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Buddhist
Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Script 343 for Sunday
22 August 2004
Glossary
anapanasati = mindfulness of the
breath; meditation on in- and out-breathing
samatha bhavana =
tranquillity meditation
vipassana bhavana = insight meditation
Mindfulness - a tool more precious than jewels
Why cultivate mindfulness? The Buddha taught us a tool
which is more precious than jewels as many as all the sands in the
river Ganges. Why is this tool so precious? This tool mindfulness as
taught by the Buddha enables beings to analyse the mind in operation,
it is through analysis of the mind that wisdom is developed and it is
through wisdom that ignorance and suffering are dispelled. There is
nothing in the world more precious than this.
To remove the
obstacles to mindfulness such as habit, the ancient practice was
taught by the Buddha 2500 years ago to centre the mind by being aware
of the breath, which in Pali is known as Anapanasati. Venerable Ajahn
Sumedho shows the way of Anapanasati in his book "Mindfulness:
The Path to the Deathless".
Anapanasati is a way of
concentrating your mind on your breath.
Successful meditation
depends on your patience rather than on your will-power, because the
mind does wander and we always have to patiently go back to
concentration on the breath.
The Buddhist Canon is full of
references to meditation on in- and out-breathing (in Pali language:
anapanasati) and it is no wonder that the Buddha, when exhorting the
novice Rahula (Prince Siddhartha Gautama's son), gave detailed
instruction on it. This is to be found in the Majjhima Nikaya (the
Maha Rahulovada Sutta as written in the Venerable Piyadassi Thera's
book "Buddhist Meditation - The Way to Inner Calm and Clarity
(1978).
'A disciple, Rahula, having gone to the forest, to the
foot of a tree, or to a lonely quiet place, sits down, cross legged
and keeping the body erect and mindfulness alert. Mindful, he
breathes in, mindful he breathes out. When breathing in a long
breath, he knows "I am breathing in a long breath". When
breathing out, he knows "I am breathing out a long breath."
When breathing in a short breath, he knows 'I am breathing in a short
breath'; when breathing out a short breath, he knows 'I am breathing
out short breath'; 'mindful of the entire process I shall breath in',
thus he trains himself. 'Conscious of the entire process, I shall
breathe out', thus he trains himself.
'Calming the entire
process, I shall breathe in', thus he trains himself; 'calming the
entire process, I shall breathe out', thus he trains
himself.
'Experiencing rapture, I shall breathe in', thus he
trains himself. 'Experiencing rapture, I shall breathe out', thus he
trains himself.
'Experiencing bliss, I shall breathe in', thus
he trains himself. 'Experiencing bliss, I shall breathe out', thus he
trains himself.
'Experiencing the mental activity (feeling and
perception), I shall breathe in', thus he trains himself.
'Experiencing the mental formations, I shall breathe out', thus he
trains himself.
'Calming the mental activity, I shall breathe
in', thus he trains himself. 'Calming the mental formations, I shall
breathe out', thus he trains himself.
'Experiencing the highly
concentrated (jahnic) mind, I shall breathe in', thus he trains
himself. 'Experiencing the highly concentrated (jahnic) mind, I shall
breathe out', thus he trains himself.
'Exceedingly gladdening
the mind (by samatha, calming, as well as by vipassana, insight), I
shall breathe in', thus he trains himself. 'Exceedingly gladdening
the mind, I shall breathe out', thus he trains himself.
'Thoroughly
establishing the mind (on the breath), I shall breathe in', thus he
trains himself. 'Thoroughly establishing the mind, I shall breathe
out', thus he trains himself.
'Liberating the mind (from the
nivaranas, or hindrances) I shall breathe in', thus he trains
himself; 'liberating the mind I shall breathe out,' thus he trains
himself.
'Contemplating impermanence (in body, feeling,
perception, volitional formations, consciousness), I shall breathe
in', thus he trains himself; 'contemplating impermanence I shall
breathe out', thus he trains himself.
'Contemplating
detachment, I shall breathe in', thus he trains himself;
'contemplating detachment I shall breathe out', thus he trains
himself.
'Contemplating cessation I shall breathe in', thus he
trains himself; contemplating cessation I shall breathe out,' thus he
trains himself.
