(Study Buddhism) Why "meditation" [striving, straining, struggling to get into absorption] feels so hard (and what to do about it) | [Western scientist and Vajrayana Buddhist lama] Ven. Matthieu Ricard [known as "the happiest person in the world"*]. "There is no Samsara 2.0."
Who is he?
Sure, I'm happy, but the happiest?
Matthieu Ricard (French matjø ʁikaʁ, Nepali माथ्यु रिका, born Feb. 15, 1946) is a French Nepalese writer, photographer, translator, and Buddhist monk (lama) who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.
Dr. Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles. He received a PhD degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972.
He then decided to avoid a common scientific career and instead did the daring thing and took up the practice of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana Bon), living mainly in the Himalayas.
Matthieu Ricard is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen, the non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche.
Since 1989, he has acted as the French interpreter for the 14th Dalai Lama. Since 2010, he has been traveling and giving a series of talks with and assisting in teachings by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the incarnation of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche....
*Matthieu Ricard has been called the "happiest person in the world" [4, 5]. Why?
It is because Matthieu Ricard was a volunteer subject in a study performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on happiness. He scored significantly above the average of hundreds of volunteers [4].
Matthieu Ricard, however, has called the label "absurd" and untrue [6, 7]. More
What is the blissful and inviting rapture of the light of absorption (jhana)? Is it santosha?
Can a Westerner achieve rapture and insight?
Full moon Sunday is the Uposatha (the fasting day of the lunar observance) when some choose to keep the Eight Precepts for one day and night. LA's Mindfulness Meditation Center in Covina (suburban San Gabriel Valley) is conducting its monthly Poya Day celebration in honor of it. This is an excellent time to relax, listen, and practice the path of absorption with the great Ajahn Brahm -- or to read Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties.
The Jhanas (Absorptions) – Seven Steps to Heaven (and One Beyond) by Ajahn Brahm
(The Buddhist Society) Jhāna (meditative absorption, zen) is a bliss better than sex? Mantra: "Relax to the max!" There are two kinds of Buddhist meditation (no, not samatha and vipassana, which are a single system bifurcated by people who misunderstand what's needed for insight. The two types are Second Noble Truth (craving) meditation and Third Noble Truth (letting go) meditation, as explained by accomplished Western meditator Ajahn Brahm.
British Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahmavamso Mahathera (known to the world as Ajahn Brahm) was born Peter Betts in London, England (United Kingdom) on August 7, 1951.
He came from a working-class background then won a scholarship to study theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the late 1960s. After graduating from Cambridge, he taught high school for a year before traveling to Northeast Thailand (Isan) to become a Theravada Buddhist monk.
Beginning meditators are babies in white, so go easy. Meditation may make one sleepy at first.
.
An outfit just for practice helps.
It's spring. This is a good time, maybe the best time, to begin a regular meditation practice,. Well, actually the best time would have been seven years ago, but the second-best time is right now. Sitting can graduate to walking meditation, mindfulness in nature, then deep stillness and clarity to see things (vipassana) as they truly are.
Do the basics: Put on all white. Find a quiet spot apart from distractions. Use this spot over and over again. It becomes powerful. Set down a mat and cushion (a bundle of leaves or grass is enough to get the tailbone higher than the knees). Sit. Inhale deeply. Release. Do it again a few times, without forcing the air out. It's just about letting go completely, so completely that the body hangs as if held up by a clothing hanger, not stiff, not slack.
Straighter is more comfortable, even though it doesn't seem like it at first. Posture is important to attention. Bring (advert) the attention to the present moment, this moment, and to stay in just this moment, remain aware of the breath. Which breath? This breath, just the one happening now all by itself. Become the watcher (not the commenter, fixer, improver, slowdowner, or anything else), just the watcher. This is mindfulness -- clear awareness of the present without evaluation.
Whoa, what a trip! What was that? I want that again!
Set a time limit in advance and keep it. Even if it would be nice to go longer because it is going so well, know the time of rising. Even if it is going horribly with raving lunatic thoughts of a psychopath with lurid fantasies and wrath, lust and revenge, delusion and a lightshow, know the time of rising. The mind will thank you later.
