What is Mindfulness Meditation? (video)

(meditationrelaxclub) New Age mantra relaxation music for the early stages of meditation

Defining Mindfulness

Ven. Thanissaro edited and expanded by Wisdom Quarterly

What does it mean to be mindful of the breath? It is something very simple: keeping the breath in mind.  How do we keep remembering (which is the literal meaning of sati) the breath each time we breathe in, each time we breathe out, and -- during intensive practice -- all the time in between?

 

The British scholar who coined the translation of the Pali word sati as “mindfulness” was probably influenced by the Anglican prayer to be ever mindful of the needs of others -- in other words, to always keep others' needs in mind. Even though the word “mindful” was probably drawn from a Christian context, the Buddha himself defined sati as the ability to remember (be vigilant, conscientious, conscious, and have presence of mind), illustrating its function in meditation practice with the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipatthanas). 

“And what is the faculty of sati? A meditator, a disciple of the noble (arya, the enlightened) ones, is mindful, highly attentive, remembering, able to call to mind even things that were done and said long ago. [And here begins the Four Foundations of Mindfulness formula:] One remains focused on the body in and of itself -- ardent, alert, and vigilant -- setting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. One remains focused on feelings (sensations not emotions, which come under formations or sankaras) in and of themselves... the mind in and of itself... mental objects (or qualities) of themselves -- ardent, alert, and vigilant -- setting aside greed and grief with regard to the world” (SN 48.10).
 

The full discussion of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (DN 22) starts with instructions on the simplest exercise of 14 mentioned to be ever mindful of the breath.

Directions such as “bring bare attention to the breath,” or “accept the breath,” or whatever else modern teachers tell us that mindfulness is supposed to do, are actually functions for other qualities in the mind. They're not automatically a part of sati but should nevertheless be brought along wherever they are appropriate.

 

One quality that is always appropriate in establishing mindfulness is being watchful or alert, attentive or vigilant. The Pali word for alertness (sampajañña) is another term that is often misunderstood. It does not mean being choicelessly aware of the present or comprehending the present. Examples in the Pali canon show that "clear comprehension" (sampajañña) means being aware of what we are doing in the movements of the body as well as the movements in the mind.

 

After all, if we are going to gain insight into how we cause suffering (disappointment, distress, dissatisfaction, ill, woe), our primary focus always has to be on what we are actually doing. This is why mindfulness and alertness should always be paired as we meditate.

 

Thai meditation hut, or kuti, turned into a devotional shrine (Richard-Perry/flickr)

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In the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutra (Satipatthana Sutta, literally the "Discourse on the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness") they are combined with a third quality, ardency. Ardency means being intent on what we are doing, doing our best to do it skillfully. This does NOT mean straining and overexerting -- which is out of balance and retards and often derails practice -- just that we are persistent, dedicated to continuously developing skillful habits and as well as abandoning unskillful ones.

Bear in mind that, in the Noble Eightfold Path to freedom, right mindfulness grows out of right effort, which itself has four features. Right effort is exerting ourselves skillfully (with balanced effort). Mindfulness helps that effort along by reminding us to stick with it without lapsing, without letting it drop. We would not be able to sustain overexertion and would instead lapse, but balanced effort can be maintained until it is brought to fruition, to culmination, to perfection.

 

All three of these qualities get their focus from what the Buddha called "wise attention" (yoniso manasikara). Wise attention is appropriate attention, not bare attention, which is mindfulness free of evaluation, thinking, and judging. The Buddha discovered that the way we attend to things is determined by what we see as important, such as the questions we bring to the practice, the problems we want the practice to solve. No act of attention is ever completely bare.

If there were no problems in life we could open ourselves up to choiceless awareness of whatever came along. But the fact is there is a big problem in the middle of everything we do -- the suffering that results from acting in ignorance. This is why the Buddha does not tell us to view each moment with a beginner's eyes. We have got to keep the issue of suffering and its cessation ever in mind.

