Dhamma Diary

After that brief interval we return to the series of posts on meditation. This is the third so far, being the last of those concerning preparation. If you’ve missed the first two, where have you been?!

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4. WALKING MEDITATION = EFFORTLESS SITTING MEDITATION

Can you imagine a decent pilot saying no to a pair of turbo boosters for his plane? Just as he’d start to move along that runway he’d flick the switch and, ‘WHOOOSH’. Then he’d sit back, calmly pull back the controls, and take off with ease and grace. So too, a decent meditator wouldn’t say no to a little walking meditation before he sits. Walking meditation (cankama) empowers the mind with steady mindfulness. If you want to give your sitting meditation a turbo boost, try doing some walking meditation beforehand.

Think of a great knight of olden days, walking mindfully along with measured steps, clad in his glistening and impenetrable armour. As he moves gracefully along arrows fly at him from all directions. But due to his armour they simply bounce off and he continues walking undisturbed. When we practise walking meditation well, our awareness becomes surrounded by the armour of samadhi (concentration) and sati (mindfulness). The arrows of thoughts come at us from all directions, but due to the armour they simply bounce off and we continue undisturbed. We are focused and the mind is stable. Walking meditation brings very resilient concentration! I find that if I do walking meditation before sitting, much of the work needed to steady the mind has been done. I’ll sit and the shining armour of concentration and mindfulness will be firmly in place already, and the thoughts and moods will simply bounce off; their feeble attempts to distract me being no match for the armour.

(Here I am focusing on walking meditation in the context of sitting meditation. But walking meditation is a very powerful practice in its own right. It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself! Strong negative states such as depression and anxiety can disappear surprisingly quickly when you do this practice. And not only will the armour of samadhi and sati enable your sitting meditation to deepen quickly; it will protect your mind no matter what you do through your day.)

The way of the great meditator

The Buddha praised walking meditation. He said that the concentration that comes from it persists for a long time (AN, 5). Six years ago I saw his brick walking path in Savatthi. It is said that he would spend his early mornings pacing up and down in the open.

We can also bring to mind the great masters of the Thai Forest Tradition and see how fundamental walking meditation is to them. One shining example is Ajahn Singtong. He used to spend about fourteen hours a day doing walking meditation! He walked so much that he created a rut in his path, and the novices kept on having to fill it in! Now, the chances are we won’t have the same effect as we generally walk on concrete…. But if you really try…

Ajahn Sao, Ajahn Mun’s first real teacher, likewise, was very inclined to cultivate for long periods on his twenty five or so paces of track. In one account of his practice we hear how he would do walking meditation ‘until he was happy’ to sit (which took about seven hours). Ajahn Chah said that as monks we should walk last thing at night until we are tired and ready to go to sleep. I have found that my mind state upon waking can be clear and concentrated if I have done some walking the night before.

A bridge

Walking meditation acts as a bridge between an unconcentrated state and our sitting meditation. Many people comment that the object of meditation, the footsteps, is more tangible than the breath.

HOW TO DO IT

Walking meditation is usually practised on a path measuring between ten and thirty paces. Though as we have many opportunities to do walking meditation throughout our day, we mustn’t just limit it to a special path. You can do it in a park, or on the pavement, or in those long corridors in a hospital. You can do it while you walk down the high street (this will have the added bonus of saving you money as you won’t see that amazing i-Phone in the shop window!).

So for those of you who haven’t attempted this thoroughly rewarding practice here are some basic instructions: Find a path of the length described above. You are going to walk back and forth in a straight line on this path. If you are walking through a park or on the pavement then you can do this without turning around. You can also do it in a room inside your house.

Now you stand still at the beginning of the path and close your eyes. Take a deep breath and be mindful and aware of your body. How does your body feel? Are you slumped at all? Just stand as still as you can for a minute or two. Be fully aware of the stillness of your body. Then slowly open your eyes and gently focus on a point on the path about two metres in front of you.

Then slowly begin to walk to the other end of the path. As you walk, focus your attention on the soles of the feet. This is now the object of your concentration, just as the breath is when you practise sitting meditation. You focus one-hundred percent of your attention on the soles of the feet. You observe the changing sensations as the foot makes contact with the ground. Carefully you absorb yourself in this stream of sensations as the footstep progresses from its beginning to its end. As the feet touch the ground you can repeat ‘Bud - dho’, ‘Bud-dho’. This helps you to keep your mind on its object.

It is recommended that you walk quite slowly at first so that you have a chance to really observe the sensations. When you get to the other end of the path you stop, slowly turn around - being careful not to lose your concentration - and then you carry on to the other end. And that’s it. You just keep doing that.

