BASIC THEMES – PROLOGUE
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Basic Themes
PROLOGUE
Beginning meditators should search for two things as external aids to their practice –
1. Suitable companions (puggala-sappāya): Be discriminating in choosing people to associate with. Search only for companions who have peace of mind. This can be any group at all, as long as the group as a whole is aiming for mental peace.
2. A suitable location (senāsana-sappāya): Choose a quiet place with an agreeable atmosphere, far from human society. Places of this sort, providing physical seclusion, are conducive to the practice of meditation. Examples listed in the Canon include caverns and caves, the shade of an over-hanging cliff-face, the forest wilderness, and empty houses or buildings where not too many people will come passing by. Places like this are an excellent aid and support for a beginning meditator.
When you go to stay in such a place, don’t let your thoughts dwell on topics that will act as enemies to your peace of mind. For example, don’t preoccupy yourself with magic spells or the black arts. Instead, call to mind and put into practice principles and qualities that will be to your benefit. For example –
Appicchatā: Be a person of few wants with regard to the necessities of life.
Santuṭṭhi: Be content with the possessions you already have.
Viveka: Aim solely for peace, quiet, and seclusion.
Asaṅsagga: Don’t entangle yourself with human companionship.
Viriyārambha: Be single-minded and persistent in making the mind still and at peace.
Sīlānussati: Reflect on your own conduct to see if you’ve overstepped any of your precepts, and – if you have – immediately purify your behavior through your own intention.
Samādhi-kathā: Focus on calling to mind the meditation theme on which your mind can become firmly established.
Paññā-kathā: Focus exclusively on those topics that will give rise to discernment and clear insight.
Vimutti: Make the mind well-disposed toward the search for release from all defilements.
Vimutti-ñāṇa-dassana: Focus on contemplating how to come to the realizations that will enable you to gain release from the fermentation of all defilements.
These principles are guidelines for meditators of every sort, and will direct the mind solely to the path leading beyond all suffering and stress.
What follows is a short-hand list of essential principles, selected to help prevent meditators from getting tied up in the course of their practice. These principles, though, should be viewed merely as incidental to the Dhamma. The reality of the Dhamma has to be brought into being within ourselves through our own energies: This is called practicing the Dhamma. If we go no further than the lists, we’ll end up with only concepts of the Dhamma. Our ultimate aim should be to make the mind still until we reach the natural reality that exists on its own within us, that knows on its own and lets go on its own. This is the practice of the Dhamma that will lead us to the realization of the Dhamma – the true taste and nourishment of the Dhamma – so that we will no longer be caught up on the ropes.
In other words, conceptualized Dhamma is like a rope bridge for crossing over a river. If we take the bridge down and then carry it with us, it will serve no purpose other than to weigh us down and get us all tied up. So no matter how much conceptualized Dhamma you may have memorized, when you come to the point where you’re practicing for real you have to take responsibility for yourself. Whether you are to win or lose, let go or cling, will depend on how much Dhamma you’ve built into your own mind. This is why we’re taught not to cling to the scriptures and texts, to meanings and concepts. Only when we train ourselves to get beyond all this will we be heading for purity.
Attāhi attano nātho:
Nothing can help us unless we can rely on ourselves. Only when we realize this will we be on the right track. The Buddha attained all of the truths he taught before he put them into words. It wasn’t the case that he came up with the words first and then put them into practice later. He was like the scientists who experiment and get results before writing textbooks. But people who simply read the textbooks know everything – for example, they may know every part in an airplane – but they can’t produce one out of their own knowledge. To be a consumer and to be a producer are two different things. If we cling merely to the concepts of the Dhamma, simply memorizing them, we’re no more than consumers. Only if we make ourselves into producers, so that others can consume, will we be acting properly.
To be successful producers, we have to accept responsibility for ourselves. If there’s any area where we don’t succeed, we should apply our own ingenuity until we do. If we rely just on the ingenuity of others, then we can’t depend on ourselves. And if we can’t depend on ourselves, why should we let other people think that they can depend on us?