 

Otherwise inappropriate attention will get in the way, focusing on questions like, “Who am I?” “Do I have a self?” -- questions that deal in terms of being and identity. Such questions, according to the Buddha, lead us straight into a meandering thicket of views soon stuck on thorns.

The questions that lead to freedom, on the other hand, focus on comprehending suffering, letting go of the cause of suffering, realizing that there is indeed freedom from suffering, and developing the path that leads to the cessation of suffering.

Our desire for answers to these four ennobling questions is what makes us alert to our actions -- our thoughts, words, and deeds -- and ardent to perform them skillfully (beneficial or at least harmless to ourselves and others).

Mindfulness is what keeps the perspective of wise attention in mind. Modern research in psychology shows that attention comes in discrete (separate, distinguishable, composite) moments. We can be attentive to something for only a very short period of time and then we have to remind ourselves, moment after moment, to return to it if we want to keep being attentive. In other words, continuous attention -- the type that can observe things over time -- has to be stitched together from short intervals. This is what mindfulness is for. It keeps the object of our attention and the purpose of our attention in mind.

 

Popular books on meditation, however, offer a lot of other definitions of mindfulness, a lot of other duties it is supposed to fulfill -- so many that the poor word gets stretched completely out of shape, becomes a catchall term, and loses meaning. In some cases, it even gets defined as enlightenment or awakening, as in the phrase, “A moment of mindfulness is a moment of awakening” -- something the Buddha never said nor would say, because mindfulness is conditioned whereas nirvana is not.

 

These are not merely minor matters for nitpicking scholars to argue over. If we do not see the differences among the qualities we are bringing to our meditation, they glom together, making it hard for liberating insight to arise. If we decide that one of the factors on the path to enlightenment is awakening itself, it is like reaching the middle of a road and then falling asleep right there. We will never get to the end of the road, and in the meantime we are bound to get run over by old age, sickness, and death (which are also manifestations of suffering). So we need to get our directions straight, and that requires, among other things, knowing what mindfulness is and is not.

 

Some even refer to mindfulness as “affectionate attention” or “compassionate attention,” but affection and compassion are not the same as mindfulness. They are separate things. If we bring them to our meditation, let us be clear about the fact that they are acting in addition to mindfulness, because skill in meditation requires seeing when qualities like compassion are helpful and when they are not. As the Buddha says, there are times when affection is a cause of suffering, so we must watch out.

 

Sometimes mindfulness is even defined as appreciating the moment for all the little pleasures it can offer, the taste of a raisin in the sun, the feel of a warm cup of tea in our hands, and so on. In the Buddha's vocabulary, this kind of appreciation is called contentment. Contentment is useful when we are experiencing physical hardship, but it is not always useful in the area of the mind. In fact, the Buddha once said that the secret to his own enlightenment was that he did not allow himself to rest contented with whatever attainment he had so far reached. He kept reaching for something higher when there was something higher yet to attain until there was no higher to reach. So contentment has a time and place: coming too soon, it may way derail our efforts. Mindfulness, not mismatched with contentment, can help keep that fact in mind.

 

Other teachers define mindfulness as “non-reactivity” or “radical acceptance.” If we look for these words in the Buddha's vocabulary, the closest we find are equanimity and patience. Equanimity means learning to set aside our preferences so that we can watch what is actually there. Patience is the ability to refrain from getting worked up over the things we dislike, to stick with difficult situations even when they do not resolve as quickly as we would like them to. But in establishing mindfulness we stay with, tolerate, and stand by unpleasant things not only to accept them but to watch and understand them. Once we have clearly seen that a particular state, like aversion or lust, is harmful to the mind/heart, we do not stay patient or equanimous about it. We have to make whatever effort is needed to rid  ourselves of it and to nourish skillful qualities in its place by bringing in other factors of the Noble Eightfold Path like right resolve and right effort. More

I DON'T love you! (video)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

One of the funniest British cult classic movies ever made on religion -- Bedazzled -- with a tip of the hat to Zen Master Lee Kwai Quach (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Raquel Welch)

I'm not in love. I won't be sunk, attached, hopelessly clinging. And yet, somehow, I'm still not free.