Of course as you do this the mind will wander off. Being that you are more open to your surroundings you might need to work harder to focus, but it is worth it. As soon as you realise the mind has flown off bring it back! Just keep focusing on sustaining your attention without interruption. The mind soon starts to wander less as you train it to focus on the footsteps. After a while the immaculate armour of concentration and mindfulness surrounds your awareness and the thoughts bounce pitifully off. Ha!

Continuing to walk in this way you become very peaceful. You find a nice momentum and the mind begins to enjoy it. “Ahhhh! So simple and peaceful. Just my footsteps and the path.” So we keep developing this concentration and the mind becomes more involved. The other senses of sound, sight, smell, taste and thought become less intrusive and we can become very peaceful and still as our samadhi deepens.

Then, when we are ready, we mindfully leave the meditation path and go and sit on our meditation cushion. We then mindfully cross our legs and mindfully close our eyes. As the armour of mindfulness and concentration is already in place samadhi can be attained with much less difficulty.

SUMMARY

In these three posts we have looked at how morality, loving-kindness, mindfulness and walking meditation can deeply affect the quality of our sitting meditation. We should certainly pay attention to at least the first two here, ideally the third, and, if we have the opportunity, the fourth.

Prepare for take off

The runway of morality is as solid and as smooth as a perfectly cut rock; the winds of anger and aversion have been stilled by metta; as we’ve been mindful, the fog of mindlessness and confusion has vanished; and the turbo booster of walking meditation has made the mind ripe for concentration.

The plane’s front wheels have now lifted. The pilot is anxious for me to write the next post! It’s time to take off and get down to developing our sitting meditation.

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The next teaching will be given on:

The New Moon Day, Thursday, 6th March

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We interrupt this series of posts to bring an important teaching!

(I thought I’d temporarily suspend the posts on meditation and write on something that’s been in my mind. So you’ll have to wait for the nail biting end of the last post to be resolved!)

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Raging Bulls

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.“Whatever you frequently think about, that

  will become the inclination of your mind”

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In the Majjhima Nikaya of the Pali Canon is found a small sutta called ‘The Removal of Distracting Thoughts’ (MN, 20). In it the Buddha gives us five ways with which we can become a ‘master of the paths of thought’.

Powerful

Thoughts have an immensely powerful influence on our lives. Unfortunately most people don’t understand this, let alone the fact that we can actually take control. I was talking about this last night with the group of Banbury meditators, and we commented that most people do not realise that they don’t have to be ruled by their thoughts, and that they can, in fact, become the ruler of their thoughts. Two factors are essential to the development of thought mastery.

Be Careful

We must treat these minds with great care and respect. ‘Whatever (you) frequently think about, that will become the inclination of (your) mind” (MN, 19). The other day I read a piece where the words of the character Yoda of the Star Wars films were analysed for their Buddhist tones. Some of the words spoken by the familiar little green sage are quite apt to quote here. In these films you hear of the ‘Force’ and of the ‘Dark Side’, positive and negative respectively. At one point Yoda says of the Dark Side: “how easily does it flow”, and that if you allow it: “forever it will dominate your destiny”. The ‘Force’ can be likened to the virtuous and wise tendencies that are working in our minds. The ‘Dark Side’, then, typifies those thoughts, states and inclinations within, which are destructive and which lead to the harm of ourselves and of others. Which will we allow to dominate? We have a choice.

So many problems that people have, especially mild and stronger forms of mental difficulties, are born because thoughts have been allowed to run wild like a herd of raging bulls. What happens when those powerful and uncontrollable creatures are set loose? – they cause damage and destruction. So our destructive thoughts, if they are not monitored and carefully managed, can run wild - being very difficult to control once let loose - and rapidly dominate our destiny.

Mind Management

The Buddha taught us to be masters of our minds. In the sutta which is the inspiration behind this post he speaks of five methods with which one becomes ‘master of the paths of thought’. Of the five, here is the first:

1. The skilled carpenter

The first method shows how we can replace a harmful and negative thought with a helpful and positive one. Once we begin to master this technique it is simply a case of popping in a good thought to counter a bad one. So you might see someone and the thought: “He is such an idiot!” flashes into your mind. As soon as you are aware of this unskillful thought, pop in a good one: “He is a suffering human being”. It can be that simple. You can choose how you think. You will be surprised how it transforms you.

