Sitting Meditation

SITTING MEDITATION

PREPARATION FOR SITTING


Phra Acariya Thoon Khippapanno

To start, one pays respect to the Lord Buddha by repeating some chants, either briefly or at length as one wishes. At the end of the chants, bless oneself and other beings. For a layman, make a commitment to observe the Five Moral Precepts. This is to assure the purity of one's mind during concentration practice. It is a means of removing worry about physical or verbal unwholesome deeds in the past.
At this moment, one should be confident about the purity of one's precepts and forget about evil acts in the past. Instead, one should recall one's past wholesomeness, such as giving, precept observance, thoughts of benevolence for others, etc., to put the mind in a happy mood.
If one cannot .formally make a resolution to a monk to observe the Five Moral Precepts, one can make his own commitment anywhere, because essentially the intent to relinquish physical and verbal misconduct is what counts in precept observance.

COMMITMENT TO OBSERVE THE FIVE MORAL PRECEPTS

One commits oneself to observe the Five Moral Precepts by reciting the following:

I shall not kill any life.
I shall not steal.
I shall not commit adultery.
I shall not lie.
I shall not take alcohol or other intoxicants.

You must be true to yourself and your own commitment, and this is the correct way to observe the precepts. After that, say the following Pali three times : Imani pahca sikkhapadani samadiyami cetanaham silam vadami

Then bow to the ground three times to pay respect to the Lord Buddha, Dhamma and the Noble Ones. For monks and novices, make sure about the purity of your precepts and vinaya. Do not let this point worry you while practising concentration.

Now you are ready for the sitting. Remember that samadhi sitting can come either before or after a cankama meditation walk. Or, if it is inconvenient to practise cankama meditation walking, you can practise concentration simply by sitting.

For men, put your right leg over the left as you sit. For women, sit in the same way as men, or you can sit with both legs folded to one side (a typical posture for a Thai lady sitting on the floor). The important point is to choose a comfortable sitting position. Now relax and join both palms in front of your chest or forehead as a token of reverence to the Lord Buddha, and make the following commitment :
" I now intend to practise samadhi sitting as a tribute
to the purity of the Lord Buddha, Dhamma and the
Noble Ones; etc. " just as in a carikama walk.

Then put your hands on your lap, the right hand on top of the left, both palms up. Keep the upper body straight up. Be mindful inside. Do not let your mind wander outwards, for it will invite sensual desires, resentment and ill will, etc., into the mind, causing depression, frustration and restlessness. Think instead, " At this moment, I shall stop thinking about external things and keep my mind with the present only. "

FIRST METHOD OF SAMADHI SITTING MEDITATION

Mindfully breathe in slowly, thinking "Bud " Mindfully breathe out slowly, thinking " dho " Mindfully breathe in slowly, thinking " Dham " Mindfully breathe out slowly, thinking " mo " Mindfully breathe in slowly, thinking " Sari ". Mindfully breathe out slowly, thinking " gho ".
Do 1. 3-7 times or more to bring Buddho, Dhammo, Sarigho together into the mind.
3. Then do only the "Bud "• "dho " part. Breathe
normally. Fix your attention on the parikamma words and
your breath. Be mindful all the time. Do not let your
attention slip away. Remember this : breathe in thinking
" Bud ", breathe out thinking " dho "

At any moment you do not breathe attentively- for example, you think " Bud " ahead of an in-breath-you have lost mindfulness. At any time you do not exhale together with " dho " with full attention, your mindfulness has been disrupted. Therefore you must fix your mind firmly on breathing with the appropriate parikamma word. Repeat this until you become skilled. A skilled meditator can keep his mind on breathing and parikamma words for a long time. This, is a good method. One knows when one loses mindfulness. It is difficult in the beginning, but will get easier as one practises often. This is a means of strengthening mindfulness and the " knowing " nature of the mind, using breathing as the object of attention. A skilled meditator can omit the parikamma words and keep mindful of breathing along. The mind trained in this way will experience more and more tranquility, and mindfulness will get stronger and stronger.