Where is my liberation, my enlightenment, my experience of nirvana?

Isn't detachment the key? Isn't indifference, callousness, withdrawal, and aloofness the key?

No, if craving (thirst, grasping for, and clinging) is the problem, simply turning our backs is not at all the solution.

• I'm in love! (love addiction)
• The Affection Sutra
• VIDEO: I'm in love! ("West Coast") 

The reason one withdraws is to draw out the thorn in one's heart. Physical seclusion is not the Way, not the answer, not the solution. At best it is a vital aid to the real thing -- mental withdrawal. But the mind/heart needs something to draw into, to be absorbed by. That's why the meditative absorptions (Pali jhanas, Sanskirt dhyanas, Japanese zens, Chinese chans) are so important.

But I thought shaving my head and not looking at or talking to anybody -- or being looked at or talked to by anybody -- was the Way!

Superficial stays superficial. A saffron robe does not a Buddhist monastic make.

Well, then, what? Shave the eyebrows, too? Get a mantra tattoo? Call my significant other "Boo"?

That and more will never do! The problem is not without; the problem is within. The question is sometimes asked, Do beautiful objects -- alluring, pleasing, attractive, and charming -- cause attachment, or is it the beholder?

Himalayan Theravada monastic experience (sayalaysusila.net)

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Himalayan Ladakh (SylvainBrajeul/flickr)

The answer is obvious if one thinks for a moment. Although it feels like objects (people, songs, entities, foods, flavors, scents, art, etc.) get a hold on us, it cannot be the objects because fully-enlightened beings utterly freed by insight of all clinginess and attachment perceive and experience beautiful objects just like we do. Sayalay Susila (sayalaysusila.net) points out that if object actually had the power they seem to have over us, there would be no release. But because it is us -- our dependently arisen attraction, aversion, and delusion -- then it is possible to become completely free. We are not at the mercy of the Sensual Sphere (Kama Loka), not even the Subtle Sphere (Rupa Loka) or the Immaterial Sphere (Arupa Loka).

It is our job, if we wish to undertake it, to make an end of suffering. Suffering will never end by itself. It may take a break or be delayed, but it is coming back. It is the nature of things that certain action produce painful results. It cannot be otherwise. Until we free ourselves of this karmic round of endless rebirth and disappointment, we can be sure disappointment (dukkha) is on its way.

Rooftop of the World: Puebloan Peoples, Spituk Monastery, Himalayas (Skaman306/flickr)

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(Sylvain Claire/sc-pictures/flickr.com)

We say, "Okay, we'll bare it. It's worth it to experience more pleasure. But this is exactly the trap. We gain no satisfaction. We keep wandering on and on and on trying to break even, like hopeless gamblers, always meeting with disaster, never remembering that we consciously made this bargain.
 
"It is because of not seeing this truth -- the dependently originated nature of things -- that not only us but the Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) wandered endlessly for aeons in plane after plane of existence," miserable and exalted, obscure and famous, weeping and laughing, sunk in ignorance and delusion, chasing after pleasant experience, running from misery, ensnared by lust, bitten by hate and frustration, utterly confused and defeated by ignorance, which is the greatest ill of all. And now that we have time to meditate, time to study, time to and talent enough to ask questions and understand, what do we do instead? Search for love, fulfillment by personal relationships, as if we had NOTHING HIGHER TO LIVE FOR.

What are we waiting for? For reality to change? For a better teacher -- like Marshall or Maitreya -- to come along offering us everything, our defilements and enlightenment at the same time? Mahayana already does that. Hey, have sex. But have tantric sex, and enlightenment's included. Hey, have wealth. But have humility, and enlightenment's included. You're already enlightened, so relax! Blah blah blah, meanwhile the wheel of suffering grinds on in very subtle and very overt ways. Liberation is available right now. It won't happen by itself. It would've if it could've. Buddhas are guides:

"By ourselves is harm done.

By ourselves is harm left undone.

Benefit and harm depend on us."

"No one saves us but ourselves,

No one can and no one may;

We ourselves must tread the Path;

Buddhas only point the Way!"

