways of keeping inspired in one’s own experience. For example, for a sick person it is possible to keep inspired contemplating the repulsiveness of the body, impermanence, suffering, non-self, death, etc….for a healthy person, it is possible to contemplate subtle mental phenomenon (mental factors (equanimity, joy, oneness), visions of light, psychic visions, immaterial states,) …and either person principally can use external nimittas as skillful means (kasinas, fire, smoke, forest, nature, (one’s own shadow, lovely animals, lovely people, suffering beings (compassion), joyful beings (sympathetic joy)…inviting thus the force of inspiration, new insights will come as to how to progress.
Energy-distribution
Another important factor to pay attention to for making meditation work, is energy distribution…continuous mental balance and mindfulness for the whole day vs. being part of the world with its ups and downs and then setting some time aside to cultivate a specific meditation subject or a specific mental conditions. There too, one may have to look, which way is more suitable in one’s environment… In the first case, one can easily react to changing conditions and problems and can find suitable ways of dealing with them, in the second, one can accumulate material to mould creatively into an extensive experience with one’s meditation subject. In the first case, the whole life is made into an creative experience,…but if that is not yet perfected, perhaps one will still oftentimes have a nagging desire for a special spiritual vision. In the second case, one may perhaps be more often overpowered by unskillful states, because there is not enough flexibility to deal with any upcoming condition or problem. So one has to find a balance in one’s practice between these two. Although of course they are not mutually exclusive..and one can lead to/ be the preparation for the other. The second way is perhaps for a beginner the common thing to do, as he can’t expect too much structure in his days, he should have the outward structure of regular sitting, without being too sensitive to the constantly changing phenomenon of his mind and body.
Another aspect in regard to the question of energy distribution is, that a person in an unfamiliar environment has to have a more continuous alertness, which requires a forceful energy-supply/ energy application, while a person in familiar and non stressful circumstances can allow his energy to rise up and flow more naturally.
What objects the mind takes, is also very crucial for the condition of one’s energy. One person might spend his day talking and doing various other things (with the awareness landing on these various things) and at the end of the day he might have some energy coming up, which he might use to have a happy evening with a friend…or he is too exhausted for anything…his energy is always polluted with various objects (and he will find delight in this and that). Another person may spend his day alone in seclusion, meditating, and by evening time his energy arises. Having been sensitive to his energy throughout the day/ having kept his energy pure throughout the day, he will be able to use his energy for various spiritual purposes, or he will experience his energy associated with various pure/spiritual objects (nimittas).
For continuity of practice, one should use whatever energy one has available for the development of the mind and when things go down again contemplate impermanence, suffering, non-self…for as long as one can and for as many days, weeks, month…
If we calculate for higher human states, we must cease to calculate in matters of ordinary time and ordinary conditioning.
Making the meditation subject one’s vehicle
A yogi should make his meditation subject his vehicle, which means, when mindfulness arises, it should be associated with his meditation subject…e.g. a thought of anger should arise with an awareness of one’s breath, if that is one’s primary meditation subject, or else with a noting/ repetition of a metta phrase if the brahma viharas are one’s primary subject; anicca, dukkha, anatta, when these are one’s meditation subject. Yet one also should understand, that meditation is not just about solving problems (the Buddha teaches us, that we should understand three types of feeling (unpleasant, pleasant and neutral)…first we meditate, to get rid of (gross) dukkha (we understand a certain danger of unpleasant feeling and we try to overcome it)…many people stop there, perhaps being satisfied with a certain amount of pleasantness and only go back to their meditation, when they feel dukkha again…secondly…people notice a certain danger or futileness of mere pleasant feeling…and they want to incorporate pleasant feeling into their spiritual practice (going from pleasant feeling associated with sensuality (friends, nature, etc..)-diversity, …towards pleasant feeling associated with unity….. ….the third will be the understanding of neutrality,….maintaining awareness, when nothing is happening (at least on a gross level), understanding the danger of not understanding the whole range of experience, one finds ways of maintaining awareness of the neutral, of the subtle/ thus one incorporates the neutral feeling into one’s spiritual practice.
Karma
A yogi should understand that he will need an enormous amount of good karma to succeed in his spiritual quest. The whole world is against him, who tries to escape the laws and ties of the world. Thus understanding some of the principles of magic, understanding something about karma yoga may be very useful (actually magic is kind of the pre-form of the understanding of karma and of religious practices, as karma formerly referred to the performance of religious rituals within the pre-buddhist understanding).
Along that line one may use for example supplementation skills. Being of service to others, or acquiring a certain kind of knowledge or skill as a backup, can give a person a certain amount of confidence which can also help one’s meditation (if it does not overtake it)……it can help to maintain a certain amount of continuous stability and it can help familiarising the mind with wholesome states (when the mind is filled with wholesome states, no unwholesome states can enter)… For a person of weak health, some merit making activities, which desensitise him from his mind-body condition may be of great help. Cleaning the Buddha-statue, sweeping the meditation hall, doing something for others, doing something which relaxes mind and body,…and perhaps keeping a certain routine of doing so…which means, keeping the mind’s assemblage point (the reference point of the mind) first primarily or at least occasional, external, that is on wholesome deeds, emphasising 4 right efforts instead of mindfulness practice, may remove much anxiety of daily life.
