The practices of the four immeasurables likely also modify the conceptual systems, even though no studies so far investigated such changes. Modulations in conceptual processing with these practices could involve shifts in thinking schemas about how we perceive our own suffering and others’ suffering and how we relate to it. With more advanced practices of compassion, the changes could also include shifts towards more holistic, non-conceptual meanings and less engagement of the construed propositional meanings and schemas (Dorjee, 2016). This is because more advanced compassion practice encourages experiential connection with the felt sense of compassion rather than basic compassion, which arises from contemplations and reasoning about suffering. In this way the practice of compassion and related qualities further enable progression towards more advanced shifts in MEA.
Indeed, one of the core distinctions between advanced shifts in existential awareness is the experience of a compassionate state as a separate or inherent quality of existential awareness. Specifically, the non-conceptual experience of substrate consciousness from which all mental activity arises is often accompanied by the experience of compassion, but this quality is experienced as separable from, rather than intrinsic to, substrate consciousness. In contrast, pristine awareness (rigpa), which is the most advanced mode of existential awareness recognizing the nature of self, mind and reality, includes unconditional non-conceptual compassion as its inseparable and integral dimension. This type of compassion naturally radiates without effort when a practitioner abides at this most advanced level of existential awareness. However, even at basic levels of compassion training, these practices prepare the foundations for experience of non-dual pristine awareness by diminishing the boundaries between near and far, and the self and the other.
Compassion and related practices have a particularly strong potential to enhance our well-being given that they support both the self-regulatory and existential well-being mechanisms underlying our overall well-being. In comparison, Shamatha practices developing mindfulness and meta-awareness mostly target the cultivation of the attention aspects of self-regulation and their impact on the development of existential awareness is limited. Building on these, compassion and related practices cultivate explicit emotion qualities and emotion regulation strategies. Hence, both mindfulness and compassion practices are essential to long-term meditation practice, with compassion having broader reach and impact on MEA.
A day of compassion practice
With the variety of practices developing compassion, loving kindness, rejoicing and equanimity, there is a multitude of ways we can introduce compassion meditations into our everyday routines. In addition, everyday life provides many opportunities for us to develop and refine compassion and related qualities on the go, more so perhaps than a protected retreat environment. We can start the practice of compassion right after we wake up by including considerations about compassion into contemplations about the motivation/intention for the day. In the Buddhist context this would include a sincere wish to engage in meditation practices throughout the day so that we can better help ourselves and other beings and relieve suffering whenever we can. In this way, compassion is an integral drive behind our intention and meditation practice throughout the day.
Then as we engage in the morning routine we can further reinforce the compassionate intention – when we are getting dressed we can remind ourselves of the intention to engage in the activities during the day in ways which reduce our and others’ suffering. As we are preparing the morning meal we can think of others and do a brief practice of Tonglen, wishing that all those who are in need of a meal or drink would have it. The practice does not need to be restricted to working with positive emotions only. If we feel stressed or tense as we are rushing through the morning routine, we can remind ourselves that we are not the only ones feeling this in this moment and make a wish for us and for others that we would feel more relaxed and settled.
As we are commuting to work, we often think about tasks which are waiting for us and this in itself can cause us stress. When we notice this, we can again recognize that we are most likely not the only people having these thoughts in this moment and we can wish for ourselves and others to release the stress and turn our attention to meditation practice instead. We can look around and notice those who are sharing the commute with us or notice the people we are passing. As we are noticing them, we can wish them to be happy, without expecting them to know that we are unconditionally wishing them happiness or expecting anything in return. This can also remind us to wish that we too would experience genuine happiness and consider for a moment what genuine happiness means for us. This can be as simple as silently saying, ‘I wish you to be happy, I wish myself to be happy’, or we can focus more closely on the experience of genuine happiness and extend this feeling as a wish to those around us and then all beings beyond what we can perceive immediately.
As we engage in the interactions in the morning, we can keep coming back to the phrases of wishing others and ourselves happiness or simply return again and again to the experience of loving kindness and try to sustain that subtle state while engaging in work tasks. It is important to keep the practices of loving kindness and compassion authentic. When we practice loving kindness and compassion, it doesn’t mean that we will be walking around with a smile on our face all the time and talk to everybody in an exaggerated sweet manner. Such a way of relating to others is pretentious and lacks the genuine qualities of loving kindness and compassion. Rather, as we go through the morning we recognize moments of happiness and generate a genuine wish of happiness for others unconditionally, and when we experience suffering or witness others’ difficulties we genuinely wish them to be free from this suffering and if possible try to actively help.
The lunch break can be an opportunity for a short formal practice in the four immeasurables. In the Buddhist context this can involve remembering phrases such as: ‘May all beings be happy, may they be free from suffering, may they have happiness which is free from sorrow, may they rest in equanimity free from attachment and aversion’. During this practice we can connect with the underlying experiential quality of each of the four immeasurables or we can visualize those close to us, those we are neutral to, those we have difficulty with and then all sentient beings. While having a meal, we can engage in the eating meditation, but again expand it to include elements of loving kindness and compassion, wishing all those who don’t have a meal as we do to have it. We can also think of the food we are consuming as nourishing us so that we can engage in the practices of loving kindness and compassion.