Ten minutes is a good start time, slowly working up to an hourlong sit. That seems impossible now, but in time, whaddyaknow, it suddenly is possible. What changed? I'dunno. This practice is about persistence. It does itself and then there is no effort. The enemies of that are expectations, unsettled greed or desire for achieving something, and the Five Hindrances. They will come to hinder. They are already present. They can be overcome. But whether or not they have been overcome, persist. This is spring. This is the beginning. Have "beginner's mind" in place of the "monkey mind" that usually rules the cage. Smile. It helps.
Instructions are confusing because it's so simple.
It is easy to say that "meditation is NOT about thinking." That's clear. That's easy to see. Don't indulge thought; just let them be by turning your attention to this subtle breath that keeps changing. What is difficult to grasp is that "meditation is NOT about not-thinking." Not-thinking may happen. It doesn't matter. As that is not the goal, if it doesn't happen, it's okay. Giving attention to one object and bringing attention back and back again and again ("Begin again" as Sharon Salzberg says) is what is important.
The mind like a petulant and insolent child will resist. Let it. Bring it back. Do not scold it or become upset. Let it be. Surrender completely to this moment, whatever is in this moment, not being moved to do anything no matter what the mind says it must do. See what happens. Could the mind be wrong no matter what it feels or demands or insists is true?
How did Siddhartha Gautama do it?
We'll never see things as they really are so long as we keep believing that we already are seeing them that way. We have never been seeing them that way. If we had, we'd awaken. We'd be enlightened, which is to say, Dependent Origination would make sense. And it doesn't, does it? (Hint: It's a practice, not a theory). That's a whole different kind of meditation called insight (vipassana) after getting good at this kind, which is called serenity (samatha). Don't jump ahead. Let it go. (If all else fails, sign up for a free 10-day Goenka retreat. Everyone should do at least one in life).
(Guide to the Buddhist Path) Feb. 21, 2020: This is a story about the Buddha meeting a king. He met many. Who's happier? Fleeting worldly (mundane) happiness versus stable otherworldly (supermundane) happiness, which is better? Written and animated by Aryajit. It is based on a discussion the historical Buddha had with some Jain ascetics (Niganthas), which can be read at accesstoinsight.org. The part about "Who is happier?" appears at the end of the sutra. Thoughts, questions, feedback? Please comment.
Ven. Thanissaro (trans.), Cula-dukkhakkhandha Sutta, (MN 14 PTS: M i 91) edited and expanded by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Scythians (Sakas, Sakyans, Shakyians) in Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Park.
Then the Sakyan Mahanama [Note 1] went to the Buddha, bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said: "For a long time now, venerable sir, I have understood the Dhamma (Doctrine, Teaching, Dharma) taught by the Blessed One in this way:
"'Greed (attraction) is a defilement of the mind (heart); hatred (aversion) is a defilement of the mind; delusion (wrong view) is a defilement of the mind.'
"Yet, even though I understand the Teaching of the Blessed One that greed, hatred, and delusion are defilements of the mind, there are still times when greed, hatred, and delusion invade and remain.
He continued, "This thought occurs to me: What mental characteristic is as yet unabandoned within me so that there are times when greed or hatred/fear or delusion invade my mind and remain?"
"Mahanama, that very mental state (quality or characteristic) [2] is what is unabandoned in you so that there are times when greed, hatred, or delusion invade the mind and remain [3]. For if it were abandoned in you, you would not live the household life and would not partake of [and cling to] sensuality.
"It is because it is not yet abandoned in you that you live the household life and partake of sensuality.
"Even though a disciple of the noble ones has clearly seen as it actually is with right understanding that sensuality is of much disappointment, much despair, with dangerous drawbacks, still — if one has not attained a rapture and pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that [4] — one can again be tempted by sensuality.
"But when one has clearly seen as it actually is with right understanding that sensuality is of much disappointment, much despair, with dangerous drawbacks, and one has attained a rapture and pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that, one can no longer be tempted by sensuality.
Only when I was sure did I teach.
"I myself, before my awakening, when I was still an unawakened being in search of awakening (a bodhisattva), saw as it actually is with right understanding that sensuality is of much disappointment, much despair, and dangerous drawbacks.