What to remember/What to practice?
A meditator (primarily) seek repetition..so he chooses carefully what he puts into his mind…carefully what he wants to remember …this becomes especially relevant when considering about rebirth…what is it that you would want to take into your next life? Is it the patimokkha recitation or some chant of old, your grudge towards others or some petty thought?…Thus for a meditator the most important thing is to choose an object for his meditation, that he finds worthwhile spending a lot of time with…that he has faith in,…or that he can easily develop faith in… For different people, different things are suitable…for an emotional or devotional person a subject like metta might work quiet well,…but for an intellectual person it might not really do anything…especially for an intellectually bright person…a subject might be needed that demand the utmost of his mental faculties…a subject that is not easily exhaustible …for such type of person an metaphysical system like the Abhidhamma might be necessary to temper his spirit enough to grow further.
Similar to an engineer who has to learn many things before he can put together many different pieces in order to create a machine, in the same way a yogi has to find out how to put together the ingredients of his personal kamma as well as his environment in order to make his body work,….like a programmer has to learn various things in order to create a working program, so a yogi has to learn certain things in order to make his mind a working program.
…dissolve and bind, nourish and excrete….
..opposing forces should be equilibrated …not all processes should be looked on with equanimity…active and passive should be balanced
When the consciousness that is looking at the breath is soft, meditation is an easy thing/ when the meditating consciousness is soft, any meditation subject can be penetrated easily
The point of no breath….is only useful, when one has sufficient spiritual energy…..sometimes one will go through all the Jhanas (1–4), sometimes one will come to a point of total balance through mindfulness of the body or mindfulness of an external object. If one comes to the point of no-breath without sufficient spiritual energy, one should perhaps, do something else… and start of another time anew at least when determined to work primarily on samatha.
Timing
….meditation requires determination and timing….one’s meditation might arise exactly at a time, when one expects it the least or is least willing to meditate (just before a meal is served, when a certain attachment or any other defilement arises…)..when one is then willing to give up one’s attachment, this burning up of the attachment or defilement can be exactly the process which can lead one into very deep samadhi states ….
….Meditation is an creative act…it is meant to transform the lower (baser things) into the higher and to refine what is good already
…Meditation is about the mind and about being devoted to your meditation subject. Determining to sit for so and so long, when it will produce detrimental mind-states, is going in the opposite direction. Usually it is only for those people which getting up will do unskillful things, for whom it will be best to sit as long as possible.
Noticing success
Subtle experiences might grow, when we give them proper attention and encouragement….We should value subtle experiences even if they just seem like imagination and wishful thinking. Imagination can be a very useful tool for one’s spiritual development. Thus one should not allow one’s faith in one’s experiences be easily destroyed and one should not be overly critical/ doubtful with oneself…Usually it is the people with a rich imagination that find getting good meditations quite easy, rather than ordinary people or sceptics. Although, of course it shouldn’t get too much out of hand, for most people it is usually rather the opposite which easily gets out of hand.
Timing and Waiting
…meditation is a lot about waiting….like a crocodile might just wait and (almost) motionless float in the water (for hours and days (sometimes even weeks) on end), being just aware whether there is a gazelle or not,….so a yogi should just stay in a balanced waiting position….. …and as the crocodile will become more alert when his pray is drawing nearer,…so should the yogi become more alert, when his meditation subject is arising …and as the crocodile will have to be very skillful and quick in catching his pray,…so the yogi has to be very skillful and quick in grasping the sign of his mind
…like a surfer will for a (sometimes) long time just a little bit paddle in the water, waiting for the perfect wave to surf, so the yogi should for a long time, do as little as possible, waiting for the sign of his mind to arise
…or a yogi might think of himself as being similar to a hunter waiting for his pray,…each step of the hunt (the waiting, the drawing nearer, the encroaching, the capturing and the proper keeping hold of….(as well as later the proper processing/ digestion of the caught i.e. the experience) , he has to become thoroughly familiar with in order to succeed
…and like the hunter is better of to know the proper season, the proper conditions, as well as the going about of his pray, so the yogi should know the proper season, proper surrounding conditions regarding his ‘hunt’ (in example this may mean e.g. during the hot season things like low blood pressure might be a recurring problem and thus one might need to rest more, while during the cold season naturally there may be more clarity and alertness…etc.)
….fighting for the mind, is fighting for the strongest object of perception….if the mind gets excited on an inferior object …(e.g. if one breaks knowingly a rule, then a whole bad process might build up on that, until one will be able to do some purifying action)…thus one will have some work to do…if the mind has taken in an superior object, one has to see to it, that one keeps it inside for as long as possible …a strong perception (thus) impressed on the mind, will attract a corresponding element of the universe
…a yogi should occasionally reflect on his goal and/or the path (refining right intention/right view) as remembering again and again the very essential things is incomparable more important than learning many new things (we think we know, but too often we forget)
…meditation requires at least a certain amount of freedom….we must feel free enough to be willing to experiment and be creative, quiet similar as wanting to play an instrument, if we don’t have this freedom to be creative, we will soon give up or get frustrated
Dukkha investigation:
…more real then many of your thoughts about the future would be a stinging pain… and truly many a one has to go through hell, before he is ready to be a full human being…do not shun pain that is here and now, but rather shun and shoosh away all imaginary future pain, to do this you might need the body, painful or pleasant, however it might be now
a yogi should understand what and how much he needs in order to function properly, finding a balance between humble acceptance of whatever is there at the moment… and honestly regarding his needs….a balance between “there is always going to be some dukkha’ …and ‘how can I improve my life/ my condition,…… for many times it might be possible to improve things (proper medicines or treatment,…or rest might change one’s meditation from just ‘dukkha, dukkha, dukkha’ to true progress in the Dhamma)
When you are forced to sit by some outside force and your mind starts revolting and does not want it,…at least take the side of your mind and promise it something nice when the outside force has diminished.
