Stages of Meditation Read online

  Then, he should sit in the full lotus posture of Vairochana, or the half lotus posture, on a comfortable cushion. The eyes should not be too widely opened or too tightly closed. Let them focus on the tip of the nose. The body should not be bent forward or backward. Keep it straight and turn the attention inward. The shoulders should rest in their natural position and the head should not lean back, forward, or to either side. The nose should be in line with the navel. The teeth and lips should rest in their natural state with the tongue touching the upper palate. Breathe very gently and softly without causing any noise, without laboring, and without unevenness. Inhale and exhale naturally, slowly, and unnoticeably.

  Meditators need to pay special attention to the way they breathe. Breathing should be free of any noise or congestion. Violent breathing is harmful. Breathe gently and deeply. Inhale and exhale calmly and evenly.

  8. THE PRACTICE OF CALM ABIDING

  Calm abiding meditation should be achieved first. Calm abiding is that mind which has overcome distraction to external objects, and which spontaneously and continuously turns toward the object of meditation with bliss and pliancy.

  After properly fulfilling the preparatory practices, you should engage in the actual meditation, which consists of calm abiding and special insight. What is this calm abiding meditation? It is that state of mind that naturally attends to the object of meditation as a result of pacifying distraction to external objects.

  Besides that, it gradually eliminates the defects of the body and mind due to its being free from mental dullness and excitement. “With bliss and pliancy” refers to these physical and mental qualities that a meditator develops. In the process of meditation, mental pliancy is developed first and is followed by physical pliancy. Interestingly, physical bliss is generated after that, followed by mental bliss. When the mind is conjoined with bliss, it is known as calm abiding meditation.

  What is special insight?

  That which properly examines suchness from within a state of calm abiding is special insight. The Cloud of Jewels Sutra reads, “Calm abiding meditation is a single-pointed mind; special insight makes specific analysis of the ultimate.”

  After developing the ability to engage in calm abiding meditation, the meditator does not single-pointedly place the mind on the object but starts examining it. The object of meditation here is primarily ultimate truth, but conventional phenomena are not excluded. The concentration that generates physical and mental bliss by the force of analyzing the object is special insight. Thereafter, a union of calm abiding and special insight is attained.

  Calm abiding and special insight are not differentiated according to their objects of concentration. They can both take conventional and ultimate truth as objects. There is calm abiding meditation that focuses on the ultimate truth, and there is special insight that meditates on conventional truth. For instance, there is calm abiding meditation in which the mind is single-pointedly placed on emptiness. Special insight also meditates on conventional phenomena such as the subtle and grosser aspects of the meditative paths.

  In general, the difference between these two types of meditation is that calm abiding is a concentrative meditation and special insight an analytical one. The Perfection Vehicle and the first three classes of tantra share this notion. According to the highest tantra, special insight is a concentrative meditation. This is a unique mode of understanding within the context of which special insight operates fully as a concentrative meditation. On the other hand, the Great Seal of Mahamudra of the Kagyu tradition and the Great Accomplishment, or Dzogchen, of the Nyingma tradition deal only with analytical meditation.

  Also, from the Unraveling of the Thought Sutra: “Maitreya asked, ‘O Buddha, how should [people] thoroughly search for calm abiding meditation and gain expertise in special insight?’ The Buddha answered, ‘Maitreya, I have given the following teachings to Bodhisattvas: sutras, melodious praises, prophetic teachings, verses, specific instructions, advice from specific experiences, expressions of realization, legends, birth tales, extensive teachings, established doctrine, and instructions.

  ‘Bodhisattvas should properly listen to these teachings, remember their contents, train in verbal recitation, and thoroughly examine them mentally. With perfect comprehension, they should go alone to remote areas and reflect on these teachings and continue to focus their minds upon them. They should focus mentally only on those topics that they have reflected about and maintain this continuously. That is called mental engagement.’”

  In calm abiding meditation, you single-pointedly focus the mind on the essential and summary points of the teaching. The Buddha’s teachings, as described in these twelve categories, are extensive and cover vast topics such as those concerning the mental and physical aggregates, elements, sources of perception, and so forth. In the context of calm abiding meditation, you are not to elaborate, but are to attend to the essential nature or the point of the teaching, whether it be emptiness or impermanence, and contemplate its nature. On the other hand, meditation on special insight is analytical. The meditator elaborates on the identity, origin, and other characteristics of the objects of meditation, such as the aggregates, elements, sources of perception, and so forth.

  “‘When the mind has been repeatedly engaged in this way and physical and mental pliancy have been achieved, that mind is called calm abiding. This is how Bodhisattvas properly seek the calmly abiding mind.’”

  Through the process of meditation, the practitioner initially actualizes mental pliancy. This is preceded by a kind of heaviness of the brain that is in fact a sign of relinquishing the defects of the mind. After generating mental pliancy, physical pliancy is actualized. This is the direct opponent of the physical defects. Physical bliss is generated as a result, and from this mental bliss is generated.