• QUESTION: "We aren't supposed to want love? Should I live alone for the rest of my life? I am new to this blog. Please forgive me if you have answered this question."

This is a great question. The conundrum arises from assumptions. What do we mean by "love"? Universal altruism, loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), unselfish joy (mudita), and impartiality (upekkha)? These are five expressions of love that ancient Indians (Pali/Sanskrit) and Greeks (agape, "unconditional love," etc.) had a better grasp of than we do...

Taming the Mind and Heart (Part 2)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Buddhist Publication Society

Meditation (#LightBoxFF/Tierney Gearon's Instagram Family Album/time.com)

  

The Gradual Training

SEE PART 1

..."It is possible, Brahmin, to lay down a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice with respect to this Dharma and discipline.

 

"Brahmin, even a skilled trainer of horses, having taken on a beautiful thoroughbred, first of all gets it used to the training with respect to wearing the bit. Then one gets it used to a further training -- even so, Brahmin, the Tathagata [the Buddha referring to himself], having taken on a person to be tamed, first of all offers the discipline thus:

 

Virtue

The Buddha as a mountain in China: Leshan, Sichuan Province (Qasimism/flickr)

 
"'Come, meditator [monastic or intensive lay meditator], be virtuous in habit, live controlled by the control of the Obligations [training rules, Code of Discipline, Patimokkha], endowed with [proper] behavior and method, seeing peril in even the slightest fault and, undertaking them, train yourself in the rules of training.'

"As soon, Brahmin, as the meditator is of virtuous habit, controlled by the control of the Obligations, endowed with [right] behavior and method, and seeing peril in the slightest fault and, undertaking them, trains oneself in the rules of training, the Tathagata offers further discipline saying:

Sense-control

"Bhikkave, this is the path of practice."

"'Come, meditator, be guarded at the doors of the sense-organs: Having seen a material shape with the eye, do not be entranced with the general appearance, do not be entranced with the detail.

"'For if one dwells with the organ of sight uncontrolled, covetousness and dejection, unwholesome, unskillful states of mind [heart], may flow in.

"'So fare along controlling it, guard the organ of sight, achieve control over the organ of sight. Having heard a sound with the ear... Having smelled a fragrance with the nose... Having savored a taste with the tongue... Having felt a touch with the body... Having cognized a mental [heart] state with the mind [heart], do not be entranced with the detail.

"'For if one dwells with the organ of mind uncontrolled, covetousness and dejection, unwholesome, unskillful states of mind, may flow in. So fare along controlling it; guard the organ of mind [the mind-door, the heart, the seat of consciousness, of knowing], achieve control over the organ of mind.'
 
Moderation in eating

Strawberry-flavored processed cereal or strawberries? Tough choice (portalsmag.com)

  

Learning to avoid extremes

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is guarded at the doors of the sense-organs, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, be moderate in eating.

"'Take food while reflecting carefully, not for fun or indulgence or personal charm or beautification, but taking just enough for maintaining this body and keeping it going, for keeping it unharmed, for furthering the supreme-life [the "Brahma-faring," the purified and undistracted spiritual lifestyle of a celibate recluse], with the thought: Thus will I crush out an old [painful] feeling, and I will not allow a new [painful, or attachment-inducing, or sleep-producing] feeling to arise, and then there will be for me subsistence and blamelessness and abiding in comfort.'

Vigilance

The Buddha reclining in the "lion's posture," as he did during his final nirvana, seen here in golden robes in Theravada Burma's Chauk Htat Gyi shrine (myanmartours.us).

 

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is moderate in eating, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, dwell intent on vigilance: During the day while pacing up and down, while sitting down, cleanse the mind [heart] of obstructive mental states.

 

Lion Posture, resting sleep-free (elwetritsche)

"During the middle watch of the night, lie down on the right side in the lion posture, foot resting on foot, mindful, clearly conscious [clearly comprehending], reflecting on the thought of getting up again'. During the last watch of the night, when you have arisen, while pacing up and down, while sitting down, cleanse the mind of obstructive mental states.'

