Uncomplicated Meditation

     "Meditation is the art of being. Unfortunately, we turn it into the art of doing. We ask, What am I doing? I am meditating. Well, what is that? Well, I am trying to be. Sometimes we introduce too much unnecessary struggle or strife that does not need to be part of it. Meditation is the art of being still, to be, and you do not have to do anything to be – you are, and I am. Nothing is required for you to be. ‘I am’ requires nothing more, and there is no need to define beyond that. I am good, I am bad, I am right, I am wrong – those thoughts are part of life as well, but none of that defines being. The sheer act of existence, the sheer act of being and of consciousness, is its own miracle.

     The meditative mind is extraordinarily sensitive. As useful as thought is, too much makes the mind dull. It needs to be renewed primarily through silence. So take this day to make some room for listening to the quiet spaces inside. Do not make it a goal; just notice what you notice through listening and through being available to what is occurring in each moment of experience. If you do, your experience will take on transparency – it will not feel as heavy and solid, but will start to feel translucent and ephemeral, which allows even more depth. Listen and make room for the deeper dimensions of your being to arise into your consciousness. This is a way to authentically enter a place of meditation.”        Adyashanti. “The Most Important Thing. Discovering Truth at the Heart of Life.” Sounds True, 2019.  

     "True meditation has no direction or goal. It is pure wordless surrender, pure silent prayer. All methods aiming at achieving a certain state of mind are limited, impermanent, and conditioned. Fascination with states leads only to bondage and dependency. True meditation is abidance as primordial awareness.
     True meditation appears in consciousness spontaneously when awareness is not being manipulated or controlled. When you first start to meditate, you notice that attention is often being held captive by focus on some object: on thoughts, bodily sensations, emotions, memories, sounds, etc. This is because the mind is conditioned to focus and contract upon objects. Then the mind compulsively interprets and tries to control what it is aware of (the object) in a mechanical and distorted way. It begins to draw conclusions and make assumptions according to past conditioning.
     In true meditation all objects (thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, etc.) are left to their natural functioning. This means that no effort should be made to focus on, manipulate, control, or suppress any object of awareness. In true meditation the emphasis is on being awareness; not on being aware of objects, but on resting as primordial awareness itself. Primordial awareness is the source in which all objects arise and subside.
     As you gently relax into awareness, into listening, the mind’s compulsive contraction around objects will fade. Silence of being will come more clearly into consciousness as a welcoming to rest and abide. An attitude of open receptivity, free of any goal or anticipation, will facilitate the presence of silence and stillness to be revealed as your natural condition.
     As you rest into stillness more profoundly, awareness becomes free of the mind’s compulsive control, contractions, and identifications. Awareness naturally returns to its non-state of absolute unmanifest potential, the silent abyss beyond all knowing.”
       Adyashanti "True Meditation Has No Direction." http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=960

Personal Guidelines

Come from Gratitude
To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe -- to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it -- is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.

Don't be Afraid of the Dark
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don't be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, for these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings. To suffer with is the literal meaning of compassion.

Dare to Vision
Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination. We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts..

Roll up your Sleeves
Many people don't get involved in the Great Turning because there are so many different issues, which seem to compete with each other. Shall I save the whales or help battered children? The truth is that all aspects of the current crisis reflect the same mistake, setting ourselves apart and using others for our gain. So to heal one aspect helps the others to heal as well. Just find what you love to work on and take joy in that. Never try to do it alone. Link up with others; you'll spark each others' ideas and sustain each others' energy..

Act your Age
Since every particle in your body goes back to the first flaring forth of space and time, you're really as old as the universe. So when you are lobbying at your congressperson's office, or visiting your local utility, or testifying at a hearing on nuclear waste, or standing up to protect an old grove of redwoods, you are doing that not out of some personal whim, but in the full authority of your 15 billions years.

Joanna Macy 

http://www.joannamacy.net/personal-guidelines.html

 

The Refinement of Mind

     The step-wise process of refining the mind is comparable to refining gold - removing the grossest impurities first, then progressively more subtle impurities, until only pure gold remains.

     "... in the case of a practitioner devoted to practice, there may be such gross impurities as unskillful conduct in deeds, words, and thoughts. Such conduct the follower of the way gives up, puts away, lets go, and relinquishes.
     When one has abandoned these there may still remain such impurities of a moderate degree as lustful, angry, and violent thoughts. Such thoughts the follower of the way gives up, puts away, lets go, and relinquishes.
     When one has abandoned these, there may still remain grasping to special states of meditation.
     Thus concentration is not yet properly calm or refined; it has not attained to full tranquillity, nor has it achieved mental unification. But there comes a time when the practitioner's mind gains firmness within, settles down, becomes unified and concentrated. With such a concentration the practitioner is able to direct the mind to states of higher insight.
     Having completed this initial purification, a follower of the way devoted to practice should from time to time direct attention to three qualities of mind ... concentration, energetic effort, and equanimity. If one gives regular attention to these, then one's mind will become pliant, workable, lucid, and not unwieldy, and it will be well concentrated upon overcoming all fetters and attachments."
       adapted from the Anguttara Nikaya, translated by Nyanaponika Thera 
       Jack Kornfield, Gil Fronsdal eds. “Teachings of the Buddha.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007.
 

