In our practice we need to set ourselves boundaries. Allow yourself freedom within bounds.

Its like our little dog here at the Pagoda. We can’t be too strict with him, the dog needs space to live or it becomes miserable and dies. But too free and there is no training and all sorts of trouble can befall him. We cannot let the dog cannot run down the street alone, but you can put him in the garden, which has a gate, and then he can do as he pleases and not get into trouble. Within the boundaries.

This is the way to keep our practice consistent. The middle way that allows constant effort and isn’t the stop and go extremes of work and play that we sometimes experience. And just as the weightlifter needs to continually increase the weight to keep gaining muscle, so we need to continue taking up more restraint over time to keep progressing. We need to find the right balance for ourselves and we travel down the path. Over time (and with a lot of patience) we will find our way to freedom in a mind that remains peaceful in all situations.    

I only stayed at Pa Auk for a brief period but I nonetheless came away from the center with a wholesome meditation method I can practice. Having arrived at a comfortable understanding of samatha meditation that fits my western mind, I would like to share this method with others to benefit their meditation practice and help them to avoid confusion and bewilderment.

In theory, the practice is simple: breathe and observe the breath. However, understanding the method and then practicing accordingly – like anything worthwhile – requires patience and endurance. For example, terms like “natural breath,” “natural focus,” “breath as a concept,” and even “mindfulness of the object” and “concentration” are easy to misunderstand without proper guidance, personal experience and verification.

The Theravada Pa Auk retreat center is especially known for its samatha meditation practice and strict, orthodox observance of the Vinaya (the ‘basket of discipline’ – guidelines laid out for practitioners by the Buddha). The meditation teacher during my stay there was the Ven. U. Revata, who provided more than satisfactory meditation instructions that showed patience and compassion for all students, both east and west.

The Visuddhi Magga or Path of Purification is the definitive text for the method of meditation used at Pa Auk. Of the forty acceptable objects of samatha meditation set forth by the Buddha and explained in the Visuddhi Magga commentary, mindfulness of the in and out breath (ānāpāna) is the most common.

Samatha Meditation: A Method

“Samatha” can be translated as calm or tranquility meditation. Calm, in this sense, is not synonymous with relaxation – though relaxation is necessary. Relaxation is connected to the body, and when the mind is too relaxed we fall asleep. Nor is “samatha” synonymous with ‘overpowering the thought process into submission’ – this is overexertion.

Contrary to other teachings, the sitting position used in Pa Auk is a relaxed open lotus, with the right foot in front of the left. This is because, for beginners, other positions – such as the half or full lotus – will quickly become painful and distract one from the meditation object. The back should be strait, with the hands resting one on top of the other on the lap, and a two- to four-finger high cushion – which is neither too hard nor soft – should be placed under the buttocks. Tilt the head slightly forward to rest on the spine, and close the eyes (like in sleep). Comfort is important:if you experience too much discomfort, shift to a more suitable position. When we meditate for long periods of time, we naturally find a comfortable sitting posture. Next, begin to calm the mind by letting go of excitement, guilt, and self-judgment. Do not participate in any arising emotional state. This can be difficult, but it becomes easier if we remember that we are alone, no one can hear our thoughts, and the cultivation of samatha meditation will help us to overcome any difficulty. A common mistake is to think, “I will be calm for my kids, my friends, and all sentient beings”. Wrong! Often, people think in this way, but on a deeper level their practice is motivated by regret, guilt and the judgment of others. This is detrimental to our practice and will eventually spoil our progress.

It is better to be safe and find the wholesome motivation for ourselves first. When we create a stable, healthy mind we inspire others. The Buddha said, “That one who is himself sinking in the mud should pull out another who is sinking in the mud is impossible” (Majjhima Nikaya, I, 46, Salleka Sutta, p. 130) Eventually, we see with deep understanding that helping one’s self is the only way that we can help others.

