-Talk by Dr.Ravi Koggalage at Narada Center , April 2003.
Introduction:
The goal of Buddhism is to attain Nibbana, to become an arahath. On this path there are four stages of attainment -Sovan (Stream entry), Sakadagami (Once -returner), Anagami (Non-returner) and Arahath. Therefore your goal should be right now, to reach the first stage of attainment. This is what we aim for in our meditation.
The end purpose is to understand the Four Noble Truths. These are Dukka Sathya (Truth of Unsatisfactoriness/Suffering), Samudaya Sathya (Truth of cause of suffering), Niroda sathya (Cessation of suffering), Nirodagamini patipada (The path to the cessation of suffering). So what we do is to go on the Path- the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble Eightfold Path can be divided into three sections: Sila, Samadhi and Panna. Sila is to control the Body and Speech. This is achieved by keeping the five precepts. Samadhi and Panna aims to control the mind. Even though we maybe able to control our body and speech and keep the five precepts, we cannot tell our minds, for example, not to get angry. It just happens. So with the final two components we aim to control the mind through meditation, to keep away from There are two types of meditations: Samatha and Vipassana. Samatha aims to build samadhi. The result of Samatha is Samadhi and the ability to go into Jhanas. The final results of Vipassana is to attain Magga-Phala. There is no attainment of Magga-Phala without it. We find through our experience after teaching thousands that when vipassana is done after developing Samatha, the results are much faster.Samadhi, Jhanas and Anapanasathi:
Samadhi is often interpreted as Concentration, but it is more an ability to gain the control of our own mind. If you tell the mind to stay in the same place for five minutes, it should be able to do this. But it cannot do this if you do not have a samadhi or a control of mind. So it needs to be trained. When you can keep your mind continuously at a point using the breath (in Anapanasathi meditation) for 30 - 45 minutes we say that your Samadhi is very good and that you have the ability to go into jhanas. At this point we teach you the method of going into the jhanas. You can enter into the first jhana and after developing that, the second jhana. Similarly we train you upto the Fourth jhana.
Q: Is it possible to attain jhanas at home, with all the surrounding noise or does it take a retreat experience:A: No, it is possible to attain jhanas at home. Most of my students do it that way. The noise can be disturbing at first, but later when your samadhi is good, even though you hear the noise your mind is not disturbed by it. So achieving these at home is possible if you give it a determined effort. It is not possible to say how fast this will happen as it will depend on the individual person. But if someone puts in about 2 hours a day he will be able to reach a good samadhi within 3-4 days.
Q: What is the difference in experience between samadhi and a jhana.A: Well I would explain it like this. Imagine a well. In samadhi your ability to see deeply into the water is only so much. In the first jhana it is deeper. In the second jhana it is even more deeper until you can see most deeply in the fourth jhana. In the first jhana there are the jhana factors (mental qualities) of Priti, Suka, Vitakka, Vicara and Ekaggatha. You can have these in samadhi as well. But you have other things also in samadhi. In the first jhana there are only these 5 things exclusively. In higher jhanas even these five progressively drop away as they are disturbances to the calm of the mind. Initially the meditator will feel a subtle difference when switching from samadhi into the first jhana. Only later when he is experienced and capable of absorbing deeply into a jhana will he begin to feel all the factors separately.
Q: What are these jhana factors? A: I can explain briefly, and it is in no way an accurate description. To know what they are accurately you have to experience them yourself.Priti: happiness of the mind
Sukha: a pleasant sensation of the body
Vitakka: a thought about to spring forth -an initial thought
Vicara: discursive thoughts, inquiring thoughts after the initial thought
Ekaggatha: your mind staying in one place naturally.
There can be thoughts coming up while in the first jhana because there is
vitakka and vicara. However if you absorb deeply into the second jhana
there can be no thoughts as these two are lost.
[inserted from another conversation: However it must be noted that a superficial absorption can lead to thoughts. Only mastery over jhanas and absorbing for about 20 minutes will give the classical description in experience]
Q: In what posture should we meditate?
A: The best posture is the Lotus Posture. This is a common posture used in
India even during their normal activities. Even though Indians are used to
this we are not and it is very uncomfortable for us. What we hope to do in
meditation is to train the mind, and not the body. So it is best to use a
comfortable posture. You can use the half lotus, with one leg over the
other. Or the cross legged-posture with the lower legs crossing each other.
It is better to use a cushion in this position. If you find that your legs
are beginning to cause pain you can move them. But this must be done with
awareness and deliberately. You can even sit with your legs out in front of
you. You could also use a chair, but make sure that when you sit your feet
are flat on the ground and the thighs are parallel to the ground. You
should make a figure of right angles! You are allowed to move your legs if
the pain gets really unbearable, but not your arms. Usually there are no
unbearable pains arising in the arms. Do not scratch or touch your face
etc. These sensations will fade away. If your samadhi is good you will not
feel pain to a level which would distract your mind. This is because your
mind does not go to the pain but remains one-pointed on the object of
meditation. Another important thing is to keep your back straight.
Initially do not try to meditate lying down because you will fall asleep,
but later with experience you can even do this.
