There is no place to
seek the mind;
It is like the
footprints of the birds in the sky.
--- Zenrin
Most
meditation practices offer quite specific instructions as to what object to
focus on and what to do regarding the chosen object of meditation. The Buddha
himself offered over 40 objects of meditation, including the breath, various
aspects of the physical body, sensations, mental experience, including emotion
and thoughts, as well as “objects of mind,” where the yogi is instructed to
analyze experience into categories that constitute core aspects of the Buddha’s
teaching such as the Five Hindrances (craving, aversion, dullness,
restlessness, and confusion), or the Seven Factors of Awakening (mindfulness,
inquiry, energy, joy, ease, concentration, and equanimity). These
classifications are not in themselves the objects of meditation, but are points
of reference to be applied during practice to whatever experiences arise.
But in the
last analysis, the meditative state lies beyond any such practices. Meditation
is ultimately not something we do, but rather a state that arises when all
doing is done with! As I once heard Swami Satchidananda say, “meditation is an
accident, and yoga practices make us accident prone.” But all traditions also
speak of “methodless methods” that are meant to drop us directly into that
meditative state variously called “bare attention,” “silent illumination,”
“just sitting,” “mahamudra,” or simply “choiceless awareness.” Such “practices”
encourage sitting as awareness
itself, not picking or choosing what to focus on, but maintaining an evenness
of attention on whatever arises in the space of awareness. Tilopa, in his “Song
of Mahamudra” writes:
The clouds that wander through the sky
Have no roots, no home; nor do the distinctive
Thoughts floating through the mind.
Once this is seen,
Discrimination stops…
Rest at ease your body.
Giving not, nor taking,
Put your mind at rest.
Mahamudra is like a mind that clings to
nothing.
Thus practicing, in time you will reach
Buddhahood.
Students of
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra might be
reminded of what he has to say about asana: “It is a posture that is stable and
easeful, accompanied by the relaxation of effort and the arising of
coalescence, revealing the body and the infinite universe as indivisible. Then
one is no longer disturbed by the play of opposites.” (The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali, II: 46 – 48).
But this is
easier said than done. Not for nothing is the mind likened to a drunken monkey!
It is all too easy to become caught in an ever-proliferating chain of thought.
Even when trying to focus on one object, such as your breath or a mantra, a
thought can arise, which leads to another, and another, and yet still more thoughts until fifteen minutes later,
when the meditation period is over, we wake up from some four-star daydream or
sexual fantasy or a fretful worrying over our unpaid bills!
There is a
distinct, but subtle difference between being aware of a thought and thinking a
thought, and it’s primarily one of “feeling-tone” which is a term referring to
the felt sense (physically and energetically) of experience. A thought you are
aware of with bare attention – with neither grasping nor aversion – feels
light; there is a felt sense of distance between the thought and the awareness
of the thought. With no reactivity to feed it, it arises like a bubble,
awareness merely reflecting it, without it giving rise to another thought, it
eventually “pops” or “self liberates.” When we are caught by thinking, it feels much heavier
and substantial. It has a compulsive quality that pulls you in and takes
control of consciousness. Its very nature is obsessive, leading you into ever
deepening entanglement with its story making.
Choiceless
awareness requires mindfulness, which is a mode or perception that is all
accepting, non-reactive, neither clinging nor resisting. It expresses our
willingness to be with our lived experience as it actually is in that moment, and not as we
would like it to be. There is no seeking after another state of being; no
distracting ourselves from whatever is our present situation. In order to
cultivate mindfulness, it is best not to expect anything, avoid straining and
rushing, accept everything that arises and hold onto nothing, avoiding
rumination and comparing, and above all, be gentle!
Choiceless
awareness rests on our ability to concentrate and reflect. This relates to
Patanjali’s imperative to be stable and relaxed. The following meditation is in
three parts that can each be practiced as independent ‘stand-alone’ practices
or combined in a graduated path towards choiceless awareness. Mountain
Meditation cultivates stability and is particularly helpful in dealing with
anxiety, restlessness and dullness. Lake Meditation cultivates the
quality of reflectivity that lessens the reactivity of comparing and judging
mind. And finally Big Sky Mind opens us to the freedom of choiceless
awareness.