SECOND METHOD OF SAMADHI SITTING MEDITATION

In this method the parikamma words " Bud " - " dho " are omitted. Fix your mind on breathing alone. Know when breathing is heavy and watch it until it gets softer. Know when breathing is soft and watch it still until it gets even softer-extremely soft. At this point one has attained ekaggatarammana, one-pointedness .of mind. The soft breath is a sign of a subtle mind. When the mind reaches this stage, one may experience many manifestations of the calm mind : for example, the body, the limbs or the head may seem enlarged. If this happens, don't be frightened. Keep on being mindful of your soft breath-nothing else but the soft breath. In about 5 minutes, the sensation of the enlarged body will disappear. In other cases, some meditators may feel taller; some shorter; some spinning around; some bending towards one side or another. Just be mindful of the breath. Ignore various expressions of the mind. These arise and will soon go away.

Sometimes your breath may be so soft that it seems to disappear. Those who are afraid of dying will withdraw from samadhi at this point. Actually, this is an indication that the mind is fully concentrated. Don't be afraid. Just keep on watching the soft breath-nothing else-until finally you do not breathe at all. Here is the point at which the body does not seem to exist. There remains only the " knowing " nature of the mind. Sometimes a little or a lot of brightness appears all around even without the body. This brightness reveals the true nature of the " knowing " mind. The brightness and lightness of mind at this moment will be the most miraculous experience in one's life. There is nothing in the world to compare. Such tranquility lasts for about 10 minutes, and then breathing resumes. The happiness and lightness of the body and mind that one has experienced have no ordinary things to compare. The tranquility is so great that those who do not have enough wisdom will tend to long for it again. But those who have had enough discernment training before will contemplate it with wisdom and use it as a basis to develop more and more wisdom. They do not attach to the happiness of the tranquil mind in samadhi, but use samadhi as a tool for more efficient wisdom development.

I would like to suggest one point to readers who have practised concentration with firm intent, hoping that wisdom will occur in the tranquil mind. If you have never developed discernment into various aspects of the Dhamma, even though your concentration is developed to the absorbed state of samadhxsamapatti or meditative attainment-it merely results in happiness of the body and mind. As concentration progresses, some may develop supernormal powers (abhinna ) : for example, the power to know past and future events, the ability to see things at distance with " inner eyes " or to hear with " inner ears " from afar, the power to do extraordinary things or to read peoples' or even animals' minds. Having gained such supernormal powers, they may easily claim that they have become arahants.
In the Lord Buddha's time, there were 30 monks who had practised concentration until their minds reached full tranquility. They experienced happiness of the body and mind that lasted for several days, until they were certain that they had demolished their defilements, craving and ignorance, and become arahants. They then wanted to tell the i^ord Buddha about it. When the Lord knew about their coming, he sent Phra Ananda to meet them at the entrance to tell them not to see the Lord yet, but to remain in the cemetery first. Getting the Lord's message, the 30 monks entered the cemetery. At that time, in the cemetery lay a naked body of a beautiful lady who had just died. The dead body looked like a woman asleep. The monks looked at it, first with curiosity, but then they were filled with passion and sexual desire! At this point they realized with embarrassment that they were not yet arahants, for their minds still had passion, desire and ignorance. They then contemplated what happened over and over again until they all became enlightened right there in the cemetery.

You can see how tranquilty in samadhi can deceive you. In the Lord Buddha's time, there were many cases similar to the 30 monks. If it happened nowadays, the 30 monks would have had no chance of correcting their mistake, and would have been false arahants all their lives. Today there are no fresh corpses lying in the cemetery for the same thing to happen. So, those who patiently practise concentration waiting for wisdom to occur by itself from the tranquil mind should pause to think a little. Was there any monk in the Lord Buddha's time who became an arahant by practising concentration alone? The fact is that all arahants in the past had first practised contemplation for the sake of wisdom development.

