Three Attitudes

Three attitudes prevent us from receiving a continual flow of blessings.
They are compared to three 'pots':

- a full pot,
- a pot with poison in it, and
- a pot with a hole in the bottom.

The pot that’s filled to the brim is like a mind full of opinions and preconceptions. We already know it all. We have so many fixed ideas that nothing new can affect us or cause us to question our assumptions.

The pot containing poison is like a mind that’s so cynical, critical, and judgmental that everything is poisoned by this harshness. It allows for no openness and no willingness to explore the teachings or anything else that challenges our righteous stance.

The pot with a hole is like a distracted mind: our body is present but we’re lost in thought. We’re so busy thinking about our dream vacation or what’s for dinner that we’re completely deaf to what’s being said.

Knowing how sad it is to receive blessings and not be able to benefit, Shantideva wants to save himself grief by remaining open and attentive. Nothing will improve, he says, unless we become more intelligent about cause and effect.

This is a message worth considering seriously!!!

From No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva

Pages 83-84.

Vipassana Meditation

Namaste friends & Yoga enthusiasts.. I'm posting again a article from our old blog which I  wrote originally in November 2008. I talked today to a friend who is going to Vipassana for the first time.. so I thought about sharing this once again. There you go:

Hi guys.. I have just come back from my second 10 days Vipassana Meditation course, in Dhamma Giri, the headquarters of Vipassana International Academy in Igatpuri, and would like to share with you about this experience. Have a look at the pictures from Dhamma Giri complex. (Pictures of the Meditation Halls are not allowed.)

For those who don’t know, Vipassana is a technique of Meditation taught in ancient times by Gautama 'the Buddha' himself, and preserved (in Burma) in its pristine form by a long line of teachers descended directly from the Buddha and it was brought back to India by S.N. Goenka, or Goenkaji as he is widely and respectfully referred to.

The technique involves the following observances and practices: Sila (morality), Samadhi (concentration) and Panna (wisdom).

And for those who think meditation is an easy job… that you just need to sit cross-legged and do nothing… you will be surprised to know that Vipassana Meditation is a hard work and that the 10 days course calls for a lot of effort and discipline.

In Goenkaji’s own words, one has to “work diligently, ardently, persistently, patiently but continuously, observing sensations throughout the body and remaining equanimous, understanding the technique properly, purifying the mind, to work out one’s own liberation from misery”.

More about the Technique

The technique of Vipassana is a simple, practical way to achieve real peace of mind and to lead a happy, useful life. Vipassana means "to see things as they really are"; it is a logical process of mental purification through self-observation.

From time to time, we all experience agitation, frustration and disharmony. When we suffer, we do not keep our misery limited to ourselves; instead, we keep distributing it to others. Certainly this is not a proper way to live. We all long to live at peace within ourselves, and with those around us. After all, human beings are social beings: we have to live and interact with others. How, then, can we live peacefully? How can we remain harmonious ourselves, and maintain peace and harmony around us?

Vipassana enables us to experience peace and harmony: it purifies the mind, freeing it from suffering and the deep-seated causes of suffering. The practice leads step-by-step to the highest spiritual goal of full liberation from all mental defilements.

About the Course

The standard meditation course in this tradition is a residential course of ten days’ duration. The participants commit themselves to staying on the course site for the full ten days, observing a rigorous timetable, maintaining complete silence (Noble Silence) among themselves for the first nine days.

(Individual Cells for Meditation around the main Pagoda)

At the beginning of the course, we take the five precepts as given by the Buddha to householders: to refrain from killing, to refrain from stealing, to refrain from telling lies (one of the reasons for the Noble Silence), to refrain from sexual misconduct (which involves the maintenance of complete celibacy for the duration of the course), and to refrain from taking any intoxicants.

We start with the practice of Anapana Meditation, that is, the observation of natural breath. On the fourth day, when some concentration has been gained, we switch to the practice of Vipassana Meditation, the systematic observation of the entire mind-matter phenomenon through the medium of bodily sensations. On the last full day, we practice Metta-bhavana, that is, loving kindness, or sharing with others the merits we have gained.

Important aspects of the practice during the course

Noble Silence – (means silence of body, speech and mind) one abstains completely from communication with others whether vocally, or physically by glances or gestures. By doing so one becomes capable of approaching mental silence.

Adhitthana – (means strong determination) to sit in a comfortable position of your choice for a full hour, observing sensations and remaining equanimous with a strong determination that you are not going to open your eyes, hands and feet.

Awareness and Equanimity – They are like the two wings of a bird. They should be equal in size and strength, otherwise it can not fly. In Vipassana is the same, being aware and equanimous should be the same in size and strength, otherwise it won’t work.

