Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  Although there is nothing wrong with wholesome thoughts, the Buddha chose to develop a calm, quiet, and still mind—a mind absorbed in jhāna. You may not be obsessed by lust, hatred, or cruelty; usually we are just preoccupied by innocuous but incessant stories and personal plans about our own lives. But until you discover your capacity to rest the mind, focused, clear and fully aware, jhāna will be impossible.

  Two Kinds of Thought

  Observe your thoughts today and categorize them according to the root intention behind each thought. Make two lists—one for the wholesome and one for the unwholesome. If you notice a thought that is fueling anger, recognize the aversive state at the root, and add it to your unwholesome list. If you notice a thought of compassion, recognize the wholesome root of noncruelty, and add it to your wholesome list. When you notice impatience, see the underlying force of aversion. When you think about dessert, feel the force of greed. When confused, arrogant, or hypocritical thoughts arise, notice the root of delusion. And when thoughts of impermanence, causes and effects, and the value of honesty intrigue you, notice the wholesome root of wisdom from which they spring. Track your thoughts throughout a day.

  After you have calmed the distracted mind, attained jhāna, and emerged from the absorption, you will harness the power of the concentrated mind to discern ultimate mental and material phenomena in order to understand the causes of suffering and realize its ending.

  A POWERFUL MIND

  The five spiritual faculties discussed in this chapter—faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom—must not only be strongly developed, but also well balanced.63 Together these five faculties produce a powerful mind. The Buddha said:

  Bhikkhus, so long as noble knowledge [wisdom] has not arisen in the noble disciple, there is as yet no stability of the [other] four faculties, no steadiness of the [other] four faculties. But when noble knowledge [wisdom] has arisen in the noble disciple, then there is stability of the [other] four faculties, then there is steadiness of the [other] four faculties.

  It is just as in a house with a peaked roof: so long as the roof peak has not been set in place, there is as yet no stability of the rafters, there is as yet no steadiness of the rafters; but when the roof peak has been set in place, then there is stability of the rafters, then there is steadiness of the rafters … In the case of a noble disciple who possesses wisdom, the faith that follows from it becomes stable; the energy that follows from it becomes stable; the mindfulness that follows from it becomes stable; the concentration that follows from it becomes stable.”64

  When the five faculties are fully developed each factor reinforces and supports each other factor, preparing the mind for success in jhāna and insight practices.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 2.3

  Observing Long and Short Breaths

  After you have observed the breath at the nostrils for some time as introduced in meditation instruction 1.1, you’ll notice that some breaths are long and others are short. Observe each in-breath and each out-breath as they naturally occur; notice if each half breath is long or short. In order to determine if it is long or short, you must attend to the beginning and ending of each inhalation and each exhalation. You don’t need to mentally recite the words long or short, nor would you precisely measure each breath. Don’t alter the length of the breath. Let the breathing occur naturally and quietly; audible breathing usually indicates excessive control. Observe the breath itself—not the sensation on the skin, not the sound of its passing. Simply register the length to foster a continuity of attention from the beginning to the end of each breath.

  If the breath seems to disappear, patiently continue directing your attention toward the spot it last appeared. Resist the temptation to make the breath coarser in order to observe it. Gradually, mindfulness will become refined enough to perceive the subtle breath.

  CHAPTER 3

  Eleven Supports for Developing Concentration

  One need not rein in the mind from everything

  When the mind has come under control.

  From whatever it is that evil comes,

  From this one should rein in the mind.

  —SAṂYUTTA NIKĀYA65

  THE BUDDHIST TRADITION offers us a handy condensed list of eleven specific ways of supporting concentration.66 Please reflect on each item, and consider how the practice of each skill might enhance the conditions for focus, calm, and concentration in your life.

  1. Cultivate cleanliness. Your mind will be less distracted if your physical environment is clean, neat, and organized. When basic bodily hygiene and house cleaning are in order, fewer things will compete for your attention. Simple routines, like brushing your teeth, tidying your room, organizing your desk, filing papers, and generally keeping daily life duties well organized is one basic preparation for concentration. The Vimuttimagga recommends arranging that your physical needs are supportive for concentration, such as suitable food, agreeable weather, and comfortable posture.67

  2. Avoid extremes. Develop a balanced attention through cultivating the five controlling faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom as discussed in chapter 2. In particular, balance faith with wisdom, so that neither an excessively critical nor an overly gullible stance overshadows awareness. Also balance concentration with energy so that effort and focus grow stable together like a swift chariot drawn by horses of equal strength and endurance.68 Strive to bring balance to any area of your life that seems to swing between the extremes of deficiency and excess.