My teacher instructed me to focus on “the natural breath in the general area under the nose” as the meditation object. For Westerners practiced in investigation and analyzation – but unfamiliar with simple observation and calming the mind – the phrase “general area” is notable. Focusing on the general area under the nose provides us with more space to sense the breath, and prevents the mind from focusing too strenuously on one point of the body instead of the breath. When we do not give the mind ample opportunity to calm down and our mindfulness is weak, we can often not sense the breath. For instance, when asked to focus on the breath at one point under the nose, many beginners complain of numbness or no feeling. At some point in their practice, almost everyone will experience numbness or moments when the breath is too subtle to be sensible. Normally, the cause of this numbness is too much effort. When it occurs, focus on the last point where the breath was observed and mindfulness of the object will return.

After meditating every day eight to ten hours, I found a beneficial rhythm and routine that I still use today. First, I relax my body, starting at the top of the head and moving down through the rest of the body until reaching the feet. I pay special attention to problematic areas like the face, shoulders, pelvis, and lower back where tension normally gathers. Being honest with myself, I bring my awareness to the state of my mind and body, and attempt to breathe naturally. Next, I let the mind calm down and clear until I think about nothing – no thoughts. Then, I allow the body to breathe by itself, releasing control of the breath and thoughts about how I ‘should’ breathe, and observe my natural breath as it is around the area of the nose. When our mind gets pulled away from the breath by thoughts, feelings or sounds, gently and patiently let go of them, and return to the awareness of the breath at point where it touches again.

We are ceaselessly stimulated in our culture of big, bright, loud, fast, and sexy, and our minds constantly jump from one object to another. The goal of samatha mediation is to attain one pointed concentration, something that cannot be achieved with two or more objects. Focusing on a single object continuously allows our mind to slow, settle and come to peace. With sustained practice, one learns to enjoy this experience even more than our normally distracted existence.

Questions

The answers below – provided by my instructor – are paraphrased from my journal entries.

How does one experience the natural breath?

First, relax the body. Then allow the mind to calm down and clear, so that one has no thoughts. At this moment one perceives the breath naturally. When one is not thinking or moving, the breath spontaneously becomes the most interesting object of focus. After raising many questions and experimenting, I came up with my own explanation, later verified by my teacher. The appearance of the natural breath arises when you allow your body to function on its own without any kind of control. It is the art of getting out of your own way. In fact, there are many signs that let you know you have gotten out of your own way, such as the sudden appearance of bliss, contentment, and confidence.

How should I observe?

I asked my teacher this question and received a puzzling answer: “Naturally observe the breath, as it is.” He also said, “First relax the body, then let the mind calm and clear, and observe the natural breath as it is,” and quoted the Buddha, “Observe the breath as a concept.” Confused by his answer, I went to a higher ranking monk who had eyes that glowed like fire and ice, and asked, “How should I observe the breath.” He said that just knowing the breath is enough,” and continued, “People make it so complicated. You see right now I am breathing, and I know I am breathing – this is enough.” Both of these venerable teachers instruct us to know the breath as a concept. In other words, do not try to understand the mental or physical anatomy of the breath or it’s separate, distinguishable attributes. Investigating and analyzing the breath in this way does not serve the purpose of samatha meditation. Instead, we should clarify the object by letting go of everything that is not the breath. Breath is breath – don’t think too much.

As I continued meditating, simply observing, or “knowing” the breath and breathing became my practice. I eventually realized that natural breathing and simple observation are linked, so that when one is tainted, the other quickly – or simultaneously – becomes tainted as well. For instance, when we are scared, the body automatically tenses and the breath becomes short and shallow, but if we relax, the breath is long and deep. When we are truly calm, the breath becomes so subtle that it is hard to know we are breathing.

What is mindfulness of the object?

To be aware of the object is to be mindful. But for our minds to be full of the object, we must be clear about what it is. Fortunately, clarity happens naturally when we have patience and endurance. As we continually return to the observation of the natural breath, our object, the actual concept of the breath, is clarified through direct understanding and familiarity. When the mind becomes clear in this way it is a sign that our mindfulness is increasing.

