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This is an excellent 5 star book. It started me on my meditation journey by using the breath with easy to follow instructions, something no other book or text managed to achieve.
Humans do not just have thoughts. They are also aware of their thoughts.
Vipassana is a gentle technique, but is also very thorough. It is attentive listening, mindful seeing and careful testing. We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully, and really pay attention to the changes taking place in all these experiences. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.
We usually do not see what is in front of us. We see life through a screen of thoughts and concepts, and we mistake those mental objects for reality.
The irony is that real peace comes only when you stop chasing it.
Even as you read these words, your body is ageing. But you pay no attention to that, do you? The papers in your hand are decaying. The print is fading, and the pages becoming brittle. The walls around you are aging. The molecules in those walls are vibrating rapidly and everything is going to pieces and slowly dissolving.
One day you look around you. Your skin is wrinkled and your joints ache. This pamphlet is a faded thing and the building is falling apart!
So you pine for your lost youth, cry when your possessions are gone. Where does this pain come from? It comes from your own inattention. You failed to look closely at life. You failed to observe the constantly shifting flow of the world as it passed by.
We have taken a flowing vortex of thought, feeling, and sensation and solidified that into a mental construct , and called it “me.” We treat it as if it were static and enduring, and separate from all other things. We pinch ourselves off from the rest of that process of eternal change that is the universe, and we grieve over how lonely we feel. We ignore our inherent connectedness to all other beings and decide that “I” have to get more for “me” ; then we marvel at how greedy and insensitive human beings are! And on it goes.
Attitude Pointers:
(1) Don't expect anything.
(2) Don't strain.
(3) Don't rush.
(4) Don't cling to anything, and don't reject anything. Don't fight with what you experience, just observe it mindfully.
(5) Let go.
(6) Accept everything that arises.
(7) Be gentle with yourself.
(8) View all problems as challenges. Don't try to solve problems or push yourself too hard. Just feel your problems. And move on.
When we are mindful we notice certain things that are unpleasant to realize. We include people, places and material things into our likes and dislikes. Also opinions, ideas, beliefs and decisions. We do not like what naturally happens to us. We do not like growing old, becoming sick, becoming weak or showing our age. We have a great desire to preserve our appearance. We do not like it when someone points out our faults! We take great pride in ourselves. We do not like someone to be wiser than we are, for we are deluded about ourselves. These are all examples of our personal experience of greed, hatred and ignorance.
If we lose the hatred in us, then we will not be concerned when someone points out our shortcomings. Rather, we will be thankful to the person who draws our attention to our faults. We have to be extremely wise and mindful to THANK the person who exposes our faults for helping us to tread the upward path of self-improvement. We all have blind spots. The other person is our mirror in which we see our faults with wisdom.
It is only by knowing our deficiencies that we improve ourselves and cultivate noble qualities hidden deep down in our subconscious mind.
If we are blind to our own flaws, we need someone to point them out to us and then we should be grateful to them.
Both pointing out our shortcomings and responding to the person who points them out should be done mindfully. If someone becomes unmindful in indicating faults and uses UNKIND or HARSH language, he or she might do more harm than good to themselves as well as to the person whose shortcoming they point out.
The fivefold goal:
(1) Purification of mind.
(2) Overcoming sorrow.
(3) Overcoming pain and grief.
(4) Treading the right path leading to attainment of eternal peace.
(5) Attaining happiness by following that path.
When you meditate you must not change your original position. Then your mind can settle down and experience the bliss of meditation.
After sitting on your cushion, TAKE 3 DEEP BREATHS. Then breathe normally focusing your attention on the rim of your nostrils. Simply notice the feeling of breath going in and out. When one inhalation is complete and before exhalation begins, there is a brief pause. Notice it and notice the beginning of exhalation. When the exhalation is complete there is another brief pause. Notice that too.
What you are looking for is the physical, tactile sensation of the air that passes in and out of your nostrils. This is usually just inside the tip of your nose, though can vary in people.To find your own point, take a quick deep breath and notice where you feel the passing air. Once you have found your own breath point, dont deviate from that spot. Otherwise you will always be moving up and down your nose chasing the breath everywhere!
Do not verbalize. Breathe without saying “I breathe in/out.”
At the beginning your breaths are short, but then they become longer. As you continue to practice, your mind and body become so light that you may feel that you are floating on the air or water. Subtle and deep breathing arises. You may stop noticing the presence of your breath entirely. Then you should be mindful and go back to the rim of your nostrils.
