(Richard Shankman) The Art and Skill of Buddhist M PDF
(Richard Shankman) The Art and Skill of Buddhist M PDF
This
book is filled with the author’s warmth, wisdom, and compassion.
Richard Shankman has offered a very clear and user-friendly com-
panion for anyone wanting to learn meditation. … A great gift.”
—Bob Stahl, PhD, coauthor of A Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Workbook, Living with Your Heart Wide Open,
Calming the Rush of Panic, A Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction Workbook for Anxiety, and MBSR Every Day
“Here is a book that you will turn to again and again over the years
of your practice because it speaks to both the possibilities and the
challenges of meditation. Richard Shankman offers clear instruc-
tions on how to establish a meditation practice as well as specific
guidance through some of the deepest practices of concentration
and insight.”
—Phillip Moffitt, author of Dancing with Life and
Emotional Chaos to Clarity
R I C H AR D S H A NKMA N
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the
subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in
rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional services. If expert assistance or
counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Copyright © 2015 by R
ichard Shankman
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 First printing
Contents
Introduction 1
2 Beginning Instructions 33
5 Right Concentration 71
6 Deepening Concentration 81
9 Insight 123
10 Equanimity 137
Introduction
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
P
erhaps nothing is more emblematic of Buddhism than the
image of a monk in silent meditation. With closed eyes and
attention inward drawn, it evokes in us a sense of wisdom,
peace, and calm.
Ever since the Buddha’s great awakening and discovery of a long-
forgotten path to inner peace and happiness, meditators have fol-
lowed in his footsteps. Ordinary people just like us have undertaken
the same practices that have been handed down throughout the
centuries. They have seen for themselves the treasures these teach-
ings might hold in their own lives. We can realize the peace and
happiness the Buddha discovered 2500 years ago.
This book is a travel guide along that same path to inner peace,
meditation as it has been preserved and taught in the Theravada
tradition of Buddhism. Theravada means “school of the elders” and
is the oldest living Buddhist tradition, the only one of the earliest
Buddhist schools surviving today. Its texts are preserved in the Pali
language.
This is a book of exploration and discovery. We will explore the
essential elements of meditation, from beginning mindfulness to the
deeper stages of concentration and insight—learning how to culti-
vate and strengthen them, and how to bring them together in our
practice. We will discover the greatness of our capacity for wisdom,
love, and kindness as we open to deep states of calm, clarity, and
peace.
Meditation is not something mysterious or complicated.
Meditation is accessible and practical. Its benefits are available for
anyone interested in discovering what it may have to offer. Its prac-
tices and techniques are simple to do. Meditation is about learning
how to live peacefully with quiet minds and open hearts. All the
things we may have heard about that can come from meditation—
wisdom, peace, and calm—we can realize for ourselves.
Buddhist meditation comprises a variety of practices for calming
our mind and increasing awareness of our thoughts, moods, and
2
Introduction
emotions. Being more aware of our experience offers the chance for
meeting any situation in a more balanced way. We have the possibil-
ity to respond wisely when we can be more fully present and less reac-
tive with whatever happens. We learn to move through all the ups
and downs of life with balance and an inner sense of well-being.
Why Meditate?
You may be drawn to meditation for many reasons. You may be
looking for a way to manage your stress and feel more peaceful and
calm. Perhaps you want to quiet your mind, which is scattered all
over the place, to stop obsessing and learn to relax. Or you are
dealing with chronic pain or illness, or any other challenging situa-
tion that is hard to endure, and you are looking for tools to help.
Sometimes we don’t know exactly what we are looking for, but we
know we are suffering or struggling in some way and have heard that
meditation might help.
All of these benefits are available to us. Peace and joy may seem
distant, but they are in actuality not so far away. They are within
each of us, but we must turn our attention inward and come to know
ourselves. With practice your mind will become trained and a natural
sense of calm and contentment will follow.
The ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation and teachings is to
guide us toward a nonreactive equanimity and inner peace in the
midst of all aspects of our lives. Beyond the importance and benefit
of fostering the valuable skills of stress reduction, pain management,
and relaxation, on a more fundamental level Buddhist teachings are
asking us to make a shift in how and where we look for happiness,
with far-reaching and profound consequences for our well-being.
Buddhist meditation is a mosaic of wise and skillful means for
cultivating wholesome qualities of our hearts and minds, enabling us
to live and act in ways that create more happiness and less suffering
3
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
4
Introduction
5
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
inspired to seek what is beneficial and good for ourselves and others.
When healthy desire turns into craving, we cannot stand to be
without those things or to let them go. When we are craving, our
desire is so strong that we must have it, keep it, or get rid of it.
The Third Noble Truth is that there is an end to suffering. The
enlightenment the Buddha discovered is often called a liberation
through nonclinging. We can learn to ride the waves, navigating
life’s inevitable ups and downs with balance and grace. We can learn
to let go of our suffering and live peacefully with quiet minds and
open hearts in the midst of all that life gives us. All Buddhist teach-
ings, and all the various meditation practices and techniques, are
aids in service of this goal.
In the Fourth Noble Truth, the Buddha laid out a system for how
to live and practice in order to cultivate wholesome qualities of our
hearts and minds. This system is the Noble Eightfold Path. The first
two elements of the Eightfold Path, Right Understanding (also
known as Right View) and Right Intention, make up the wisdom
section, and entail understanding the Buddha’s teachings in order to
aim one’s efforts in the right direction. The morality or virtue section
comprises the next three pieces, Right Speech, Right Action, and
Right Livelihood. The final section is the path of meditation, the
focus of this book, consisting of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and
Right Concentration.
The Eightfold Path is a holistic system. Each factor is necessary
for and dependent upon all the others. Most of this book focuses on
the meditation section of the Eightfold Path but you cannot bypass
the other elements, and they will be incorporated throughout the
discussions. Without the wisdom to understand where you are
aiming you cannot reach your goal, so you need Right Understanding
and Right Intention. And your mind cannot settle down in medita-
tion if you are mistreating others or embroiled in conflict, so you
need to establish a foundation of virtue: Right Speech, Right Action,
and Right Livelihood.
6
Introduction
7
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
Mindfulness
Meditation begins with mindfulness. I define mindfulness in a
simple way, as not being lost on “automatic pilot.” Mindfulness
means knowing whatever is happening rather than being caught up
in your experience. It means being aware of yourself and your sur-
roundings, not just going through the motions unaware of what you
are doing. Being mindful means being awake to and fully present in
any moment.
You can be mindful of anything. You can be aware of your
thoughts and moods, what is happening in your body and what is
going on around you. When you know your emotions without being
entangled in them, you are able to make wise choices in how to
respond to situations. You gain a balanced perspective that allows for
greater freedom in meeting the flow of life’s ups and downs.
Becoming more aware of your own experience, of what is hap-
pening in your mind and body, also helps foster a greater under-
standing of what other people are going through. You can notice
those around you and how you are interacting with them. Having
some space between your experience and your response to it opens
you to greater possibilities and choice in how to act. Recognizing
your mental and emotional patterns, you can begin to shift habitual
behaviors.
In this book we will explore various ways to use and direct your
attention in a purposeful way to strengthen concentration and
insight. The first meditation practice I will offer is called mindful-
ness of breathing. This practice will help you learn how to connect
with your breathing, so that your mind will grow more steady, more
calm, and less distracted.
8
Introduction
Concentration
Through the proper use of mindful attention you will learn how
to compose and settle your mind, developing the quality of concen-
tration. To be concentrated means your awareness is calm, collected,
and undistracted. To be undistracted means your mind is not con-
stantly wandering. You can direct your focus where and when you
want and keep it there. A concentrated mind is amazingly clear and
perceptive, beyond what is normally accessible.
With a steady, undistracted awareness, mindfulness can pene-
trate deeply and subtly as you turn your attention inward. A concen-
trated mind is described as being rid of impurities, bright, free from
blemishes, flawless, pliable, adaptable, steady, and composed and
collected. It is with this quality of mind that we turn toward insight.
Insight
We do not need the Buddha to tell us about suffering and stress.
We know all about it. What we do not know, and what we need help
with, is what to do about it. This is where insights can really help us.
A lot of emphasis is put on insight in Buddhist meditation.
Insight means understanding the way things are, including life’s
uncertain and impermanent nature, and acknowledging and making
peace with life on its own terms. We come to understand the inner
workings of our mind and the nature of our body as it ages.
Insight blossoms as we connect with and come to know ourselves
deeply and intimately. Increasingly, as mindfulness and concentra-
tion grow, we are able to clearly and directly perceive ever-subtler
places of reactivity, their causes, and the way to let them go. We can
see our habitual patterns and tendencies that lead to stress. We know
when we are caught in those patterns and tendencies and under-
stand how to let go of stress through nonclinging.
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The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
Paths of Meditation
The various meditation practices all belong to one of three main
branches of the meditation family: insight meditation, concentration
meditation, and concentration and insight integrated as a single
style of practice. Concentration and insight are both important in all
these meditative paths. Because there is not just one way meditation
is practiced and taught, there can be some confusion about how
these two aspects of the practice fit together.
Insight meditation is often viewed and taught as a practice sepa-
rate and distinct from concentration meditation. In this understand-
ing, insight is equated with mindfulness, the present- moment
awareness of whatever is happening. In the path of insight
meditation—vipassana in Pali (pronounced vih-PAH-suh-nuh)—
you apply mindfulness to meet your moment-to-moment experience,
without any special effort devoted to cultivating concentration.
Some degree of concentration will develop naturally as you sustain
your attention on the array of experiences coming and going during
the meditation session.
By paying attention to what is happening in each moment, you
begin to clearly perceive and have insight into where you are cling-
ing to or fighting against your experience. You start to learn how to
meet difficulties and work with your suffering wisely. Meditators
practicing in this style may not be concerned with developing the
deeper stages of concentration, feeling that however much concen-
tration naturally develops through mindful attention to their chang-
ing experiences is sufficient.
10
Introduction
11
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
12
Introduction
13
Chapter 1
Establishing the
Foundation for
Meditation
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
M
editation comprises a wide array of skillful means. There
are many meditation practices to choose from. Even if
we all undertook the same meditation practice, regard-
less of what that practice entailed, we would have our own individual
experiences.
Though we have many things in common, we are also unique
and meditation unfolds differently for each of us. As a result, how
best to work and what is needed in order to proceed at each step will
be different for each of us. There is no single right or best technique
or approach that is suitable for everyone, and so no instruction will
be appropriate for all of us in all circumstances, no method univer-
sally effective or desirable in all situations. What is most useful for
one person in dealing with a particular situation or experience may
not prove useful for the next person, and may actually be
counterproductive.
