Before you sit, know what your meditation object is. Be very clear about the object you are meditating on so that you develop this capacity called watchfulness. If you are not clear on your meditation object from the very beginning, you are wasting your time! (Yesterday, our object of meditation was compassion). Before you sit on your meditation cushion, choose your object -- it must be only one object.
Watchfulness is the art of stepping away from your self and looking back with an element of detachment. So, when you first sit and close your eyes, you may focus on your breath. You watch the air as it flows out and back in your nostrils. You step away and feel there's someone watching the air flow out and back in. We call this the 'Watcher State of Mind'. If Compassion is your meditation object, then instead of watching your breath, you transform your mind into compassion and with this Watcher State Of Mind, you watch your mind, keeping your mind firm on Compassion.
So, there's this little part of your mind that is like an alarm. 3 or 4 minutes may go by before you even realize you are off the object. The nine-steps yesterday helps us to apply anti-dotes to distraction and dullness in more and more subtle ways. We then develop clarity and intensity.
One anti-dote to languor and excitation is vigilance; to repeatedly examine the state of your mind. Through vigilance you first recognize that the mind is not fixed on the object, and then you immediately apply the appropriate antidote according to the specific way the mind is faltering.
For example, if you are experiencing subtle languor, where stability and clarity are present but your grasp of the object has slackened to the point that your clarity lacks sharpness, then instead of stopping your meditation practice all together, you simply grasp the object more firmly. If you try to grasp the object too forcefully, excitation may occur, so you have to work on using just the right amount of effort. So, if your hold on the object is too strong and the mind gets excited, then loosen the grasp. If the mind is dull, tighten your grasp slightly. Finding the right balance comes with practice alone.
If you experience coarse languor, the mind is too narrowly constricted and you have to draw the mind out somewhat and try again. If that fails, you can give up the meditation object for a moment and review topics like leisure and fortune, the difficulty of obtaining a human life, the benefits of this practice, etc. You can also bring to mind an image of brightness to reinvigorate your mind.
When the mind is excited or distracted, reflect on topics such as impermanence and suffering, which will diminish the mind's animated state. If this does not work, a more forceful way to stop excitation is to step away from the object of meditation for a moment and focus your mind on your breath. As you complete the exhalation, think to yourself, 'the breath has gone out.' As you complete an inhalation, think, 'Now it has come back in'. Then, reflect, 'this is one breath.' When you can count to 21 breaths without distraction, you have reached the first of the nine levels of mental stability.
To make your meditation the highest experience, support your meditation with 1) enlightenment mind, 2) the wish to escape samsara, and 3) taking refuge in the path, knowing it is a sure way to liberation. All of these three topics were covered over the last few days. So, learn them well and bring them to your meditation cushion.
Contemplation and Meditation
Follow the contemplation and meditation from yesterday but this time use Emptiness as your object (instead of Compassion). We have touched upon Emptiness in previous classes...the idea that things do not have any inherent quality. The way we experience something comes from us; our past karma.
Choose one object. See the emptiness of that object. Fill your mind with the Emptiness of the object and then hold your mind still on emptiness.
For example, you can choose a flower. Every person will experience that flower in a different way depending on their karma. Contemplate this and then move into your meditation by making the Emptiness of the flower your object and filling your mind with Emptiness and then holding it. Use the techniques in the past two days to help you hold your mind on Emptiness. Practice overcoming distraction and dullness.
Tomorrow, we will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of Emptiness.
Dedication: May the merit and virtue of my studies and meditation today go towards my quick enlightenment so i can help others as meaningfully and quickly as possible
Subsequent Practice: To prepare for tomorrow, keep the idea of emptiness in your consciousness as much as possible today. Contemplate on the emptiness of different objects - a cup, a tree, a mountain, an ocean, a person. We all experience each of these things in a different way -- why?
Reading: pp 261-301 in P Rinpoche's Part 3, Liberation in our Hands
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