…a yogi should notice the subtle (as well as the subtle difference) (especially in the beginning one’s understanding will be very blur….feeling something, one notices…this is spiritual, this is worldly…one notices….this is better than that) …the more often one finds one’s intuition confirmed (and in line with the scriptures etc.),…the more confidence one will have in one’s intuition…then one will be able to keep a very subtle and sensitive mind even in the face of great suffering (and in the end…in the face of death)
Thus we should rather work on living life so well, that attainments can appear…and arrange our life according to our highest ideal,…and even if we accomplish nothing not lower this standard, but keep the direction right, yet without being altogether inflexible in approach, if we run too often against a wall, we should look for another way to approach a situation.
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…learning and developing one’s own set of skilful means, is a thousand times more valuable than learning a hundred other things
….learning to be spiritual when things are tough and learning to be spiritual when nothing happens…
….a yogi should understand his resources….like a king would not go into war without first reviewing the amount of his troops, treasures etc. …so a yogi should get an understanding of his available energy resources before acting, studying, etc…
…understanding his resources he can work for their proper usage, without allowing them to diminish…remembering, that he should always have enough for his death
…meditation is not a sitting exercise,…meditation is about self-knowledge
…a yogi should learn to transform everything for his own advantage
…life is the yogis field of study, not the books….although the books can give the yogi some advise, he should drink only for quenching his thirst and not before he notices his being thirsty
…a yogi should not be opposed to life, rather he should develop a comprehensive understanding of it
…a yogis knowledge is not shared by anyone else, yet when he shares it with others it is immediately recognised …it can not be found in any book, but whether child or old man, all seem to know it (the difference therein is only he dares to live it, while the rest of the world is too busy)
…however messy one’s starting point, one should begin by paying attention to what is important,…having gathered an understanding of what is important one should distil further to find out what is most important…gradually one will reach the essence of everything (which is suffering and the end of suffering)
….wisdom is not complicated, it gives the right amount of understanding …like cooking is a mixture of ingredients and skill, so wisdom is a mixture of knowledge and skill
….a yogi should rid himself of ambition…the desire to do good is not ambition, the desire to know, is not ambition
….in sitting meditation a yogi should remember that any technique is a means to something…what feels more natural generally is to be preferred….his main aim is to develop pleasure, mindfulness and wisdom
…meditation will only work, when one is on it continuously… sometime one might have a bad sitting meditation, but when getting up (if the energy is not dispersed through talking etc.) one’s meditation object might suddenly arise clearly…in this respect it is also quite essential that the meditator has enough freedom to get up from his meditation seat when continuity of sitting will result in mental decline
…it is essential to understand about the healing power of spiritual experiences and it is essential to understand the health required for following a (spiritual) path
…continuity of mindfulness (as well as the other spiritual faculties) is where freedom should be sought
….the mind should be always kept aloof from the elements, this can be achieved by naming them, understanding them or by putting the mind on an object superior to the elements
….a yogi should try to bring his conscious mind into his dreams and fantasies and transform them through conscious imagination/application
Satipatthana
The word Satipatthana is made of the two words sati (usually translated as mindfulness) and upatthana…
In Sanskrit there exists a word, asat,…which approximately means something like unreal, also having a connotation of not good, which is taken in opposition to sat, the real and the good.
The word upatthana has also a variety of meanings, such as:
- attendance, waiting on, looking after, service, care, ministering,
- worship or (divine) service 3.understanding
So along that line, a good translation of Satipatthana might be something like “attending to the real” or “understanding the real”.
In modern days the word sati is usually translated as mindfulness which for some time was considered something like bare attention, but as understanding evolved was often shown to have also a certain memory aspect. Practitioners familiar with other systems sometimes used the word compound ‘self-remembering’ which I consider a pretty good wording, because it is precisely this, that one attempts to do in meditation, one remembers oneself…one remembers one’s goal…one remembers one’s knowledge of the Dhamma…one remembers one’s path. Thus true mindfulness only can come, when one has realised some entrance into the path. Another good translation for the 4 satipatthanas may be 4 places of inquiry. Through the practice of mindfulness, through inquiring into one’s body, feelings, mind or into the Dhamma with an upright mind, having the goal of acquiring true wisdom and understanding of the Dhamma…as well as freedom from suffering, we gain self-knowledge. With some of these categories, we are trying to realise their impermanent, dissatisfactory and non-self nature, with others, we seek to realise their need and benefit for the living of the holy life (spiritual feelings, exalted mind states, etc.)…with again others of those categories we need to understand their gratification, danger and escape…Through the knowledge thus gained, the ‘inquiring one’ filters out certain things from his reality, which will slowly fade away (…as is the nature of memory) and through both the practice of mindfulness as well as through his study, he weaves positive things into his reality.