  “‘When the Bodhisattva has achieved physical and mental pliancy and abides only in them, he eliminates mental distraction. The phenomenon that has been contemplated as the object of inner single-pointed concentration should be analyzed and regarded as like a reflection. This reflection or image, which is the object of single-pointed concentration, should be thoroughly discerned as an object of knowledge. It should be completely investigated and thoroughly examined. Practice patience and take delight in it. With proper analysis, observe and understand it. This is what is known as special insight. Thus, Bodhisattvas are skilled in the ways of special insight.’”

  Generation of a positive motivation is crucial. The practitioner should recreate this positive attitude throughout the process of practice. Think, “I shall listen to this holy text by the great Kamalashila in order to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings as vast as space.” It is highly important that we realize the rarity and preciousness of the human life. It is on this basis that we can attain both temporary and ultimate goals. This life as a free and fortunate human being is a great occasion and we should take full advantage of it. The root and foundation for realizing the ultimate goal of enlightenment is generation of the altruistic thought, and this in turn derives from compassion. Other complementary practices essential in this context are the practice of generosity and other meritorious deeds, and training in concentration, which is the union of calm abiding and special insight.

  Before generating compassion for other sentient beings, the practitioner must think about the sufferings of cyclic existence in general, and in particular the sufferings of the different realms within the cycle of existence. Through this process of contemplation, the practitioner comes to appreciate the unbearable nature of the miseries of the cycle of existence. This naturally leads you to find out how to abandon them. Is there an occasion when we can be completely free of suffering? What methods need to be applied in order to relinquish suffering? When you earnestly engage in such an inquiry and examine the question well, you will realize what causes sufferings. The source of suffering is the mental defilement that arises from action and disturbi
ng emotions. This is temporary, and the mind can be completely separated from it. The practitioner comes to realize that the Noble Truth of cessation can be attained with the pacification, or elimination, of suffering and its causes. The corollary is that the individual develops renunciation, wishing for freedom from suffering and its causes. And when you wish for other sentient beings also to gain freedom from suffering and its causes, you are taking a major step toward generating compassion.

  First a practitioner should train in the stages of the common path and then gradually incorporate the stages of the greater path. This is a sound and correct mode of actualizing a spiritual career.

  After having performed the preparatory practices, you undertake the training in the two types of awakening mind. These two are the conventional and ultimate awakening minds. With generation of the conventional awakening mind, a practitioner engages in the deeds of a Bodhisattva, which include the six perfections. Meditation on the ultimate awakening mind is done by generating a transcendental wisdom directly realizing emptiness. Such a wisdom is a meditative stabilization that is a union of calm abiding and special insight. This means that while focussing single-pointedly you can simultaneously analyze the nature of emptiness.

  First the practitioner must gather the prerequisites and other conditions conducive to meditation on calm abiding.

  The yogis who are interested in actualizing a calmly abiding mind should initially concentrate closely on the fact that the twelve sets of scriptures—the sutras, melodious praises, and so forth—can be summarized as all leading to suchness, that they will lead to suchness, and that they have led to suchness.

  In the final analysis, the Buddha’s teachings are directly or indirectly related to suchness. The texts that obviously deal with impermanence, suffering, and so forth, also ultimately deal with suchness, for although they expound gross selflessness, such as the non-duality of subject and object, they lead directly to that subtle emptiness that the Buddha taught directly during the second Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.

  One way of doing this meditation is to set the mind closely on the mental and physical aggregates, as an object that includes all phenomena. Another way is to place the mind on an image of the Buddha. The King of Meditative Stabilization Sutra says:

  With his body gold in color,

  The lord of the universe is extremely beautiful.

  The Bodhisattva who places his mind on this object

  Is referred to as one in meditative absorption.

  There are various objects of calm abiding meditation. The tantric systems are unique in employing a meditational deity or seed-syllable as the object. Here, as taught in the sutra system, the Buddha’s image is used as the object. Meditative stabilization is a practice common to Buddhists and non-Buddhists. Therefore, it is advisable for a Buddhist to take the image of a Buddha as the object of meditation. In this way he or she will reap a number of incidental benefits, such as accumulating merit and remembering the Buddha. Visualize the image of the Buddha seated on a throne of precious jewels. It should be approximately the full length of your body away from you, abiding in the space in front of you at the level of your forehead. You should imagine that the image is both dense and radiant.

  The intelligent practitioner seeks concentration by first gaining a proper understanding of the view. Such a person focuses on emptiness as the object of meditation and aims to actualize calm abiding in this way. This is indeed difficult. Others use the mind itself as the object in their quest for calm abiding. The meditator in fact focuses on clarity and awareness, which is a way for the mind to focus on itself. This is not an easy task either. Initially a practitioner needs to identify clear awareness as an actual experience. The mind then focuses on that feeling with the help of mindfulness. Mind is mysterious and has myriad appearances. It cannot be identified in the way external objects can. It has no shape, form, or color. This mere clear awareness is of the nature of experience and feeling. It is something like colored water—although the water is not of the same nature as the color, so long as they are mixed the true color of the water is not obvious. Similarly, the mind does not have the nature of external objects such as physical form, and so forth. However, the mind is so habituated to following the five sensory consciousnesses that it becomes almost indistinguishable from the physical form, shape, color, and so forth, that it experiences.