Concentration and insight, and all the various meditation prac-
tices and techniques for developing them, rest upon the foundation
of mindfulness. Mindfulness means being aware of whatever is hap-
pening in any given moment. When you are angry or worried or
stressed, you know it. When you are happy and at ease, you know
that. You know your internal world, the feelings in your body, your
emotions, thoughts, and moods, and you are mindful of the world
around you. Whatever is happening, you can be mindful of it. In the
next chapter you will learn specific practices to begin applying mind-
fulness in meditation, starting with mindfulness of breathing.
Through the practice of mindfulness you train your mind to
settle and focus by directing your attention purposefully in a skillful
way, and your ability to remain collected and stable increases. Being
undistracted means your awareness can remain steady, without
jumping around or wandering away. We use that undistracted aware-
ness to more clearly come to know whatever is happening moment
by moment, leading to insight. Practicing mindfulness leads to
16
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
insight because you are looking directly into the nature of your own
mind, body, and all experience.
Concentration and insight work together. Each can be a doorway
for opening to the other. We must enlist them both, though one or
the other may be emphasized at any particular time.
If you begin with concentration, you have to employ all the
resources and support of mindfulness. You are making your mind
steady, collected, and undistracted, so that your attention is not scat-
tered. Your perceptions become powerful and the deepening of
insight must follow.
If you emphasize insight in your meditation, you use mindfulness
to investigate the conditioned and changing nature of your mind,
your body, and all phenomena. You cannot help but strengthen and
bring to bear the power of a steady mind. You may naturally incline
in one direction or the other, but concentration and insight can
never really be separated.
The more concentrated you are, the clearer and more refined
your mind becomes and, because your awareness is unclouded,
insights come on profound levels. A clear steady awareness illumi-
nates your mind, allowing previously inaccessible and subtle areas of
clinging and suffering to be revealed, so that you can see whether or
not you truly are resting peacefully in the stream of nonclinging.
Your perceptions are not only more subtle; because of concentra-
tion’s penetrative power, their ability to permeate and transform you
is greatly enhanced.
Sometimes you may choose to lean more on the concentration
side and other times you might emphasize the deepening of insight.
And sometimes meditation will take you in a direction other than
what you intended. The emphasis in another direction will emerge
on its own. We want to remain receptive to how our experience
changes over the course of days or weeks, or throughout a single
meditation session, and to be open to letting go of how we think
things are supposed to be.
17
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
18
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
Balanced Effort
In this practice we are trying both to get somewhere and to go
nowhere at all, doing two apparently contradictory things at the
same time. Sometimes dharma practice is talked about in terms of
“going nowhere” or “nothing to gain,” so it can seem confusing when
we speak of cultivating or attaining meditative states of concentra-
tion and insight. These two aspects of practice, progressing along a
path and going nowhere, appear to be at odds.
You would not undertake anything if you did not want to get
something from it. Of course we want to be more concentrated,
more peaceful, more quiet and clear. It’s okay to want that—in fact
the Buddha said that the pleasure of concentration should be
pursued, developed, and cultivated.
19
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
20
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
are having, we are out of balance; but we are also out of balance and
do ourselves a disservice if we become complacent. Knowing when
to make effort and when to relax and just allow is an art—an art
that can take time and experience to cultivate and that comes for
most people through a certain degree of trial and error. Try to let go
of any expectation, resting as relaxed as you can in your present-
moment experience, and then to practice in a way that naturally
leads to deepening.
Ups and downs in energy, enthusiasm, and interest all come and
go. At times you may notice a real decrease in wanting to meditate.
Sometimes you will be motivated and sometimes you may be bored,
even with pleasant meditative states. We can experience inspiring
states of meditation and then feel bogged down in aversion or
resistance.
When you hit a wall, sometimes the best thing to do is to keep
meditating, regardless of how you feel. It can very valuable and
important to sit through the hindrances. At other times it is more
skillful to let go of any preconceived form, maybe going for a walk or
reading instead. This is different from just following your likes and
dislikes. I suggest experimenting with both approaches. If the equa-
nimity and awareness is strong, then it does not matter what the
form looks like. Just live in the flow of your experience with a mind
of nonclinging. Let your inner teacher be your guide and look hon-
estly at the results. That will inform you what is needed next.
21
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
of control; just at the time when we are the least settled, calm, or
peaceful, and when we could use a lot of concentration and stability
to help us be present with all these difficulties, we have these quali-
ties the least.
Recognize that it takes practice and training for the mind to
begin to settle and, just as with any art or skill, we are not going to
become expert meditators in a single day. Proficiency and ability
develop over time, yet many of us sit down to meditate and expect
our minds to be quiet and peaceful right away. It should not surprise
us that meditation can be challenging in the beginning. Our minds
are not trained. Reflect on how much time you have spent on auto-
matic pilot, led around by your likes and dislikes with a distracted
mind. That is a lot of time training your mind to be scattered and
not present.
Ajahn Chah, the great Thai meditation master, compared medi-
tation practice with growing a chili bush. He said our job is to prepare
the soil, plant the seed, water it, and protect it from insects. That is
our whole job. We do our part, and after that how fast or in what
manner it grows is not our business. You cannot pull on the leaves
and expect them to grow. Yet in meditation we expect the plant to
grow, flower, and produce chilies in one day.
All you can do is aim yourself in the right direction. How medi-
tation unfolds, how quickly and in what way, is not within your
control. Here is where the quality of patience will serve to support
you very well. Your job is to practice the best you can, connecting
with whatever experience the breath, body, and mind are giving you.
You do not have to be better at meditation than you are, and that
includes your capacity to let the process unfold and reveal itself in its
own way. Patience and the wisdom to not suffer are among the skills
you are cultivating by doing your best to let go of struggle and relax
into your experience.
Ease and relaxation are foundational to meditation practice. We
cannot even begin to settle if we are struggling. Consciously
22
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
23
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
That does not mean you have to stay with it, making yourself plunge
into something difficult, scary, or distressing, if it is too much for you.
You have to look and see what is needed, letting however much skill,
experience, and wisdom you have show you the way. It may be that
you choose to stay right in the fire of an uncomfortable feeling,
emotion, or memory, or you may back away, bringing down the
intensity to get some relief in order to give you the rest and resources
you need.
If you are judging yourself or your experience, try your best to
stop. Do not make it a struggle to stop struggling, but try to let it go
as best you can. Sometimes it is not so easy, in which case you are
learning something about conditioned patterns of tension and stress
that may be deeply habituated. You may need to inquire and investi-
gate what is fueling the tendency to hold on to some painful reaction
even when you see that it is creating more suffering.
Relaxation, ease, and patience will be your allies as you learn to
let go of struggle and begin to meet yourself with kindness, compas-
sion, and a sense of exploration and experimentation. Your practice
is to study and learn about yourself, and nothing need be excluded.
Everything is an opportunity for learning.
We tend to judge our meditation by how pleasant or unpleasant
it is. When the practice is to our liking, when it feels good and we
are getting what we want, we call that a good meditation. When
the present moment is not how you have decided it should be, when
it seems to go badly or fall apart, check to see what you have found
out about yourself, about how your mind works and about the
places you get stuck. See if there is something you can let go of that
is unhelpful. How can you build on what you have learned? If you
can let go of judgment and contention, shifting your attitude from
always seeking what you want and avoiding what you do not want,
you can begin looking at what happens with interest, discerning
what you can cultivate that is skillful and what is unskillful that
you can let go.
24
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
25
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
the most, and then proceed from there to even deeper stages of concentra-
tion, insight, and liberation.
The teacher asked if I could be perfectly happy and at ease if I
never attained jhana again, and kindly pointed out that real freedom
is found not in attainments, but in nonclinging to whatever is hap-
pening. I remember answering with something like, “Yes, of course
that is true, but in order to deeply realize that fact I’ve got to get…”
and then proceeding to suffer and struggle for some time more. I’d
had it all planned out. I knew that any time the thought I’ve got to get
comes up about anything, it is a setup for suffering. But what had been
a wholesome aspiration had become hijacked by my greedy mind.
All the parts of yourself and all the patterns at work in your life
come with you as you begin to meditate. Just as we are liable to suffer
when we do not get what we want in the course of daily life, even
with the most sincere intentions we can fall into worry, stress, or fear
as the meditation process unfolds. This is all part of the learning
process as we get to see how our minds work. You do not have to be
free from patterns of negativity in order to begin meditation, but you
do need the tools to work with whatever meditation presents.
26
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
27
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
Self-Compassion
I remember my beginning days as a meditator, wondering what it
was going to be like if something ever started to happen. I was young,
naïve, and idealistic, and looking around the meditation hall, seeing
everyone sitting so still, looking like perfect Buddhas, I thought,
Look at them all. Everybody is blissed out but me. I imagined everyone
in transcendent states of ecstasy as I grappled with knee pain, a
mind that could not stay on the breath, and thoughts of inadequacy.
It is so easy to fall into judging ourselves and comparing with others,
and we can end up creating a lot of unnecessary suffering along this
path whose purpose is to take us to the end of suffering.
It is often taught that morality is the foundation for beginning
any meditation practice. Morality entails speaking, thinking, and
acting in wholesome ways that decrease stress and increase well-
being in ourselves and others. A standard Buddhist model to guide
us in this way is the five precepts: nonharming, not stealing or not
taking that which does not belong to us, care not to cause harm
around sexuality, wise and careful speech, and abstaining from
28
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
29
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
Experimental Attitude
A skilled carpenter never reaches for a hammer when he needs to
tighten a screw; he works seamlessly and with ease with whatever
situation is presented. He doesn’t fret or judge that the screw is not a
nail, but concerns himself with completing his job well. We need a
range of skillful means at our disposal, adding many tools to our tool
kit over time and with experience, and learning how to use them
confidently and effectively. Instead of feeling oppressed by a situa-
tion, complaining when things are not going our way and struggling
against ourselves, we can avoid a lot of stress by letting go of our
ideas of how things should be and turning with interest to meet
whatever our meditation is presenting us.
By attending directly to whatever is happening, your experience
will tell you what is needed and how to proceed. If you become stuck
in a fixed idea of what is supposed to happen when you sit to meditate,
you can fall into a struggle with your experience and yourself. Becoming
a skilled meditator means learning to meet even challenging situations
with interest and curiosity. We can get just as interested in our strug-
gles and sufferings as we can in our bliss. Sometimes we will want to
investigate the situation, verbally or nonverbally. Sometimes all we
need is to be present and wait as the situation unfolds.
Meditation, therefore, involves a degree of experimentation, trial
and error, engaging in the practice and seeing what actually happens,
not seeking some prescribed set of experiences we are told should
happen. Whatever happens really is just fine. Even when things
seem to go wrong, the present moment is giving us information,
informing us how to proceed in the next step.