Constant (self-)remembering is one of the key points of the practice…but care has to be given to not become like a paranoid self-checking robot, “self-observation addict”, or a robot-like creature, focused only on apperception and self-categorisation of his inner and outer world….as this is not really a desirable way of life…Rather one should have usually some sane base to fall back upon.
What is it, by knowing which, one can come to know all?
The Buddha gave different answers to this question…sometimes he said ‘feeling’ (vedana) is that by knowing which you can come to know all…sometimes by knowing ‘what is wholesome and what unwholesome’, you can come to know all, sometimes ‘the 6 sense bases’, sometimes, ‘the 5 aggregates’, or, by means of the gradual training you can come to know all…by trying to know any of these things by means of direct knowledge it becomes clear, that merely knowing intellectually does not suffice. By trying to directly know feeling, one also will come to know the consciousness, which knows feeling, one may also come to know other mind‐ factors involved in knowing feeling, one may know the difference between consciousness accompanied by wisdom and consciousness unaccompanied by wisdom, one may come to know ‘feeling’ in that case as an object of consciousness, and one may realise, that the faculty cognising the object also depends on the base ,…thus one may realise the need to practice mindfulness regarding the body to understand that faculty of mind, and so also with the other satipatthanas.
Self-knowledge also means knowledge in regards to one’s aggregate of virtue, knowledge in regards one’s aggregate of concentration, knowledge regarding one’s aggregate of wisdom, knowledge regarding one’s aggregate of liberation/freedom and the aggregate of knowledge and discernment of freedom/liberation.
Gathering the items of samadhi
Through practicing you will gather certain understandings about your body and mind…one day all the good things may come together and you gain samadhi…So one should know how to distinguish the good from the bad,..and abandoning the bad, cultivate the good (in order to develop such type of understanding one should make use both of one’s daily life as well as of one’s sitting meditations to develop a familiarity with body and mind…its needs, how far they can be pushed, their flexibilities, their characteristics, functions etc.) …if we keep our mind with our experience,…if we try to continuously practice some form of spiritual practice,… something which allows us to stay more natural for longer periods of time, and to understand that natural state of ours more and more…than only do we have the best chance to gain some superhuman experience(s)…this is perhaps also the only way, not to be swayed away by the ups and downs of life.
….whenever the faculties are clear and sharp, we should make use of them, to understand their functioning… seeing what we are able to perceive with our senses… how many colours we can see in the sky, how many different fragrances can we recognise in the smell of the room, or the smell of a flower…looking at another human being perhaps we can detect indications of that persons state of mind by e.g. looking at his facial and bodily features…feeling sensations in the body, we may detect different characteristics (of the four elements etc.)…tasting a taste, we may taste different flavours therein (sweet, sour, bitter,…), as well as what effect a different flavour has on our body and mind. It is in this way that we are inclining to the subtler spheres of existence, moving into loftier spheres.
When there is the body, we try to understand and develop the body, when there are feelings, we try to understand and develop (wholesome) feelings, when there is the mind we try to understand and develop the (wholesome) mind, when there are ideas, we try to understand and develop (wholesome) ideas.
In the beginning it will be a long time of only observation and gathering information and you won’t be able to do anything with it for a long time…and you won’t really know whether or not you will ever be able to do anything with it, and if, what,…the only thing that you might notice, is, that you are doing the absolute opposite of what anybody else in the world is doing
Manifesting the Mind
Kamma is the seed, Consciousness is the field and tanhā (thirst, desire for more) is the moisture.
After initiation of kamma related to higher things, this kamma may arise as a resultant and come into the sphere of consciousness…A person skilled with the higher faculties, may from there feed that kamma with a wholesome desire for growth.
For example in the case of anapana-sati, a person having gained trust, that meditating on the breath can lead him to a higher stage of being, may develop interest (wholesome desire) in the perception of the breath, which in turn may produce more breath-manifestations and may make the kammical seed of an “interesting breath” grow and sprout into a more elaborate form of manifestation, which in turn will make it easier for the faculties of consciousness (i.e. mindfulness) to remain interested in it.
Jhānas
One big problem that causes many confusions to arise is, that many times people try to accomplish certain things, while yet considering about it in matters of a plane that follows very different laws. For example, people trying to attain Jhānas, which belong to the fine-material realm, try to do so, by virtue of following sense-sphere considerations. They don’t cease to think in matters of ‘meditation means, you should sit in such and such a posture’, or ‘the longer you sit, the better it is for your meditation’,…considerations, which may do something for a beginner, but which often are rather an obstruction for a person aiming at things like Jhānas. Jhānas refer to states of purity and non-sensual joy and thus can not really be grasped in terms of sensual things.