What is concentration?

Many of us fall into the trap of trying to hold onto the meditation object with too much effort for as long as we can. The mind quickly tires of this, and the more effort we put in, the more the object drifts away and frustration builds, generating anger and doubt. The trick is to see concentration in a different way.

While meditating, we become aware of the natural breath for a short time, and then get pulled away from it by thoughts, feelings, and sounds. We realize that we have left the breath and then return to it, knowing that we were not aware of it a moment before. The trick is to shorten the time between awareness of the breath, distraction, and returning to awareness. It is important not to wrench your mind back, rush, or get excited, but to simply be aware of the natural breath again. Because it is always there – we never stop breathing – we just have to observe it. Eventually, the time that we are unaware of the breath decreases and the time that we are aware of it increases. When we are able to naturally sustain the awareness without grasping on the breath, and let the mind settle there, content, continuously – we have obtained well-established mindfulness, or concentration.

It is important to remember that each meditation session is different. We should not expect to simply sit down and pick up where we left off the last time, because conditions and daily influences always change – everything is impermanent. Consequently, we should follow the steps mentioned above each time we sit.

Finally, if your mind is overwhelmed by thoughts, it cannot calm down. A simple technique to start with is to count each set of in and out breaths. In-out, One, in-out, Two, and so on up to a number between five and ten. There is no shame in counting – it is very effective. I counted my breath for weeks, every day, and eventually counted to ten 260 consecutive times without interruption, before I switched my awareness to the breath itself. This is a good technique for those that experience too many thoughts while meditating, because it keeps the mind busy enough to foster the suppression of those thoughts.

Whenever there is a problem between two people it always seems that some one has to be right and the other has to be wrong. We are always right and the other person is wrong. They have the wrong idea. They misunderstood. It is their problem and so on. But where is the practice in this even if they are wrong?

While on retreat in Mayanmar, I sat in a large wooden hall with great plaques hung on the walls. There were about 12 of them and each had a saying from the Buddha. These were hand picked by the Pa Auk Sayadaw as twelve important reminders of the practice. Out of all of them, the one that stood out the most was “Hatred is never appeased by hatred. In this world hatred is only appeased by non-hatred. This is an eternal law pleasing to Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas and Arahants”

How can we practice in this way and still be right all the time? We can’t. If we were to really practice non-self and loving kindness then wouldn’t we try to eliminate hatred wherever we see it, even if it is directed towards us?

The Dalai Lama often encourages his followers not to condemn the person but condemn the defilement. I take this to mean - build compassion towards the person not toward their hatred. Then what does it matter who is right who was wrong the important thing is there is hared where there could be loving kindness.

I have also heard the Dalai Lama explain the cultivation bodhicitta as the action of getting closer to others while deepening your understanding of emptiness. It seems pretty clear what we have to do. Finding the courage is the hard part.

Sometimes when we meditate it’s like we’re playing the lottery. We sit down, cross our legs, close our eyes, and hope for the best. Sometimes its good. Usually its sleepiness, thoughts from the day, or frustration. “Oh well, we think, maybe I’ll have a better one next time.” But why do high masters have more concentrated meditations more often? Is it because they get lucky more then we do? 

What many of us don’t realize is that meditation is actually a very active process. Its more than just trying our best to focus on the breath and then seeing what happens. We also need to balance ourselves. What does it mean to balance ourselves? Well, in Buddhist there is something called the 5 controlling factors.

The 5 controlling factors are:

Sadha-Faith

Viriya-Effort

Sati-Mindfulness

Samadhi-Concentration

Panna-Wisdom 

When we begin to meditate and we feel drowsy then what do we do? We need to balance that torpor with the factor of effort. Putting in more effort to stay with the object will keep help us alert. However, if we put in too much effort then we become restless. Then we need more mindfulness of our meditation object to keep us concentrated in one place. In the same way, if doubt arises then we need to cultivate more faith in the method, helping us to calm. Throughout this balancing act wisdom begins to arise. We start to see how the mind is working and the process becomes more subtle and you will begin to learn to make the slight balancing shifts in your mental state almost automatically (as long as your intention is to stay with the breath). 