30
Establishing the Foundation for M editation
All you have to do is stay open and receptive to what your expe-
rience is telling you. When your mind is steady and clear and nothing
else is calling for your attention, continue cultivating the concentra-
tion. There will be plenty of times when you cannot concentrate or
you are dealing with other experiences or you just sense that you
should turn toward and investigate what is happening in some way.
At those times, simply follow out the investigation without worrying
about concentration, working as skillfully as you can with whatever
the moment brings. In this way, you never have to choose between
when to do concentration and when to do insight practice, and you
can take both as far and deep as you wish.
As meditation progresses the instructions will begin to differ for
each of us, depending not only on what happens, but also on what
we are learning about our strengths and challenges in working with
those experiences. When the practice is difficult or painful, we work
skillfully with the pain. When the mind is calm, collected, and con-
centrated, we work skillfully with the pleasure.
Bringing an open, receptive attitude will be a tremendous
support in deepening your capacity for working with the unfolding
stages of meditation. The receptive attitude is not afraid of anything
that might happen. It only looks to see what actually is happening
and how we can work with it most skillfully.
Think of each meditation practice as a doorway into the same
inner sanctuary. We do not want to become preoccupied with a par-
ticular door, thinking ours is the best or the only way—there can be
many. It does not matter which you choose. Once you have stepped
through that doorway you will guide and steer the practices so they
begin to converge at one place, which is a synthesis and integration
of concentration and insight. How we get there will differ from one
person to the next, because each practice can bring its own result
and the experiences each of us have, even if we are all doing the
same practice, will vary. So at each stage I will offer a range of tech-
niques and possible ways to work with each practice in order to head
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The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
them in the same direction. I will offer various practices you might
try, starting with mindfulness of breathing meditation. Through
experimentation and experience, along with the guidance presented
here, you will find what quiets your mind and opens your heart, what
brightens mindful awareness and deepens connection with your
body and mind.
You will learn to meditate so the mind becomes more collected
and centered, leading ultimately to the deepest stages of concentra-
tion. At the same time, you will be guided so that mindfulness and
clear awareness of all experiences are strengthened, regardless of
the level of concentration present—so that insight can flourish.
Awareness will be guided to open into mindfulness of your body and
of the states of your heart and mind, revealing and deeply connect-
ing with all aspects of your experience.
Ultimately, you must rely on your intuition and best judgment on
how to proceed. You engage in some meditation practice to which
you are drawn, or which you are taught by a teacher you happen to
encounter or read about in books, and then you undertake that prac-
tice to the best of your ability and assess the results as best you can.
With time and experience you will come to know what you can
trust. But in order to learn how to rely on your own inner guidance
you have to try out the instructions, put them into practice, and see
what the results are.
32
Chapter 2
Beginning
Instructions
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
I
t can be helpful to establish an environment that is relatively
free from distraction. As your meditation practice develops and
your ability to calm your mind and remain mindfully present
strengthens, it will not matter when or where you choose to practice.
You will be able to meditate in any situation. Especially in the begin-
ning, though, finding a time and place relatively free from noise or
commotion can be a great support.
Pick any place you like to sit quietly for the duration of the medi-
tation period. It does not have to be perfectly quiet. Just do the best
you can with whatever situation you have to work with. You can
meditate at any time of day, early in the morning, late at night, or
during a lunch break—whenever feels best and your schedule will
allow.
Perhaps turning off your phone will support you to let go of
thinking about messages or other distractions. Some people use a
timer to end the sitting period so they do not have to think about
when to end. It is okay to use a clock, but be careful not to fall into
peeking at the time too often. Or you can meditate without timing
the period at all, simply sitting however long you wish. See what
works best to help you be more fully present for the meditation.
When the meditation period is over, you can get up whenever
you feel ready. You may want to remain sitting a short while to recon-
nect with and transition to your surroundings. Sometimes this helps
to carry the meditative awareness back to your ordinary activities.
Or you can get up right away.
We will begin with the simple practice of mindfulness of breath-
ing, connecting with our experience of the breath wherever in the
body we can feel it most easily and clearly. We will pay attention to
how the practice unfolds, using whatever actually happens to inform
what is needed at the next step.
It may be obvious that mindfulness of breathing is a good fit for
you or it may not be clear or easy to figure out. Give it some time.
Just because you cannot concentrate well on your breath does not
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Beginning Instructions
mean it is not a good meditation subject for you to work with. Often,
it simply means that your mind is not yet trained, so do not be too
quick to give up on the breath and switch to something else. What
happens as we meditate will be different for each of us, and we each
have our own strengths and ways of working.
If, after trying out mindfulness of breathing for a while, you feel
drawn to one of the subsequent practices I offer, feel free to give it a
try. Mindfulness of breathing is not the best practice for everyone.
Find a style of meditation that you feel drawn to do.
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Let your eyes close in a relaxed way and take a few moments
to feel your body sitting. Notice that you do not have to do much
and that the experience of your body, in whatever position it is in,
is easily known just by paying attention in this very simple way.
Some people think meditation is complicated or mysterious, but the
foundation of our entire practice is simply opening to, and mindfully
connecting with, our experience in order to meet each moment just
as it presents itself.
Bring your awareness to your body breathing. As you pay atten-
tion to your body, you can become aware of your breathing in a
simple, uncomplicated way. This is not thinking about your breath-
ing or analyzing it, but just resting your attention on the direct, bare
experience. Try to let go of your judgments or opinions—This breath
is not clear enough, This is not right breathing—and see how you can
become more receptive to the pure simplicity of each breath.
Check in with your body to see where you naturally and most
clearly feel the physical sensations of breathing. It could be at the
nose, in the abdomen, or whole-body breathing—all are part of the
body. Give emphasis to mindfulness of breathing, letting other expe-
riences stay in the background of your awareness as much as possible
without struggling to do so. Try not to control the breath, but let
the body breathe at its own rhythm. We are not trying to make the
breath be any special way. The body knows how to breathe all on its
own, breathing itself without you having to make it happen.
Find where your attention naturally wants to settle and stay
with that. We do not want to be jumping around from one place
to another. It does not matter where in the body you connect with
your breathing. All places work equally well to cultivate even the
deepest stages of concentration and insight; the key is to find the
place where you naturally feel your breathing most clearly and
easily, without strain. If you do not have an obvious preference, try
bringing your attention to the area of your nose, feeling the air going
in and out. For some people, concentration strengthens more quickly
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Beginning Instructions
and sharply by focusing their attention there, though that is not true
for everyone.
Later, as your meditation evolves and concentration deepens,
your awareness may naturally be drawn on its own to other areas
in your body. When that happens, don’t fight yourself, but simply
follow your experience, let it unfold and present itself to you. This
is not jumping around, but is following the organic progression. For
now, keep it simple and stay with your breathing in one place.
Do not move your attention to follow the breath from the nose
down into the chest and back up. Being mindful of breathing at the
nose is sometimes likened to a saw cutting wood. The saw’s long
blade moves back and forth, but only touches the log at one place.
Air moves from the outside to deep in the lungs; though it “touches”
the body in more than one place, we do not follow it with our atten-
tion from the nose down into the lungs. Let your awareness rest at
one place, either just inside the nostrils or anywhere deeper inside
the nasal passage area. Try it out and let your attention fall wherever
in the area of the nose you naturally feel the breath.
You may feel your body breathing most clearly by noticing the
rising and falling of your abdomen. In this case you are not feeling the
sensation of air, but the physical movement of your belly expanding
and contracting with each in-breath and out-breath. Again, let your
body breathe at its own pace, as deeply or shallowly as it wishes, and
let your awareness rest on the physical sensations of the belly rising
and falling.
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just at the nose or the abdomen. You may not feel your breathing in
all these places, and it is fine if you notice the breath at some places
in your body but not at others. For example, you may feel breathing
at your chest and abdomen but not the nose. Let the sensations of
breath present themselves to you naturally, not trying to make your-
self feel them in any particular way.
It may be immediately obvious where you feel your breath best
or you may need to experiment, spending some time following your
breathing at each of these places. If you are not sure, just pick one of
these styles and stick with it for a while to see how well it works.
Later we will talk about working with all the other experiences
that can arise—the range of body sensations, sounds, thoughts, and
moods that pull our attention and that can make it hard to stay
with the breath. For now, give emphasis to awareness of the breath,
not clinging to it or pushing away any other experiences, just with
a strong preference for that particular awareness while letting other
experiences remain in the background. Stay relaxed the best you can.
Continue practicing in this way, returning to the physical expe-
rience of breathing over and over again. In the following chapters we
will talk about some of the common ways meditation can unfold
and how to work with our experience in each case. For now, just
stay with your breath in a simple way. Later, as the practice unfolds,
we will pay attention to what happens, which will inform the next
steps. As we emphasized in the previous chapter, there is no one-
size-fits-all instruction for what to do next. We will not know until
we see how the practice unfolds and what actually happens.
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Beginning Instructions
Mental Noting
You can try experimenting with mental noting, an aid that helps
direct the attention to remain present with the breath. Some people
find this technique very helpful to stay more connected and consis-
tent with mindful breathing and not wander off so much, while others
find it unhelpful or unwieldy. If the latter is the case with you, just let
it go and continue simply with the bare experience of breathing.
Mentally repeat the words in and out with each in-breath and
out-breath, keeping most of your attention on the sensation of
breathing itself and letting the words remain soft and in the back-
ground of your awareness. If you are mindful of your breathing at the
abdomen, you can use the words rising and falling with each rise and
fall of your belly, or simply breathing, breathing, with each whole-body
in-breath and out-breath.
Mala
Just as mental noting is an internal aid, a mala is an external aid
to help keep the breath in mind. The mala is a string of beads of any
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The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
size and length that is comfortable to pass between your thumb and
any other finger. If you use a mala as an accompaniment to breath-
ing meditation, a single bead marks each complete in-and-out breath
cycle. Place your thumb on the bead with the in-breath and pull it
across your finger with the out-breath. Just as with mental noting,
you may or may not find the mala helpful to stay more present with
the breath.
Breathing, mental noting, and the mala can all be used together,
giving your mind three things to do at once, all pointing toward one
thing, mindfulness of breathing. You can coordinate mental noting
and the tactile experience of moving the beads by grabbing the bead
with the in note and pulling it across your finger with the out, always
keeping the physical experience of breathing foremost in your
awareness.
These props, mental noting and the mala, will begin to feel cum-
bersome at some point as your concentration strengthens. The very
supports that you may have found so helpful early on will have done
their job and you will need, and want, to let them go. Feel free to use
them as much as you like for now, especially when you need lots of
support, but be watchful to not become attached or reliant after their
useful time has passed.
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Beginning Instructions
hinder your ability to meditate. It’s just a matter of finding the right
practice in these early stages to substitute for breath meditation.
