Practice: Choosing a simpler object of attention When there is an experience of dukkha that seems to involve some complexity, see if it is possible, while remaining connected to the difficult experience and without moving the mind deliberately somewhere else (like the breath or a mettā practice), to tune the mindfulness to some simpler aspect … Continued
As practice develops, we naturally experience times when the quality of mindfulness is relatively stronger and more continuous than at other times, and we are able to pay closer attention to things, inner and outer. Then, as has been mentioned, it is possible to begin to see that what at first blush looked so solid … Continued
Practice: ‘Dot-to-dot’ Experiment with giving a whole range of different kinds of experiences a steadiness of intimate, careful, and precise, moment-to-moment attention. Can you notice the ‘gaps’ in the experience of a ‘thing’? See if you can sustain for some time that level of mindfulness that sees the gaps. What difference does it make then … Continued
Although it can be useful to think of mindfulness as ‘being with things as they really are’, it is in fact more accurate, and more helpful for our purposes, to understand basic mindfulness practice as a way of looking that merely fabricates a little less than our habitual ways of looking. This is because, in … Continued
In regard to the sense of self and the various self-views in which we become ensnared, a significant strand of practice therefore involves beginning a) to recognize when the self-sense is being more grossly and rigidly constructed; b) to understand how it is being constructed; and c) to learn how to undermine this construction, so … Continued
First: Tightness is a state of contraction of the mind and body energy. So too, in fact, is any restlessness – gross or subtle (as in drifting) – and any dullness or drowsiness (including sinking).
It is vital to trust these openings and intimations. However, they are invariably incomplete and need the support of the practices in the other two approaches to refine, deepen, widen, and consolidate the insights they bring.
And although, as the Buddha did, we can certainly delineate a range of discrete states of samādhi (the jhānas), in this present context let us rather view it mostly as a continuum: of depth of meditation, of well-being, of non-entanglement, and of refinement of consciousness. Among other benefits suitable to our purpose, there is also … Continued
Insight, as we have already said and shall extensively explore, is not really about seeing smaller and smaller divisions of ‘reality’. Rather, it must primarily address and open our understanding of emptiness, fabrication, and dependent arising.
Gaining confidence in these ways will have a profound effect on the sense we have of our own lives and their potential, without making us aloof.
First: as we have already mentioned, most often, insights need repeating to be absorbed. Second: we need to use insights that we have had. We need, at least at times, to act and make decisions in life informed by their perspectives. This consolidates and empowers them greatly.
Third, and in relation to samādhi: since the soil of the citta that is cultivating samādhi is more well-turned and full of nutrients, the insights that we have tend to be planted deeper in the being and stay alive for longer. For these reasons they are more likely to have long-term fruits and impacts.
Samādhi, we have said, contributes significantly to our happiness and well-being in life. But it is important to recognize too that, to a certain extent, samādhi is itself also dependent on happiness.
it can be immensely helpful to give some attention to nurturing, just as much as possible, the kinds of elements that contribute to a climate supportive for the ongoing deepening of samādhi practice. Qualities such as: • inner and outer kindness • some simplicity • a degree of receptivity, connection, and openness to beauty and also to nature … Continued
Allowing and encouraging a quality of play and experimentation in practice is vital, and vitalizing.
If we believe it should be otherwise, then a wave of hindrances is considerably more upsetting than it needs to be, for it is then interpreted as meaning something about the success of our practice, or, worse, about ourselves and our self-worth. It is a practice to learn not to take the hindrances personally, to … Continued
For hindrances do not just arise in formal meditation; they are states that impact our life and our well-being every day. And if we can maintain a stance that, no matter what the conditions, asks always, “What can I learn here?”, the times of hindrances in samādhi practice can be as genuinely valuable as the … Continued
A state of samādhi is essentially a state of energized calm. In meditation, we are working, therefore, to support some fluid balance of both energy (or vitality) and calmness.
Although it might feel relatively pleasant, too much calmness without enough energy is a kind of subtly dull state, sometimes referred to as ‘sinking’. The mind and the body can feel slightly heavy when this is the case and the quality of brightness is not so manifest in the mind. On the other hand, too … Continued
In addition to these two more formal groups of approaches, it is important to mention a third. For it is very possible at times that something in the heart and mind – we could call it intuitive wisdom – feels the intimations of a different sense of things, intuits somehow and to some degree the … Continued