Into the forest: Seclusion Sutra (SN 9.1)

Dhr. Seven (trans.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Viveka Sutta, Wisdom Quarterly

What is the ideal place to meditate? The Buddha frequently repeats some of his suggestions. Would it be a thatched hut in the jungle, a tent of robes in the desert, a mound of kusa grass next to a river?

• Tiny house? Abodu Quiz (prefabricated small footprint)

The Seclusion Sutra

Viveka Sutta, (SN 9.1) translated by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

"Oh, foolish mortals! ever blind to fate; too soon dejected, too soon elate" (Alexander Pope).

Thus have I heard. On one occasion a certain wandering ascetic was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest.

At that time, having gone to spend the day in seclusion, he was beset by unskillful thoughts, clinging to reminisces about the life of a layperson.

Then the woodland fairy (devata) inhabiting that forest, out of sympathy for the meditator, wishing him success, wishing to return him to his senses, approached and addressed him in verse:

"Wishing for seclusion one enters the forest

Yet the mind (heart) keeps running back.

Being a person, subdue the desire for people.

Then be at ease, content, dispassionate.

Dispel discontent with keen mindfulness.

Wisely reflect on the higher good.

For the mire of the abyss* is difficult to overcome.

Do not be led astray, pulled in by the draw of sensuality.

A bird its feathers coated with dust sheds it

With a shake so that it adheres not.

Just so an ascetic, mindful and full of energy,

Abandons dust that adheres from the world."

Indeed, that meditator, chastened by the glowing spirit, came to his senses with a sense of urgency for the goal.

• *Abyss: not literal (as in Avici or the Downfall of Niraya in general) but figurative in the sense that sensual craving can never be appeased by feeding it, as it is an endless consumer of more and more pleasures, stimuli, and novelty.
• Viveka Sutta (SN 9.1)—Ven. Sujato (trans.) suttacentral.net

Plunging into a forest grove cabin

Oh, you men. Settle down. We can feel you.

In West Virginia we visited Bhante G's Bhavana Society (bhavanasociety.org), a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist meditation center in the woods. I was assigned a cozy cabin with a funny stove. It was the warm season, so I could hardly imagine how cold it gets part of the year, snowed in, surviving by chopping wood to feed the hearth. Outside, mushrooms sprouted on the damp ground, and all around were trees and plants and a creek farther down by the old country road. This would do for meditation, but there were still many social distractions. One could hardly be silent as people were in the habit of small talk or getting to know one another. External silence is a great support for internal silence, where it really counts if one wishes to absorb into one's meditation object. The visiting nun leading us, as the abbot was no longer himself post-stroke, gave us instruction capable of producing absorption (jhana). One retreatant constantly slipped into piti and swirled his body on his cushion, blissed out. I would look at him, and rather than let myself become annoyed, I would follow suit. I swirled. And piti arose like magic, just a little, enough to know he was onto something. The woodland glen the center is on seemed ideal for fairy spirits of some description, as in "The Rape of the Lock." But I didn't see them. I couldn't feel them; I wasn't still enough. Females, being more sensitive and attuned to nature, claimed they could.

The Bhāvanā Society, rural West Virginia, not far from DC (bhavanasociety.org)