Here are some techniques you can try if you think mindfulness
of breathing is not a good practice for you. These common alterna-
tives are not the only methods that can substitute for mindful breath-
ing, but the full range of possibilities is beyond our scope here.
Mindfulness of Sound
In the instructions for mindfulness of breathing we let all other
experiences stay in the background of our awareness, not forcing or
pushing them away but bringing a gentle sense of allowing them to
be in the background while giving some preference or predominance
to awareness of our breathing. In the same way, with this practice we
allow other experiences to stay in the background and we give pref-
erence or predominance to the experience of sound. You may feel a
natural draw or pull to awareness of hearing, and this practice can
be very calming and settling. Those for whom mindfulness of sound
works well commonly report it as an easily accessible and even com-
pelling meditation object. You may be drawn to awareness of the
sounds themselves or you may be more naturally aware of the act or
the process of listening or hearing.
Mindfulness of sound entails working with either inner or outer
sound. Even though it may be very quiet where you are meditating,
you may feel drawn to rest your awareness in listening to however
many or few sounds may be present at any time. Other people hear
an inner sound: a clear perception of ringing or some other sound,
experienced not through the ears but in the mind. You can see if you
have such an experience and if you are drawn to rest in awareness of
inner or outer sound.
If you are working with mental noting, you can mentally repeat
hearing or sound if that helps you stay connected and centered with
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Touch Points
Pick a few places in your body—touch points through which you
cycle your attention. They can be any place. For example, you could
choose the feeling of your hands touching together or wherever they
are resting on your thighs or knees, the feeling of your lips touching,
and the feeling of your bottom pressing against the chair, cushion, or
bench. It does not matter where in your body you choose, as long as
they are places where you can feel some sensation easily and clearly.
Place your attention at one of these points and rest it there for a
few moments, however long you wish—maybe as long as two, three,
or five breaths—making a mental note of touching, touching if you
are using noting. When you are ready, move your attention to the
next place, and then the next, continuing to cycle through your
touch points in this way. You do not have to bring awareness of
breathing into the process, though you can if you wish. If so, experi-
ment with how awareness of breathing can help deepen your con-
nection with touch points.
Body Scan
Body scan involves sweeping your attention systematically
through your body, generally moving down through your body
(though you can move up if that is more natural for you) and placing
your awareness at each place for a few seconds or longer. As you
move your attention through your body, you may have a lot of sensa-
tion at a particular place or just a general sense of having your atten-
tion there without any particular sensation being noticeable.
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Beginning Instructions
For example, if you start at the top of your head, rest your aware-
ness there and when you are ready slowly move your attention down
through your head. You could spend a lot of time, going into detail,
putting your attention into many parts of your face, the back of your
head, the sides, and so on; or just experience a general sense of
moving your awareness through your head without spending time in
so many detailed places.
When you are ready, finding your natural pace, continue moving
your awareness slowly through your head, neck, and down into your
shoulders, paying attention to each place in as much or as little detail
as you wish. You may or may not put your awareness individually
down through the arms. Continue in this way down through your
torso, possibly in your chest or back or just a general sense through
your torso, and so on, moving your awareness all the way down
through your legs and into your feet. When you are ready, start again,
move your attention back to the top of your head and repeat the
body-scanning process throughout your meditation session.
Mantra Meditation
Mantra meditation involves choosing some word, sound, or
phrase that is repeated mentally over and over again. The words or
phrases may or may not have meaning. You may have heard mantras
chanted out loud, but as we are teaching here, all mantras should
only be repeated mentally. In this way of practice, just as with the
breath or sound, give strong preference to repeating the mantra and
let all other experiences stay in the background.
This is a very powerful, concentrating practice if it is the right
practice for you. You may already know some mantras you want to
try, or you could just pick something now. For example, you could
pick the name of the Buddha, and repeat Buddha, Buddha, over and
over again. And, while it is not necessary, you could coordinate the
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mantra with your breathing, repeating Bud on the in-breath and dha
on the out-breath, and similarly for any other mantra you might be
working with. You can use a mala to help you stay present and con-
nected with the mantra, whether or not you coordinate the mantra
with your breathing.
An example of mantra practice is the way that metta (loving-
kindness) meditation is often taught, which is through the use of
phrases of loving-kindness. Pick one, two, or three phrases of loving-
kindness, which could be directing loving-kindness to yourself or to
others. For example, you could repeat May I be happy or May you be
happy or May you be peaceful or May you be safe. These are just some
examples of phrases of loving-kindness; you can make up your own.
Repeat the phrases over and over, rotating through them one by one,
and this mantra repetition can become the foundation for your med-
itation. Let that be the vehicle to take you into deeper states of
concentration.
Practicing metta in this way brings all the concentration power
that repeating mantras offers, but because the phrases have meaning,
that meaning comes in and becomes extra empowered through the
use of the mantra.
As you begin to work with any of these practices, try to incorpo-
rate a feeling of balance and ease into your meditation. For now, do
not worry about anything else except establishing a connection, a
relationship, with your primary practice—breath, sound, body scan,
touch points, or mantra. Gently bring your attention back, over and
over, to reconnect when your attention has wandered away.
In the coming chapters you will learn to practice so that mind-
fulness, insight, and concentration are integrated. We are not only
learning to flow seamlessly between concentration and insight, we
will bring insight into even the deep states of concentration.
Mindfulness comes up to meet whatever level of concentration you
have, so that awareness of the body, mind, and heart is retained and
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Beginning Instructions
the opportunity for insight is never lost. In this way insight medita-
tion is right there along with the concentration.
A steady, undistracted awareness that lets us see when we really
are resting at peace within the ever-changing experience of our life
is the goal of a balanced and unified practice. Without chasing after
or pushing away anything, and doing nothing that takes you away
from yourself or out of your experience, aim toward clarity and calm.
Let every experience be your teacher.
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Chapter 3
As Concentration
Begins to Grow
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
A
t some point you will begin to experience the first “aha”
moments of meditation, as concentration begins to
strengthen, as undistractedness deepens and grows. It may
only be for short periods, but sooner or later there will be a notice-
able shift in your consciousness. The change may be slight in the
beginning, but you will clearly feel calmer, more peaceful or still,
perhaps in ways you have never touched before.
As you hear this, be careful not to fall into comparing or judging
your meditation or yourself if your mind is not settling down and you
are still waiting to taste some of these experiences. Maybe you are
wondering if anything is ever going to happen for you. Try to relax
and let things unfold in their own time.
You do not want to chase after some experience you think you
are supposed to have or to fall into struggle trying to have someone
else’s experience. Do not try to make anything happen, but be
mindful about whatever actually is happening. What is important,
and what to get interested in, is your own experience, the unique
expression of how meditation unfolds for you—and that includes not
yet noticing any effects from your efforts.
The unfolding of meditation can express itself in lots of ways.
How is it you know you are starting to concentrate and to settle
more deeply into the meditation? You know because you are having
some kind of experience that is telling you so. Though you will not
have to wonder if meditation is deepening—it will be obvious—the
progression of meditation and the many experiences that can come
with it are highly individual and can vary greatly from one person to
the next.
You may feel expansive, as if your body or mind has become vast
and spacious. A concentrated mind can feel very pleasant and even
blissful, and the pleasant sensations can be experienced in the body,
or as mental phenomena, or as not clearly located any place in par-
ticular. Some people begin to experience feelings of warmth or
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can be even more fully in contact, more fully immersed in the sensa-
tions of your breathing, letting it capture your attention and fill your
awareness.
As meditation progresses, our practice can begin to shift and
reveal itself to us in new ways. We must be ready to let go of how
things have been, and open to how the moment is presenting itself
with fresh interest and curiosity.
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breathing at the nose, for example, it can feel like you are concen-
trated in just this area, without noticing much else beyond. Other
times you can feel just the opposite, like awareness is more open and
inclusive of a broad range of experiences. The lens has been widened.
Even though you may still be quite concentrated on the breath, there
is also a broader awareness around the main meditation object.
This feeling of being narrowly or broadly focused can happen
on its own, but you can also choose to narrow or widen your atten-
tion, moving in whichever direction helps you remain present and
connected. It is fine to experiment some and get to know the dif-
ferent flavors. There is not a right or wrong setting for the lens of
awareness.
Shifting Attention
So far the instructions have mainly been to keep bringing your atten-
tion back to your breath whenever your mind wanders. Continue
practicing in this way, stabilizing and strengthening the connection
with your breathing at the same place where you have been resting
your attention all along.
The more present and undistracted your mind is, the more aware
you will be of anything that happens. You can become more con-
nected and concentrated on your breath and at the same time open
increasingly to awareness of other experiences. Perception of your
inner and outer world heightens and all that goes on in your body
and mind is naturally known within a wider field of awareness
around the central object of the breath or other primary meditation
object. Any sensations in your body and experiences in your mind
are easily and effortlessly known.
As you settle more deeply, your body may become very relaxed
and still, so there might be less happening in your body to be aware
of, but anything that does arise will clearly be known. As the
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As Concentration Begins to Grow
Building Mindfulness
A key to integrating concentration and insight is cultivating and
strengthening mindfulness at every stage, from the first glimmers of
steadiness and peace to the subtlest states of concentration. If you
want to travel due north, you might be heading only a tiny fraction
of a degree off course and not notice any difference for a long time;
only once you have traveled very far will your direction really start to
diverge. A very small variance in the beginning will become a very
large difference over a long time, and you may end up in an entirely
different place.
Your sense of direction need not be perfect. The mountain you
are aiming toward comes in and out of sight many times in the
course of a journey. When it is out of sight you use your best sense of
direction to head roughly the right way. Once you crest the next hill
and the mountain is again in plain view you can fine-tune your
course.
Similarly, we are applying mindfulness in every aspect of medita-
tion, even in little ways in the beginning, so it will strengthen and
grow, coming with us as an ally and rising up to meet whatever level
of concentration is there. Then it does not matter what kind of con-
centration we have or how strong it is, because mindfulness is always
there to meet it.
The simple instructions of checking in occasionally to be aware
of how the concentration experiences are unfolding in relation to
the breath, or whether our attention is narrow or wide, are part of
the training for bringing mindfulness and clear comprehension into
the meditation process. Beginning in the earliest stages we are
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Balance
The experiences of concentration can be compelling when they are
strong. It can feel very pleasant when your mind starts to calm down.
When your mind settles even a little bit you begin to feel more com-
plete and satisfied, your heart and mind nurtured and your body
replenished. Meditation can become delightful, even sensual, for
some people, and we tend to like it a lot. When this happens you do
not have to stop liking it or deny the experience in some way. Include
the pleasure you feel in meditating in your mindfulness. Continue to
follow it and let it build. Notice how you feel the pleasure in your
body and in your breathing. Learning how to use pleasant feelings is
an important skill. Let the pleasure draw you more fully into the
experience of breathing.