Mindfulness and clear consciousness

Having tamed the mind, the Buddha reflects ("Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds," REM Pub. Ltd.)

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I'm going to do it at work (AA)

"As soon, Brahmin, as a meditator is intent on vigilance, the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying:
 
'Come, meditator, be possessed of mindfulness [bare awareness] and clear consciousness, acting with clear consciousness whether you are approaching or departing, acting with clear consciousness whether you are looking ahead or looking around, acting with clear consciousness whether you are bending in or stretching out [the arms], acting with clear consciousness whether you are carrying the outer robe, the bowl or robe, acting with clear consciousness whether you are eating, drinking, munching, savoring, acting with clear consciousness whether you are responding to the calls of nature, acting with clear consciousness whether you are walking, standing, sitting, asleep, awake, talking, or remaining silent.'

Overcoming of the Five Hindrances

There are many techniques: pick one; do it.

"As soon, Brahmin, as one is possessed of mindfulness and clear consciousness [comprehension], the Tathagata offers further discipline, saying: 'Come, meditator, choose a remote dwelling in a forest, at the foot of a tree, on a mountain slope, in a glen, a hill cave, a cemetery [charnel ground], a woodland grove, in the open, or on a heap of straw.'

"On returning from alms-gathering after the meal, the meditator sits down crosslegged, holding the back erect, having made mindfulness rise up in front. And getting rid of covetousness for the world, one dwells with a mind [a heart] devoid of covetousness, as one cleanses the mind of covetousness.
 
"Getting rid of the taint of ill-will, one dwells benevolent in mind. Compassionate and merciful towards all creatures and beings, one cleanses the mind of ill-will.

"Getting rid of sloth and torpor, one dwells [energetically and vigilantly]. Perceiving the light [an apparent reference to a nimitta, the meditator's "counterpart sign," an inner light that arises in the mind's eye], mindful and clearly conscious one cleanses the mind of sloth and torpor.

"Getting rid of restlessness and worry [stress and remorse, hyperactivity and misgivings], one dwells calmly. The mind inwardly tranquil, one cleanses the mind of restlessness and worry.

"Getting rid of doubt, one dwells having crossed over doubts. Unperplexed as to which states are skillful [kusala, also translated as beneficial, salutary, profitable, or karmically-wholesome], one cleanses the mind of doubt.

Meditative Absorptions (jhanas)

The walls of a Buddhist temple at Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (TrevThompson/flickr)

 

This is the way to wisdom (A)

"By ridding the mind [heart] of these Five Hindrances [see The Five Hindrances and Their Conquest, Wheel No. 26], which are defilements of the mind and deleterious to intuitive wisdom, aloof from coarse pleasures of the senses, aloof from unskillful states of mind, one enters and abides in the first meditation [the first "absorption," the first jhana], which is accompanied by initial and sustained attention, is born of aloofness [mental and physical withdrawal] and is rapturous and joyful.

"Overcoming initial and sustained attention, one's mind subjectively tranquilized and fixed on a single point [usually the subtle breath at the nostril which has, by concentration on it, transformed and become the nimitta], one enters and abides in the second meditation, which is free of [the effort of] initial and sustained attention, is born of concentration [collectedness] and is rapturous and joyful.
 

It can be done, I can do it! (Han La Suave)

"By the fading out of rapture [to something more subtle and blissful], one dwells with equanimity, attentive and clearly conscious, and experiences in one's person that joy of which the noble ones [ariyans, according to the Path of Purification, those who have reached the noble attainments, the stages of enlightenment] say: 'Joyful lives one who has equanimity and is mindful.' And one enters and abides in the third meditation.

"By getting rid of anguish, by the going down of one's former pleasures and sorrows [by overcoming the bliss of the preceding absorptions, a supersensual pleasure that now feels coarse by comparison, and one moves to something subtler], one enters and abides in the fourth meditation, which has neither anguish nor joy, and which is entirely purified by equanimity and mindfulness [and singlepointedness of mind].
 