This is why I have compiled this list of principles merely as a brief beginning guide for meditators.
1. Paṅsukūlikaṅga: the practice of wearing robes made from thrown-away cloth.
2. Tecīvarikaṅga: the practice of using only one set of three robes.
3. Piṇḍapātikaṅga: the practice of going for alms.
4. Sapadācārikaṅga: the practice of not bypassing any donors on one’s alms path.
5. Ekāsanikaṅga: the practice of eating no more than one meal a day.
6. Pattapiṇḍikaṅga: the practice of eating one’s food only from one’s bowl.
7. Khalupacchābhattikaṅga: the practice of not accepting any food presented after one has eaten one’s fill.
8. Āraññikaṅga: the practice of living in the wilderness.
9. Rukkhamūlikaṅga: the practice of living under the shade of a tree.
10. Abbhokāsikaṅga: the practice of living out under the open sky.
11. Sosānikaṅga: the practice of living in a cemetery.
12. Yathāsanthatikaṅga: the practice of living in whatever place is assigned to one.
13. Nesajjikaṅga: the practice of not lying down.
1. Ākantuka-vatta: duties of a monk newly arriving at a monastery.
2. Āvāsika-vatta: duties of a host-monk when a newcomer arrives.
3. Gamika-vatta: duties of a monk when leaving a monastery.
4. Anumodanā-vatta: duties connected with expressing appreciation for donations of food.
5. Bhattaka-vatta: duties to observe before and after one’s meal.
6. Piṇḍicārika-vatta: duties to observe when going for alms.
7. Āraññika-vatta: duties to observe when living in the wilderness.
8. Senāsana-vatta: duties to observe in looking after one’s dwelling place.
9. Jantaghara-vatta: duties to observe in using the fire-house.
10. Vaccakuṭī-vatta: duties to observe in using the toilet.
11. Upajjhāya-vatta: duties to observe in attending to one’s preceptor.
12. Ācariya-vatta: duties to observe in attending to one’s teacher.
13. Saddhivihārika-vatta: a preceptor’s duties toward his pupil.
14. Antevāsika-vatta: a teacher’s duties toward his pupil.
(The Wings to Awakening)
1. The four establishings of mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna): body, feelings, mind, mental qualities.
2. The four right exertions (sammappadhāna): making the effort to prevent evil from arising, to abandon whatever evil has arisen, to give rise to the good that hasn’t yet arisen, and to maintain the good that has.
3. The four bases of power (iddhipāda):
Chanda – an affinity for one’s meditation theme.
Viriya – persistence.
Citta – intentness on one’s goal.
Vimaṁsā – circumspection in one’s activities .
4. The five faculties (indrīya): conviction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, discernment (factors that are pre-eminent in performing one’s duties).
5. The five strengths (bala): conviction, persistence mindfulness, concentration, discernment (factors that give energy to the observance of one’s duties).
6. The seven factors for Awakening (bojjhaṅga):
Sati-sambojjhaṅga – mindfulness and recollection.
Dhammavicaya-sambojjhaṅga – discrimination in choosing a meditation theme well-suited to oneself.
Viriya-sambojjhaṅga – persistence.
Pīti-sambojjhaṅga – rapture; fullness of body and mind.
Passaddhi-sambojjhaṅga – physical stillness and mental serenity.
Samādhi-sambojjhaṅga – concentration.
Upekkhā-sambojjhaṅga – equanimity.
7. The eightfold path (magga):
Sammā-diṭṭhi – Right View.
Sammā-saṅkappa – Right Resolve.
Sammā-vācā – Right Speech.
Sammā-kammanta – Right Action.
Sammā-ājiva – Right Livelihood.
Sammā-vāyāma – Right Effort.
Sammā-sati – Right Mindfulness.