  3. Choose a clear subject for meditation, and know your object well. Develop clarity regarding both the subject and the object. For example, with the meditation subject of the breath, the object of attention might sometimes be the touch sensation, the nimitta, or the recognition of breath. When working with the meditation subject of loving-kindness, the object might be a dear friend, a squirrel, or all living beings. Fully embrace your meditation subject. If you work with the breath as the subject for meditation and someone were to ask you, “how do you experience the breath?” would you be able to describe the perceptions that you experience as the breath? Would you be able to clearly describe the specific object of attention? Be patient. Remain with your chosen meditation subject without succumbing to the temptation to switch to a new one when you feel bored, tired, or challenged. After concentration is well established, you may go on to incorporate a series of additional practices, but in the initial stages it’s necessary to remain clearly attentive to a single, distinct meditation subject, allowing the perception of that object to naturally become more and more subtle.

  4. Dispel sluggishness. If the mind falls into dullness, actively enliven your attention by arousing three enlightenment factors—investigation, energy, and joy. The tradition offers many suggestions for stimulating these factors.69 You might exert the mind by studying Dhamma, enhance interest by asking questions, gain inspiration by offering alms or performing acts of generosity, generate joy by reflecting on your virtue, inspire urgency by considering the fearful consequences of laziness, energize attention by changing postures or sitting in the open air, avoid overeating which might cause sluggishness, and set your resolve upon the development of an alert, energetic, and joyful quality of attention.

  5. Calm the mind when it becomes overenthusiastic. Occasionally you may need to restrain the surging energies that build with concentration. When rapture is intense, excitement and elation can overpower the mind like the swell of a tidal wave. Excessive delight will hinder progress. Learn to calm and channel the energies of pleasure. Don’t let the jubilant energy of jhāna seduce you away from a composed presence. If you feel excessive elation or giddiness growing, feel your feet on the ground, take a few slower and deeper breaths, sense the body, and control your thoughts. Intentionally restrain, compose, and calm yourself. Channel your mental energy to develop tranquility, concentration, and equanimity.70

  6. Encourage the mind when progress is painful or slow. Lift the mind up when it becomes discou
raged. You may naturally feel disheartened at times, so it is beneficial to know how to uplift your mind when you feel disappointed or frustrated. What might delight your mind without distracting you from your goal? What would inspire your practice and carry you just a little further along the path of awakening, even when you just don’t feel like being aware? What actions or reflections have an encouraging effect for you?

  You might be inspired by reflecting on Buddha’s qualities, cultivating loving-kindness, reading passages from the Discourses of the Buddha or recalling quotes from your teachers, reflecting on your goals, sensing the power of previous acts of generosity, or reciting chants. Any of these activities might infuse a discouraged mind with energy.

  Contemplating the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha can remind us that for thousands of years people have cultivated these practices to free the mind from suffering—you can too! Reflecting on death may stimulate spiritual urgency and dispel procrastination or negligence. Inspire yourself to overcome challenges and strive for your highest potential.

  When you are absorbed in jhāna, pain cannot arise, but before and after absorption, pain may sometimes assail you. Chronic or intense pain is exhausting, but you can learn to encourage the listless mind with purposeful urgency and faith. Become sensitive to early signs that the mind is becoming fatigued, overwhelmed, or withered by pain and respond to these clues by easing up or backing off. Respect your vulnerabilities, and face what is difficult a little at a time. Use walking, standing, or reclining meditation to provide some ease for the body while maintaining the continuity of practice. Awareness of pain can, in its own way, bring profound rewards. Facing the fact of pain conveys us toward an experience of peace and compassion that is deeper than what comfort usually affords; when we hurt, we are rarely complacent.

  Especially when in a busy lay life, take a moment before you fall to sleep at night to cheer your mind. Reflect on your day, recalling acts of virtue and good things that occurred. If you can’t think of anything good, then consider that at least there won’t be any more problems to deal with today; perhaps that thought will cheer the mind before you fall to sleep.

  7. Maintain a continuously balanced awareness. Apply effort that is neither forced nor lax. Sometimes an intensely vigorous resolve is required. Other times you’ll refresh attention joyfully with the buoyant energy of enthusiasm. And there will be other times when you look upon your meditation object quietly with equanimity. Adjusting your energetic connection with the meditation object to bring the attention into skillful balance can be a bit like riding a bicycle—when you are on a bike, you are not fixed in a static central position but are continuously returning to balance as you adjust to the variously changing forces of movement, inertia, and gravity. A meditator who is skillful at maintaining a balanced, even, and equanimous attention on the object is likened to a charioteer whose horses progress evenly together.71

  Your engagement with the meditation subject will invite a dynamic process of continuous adjustment. Self-assessment or judging, however, can interrupt the momentum of concentration. Inhibit any tendency to judge how well the meditation is going, or to measure how close you are to absorption. If rapture begins to arise, don’t dissipate it by rushing off to tell someone about it. When concentration begins to intensify, relax any excessive excitement that might otherwise interrupt the tranquility of the meditation. Remain alert; when you feel deeply still and calm, restlessness could re-arise and concoct stories starring your radiantly composed self who performs enlightened activities! When these habits and tendencies arise, balance your awareness, or they will pull you back into distraction.