"Brahmin, such is my instruction for those meditators [female and male lay practitioners, nuns, or monks] who are learners [those in training] who, perfection being not yet attained, dwell longing for the incomparable security from all bonds [liberation, emancipation, freedom, nirvana].

"But as for those meditators who are perfected ones [arhats], the cankers destroyed, who have lived the [Brahma-faring] life, done what was to be done, shed the burden, attained to the goal themselves, the fetters of becoming utterly destroyed, and who are freed by perfect profound knowledge [wisdom] -- these things conduce both to their abiding in ease here and now as well as to their mindfulness and clear consciousness."
 
Does everyone make it?

Doing it in Sweden (yogameditation.com)

When this had been said, the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana said to the [Buddha]:
 
"Now, on being exhorted thus and instructed thus by the good Gotama, do all of the good Gotama's disciples attain the unchanging goal [accanta-nittha, accanta can also mean "utmost, culminating, supreme"] -- nirvana, or do some not attain it?"
 
"Brahmin, some of my disciples, on being exhorted and instructed in this way by me, attain the unchanging goal -- nirvana. Some do not attain it."
 

I have a childlike question. - Ask it, Brahmin.

"What is the cause, good Gotama, what is the reason that -- since nirvana does exist, since the way leading to nirvana exists, and since the good Gotama exists as adviser -- some of the good Gotama's disciples on being exhorted and instructed in this way by the good Gotama, attain the unchanging goal -- nirvana -- but some do not attain it?" More

ASK MAYA: Meditation vs. Absorption? (Part 2)

Maya, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Kelly Y., Wisdom Quarterly  ASK MAYA (See PART 1)

Enlightenment is not an ancient dream but a modern reality (michellemortagemusings.com)

 

Part 2: Enlightenment

Note that the "point" of meditation is not meditation itself. Nor is it absorption.
 
The Buddha was interested in virtue, but not virtue for virtue's sake. He was interested in virtue because he realized that it led to concentration (a calm, collected heart/mind).

He was not interested in concentration for concentration's sake. Nor was it all the marvels a calm, collected, concentrated mind/heart is capable of. The point of virtue is that it is the basis for concentration. The point of concentration is that it is the basis for WISDOM.

Enlightenment (bodhi) sees nirvana. (SC)

What is the heart/mind's greatest potential? Enlightenment. And here is how to arrive at it:

1. What is the problem? Suffering is the problem. 2. What is the cause? Ignorance (which causes and conditions craving). 3. What is the solution? Nirvana. 4. What is the path to nirvana? It is the path to enlightenment. The first glimpse of nirvana is the first stage of enlightenment: stream entry.

 

Modern tree sitter Amanda Senseman (PD)

If one meditates, one might become absorbed. If one gains the first absorption, one will notice that it is too close to the ordinary distracted state we live in. Seeing this defect, one can move to the second absorption, which is better but still flawed.

Noticing the flaw in the second absorption, one can move to the third...fourth [...eighth]. From the fourth, full of equanimity and one-pointedness of attention, it is very easy to come out and turn the mind/heart to the unique teachings of the Buddha: special mindfulness practices (such as Dependent Origination) to see things as they truly are. How?

Everything that is of a nature to arise is of a nature to fall.

 

Under the original Bodhi tree (BG)

If one emerges from the fourth absorption -- the heart temporarily pure, the mind crystal clear -- and turns to insight meditation practices, wisdom can arise.

 

This arising does not happen by accident, without causes and conditions. It all begins with an intention to meditate, followed by effort, then effortlessness, then the absorptions (at least the first), then emerging and turning to the unique practices the Buddha taught. This, indeed, is the way outlined in general by the Buddha as the Noble Eightfold Path.

ASK MAYA: Meditation vs. Absorption?

Maya, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Kelly Y., Wisdom Quarterly  ASK MAYA

Not excited, not distracted, not asleep, not doing, wakeful-attention to a single object eventually leads to what we were always missing. (Sue90ca/flickr)

  

This question comes from Wisdom Quarterly reader Ron: "What is the difference between meditation and absorption?" Here we answer in a more practical than theoretical way with instructions.
 