As soon as you notice that your mind is no longer on your breath, mindfully bring it back and anchor it there.
Counting: The purpose of counting is simply to focus the mind on the breath. Once your mind IS focused on the breath, stop counting. Its a device for gaining concentration.
Breathe in and when the lungs are full say “one.” Then breathe out and say “two.” Count in this manner up to ten. Then count backwards from ten to one. Continue as long as necessary.
As you keep your mind focused on the rim of your nostrils, you will be able to feel the pleasant sensation of a SIGN. Its different for everybody. It will be like a star, a round gem, or a bunch of flowers, or a puff of smoke, or a cobweb, or a WHITE CLOUD (ME!!) or the disc of the moon or sun.
Now that you have the SIGN as the third object of meditation. When you focus your mind on this third object, your mind reaches a stage of concentration sufficient for your practice of insight meditation. This sign is strongly present at the rim of your nostrils. Master it and gain full control of it so that whenever you want, it should be available.
As you pay bare attention to it, you will see that the sign itself is changing every moment. Keep your mind with the changing moments.
The unity of your mind with the present moment is called momentary concentration. To unite the mind with the present moment, we must find something happening in that moment. Once you have such concentration, you can focus your attention on anything you experience. The rising and falling of your belly, or breath for example.
To make any progress in insight meditation you need this kind of momentary concentration.
Posture:
The most important thing is to sit with your back straight. Your head should be in line with the rest of your spine. The spine should be like a firm young tree growing out of soft ground. The rest of the body just hangs loose from the spine. IT TAKES PRACTICE!
The clothes you wear should be loose and soft.
You then work your way to the half-lotus and then full lotus positions.
SINKING: Its a dimming of awareness. It is a sort of mental vacuum in which there is no thought, no observation of the breath, no awareness of anything. It is a gap, a formless mental grey area rather like a dreamless sleep. Sinking mind is a void. AVOID IT!
Music and talking are the worst distractions.
You will probably find it helpful to sit in the same place each time.
First thing in the morning is a great time to meditate and start your day. Wash your face, or shower before you begin. You may want to do a bit of exercise beforehand to get the circulation flowing.
The evening is another good time to practice.
We recommend that after a year or so of steady practice you should be sitting comfortably for an hour at a time.
There may be days where it is physically impossible for you to sit that long. Then remember that even ten minutes of meditation can be very beneficial.
You can repeat this statement to yourself in order to pump yourself up for the job:
“ I am about to tread the very same path that has been walked by the Buddha and his great followers. A lazy person cannot follow that path. May my energy prevail. May I succeed.”
Or you can recite this loving and friendly verse:
“May all living beings be well, happy and peaceful. May no harm come to them. May they always meet with spiritual success. May they also have patience, courage, understanding, and determination to meet and overcome inevitable difficulties, problems, and failures in life. May they always rise above them with morality, integrity, forgiveness, compassion, mindfulness and wisdom.”
Lay aside all your troubles and conflicts when you practice meditation. They are just distractions.
Why should we wish well on our enemies? Practically speaking, if all your enemies were well, happy and peaceful, they would not be your enemies. If you could convert a vicious and wicked person into a better individual, you would perform a miracle.
When you hate somebody you wish bad things to happen to them. To have no friends, or money. To have pain and unhappiness. However, what actually happens is that your own body generates such harmful chemistry that you experience pain, increased heart rate, tension, change of facial expression, loss of appetite, deprivation of sleep, and you appear unpleasant to others. You go through the things that you wished upon your enemy!
If you are miserable that is the reality, so confront it. Look at it square in the eye. When you are having a bad time, examine that experience, observe it mindfully, study the phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built. You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece. The trap can’t trap you if it has been taken to pieces. The result is freedom.
Pain is inevitable, suffering is not.
Go into the pain fully. Don't block the experience. Explore the feeling. Get beyond your avoiding reaction and go into the pure sensations that lie below that.
The physical resistance to the pain consists of tensing the muscles in and and around the painful area. RELAX THOSE MUSCLES. Take them one by one and relax each one very thoroughly.
The mental resistance consists of an wordless “I dont like this feeling” or “go away” attitude. It is subtle, but there. Locate it, and relax that too.
What works on pain will work on anxiety and depression too.
If you have any odd sensations when meditating, simply observe until it passes. Don't get involved in any feeling of lightness or ecstatic stupor.