'Contemplating abandonment, I shall breathe
in' thus he trains himself; 'contemplating abandonment, I shall
breathe out', thus he trains himself.'
'Mindfulness on in-and
out-breathing, Rahula, thus developed and frequently practised is
productive of much fruit, of much advantage. When Rahula, in- and
out-breathing with mindfulness, it thus devloped and frequently
practised, even the last in-breaths and the out-breaths are known
(clear) as they cease, not unknown.
There are two types of
meditation: samatha (tranquillity) and vipassana (insight)
meditation.
The following article is an excerpt from a
transcribed Buddha Dhamma teaching given by Venerable Sayadaw
Dipaloka at Bodhinyana Monastery, Perth, Western Australia on the
29th of November, 1995. The Teaching was titled "Samatha and
Vipassana" and was printed in the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review,
Volume 6 No. 3.
Samatha bhavana (tranquillity meditation) and
vipassana bhavana (insight meditation) are original Pali words.
In
the terms of ordinary psychology we are mentally healthy persons. We
are mentally able persons. We are normal persons. Because we can
perform any task successfully. We have jobs, we can do our daily work
properly. We can properly communicate with each other. We can look
after our children, we can study, we can teach, we can manage big
businesses. We can administer even a country.
Therefore in the
terms of normal psychology we are mentally able persons, mentally
healthy persons. Our mind is healthy, normal, ... but in the terms of
Lord Buddha, and the Arahants, we are not mentally healthy persons,
we are mentally sick persons. In their terms a healthy mind has two
qualities which are usually absent in our mind.
Our mind has
two deficiencies in the terms of Buddhist measurement. Our mind is
defective in the two ways. One, our mind cannot stay with one object
for as long as we like, and on the other hand, our mind is usually
polluted with mental defilements - greed, hatred, envy, conceit,
restlessness, remorse, doubt, such and such things.
And if we
pay Homage to the Buddha we notice before we finish even one sentence
for example; "Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa",
we notice our mind cannot stay with these words, that sentence, from
the beginning to the end. It goes away from those sentences. And
before we finish our paying Homage to the Buddha we can go to America
and come back.
Therefore it is not easy to stay with one
object for five minutes. During meditation we notice it is not easy
to stay with meditation object for five minutes, continuously. And on
the other hand our mind usually is polluted with mental defilements.
At one moment or at the other time, at the other moment, any evil
thought enters our mind, any guilty thought; that means since you
have some desire, ill will or any other unwholesome
thoughts.
Therefore in the sense of Buddhist measurement, in
the terms of the Buddha and Arahants we are mentally sick persons.
For the Buddha and Arahants the mentally healthy mind means the mind
which can stay with one object for as long as one likes and the mind
must be pure, must be freed from mental defilements. Only then they
call the healthy mind. To gain a healthy mind we have to practice the
two types of bhavana (meditation): samatha and vipassana.
Bhavana
is a Pali word. The real meaning is to develop. It implies to grow
and to bring it to a little more advanced stage. It is bhavana, the
real meaning of bhavana. The popular English translation for bhavana
is meditation. For me the translation for bhavana "to develop"
is more meaningful.
During bhavana, during meditation, the
meditator is striving to gain two qualities of mind. One
concentration, samadhi; that means to be able to stay with one object
for some minutes or some hours.
And another quality is panna,
insight knowledge or wisdom. Therefore bhavana, samatha bhavana,
means to develop samadhi. In other words samatha means peace,
therefore
samatha bhavana means to develop peace of mind because
the highest level of samatha bhavana is peace of mind.
In
samatha bhavana one is striving to develop samadhi or concentration.
The synonym of samadhi is ekaggata. It is a technical term. In
Abhidhamma, samadhi is used as ekaggata. Ekaggata is a pali word. It
is the combination of three words: eka + agga + ta. Eka means "one".
Agga, is a synonym of alambana or arammana which mean "object".
Many
other translations are right, but really it means object, alambana.
Ta means "state". Ekaggata means one object state of mind.
If we can develop ekaggata, or samadhi properly, our mind can stay
with one object for some minutes or some hours, depending on that
intensity of our concentration. As we can obtain ekaggata, we can
train our mind to stay with one object.