Jhānas in the Suttas
In the suttas there are different ways of talking about the Jhānas (sometimes the Buddha was talking about defilement and purification of Jhāna , sometimes of the Jhāna as a superhuman state, sometimes in relation to mastery (which is the realm of a self and control) ….the usual description of the Jhānas, is that a monk suffuses his body with a feeling of joy etc….it does not talk about the intellectual part of the mind (which might be covered only by the grasping the reviewing sign or the higher knowledges, following the fourth Jhāna or the purified mindfulness of the fourth Jhāna it-self). Thus, perhaps the Jhāna might also include states of mind, with a rather smeared mindfulness, where there still can exists certain kinds of delusions. Often they are preceded by the instructions of sense restraint,…”a monk going for alms in a village with guarded sense- doors”….things which often might require a certain amount of holding onto, yet which lead the monk already in the same direction of concentration (holding onto, he gains concentration, sitting down, he suffuses his body with the joy of being free from unwholesome states…),… Thus, since mindfulness might initially be rather smeared in certain samadhi attainments, people might sometimes be uncertain of what they were and only after they grasped the reviewing sign or after they experienced some higher knowledges, they will know for sure that it was a true Jhāna….
So, perhaps Jhāna should be thought of as a spectrum, covering a rather wide range of meditative experiences, which the meditator experiences as satisfactory (meaning all wholesome meditative experiences), since after all the Buddha gave these instructions for the sole purpose of helping people to become free from suffering. Along that line, we may say that the perhaps simplest (yet perhaps valid according to the scriptures) description of Jhāna may be just, that a person can use his mind well enough to make himself happy …whatever the general development of that person may be. The Abhidhamma actually recognises a kind of unwholesome Jhāna, that is one with a ‘bad mind’ (domanassa).. and one may perhaps say, that certain forms of black magic might require also a kind of Jhāna, although that will not be the type of Jhāna talked about in the suttas. Yet, another point to be considered, is the context, in which the instructions of the Jhāna is given, which is the life of a forest monk, who has put his back towards the 5 sensory world and to whom thus too meticulous naming or cataloguing might be rather uninteresting. Jhānas in the suttas actually never (or at least not usually) mean absorption on some object, but generally mean something like being self-absorbed in the bliss of one’s purity. Along that line Jhāna may also be thought of as an act of creativity directed at greater inner purity. Thus it might also not always be necessary for a person to go through all the Jhānas one by one, especially if he is a long term practitioner … if he can usually keep some mindfulness going, his mind perhaps being used to that equanimity, can spread or deepen that equanimity, when there is a suitable occasion. Anapana (mindfulness of breathing) according to the authors knowledge was not in the Suttas talked of as being a subject for the attainment of Jhāna…but was usually taken as a subject in its own right (Anapana sutta) or as one of the Satipatthanas (Satipatthana sutta). Although there are obviously people who do attain Jhānas basing their practice on Anapanasati.
….most people knowingly or unknowingly (consciously or unconsciously) will practice a set of practices, which they have to coordinate in order to reach distinction….mindfulness regarding the body or devotion towards a certain meditation subject which leads to concentration, may be quiet different from mindfulness of postures, or a moment to moment kind of mindfulness, which will lead to (or is in itself) mindfulness and clear comprehension. The second one might be necessary especially for a young monk, keen on making no mistakes regarding his morality.
In terms of the gradual training, Jhānas come after the successful training in virtue, being based on that and building up on that.
In matters of mental process, it is, although basing itself on wholesome resultants, a condition of continuous wholesome mental activity, usually taking as an object a subject that is counterbalancing a certain unwholesome kamma (such as the contemplation of unattractiveness for a person with a kammical condition of much greed, the contemplation of light for a person who generally lacks brightness or the contemplation of the qualities of an saint or Arahant to counterbalance all forms of worldliness).
The mental factors and even the body condition that one is hoping for in a Jhāna, are the same ones which one should cultivate in regard to wholesome daily activities,…the main difference will be only, the sphere of consciousness in which they occur…
Some modern teachers, distinguish the various Jhānas that are nowadays talked about into 3 levels. The first being the ‘whole body Jhāna’, which as the name suggests, designates the condition wherein a meditator attains a flow-state, that is experienced throughout his body. The second type of Jhāna, which requires still greater skill, is the ‘blissful Jhāna‘, wherein a meditator is able to ‘surf’ blissful feelings for some certain amount of time. While the highest of those Jhānas will be the luminous Jhāna, which requires the capacity to maintain a light type of nimitta for some continuous amount of time. These three types of Jhāna also closely resemble the 3 main chakras of other systems (both the Chinese (there called ‘dan tien’) as well as the tantric chakras), that is the chakra around the area of the solar plexus whose ‘main topic’ is physical vigour and energy, the heart chakra, whose ‘main topic’ is emotions (aiming at purified emotions) and the brow chakra, whose ‘main topic’ is mastery over the senses and psychic visions.
Summing up we might call Jhāna a condition, wherein the mind rules over matter, while, up to some point (until arupa)…being engaged with it. Modern western psychology recognises 2 types of experiences, which perhaps closely resonate with the experience of Jhāna. One being the experience of flow, and the other is called peak-experience.