We need to move past this lottery method of chance. We can take back the active control over our meditations to create the right mental conditions for samadhi to arise. 

By Hue Chuyen

To have a steady practice is very important. Actually, whatever we do whether it be our job, our family matters or our meditation practice we should find some amount of consistency. if we can manage, both our positive traits will improve and our negative traits -the causes of our suffering-  will become more apparent.

If in our job we can steadily improve and cultivate diligence we will slowly become wealthy. In the Mangala Sutta the Buddha says “untroubled occupations… this is the highest blessing”. It can cultivate diligence which is an attribute that can be applied and any facet of life. It can also cultivate a materially comfortable environment, good food, housing, clothes and a good education promoting a healthy body and mind. With money one has many opportunities to practice and cultivate the mind.

If we can find steadiness in cultivating good relationships with our friends and family our relationships can become deeper and more meaningful. Over time your friends and family observe and feel that you care about them. They will find safety in you. They will see that you are willing to spend time to develop the relationship. It is your resolution to create a more wholesome relation that they will feel and with time it will bear fruit.

In our daily practice we need to find a way to calm the mind and cool our craving. This is a difficult practice and is going against the kamma we have built for countless lives. It is going against a society that is always telling us to indulge in the whole spectrum of sensual desires from sex to knowledge. To calm the mind is a whole different direction. So to gain any ground we must find a consistent practice. This means we need to find a method that is suitable for us to use. There are 84000 different methods but to find one that is suitable for us in our lifestyle is important. Then bit by bit - seeing which methods are conducive to your calm mind – within the Buddha teachings – you can improve. You can sit for five more minutes or let down your guard and be honest with your loved ones, or become more diligent in your work place. The Buddha said give up evil and cultivate good and told his followers to use their judgment and what knowledge that they had to determine what was good and what was evil. Do no thing heedlessly.

Often we are doing this Buddhist practice in search of peace, in search of ease for our lives. However when we really being going against our tendencies we find much unpleasantness arises. Anger, frustration, and stress are just some of the effects that arise when we try and break out of our old ways. Its like when you tell a child he cant go to the ice cream shop and he throws a temper tantrum. Although we are older then this child in reality, on the emotional level we are still very much still like infants.

The Buddha tells us a story of a calf who broke free from a farm and wandered into town. The calf saw many sights and tasted many tastes while away. Finally, the farmers caught up to the calf and brought him home. Upon arrival at the farm he refused to drink his mothers milk and would keep trying to run off when put to pasture. So the farmers tied the calf to a stake. The calf would pull and whine and refuse to eat and try all kinds of things to get loose from his bindings. Eventually as time wore on the calf wore down. He came to his senses and again would drink his mothers milk and be content to be a calf on a farm.

We, very much like the calf, will try our best to be freed from our practice. When I was still a layman living in America, I once told my Master that I wanted to go to a party because I liked the sense of adventure. He said to try staying home, that would be the real adventure. Why is that the real adventure? Because when we don’t satisfy ourselves for even a moment then something in us rebels. We feel tension and strain and feel all kinds of things. When we sit and have leg pain, sometimes we don’t move the leg and try to just experience the pain. Sometimes we even feel like we’re dying from this kind of discipline. But its not real.

To break through this stubborn part of ourselves we need to be all fired up to practice and really be resolute in our goals. Almost like before we go to the gym to exercise, It helps to be ready some discomfort but knowing that there are beneficial results. Then, like an amtrak train, we can speed along through all to our obstacles to the destination ahead.

by Hue Chuyen

The first – The Dalai Lama once said that he learned what true compassion was from his mother. Without it, he would be lost in the Buddhist practice.

The second is something the Buddha said, recounted in the Metta sutra. He said, “Just as a mother would protect her only child, even so, develop a boundless loving-kindness to the entire world above, below, across, unhindered, without anger and without hostility.”