"As long as I had not attained a rapture and pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that, I did not claim that I could no longer be tempted by sensuality.
"But when I saw as it actually is with right understanding that sensuality is of much disappointment, much despair, with dangerous drawbacks and I had attained a rapture and pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental states, or something more peaceful than that, that was when I claimed that I could no longer be tempted by sensuality.
"What, Mahanama, is the allure of sensuality? There are five strands. What are these five? They are:
forms cognizable by the eye — agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing,
sounds cognizable by the ear...
fragrances cognizable by the nose...
flavors cognizable by the tongue...
tactile sensations cognizable by the body — agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing.
"Whatever pleasure or joy arises depending on these five strands of sensuality, that is the allure of sensuality.
"What is the drawback of sensuality? On account of the occupation (livelihood) by which one makes a living — whether checking or accounting or calculating or plowing or trading or cattle tending or archery or as a king's servant, or whatever the occupation may be — one faces cold, faces heat, is harassed by flies and mosquitoes, wind and sun, and creeping things, dying from thirst and hunger.
"Now dangerous drawbacks exist in the case of sensuality, a mass of disappointment visible here and now, with sensuality as its reason, sensuality as its source, sensuality as its cause, the reason simply being sensuality.
"If one gains no wealth while working and striving and making an effort, one sorrows, grieves, and laments, beats one's breast, becomes distraught: 'My work is in vain, my efforts are fruitless!'
"Now this dangerous drawback in the case of sensuality, this mass of disappointment visible here and now, has sensuality as its reason, sensuality as its source, sensuality as its cause, the reason simply being sensuality.
"If one gains wealth while working and striving and making effort, one experiences pain and distress in protecting it: 'How will neither rulers nor thieves make off with my property, nor fire burn it, nor water sweep it away, nor heirs make off with it [prematurely]?' And as one guards and watches over property, rulers or thieves make off with it, or fire burns it, or water sweeps it away, or heirs make off with it. And one sorrows, grieves, and laments, beats one's breast, becomes distraught: 'What was mine is no more!' Now this drawback in the case of sensuality, this mass of disappointment visible here and now, also has sensuality as its reason, sensuality as its source, sensuality as its cause, the reason simply being sensuality.
"It is with sensuality as the reason, sensuality as the source, sensuality as the cause, the reason simply being sensuality, that rulers quarrel with rulers, nobles with nobles, Brahmins with Brahmins, householders with householders, mother with child, child with mother, father with child, child with father, brother with brother, sister with sister, brother with sister, sister with brother, friend with friend...." More: MN 14 (accesstoinsight.org)
NOTES
1. Mahanama is a Shakyan cousin of the Buddha. The Commentary claims that he was already a once-returner when this discourse took place, but there is nothing in the Pali canon to indicate that this is so.
2. That is, greed, hatred, or delusion.
3. This sentence is mistranslated in both MLS and MLDB. Its point is that the mental states that invade Mahanama's mind are precisely the ones he has not yet abandoned. In practical terms, this means that he does not have to look for another lurking behind them but instead can focus his attention on abandoning these directly as they arise. The remainder of the sutra gives a lesson in how greed, hatred, and delusion can be abandoned by understanding the object on which they most frequently focus: sensuality.
4. The rapture and pleasure apart from sensuality, apart from unskillful mental states, is a factor of the first and second meditative absorption (jhana). "Something more peaceful than that" would be any attainments higher than the second absorption.
5. See DN 2. 6. One of the great ironies in the history of Buddhism is the extent to which teachings that the Buddha clearly disapproved of, such as this one, have later been taught as quintessentially Buddhist. In some circles, a teaching similar to this one — that not reacting to pain burns away the impurity of past karma and creates no new karma for the future — is still taught as Buddhist to this day.
Mysterious monks around the Himalayas – practicing since the Ice Age?
The Buddha was an Indo-Scythian living close to the Himalayan range his whole life.
.
Siddhartha failing at asceticism
(FactFile) Sept. 20, 2024: Just as every culture holds its religion dear and follows unique practices, monks and nuns dedicate their lives to a spiritual practice. These monastics are deeply committed to their Doctrine (dharma), their belief system or faith, immersing themselves in meditation and rituals.
