Right Concentration November 27, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: active concentration, impermanence, interbeing, mindfulness brings concentration, nine levels of concentration, nonself, reality, Right Concentration, selective concentration, signlessness, ultimate dimension
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On November 22 we read Chapter 15, “Right Concentration,” from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching. Here’s a summary.
The practice of Right Concentration is to cultivate a one-pointed mind. Chinese characters for concentration mean “maintaining evenness” or “the abode of true mind.” There are two kinds of concentration, active and selective. In active concentration, we welcome whatever comes, dwelling in the present moment with a clear mind, like a calm lake. In selective concentration, we choose an object and hold onto it, abandoning everything else.
We don’t use concentration to run away from suffering, but to make ourselves deeply present. This way, concentration comes naturally and gives rise to insight. Right Concentration leads to happiness, greater quality of life, and beauty. Concentration used to run away from suffering is not Right Concentration. We may need to escape our problems just for relief, but eventually we have to come back to face them. To be concentrated, we should be mindful; mindfulness brings concentration. When you are deeply concentrated, you are absorbed in, become the moment, lifted above sensual desires and craving, lighter and happier.
There are nine levels of meditative concentration: the Four Dhyanas – concentrations on the form realm, where joy, happiness, peace, and equanimity grow. The next five are on the formless realm, where you can see deeply into reality: the impermanent, nonself, and interbeing nature of the world. “Earth, water, air, fire, space, time, nothingness, and perceptions inter-are. Nothing can be by itself alone.”
- The object of the fifth level of concentration is limitless space, composed of non-space elements.
- The object of the sixth level is limitless consciousness, which we grow to see is also earth, water, air, fire, and space.
- The object of the seventh level is nothingness, where we see the intimate interconnections between people and between things, and go beyond outward appearances to “signlessness.”
- The eighth level is that of neither perception nor non-perception. We recognize our perceptions are at least partly erroneous and want to be in direct touch with reality.
- The ninth level is called cessation, of ignorance in our feelings and perceptions. It is a search for a place of non-suffering.
When practiced well, the ninth level of concentration shines light on reality and transforms ignorance. We see that others’ lives are as precious as our own because we see there is no discrimination between self and other. Perception and feelings are still there, but they are now free from ignorance.
Practicing the Concentration on Impermanence, see your beloved as impermanent and do your best to make him happy today. If you think he is permanent, you may think he will never improve. Practicing the Concentration on Nonself, touch the nature of interbeing in everything. Practicing the Concentration on Nirvana, you can touch the ultimate dimension and establish yourself in no-birth and no-death. There are hundreds of other concentrations, but these three are enough for our whole life; in fact, they are one. We have to live in the historical and ultimate dimensions at the same time, living deeply our life as a wave so we can touch the substance of water in us.
If you heard on the radio that the public was invited to join the Buddha for meditation on the Vulture Peak, all the seats on all the planes to India would be booked. Even if you got a ticket, there would be so many people, it still might not be possible for you to practice meditation with the Buddha, so why go? Do you want to go just so you can say you were there? People rush to the next place, take a picture, then rush home so they can show their friends they were there. They were not able to be there in the here and now. They were not there, and that’s not the Buddha in the picture.
Don’t run around looking for photo opportunities. Instead, practice at home, and hold the hand of the Buddha while you walk. You have the reality; the person with the picture has only a sign. Walk, eat, drink, look at the morning star deeply; you can touch the ultimate dimension and walk with the Buddha.
Right Mindfulness October 12, 2009
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: attention, being present, Buddha eye, Four Establishments of Mindfulness, historical dimension, interbeing, mental formations, mindfulness of feelings, mindfulness of phenomena, mindfulness of the body, mindfulness of the mind, Right Mindfulness, shamatha, Six Elements, Six Realms, ultimate dimension
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We read Chapter 11, “Right Mindfulness,” from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching on October 11 and 25.
Right Mindfulness is at the heart of the Buddha’s teaching; when it is present the Four Noble Truths and the other elements of the Eightfold Path are also present. It brings us back to the present moment, and cultivates the Buddha and the Holy Spirit within.
We are always giving our attention to something. The practice is to find ways to prevent being attentive to things that take us away from the here and now. Right Mindfulness is inclusive and loving, accepting everything without judging or reacting.
- The First Miracle of Mindfulness is to be present and touch deeply the blue sky, the flower and the smile of our child.
- The Second Miracle of Mindfulness is to make these others – the blue sky, the flower, our child – present also. We have the chance to see each other deeply, but if we are not present, it will be like a dream.
