Calm Abiding Meditaion

Guide to Calm Abiding Meditation Adapted by Pandita Thundrup Namgyal from an article by Thrangu Rinpoche Introduction The meditator eager to get exact instructions on meditating may be tempted to breeze through the sections on devotion and faith in the guru and focus on the very practical techniques such as how to hold one's posture in meditation, but this is to miss the whole essence of meditation, which is an all- encompassing way of viewing the world, a method of developing one's individual relationship to self and others Studying the Dharma We should begin by examining our mental disposition, which means turning our mind inwards and examining whether our attitude is pure or impure. Because we are just ordinary beings, sometimes our attitude will be pure and at other times it will be impure. There is nothing surprising about this. When we find our attitude is pure, we can rejoice and let it remain pure. When we find our attitude is impure, there's no reason to become disheartened, because we can change it. If we change it, again and again, little by little our negative attitude will naturally become pure. To develop this disposition for enlightenment, we should think that whatever we are doing, we are doing it to help all beings reach Buddhahood. The Need for Meditation When we do a physical action, this action can have either a positive or a negative result. When we say something, it can be either good or bad. So with words and actions we can see tangible results, but with thoughts there is no concrete action expressed. The mind, however, determines all of our physical and verbal actions because whatever we do, there is thought behind it. When that thought is positive, the actions that follow are good; when that thought is negative, the actions that follow are negative. The starting point of changing what we do is to change the way we think. When we try to change a mental disposition, we must modify our habits. We can do this though meditation, that is, using our mind in a more concentrated, controlled way. What is troubling the mind can be removed with meditation so our mind can exist in its purity. If our mind is distracted, we can change it into an undistracted mind through meditation. We can change bad habits into good habits through meditation. Then when we manage to change our mental habits, we can change our physical actions and verbal behavior. Once we have changed these, we can reach the ultimate goal of our practice, Buddhahood. Faith and Devotion The one thing common to all meditation practice is having the right motivation of wanting to benefit all persons, not just ourselves. With the practice of meditation, we can actually get the mind to rest on, what we want it to rest on and the mind becomes clearer and more peaceful. The Vajrayana tradition has developed a practice that makes it possible to go through this process much more quickly than other meditation practices. In this practice one prays to one's guru and to all the gurus that have come before and develops a very strong devotion--an openness to receive their blessings. If one prays to the gurus, one receives the blessing, and through this blessing one's meditation progresses rapidly and naturally. How is it possible that blessings are not felt by some? It is not because the Buddhas and the gurus feel, "Well, he doesn't pray to me, so I'm not going to give him blessings." The Buddhas and gurus look upon all beings with the same kindness and love as a mother has for her only son, but only persons open to these blessings can feel them. The compassion and the blessings of the Buddhas are there constantly, but there has to be something in beings that is open to receive the blessings. Faith and devotion are like a ring for the hook of the Buddhas' compassion and blessings to pull us out of samsara. No matter how much compassion the Buddhas have, without devotion nothing will happen. The Posture in Meditation There are two important points in meditation--the body and the mind. As far as the body is concerned, it is important to keep the body straight so that the subtle channels of the body will be straight, too. If these subtle channels are straight, then the subtle energies within these channels will circulate freely. There are many descriptions of good meditation posture and we will use the five-point description. The first point is that the body should be straight and upright. It should be "as straight as an arrow" which means one's back should be straight and one shouldn't lean forwards, backwards, or to either side. The second point is that the throat should be slightly bent downwards like a hook. There are two subtle channels inside the throat, and if they are bent slightly forward, the energy will circulate in them reducing mental agitation in one's meditation. Imagine a string tied to the crown of your head being pulled straight up. This will result in a slight drop of the chin. Breath in the through the nose and out through the mouth, relaxing the jaws and relax your eye muscles. You will find that your eyes are not completely shut, but slightly open.The third point is that the legs should be crossed the half lotus posture. The fourth point is to join the hands, placing the right fingers over the left and join the thumbs above them. The fifth point is to keep one's mind and body reasonably tight exerting a certain amount of effort so the body and mind are composed and focused. One should always maintain a certain amount of effort and alertness in the body and mind. The Mind in Meditation When one meditates, do it for a short time; but do it again and again and again. The whole point is to develop a habit of meditation. If one meditates at first for too long, the mind just becomes more and more agitated and difficult to control. If one meditates for a short time and renews the session many times, then each time the mind will be fresh and clear and able to settle down more easily. So meditate again and again until the habit of meditation grows stronger. It is important to control the mind in meditation. The uncontrolled mind is very strong and dangerous like an angry elephant. Not only can it not be controlled, but the mind just goes its own way. If a very strong negative feeling of anger or desire arises, we are normally not able to control it. But it is our mind, so we can control it if we use the right tools of mindfulness and awareness. Awareness knows exactly what we are doing while we are doing it. Mindfulness is having control of our mind and not letting it run out of control. When meditating, we should not follow a thought about the past, we should not anticipate the future, and we should not be involved with thoughts of the present. We should just relax and leave them alone by not following them one way or another. We must avoid following thoughts in our meditation because meditation is simply leaving things just as they are without being too relaxed or too tense. If we manage to do this, we will find that the mind calms down quite naturally by itself. If we use mindfulness and awareness properly in our meditation, our mind will become tranquil. There are two main obstacles to the tranquility of the mind. One is becoming too relaxed and the other is becoming too tense. When we become too relaxed, we start to follow our thoughts and become absorbed