The Buddha said that just as a skilled carpenter might knock out and remove a course peg by means of a fine one, so if a negative and harmful thought arises we knock it out with a positive and helpful thought. Our thoughts are often ranting away, and if they are negative they can really effect us, both physically and mentally. We need to get a grip.

Three kinds of thought

In the sutta prior to the one I’m commenting on the Buddha describes three kinds of unskillful thought. These are thoughts based on sensual pleasure, on ill-will, and on cruelty.

Ill-will

Some of the most damaging are those thoughts of ill-will connected with self-hate and unnecessary self-criticism. We can do something about these thoughts. Now we have to be careful here because we don’t want to strengthen the old ego – that’s strong enough! The thoughts aren’t me or you, and neither is the mind; they are all just empty processes. But they are processes that can be manipulated. We simply want to put in place of negative thoughts, positive and encouraging thoughts. Simple. So, for instance, the other night I was going to Banbury for a talk. Sometimes when I go thoughts like: “I’m not going to give a very good talk, I’m going to be really boring.” come up beforehand, and I start to feel negative. And so I knock out those ‘coarse pegs’ - those negative thoughts, with some positive and helpful ones. I deliberately say in my mind: “You’ll be fine, what are you worrying about. You’ll give a good talk”. I gently say this and my mood brightens.

So I didn’t do that. I gently inserted a few positive thoughts and kept repeating them and they began to shape my mind.

And with ill-will towards others too. Change “She is such so stupid” to “She is so kind”. Change “He’s taken the last piece of cake!!!” to “I’m so happy he’s having that nice piece of cake!”. Change “I hate myself!” to “I love myself!” This might seem mechanical, but it will change you.

Sensual desire

One of the types of thought that the Buddha warned us against are thoughts of sensuality. Now of course we all like to eat well and hear nice sounds but we must be careful to keep the pleasures of the senses in moderation. After all, the bliss of renunciation and letting go, and the refined states of concentration, and ultimately Nibbana, are infinitely more sublime and satisfying. There is no comparison. So if thoughts of sensual pleasure are charging like raging bulls, and you know it’s too much, you insert a few wise thoughts, thoughts of letting go and on the disadvantages of overindulgence. So here we can put to use our thoroughly comprehensive experience of the drawbacks of sense pleasures and create thoughts like: “This happiness of letting go and freedom from desire is far superior”, or “You know what it feels like after you’ve eaten too much!”. By doing that the low and ignoble thoughts of uncontrolled sensuality subside.

The Day of the Scone

In the early days of monastic training meal times at the monastery assume a similar function to that of a lighthouse. One’s sole objective is to make it to that meal! Now when you only eat one meal a day that light is pretty damn bright. Naturally I used to make the most of it.

One time I was very pleased to see some scones,. I love scones. All that butter and clotted cream and ruby red strawberry jam lightly pressed between two buttery scones. Hungry? Well here they were and I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity. So I duly loaded up the ingredients on to the scone and placed it in my bowl. My mind was awash with sensual thoughts connected with this delicious scone.

NOW, how do you feel when your mind is buzzing with thoughts of sensuality? It affects your whole being. You become restless, you become irritable, your mind starts to resemble that of a hungry pig! You may even sweat and mumble incoherently. The list goes on. This is why these thoughts are to be dealt with. It is no exaggeration to say that we become slaves to thoughts of sensuality.

Back to the scone. I lifted it up to my mouth and began to bite into it. Unfortunately the two slices of scone surrounding the little lump of calories was a touch on the hard side. It wasn’t stale, it was just slightly hard. Now you may guess what happened next. And this is where the drawbacks of sensuality become as obvious as a million flashing red lights in the night sky. I bit in and, sploooj. The two sides of the scone squeezed the contents out!!! It was ruined!!! After all that.

It was a good lesson on the drawbacks of sensuality. I actually told Luangpor about this after the meal and he made this same point.

So now, if there’s a scone, I might bring in the troops, the thoughts of wisdom, and knock out the thoughts of shameless desire, and I cultivate peace and letting go: “You know what happened before! These things are unfailingly unsatisfactory. They let you down.” And I help to establish serenity, which is far more tasty than a scone!

Ultimately, we will ‘think whatever thought we want to think, and we will not think any thought we don’t want to think’ (MN, 20). Take control and be positive.

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The next teaching will be on:

The Half Moon Day, Friday, 29th February

Photos from our recent Thai trip are now in my PHOTO ALBUM.

Once, when I was a young monk, I had been involved in some building work (not unusual). This time one of my jobs was to pour the sand, cement and water into the cement mixer to make the concrete. When that was mixed and ready the contents would be poured into a wheelbarrow and then delivered to the place where it was to be used.