The Forest & the Trees

     Is the forest we live in a bad dream of desires, concepts, shoulds & regrets? For many of us, it is.
     But if we keep wiping sleep from our eyes & really look, there are real living individual trees all around us.

Kreber   www.dpreview.com

Control, Force, Effort, Striving, Pushing towards Goals in Meditation

     "What if you let go of every bit of control and every urge that you have, right down to the most infinitesimal urge to control anything, anywhere, including anything that may be happening with you at this moment? If you were able to give up control absolutely, totally, and completely, then you would be a spiritually free being."

     "We think there’s someplace other than here to get to — that’s what drives the whole pursuit. Only when the pursuit ceases, is it possible to recognize what comprises you: pure being, pure consciousness. This is actually the very substance of your own self and being."                                                     Adyashanti


 

Tantramar Marsh from Middle Sackville by Peter Manchester   www.fogforestgallery.ca

Patience Opens Doors

     “I knew I was not in control, and time and again I was called to surrender to that truth. I was able to model patience and nonattachment and thus encourage it in others. This was an unexpected gift of trusting emergence: patience opens doors that effort finds frozen shut.”

        Kramer G. “Insight dialogue. The interpersonal path to freedom.” Shambhala, Boston, 2007.

naturen-ar-fantastisk.blogspot.com

Buddhist Psychology, Abhidharma, Qualities Crucial to Maturation & Wisdom

     "Buddhist psychology (Abhidharma) describes seven qualities or capacities that are crucial to fostering mental maturation and wisdom: the seven factors of enlightenment. These are composed of three calming factors (calm, concentration, and equanimity) and three energizing factors (effort, energy, and rapture), and a superordinate factor of mindfulness. 

     The calming and energizing factors need to be of comparable strength to balance each other and to avoid the disabling extremes of sleepiness and agitation. Moreover, when all seven are strong and balanced then there is the possibility of a major developmental leap: a leap into transconceptual awareness known as 'cessation' and its resultant transconceptual wisdom."

  

       Walsh R. The varieties of wisdom: Contemplative, cross-cultural, and integral contributions. Research in Human Development 2011; 8(2): 109-127.

Photo: Evgenia Arbugaena   http://pdn30.pdnevents.com/gallery/2013/index.php?contest=arbugaeva

Samadhi OR Hypnotic trance?

     Many meditation teachers advise students to put serious effort into focusing attention on one object eg the breath, in order to stabilize awareness. Some Zen teachers state that one must achieve samadhi first before making any real progress in meditation practice. This forced mental effort goes hand-in-hand with forced physical effort, "breaking through barriers" of pain. Stable one-pointed awareness can indeed be achieved by some using this marine-style method. However, those who have some variant of attention-deficit disorder, and or low pain threshold, and all of us when we have a lot going on in our lives, are not marine material.

     Hallmarks of samadhi include the end of "self-talk" (the obvious loud stuff at least) and complete physical ease of sitting (for prolonged periods). Both of these are major reliefs, so there's subtle euphoria, and the tendency to think "I've got it!" - delusion!! It's a small, very early step, in a lifelong journey.

     What's not commonly appreciated, is that a self-induced hypnotic trance can easily be confused with samadhi. One can literally escape the prolonged mental and physical strain by going into a trance state. In trance, one feels "locked-in on target" (like a jet fighter's canon) on the focus of attention.

     In the samadhi one cultivates with open-awareness meditation (Vipassana, Zen etc), one should be able to slowly move physically, look around, etc and REMAIN in samadhi. If doing these things ends the state ("breaks the spell"), it was self-hypnosis - a good hypnotist can help get you there in 10 minutes.

     We are trying to wake up! Samadhi - fully conscious, awake and aware - is cultivated through dedicated skillful mindfulness practice that is unforced, but continuous throughout one's (initially) waking hours.

Photo from Insight Meditation Society's website: http://www.dharma.org/

Refined action

     “Refined action … from the start … lies in peace & harmony. … Wherever you may be, your life is sustained and supported by the whole universe. The main purpose of human life is to maintain this sanctuary [universe]. It is not to climb a ladder to develop your own personal life.
     If you see refined action or nirvana or enlightenment, or even the aspiration for enlightenment, in terms of time or progress, your understanding is not correct. These four are without beginning or end. They are like a circle, where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.
     … refined action comes neither from your effort nor from someone else’s. If your effort were not supported by the universe as a whole, you could not make any real effort at all. Pure, refined action makes no distinction between self and others. Trees, birds, and all other beings are completely harmonized in this sanctuary of the whole. This is our life.” 

     Katagiri D. “You have to say something. Manifesting Zen insight.” Shambhala, Boston, 1998.