Mountain Meditation:
Create a comfortable, stable, supported seated
posture. If sitting on the floor, make sure you have enough height under your
buttocks so that your knees rest on the floor. If that is not possible, then
bring the floor up to your knees with pillows or blocks so that your legs are
fully supported.
Sit upright, and close your eyes. Let your breath
flow naturally, making no attempt to manipulate it, rest your attention on the
rising and falling of your belly or chest (wherever you most feel the movement
of your breath).
Next, visualize or imagine a majestically tall
mountain. Contemplate for a few minutes how solid and stable the mountain is,
throughout all the changing seasons and in all kinds of weather. At times the
mountain may be clouded over, its peak completely in fog, sometimes the
mountain is assaulted with thunder, lightening, heavy rains. Sometimes it rises
into a clear blue sky, or a sky with just a few white puffy clouds. At times it
is covered in snow, at times with lush foliage, and at other times it is
barren. And yet, throughout it all, there is something that seems to remain stable,
solid, not affected by the changing weather or seasons. It is this stable
quality of “mountainness” that nourishes our concentration and ability to sit
through all the varying experiences that arise while practicing.
So, now draw the image of the mountain down into your body and feel your posture of meditation to be like a mountain. Breathing in, see yourself as a mountain; breathing out, feeling stable. Some thoughts and emotions are like thunderous storms, others like a sunny day, your mind can be clouded over or clear and bright, but through it all, you can still sit solid like a mountain.
Lake Meditation:
Towards the peak of some mountains in the Himalayas,
there are crystal-clear, turquoise-hued lakes called “sky lakes” because they
are so reflective they reflect perfectly the sky above. Protected by the higher
peaks and trees, the surface of such a lake is smooth and calm. The water is
translucent, allowing you to see into its depths and it is as reflective as a
mirror, so you can see your face and the sky above reflected in its surface.
What you notice about the reflection is that the water reflects only what is
there, neither editing out nor adding in anything. It reflects the dark,
ominous storm clouds as well as the fluffy white clouds equally. When birds fly
overhead, it reflects them without a trace left on the surface once they are
gone from the sky.
Mind, or citta,
when the waves or vritti are
calmed, has this dual quality of the lake to be translucent and reflective.
Once stabilized, we can turn our attention to the mind. Thoughts, feelings and
emotions may arise from the depths of our mind, and we can simply reflect what
arises without adding anything extra by way of judging, or comparing, nor
editing out anything through aversion or denial. Free of grasping and pushing
away, we can simply reflect. In this way, destructive or unwholesome patterns
can be seen so that their power over us is lessened. Attachments are loosened.
Breathing in, see yourself as the water of the Sky Lake; breathing out,
reflecting.
Big Sky Mind:
After awhile, you may wish to turn your
attention from the surface of the lake, towards the sky itself. This is what
the Korean Zen teacher Chinul called “tracing the radiance.” You note that the
sky is boundless, limitless. It contains everything that arises without stain.
Even the horizon is only an apparent perceptual/conceptual boundary that can
never be reached. Even on the cloudiest day, you know that above the clouds the
sky is luminous, all pervading, limitless and free.
Awareness is said to share in these qualities of limitlessness,
luminosity and stainlessness. It is present always, seemingly behind, between and beyond
all the ever-changing phenomena. If you have ever heard yourself say “I’m
confused,” then obviously awareness was also present or how would you have
known?! However, be careful not to take this experience as anything more than metaphorically. "Big Sky Mind" is not some transcendent realm separate from the mind and mental activity; they arise interdependently. This is an understanding forgotten even by many contemporary buddhists who take awareness as some kind of "true nature" which is more a Vedantin idea. The buddha criticized the notion of "pure awareness" by pointing out that awareness is always aware of something! Our problem is we tend to only identify with the confusion and overlook the clarity of the awareness of the confusion!
As
mind experiences the selfless nature of phenomena, it moves towards freedom. We break through into the realization of what the Buddha called
“not-self.” With the realization of not-self, the conceit of “I,” or what
Patanjali called ‘asmita,’ is
eliminated and this is nirvana here and now.