However, because these experiences can be so alluring, it is easy
to become fascinated by them and overlook the most important part
and the main reason we want to become concentrated: the undis-
tracted awareness itself. It is especially important to distinguish
between these two main aspects of a concentrated mind, the clear,
steady awareness and the experiences that can happen within that
awareness. In the same way that we can lose our mindfulness and get
lost in whatever is happening in daily life, we can be pulled into and
caught up in the happiness, peace, and pleasure of meditation. This
can happen to any of us and should be viewed as another of the
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57
Chapter 4
Working with
Difficulties
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
N
othing proceeds in an unbroken line, just getting more and
more pleasant and good without any challenges. There are
always ups and downs in meditation. To practice medita-
tion and progress, you have to acknowledge and use everything it
has to offer, including the times when you cannot concentrate. You
do not want to miss the opportunities for insight and growth those
times provide.
Your body may ache, or painful thoughts, emotions, or memories
can arise, making it difficult to sit through the experience. There
will be times when you cannot concentrate and it feels like you are
just sitting there waiting for the session to be over. It can be hard not
to get up from meditation when you feel restless or bored, something
else pulls for your attention, or you simply do not feel like doing it.
To deepen our mindfulness, concentration, and insight we need
to be honest with ourselves about what is happening, employing all
the skills we are learning for working with what is here, what is real,
and what is true. We need an array of tools for navigating our inner
landscape, the range of shifting thoughts, feelings, moods, and emo-
tions that appear in the course of meditation—both for when our
minds are clear and settled and the meditation feels pleasant and
good, and when it feels like it is all falling apart.
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and stress. Just as the sun at its zenith always sets, only to rise again,
and flowers open and close according to their natural cycles, the old
falls away but a fresh opportunity is left behind.
Insight begins to mature as we learn to end the struggle and turn
to meet every experience as our teacher. We do not want to miss the
opportunity for growth these times offer.
When hindrances arise or we do not get our way, we can learn
to stop fighting ourselves. When our beautiful meditations have
turned to burdens, we should not miss the potential that these times
of change present to see the transitory nature of life. We begin to
understand that nothing has gone wrong, that the situation has
merely changed due to its own causes and conditions. This is how
everything works.
Some amount of discomfort or pain is inevitable. If you sit still
long enough, even if it is in a soft, comfortable chair, your body will
hurt. You can lie down to meditate, or choose any posture, and even-
tually aches and pains will show up. We want to find the balance
between shifting our posture to take care of ourselves, and letting
things be and learning how to work with what is.
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Working with Difficulties
Imagine a circle, with you at the center. Inside the circle are all of
the experiences you are able to be present with, whether they are
pleasant or painful. Outside the circle are those situations that are
too much for you to deal with, things that are so intense or difficult
that you simply cannot work with them. Think of meditation practice
as expanding the circle to encompass more and more of your life.
We need discernment to know what we can handle, and respect
for what really is too much for us. We need to recognize where any-
thing that happens lives in relation to our circle. The wisdom to
know when to stay present with something and when, in fact, it is
too much comes from experience. We will all have times when we
think we are on one side of the circle and we are actually on the
other. Oftentimes we struggle, moving away from pain when we
really could have worked with it. When we stretch out our knee to
relieve the pain or distract ourselves from some emotion, we may
miss an opportunity for learning how to be present with and let go of
our suffering in the face of difficulties.
There are also times when you might stay with something too
long and it would have served you better to shift or move, to change
the situation or bring down its intensity if you can. We think we are
supposed to stay with it, believing we should be able to remain
mindful and present without struggle, when in reality it is simply too
much. It falls outside of our circle. We may sit with terrible knee
pain, toughing it out, when we need a break—not out of aversion but
out of compassion for ourselves, so that we can find some ease and
our mind can relax. In those times we suffer unnecessarily.
When to stay with something and when to seek some relief is a
question we all must answer for ourselves. Use your best intuition.
Do not worry whether or not you made the right decision.
You do not always have the luxury of changing your circum-
stances, whether in meditation or in life. Whenever something really
is too much, we are going to suffer if we cannot bring down the
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Working with Difficulties
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can notice the feeling tone of any sight, sound, smell, taste, physical
sensation, or thought. Bringing such awareness to feelings can help
unmask subtle areas of craving and clinging that you may not have
noticed before.
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breathing, the emotion and the breathing. You will have to experi-
ment and see what works best.
When meditation is easy and pleasant, breathe with it, working
skillfully and wisely with the pleasure to deepen concentration.
Breathe with the good feelings in your body and mind. When it is
difficult, try breathing with that. The practice is not to deny or negate
your pain; we are not trying to get rid of anything. If you have pain in
your body, you can direct your breathing right into the pain. If you
have pain in your heart, try breathing with the anger or sadness.
If you are having trouble connecting with your breathing, look to
see where the block in the connection is; turn your attention to it and
see if you can breathe with that. If you are unable to be with whatever
that is, turn to what is stopping you now and see if you can breathe
with that. Keep backing up; keep turning your attention toward what-
ever is keeping you from being with your present-moment experience
until you find what you can be with. That is the place to focus.
Your experience will tell you what is needed and how to proceed.
Notice if you are struggling, if there is some way in which you are not
relaxed and at ease. Your struggle will tell you. Look to see what is
going on and if you can relax into your experience. Do not fight or
strain to keep the breath at the center of attention. Let go of the
breath and turn with mindfulness to meet the reality of the moment.
You may need to experiment to find how you can breathe with
discomfort, or how you can let the support of the sound you are
working with, acting as a stabilizing influence, come in with you to
meet the worry. It may not be obvious how you can breathe with
strong emotion or with any other experience. Explore and experi-
ment to find how the breath can help you be present with your dis-
tress, and incorporate it as part of the meditation. When you are not
concentrated, you can breathe with that. When your back aches,
you can breathe with that. You can breathe with the pain in your
knee, or with your anger or grief. Let the breath help you integrate
your struggles as part of the practice.
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70
Chapter 5
Right
Concentration
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
I
f you have ever undertaken the practice of bringing mindfulness
into daily life, trying to be aware the best you can moment to
moment and not be lost on automatic pilot, you know how hard
it can be to stay present and awake. Perhaps you try to stay with your
breathing or feel the movement in your feet as you move about, being
mindful and clearly aware in any way you can, as much as you can.
Or you use something else—feeling the phone in your hand as you
talk, your hands on the steering wheel if you are driving, anything to
help anchor your attention in the present moment. It is the same in
meditation. Perhaps you are present for a few breaths, only to find
yourself waking up sometime later from the daydream of your
thoughts and worries and all the imaginings that capture your atten-
tion to remember, Oh yeah, I forgot, I’m trying to be mindful.
If that has ever happened to you, then you have experienced
mindfulness without the support of concentration. That is a very
different experience from mindfulness with concentration. As our
practice develops, the fruits of our efforts in formal meditation per-
meate all the rest of our lives. We find that we are increasingly
mindful naturally, without having to try to make it happen.
The Pali word we have been translating as “concentration” is
samadhi. It is significant that the final element, the culmination, of
the Eightfold Path is Right Concentration, and that the whole final
section—Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration—
is called the samadhi group. It is not the mindfulness group; it is the
concentration group.
This is telling us something. It is saying that Right Concentration
includes effort, that mindfulness is included, it is not something sep-
arate, and that it includes undistractedness. All three of these ele-
ments need to work together, informing and supporting each other,
in order for concentration to be Right Concentration.
It is hard to overstate the important place samadhi holds in the
Buddhist path to awakening. We have to understand Right Concen
tration and how to apply it, especially as we begin to cultivate and
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are naturally moving and how you can steer toward inclusive undis-
tractedness, which will be a powerful support in bringing concentra-
tion and insight together.
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R ight Concentration
Right Concentration
Right Concentration is always defined as the four jhanas (as we’ll
see, jhana is divided into four stages). If you remember that concen-
tration really means being undistracted, then jhana is a special kind
of undistracted awareness that does not leave mindfulness and
insight behind. Right Concentration yokes tranquility, mindfulness,
and insight evenly together.
Though the Pali texts are explicit that Right Concentration is
the four jhanas, this does not mean you have wrong concentration
unless you have attained jhana. Aim toward jhana but be careful not
to set yourself up for overstriving. From a practice perspective it is
more useful to consider Right Concentration as culminating in jhana.
Whatever degree of concentration you have can be considered Right
Concentration, as long as it is accompanied by Right Understanding,
Right Intention, and the other elements of the Eightfold Path.
Holding concentration with this attitude can support you in staying
easeful and relaxed, helping you avoid overstriving or struggle even
as you remain conscientious and committed in your meditation.
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Deepening
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W
ith growing concentration and heightened mindfulness,
meditation opens in whole new directions as our efforts
bear deepening fruit. Supported by the steady presence
you have been cultivating, what had been difficult or a struggle now
comes almost effortlessly. Where you may have been plagued by hin-
drances or strove just to stay present for a few breaths, you are now
opening to a degree of ease and clarity inaccessible in the
beginning.
This can be an inspiring time, encouraging and sustaining your
continued practice. As peace, calm presence, openhearted kindness,
and all the benefits you have been receiving on the meditation
cushion are carried through into the rest of your life, you may feel a
growing sense of gratitude and a deeper motivation to explore where
this journey of self-discovery might lead.
This is also a time to notice if you fall into craving or clinging.
Just as we can easily get caught up in ordinary life, we can become
enthralled with the progression of meditation. We do not want to
turn what is wholesome and meant to help us come to an end of suf-
fering into a source of clinging. If you find yourself pushing to make
the concentration better or stronger or more blissful, try to relax and
let go into whatever is happening, whether it is a time of discomfort
or ease. Stay with the simple mindfulness of breathing practice,
however the process continues to reveal itself. Let the power of the
concentration you have developed support an even deeper, more sus-
tained connection with your breath.
By now you are well acquainted with meditation’s challenges and
rewards. Bring the skills in mindfulness you have been developing to
meet and work with all the inevitable ups and downs. Notice what is
happening and how you are relating to the unfolding process. The
same equanimity you employed to prevent you from falling into aver-
sion with hindrances will help you avoid the trap of craving for the
pleasure of concentration.
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Ways of Unfolding
Deepening practice can develop in a variety of ways. As your ability
to remain undistracted grows, the experiences associated with con-
centration can become much stronger and more compelling, and
will tend to fill more and more of your consciousness. Concentration
and the physical sensations of breathing may begin to mix, merge, or
interact in a variety of ways.
Sometimes the physical breath will expand out naturally and be
experienced through the entire abdomen, torso, shoulders, or head.
Or awareness can shift from the gross physical sensations of the
breath to subtler inner sensations, which can be experienced as pat-
terns of energy in the body.
