thanks for this mike...merle
Here is a no nonsense account of what both samatha (calm) and vipassana
(insight) are by Ayya Khema. Personally, I find her straight forward style of
writing stunningly refreshing compared to the 'paradox wrapped up in an enigma'
style of Zen instruction (I'm sure that is just on account of my own
short-comings, rather than Zen's). I think such clearly set out instructions
on how to meditate, and what to expect, in Vipassana suit my style more than
the more sparse, stripped down style found in Zen ("style" isn't quite the word
I'm looking for, but you know what I mean). Anyway, enjoy!
II. Skillful Means
The two aspects of our being are mind and body. We have to pay attention to
both of them, even though meditation is a mind exercise, not a body
exercise.
Some of the most common questions are: "How am I going to learn to sit?" "How
am I not going to have any pain?" That is only possible through
continued application, doing it again and again. In the beginning, the
body just doesn't like sitting cross-legged on the floor.
We can use this situation as skillful means. When discomfort arises in
the body, we learn to pay attention to the mind's reaction, and do not
move automatically. Everybody in the world is trying to get out of any
kind of discomfort with an instinctive, immediate reaction. It's not
that we're not going to get out of discomfort, but in order to make
meditation pay off, we have to learn to get out of instinctive,
immediate reactions. It's those that land us in dukkha over and over again.
When there is an uncomfortable feeling, it is essential to realize what
is happening within. We notice that there is a sense contact, in this
case "touch!" The body is making contact; the knees with the pillow, the legs
with each other, several contacts are happening. From all sense
contacts, feelings arise. There is no way out of that, this is how human beings
are made. The Buddha taught cause and effect, that dependent
upon any sense contact, feeling results. There are three kinds of
feelings, pleasant, unpleasant and neutral. We can forget about the
neutral ones, because we are hardly ever aware of them. Neutral is
actually considered pleasant, because at least it doesn't hurt. From
this particular touch contact that is being made through the sitting
posture, there arises, after a while, an unpleasant feeling. The
immediate reaction is to move. Don't! Investigate! By getting to know
our own mind, we get to know the world and the universe. All minds
contain the seed of enlightenment. Unless we know our own mind, we
cannot develop and cultivate that seed. here the mind has been contacted with
an unpleasant feeling, our perception says: "this is painful." Our next step
are the mental formations, which are also kamma formations,
because we make kamma through our thought processes.
First came the sense contact, secondly feeling arose. Then perception,
naming it, followed by dislike. At the moment of dislike, there is the
running away through changing our position. That is the kamma making
aspect. This is minor negative kamma, yet it's negative, because the
mind is in a state of ill-will by saying "I don't like it."
The mind may start all kinds of rationalizations: "I wish I'd brought my own
little chair"; "I can't sit"; "At my age I shouldn't do things like this";
"Meditation is too difficult." None of these explanations have
any intrinsic validity, they are only a mind reacting to an unpleasant
feeling. Unless we become acquainted with our mind's reactions, we're
not using meditation in the most beneficial manner.
Knowing the unpleasant feeling, we can now try to acquaint ourselves
with its true nature. Our whole life is lived according to our feelings. Unless
we become aware of our reactions to feelings, we remain half
asleep. There is a beautiful little book called The Miracle of Being Awake.
This miracle is nothing but mindfulness, knowing what's going on
within. When we have realized we want to get rid of the unpleasant
feeling, then we can try to disown it for a moment. Only the Arahant is
fully capable of complete detachment, but we can do so for a short time. The
unpleasant feeling has arisen without our asking for it and we
don't have to believe it to be ours. We can let it be just a feeling.
If we do that for a moment, we can get back to the meditation subject,
and have won a victory over our own negative reactions. Otherwise we are
letting our unpleasant feelings rule us in whatever way they want. The
whole of humanity runs after pleasant feelings, and away from unpleasant ones.
Unless we at least know that, we have no reference point for
inner change. It may not be possible to reverse that reaction yet, but
at least we know it is happening.
After we have become aware of our mind's intention, we're free to move
and change our sitting position. There is nothing wrong with changing
one's posture but there's something wrong with instinctive, impetuous
habits. Meditation means total awareness. Being awake is not the
opposite of being asleep; it is the opposite of being dull and foggy.
Such mind states are mostly due to an unwillingness to look at our own dukkha.
We'd rather hide in a fog. In meditation that won't do. The Buddha said that
this body is a cancer; the body as a whole is a disease, and we
can experience that when just sitting still, it becomes uncomfortable.
Meditation means samatha and vipassana, calm and insight.