Meditation is dull and unclear until...

"MEDITATION" (bhavana) is a very general term. It literally means, "bringing into being." So it is often translated as "mental cultivation" or "self development." The mental and self can be misleading if taken too literally; it is not a brain or head thing, nor is the ego being built up. Intellectualizing the process or cultivating ego are the opposite of what's happening.

 

One might cultivate or develop many beneficial things such as virtue (the foundation of concentration) or calm or restraint.

 

One might develop one's knowledge of the Dharma (Buddhist Doctrine) through fantastically woven Mahayana stories penned long after the Buddha but written as if the Buddha had said them. Or one might get closer to the source by studying Theravada "lists," sutras, and commentaries.

Or one might learn the precepts, further precepts, or Disciplinary Code for long-term intensive practice. Or one might study the life of the Buddha and various figures from ancient India, such as these four fascinating enlightened Buddhist nuns: Khema, Uppalavanna, Bhaddhakaccana, and Sundari Nanda. Little is heard of them today as nearly all of the focus is put on monks, kings, and warriors. (The first two were the Buddha's beautiful chief disciples, the third his former wife, and the fourth his princess sister).

Stay awake (PeterFroehlich/flickr.com)

Or one might learn a meditation technique from a teacher and regularly cultivate it.

Sitting-meditation to bring "right concentration" into being first means settling the mind/heart (more correctly, letting it settle). This is done so that it can strengthen and achieve its potential. What potential?

The heart/mind has the miraculous ability to so focus its attention that it becomes one-pointed. This temporarily purifies it. 

Absorption! (Jess Allison)

"ABSORPTION" (jhana) is this effortless focus as the mind/heart is "absorbed" or pulled into the appropriate single object of its attention.
 
Getting to this point can be a long slog or a spontaneous occurrence. (No one for whom it happens spontaneously was expecting it, so it is better to prepare for a long slog. Expectations kill concentration).

So does it take effort, or is it effortless?

 

Until one lets go of the striving, efforting, grunting, and "trying," the heart/mind will not cohere and blossom. This is why we refer to it as "effortless." 

 

But one had made the effort to cultivate virtue and to meditate with regularity, which develops the Five Factors of Absorption (jhananga). Meditation will all seem to have been preliminary and preparatory when one tastes the first absorption. All of that effort was unnecessary and in the way? Yes and no. Would we have stayed with it and gotten here if we had not put forward a tremendous amount of effort to abstain from many distracting things, to develop regularity in practice, to inquire, to study, and so on? Virtue is the foundation. It's benefit is "concentration" (samadhi).

Samsara is turbulent, swirling flood (FP)

Concentration is a misleading English translation. The word in modern American English suggests scrunching our foreheads and trying. That is NOT samadhi. 

 

Imagine when one wants clear water, but it's cloudy; one wants it clean, but it's full of obscuring particles in suspension. What is the best way to get it clear?

Let it settle. How much effort does that take? None or next to none. But we're going to need tons of effort to be patient, sit still, and wait. "Patience is the highest virtue," the Buddha said. As an American, that's the last thing we have. Clear water? Drain it, filter it while pouring it back in, irradiate it, and throw in some chlorine because we're busy! Who has time to wait and do nothing?

 

The heart/mind is naturally clear, but there are all of these defilements floating around so that we never see things clearly. And we will do anything -- except the easiest and most natural thing -- to clear things up.

ANSWER: The difference between "meditation," usually thought of as sitting crosslegged even though it means so much more, and "absorption" is like the difference between muddy turbulent water and a crystal clear still forest pool.

One can suddenly see clearly in a still forest pool (nyanamolibhikkhu/plus.google.com)

 
The Buddha gives an analogy to explain the first two Factors of Absorption, "applied-attention" (vitakka) and "sustained-attention" (vicāra).
 
These factors form the bridge between meditation and absorption. They are like the effort a bird makes to get into flight and the effort(lessness) to stay in flight. One is messy jumping and flapping, the other easy holding and gliding.