- The Third Miracle of Mindfulness is to nourish the object of our attention, asking our beloved with our whole attention, “Who are you, my darling?” If we do not give our right attention, that person will slowly die. With mindfulness, our attention waters the wilting flower. “I know you are here, and it makes me happy.”
- The Fourth Miracle of Mindfulness is to relieve the other’s suffering. “I know you are suffering. That is why I am here for you.” You can say this with words, or by the way you look at her, showing you are truly present. If you have a friend who can be truly present with you, you know you are blessed.
Your true presence is like a mantra that will have an effect before you utter a word. The first four miracles of mindfulness belong to the first aspect of meditation, shamatha - stopping, calming, resting, healing.
The Four Establishments of Mindfulness are “the foundations of our dwelling place,” making our body, mind and feelings our place of refuge. They are:
1. Mindfulness of the body in the body, teaching us care-ful awareness for our body and all its parts, positions and movements, and elements of which it is made (earth, water, fire and air) rather than hatred for it.
2. Mindfulness of feelings in the feelings. Each of our feelings is one drop of water in the river of feelings. We sit on the riverbank, identifying each feeling, watching it flow by and disappear without clinging to any of them. If our breathing is light and calm, our mind, body, and feelings will become light, calm, and clear also.
3. Mindfulness of the mind in the mind, being aware of our mental formations. Some mental formations, like sleepiness, regret, or thinking can be either wholesome or unwholesome depending on how we use them or respond to them. When they arise, we can practice recognition. For example, when we are agitated, if we recognize and acknowledge our agitation, we can prevent it from getting the best of us. Mental formations in our individual consciousness come to us from the collective consciousness and lie in our store consciousness as seeds, and we choose which seeds to water.
4. Mindfulness of phenomena in phenomena. “Phenomena” means “objects of our mind,” and each of the 51 mental formations has one of the 51 objects. If you are angry, you have to be angry at someone and that person is the object. When we hear a bird sing or see the blue sky, that sound or sight is the object of our mind.
Five kinds of meditation can help us calm our minds:
- counting the breath
- observing interdependent arising
- observing impurity
- observing with love and compassion
- observing the different realms
The Buddha taught Ananda that all physical phenomena are made up of the Six Elements: earth, water, fire, air, space, and consciousness. When we observe them inside and around us, we can see we are not separate from the universe. He then taught Ananda about the Six Realms: happiness, suffering, joy, anxiety, letting go, and ignorance. We have to look deeply to see if present happiness is true or deceptive and therefore temporary. The Buddha taught another list of Six Realms: craving, freedom from craving, anger, absence of anger, harming, and non-harming. Looking deeply into craving, we can see that we already have what we crave, since everything is already part of everything else. This insight can take us from craving to freedom.
There are three additional realms: the desire realm, of material things in their grossest form, where humans do not meditate; and the form and formless realms of material things respectively more subtle, requiring certain states of meditative concentration. The Buddha then taught meditation on two final realms: the conditioned (birth, death, before, after, inner, outer, small, and large) – the historical dimension, the wave; and the unconditioned (no birth or death, no coming or going, no before or after) – the ultimate dimension, the water. These Two Realms are not separate.
To arrive at liberation from narrow views and to obtain fearlessness and compassion, we are instructed to practice contemplation on interdependence, impermanence, and compassion. Subject cannot exist independent of object. To see is to see something. To be angry is to be angry about something. Thinking is thinking about something. If the object is not present, there can be no subject. In meditation, we can see the interbeing of subject and object. The object can be a mountain, a rose, the moon, someone standing in front of us. We think these exist outside of us, but objects of our perceptions are us, including our feelings. When we hate someone, we hate ourself. Everything in the cosmos is the object of our perception, and as such, it exists within us. With our mindfulness and deep looking, the nature of the cosmos will reveal itself.
We have to practice mindfulness all day long, not just on our cushion. Mindfulness is the Buddha. Like sunlight for vegetation, mindfulness is the energy that embraces and transforms all mental formations, helping us leave behind all upside-down perceptions. And the Buddha spoke about the Threefold Training of precepts, concentration, and insight. If we don’t practice the precepts [The Five Mindfulness Trainings], we aren’t practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness brings the eyes of a Buddha into our hand, generating the energy of the Buddha within and around us; this energy can save the world. In temples there is a bodhisattva with a thousand arms, and in the palm of each hand there is an eye. The hand represents action and the eye represents insight. “Look deeply into your hand, and see if the Buddha eye is in it.”