The third, which I realized myself, is gratitude. Really understanding how my mother and father have taken care of me since birth, through childhood, until now.

Without these three lessons, I would be lost in the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha shows us the path with the theory and the method. But, he cannot feel for us, he cannot experience for us, and therefore, unlike Jesus or God, he cannot save us from the perils of the world. We must, and can only, do it ourselves.

To find a calm mind, we must draw on our positive past experiences to create a safe environment for our mind to calm, to take down its guard. If you are having trouble finding a calm mind, I might suggest rummaging through your comfortable memories.

While teaching seminars in America this June, Venerable Thich Thien Son stopped by the Tibet House in New York City to give the first of a series of public talks. Zen students from Hartford to Philadelphia shared the night with a mixed handful of local New Yorkers to hear the Venerable Abbot explain the teachings of the Buddha.

Aimed specifically to combat the problems of stress and busyness, this talk proved exceptionally helpful to those city practitioners who cannot find the space and time needed to truly quiet their rampant minds.

Along with real life examples and heartwarming stories this is Thich Thiens Son’s only recorded Dharma in English. You are all welcome to listen and enjoy a piece of this special evening.

Ven. Thich Thien Son @ the Tibet House (New York) - mp3

]]> http://www.phathue.com/front_right/get-to-the-point/feed/ http://www.phathue.com/blog/choice/ http://www.phathue.com/blog/choice/#comments Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:13:03 +0000 huegioi http://www.phathue.com/?p=228 Video (its worth the download time. Please read and comment on the blog while the video loads)

Today Hue Gioi showed me a video where a man showed people 2 photographs and said “You can only have 1 of them.” To one group of people he said their decision is final and to the other group he said you can switch photographs 4 days later if you are unsatisfied with your choice. He also then asked them to fill out surveys measuring how happy they were with their choices. It turned out that people who could not switch their photograph (the people who were stuck with their choice) were happier with their decision. They could accept it because they had no choice. However the second group who had the possibility to switch photographs became very unhappy with their choices and wanted to change. But even after that change remained unhappy. When we still feel like we have a choice, a way to get out of it, then we don’t need to accept how things are.

Thay once said that the difference between the way Westerners treat the rules and the way Asians treat the rules are different. He said Westerners are more in the consumer culture mind and we want to throw things out immediately if they don’t seem useful for us. This is why the divorce rate is so high. But in Asian, because the people didn’t have much, they had to make due with what they have and try to change their minds to accommodate the situation. So for Asians, they accept the rules and try to understand the rules in their own way so it makes sense. They accept things are the way they are and try to find their peace with this.

This can actually come down to a statement about contentment. Does contentment come from getting what we want or from letting go of wanting and accepting how things are? Does our meditation improve the more we try to get certain states and attainments or does it become frustrating and feel hopeless? How many of us have tried to just sit and enjoy the feeling of the breath without trying to make more of it?

Thich Nhat Hanh says, “With every step a lotus blooms”. With each action we take with presence and awareness, not wanting something else from the moment but accepting it as is, we can arrive at our practice and at the heart of peace.

By Hue Chuyen

This quote has two good points to it. The first being that we as human beings develop habit as a means to save time; we do things in the same way again and again until they become second nature. This way we really learn how to do things naturally and without much effort. This allows information or knowledge to become ingrained in us and become long term memory. That means that this knowledge has become hardwired into our brain and we can use this pattern to save time in the future. It is like having a formula already set to solve a math problem. But, the second part is not so nice. The fact is that sometimes we don’t even know that we are forming a habit. Actually, many of our habits we do not choose consciously so there is no way to check them. They go un-checked and they could create problems for us in the future. This is like having a formula for solving a math equation that always gives us the wrong answer.

So how do we make sure that we choose good habits? How do we sustain these good habits? How do we spot the bad habits and do away with them? Video How our habits can hinder our happiness.