Sammā-samādhi – Right Concentration.
Ten recollections; ten foul objects; ten kasiṇas; four sublime abidings; four formless absorptions; one resolution into elements; and one perception of the filthiness of food.
1. Buddhānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Buddha.
2. Dhammānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Dhamma.
3. Saṅghānussati: recollection of the virtues of the Saṅgha.
4. Sīlānussati: recollection of one’s own moral virtue.
5. Cāgānussati: recollection of one’s own generosity.
6. Devatānussati: recollection of the qualities that lead to rebirth as a heavenly being.
7. Kāyagatāsati: mindfulness immersed in the body.
8. Maraṇassati: mindfulness of death.
9. Ānāpānassati: mindfulness of breathing.
10. Upasamānussati: recollection of the virtues of nibbāna – ultimate pleasure; unexcelled ease, free from birth, aging, illness and death.
1. Uddhumātaka: a rotten, bloated corpse, its body all swollen and its features distended out of shape.
2. Vinīlaka: a livid corpse, with patchy discoloration – greenish, reddish, yellowish – from the decomposition of the blood.
3. Vipubbaka: a festering corpse, oozing lymph and pus from its various orifices.
4. Vichiddaka: a corpse falling apart, the pieces scattered about, radiating their stench.
5. Vikkhāyittaka: a corpse that various animals, such as dogs, are gnawing, or that vultures are picking at, or that crows are fighting over, pulling it apart in different directions.
6. Vikkhittaka: corpses scattered about, i.e., unclaimed bodies that have been thrown together in a pile – face up, face down, old bones and new scattered all over the place.
7. Hatavikkhittaka: the corpse of a person violently murdered, slashed and stabbed with various weapons, covered with wounds – short, long, shallow, deep – some parts hacked so that they’re almost detached.
8. Lohitaka: a corpse covered with blood, like the hands of a butcher, all red and raw-smelling.
9. Puḷuvaka: a corpse infested with worms: long worms, short worms, black, green, and yellow worms, squeezed into the ears, eyes, and mouth; squirming and squiggling about, filling the various parts of the body like a net full of fish that has fallen open.
10. Aṭṭhika: a skeleton, some of the joints already separated, others not yet, the bones – whitish, yellowish, discolored – scattered near and far all over the place.
1. Paṭhavī kasiṇa: staring at earth.
2. Āpo kasiṇa: staring at water.
3. Tejo kasiṇa: staring at fire.
4. Vāyo kasiṇa: staring at wind.
5. Odāta kasiṇa: staring at white.
6. Pīta kasiṇa: staring at yellow.
7. Lohita kasiṇa: staring at red.
8. Nīla kasiṇa: staring at blue (or green).
9. Ākāsa kasiṇa: staring at the space in a hole or an opening.
10. Āloka kasiṇa: staring at bright light.
1. Mettā: goodwill, benevolence, friendliness, love in the true sense.
2. Karuṇa: compassion, sympathy, pity, aspiring to find a way to be truly helpful.
3. Muditā: appreciation for the goodness of other people and for our own when we are able to help them.
4. Upekkhā: When our efforts to be of help don’t succeed, we should make the mind neutral – neither pleased nor upset by whatever it focuses on – so that it enters the emptiness of jhāna, centered and tranquil to the point where it can disregard acts of thinking and evaluating as well as feelings of rapture and ease, leaving only oneness and equanimity with regard to all objects.
1. Ākāsānañcāyatana: being absorbed in a sense of boundless emptiness and space as one’s preoccupation.
2. Viññāṇañcāyatana: being absorbed in boundless consciousness as one’s preoccupation, with no form or figure acting as the sign or focal point of one’s concentration.
3. Ākiñcaññāyatana: focusing exclusively on a fainter or more subtle sense of consciousness that has no limit and in which nothing appears or disappears, to the point where one almost understands it to be nibbāna.