On this occasion we were converting one end of the garage into an office. So there I was, pouring all these ingredients into this spinning cement mixer. Now, looking into one of these contraptions for long periods of time can be quite hypnotising. It just spins around and around and the sand and the cement etc. spins around and around inside it, all the time making this ‘Kerrrsssshunk…… kerrrsssshunk…. kerrrsssshunk’ sound. On this particular occasion I didn’t happen to be the most mindful person in the world and so, instead of being fully aware of the simple activity of pouring sand and so on into the cement mixer, and dispassionately observing the contents mixing together, I allowed myself to get slightly hypnotised by the spinning and the Kerrrsssshunking. This went on for some time. Then came the evening meditation session at 8 pm. I sat down and, oh dear. No breath, just ‘Kerrrsssshunk……kerrrsssshunk…. kerrrsssshunk’. Round and round and round my mind went. It was like I was still mixing concrete! And so as I sat down to meditate I became very aware of just how mindless I had been during the day!

And this is the next very important point when it comes to preparing to have good meditation. When we come to sit we become very aware of just how mindful we have been up to that point. If we’ve been all over the place and our mind has been in a galaxy far, far away, then when we sit down and cross our legs, it might take some considerable time and effort to get our mind back from that distant galaxy! If we’ve been really mindful though, then our mind is already there in the present, just waiting to go deeper into the moment. Some people complain that they don’t have the best concentration. Well they should look at how mindful they have been up to that point.

It’s like that great simile of the water jar. Say you have a jar of water that has a layer of sediment at the bottom. If you take hold of that jar and shake it up, the sediment will cloud the water. Our minds are the same. When we constantly think and plan and get wrapped up in the past and the future it’s like we are shaking that jar; the mind, which is inherently clear, becomes clouded and murky. But if we put that jar down and leave it alone then the sediment slowly settles and the water becomes clear. So it is with the mind. When we are mindful of what we are doing in the present moment, for instance looking at a computer screen and reading about mindfulness, and we do not allow the mind to wander about too much, then our minds are quite clear. The sediment of thoughts and plans and regrets and fantasies is not being stirred up. We are firmly in the present, simply aware of what we are doing now. It therefore follows that if we have been mindful in this way and the mind is relatively still and clear, just as with the jar of water, then when we sit down to meditate we do not have to make a huge effort to still the mind.

Now all this takes time and patience. As you become more experienced it takes less time for the mind to settle down when you sit. You may sit down to meditate and within seconds you are already fairly concentrated. This is a natural result of better mindfulness. You may sit and there really are hardly any thoughts. Ajahn Chah could apparently enter very deep states of concentration in just two breaths. And as for the Buddha…… I imagine this expertise is largely due to the quality of mindfulness in that person’s daily activity.

So, if we are mindful in our everyday activity then our concentration will be greatly affected. If you like you can spend a short period doing an exercise in slow motion mindfulness before you sit, as I explained in ‘Mindfulness of the Body’ (below). Just focus on doing a simple activity very slowly and quietly for about twenty minutes before you sit and you’ll find the quality of your sitting meditation will be greatly improved.

Summary

In the last two posts we have looked at how the quality of our meditation depends on how we prepare; and on how we act when we are not meditating.

Your take off is now looking to be exceptionally good. The precepts have made the sturdy and smooth runway; metta has stilled the side winds of aversion; and as we’ve been very mindful up to the point of sitting any fog on the runway has cleared. But there’s one other surefire technique that will really give our meditation some oomf. It is something that we spend a lot of time doing in the monastery; in fact it’s unusual for us not to do it before we practise sitting meditation. When lay people do retreats they too spend a great deal of time doing it.

It’s not drinking tea. It is …..

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The next teaching will be given on:

The Full Moon Day, Thursday, 21st February.

Photos from our recent Thai trip are now in my photo album.

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This is going to be the first of a series of posts on meditation. I’ll start by talking about the prerequisites and how we can ensure we give our meditation the best possible start. In the subsequent posts I’ll move on to talk about the process of developing and maintaining a solid and reliable practice.

Be Prepared

Think of good preparation as being as fundamental to meditation as a good runway is to a jumbo jet. If the runway is full of holes and cracks and is covered in oil we’ll meet with disaster. If we haven’t paid attention to certain necessary factors of the path we’re also not going to have an easy time meditating. However, if the runway is clean and free of holes and cracks then the jumbo jet will take off nicely. Similarly, if we pay careful attention to the prerequisites of meditation we will soon be flying. We’ll begin by looking at the role of the moral precepts and of loving-kindness in our preparation.