We discussed previously how sometimes the sensations of breath-
ing can be more prominent than the experiences of concentration,
and other times the concentration can become stronger in your
awareness than the breath. This dynamic can also shift so you feel
the concentration and the breath merging until they become one
blended experience. No longer feeling the physical sensations of
breathing as being separate from the experiences of concentration,
you now find that the object of your attention is transformed into a
new experience, breath and concentration unified into what we can
call the samadhi-breath. You might experience the samadhi-breath as
the breath blended with light, energy, pleasure, stillness, sound, or
any of the experiences we have been talking about. Or, rather than
merging just with the breath, samadhi also can expand beyond the
breath to fill your whole body.
If subtle breath energy, or any other samadhi experience, suffuses
throughout your body, let the process happen. Perhaps you will still
be able to individually discern the breath and the concentration, or
the concentration suffused throughout the body, but the sense of
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You can do that by turning your attention back to your body. Put
your awareness on your body, connecting with it wherever and in
whatever way you experience it. Because the power of your concen-
trated mind is so strong, simply by placing your awareness on your
body, consciously turning your attention to it, the concentration will
turn in to the body with you and will pervade throughout your body
on its own.
You do not want to do this too early in the process. You will
know when the time is right by paying attention to what happens.
You will know if it is too early; if you were not that concentrated, in
turning your attention away from the samadhi or the samadhi-breath
and toward awareness of your body, you will tend to lift out of the
concentration. You will clearly see that your mind is less settled.
And you will know if you waited too long because you will have
become fully absorbed into the mental samadhi experience and all
awareness of your body will have vanished. Do not worry if this
happens. You will have gained experience for the next time to better
know when to turn back to your body before the connection is
severed. You will know if you turned your attention back at the right
time because the experiences of bliss, energy, light, or peace will go
into your body and fill it, and it will continue opening in that direc-
tion on its own as you settle further in concentration.
Deepening of Letting Go
Bring however much effort is needed to your meditation but no more;
use the lightest touch of attention necessary for staying present and
connected. Balance making effort with letting go, so that the build-
ing momentum takes over and does more of the work for you. Let the
concentration itself carry you further into the practice. You may
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have a feeling of wanting to try harder and push with the mind. This
is not a physical sense of pushing; it is increasing your effort beyond
simply connecting with and sustaining your attention on the medita-
tion object—going beyond that to a mental feeling of working harder
to press your attention and immerse awareness even more fully into
the meditation object. If you try pressing with your awareness, pay
attention to whether it causes agitation or helps you deepen.
At some point you will have to let go of pushing. It is too much
mental doing and ultimately hinders the subtler stages of letting go
required to drop into jhana. We sometimes have a tendency to keep
increasing effort as concentration strengthens, but this can be coun-
terproductive. The deeper stages of samadhi are stages of letting go,
not stages of more doing. Let the momentum take over and carry
you. This is the doorway into jhana.
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Strong Energies
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I
f you meditate you are going to get more concentrated, and with
concentration come both opportunities and challenges.
Deepening concentration brings new possibilities for growth,
but we need to acknowledge and be respectful of the very real and
powerful energies, emotions, memories, and somatic experiences
that can accompany the growing steadiness and clarity.
We cannot fully know all that might arise in our practice, so we
need to have the skills and tools to work with anything that happens.
We need to learn to navigate the terrain, familiarizing ourselves
with the landscape of consciousness with appreciation for both its
potential and pitfalls, and we need to bring an open, receptive atti-
tude and a willingness to stay present with what is happening for us.
With guidance and experience we develop resources and skills to
meet anything we encounter—listening carefully, paying attention,
and acknowledging our limitations and knowing when and how to
back off.
The progression of deepening samadhi is highly individual. For
some people meditation unfolds in a way that is very smooth and
calm from beginning practice through the subtlest stages of jhana,
without a lot of strong energetic experiences. For others the progres-
sion of meditation can be quite powerful and dramatic.
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Balancing Energy
While you cannot be too concentrated, you can have the wrong
kind of concentration or an unbalanced concentration. Energy, or
any of the experiences we are talking about that are associated with
concentration, can be too strong for us or of a quality that we are not
able to handle.
After discussing some of the ways unbalanced concentration can
manifest, we will examine various approaches for working with
them. Anything that can arise in meditation can be worked with.
With proper tools you will learn to navigate all of meditation’s ups
and downs, meeting whatever happens with confidence and clarity.
Strong energies can course through the body, and can be associ-
ated with pleasure, bliss, or light, or they can be highly unpleasant or
agitating. Some meditators may experience loud inner sounds. These
experiences can be agreeable and satisfying, or they may become
unpleasant or too much for us to handle. These energies can remain
localized in one place, or they can move around or permeate the
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entire body. They can remain at the same intensity, weaken, or grow,
and their location and strength can fluctuate in regular cycles or
appear sporadically. All of this is dependent upon our individual dis-
positions, the sensitivities of our nervous systems, and our psychoso-
matic conditioned patterns.
Concentration tends to suppress the hindrances, gladdening our
hearts and calming our minds. Unpleasant or challenging thoughts
and feelings tend not to come up when our minds are settled. But
being concentrated can also have the opposite effect. Concentration
tends to permeate and pervade whatever experience is most promi-
nent, so difficult states of mind may become magnified rather than
suppressed.
As your experiences of concentration become stronger and your
mind becomes increasingly focused, the concentration tends to
enhance those experiences. A memory or story can become blown
up and because your perception has been altered you may not be
able to tell. The exaggerated version becomes your reality and you
believe it.
A student once told me of a time on a meditation retreat when
she went looking for something to eat in the community refrigerator,
a place where extra food—fruit, bread, cheese, and nut butters—was
made available for anyone who got hungry between meals. Just as she
opened the refrigerator she noticed a disapproving look from one of
the retreat center staff who happened to walk past.
She had gotten into a very quiet, concentrated place and from
that one glance tumbled into a story that she had done something
terrible, had somehow broken the rules by being in that refrigerator,
that she was being judged for eating between meals when she should
be meditating and, finally, that she was going to be kicked out of
the retreat. Nothing came of it and at the end of the retreat she
asked the person about it. That staff person had no recollection of
the incident. An incidental glance, of no consequence but perceived
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pressing on the cushion or bench wherever you are sitting. Feel your
arms and legs. Put your attention anywhere you can in your body to
help yourself feel more embodied and grounded. If the energy is
strong, let it flow out your hands and feet and drain into the ground.
Take some calming breaths, breathing in a sense of peace and calm
and breathing out the energy. Or try opening your eyes and looking
around to reconnect and get back into the normal world. Perhaps get
up and walk around, go outside, or engage in mundane activities,
feeling your feet or legs as you move. Try anything like this you can do
to be more grounded and get back to your ordinary, everyday reality.
And then, when you are ready, if you are ready, you can come
back, either in this session or another—back into the practice. In
this way we learn with experience when it is time to bring the energy
and intensity down, when it is time to back off and come out of the
meditation, and when to stay with it by strengthening the presence
of mind and equanimity, the pure mindfulness that enables us to rest
more fully with whatever is happening.
We want to be respectful and not push ourselves into anything.
Sometimes you touch on something and then you pull back. But
then you touch it again and pull back over and over until you gain
some familiarity, letting mindfulness be your refuge, so that even if
something is completely unfamiliar and you do not know what is
happening, you can rest at peace in mindful presence.
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A
fter embarking on his spiritual quest, leaving home, family,
and the comfortable, secure life he had known, Siddhartha
Gotama, the Buddha-to-be, spent the next six years engaged
in a variety of stringent spiritual practices. You will sometimes see
statues and images of a skeletal Buddha, representing the ascetic
Gotama, emaciated through years of austerity and self-denial. He
almost died before realizing that ascetic practices and self-
mortification were dead ends that did not lead to liberation from the
human condition.
As he had this realization he remembered a time from his child-
hood, sitting in the shade of a rose-apple tree watching his father
plowing a field, when he spontaneously entered a deep state of
samadhi, the first jhana. He was feeling happy, relaxed and at ease in
the beauty of that orchard, and naturally fell into this blissful state of
peace and calm.
And now, his body wasted and near death, he considered whether
that same state of clarity and ease could be the way forward. Realizing
that jhana was where the path to enlightenment lay and that it
would be hard to attain that state in such an emaciated condition,
he began to eat, caring for his body and regaining strength. He then
turned his attention in a new direction, to the cultivation of Right
Samadhi—tranquility and insight yoked evenly together in jhana.
It is hard to overstate the significance of jhana in the Buddha’s
path of meditation. Over and over the Buddha emphasized its impor-
tance. He practiced jhana on the night of his enlightenment, he
taught jhana to his students, and after his enlightenment he would
sometimes withdraw his mind in jhana. He had developed the ability,
the mastery, to access these absorption states whenever he chose.
A mind well concentrated is purified, bright, unblemished, rid of
imperfection, flexible, steady, and attained to imperturbability. Such
a mind has a penetrative power far surpassing ordinary awareness; it
can perceive reality on whole new levels and, when turned toward
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awakening and liberation, can see the subtle places of suffering and
the ways we can truly rest in the stream of nonclinging.
What Is Jhana?
Jhana is dramatically different from the ordinary daily consciousness
in which most of us spend our lives. For many, jhana seems exotic
and far away from any experience they can relate to or imagine
attaining. But as your practice matures, you come to know the extent
to which meditative consciousness can evolve. If you have ever sat
an intensive meditation retreat, you see how far your practice can
develop in just a few days. Jhana is not only for ascetics living in
caves. Real meditators just like you have realized the benefits jhana
has to offer.
Recall that as meditation progresses, the unfolding of undistract-
edness can diverge, heading either toward increasing disconnection
from or toward enhanced awareness of your body and mind. Jhana is
the culmination of samadhi that is connected. Jhana is a state of
deep calm, undistracted clarity, and enhanced connection with and
profound insight into the nature of the body and the mind.
Because in jhana your mind is so highly attuned and sensitive,
you are opening to perceptions on much more refined levels. You
may perceive your body as being made of energy vibrations or light.
You become effortlessly aware of subtle thoughts or impulses. At this
stage your body and mind may be calmed to such a high degree there
is not a lot of mental and physical activity to experience, but you do
not need much to be aware of since the mind is so sensitive and
attuned. Heightened awareness of and connection with the body is
both an essential characteristic of jhana and, as we shall see, a way
leading to it.
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Defining Jhana
Four jhanas are described in the Buddhist texts, comprising pro-
gressively subtler stages of increasing calm, clarity, and peace. The
four jhanas are not actually four separate discrete states; each is a
marker along a continuum. While some of the attributes of the first
jhana drop away as you progress through the stages, others are
retained, though they may become smoother and subtler from one
jhana to the next.