  In this context, the mode of meditation is to deliberately stop all kinds of thoughts and perceptions. You start by restraining the mind from following the sensory consciousnesses. This should be followed by stopping the mind that reflects on sensory experiences and feelings of joy and misery. Focus the mind on its present and natural state without allowing it to become preoccupied with memories of the past or plans for the future. Through such a process the mind’s true color, so to speak, will gradually dawn on the practitioner. When the mind is free from all kinds of thoughts and concepts, suddenly a form of vacuity will appear. If the meditator tries to gain familiarity with that vacuity, the clarity of the consciousness will naturally become more obvious.

  Throughout the process of practicing calm abiding meditation, we should be fully aware of the five defects and the eight antidotes. The five defects are laziness, forgetting the object of meditation, mental dullness and excitement, not applying the antidote when afflicted by mental dullness or excitement, and unnecessary application of the antidotes. Let me identify the eight antidotes. They are faith, interest, perseverance, pliancy, mindfulness, conscientiousness, application of the antidotes when afflicted by dullness or excitement, and discarding unnecessary application of the antidotes. Faith here refers to the delight or joy in the practice of concentration that arises from appreciating its benefits. This naturally leads to interest in the practice and helps enhance perseverance. The first four antidotes—faith, interest, perseverance, and pliancy—counteract laziness, and the fifth antidote, mindfulness, counteracts forgetting the object of meditation. Conscientiousness, the sixth antidote, is the opponent of dullness and excitement. When the mind suffers from dullness, effort should be made to awaken and uplift the mind. Excitement should be countered by calming down the agitated mind. Through prolonged practice, the meditator gains mental stability and ascends through the stages of concentration. On the eighth and ninth stages the mind is in profound concentration. At that time, application of the antidotes is only a distraction, and so should be avoided.

  In this way place the mind on the object of your choice and, having done so, repeatedly and continuously place the mind. Having placed the mind in this way, examine it and check whether it is properly focused on the object. Also check for dullness and see whether the mind is being distracted by external objects.

  With respect to developing calm abiding meditation, the practitioner is at liberty to choose the object of meditation that he or she feels to be appropriate and comfortable. He or she should then concentrate the mind on the object, not allowing it to become distracted by external objects, nor letting it fall into the pits of dullness. He or she should aim to attain single-pointed concentration conjoined with sharp clarity.

  Dullness occurs when the mind is dominated by laziness and lacks alertness and sharpness. Even in everyday life we may describe our minds as “unclear” or “sluggish.” When dullness is present, the meditator is not holding firmly onto the object, and so the meditation is not effective.

  If the mind is found to be dull due to sleepiness and mental torpor or if you fear that dullness is approaching, then the mind should attend to a supremely delightful object such as an image of the Buddha or a notion of light. In this process, having dispelled dullness the mind should try to see the object very clearly.

  Mental torpor and dullness occur in a mutual cause-and-effect relationship. When a meditator is beset by fogginess, the mind and body feel heavy. The practitioner loses clarity, and the mind becomes functionally ineffective and unproductive. Dullness is a form of mental depress
ion, so to counteract it employ techniques that can help uplift the mind. Some of the more effective ways are to think about joyful objects, such as the wonderful qualities of a Buddha, or to think about the rarity of the precious human life and the opportunities it provides. You should draw inspiration from these thoughts to engage in a fruitful meditation.

  In developing calm abiding, the other main obstacle to be overcome is mental excitement. This is occurs when the mind is in a state of excitement, chasing the objects of desire and recalling past experiences of joy and happiness. Grosser forms of mental excitement will cause the mind to lose the object of concentration completely: in subtler forms only a portion of the mind attends to the object. The solution to this problem is to meditate on impermanence, suffering, and so forth, which can help the mind to settle down.

  You should recognize the presence of dullness when the mind cannot see the object very clearly, when you feel as if you are blind or in a dark place or that you have closed your eyes. If, while you are in meditation, your mind chases after qualities of external objects such as form, or turns its attention to other phenomena, or is distracted by desire for an object you have previously experienced, or if you suspect distraction is approaching, reflect that all composite phenomena are impermanent. Think about suffering and so forth, topics that will temper the mind.

  If you contemplate the faults of constant mental distraction, or any other object that would discourage your mind, you will be able to reduce mental excitement. When the mind loses the object of meditation and becomes distracted by thoughts of your past experiences, particularly in relation to objects of attachment, it is called excitement. When the mind completely loses the object of meditation and becomes distracted by actual external objects, it is gross excitement. If the mind has not lost the object of meditation, but a part of the mind dwells on an object of attachment, it is called subtle excitement. Excitement arises when the mind is too buoyant. When the mind is too buoyant and overly active, it is easily distracted. The antidote to this is to dampen down the mind’s high spirits, which can be done by withdrawing the mind. To do that, meditation on objects that reduce obsession and attachment toward external and internal objects is very helpful. And in this context, meditation on impermanence, suffering, and so forth is once again very useful.