There are many instructions on meditation and meditation
instruction books, good meditation teachers and various experienced meditators,
there is also room for misinterpretation and misunderstanding of meditation
such as, some people think that meditation is something we must do sitting on a
cushion. In recent years various magazines published lists of meditation
groups. They don’t even call themselves meditation groups; they call themselves
sitting groups, assuming that meditation is something we must do only sitting
on a cushion. That’s not a complete presentation of the total practice of
meditation.
Sitting is a very small fraction of our life. If you read
the Mahāsatipatthāna Sutta which is the manual of vipassanā and samatha
meditation, at the very outset of the discourse the Buddha has mentioned the
way how we should meditate. For instance, Kaye kayānupassi viharati, Viharati
in Pāli means lives. Seeing the body as it is, one lives. When we say live, we
don’t mean sitting. Live involves a lot of activities, sitting, standing,
walking, lying down, eating, drinking, wearing clothes, using rest rooms,
talking, etc. This shows that the practice of meditation involves all these
activities in our life. Disregarding this very important instruction, most
people ask perhaps at the end of our meditation sessions how can we incorporate
this meditation experience into our daily life. Say for instance, they spent
about a week or ten days on a retreat. At the end of the retreat they want to
know how they can bring this experience to their daily life. So right there,
you can see this misconception, the assumption that the meditation is limited
to sitting, doing something sitting on a cushion, as if there is nothing else
to do with meditation when they go out of meditation retreats. And this is why
no matter how long one sits on a cushion, when they get off the cushion, go out
into the world, try to live their regular lives, they will not be any different
from any other person.
Their emotions, temperaments, their reactions to all kinds
of psychic irritants are still there. Not one iota of them is reduced. Why? They
think they are not meditating, they think that they cannot meditate, they have
to do meditation in a certain, selected place. Of course, a place we select to
do intensive practice is important as well. Occasionally, or daily, we have to
set aside a period of time to do intensive practice. This is what calls our homework.
When you do your homework, you have to present your homework in the class. If
you do your homework and don’t show anything in the class, your homework is not
going to be accepted by your teacher, nor does it help you do anything in the
class. Sitting on a cushion and practicing meditation is exactly like that.
That is our homework. We must bring this homework to the fieldwork.
The field is our daily life and daily activities. While
talking, we must use our meditation experience. The Buddha said 'manasikāra
sambhavā sabbe dhammā' , all the states of mind are present in us only when we
pay attention. When we do not pay attention, we really do not know what is
going on. Just imagine the amount of things going on in our mind and body at
any given point in time and space. All living beings have basic attention, even
animals have basic attention. We all know that predators can catch their prey
when they pay attention. For instance, a cat has to watch the movement of a
mouse, paying total attention to the movement of a mouse so that the cat can
catch the mouse at the right moment. That is not the kind of attention we must
train ourselves to develop. We must develop a special attention which is called
mindful attention. What is mindful attention? Mindful attention is the
attention without preconceived notions, presuppositions. When washing dishes,
cutting vegetables, you have to pay attention. Who does not do that? If you
don’t pay attention when you cut an onion, you may lose some of your fingers.
But that is not the kind of attention we are talking about. Our attention has
to be much deeper, more profound and pure attention. It is not paying attention
to what is going on outside between the knife and the vegetable or onion, but
attention to what is going on in our mind and body. While cutting onions,
cutting vegetables, something can go on in our mind and that is where we have
to pay attention.
If we very carefully study the teachings of the Buddha, not
only the particular part on the subject of meditation, read any particular
aspect of the Buddha’s teaching, this is the theme that you come across repeatedly.
That is a way to train the mind. The meditation itself is called bhāvanā, which
means cultivating, developing and training the mind in a certain way, in a very
special way. During Buddha vandanā , we recite a part called ehi passiko, What
does Ehi passiko mean? Ehi passiko means come and see. This is an invitation comes
from the Dhamma, to go to the Dhamma and see the Dhamma. Where is this Dhamma,
what is this Dhamma? For instance Dhamma is dukkha , suffering. Where is it? Is
it hanging from a tree somewhere, in a library or in a temple, where is it? It
is within us. Buddha said, Just like a tortoise brings all its limbs inside,
when a fox approaches a tortoise, the tortoise is moving with all his limbs
out; head, four legs and tail are out when he moves. When a fox approaches, he
withdraws all of them in and keeps them in a secure place under his shell.
Similarly we have to restrain all our senses, bring them all in and use our
mind to see what is going on in our mind and body.
So in the practice of meditation this is what we should do,
we must look at ourselves first. All our attention must be paid to what is happening
in our mind and body, because all our suffering, cause of suffering, end of
suffering, and the path leading to the end of suffering stem from the mind and
body. Paying total, undivided, pure attention to what is going within our mind
and body is called mindfulness.
TheBuddha said, Samāhitan cittan yathā bhūtan pajānāti, the
concentrated mind can see things exactly as they are. Only when we see things
exactly as they are can we be liberated from all kinds of psychic irritants and
make ourselves totally free from this repetition of birth and death in samsāra.
This is the thrust, the goal, and the aim of our meditation. So we can begin
all of this with pure attention. With mindful attention we can accomplish
purity of mind; we can accomplish success in associating with people, living in
daily life in a more successful way.
May all beings be well & happy and attain the fruit of
Nibbana.
Suranda Weediyage
BA, Tripitakachariya, Dip in Pali/ Buddhism (Pali & Buddhist University of Sri Lanka), HNDBF,
surandalk@gmail.com
http://www.thebuddhadhamma.wordpress.com