The Buddha ("Awakened One") finds success
The Buddha avoided extremes of hedonism and self-mortification, teaching the Middle Way that avoids extremes. He did, however, teach 13 sane ascetic practices (dhutangas) for the overcoming of certain defilements, hindrances, and obstacles to practice to be able to breakthrough to calm and insight (samadhi and vipassana, where samadhi is shamatha and defined as the first four meditative absorptions and insight-practice takes these temporarily purified states and applies them to systematic practice of the satipatthanas or foundations of mindfulness to breakthrough to liberating wisdom, enlightenment, and release from samsara).
Their devotion is a profound expression of their beliefs and play a crucial role in preserving and passing on their spiritual traditions. Through their disciplined practice, they seek to connect with higher truths and guide others on their spiritual journeys.
Let's take a detailed look at some of the world's most mysterious and oldest-known monks. #factfile [This sensationalistic video was originally published under the very misleading clickbait title "Mysterious Monks Found in the Himalayas – And They’ve Been Living Since the Last Ice Age"]
MEDITATOR: I want a regular meditation practice, but I don't know how to start. I don't know how to meditate.
INSTRUCTOR: Don't meditate. Don't try. You don't know how, so what would you be doing or trying to do other than what you think it is? It isn't that.
MEDITATOR: So don't meditate?
INSTRUCTOR: That's right. You can't meditate. You'll never be able to meditate. No one can. No one ever has. And no one will ever be able to.
MEDITATOR: What to do then?
INSTRUCTOR: We're going to set up the circumstances, the causes and conditions, for meditation to happen by itself. Meditation happens. We don't "do" it. No one does.
MEDITATOR: What are those things?
In the sensing, let there be just the sensing.
INSTRUCTOR: Here's an example. Can you grow plants in a garden? No, no you can't. They grow by themselves. What can you do? You can set up the circumstances for them to grow -- give them what they need, remove the hindrances to their growth. Then they grow great all by themselves. What do they need? Seed, soil, water, warmth, some sunlight, some shade. What hinders their growth? Weeds, pests, too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun, and so on.
MEDITATOR: But I do garden. I do grow things myself!
INSTRUCTOR: How do you do that?
MEDITATOR: I don't know. I just plant things, and they sort of come up by themselves. I follow the directions on the seed packet.
INSTRUCTOR: So you can't grow things? You don't know how. You don't even know how they do it, but they do do it. THEY do it themselves. You, for your part, just cultivate the causes and conditions for them to do it, right?
MEDITATOR: Yes. I guess I never thought about it that way. I thought I was doing it.
INSTRUCTOR: Yet when you didn't do it, they did grow, sometimes?
MEDITATOR: Yes!
INSTRUCTOR: Meditation is the exact same way. We can't make (create, produce) meditation, we can't force meditation, we can't do meditation. It can happen. It can arise like a magical sprout that grows into a fulsome, fruiting plant that flowers and produces wonders. When does it happen? It happens when we provide what it needs -- attention, silence, persistence, relaxation, removing the Five Hindrances to it, providing the Factors of Absorption. When those are here, it happens all by itself. So don't meditate. Know that you can't, and give up. Do not. Stop trying. Think of Yoda.
"NO! Try not! DO or DO NOT. There is no try." Yoda in Star Wars (eBay.com).
MEDITATOR: I get it! What are the specifics I should do if I want meditation to happen by itself?
INSTRUCTOR: Good question! Sit in a comfortable position, spine straight but not stiff or straining. Relax. Breathe in deeply then let go. Place attention to the breath under the nose, where you know the body is breathing. Attend to the breath without interfering. Mind wanders? Bring it back gently, without scolding or despairing. Gone a million times, return it a million-and-one times. Start again. This will keep one in the present moment, as the mind doesn't know past breaths or future ones. There's only this one. Be with it from beginning to end, the full cycle of inhaling and exhaling, whether breathing in or breathing out. Keep the attention here gently, lightly, happily. There's nothing to do. Be. Be here now, awake, attending, and still.