Unless we know the limitations of each and also their possibilities, we
won't be able to make good use of the practice. We are generally
applying both of them in every session, but we must be able to
distinguish between them. If there is no understanding of what's
happening in the mind, the fog settles down in it.
Everybody would like bliss, peace and happiness. That is a natural wish. They
are available in meditation, with a lot of practice, and some good kamma.
However they are not the goal of meditation. The goal of
meditation is insight. Yet skillful means for gaining insight are needed and
are found in tranquillity meditation.
Making use of a meditation subject, the mind, after some training, will
be able to stay on it for a while. Presuming that the mind is able to
focus on the breath for even a short time, we realize afterwards that
some peace arose, because the mind was not thinking. The thinking
process in everybody's mind is hardly ever profound. It's just thinking. Just
as the body breathes, so the mind keeps churning. And it keeps
churning out mostly irrelevant, unsubstantial and unimportant details,
without which we would be much happier.
The mind in its original form is pure. It's clear and lucid, luminous,
pliable and expandable. Our thinking is the impurity and the blockage.
There's hardly a person who doesn't think all day long, probably without even
being aware of it. But when we start meditating, we do become
aware of our inner restlessness. We realize we can't keep the mind on
the meditation subject, because we are thinking instead of meditating.
The moment we experience our thinking habit (even that takes time to
realize) we accomplish two things. We become aware of our mind's
activity and also the content of our thoughts. We will realize
immediately that our thinking is irrelevant and makes little or no
sense. Because of that, we can let go of it fairly easily and return to
the meditation subject. We have to be able to stand back and watch the
thinking process and not get involved in it. Otherwise we'll just keep
on thinking instead of meditating.
The mind is the greatest and most delicate tool existing in the
universe. All of us have it, but few look after it properly. Practically
everybody is interested in looking after their bodies. Eating,
sleeping, washing, exercising, seeing the doctor when the body is sick,
cutting hair, nails, filling teeth, doing everything that's necessary to keep
the body functioning well. In reality, the body is the servant and the mind is
the master. So we are looking after the servant and
forgetting the master. If we do that in our homes, we create chaos.
That's one of the reasons why the world looks as chaotic as it does.
People kill each other, steal from each other, are unfaithful, lie,
gossip and slander. Most have absolutely no ideas that the mind is our
most precious asset. It gives us wealth beyond compare and yet we don't
know how to look after it.
We have to do exactly the same thing for the mind as we do for the body. We
need to give it a rest. Imagine if we didn't go to sleep for three
or four days, how would we feel? Without energy, without strength,
pretty terrible. The body needs a rest, but the mind does too. During
the day it thinks, at night it dreams. It's always busy. The only real
rest it can ever get, which energizes and gives the needed boost to
become clear and lucid, is to stay on the meditation subject.
The mind needs a clean-up, which means purification. This happens when
all thinking is stopped for a while, because of one-pointed
concentration. One moment of concentration is one moment of
purification. At that time the mind cannot contain ill-will or sensual
desire, or any other negativity. When the concentration ceases, the mind
reverts to its usual behavior again. In meditation we can experience
that a purified mind gives us happiness, and quite naturally we will try to
keep that purification process going also in daily living.
The mind needs the kind of exercise that is not geared towards winning
or achieving anything, but just to obey. When we ask the mind to stay on the
meditation subject, yet it runs away from it, we know immediately
that we are not the master of our mind, but that the mind does what it
pleases. When we have realized that, we will be less likely to believe
our own views and opinions, particularly when they are unwholesome,
because we understand that the mind is simply thinking habitually. Only
through the meditation process can we become aware of that.
The mind also requires the right kind of food. Because in meditation we
can reach states of higher consciousness, we are thereby able to nourish the
mind in a way which cannot happen in the ordinary thinking process.
Tranquillity meditation leads the mind into realms which are totally
unavailable to us otherwise. Happiness and peacefulness arise without
dependence on outer conditions, which give us a new freedom.
The mind of every human being contains the seed of Nibbana. We need
training in order to realize what is obscuring our vision. Then the seed can be
cultivated and nurtured to full growth. Because our minds
contain such a potential, they also contain the peace and happiness
which everybody wants. Most people try to find fulfillment through
acquiring material objects, seeing or touching, eating or knowing them.
Particularly having more and keeping it all safe.
This dependency is a guarantee for dukkha. As long as we depend
on outer conditions, whether people, experiences, countries, religions,
wealth or fame, we are in constant fear of losing our footing, because
everything changes and vanishes. The only way we can have real peace and
happiness, is by being independent of all around us. That means gaining access
to the purity of our mind without thinking, which involves
staying on our meditation subject long enough for our consciousness to
change. The thinking consciousness is the consciousness we all know. It
contains constant ups and downs, either liking or disliking, wanting
something in the future or regretting something about the past, hoping
for better days or remembering worse ones. It is always anxious and
cannot be expected to be totally peaceful.