Realizing Ultimate Reality August 17, 2008
Posted by Alan in sangha.Tags: birth, bodhisattva, children, death, historical dimension, meditation, nirvana, suffering, Thich Nhat Hanh, ultimate dimension, water, wave
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Our dharma reading for this and last week was “Realizing Ultimate Reality” from Thich Nhat Hanh’s Touching Peace: Practicing the Art of Mindful Living, (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1992, pp. 117-128). Here’s a summary.
Life has two dimensions: the historical dimension, which is like a wave, and the ultimate dimension, which is like the water beneath. Learning how to touch the water beneath the wave brings us the greatest fruit meditation offers. The historical dimension, the world of waves, is characterized by birth and death, ups and downs, being and non-being. Water, representing the ultimate dimension, does not have these characteristics. Touching it, we are liberated from these concepts.
As 2nd-century philospher Nagarjuna says, nothing can be born from nothing. There is no birth, no death; only continuation. “Instead of singing ‘Happy Birthday,’ we can sing ‘Happy Continuation.’” (p. 118) We are all continuations of our parents and ancestors, and our children continuations of us. We can give solace to others, and take solace ourselves, that we all pass on the good things we have learned, and that when our body departs, we will continue in many other forms.
Who can say that your mother has “passed away?” The notions of being and non-being, alive and dead, belong to the historical dimension. In the ultimate dimension, she is still with you. The same would be true of a flower or a leaf. They are playing hide-and-seek; we can touch them anytime we want. Perhaps this is their game, to teach us to practice peace and happiness. The Buddha said, “When conditions are sufficient, the body reveals itself, and we say the body is. When conditions are not sufficient, the body cannot be perceived by us, and we say the body is not.” (p. 120) If you know how to touch your mother in the ultimate dimension, you can see that she is in you, smiling.
Nirvana, the extinction of all notions and concepts, including birth and death, being and non-being, coming and going, is available right now when you breathe, walk, or drink your tea mindfully. “You have been ‘nirvanized’ since the very non-beginning.” (p. 121) We are capable of touching the ultimate dimension; we just need to learn how to do it more deeply and more frequently. “Thinking globally” is an example of touching the ultimate dimension.
Dwelling in the historical dimension, we will be tossed about on the waves of daily events: a bad day at work, waiting in a long line, a bad phone connection. But in the ultimate dimension, visualizing these events, say, a hundred years from now, they lose their significance entirely. We are capable of touching the ultimate dimension. Thay says that when he is aware of his feet on the ground in Plum Village, he is also aware that he is touching France, Russia, India, China, the whole Eurasian continent, the whole Earth. When practicing walking meditation, you see that you are touching the whole beautiful planet Earth with each step.
Touching the ultimate dimension gives us the deepest kind of relief, deeper than other practices. When you touch one thing or one moment with deep awareness, you touch all things in all the past and all the future. According to the Avatamsaka Sutra, “The one contains the all.” (p. 123) We suffer if we touch the waves (the historical dimension), but feel relief when we learn to stay in touch with the water (the ultimate dimension). Meditation helps us learn that the two, the waves and the water, the historical and ultimate dimensions, are one.
Thay tells of a dream in which he and his brother were in a marketplace where all the items represented events from his life or experiences of suffering. As he touched each, feelings of sorrow and compassion arose. Also on display were childhood notebooks containing accounts of many experiences which he had forgotten, or which he had dreamed, or which were from previous lives. Now, the man who had brought them to the marketplace, sounding like God or Destiny, told him, “You will have to go through all of this again!” He felt like he had experienced all this suffering, racial discrimination, ignorance, despair, sorrow, political oppression, war and death through many lifetimes already. Now that they had reached a place of space and freedom, did they have to go through it again? But he faced the man with determination and said, “I will do it thousands of times more if necessary. All of us will do it together!”
Upon awaking from the dream, he thought he had to die soon in order to begin the journey anew. But looking more deeply, he discovered the man represented the seed of fear or laziness arising from his own store consciousness. His first reaction had been in the historical dimension, but his second was in the ultimate dimension, of no birth and no death, and, feeling solidarity with the children everywhere, he became willing to undergo all the hardships with them countless times. He also saw that all of us are ready to join him, bringing along all our collective wisdom and freedom.
In addition to the historical dimension and the ultimate dimension, there is the action dimension of all the bodhisattvas practicing engaged Buddhism, helping in whatever ways they can to transform suffering and offer relief. All of us, Thay’s brothers and sisters, are those bodhisattvas riding the waves of birth and death, ready to join the children in facing the challenges before us.