If you want to do a 10 day course of Vipassana Meditation you can get all information you need and make the reservation online at http://www.vri.dhamma.org/

That's it for now. You can write to me if you want more details and tips for the course. Take care.

The Middling Stages of Meditation – Part 3

In Mahayana Buddhism the aim of all efforts is not only to attain Self-Liberation, but to do so in order to help other sentient beings to rid themselves from suffering and cyclic existence, in other words, to help them to achieve liberation too. This is known as the ideal of the Bodhisattva.

In this line: “Bodhicitta is a ‘mental consciousness’ which is the entry way to the Mahayana path and is concomitant with its assistant aspiration that focuses on complete enlightenment for the benefit of others.”

Bodhicitta is of two types: conventional and ultimate. Conventional Bodhicitta is the cultivation of the initial thought that aspires to attain unsurpassable and perfectly consummated Buddhahood in order to benefit all wandering sentient beings. The ultimate bodhicitta is transcendental and free from all elaborations. It is extremely clear, the object of the ultimate, stainless, unwavering, like a butter lamp undisturbed by the wind.

This is achieved through constant and respectful familiarity with the Yoga of Calm Abiding Meditation and Special Insight over a long period of time.

Calm Abiding & Insight Meditation

It is very important to understand that:

“Yogis cannot eliminate mental obscurations merely by familiarizing themselves with calm abiding (Shamata) meditation alone. It will only suppress the disturbing emotions and delusions temporarily. Without the light of wisdom, the latent potential of the disturbing emotions cannot be thoroughly destroyed, and therefore their complete destruction will not be possible.”

For this reason, the Unraveling of the Thought Sutras says:

‘Concentration can suppress the disturbing emotions properly and the wisdom can thoroughly destroy their latent potential’.

The Unraveling of the Thought Sutras also says:

“Even if you meditate with

single-pointed concentration

You will not destroy the

misconception of the Self

And your disturbing emotions

will disturb you again;

This is like Udrak’s single-pointed meditation.

When the selflessness of

phenomena is examined specifically,

And meditation are performed

on the basis of that analysis,

That is the cause of the resultant liberation;

No other cause can bring peace.”

For this reasons, those who wish to attain the thoroughly purified transcendent wisdom by eliminating all obscurations should meditate on wisdom while remaining in calm abiding meditation.

The Heap of Jewels Sutra says:

“Single-pointed concentration is achieved by adhering to moral ethics. With the achievement of single-pointed concentration, you meditate on wisdom. Wisdom helps you to attain a pure pristine awareness. Through pure pristine awareness your moral conduct is perfected.”

A Yogi’s mind will be distracted to various objects if he cultivates only special insight without meditating on a calmly abiding mind. It will be unstable like a butter lamp in the wind. Due to the power of calm abiding meditation, the mind will not be disturbed by the wind of conceptual thoughts (... and) special insight eliminates every stain of wrong views.

The Moon Lamp Sutra says:

“By the force of calm abiding meditation, the mind will become unwavering, and with insight it will become like a mountain.”

Therefore, maintain a Yogic practice of them both.

Initially the Yogi should seek the prerequisites that can assist him in actualizing calm abiding meditation and special insight quickly and easily. So we’ll see those in the next post.

Namaskar !!

The Middling Stages of Meditation - Part 2

Meditating on Compassion

Before beginning meditation proper one can prepare oneself by cultivating suitable mental states. Suitable states are those which bring calm and peace to the mind and help one to achieve a balanced stated. So the instruction to meditate o compassion is given. Here the word “meditate” should be understood more like “contemplate” or to “think about”. How to do it:

The Outset

Developing Equanimity

“Begin the practice by meditating on equanimity. Try to actualize impartiality towards all sentient beings by eliminating attachment and hatred. […] Begin the meditation on equanimity by thinking of a neutral person and then consider people who are friends and foes. After the mind has develop equanimity towards all sentient beings meditate on loving-kindness. Moisten the mental continuum with the water of loving-kindness and prepare it as you would a piece of fertile ground. When the seed of compassion is planted in such a mind, germination will be swift, proper and complete. Once you have irrigated the mind stream with loving-kindness, meditate on compassion”.

The idea here is to understand how all sentient being are looking forward to be happy and trying to avoid suffering. The feeling of equanimity here is developed when one thinks deeply on how in this beginningless cycle of existence, there is not one sentient being who has not been one’s friend or relative hundreds of times. If one takes this perspective there is no ground for being attached to some and hating others. So one thinks:

“I shall develop a mind of equanimity towards all sentient beings”.