To understand the nature of jhana and how to access and prog-
ress through the stages, we will begin by exploring the first jhana.
Once we understand the first jhana, what the experience of it is like
and how to attain it, we will examine aspects of jhana in general.
Then we will come back to the four jhanas in sequence, proceeding
from the first jhana through the even subtler stages of concentration:
the second, third, and fourth jhanas.
The first jhana is defined by this formula:
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you are profoundly connected and intimate with the body, the expe-
rience of the body is altered from what is accessible through our
ordinary sense perceptions. The sense of solidity may give way to
subtler sensations of vibration or a sense of the body dissolving away.
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Unification of Mind
The first quality of jhana is sustained, unbroken mindfulness. An
untrained mind tends to be easily distracted, never really settled, and
quick to jump from one thing to another. It is striking, and a big relief,
when our mind first begins to quiet down in the early development of
concentration. Once concentration is very strong, our minds may not
wander much—perhaps only for a moment or so, in the deeper stages,
before we come back. Perhaps the mind does not wander at all and
there is only an impulse for the mind to start to drift or a slight agita-
tion or instability within awareness. Once you are in jhana all of that
movement is gone. The mind cannot wander or even have an impulse
to wander at all as long as you are in that meditative state.
As autumn gives way to winter, snow can turn into a slushy
mixture of water and ice, thicker than liquid, before finally freezing
completely. The icy water is undoubtedly freezing, but there is no
mistaking slush for solid ice. If your mind can move even a slight
amount, you are not in jhana. You may be close, but once in jhana
your mind will be immovable in sustained undistractedness.
Though your mind in jhana cannot move from unbroken mind-
fulness, there remains a part of your mind that can move, to incline
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Heightened Clarity
The second quality universal to everyone in jhana is increased
clarity of mind. Compared to ordinary states of mind, we can see
how much more aware we naturally are of subtle aspects of experi-
ence when concentration is very strong. Once you have entered
jhana, that clarity of awareness is heightened to a whole new level
that was previously inaccessible.
You may notice the genesis of thoughts (in the first jhana—
thoughts do not arise in the other jhanas), the first impulse for them
appearing even before breaking to the surface of consciousness. In
jhana your body and mind are tranquilized so that there may not be
a lot to experience beyond the jhana factors themselves. But your
perception is so clear and bright that you are keenly attuned to what-
ever does arise. It is like bringing a light to a darkened room. Where
you previously could only make out shadows or vague forms, now
you see everything in sharp detail.
Self-Sustaining
The third central jhana quality is a sense of self-sustaining. Not
only is the mindfulness unbroken, the mind unwavering, but the
process of meditation is unfolding on its own without you doing any-
thing to make it happen or keep it going. As concentration builds,
meditation starts to feel more effortless. Even in the early stages,
meditation feels easier when you are settled and clear compared to
the times when your mind is hazy and you cannot focus. The momen-
tum of the concentration carries you and there is not so much you
have to do to keep the practice going. You are still putting in some
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amount of effort, you still incline your mind to connect with objects
of meditation, but with a lighter and lighter touch. Perhaps there is
only a slight turning of your attention to connect with your
breathing.
In jhana, the sense of having to do anything to maintain the
meditation, even on the subtlest levels, is gone. As long as you are in
jhana the meditation is completely effortless and self-sustaining.
These three aspects of jhana—the unbroken awareness, the
heightened clarity, and the self- sustaining or effortlessness— are
common hallmarks for everyone. Along with these there may be
other experiences, such as the jhana factors, which can vary greatly
from one person to another. Some people may not experience much
else besides the sustained clarity and a sense of calm and stillness.
For others jhana can be accompanied by very powerful lights, ener-
gies, or other blissful experiences.
As you get close to jhana it is important to distinguish between
the experiences of concentration—the bliss, light, or energy—and
the undistracted clarity itself. Deepening stages of samadhi and
jhana are not stages of gaining new experiences, but stages of letting
go. Some people become caught up in or fascinated with these dra-
matic experiences. But ultimately they all drop away, especially when
you get to the third and fourth jhanas, leaving only the clear, bright
mind. Be aware of how the jhana factors are arising for you, but
mostly stay attuned and interested in the three main qualities that
will help you attain and then advance through the progressive,
subtler stages of jhana.
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the other side. Once you enter jhana, there is no longer any doubt.
Once you cross the threshold, you access a degree of steadiness and
self-continuation that is striking, a qualitative shift to an entirely
new level of clarity, steadiness, and self-sustained presence.
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builds. If you are making too much effort, you may feel more agitation
rather than more peace. Notice if you feel tense or tight or restless.
Drop back and let go so that the momentum can take over. Shift
from doing to feeling yourself being pulled in.
Similarly, notice what happens when you let go too soon. See if
your mind wanders or moves more. If you let go too much before you
are ready, you will feel yourself lifting out of the meditation. You will
not be as concentrated. If this happens, bring back the effort and
intention to direct the process more.
As the jhana factors strengthen, some teachers will advise letting
go of the breath and shifting your attention solely to the pleasant
aspect of your experience itself as your meditation object in order to
bring you into jhana. However you are experiencing rapture and
pleasure, connect with the pleasure itself as your meditation object.
This may be helpful for some people and you can try it, but pay
attention to what happens if you do.
Sometimes letting go into the pleasant feeling can help bring us
further in, while for others staying with the breath works best. In any
case, you cannot turn away from the breath and place your attention
on pleasantness too soon or else you will lift out of the samadhi. By
taking your attention away from the meditation object too early and
putting it onto the pleasantness itself, you can feel yourself lifting
out. You will not be as deeply concentrated. In this case bring your
attention back to the samadhi- breath or the samadhi suffused
throughout the body or whatever other meditation object you may
have, letting go into that experience to take you deeper. You have to
stay attuned and see what works best for you.
In previous chapters I discussed how, as concentration deepens,
we can head in one of two directions, either more deeply immersed
in body awareness or disconnected from consciousness of our body.
Stay attuned to how the process is unfolding. As long as you have a
sense of being connected with your body, though it may be quite
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Stabilizing Jhana
When you first touch jhana you may only stay in it for a short
time before you are lifted right out. You may not know how you got
in, how to stay in, or how to find your way back. Remember patience
and try your best to let go of struggle or of trying to force the process.
With time and experience you will find the way to jhana more con-
sistently. As you take your time with each jhana, you will get to
know it and learn how to move in and out of it.
As you begin to stabilize in jhana, you can hang out there and
check out what it is like. How do you experience jhana? Is the rapture
strong or light, edgy or smooth? Are there any thoughts? Notice the
part of your mind that is unmoving and the part you can incline to
investigate your experience. With only the barest, lightest touch,
examine and get to know the surroundings. Do not be in a hurry.
Without trying to get to the second jhana, spend some time noticing
how things unfold.
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Directed Attention
The use of directed attention may be important for some people
in order to progress through the jhanas, just as it was important
throughout our meditation leading up to jhana. I have been empha-
sizing that, once in jhana, awareness is so stabilized there is not a
sense of doing anything to keep the process going. The mind is
undistracted and unmoving, and because it is absorbed in a steady
awareness you cannot make mental effort in the ordinary sense. As
you are carried with the unfolding progression, there is no sense of
any activity on your part making it happen.
But even in the still places of meditative absorption and jhana
there remains a part of the mind that can be inclined in certain
directions. It sounds paradoxical that the mind is unmoving yet
there is some part that can move, that our awareness can be directed
somehow.
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Second Jhana
With the stilling of thought and examination, he enters and
abides in the second jhana [which is characterized by] rapture
and pleasure born of concentration, and accompanied by
inner composure and singleness of mind, without thought
and examination.
The stars are always above us, but are obscured by the sun’s bril-
liance by day. Only when the sun sets do the stars reveal themselves,
coming to prominence in a powerful display against the night sky.
The subtler features of jhana emerge as the coarser qualities fall
away. This pattern will characterize progress through each of the
jhanas.
The second jhana is more quiet and still than the first. The
thought and examination of the first jhana have fallen away, rapture
and pleasure remain, and other qualities, inner composure and sin-
gleness of mind, begin to emerge.
In the first jhana there can be some thoughts. With the stilling
of thought and examination, the verbal process of thinking settles as
you enter a wordless realm. The connecting and sustaining function
of thought and examination is no longer necessary and drops away.
Your awareness just is connected and sustained without the necessity
of any mental function to sustain it. Inner composure and singleness
of mind become more prominent as we find ourselves in a quieter,
simpler place.
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Notice the shift from the first to the second jhana in the descrip-
tion of what happens. Just as in the first jhana, the rapture and plea-
sure drench, steep, fill, and pervade the body, but the image is
different. To get to the first jhana we are working and kneading, like
the bath man, putting in some amount of effort to suffuse the rapture
and pleasure throughout the body. The precise amount of effort
varies for each of us, depending on how the process unfolds on its
own, but there is some sense of directing the process.
Now, in the second jhana, the process of suffusing throughout
the body is still happening, but it is coming from a deeper place. It
feels a lot quieter. Instead of the external effort and energy of the
bath man, the infusion is welling up deep from within out of the
momentum and concentration of the first jhana.
Take some time and get to know what the second jhana is like.
Notice the wordless quality—you will not be thinking thoughts
about having no thoughts. This is a nonverbal knowing. Notice the
sense of inner composure and the undistracted singleness of mind.
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Jhana: The Culmination of Concentration
Third Jhana
The third jhana is similar to the second, except it feels even
smoother and more refined as rapture fades, leaving only pleasure:
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Fourth Jhana
Here is the definition of the fourth jhana:
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the pre-
vious disappearance of joy and grief, he enters and abides in
the fourth jhana, [which has] neither-pain-nor-pleasure and
purity of mindfulness and equanimity.
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After Jhana
Once we are in any of the stages of jhana, our practice includes times
of doing nothing and allowing the experiences and insights to reveal
themselves, and times of inclining our minds toward investigation
and inquiry. In the next chapter we will explore the various ways
insight arises and its place on the path toward the ultimate goal of
meditation: awakening and liberation through nonclinging.
As our familiarity with jhana grows, we learn to navigate the
terrain, exploring the landscape of consciousness with increasing
skill. We gain facility in moving about among the various levels and
how to access and use pleasure to gladden our hearts and minds. As
we touch the pleasure of concentration, the allure of worldly pleasure
fades. A contented heart and mind are subtler, yet more satisfying,
than anything that can be found through the ordinary senses. We
see that we do not have to go looking outside ourselves. Worldly
pleasure loses its attraction as we learn to let go into the more refined
pleasure of concentration.