Metaphysical considerations of the Jhānas Metaphysically, the first 4 Jhānas are related to the fine-material realm, in which are said to abide those gods, which have transcended sensuality (at least as long they remain in that realm). While the remaining 4 relate to the immaterial sphere, wherein the mind is capable of functioning entirely without any kind of material support of inner or outer visual perception (at least beyond the second arupa Jhāna), contemplating purely abstract ideas. In modern days, diligent scientists like for example the well known physicist Stephen Hawking, will be comprehensible examples of persons attaining arupa jhanas.
Thus taking the term Jhāna as related to the fine-material realm, perhaps all experiences of perception of lights, energies, qi-flow, astral-body, suffusing the body with pleasant feelings, or thoughts and perceptions about angels and gods, which are signs that the meditator has transcended the sense sphere world, all might be considered as relating to the sphere of Jhānas, and when accompanied with equanimity and purified mindfulness, specifically the 4th Jhāna,.
The attainment of the Arupa-Jhanas (Immaterial Jhānas), I would say generally will come about only when meditation is practiced in conjunction with the study of certain metaphysical systems (or after such type of prior knowledge), where the mind (a sharp, abstract mind,…mindfulness having been purified) can roam in abstract thought climbing up ever higher the ladder of refinement… (I would suggest that contemplations of quarks and atoms, deep thought about the universe or in the Abhidhamma model the detailed analysis of rupa, …when someone gets absorbed in the contemplation, can become the first arupa jhana of the infinity of space,…when someone contemplates the mind and mental factors…while being absorbed in it, it will be the second arupa jhāna of the infinity of consciousness…the third arupa jhana (generally translated as nothingness, but it can easily be considered as being just a bad translation for something like ‘un-concreteness’ (no-’thing’-ness)…although as I am not a pali-scholar, I have no prove for that) …will come about by contemplating what is called the life-continuum, or in modern terms the subconscious mind, while the fourth will be perhaps something like the end-limit of the previous one, generally considered too subtle to gain concrete insight into it (that one is called neither perception nor non-perception)…
Anapana
Later systems divide the process of meditation into 3 stages instead of into the 4 Jhāna. These three stages are: concentration, meditation and samadhi….In the case of Anapana-sati, the first stage of concentration would be, when the meditator put his attention on the nose,…trying to feel the breath,..the second stage of breath meditation would mean, when the meditator starts knowing his natural breath, contemplating its qualities, such as …flowing and movement and softness as desirable qualities of the meditation, while stagnation and roughness and hardness as undesirable qualities of meditation…contemplating in this way,…he learns to cultivate the more desirable factors as well as to remove the undesirable factors…Experiencing the desirable factors for prolonged periods of time,…will be the condition of samadhi, as in such case all the other factors such as pleasure and one-pointedness will come in automatically.
Nimittas
In later buddhist elaborations on meditation, there came about descriptions of the mediative signs a person might perceive prior to complete samadhi. Although the Visuddhimagga and later works are very specific about the appearance of nimittas, principally a nimitta may be any sign of calm, peace, inner joy, brightness, luminosity or any sign, that the mind has started to transcend the sphere of desire (…a sign of the fine-material sphere). Along the line of the mental process, they are the life-stuff arrested, with an introspective awareness (mind-door adverting) occasionally arising, followed by perhaps usually short instances of mental processing of the experience. Although, strictly speaking as such it is not mind-door adverting that is arising, but an inner sense-door adverting, that is a usually visual perception arising independent from the eye, which will be closely akin to the senses of those devas of a lower order, who have not transcended sensuality altogether, but who live in spheres of greater sublimity than human beings do. Relating the nimitta to other especially more metaphysical systems, one may perhaps say, that the light and energy that is generally referred to as the nimitta or nimitta stage,…is although not necessarily in appearance, …in quality equal to that of the moon…that means…all the qualities generally especially in the mystical traditions attributed to the moon, can be found or looked for in this stage. The moon wields a certain electromagnetic energy over organic life on earth,..it moves the oceans, influences plant growth and has certain effects on the emotions of human beings…there is a certain attribution to passivity, femininity and emotionality…if we find any of these and perhaps similar attributes within ourselves, we can cosmological speaking …draw a connecting line to the energy of the moon…and we can compare it with the nimitta stage of buddhist methodology….The stage of Jhāna on the other hand, using buddhist terminology,..is related to the sun …its energy is more refined, yet more vitalising (and warming), its light more illuminating, its thought attributions are more lofty and sublime… (moon energy is more formatory, generally not coarsely sensual, but can contain energy of a sexual type, as well as things like spiritual or religious sadness)…The consciousness associated with either of these experiences, may be of the spectrum of self-consciousness or objective consciousness . In regard to that description, one question may arise, as to how to go from the moon to the sun…?…the answer is,…. by gradually removing anything, that keeps you attracted to the earth,…while at the same time training the consciousness to be aware of and become skillful with subtler things…. Sometimes the Buddha referred to the process as being similar to the refinement of gold…first the most coarse dirt is removed by washing,…than the ore gets heated, it gets hit by the hammer, blown at with the bellows…until it becomes gradually more refined.