Nowadays some good teachers are still around. They practise contemplation alternating with concentration. After withdrawing from tranquility, they investigate things down to the Truth of all things : that is, suffering, impermanence and not-selfness. They do not wait for wisdom to occur by itself. So you must realize the difference and practise accordingly. Without a coconut seed it is impossible to grow a coconut tree regardless of how well you have prepared the soil for it. One gets the right tree only from the right seed.

THIRD METHOD OF SAMADHI SITTING MEDITATION

In this method, one fixes attention on a part of the body. Choose any part that is easy to visualize. This will be used as the site where mindfulness and the " knowing " nature of the mind will rest. The breath and parikamma words play only supporting roles. The focus is on the body part until one sees that part clearly and closely with one's mind. If one is worried about breathing and parikamma words, the attention will be distracted, and one cannot see the body part clearly. The chosen part can be a scar. It can be in front or at the back of your body. Or it can be any part at all that feels right to focus on. At first think about its location, color and texture. If you cannot see it clearly, that shows that your intent and mindfulness are not firm enough. It is best to choose a small part so that one can focus on only a small area, similar to when one concentrates on a needle hole to thread a needle.

You first imagine the picture of the small area of your body. Do it over and over until your mind can see that part instantly and naturally. Now you can reflect on it in any way you like : for example, seeing it rot, separating it from the bone, etc. This is a good basis for contemplation to develop wisdom. The method of fixing the mind on a body part is to give the mind a place to rest. It is just like a bird that needs a branch to rest on after' flying. A body part is taken as a resting place for a straying mind.

FOURTH METHOD OF SAMADHI SITTING MEDITATION

In this method the mind concentrates on mental objects arising in the mind, just as in the fourth method of carikama walk, only this time it is done in a sitting position, which is better because there is no movement of the body. The mind can concentrate on mental objects much better. Be aware when the mind is happy, suffering or in a neutral mood. Know when passion and desire arise. Know the rise and fall of feelings. Know which are causes and which are results. Notice that all continue in cycles, from past to present to future. They alternate in being causes and results and continue to roll on endlessly. Some old feelings are mistaken for new ones because of one's unawareness of the on-going cycle. Thus one is actually driven in the wheel of the world by these deluding mental objects. Defilements, craving and ignorance are the causes of the love and hatred that arise and persist in the mind.

Therefore, developing mindfulness by using mental objects as the object of attention is a good practice for promoting discernment into the causality of all events. Knowing how a mental object arises, one can find ways to cut off the stream or the bridge of defilements or craving. If one does not know the causes, one does not know how to prevent the results. To get a sharp knife, one sharpens it. To eliminate heat, one extinguishes the fire. So, to get rid of suffering, one must demolish its causes.
The mind is where the mental object is, as heat is with fire. So, if you want to see your mind, see it through mental objects. Be mindful of an arising mental object. Keep watching it long enough until its cause is revealed. Then stop watching, and analyse it instead. Just as in a battle : When a soldier is able to spot his enemy, he stops searching and quickly fires at him. When a hunter finds game, he shoots it right away. When one sees that something is on fire, one puts it out immediately.

This is a method of discernment in trying to kill defilements and desires causing craving for sensuality. It allows wisdom to destroy the vicious cycle. This practice enables one to discover the " headquarters of defilements and desires. Wisdom, conviction and effort can then be pooled to bombard and destroy the headquarters completely. In boxing, a boxer looks for a target to knock the other out. If he loses this time, he will try to win next time. In Dhamma practice you must have firm intent to develop wisdom; otherwise defilements and desires will be perpetual winners.

To be a strong Dhamma student, you must aim at the destruction of your chief enemy : the defilements. Direct your practice inwardly towards mental objects, and plan to clean all impurities out of your mind.