In the afternoon, as we continue with our work tasks, we can try to apply antidotes whenever a difficulty arises. For example, if we experience frustration, we can remember that many other people have the same experience in the moment and we can also remind ourselves of the bigger picture, of what is really important for our genuine happiness. We can also recognize the suffering which is part of experiencing frustration and anger and make a wish to be free from the suffering. This may help us create a healthy distance from the current difficulty. Frustration and anger are often associated with narrowing of our space of thinking; our focus is restricted to the problem. If we briefly remind ourselves of loving kindness and compassion, this can help us expand the scope of our focus and release the immediate tension associated with frustration and anger.
In contrast, if we experience a moment of pride at achieving at work, we try to contextualize this. We remind ourselves of all those who contributed to the achievement and this may reduce our attachment to the achievement and reduce the likelihood of us slipping into distorted self-centredness. In this way we can antidote unhealthy attachment and practice equanimity towards our achievement. We can also try to explore the significance of our achievement more deeply, in terms of its contribution to our and others’ genuine happiness or reduction of suffering. And when we witness others’ deserved achievements, if we notice glimpses of jealousy arising in our mind stream, we can remind ou
rselves of rejoicing and the virtues associated with it. We may notice that a genuine sharing of others’ joy of achievement can also bring joy to us.
As we commute home from work, we can continue our practice of loving kindness and compassion, wishing genuine happiness and freedom from suffering to all the people we pass by on our way. As we engage in the evening routines, perhaps preparing an evening meal, we can make a wish for all people to have somebody to prepare a meal for them when they need it. We can also try to sustain the compassionate and kind mind-set while interacting with family and friends, perhaps bringing more care, patience and interest to the interactions with them. While we are watching TV, we can practice loving kindness and compassion too. For example, news often contain many reports of others’ suffering and struggling; we can use this as an opportunity for practicing unconditional loving kindness and compassion for them. Then before we go to sleep, we can do brief formal meditation practice on the four immeasurables again and also review our day and rejoice in all the wholesome activities we have done. In the Buddhist context, we would end the day with a dedication of all the virtue we have accumulated during the day for our progress on the path so that we can more efficiently help other beings. We would also dedicate the virtue for the benefit of all beings, so that they would experience genuine happiness and be free from suffering.
Compassion from a long-term practice perspective
As shown in this chapter, practices of compassion and related qualities are pivotal to the contemplative process on the long-term path of meditation. This is because they deeply connect with other core aspects of meditation training including development of compassionate motivation/intention for engaging in long-term meditation in order to cultivate genuine happiness and reduce our and others’ suffering. Compassion and loving kindness also support development of mindfulness and meta-awareness by enabling a gentle, non-judgmental and understanding approach to dealing with distraction, lack of relaxation, stability or clarity in our practice. Finally, compassion contributes to and supports the development of contemplative insight, with the highest levels of non-conceptual compassion being inseparable from the highest states of existential balance. Accordingly, the practice of compassion and related qualities develops, expands and gets refined with long-term meditation training. In this way, the practices of compassion, loving kindness, rejoicing and equanimity are an indispensable part of any long-term meditation practice.
Summary
Chapter 4 explores the role of compassion and related qualities of loving kindness, compassion, rejoicing and equanimity in long-term meditation practice. The chapter starts by considering the meaning of compassion in the Buddhist context and then examines how the Buddhist accounts of compassion differ from Western scientific theories and applications of compassion practices. This is followed by an outline of three types of meditation practices which develop and/or work with compassion and the three related qualities. These practices are the meditations on the four immeasurables, the practice of Tonglen and working with antidotes to afflictive emotions. We then examine the current evidence base on the neural underpinnings of compassion and loving kindness practices. Next, we consider the place of practices cultivating compassion and related qualities in a broader framework of meditation training as developing the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity (MSRC) of the mind and modes of existential awareness (MEA). Finally, the practical and theoretical considerations are integrated using examples of how compassion practice can be embedded in routine everyday work and life activities throughout the day.
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Chapter 5
Visualization in meditation practice
Visualization-based meditations are a common type of contemplative practices across contemplative traditions. One of the reasons why they are so commonly used might be their multifaceted nature and effects – visualization-based practice can at the same time train mindfulness and meta-awareness skills, cultivate compassion and other wholesome emotional qualities and also develop contemplative insight. Yet, in comparison to research on mindfulness or compassion, very few studies investigated the effects of visualization-based meditation. In addition, the limited research which is available is mostly focused on the impact of these practices on attention, ignoring the possible broad impact of visualization-based meditation on a variety of processes and outcomes.
In this chapter, we will examine visualization-based practices more closely, particularly based on examples of meditations in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. We will first briefly discuss Western psychological understanding of mental imagery and its implications for mental health before outlining what visualization-based practices are and how they are applied as part of long-term meditation training in Buddhism. We will then explore in detail a generic example of visualization-based meditation practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This will be followed by a discussion about neuroscientific evidence on brain changes associated with visualization-based meditation. We will then discuss the role of visualization-based practices in the broader framework of meditation training in terms of their possible impact on metacognitive self-regulation and shifts in modes of existential awareness (MEA). Finally, we will explore how visualization-based practices could be readily integrated into everyday activities throughout the day.
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