Exponential Growth
…for establishing a clear understanding of the stages of meditation, one should see to it, that things don’t get mingled up to much (although that again depends on how good one’s general conditions are)…if one can see for example a nimitta (meditation sign) (or even perceive some amount of peace or happiness),…it is advisable, to meditate only as long there is the chance of working with that nimitta, and stop, when various confusing states arise (and do lighter (simpler) things that one is familiar with and which won’t make a strong impression on one’s mind)….this way one will make a clear sign in one’s mind, as to what one wants to develop, and it will be also more easy to figure out the conditions regarding how it came about etc. and if one knows the conditions regarding how to gain good meditations, it will be more easy to re-create the suitable conditions. Of course in the beginning it will be all a hopeless task of keeping these things apart and of gathering the right type of knowledge, …here and there some vague perception and then a few month nothing. Yet, there is something called exponential growth, and at some point in time every day there may be some improvement.
Spiritual Fire
Many Jataka stories talk about the Bodhisattva in his former lives having the choice between learning a skill/ studying various crafts or, going to the forest, taking with him the fire which was lid when he was born. Fire was in ancient times always or mostly associated with the spiritual life…with inspiration and the higher mind…..According to some story, archeological findings revealed, that ancient man, when first taming the “fire-animal” did not initially used it for cooking, but for religious worship and inspiration….A yogi intent on furthering his spiritual development, is well advised to use this mysterious element as well as one element closely connected with it….i.e. the smoke …for his inspiration and spiritual practice (nowadays it is for monks rather difficult to look at a reasonable size fire and a candle light might for most people be rather to still to catch one’s attention for a longer period of time,…. so burning incense or moksha sticks for the purpose of looking at the smoke, which brings forth marvellous shapes etc….can be a very useful tool).
Pain and Gain
Principally there are two ways of gaining higher experiences…both sides of the spectrum of mind can be useful (and should be understood): one way is, the mind bringing forth visions, out of body experiences, etc. from a state of great suffering,. The other condition is, when these things occur as a result of a continuity of meritorious states of mind reaching their peak.
Aspiration
It is in the heaven-worlds, that a thought can easily be made a reality …understanding thus, after having conquered his lower mind, the hero gaining the heaven of his higher mind may easily see his wish fulfilled … ‘Thus Oh hero, see to it, that at the end of a good meditation you make a wise aspiration or humbly ask for a favour from the gods.’
Storms
Storms are a natural occurrence of nature…but if we have to face them unprepared, they might destroy us….it is like surfing in the ocean, if we try to start surfing smaller waves, one day we might be able to master the giant one’s…if we stay in contact with the day to day problems and obstacles, we have the best chances, to master the big one’s…the big storms… He who ever rode a storm successfully, truly can not be an ordinary man. A strong wind can help a person who knows how to drive his ship to move forward much faster…but for a person who is not skilled with sailing, even a mild wind might toggle his ship upside down…in a similar manner might an emotional storm be exactly what is needed to move us forward on the path towards awakening, if we know how to drive our ship, while for an unskilled person it might lead to a serious downfall.
Flow and Discernment
…being adopted to one’s environment and social condition is a strong determining factor for the further progression of one’s meditation….being alone one may write down what one is experiencing, being part of a group one may share one’s experiences with others. If too much is happening and everything just perceived as impermanent …no new information will be registered or assimilated…but the flow of experience will perhaps not be interrupted drastically, so that equally no bad and unwholesome experiences get registered …a person may continuously note every experience and thus be free from big obstacles,….On the other hand a person may try to accumulate merit for some strong kammic experience, which e.g. for samatha will be especially important, so that the mind goes out towards the experience/ that the mind relishes and find delight in the experience….For (modern) vipassana it will be more important to not attach to any experience…so the former lets the mind grow,… the latter does not allow it to grow…A good balance may be practising samatha, when things go well and practicing (modern) vipassana when things don’t go too well, when one is pressed into a corner in life (when one needs discernment) (so we can say the first one is living with an extended/developed mind and the second one is living with discernment).
Maintaining the Wholesome
If you have a good idea about doing something,…see how far you can go in following that idea consciously, without the mind taking again another course,…and when the mind is falling again into the unwholesome, you draw your energy back into the body and focus on your primary meditation subject. Next time, or after some time, you should become more skilful in drawing your mind back at the right time, as well as in maintaining the wholesome force a little longer.
Usually there is always something arising, …some suffering, some problem…if we stay in tune with life, in tune with the Dhamma,..these negative forces can be used to improve our own Dhamma practice. Like a Chinese Kung-Fu master who can make use of the force of his opponents attack, redirecting back that very force to conquer or overcome his opponent,…so a yogi should make use of whatever obstacles come into his way for advancement on his path….If there is an occasion arousing anger,…”great, let me practice metta,…let me practice patience”,..if the body is unhealthy,.. “great, let me contemplate death, impermanence, impurity of the body”,… or if there is an occasion or possibility of getting the right medicine,…”great let me learn about medicine and the body”, (so that I later can perhaps help other people with similar problems)…This way we develop enthusiasm about improving our own thought and character, which, when we have succeeded in strengthening them, shall become the main driving forces of our life. When one does not yet get happiness through meditation and thus finds it difficult to feel much enthusiasm about it, one should find other wholesome deeds to develop happiness within oneself…as a bhikkhu though it is not suitable to continuously run around doing wholesome deeds, …but one should try to, without going too far away from one’s meditation…find happiness through small rituals or little good deeds…just far enough to not infect one’s meditation with unhappiness or negative mind states… If we meditate in any other place than our resting place, …if our meditation was somewhat ‘not good’, somewhat not satisfying, we should than and there find any wholesome activity, to clear away any negative registration/any negative mind-states from our mind-stream …that is to avoid negativities to accumulate in regard to our meditation practice and mental development… (especially if we want to make meditation and mental development a life long thing). Yet all suffering and painful mind-states can not be cut off all at once, so it is also good if we can learn to appreciate that there is a certain sense of meaningfulness to the pain and confusion that we might encounter in the difficult periods of our meditation. That is the blood which we sacrifice on the altar of knowledge.