4. Nevasaññā-nasaññāyatana: being absorbed in a feeling that occurs in the mind, that isn’t knowledge exactly, but neither is it non-awareness; i.e., there is awareness, but with no thinking, no focusing of awareness on what it knows.
These four formless absorptions are merely resting places for the mind because they are states that the mind enters, stays in, and leaves. They are by nature unstable and inconstant, so we shouldn’t rest content simply at this level. We have to go back and forth through the various levels many times so as to realize that they’re only stages of enforced tranquility.
i.e., regarding each part of the body simply in terms of physical properties or elements.
i.e., viewing food as something repugnant and unclean – with regard to where it comes from, how it’s prepared, how it’s mixed together when it’s chewed, and where it stays in the stomach and intestines.
* * *
With one exception, all of the meditation themes mentioned here are simply gocara-dhamma – foraging places for the mind. They’re not places for the mind to stay. If we try to go live in the things we see when we’re out foraging, we’ll end up in trouble. Thus, there is one theme that’s termed vihāra-dhamma (a home for the mind) or anāgocara (a place of no wandering): Once you’ve developed it, you can use it as a place to stay. When you practice meditation, you don’t have to go foraging in other themes; you can stay in the single theme that’s the apex of all meditation themes: ānāpānassati, keeping the breath in mind. This theme, unlike the others, has none of the features or various deceptions that can upset or disturb the heart. As for the others:
– Some of the recollections, when you’ve practiced them for a long time, can give rise to startling or unsettling visions.
– The ten foul objects can give rise after a while to visions and sometimes to sense of alienation and discontent that turns into restlessness and distress, your mind being unable to fabricate anything on which it can come to rest, to the point where you can’t eat or drink.
– The ten kasiṇas, after you’ve stared at them a long while, can give rise to visions that tend to pull you out of your sense of the body, as you become enthralled by their color and features, to the point where you may become completely carried away.
– As for the resolution into elements, when you become more and more engrossed in contemplating the elements, everything in the world becomes nothing more than elements, which are everywhere the same. You come to believe that you no longer have to make distinctions: You’re nothing more than elements, members of the opposite sex are nothing more than elements, food is nothing more than elements, and so you can end up overstepping the bounds of morality and the monastic discipline.
– As for the perception of the filthiness of food, as you become more and more caught up in it, everything becomes repulsive. You can’t eat or sleep, your mind becomes restless and disturbed, and you inflict suffering on yourself.
– As for the four sublime abidings, if you don’t have jhāna as a dwelling for the mind, feelings of goodwill, compassion, and appreciation can all cause you to suffer. Only if you have jhāna can these qualities truly become sublime abidings, that is, restful homes for the heart to stay (vihāra dhamma).
So only one of these themes – ānāpānassati, keeping the breath in mind – is truly safe. This is the supreme meditation theme. You don’t have to send your awareness out to fix it on any outside objects at all. Even if you may go foraging through such objects, don’t go living in them, because after a while they can waver and shift, just as when we cross the sea in a boat: When we first get into the boat we may feel all right, but as soon as the boat heads out into the open bay and we’re buffeted by wind and waves, we can start feeling seasick. To practice keeping the breath in mind, though, is like sitting in an open shelter at dockside: We won’t feel queasy or sick; we can see boats as they pass by on the water, and people as they pass by on land. Thus, keeping the breath in mind is classed:
– as an exercise agreeable to people of any and every temperament;
– as anāgocara, an exercise in which you focus exclusively on the breath while you sit in meditation, without having to compound things by sending your awareness out to grab this or get hold of that;
– and as dhamma-ṭhīti, i.e., all you have to do is keep your mind established firm and in place.
The beginning stage is to think buddho – ‘bud-’ with the in-breath, and ‘dho’ with the out. Fixing your attention on just this much is enough to start seeing results. There’s only one aim, and that’s:
that you really do it.
If there is anything you’re unsure of, or if you encounter any problems, then consult the following pages.