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1. Excellent Moral Conduct = Unhindered Meditation

You could say that if a decent standard of morality isn’t observed when you try to practise meditation then it’s like that jumbo jet hasn’t even got a runway to take off from! It’s as fundamental as that! It tries to take off on waste ground that’s covered in rocks and holes and all kinds of obstacles. It’s a hopeless situation because it’ll never take off on ground like that.

The single most important point of keeping the moral precepts is to enable us to lead a life of ease and freedom from remorse, and therefore be able to undertake the essential work of concentration. As the Buddha said - “Virtuous conduct brings freedom from remorse, freedom from remorse brings joy…….happiness brings concentration.” So by keeping the precepts we lay a smooth runway from which our meditation takes off. Ajahn Chah once said something like the following: ‘Say you have someone who isn’t virtuous and they sit down to meditate. When they sit it’s as if they are wearing white clothes that are covered in mud, excrement and all kinds of filth. They cannot concentrate at all as they’re so conscious of the stink! Even others around them can’t stand to be near them! However, if a virtuous person sits down to meditate it’s totally different. It’s like they’re wearing the cleanest white clothes. They can meditate without trouble. They feel at ease and the meditation goes easily.’

When we sit to concentrate we look directly at our mind. This means we are very conscious of the traces that our actions leave in the mind. When we bumble along through life without meditating we do not see this. So when we do meditate we develop a sensitivity in regard to moral behaviour. As our meditation deepens so does this sensitivity. If we have done something unskillful, for instance we’ve told a lie to someone, then when we sit to meditate the memory of that action comes along and nags us. It’s like a little monkey is sitting on our shoulder and he keeps tugging at our ears and pulling our hair, whispering to us: “I’m not going to let you meditate! I’m not going to let you meditate!” As we could well do without this monkey hassling us we are meticulous with our precepts. Of course the more precepts you have the better. At the very least the five are kept. They are: to avoid killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and alcohol and drugs (we can never be reminded enough!).

All the great masters emphasize how development on this path is not possible without the firm foundation of morality.

And so being secure in our moral conduct frees the mind from worry and remorse. Remember that one of the characteristics of concentration is that we dwell one-hundred percent in the present moment. How will this be possible if we’re plagued by worry about what we’ve done in the past and the results that we might meet with in the future? Being impeccable in our virtue frees the mind in this respect. The mind can easily let go of the past and future and be where it wants to be – in the present. The Buddha actually advised us to contemplate our virtue as an object of meditation. Silanussaati (contemplation of morality) can be a powerful antidote to discontent in the practice. In preparation for our concentration we can do this practice. We think: “In this world of immorality, I stand firm in morality; I am a virtuous person!” You put a big smile on your face and feel happy at the thought of your virtuous life, and then you begin to meditate.

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2. Loving-kindness = Smooth Meditation

The opposites of loving-kindness which may trouble our meditation are ill-will and anger. So in preparation for our concentration we need to diffuse these if they are present. Even if they are not apparent to you there’s a pretty good chance there’s a little niggling aversion in you somewhere! You can think of anger and aversion as being strong side winds on the runway. The plane is moving along, preparing to take off, but these winds keep battering it from the side. They may be so strong that the pilot decides that it’s just no good and so he doesn’t take off at all. Even if the winds are not that strong and the plane does take off, you’re still going to have a bit of a rocky time in the air. So it is with our meditation. We need to still the side winds of aversion with metta, then we’ll take off smoothly.

The Buddha said that for one who has a mind of loving-kindness, concentration comes quickly. And so by spending a few minutes meditating on metta we cannot lose. You know what a piece of Blue Tack is like when you haven’t used it for a while. It’s hard and stiff and you can’t really use it. But if you put it in the palms of your hands and roll it up and down and around and warm it up, it becomes pliant and easy to use. Our meditation is the same. By practising metta first we warm the mind up and make it pliant. Then it can concentrate more easily. For a technique on practising metta see ‘Don’t click here!’ (which no doubt you’ve already clicked on!).

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Summary

So obviously you need to make sure you’ve got a runway in the first place! And then warm the mind up by contemplating your virtuous life and by developing metta. Your take-off is looking to be a successful one, but there are still a few little ways that it could be even better….

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The next teaching in Dhamma Diary will be on:

The Half Moon Day, Thursday, 14th February

(I should probably talk about loathsomeness of the body on that day!)

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