When ONE man IS an island

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly PREPARATION FOR MEDITATION (palikanon.com, Wiki edit)

What constitutes an "island" -- independence or pure willpower? (Banyak Islands/bing.com)

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If efforting could do it, we'd all have done it.

"No man is an island"? That's what I've heard said.

But as the Buddha guided, he advised his wandering ascetic students to be an "island" (dipa, dvipa) unto themselves. Now, this Pali/Sanskrit word may also be translated as "lamp." If one is a lamp or island unto oneself, one has become one's own guide.

As a follower of the Buddha's Dharma, a "Buddhist," if you will, I go for guidance (not "refuge") to the Three Jewels: the Teacher (the Buddha), the Teaching (the Dharma), and the well Taught enlightened (Aryan) community of disciples (the Sangha).

Having gotten my guidance, I become a lamp and go to my island.

My island is withdrawal and seclusion from sensual distractions -- all the Five Hindrances.* There I cultivate their opposites, the Five Factors of Absorption,* the "limbs of jhana." Is it wrong? It works.

Where there's too much will, there will be a way.

To be a hermit all the time would be sad and a distraction. To be a hermit some of the time is a blessing and a treasure.

As humans we need to "find ourselves," regain our balance and equanimity, cultivate our innate inner-ability to place the mind/heart where we want it rather than having it always run wild.

Wild is good, wild is nice, and letting go with childlike abandon, there's a time for that. It's usually called college or playing as a creative kid encouraged to cultivate creativity.

But there comes a time when it's been enough, and meditation (jhana, samadhi, right stillness, cultivating in the kammatthana, the field of one's spiritual endeavor) becomes important above all else.

What then? HOW shall one do it? Here the Teaching of the Teacher to the [Nobly] Taught becomes all-important:

These are FIVE HINDRANCES to cultivation (meditation).

1. Sensual desire (kāmacchanda): craving pleasures of the six senses (pleasant sights, sounds, smells, savors, and sensations, and the mind's mental simulations).
2. Ill-will (vyāpāda, byāpāda): feelings of aversion (avoidant anger, hostility, resentment, bitterness, or hatred).
3. Sleepiness and laziness or sloth-and-torpor (thīna-middha): lassitude and disinclination in action with little to no effort behind it.
4. Restlessness-and-worry (uddhacca-kukkucca): the inability to calm the mind and focus one's energy.
5. Skeptical doubt (vicikiccha): lack of confidence, faith, conviction, or trust in what one is doing.

What then if there were opposing qualities to overcome a hindrance with a helpful factor that aids progress in meditation (absorption) that can be cultivated and developed at will?

In the commentarial tradition, the development of meditative or mental absorption (jhāna) is described as the development of Five Factors of Absorption (Pali jhananga, which are cetasikas, Sanskrit caitasika) that counteract the Five Hindrances: [See Note 17* Table: Form-level absorptions (rūpa jhānas).]

• [*Note 17: See, for instance, the "Limbs of Samadhi Sutra" (Samādhaṅga Sutta, a.k.a. Pañca-ṅgika-samādhi Sutta, AN 5.28), Access to Insight translation: Ajahn Thanissaro, 1997b).]

The FIVE FACTORS OF ABSORPTION (meditation):

1. Applied attention (vitakka) counteracts sloth and torpor (lethargy and drowsiness).
2. Sustained attention (vicāra) counteracts skeptical doubt (uncertainty).
3. Rapture (pīti, joy, bliss) counteracts ill-will (malice).
4. Supersensual pleasure (sukha, happiness) counteracts restlessness-worry (excitation and anxiety).
5. One-pointedness (ekaggata) counteracts intense sensual craving and subtle sense desire.

The dhyāna sutras of the defunct Sarvastivada tradition