Emptying your mind of thoughts is not as important as being mindful of what the mind is doing.
If you get bored breathing, you are conceptualizing the process. When you are clearly mindful of the breath, it is not boring. Mindfulness looks at everything with the eyes of a child, with a sense of wonder. Mindfulness sees every moment as if it were the first and the only moment in the universe. So look again.
Look at your state of boredom mindfully. What is boredom? Where is boredom? What does it feel like? What are its mental components? Does it have any physical feeling? What does it do to your thought process? Take a fresh look at boredom, as if you have never experienced that state before.
If you become restless or bored, you can welcome these feelings! Because they are providing you with the very ‘resistance training’ you need to enhance your concentration and awareness! If you can sit through a small amount of this thought or sensation that you have to move, lots of growth can come from that. Meditation is not easy!
If you experience fear or bad memories. Treat the whole dynamic as if you were a curious bystander. Don't fight or try to repress the memories or the feelings or fantasies.
The instant you realize you have been unmindful, that itself is an act of mindfulness.
When you have been distracted, simply say to yourself “Okay, I have been distracted for about 2 minutes,” or ”since the dog started barking,” or ” since I started thinking about money.”
Buddhists classify these thoughts as “unskillful” : greed, hatred or delusion.
Skilful thoughts are those with generosity, compassion and wisdom.
You need to be drawn to people and be friendly not to make yourself feel better. Not for your own personal gains.
People who are socially isolated tend to be less healthy both psychologically and physically and more likely to die prematurely than people who have extensive social relationships.
Look at a strong emotional response (to a person or situation) that you don't want anymore. See how it makes you feel. See how it makes you appear to others. Work up a sense of disgust about the way you feel. Real loathing. This should end the problem!
Learn to notice distractions without being trapped in them. Any preoccupation that takes you off the breath. Switch your attention to the distraction briefly when you notice it. What is it? How strong is it? How long is it lasting? Then let it go peacefully and go back to breath.
The distraction can be a sound, a sensation or emotion or thought. Dont repress it or force it away. Just observe it. DO NOT BERATE YOURSELF. If you do berate yourself, observe that too . Hehe. The mind is to thought what the ear is to sound.
Whatever arises in the mind is viewed as just one more opportunity to cultivate mindfulness. Even if its mindfulness of the distraction.
Trickiest of all are those really positive mental states that come creeping into meditation. Happiness, peace, inner calm, compassion. They are so sweet and kind that you dont want to lose them. But you need to let them go, just like any other mental state.
Every mental state has a birth, growth and a decay. You should try and see these stages.
Advanced : Recognize thoughts and mental states as they arise from deeper levels in your conscious mind. These states arise first in the UNCONSCIOUS. So you have to try and extend your awareness down into this area.
We do not just think about things, we are also aware that we are thinking.
See pain as just a pure surging energy flow. It is not even painful. It can be beautiful!
With mindfulness one sees all phenomena without references to “I” , “me” , “mine”. For example, suppose there is a pain in your left leg. Ordinary consciousness would say, “I have a pain.” Using mindfulness, one would simply note the sensation as a sensation. One would not tack on that extra concept “I”.
Concentration:
This consists of forcing the mind to remain in one point. FORCE.
Mindfulness is more sensitive. It notices things. Concentration holds on one object.
Only mindfulness understands and brings wisdom. It does not categorize. It's just a gentle effort. You are exactly as you are. You see your own selfish behaviour. You see how you hurt others. Mindfulness does not try to achieve anything.
Concentration comes first. Then mindfulness follows.
One of the most memorable events in your meditation career is the moment when you first realize that you are meditating in the midst of a perfectly ordinary activity. You are driving, or taking out the rubbish and it just turns on by itself. This unplanned outpouring of the skills that you have so carefully fostering is a genuine joy. It gives you a tiny window on the future. You catch a spontaneous glimpse of what the practice really means. The possibility strikes you that this transformation of consciousness could actually become a permanent feature of your experience. You realize that you could actually spend the rest of your days standing aside from the debilitating clamoring of your own obsessions, no longer frantically hounded by your own needs and greeds. You get a tiny taste of what is is like to just stand aside and watch it all flow past. It’s a magic moment.
The most important moment in meditation is the instant you leave the cushion. Bring your skills to your other daily activities.
