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 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 !!