in them. When we are too tense, we make too much effort focusing on the idea of concentrating and being tranquil so that in the end our mind cannot remain tranquil and we become distracted. We have to constantly try to find the balance between being too tense and too relaxed by finding just the right amount of effort to put into our meditation Meditating on an Outer Object There are three main techniques of meditation: concentrating on an outer object, concentrating on an inner object, and concentrating on no object. The goal of meditation is to reach the point of not needing any object in meditation. But to prepare for this goal we need to gain familiarity with meditation using outer objects and then inner objects. In the beginning it is useful to meditate on an outer object such as a statue or candle, or even soothing music. Meditating on an outer object is not to examine or think about it, but to simply remain aware of it and not become distracted by other thoughts. If other thoughts arise, we should try to become aware of these thoughts as quickly as possible and immediately drop them and return our awareness to the statue. For the beginner this meditation is difficult to do for a very long time because we become lost in our thoughts very easily. So we meditate for a brief time with good concentration so our meditation doesn't become entangled with thoughts all the time. We do it for a short time in the beginning, and when we find that it is becoming a little easier, we can extend the duration of the meditation session. One just abandons all physical activity and remains very quiet when meditating. One should stop talking and stop thinking; just leave the mind at rest. If we start having an important thought that is distracting us from our meditation, we just gently bring our attention back to the object of mediation and rest in the awareness of it without thinking about it. If our mind starts to follow a thought, just recognize this fact and bring the mind back to the statue. If we practice this kind of meditation more and more, we will then gradually have more and more mental peace with the mind being able to concentrate and there will be increasing clarity of one's meditation. Insight Meditation In the practice of dharma, we have to work with our body, speech, and mind. The mind determines the quality of our physical and verbal activity. We are trying to free ourselves from problems and suffering and thus go beyond samsara. The root of samsaric existence is the defilements and as long as these are present, we cannot expect to have any lasting happiness. There are two ways through which we will be able to gain freedom from the defilements; both involve meditation. Through meditation we will first gain some mental tranquility which leads to having fewer thoughts. With fewer thoughts, we will have fewer negative thoughts leading to fewer negative actions. The seeds of karmic potential are still present in our consciousness, so we must develop an understanding of the nonexistence of "self." We therefore meditate on the actual nature of phenomena. The second aspect of meditation that can clear negativity away is insight meditation (vipashyana meditation). But to develop strong insight meditation, we must first develop strong tranquility meditation. Without tranquility meditation the mind just goes everywhere and we are not able to control it. Once we have developed tranquility meditation, we are able to use the mind in a controlled way. So if we decide to let it be at rest, we can do that. If we decide to focus it on something, we can also do that. The ideal way to gain tranquility meditation is to just let the mind rest naturally without any thoughts. But this is extremely difficult to achieve because we have become so used to having thoughts and being involved with them. Because we have always turned our minds towards objects outside of us, it is easier to use an external object for our meditation when we first begin to meditate. So the first step is to meditate on an outer object such as a small Buddha statue. Obstacles to Tranquility Meditation In meditation there are three main obstacles to actual tranquility meditation. The first obstacle is "thinking" instead of resting in awareness. The second is feeling sleepy. It's a feeling of boredom or dullness which leads to a major obstacle to clarity in meditation. The third obstacle is agitation in which the mind becomes very active and one has many thoughts and follows these so that the mind cannot rest at all. The way to correct this dullness is to readjust your posture and reaffirm our understanding of how much we can gain through meditation. Thinking this will create a feeling of happiness, and our inspiration and enthusiasm will be renewed so we will automatically correct our sinking mind. Meditation has the short term effect of creating tranquility and the long term effect of making one free from negativity and the causes of all unhappiness. Mental agitation is caused by distraction. Realign your mind and take deep breaths. You can use your mala to count out 27 breaths to calm your mind. Developing Clarity in Meditation To assist in developing clarity of mind, when a strong thought or emotion arises, examine its nature. What does it look like? Where does it reside? Where does it go when it subsides? Through this kind of examination we cultivate the meaning of emptiness and the illusory nature of phenomena. By developing concentration through our meditation, we can attain tranquility. It is taught that once one reaches a certain degree of mastery in meditation, it automatically brings great physical and mental comfort. This is because meditation reduces thoughts that are constantly distracting us or obstructing the nature of phenomena and this reduces our negative feelings. Meditation will also bring a very great feeling of happiness because little by little, we will be able to gain control over our thoughts and feelings (and I might add, the first 6 levels of consciousness). Post Meditation Practice As our concentration gets better little by little through the power of meditation, we will be able to expand this natural concentration to the rest of our life. Whether we are walking, sitting, talking to other people, or working we can learn to stop our mind from wandering. If we can eliminate distractions and develop better mental concentration, our life will automatically be better, which will also improve our worldly and dharma practice. We cannot depend on other people to modify our state of mind. Controlling our mind is entirely up to us. This is something we can do ourselves with a little mindfulness and awareness. Little by little as our concentration improves, we can turn our mind inwards more easily. As I have sad before, a bodhisattva is not a mirror to the negative emotions of others, but rather the light that eliminate the shadows of negativity. Mahamudra Meditation The true nature of mind is both emptiness and clarity. The path to enlightenment is a gradual realization of emptiness, the true nature of phenomena and the nature of mind. First one gains a theoretical understanding of this through the teachings of one’s guru and contemplation. Then, through mahamudra meditation, one comes to the direct recognition of the true nature of phenomena by looking at the true nature of the mind.