Walking Meditation:
You need a private place with enough space for 10 paces in a straight line. You are going to be walking back and forth slowly.
Stand for a minute in an attentive position.
While breathing in, lift the heel of one foot. While breathing out rest that foot on its toes. Again while breathing in, lift that foot, carry it forward and while breathing out, bring the foot down and touch the floor.
Repeat for the other foot.
Walk very slowly to the opposite end. Stand for one minute. Turn around. Stand for another minute. Then walk back and repeat.
Keep your head up and your neck balanced. Keep your eyes open to maintain balance, but don't look at anything in particular.
Put all of your attention on the sensations coming from the feet and legs. Try to register as much information as possible about each foot as it moves. Feel each muscle and sensation as you contact the floor.
Notice the way these apparent smooth motions are composed of a complex series of tiny jerks. Try to miss nothing.
Make a mental note of “Lifting, swinging, coming down, touching floor, pressing.”
If your mind wanders, note the distraction in the usual way, and then return your attention to walking. Don't look at your feet. Don't think, just feel. If frustration or boredom arises, note that and let it go.
As you go through your day, spend a few seconds every few minutes to check your posture. Don't do it in a critical way. This is not an exercise to improve your appearance. Just make a note of “walking” or “lying down” or “standing”. It all sounds absurdly simple, but don't slight this procedure.
When you are drinking your tea or coffee : Note your posture. Feel the handle of the cup between your fingers. Smell the aroma, notice the placement of the cup, the drink, your arm, and the table. Watch the intention to raise your arm arise within your mind, feel your arm as it rises, feel the cup against your lip and the liquid pouring into your mouth.
Taste the tea or coffee, then watch the arising of the intention to lower your arm. The entire process is fascinating and beautiful, if you attend to it fully, paying detached attention to every sensation and to the flow of thought and emotion.
When you are truly mindful, your nervous system has a freshness and resiliency that fosters insight. A problem arises, and you simply deal with it, quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss. You become a very perceptive individual.
Little dead spaces during your day can be turned to profit. Every spare moment can be used for meditation. Sitting anxiously in the dentist's office, meditate on your anxiety. Feeling irritated standing in a queue, meditate on irritation. Bored at the bus stop, meditate on boredom.
When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat with friendly curiosity as they drift past.
If you seriously apply your meditation, you will never be at a loss for something worthy of your attention. There is always motion of your body to observe, or if not that, then your breathing.
If your meditation isn't helping you to cope with everyday conflicts and struggles, then it is shallow. If your day-to-day emotional reactions are not becoming clearer and easier to manage, then you are wasting your time.
Explore the mechanics of anger. Don't run from it. If you find yourself sitting in the grip of a dark depression, meditate on that depression. Investigate depression in a detached and inquiring way. Don't block bad emotions. Just watch them.
All things are born, all things grow old and die. There are no exceptions. Awaken to the unceasing changes in your own life. Look around and see everything in flux. It is all rising and falling, intensifying and diminishing, coming into existence and passing away. All of life, from the infinitesimal to the Pacific Ocean is in motion constantly. Your most cherished possessions are slipping away and so is your life. Yet this impermanence is no reason for grief. Stand here, transfixed, staring at this incessant activity, and your response is wondrous joy. It’s all moving, dancing and full of life.
Thinking of how we feel for our own child, we can feel this for others. Even when we think of others whose success exceeds our own, we can appreciate their achievement and rejoice in their happiness. This is the practice of equanimity.
Sometimes people can appear very cruel and wicked, yet we must realize they are not that way by nature. Circumstances in their lives make them act in unwholesome ways.
No matter where you go in the world, greet people with happiness, peace and friendliness. Be playful! The act of smiling can itself make you happy!
We sometimes need to ignore a person's superficial weaknesses to find their good heart.
Even a person rotten through and through may have a pure heart!
We don't know about the situation in that person's life that caused him to act cruelly. Think of such people the same way we would if they were suffering from a terrible sickness. Do we get angry or upset with people who are ill? Or do we have compassion for them?
Be full of kindness toward yourself. Accept yourself just as you are. Make peace with your shortcomings. If thoughts arise as to how you should be such and such a way, let them go.
Within each of us is a core of goodness.
“Hatred is never appeased by more hatred”. An angry response only leads to more anger. If you respond to anger with loving friendliness, the other person's anger can't increase!
When someone accuses you wrongly in public, say out loud “You and I are the only ones here who know what has happened.”
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