In India the farmers
use oxen in their farms to draw carts to plough lands. Therefore it
is necessary to tame a young ox. When they tame a young ox they tie
the ox with a long rope, and they tie the rope to a firmly erect
post. They tie the young ox to a firmly erected post with a long
rope.
First the young ox tries to wander about the post, it
goes round and round the post many times. The rope becomes shorter
and shorter and shorter, and at last it cannot move further. The
young ox has to lie down and goes to sleep.
In the samatha
bhavana we are taming our mind.
We have to use a post. It is
a good object. The meditational object in samatha bhavana is called
kammatthana. In Buddhism there are forty objects to use as a post, as
a kammatthana. Forty kammatthana. And anapana, breath in and breath
out meditation, is one of the kammatthana; the object to tame our
mind.
In that practice we are trying to tame our mind to stay
with one object. Usually those objects are pannatti, conventional
truth or conceptual thoughts, conceptual expressions.
At the
moment, the important thing is that we are striving, we are trying to
tame our mind to stay with one object. That is a very important
thing.
If we don't tame our mind it has a tendency to wander
about because it has six objects. Visible forms, sounds, odour,
taste, tangible objects and mind objects. And one of these six, or
each object has various types.
If we tame our mind it is like
the ox. Our mind is like the ox. The post is like a kammatthana
object; meditational object is like a post. And sati (mindfulness) is
like a rope. When our mind wanders about many objects it tries to go
away from the original object, meditational object, and sati sends
back the mind to the post meditational object.
After some days
or some weeks when we try to tame our mind energetically, at last
like that ox, young ox, our mind becomes exhausted, becomes
exhausted, and it stays with that object. At that state we are said
to develop samadhi or ekaggata. At that state one can experience the
peace of mind by himself; therefore, samatha bhavana means to develop
peace of mind.
The pali word samatha means peace because if we
can tame our mind successfully to stay with one object at that state
the mind is freed, temporarily freed, from five hindrances: sensuous
desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, or sleepiness in ordinary sense,
restless and remorse, and doubt.
To develop vipassana bhavana
means to develop wisdom or different view.
In the vipassana
(insight meditation) the mind stays with the characteristic,
characteristic or lakkhana, lakkhana is characteristic. In the
vipassana it is the characteristic of phenomena. That means anicca,
dukkha or anatta.
The basic is the characteristics of
impermanence, or arising and passing away of phenomena. It is the
very important characteristic in vipassana. If one can see the
arising and passing away of phenomena, in that state the mind becomes
clear, and it is also freed from five hindrances and the meditator's
mind is still with that characteristic.
Then at the advanced
level of vipassana meditation the meditator does not pay much
attention to label the phenomena. Usually they do not try to identify
the phenomena. Usually they are trying to see, to clearly understand
the arising and passing away of the phenomena. They do not pay
attention to identify it. They pay much attention to the
characteristic of phenomenon. That means the arising and passing away
of the phenomena.
Vipassana can burn out five hindrances. At
the advanced level of
vipassana bhavana the meditator's mind is
freed from five hindrances. Therefore it also can burn out five
hindrances, therefore it is called jhana.
In samatha bhavana
there is no arising and passing away of phenomena. The meditator just
stays with the one object. He starts with samatha and later he
changes to vipassana.
At our Centre, meditation is taught by
our Buddha Dhamma teacher Anita Hughes and by visiting Monks. If you
would like more information, please ring us at 9754 3334, or visit
our website www.bdcu.org.au.
May you be well and happy.
May
all beings be well and happy.
May all beings develop the
establishment of mindfulness.
May you all be able to attain
the highest level of mental absorption.
Today's script was
prepared by Anita Hughes, Evelin Halls and Peter
Boswell.
References
Venerable Piyadassi Thera,
"Buddhist Meditation - The Way to Inner Calm and Clarity",
Buddhist Publication Society (BPS), Sri Lanka, 1978
Venerable
Sayadaw Dipaloka, "Samatha and Vipassana", Buddha Dhamma
talk given at Bodhinyana Monastery, Perth, Western Australia on the
29th of November, 1995, published in the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review
Volume 6 No. 3.
Chan Academy, The Buddhist Hour radio script,
http://www.bdcublessings.net.au/radio66.html
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