Cutting off the unwholesome through shifting planes:
If we notice that the mind is taking an unwholesome course of action…it is usually not advisable to allow that to continue, but one should rather strife to get rid of it… one possibility of doing that, is if a person posses knowledge of planes, to quickly go down to a coarser plane with the intention to first gather more information and proficiency, so as to be later able to fight a proper battle on that plane. In ordinary language, that would simply mean to interrupt one’s meditation and do something good to strengthen one’s mind again and then ask questions to a teacher or fellow practitioner (we need both knowledge and strength in order to be able to fight with a demon, mere enthusiasm usually does not suffice). Yet, you always need to try to find a solution related to the highest plane that you are capable of operating on.
Developing our spiritual path,…we try to use our good kamma (after having developed some) for crystallising into ourselves spiritual knowledge of the different stages of meditation….one day we may only walk up and down to rid our mind of obstructions…if we feel our good (spiritual) kamma has ended there (due to feelings of hunger, weakness etc.) we try to spend the rest of the day doing some wholesome activity, which will relax ourselves until we have again enough energy to continue our spiritual work…this way the different stages and the relevant knowledge will be registered in an unconfused, unegoic manner,…helping us to gather the right type of information and knowledge, in the right manner, so as to be able to later guide other people in an unconfusing manner…as well as to keep or make meditation something holy rather than some confusing, struggling technical thing (as it is with some of the vipassanā schools).
Some important prerequisite of meditation also is about making ourselves feel more comfortable and at home…that is why acts of kindness and becoming familiar with the rules and hows’ of the place will greatly help us to grow spiritually, as the positive feedback of others, will help us to feel more comfortable and at ease.
So see what you can do now, don’t breed over results…. work on causes, …try to find in anything you encounter, something which can help you to get nearer your goal.
Thus, we must find ways to continuously build up our mindfulness, only in this way, there is the possibility of gaining higher states of mind. …a yogi should have an unbendable desire for realising higher things in life….this desire will draw him forward and will draw the right things towards him
…you must believe, that you deserve good concentration, …and work for that self-esteem
…developing the perception of ‘friend’, of ‘goodness’, of ‘beauty’ (even of god) in one’s breath (the higher and more sublime one can conceive/ perceive the breath the better it is for samadhi)
…living life first, and wherever there is an obstacle arising going, back to one’s breath
What is it that you tend to tackle with spontaneous mindfulness, so that without an effort, your whole heart is in it?
Either the mind is continuously attacked by external objects,….becoming one with them,… or every arising mind, arises with mindfulness of our spiritual path…thus allowing us to become master of our reality, become master of our mind. No longer should our actions be determined purely by external considerations, but they should more and more be determined by internal considerations….no longer the qualities of the object should be the determining factor, but the way the subject will get effected by the object.
Based on the eye and an object, consciousness arises….there is consciousness, that is consciousness, not some complicated thing… Consciousness associated with greed, with hate, with delusion… or consciousness associated with non-greed, non-hate, non-delusion. Some sound is spoken and the heart contracts, some other sound is spoken and the heart expands….sometimes the object is pure (Dhamma), but the base (heart) isn’t, sometimes the base is pure, but the object isn’t (Adhamma).
Having in the course of living life found one chief feature (greed, hate, delusion, dullness, stupidity, timidity, dishonesty, etc…), which is likely to lead one to an undesirable rebirth,…one uses a certain meditation subject (/or one evokes the power of a certain helpful force) in order to overcome that obstructive force in one’s life… doing in this way one may gain new powers (such as power of wisdom, power of energy, ..of confidence/faith, ..of mindfulness,.. of samadhi (..of knowledge, of freedom)).
…making use of aversive forces for one’s own advantage….as the wind and the rough sea might crush the unexperienced sailor, but can be put to the advantage of the experienced sailor, so too a meditator should make use of the aversive forces he encounters for his spiritual development ….only where there is a challenge, can he really progress, only where there is something difficult to give, is there the possibility of growing in generosity, only where there is the temptation of lying, is there the possibility of growing in truthfulness…a spiritual person looks onto the world in a different manner,…never he asks ‘what is it?’, but ever his question will be, ‘what meaning does it have for me’ (and my spiritual path)/ how can I make use of it for my spiritual path…. Growing in self-knowledge (i.e. understanding yourself) only can come in this way,….and it is this self-knowledge, that is the most precious thing a man can get in life…this is the main way to grow out of samsara (out of mechanical life)….like the lotus grows out of the mud.
From amonksnotes.wordpress.com
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