MEDITATOR: I can do that! But isn't that "meditating"?
INSTRUCTOR: No. Gardening is one thing -- cultivating the soil, -- growing is another. It's a mystery. It happens by itself. It's effortless.
MEDITATOR: I get it. You're distinguishing the form from the, the?
INSTRUCTOR: From the meditation. Meditation (jhana, bhavana, dhyana, zen, kammatthana) is what happens when the causes and conditions for it to happen are present. It meditates. It happens to us. It is a function or result of calm, of persistent attention, of relaxing, as things cohere (come into coherence). Wanting, striving, efforting, thinking, stressing, struggling...all of these things get in the way. They aren't "meditation," but if you think they are, don't meditate. Stop it. Let go.
MEDITATOR: I get it, I think. I keep thinking I get it.
INSTRUCTOR: It might be better to "Go Zen," that is, just sit, shikantaza. It's vital to remember the words of the enlightened Western Theravada Buddhist teacher Ajahn Sumedho (American Robert Karr Jackman), who teaches that there are three kinds of desire. All three get in the way get in the way of meditation and progress in meditation. So let them go. But continue to sit. And don't think that that sitting is meditation. It is not. That's preliminary. When meditation happens, you'll know and see that you were confusing forms with actual meditation, projections with the actual thing, thoughts and ideas about reality with reality.
Look, I did it! I look like a doll. I've achieved total lotus posing. But nothing's happening.
.
Hey, Kids, sit like me. And you'll be a meditator.
MEDITATOR: So what shouldn't I do?
INSTRUCTOR: Don't meditate. Don't "try." Just cultivate the causes and conditions for it to happen by itself, without grasping, struggling, or trying to get something, get rid of something, or become something.
MEDITATOR: It sounds very Zen.
INSTRUCTOR: It sort of is. But don't begin to "stink of Zen." Zen is achievable by trying, by doing, by anything but allowing, accepting, letting go, and persisting in attention (mindfulness of this moment).
MEDITATOR: I get it! I think I really do get it this time! It was semantics that were throwing me off. It's like how you said the Buddha, when he was the Bodhisatta, realized that if he struggled, he exhausted himself, and if he did nothing, he sank. Somewhere between the two, between effort and exhaustion, between nothing and struggling, right?
INSTRUCTOR: Yes. Sitting in a group can also be helpful. There's more energy in a collection of coals than any single one until it gets going. When it gets going, the others may become a hindrance to it. Then having used the group for what it's good for, set it aside, like a raft that took us to the further shore.
(Wiki WQ edit) Zen means jhana. Zazen, considered the heart of Japanese Sōtō Zen Buddhist practice, means "sitting." The aim of zazen is "just sitting" (shitankaza), that is, suspending all judgmental thinking and letting words, ideas, images, and thoughts pass by [like little clouds across a clear sky] without getting involved in them. We avoid becoming distracted by distractions this way. Practitioners do not use any specific object of meditation, instead remaining as much as possible in the present moment, aware of and observing what is occurring [such as this breath] and what is passing through the mind. Dogen says, in his Shobogenzo, "Sitting fixedly, think of not thinking. How do you think of not thinking? Non-thinking. This is the art of zazen." More
If we have wrong understanding, we practice meditation like a thief who, after being caught, hires a lawyer to get out of trouble. Once out of trouble, we start stealing again.
Or we are like a boxer who gets beaten up, nurses the wounds, then goes off to fight again, which only brings fresh wounds. And this cycle goes on endlessly.
First I became calm then I developed insight.
The purpose of meditation is more than just calming [samadhi, absorption, bliss] ourselves from time to time, getting ourselves out of trouble [this present suffering]. Meditation is about seeing and uprooting the causes that made us uncalm to begin with.
Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One was residing in Savatthi, in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's park. Then he addressed the monastics, "meditators," and they replied to him, "venerable sir." And he said:
"Five things should be reflected on, from time to time, by a meditator intent on higherconsciousness. What five?
"When unskillful thoughts connected with lust, hate, and delusion arise in a meditator through reflection on an adventitious object, one should (in order to get rid of that) reflect on a different object connected with skill.