  8–9. Avoid distracted friends, and seek the company of focused friends. You don’t need to search out a soul mate or expect that your friends and family will follow a meditative path. Social encounters do, however, leave impressions in memory that can ripple through the mind during later meditations. If your associates frequently engage in unethical activities or harmful speech, it may be wise to find new companions. If your friends don’t share your interest in concentration, you might seek out a local meditation group to provide supplemental social support for your practice.

  10. Reflect on the peace of absorption. Contemplate the peaceful and admirable qualities associated with the attainment of jhānas and liberation, and let the potential of this deep happiness inspire your practice.

  11. Incline the mind to develop concentration. A clear resolve sets the direction for your development. Articulate your intention and recollect it. Recall that intention each and every time you sit to meditate.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 3.1

  Observing the Whole Breath

  In your daily meditation, focus your attention repeatedly and exclusively on the whole breath. Observe the breath from the very beginning of the inhalation, through the middle, and to the end of each in-breath and each out-breath. Direct your attention to perceive the breath at the spot between the nostrils and upper lip. As your attention dwells with the breath for some time without distraction, certain experiences associated with concentration may arise. When the breath is uninterruptedly known for a long time, the mind becomes light, buoyant, and bright. Perception of the size and shape of the body may change. Feelings of contentment, rapture, and happiness may flood consciousness. It is not a problem to notice these natural changes as subtle shifts in the background of awareness, but do not give your attention directly to these expressions of concentration. Many pleasant mental factors will develop, but if you follow each one, they will distract you from the simplicity of mindfulness with breathing and will stall the deepening of concentration. Consciousness can receive only one object at a time, so if you are observing changing mental factors instead of the breath, you are not sustaining attention on the chosen meditation object. Remain consistently and exclusively attentive to the breath, undeterred by hindrances, and unswayed by the pleasures associated with concentration.

  CHAPTER 4

  Beyond Distraction: Establishing Jhāna through Mindfulness with Breathing

  Whoever, whether standing or walking, sitting

  or lying down, calms his mind and strives for that

  inner stillness in which there is no thought, he has the

  prerequisite to realize supreme illumination.

  —THE ITIVUTTAKA72

  MANY MEDITATION CENTERS follow the Asian custom of leaving the shoes at the door before entering the meditation hall. You might also like to leave your busy discursive mind with your shoes before you sit down to meditate. Every person has a unique attentional bias that is reinforced by a lifetime of habit. Your habits may support you in one role but pose formidable barriers in other arenas of life. Sometimes these habits are highly trained skills—doctors are trained to focus on physical symptoms, soldiers are sensitized to signs of threat, parents become responsive to their children’s distress. As you train your mind to stay steady, calm, tranquil, and equanimous with the whole breath, you are not merely replacing one habit with another, more spiritual, pattern. Rather, through concentration practice, you enhance the flexibility and durability of attention as you gain control over the attentional bias of your mind. Establishing jhāna is a matter of first steering our attention away from the threat of distractions and hindrances and encouraging the healthy development of wholesome faculties. As concentration increases and the mind stops habitually wandering into old painful patterns, you will discover joy, tolerance, happiness, and peace becoming readily accessible features of a spontaneous response to life. The quality of your consciousness will change; your state of mind will improve.

  Prior to entrance to jhāna certain conditions must be present; the presence of these characteristics indicate that you might be approaching the threshold of absorption:

  1. It will be very easy to focus on your meditation object without wandering off. Although a few stray thoughts might arise, they will not pull the attention away from the chosen object.

  2. There will be a distinct absence of any hindranc
e. The hindrances of desire, lust, aversion, doubt, sloth, laziness, restlessness, and worry cannot arise to disturb or distract you.

  3. Five important intensifying factors, called jhāna factors, will be present and will grow as you maintain a continuous perception of a single meditation object. These factors include (a) the initial application of attention to the meditation object (vitakka), (b) a sustaining of attention on the meditation object (vicāra), (c) delight, pleasure, or rapturous interest in the meditation object (pīti), (d) happiness, joy, and contentment regarding the meditation object (sukha), and (e) a one-pointed unified focus on the meditation object (ekaggatā). These factors, in specific combinations, accompany jhāna absorption, just as a tree is “accompanied by flowers and fruits.”73

  FIVE INTENSIFYING FACTORS

  These jhāna factors develop in the natural course of concentration as you apply and sustain your attention on your breath. They may appear somewhat subtly or quite obviously. Each factor overpowers a particular hindrance, and the development of all five prepares the mind for jhāna absorption.74 A skillful meditator will not permit the changing landscape of these factors to eclipse his or her focus on the breath. As the factors develop internally, the breath becomes an increasingly refined meditation object. While you continue to embrace the breath as the focal point in the foreground of awareness, trust that these jhāna factors are indeed maturing in the background. It can be helpful to have some understanding of these factors at the onset of deep concentration; you will not, however, explicitly investigate the functioning of each jhāna factor until after you have attained a stable absorption in the first jhāna and then emerged from it. Until then, keep the meditation simple and direct—stay attentive to the bare occurrence of the breath.