Q: What will you do if your mind goes blank during anapanasathi where you don't feel the breath anymore?
A: Well, this can happen and it is normal. Sometimes the breath becomes
very fine and disappears altogether. There is nothing to worry. All you
have to do is to keep mind at the place where you were feeling the breath
without moving it. Our purpose is to not to follow the breath in and out
(this is a wrong technique) but to keep our mind at one point where the
breath hits. We feel it's sensation there. This point is usually felt
somewhere on the rim of a nostril or the upper lip. So if the breath
disappears just keep your mind unmoved at the same place. The breath will
return in again in a few seconds and you will start feeling it again. The
whole purpose is to develop one pointedness and for this we must keep the
mind unmoved. If we follow it in and out the mind moves and it takes much
longer to develop samadhi. Initially your mind will move away from the
meditation object a lot. When we keep bringing it back (using breath as a
tool) over and over again we teach it one-pointedness.
Q: Is it necessary to keep using the same point of sensation everyday?
A: Usually we see that people when they start meditating find that at one place, the sensation of breath hitting the skin, is felt best. This doesn't change much with each sitting. It is enough to feel it on one side only. It is necessary to keep the breath as natural as possible. Do not force it. Just feel the sensation. This sensation will be very subtle at first. Try to feel the sensation at the tip of your index finger. It is subtle like that. But with practice you will begin to feel it a lot better. Later on with practice you tend not to focus so much on the sensation. It becomes almost a mind object. You tend to focus on the general area where the breath is felt, and this is enough because your ability to generate samadhi is well developed. This is a natural progression and should not be forced. You need this point only to bring back your attention whenever mind goes away. If your attention is there then the point is not that important whether it is a physical or mental.
Metta and Ashubha meditations:
Samadhi is the ability of the mind to stay in one place. Let us consider
why we can't naturally do this. It is because of thoughts. When we analyze
these thoughts we can see that they arise either because of attachment or
aversion/anger. Aversion or anger causes us to 'push away' from that object
and attachment causes us to 'pull towards' that object which causes it.
These two extremes need to controlled to a certain degree to help us dev
elop Samadhi. If you do it this way the results will be faster. We use
Metta meditation to control our Anger and aversion, which would otherwise
cause distracting thoughts in meditation. On the other extreme we use
Ashubha (contemplation on the foulness of the body)/pilikul meditation
to control desire. Now, there is no need to be afraid to do pilikul
bhavana because it is only to temporarily control desire. There is no
eradication of it at this stage! The whole purpose is to control attachment
and aversion so that we may develop Samadhi. This is the initial goal of
our meditation. This Samadhi, helps us to develop Panna, Wisdom through
vipassana quickly later on. You should be under the guidance of an
experienced instructor at all times.
Q: So how should we be doing these three meditations during the day?
A: Well it is ideal if you do one session of Metta and Ashubha each for a
day, then followed by Anapanasathi. It might be difficult to find time to
do all three at one stretch so you can spread them across the day. Even if
this is not possible you can do Metta and Anapansathi on one day and
Ashubha and Anapanasathi on the other, alternatively. Another important
thing to remember; do not continue from Metta into Ashubha without taking a
break in between since they are two extremes.
Q: What should you do if you feel nauseated when doing Ashubha meditation? A: Please inform this to your teacher. You should stop doing it at this point and only continue in the next session.
After all and each type of meditation you must bring your samadhi down.
This is because without your knowledge your samadhi may have developed
during any type of meditation. If you open your eyes in this samadhi state,
your samadhi might remain for a long time and give you headaches, heavy
feelings in the head etc. So it is important to bring you samadhi down by
saying 'may my samadhi come down' 3 -4 times quite eliberately and slowly
before opening your eyes. This brings your mind to the normal state of
activity. Also, do not do Anapanasathi for more than one hour. This can
give rise to poorly controlled samadhi which might be difficult to manage.
One thing you can do is to do Walking meditation (Sakman bhavana)
in-between different types of seated meditation. What you have to in that
is to keep your awareness on the soles of the feet. You keep the awareness
on the sensation of one foot. You lift it with this awareness and keep it.
Then shift your awareness to the sensation on the sole of the other foot.
Then lift it with this awareness unbroken, and keep it down. Shift your
awareness to the opposite foot and keep repeating this process. You can use
walking meditation as a filler in between any of these types of meditation.
Doing 10 -15 minutes of walking meditation before anapanasathi is a good way to build up your samadhi in preparation for it.
You must devote more time for your Anapanasathi (45 minutes) than the other two because this is where the more difficult work is done and more progress is made. Don't try to develop samadhi through metta and ashubha as it is more difficult to do this than through Anapanasathi. However if you do develop samadhi through them it is a good sign. But do not try to develop it further in that state. If you do go into it, just stay in that state of samadhi without doing any further meditation and come out. gain I would like to state that you need to be trained by a teacher who can guide you and instruct you and sort out practical problems you might come across.
-Dr.Ravi Koggalage
[this was followed by a session of guided meditation on metta, ashubha.
Anapansathi was also practiced]