Jhana, like every other experience we can have, is not a reliable
place to seek happiness. Though all of the jhanas are highly pleas-
ant, even the purified realm of the fourth jhana contains the seeds
of potential suffering. Each jhana has its own level of subtlety and
satisfaction, but they all contain a degree of dissatisfaction. From the
perspective of the earlier stages in meditation, the first jhana is
appealing. From the perspective of the fourth jhana, it can feel rather
crude.
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By the time you have reached the fourth jhana your mind is
keenly aware and you are able to perceive clinging on the subtlest
levels. The jhanas are temporarily satisfying, but not ultimately sat-
isfying; and clinging to jhana, or to any meditative state, plants the
seeds of suffering.
And so jhana flows us toward awakening. Previously you realized
that ordinary worldly pleasure is not fulfilling; now you realize that
the pleasure of meditative states is not going to do it for you either.
None of these states last, and once the energy of the meditation melts
away, we are lifted out and back into the ordinary world. Now there
is no turning back. This mind, which is purified, bright, unblem-
ished, rid of imperfection, flexible, steady, and attained to imperturb-
ability, now turns in a very profound way toward liberation.
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Chapter 9
Insight
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
I
n the beginning instructions you were advised to find a posture
where you could be as comfortable as possible. You could sit in
a chair or even lie down, finding whatever best supported you to
be relaxed, easeful, and alert. You did not have to make anything
happen; all you had to do was be with your experience. By now you
have seen how hard this simple notion, just to sit quietly and be
present with yourself, can be.
The idea of nonclinging is simple, but one of the first insights we
have is that this seemingly straightforward instruction, to be with
ourselves, is hard to do. Letting go and nonclinging is easy when
things are going your way, but you soon find all the ways you are
unable to be present. You begin to uncover layer upon layer of reac-
tive patterns pushing and pulling you in all directions. From all the
times of sitting through knee pain or backache, staying with the
practice when your mind would not cooperate or when you were
visited by old memories or emotional pain, you learned to find
moments of freedom in the midst of it all. And you discovered your
edges, the places where you were not yet ready or able to let go of
struggle, and learned how elusive the happiness of nonclinging can
be.
Insight into anything means understanding its true nature. It is
an intuitive knowing, direct perception of what is essentially true
beyond mere intellectual understanding. To progress from a concep-
tual understanding of how dharma teachings and practice might
help us to actualizing the dharma as a lived reality, we need help to
realize the potential for quieting our minds and opening our hearts.
We need to find the tools for meeting our self face to face. Through
wise discernment we penetrate beneath surface appearances to rec-
ognize what is real and true about our world and ourselves.
Whenever you are suffering, it is a signal that you need to back
up and look at what is keeping you from being present. And if you
cannot be with that, you need to back up again, and keep doing so
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Insight
until you find what you can be present with. Insight is the discern-
ment of your suffering, its cause, and a way to its end in order to
more fully realize your capacity for letting go.
Insight is whatever perception or understanding sheds light on
the places we create suffering and how to let that suffering go.
Sometimes, when the light of awareness illuminates previously
hidden corners of our psyche, old destructive patterns can fall away
on their own. The grip of self-judgment, criticism, or doubt can
loosen simply through mindful presence. Other times, mindful rec-
ognition is just the first step, a jumping off point for delving into
something more deeply, thinking it through or feeling into it to
untangle its knots.
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Insight
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You do not have to seek suffering out; it will find you. And when
it does, you should appreciate that it is a necessary and important
part of the process of insight and welcome the opportunity to change
your relationship with the suffering being presented. Watch your
mind when you are struggling or suffering in some way. There is a lot
of dharma right there in the places where you get caught. That is the
place to look—to learn where you cling and how to let it go. That is
how the wisdom and insight come in.
Notice how your mind responds to whatever is happening,
whether it is resisting or is buffeting around or being reactive in some
other way. Watch what is happening. Come to know the suffering
quality of a reacting mind. This is a really important place to pay
attention. Pay attention to what you do in those times.
Everything you need for learning and growth is there. You expe-
rience the First Noble Truth directly, the suffering that arises because
of clinging. The Second Noble Truth is illuminated—the fact that it
is your craving that is leading you to cling, craving for pleasant expe-
rience and wanting to get rid of unpleasant experience. You directly
experience what conditions your mind to cling. Everything you need
to learn about suffering, its cause, and its cessation presents itself.
And you find out whether or not you are yet skillful enough to let go.
Try not to judge the benefit of meditation just by how pleasant or
unpleasant it is. Meditation is like riding a bicycle. Think about what
it is like riding a bike: You go up and down the hills. Going up can
hurt and not be much fun. Going down the hills feels great; you feel
the wind and it is easy and pleasant. It feels better going down, but
which one do you get the most out of? You get a lot going down from
the pleasure and the beauty, but it is the uphill that builds up your
endurance and your legs the most.
The path of meditation is sometimes called the path of purifica-
tion. As you turn your attention inward, connecting deeply and inti-
mately with yourself, parts of you that may have been hidden or
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with a balanced mind and what causes you to close off from situa-
tions or people. As you find what helps you live in a balanced way
and learn how to let go, there is no disconnection between medita-
tion and any other aspect of your life.
As the fruits of meditation carry into your life you start to notice
thoughts and feelings previously covered over by busyness or distrac-
tion. It can be alarming when you first begin to wake up to what is
really happening in your mind. You begin to see how much of your
thoughts are some version of Am I okay? or How am I going to be
okay? or How am I going to get this? or How am I going to avoid that? By
bringing the mindfulness and clear awareness you have been culti-
vating in formal meditation into ordinary life, it becomes clear how
much of your life you spend in peace and fulfillment and how much
time is marked by worry or stress.
Dharma practice seeks to shift reactive patterns of grasping and
aversion. When your habitual tendencies of chasing your likes and
running from your dislikes begin to loosen, you are left to rest peace-
fully within the ever-changing flow of your life. In order to do this
you must come to understand these patterns, and to understand
them you have to experience them.
If you want to free yourself from suffering, you need to under-
stand the forces that create suffering responses to life. But you cannot
see your conditioning directly. In order to understand these patterns
you have to bring them into the light of awareness, and that only
happens when the proper neural pathways are activated. The seeds
of your reactive habits lie dormant, waiting for the opportunity to
sprout when you encounter challenging people, places, and situa-
tions. Only under the right circumstances, when certain causes and
conditions come together, do they spring forth and grow.
Many of these tendencies only have an opportunity to become
conscious in the course of daily activities. You can be sitting in medi-
tation, heart open and mind quiet, happily unbothered by anything
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because you are secluded from the stresses of your normal interac-
tions. Then you get up from meditation to begin your day and
encounter a person you dislike or hear a news story that upsets you.
You gain valuable insights into the ways you fall into reactivity or
where your heart closes off, opening you to the possibility of freedom.
See them as the opportunity for learning how to live in equanimity
with a peaceful mind and an open heart.
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Chapter 10
Equanimity
The A rt and Skill of Buddhist M editation
T
he entire teaching of the Buddha can be viewed as making
a radical shift in how we seek happiness—a shift that has
far-reaching and profound consequences for our well-being.
This process of transforming our relationship with our life and our-
selves culminates in a mind of inner peace and nonreactive pres-
ence, a state of equanimity.
Without equanimity we tend to meet situations through unseen
filters of reactivity, causing us to deny our experience or pull away
from anything we dislike or chase after what we want. When you are
balanced you neither push away nor cling; you don’t suppress your
feelings or thoughts, but you also don’t get caught in or identified
with them. Between reactions of grasping and aversion lies the
freedom to choose your own way, how you will relate and respond to
life.
Equanimity is both the path and the fruit of the path. You
employed equanimity the first time you sat to meditate as you tried
to let go of grasping and aversion and sit quietly with yourself. You
may have felt tenuous and unsteady, but you did the best you could
and it was enough. Through those initial efforts equanimity matured
and your capacity for meeting your experience grew. As you became
increasingly able to turn toward and work with whatever arose in
meditation, mindfulness and steadiness grew.
It can seem so hard to live with a peaceful mind, an open heart,
and compassion for others and ourselves. Equanimity acts as an ally,
support, and shield against the “eight worldly concerns” of gain and
loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, and pleasure and pain.
These four pairs of opposites are powerful incentives driving most
human behavior. We are constantly judging and comparing our-
selves and our situations. You can appreciate success, but if your
sense of well-being depends on it you are setting yourself up for dis-
appointment when the situation changes. If you are attached to
honor and approval, it may feel good until you are faced with criti-
cism. If you become egotistical, your self-worth can be based on
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Becoming Disentangled
Equanimity is often misunderstood as being a state of indifference.
We may think we are supposed to be detached witnesses removed
from the concerns of others or the world. But equanimity does not
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Equanimity
light from all the other surfaces, the rays feeding back on each other
in a positive reinforcing cycle. Any one of them is an access point for
the others.
Intention
All along we have emphasized the central role intention plays in
the course of dharma practice. Especially in those times when you
are pulled by forces of desire, negativity, or doubt, keeping in mind
wholesome intentions for how you want to live and act provides a
refuge, helping you stay balanced through the many challenges and
rewards of a meditative life. Rather than being caught up and swept
along by a situation, the clarity of your intention acts as a touch-
stone, anchoring you in wise and skillful action.
Virtue
All of your actions are born from intentions, whether you are
aware of them or not. Out of your sincere, wholesome intentions
comes virtuous action. By aiming to live with integrity you dwell
peacefully with others, and when your interactions are harmonious
your mind is not agitated by conflict. This leads to a quiet confi-
dence in knowing there is a blameless quality to your life.
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when you are at ease, not stressed or worried, you feel a sense of
balance and calm.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness provides a space between what happens and your
response to it. Within that space rests the freedom to decide whether
you will react on impulse or respond through wisdom. It is a moment
of choice in the midst of any situation. With mindfulness, when
equanimity is present you know it. When you are thrown off balance
you know that, and can employ the tools you have built to help you
regain composure.
Steadiness
As concentration becomes established, equanimity is not so
easily shaken. Concentration strings moments of mindfulness
together. You can go for long periods caught up in life, going through
the motions unaware of what you are doing. But if you maintain a
state of steady undistractedness throughout the day, you become
increasingly awake to the present moment.
Discernment
Supported by mindfulness and steadiness, you begin to see things
as they are without getting caught up in stories about them. You
have the experience to choose the appropriate tools and apply them
skillfully in any situation. As patterns of reactivity are recognized
through mindfulness and steady presence, the knots of aversion and
stress, desire and attachment, begin to unravel. You are naturally
open to more happiness, contentment, compassion, wisdom, and
peace.
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Richard Shankman has been a meditator since 1970, and teaches at
Dharma centers and groups internationally. He is guiding teacher of
the Metta Dharma Foundation, and cofounder of the Sati Center for
Buddhist Studies and of Mindful Schools. Shankman is author of
The Experience of Samadhi.
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