We are familiar with a different consciousness also, for instance when
we love someone very much. That emotion changes our consciousness to
where we are only giving from the heart. We know a different
consciousness when we are involved with religious activities, with faith and
confidence aroused. We are giving ourselves to an ideal. None of
that lasts through, and all depends upon outer conditions.
Through meditation we can change our consciousness to an awareness of
purity within, which all of us have, only obscured through thinking. At
that time we realize that such an independent peace and happiness are
only possible when the "me" and "mine" are forgotten for a moment, when
"I want to be happy" is eliminated. It is impossible to have peace when
thinking about "self." This will be our first inkling of what the Buddha meant,
when he said non-self (anatta) is the way out of dukkha.
Because it is difficult for the mind to stay on the meditation subject,
we have to use everything that arises for insight. Eventually the mind
becomes clear and sharp and is no longer bothered by the outer
manifestations that touch upon it, such as sound and thought, which are
the most common ones. Finally a depth of concentration is reached.
When unpleasant feelings arise let us use them for insight. We didn't
ask for the feelings, why are they ours? They are certainly changeable,
they get worse or better, they move their position, and they give us a
very good indication that the body is dukkha.
The body isn't doing anything except sitting, and yet we have dukkha, for the
simple reason of not liking the feeling as it is. When we use
the unpleasant feeling to actually realize the first and second noble
truths, we've come nearer to the Dhamma in our hearts. The first noble
truth being the noble truth of dukkha, the second being the reason for dukkha,
namely craving. In this case, we're craving to get rid of the
unpleasant feelings. If we were totally accepting of the feeling, not
making any value judgments, there would be no dukkha.
We can try letting go of this craving for a moment; anyone with some
strength of mind can do that. Just accepting the feeling as it is, not
disliking it. Then there's no dukkha, for just that moment. That
will be a profound insight experience, because it will show without the
shadow of a doubt, that if we drop our desires, dukkha disappears. Naturally
when the body feels uncomfortable, it's difficult
to drop the craving to get rid of that discomfort. But anybody can do it for
just one moment, and it's an essential and in-depth experience of
the Dhamma.
When we are able to step back to observe our thought processes we
realize that the mind is continually thinking. It may take from 5-10
minutes to become aware of that, for someone who hasn't practiced
meditation previously. For an experienced meditator it may only take a
second or two. Next we can see what kind of thinking we are indulging in and
the more often we see it, the less enraptured we'll be with it. We
become aware of the fact that this is the way the human mind acts, not
just ours, but everybody's and we'll know the truth about the mind.
There is nothing else to be seen except that. When we observe that the
thinking goes on and that it is insignificant, it will be so much easier to let
go. We also see how very fleeting thoughts are, how they come
and go all the time. We'll know from experience then, that no real
happiness is to be found in something so short-lived, yet the whole
world is trying to achieve happiness that way. We can't even remember
what we thought a moment ago, how can that bring happiness? Such
insights make it possible to drop the distractions and get back to the
meditation subject.
We are using the two approaches of calm and insight in conjunction with
each other. When calm is firmly established, insight arises
spontaneously. It's important to realize that calm meditation is
essential. If isn't as if some people like it and others don't.
If the ocean has high waves and we want to look beneath the surface to
see what can be found there, we can't recognize anything at all while
the waves are rising. There is too much movement, all is stirred up and
nothing is to be seen. When the waves subside and the ocean surface
becomes calm and transparent, then we can look underneath the surface of the
water and see sand, coral and multi-colored fish. It's the same in
the mind. When the mind has all the waves and motions of thinking, that
churning in the mind makes it impossible to see absolute reality. On the
contrary, the mind refuses to look beyond ordinary knowing. But when
the mind becomes totally calm, then there is no value judgment, and we
can see easily what lies underneath the surface.
In order to understand the Buddha's teaching, we have to get below the
surface, otherwise our insights will be superficial. The calm mind is
the means for delving below relative reality. While we are trying to
become calm, at the same time we're objectively examining all that
arises, so that there is more and more support for letting go of the
thinking. The less we believe in our thoughts, the less we expect of
them and the happier we will be to let them go. Then we get an inkling
of what inner peace and happiness mean.
These inner feelings are most pronounced in meditation, but can be
carried into daily living in a milder form, primarily because the mind
knows it can always return to peace and happiness in meditation, without having
to depend on any situation or any person. Worldly affairs no
longer have the former sting in them; they are just happening, that's
all, the same as thinking and feeling are arising and ceasing, without
an owner or a maker.