"Then the unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind (heart) stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"Like an experienced carpenter or carpenter's apprentice strikes, pushes out, and replaces a coarse peg with a new one, a meditator in order to get rid of an adventitious object reflects on a different object that is connected with skill.
"Then the unskillful thoughts connected with lust, hate, and delusion are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"If the unskillful thoughts continue to arise in a meditator, who in order to get rid of an adventitious object reflects on a different object connected with skill, one should ponder the disadvantages of unskillful thoughts in this way:
"In truth these thoughts are unskillful, blameworthy, and produce misery.'
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
Don't hang any of those on me. They're disgusting!
"Just as a well-dressed youth would feel disgusted, humiliated, and horrified because of a carcass of a snake, dog, or human hung around his or her neck, just so would a meditator feel disgusted, humiliated, horrified if unskillful thoughts continue to arise in spite of the skillful reflection pondering the disadvantages of unskillful thoughts.
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"If unskillful thoughts continue to arise in a meditator who ponders their disadvantages, one should endeavor to deprive them of attention or reflection.
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"Just as a keen-eyed person shutting her or his eyes and looking away to avoid seeing visible objects that have come into view, so a meditator in whom unskillful thoughts continue to arise in spite of pondering their disadvantages and endeavoring to deprive them of attention and reflection turns away.
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
I think what I want to think, not otherwise.
"If unskillful thoughts continue to arise in a meditator in spite of the endeavor to deprive them of attention or reflection, one should reflect on the removal of the (thought-) source of those unskillful thoughts.
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"Just as a person finding no reason to walk quickly walks slowly, finding no reason to walk slowly stands, finding no reason to stand sits, finding no reason to sit lies down -- and so getting rid of a stressful posture resorts to a restful posture -- a meditator in whom unskillful thoughts arise in spite of the endeavor to deprive them of attention or reflection should reflect on the removal of the source of those unskillful thoughts.
"Then unskillful thoughts are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles down, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
The last ditch effort
Ah, I will succeed and overcome the unskillful by removing distractions!!!
.
"Finally, if unskillful thoughts continue to arise in a meditator in spite of reflection on the removal of the source(s) of unskillful thoughts, one should with clenched teeth and tongue pressing on the palate restrain, subdue, and hold (unskillful) mind with (skillful) mind.
"Then unskillful thoughts connected with lust, hate, and delusion are eliminated; they disappear.
"By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"Just as a stronger man might take a weaker man by the head and shoulders and restrain, subdue, and hold him down, so a meditator in whom unskillful thoughts continue to arise in spite of reflection on the source of unskillful thoughts, should restrain, subdue, and hold (unskillful) mind with (skillful) mind, clenching teeth and pressing tongue on palate.
"Then unskillful thoughts connected with lust, hate, and delusion are eliminated; they disappear. By their elimination, the mind stands firm, settles down, becomes unified and concentrated, just within (one's subject of meditation).
"Indeed, meditators, when unskillful thoughts due to reflection on an adventitious object are eliminated, when they disappear, the mind stands firm, settles, becomes unified and concentrated just within (one's subject of meditation) through:
reflecting on an object connected with skill,
pondering the disadvantages of unskillful thoughts,
endeavoring to deprive some thoughts of attention or reflection,
restraining, subduing, and holding unskillful mind with skillful mind with clenched teeth and tongue pressed on palate.
"In these ways a meditator comes to be called a 'master of the paths along which thoughts travel.'
"The thoughts one wants to think one thinks. The thoughts one does not want to think one does not think. One has uprooted craving, removed the fetter, rightly mastered pride, and thereby made an end of all suffering."
The Blessed One said this, and the meditators were glad at heart and approved of his words. Commentary: ... More
All materials on this site are submitted by editors and readers. All images, unless otherwise noted, were taken from the Internet and are assumed to be in the public domain.
In the event that there is still a problem, issue, or error with copyrighted material, the break of the copyright is unintentional and noncommercial, and the material will be removed immediately upon presented proof.
Contact us by submitting a comment marked "private."
Do not follow this journal if you are under vinaya or parental restrictions. Secure protection by Sucuri.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at creativecommons.org/about/licenses.
%20wiki.jpeg)
.png)