The compassionate mind has the nature of wishing all suffering beings to be free from suffering, so with the base of an equanimous mind one is advised to meditate on compassion for all sentient beings which experience all types of pains and sufferings. Animals suffer from hunger and thirst and experience immense physical suffering: they eat each other, become angry, and are hurt and killed. The human beings too experience various types of suffering:

“Not being able to find what they want, they are resentful and harm each other. They suffer the pain of losing the beautiful things they want and confronting the ugly things they do not want, as well as pain of poverty. There are those whose minds are bound by various fetters of disturbing emotions like craving desire. Others are in turmoil with different types of wrong views. These are all cause of misery, therefore they are only in intense pain like being on a precipice. […] Pervasive misery is what arises under the power of causes characterized by actions and disturbing emotions. It has the nature and characteristics of momentary disintegration and pervades all wandering beings”.

The advice is that whether you are engaged in one-pointed meditation or pursuing your ordinary activities, meditate on compassion at all times, focusing on all sentient beings and wishing that they all be free from suffering.

Developing Loving-kindness

“Begin by meditating on your friends and relatives. Recognize how they experience the various sufferings that have been explained. Then having seen all sentient beings as equals with no difference between them, you should meditate on sentient beings to whom you are indifferent. When the compassion your feel towards them is the same as you feel towards your friends and relatives, meditate on compassion for all sentient beings throughout the ten directions of the universe”.

“Meditation on loving-kindness begins with friends and people you are fond of. It has the nature of wishing that they meet with happiness. Gradually extend the meditation to include strangers and even your enimies. Habituating yourself with compassion you will gradually generate a spontaneous with to liberate all sentient beings. Therefore, having familiarized yourself with compassion as the basis, meditate on the awakening mind of bodhichitta”.

This is getting interesting, isn't it? We shall continue in the next post.

Have a try with this technique and then let me know your comments, please.

Namaskar!!!

The Middling Stages of Meditation - Part 1

I and Jeenal are in Mcleod Ganj/Dharamshala since past two weeks. For those who don’t know, Mcleod Ganj is the residence of his holiness the Dalai Lama and the headquarter of the Tibetan Government in exile.

After submitting an application form and getting a teaching pass few days ago, we were blessed today to attend the lecture of the Dalai Lama in the temple complex. We saw him passing nearby while coming inside the temple. We set just outside the main hall where he was to deliver his lecture.

He started by presenting in brief the main tenets of the Buddha’s teachings:

From the Dhammapada:

“Commit no evils; engage in virtuous deeds; subdue one’s mind thoroughly. This is the teaching of the enlighten one.”

This short verse can be considered to have the essence of all the teachings of the Buddha.

He then proceeded by explaining in short the way out of suffering. The path to liberation as taught by the Buddha is also known as The Noble Eight-fold Path divided in three sets of practices: the practice of morality; the practice of concentration; and/leading to the cultivation of wisdom (thought insight meditation).

At the request of his students he was then discussing on a scripture about The Middling Stages of Meditation. A bit of it I’ll introduce to you here:

“It is not possible for omniscience to be produced without causes, […] from among these causes and conditions, you should cultivate correct and complete causes. If you put the wrong causes into practice, even if you work hard for a long time, the desired goal cannot be achieved. It will be like milking a (cow’s) horn. Likewise, the result will not be produced when all the causes are not put into effect. […] Therefore, those who desire a particular result should cultivate its complete and unmistaken causes and conditions.”

This is a warning to people who think that one can practice meditation without a previous preparation. So this is especially pertinent regarding the practice of Yamas and Niyamas in Yoga.

In the context of the Buddha teachings and as per the system of Mahayana Sutras the following is presented:

"Therefore, if you are interested in achieving omsniscience, you need to practice these three: compassion, the awakening mind of bodhichitta and skillful means.”

On compassion

With reference to the Boddhisattvas, who moved by compassion take the vow to liberate all sentient beings, the practice of compassion is exalted:

“Having entered into this practice they will certainly complete the collection of merits and insights. Accomplishing the accumulation of merit and insight is like having omniscience itself in the palm of your hand There, since compassion is the only root of omniscience, you should become familiar with this practice from the very beginning.”

The Buddhisattvas have already achieved all their own goals, but remain in the cycle of existence for as long as there are sentient beings. This is because they possess great compassion. Therefore, great compassion alone is the unavoidable cause of the non-abiding nirvana of a Buddha.

How to meditate on compassion and how to proceed further I’ll share in my next post.

Till then.. Namaskar !!