• Translating vitakka as "thought-conception" and vicāra as "discursive thinking," as was done by the earliest Western translators is incorrect and completely misleading. Scholarship by nonpractitioners has this liability. Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw, who is both a scholar and a meditation master with many accomplished Western students, was able to clarify this matter for us.

"The first absorption is free from five [hindrances], and five [Factors of Absorption] are present. Whenever the meditator enters the first absorption, there have vanished: sensual craving, ill-will, sloth/torpor, restlessness/worry, and doubt. And there appears: applied-attention,sustained-attention, rapture, joy, and concentration (samādhi)" - Path of Purification (Vis.M. IV).

(jhanasadvice.com)

Another analogy used is that of poured water, which is choppy and broken. It is contrasted with poured oil, which is steady and unbroken. If one practices consistently and correctly then it no longer becomes anything about thinking. Instead, it becomes all about "getting in the zone." As soon as we start thinking, we are no longer in the zone. The same is true of absorption, which is free of discursive thinking. It is full of one-pointed attention. It's all zen (jhana). It is different from "the zone" in sports because it is full absorption; there is only one object of attention. 

 

Translating absorption as "trance," as the earliest Western translators did, can be misleading because it suggests that there is no object of attention at all. There is only one object.

 

Note, not all objects of meditation can lead to absorption. For example, we loosely say we were "totally absorbed" in a movie or videogame such that we lost track of time. That form of high external stimulation in no way leads to meditative-absorption. In fact, it leads away from it because the mind/heart becomes weaker and weaker, growing more and more dependent on intense stimulation.

 

The Buddha suggested the breath as suiting most temperaments (among 40 different objects of meditation), but it is very easy to misunderstand what he meant. Fortunately, he explained it to Ananda. He meant the subtle breath at the tip of the nose just under the nostrils when it becomes so still as to be almost imperceptible. And it will be imperceptible until the mind intensifies enough to notice it no matter how subtle it has grown. This is one of the great benefits of choosing the breath, he explained to Ananda: The more one pays attention, the subtler the breath grows. The subtler it grows, the more one needs to pay attention. This feedback loop leads right to absorption BECAUSE it leads to more subtlety with more attention.

 

 
If one strains or pushes or is otherwise disturbed, the breath will instantly be disturbed (becoming grosser and easier to notice). This does not strengthen attention, and one must again wait for it to settle into the subtle breath, which is the object of meditation. Therefore, a balance must be kept or one will go from strain and overeager striving for something to happen to sleepiness and lapsed attention (distractability).

Any strain reflects craving. And it is the very problem pointed out in the famous Indian expression ridiculing the origin of meditation: "One meditates, mismeditates, premeditates, overmeditates... One is like a cat or an owl waiting by a mouse hole..." This is what meditation was in the beginning according to the Buddha. It comes from the Buddhist "Origins of Life on Earth" story (the Aggañña Sutra, DN 27). It is called "meditation" (from the stem related to jhana), but it is not right-meditation. It will not lead to absorption. But why? They look exactly the same!

Looks have little to do with these matters. What is the state of mind of an unsuccessful meditator? Expectant, eager, craving, impatient. Like a cat or an owl, one looks patient just sitting there staring hour after hour. That is not patience; that is greed. When one meditates in another way, fully attentive but not expectant, eager, impatient, or full of craving, suddenly things happen. One did not do them; they happened. But one did set up the causes and conditions without which they would not have happened.

In absorption there is no thinking about the meditation object. One is aware of it without evaluation and without lapse. Meditation, on the other hand, means bringing attention back to the object again and again every time it wanders, which can be millions of times. Absorption refers to being immersed in one object without distraction or wavering or struggling. It is very blissful. People would never guess how blissful it is. (Next we will explain how to take this to enlightenment).

• Meditative Absorption: The First Jhana

"Effort" to practice Buddhism (sutra)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera, Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (4th Edition edited by Ven. Nyanaponika, BPS.lk)

The Buddha in gold, brass, and stone, Thailand (MarmaladeToast flickr.com)

  

Under a sprawling pipal tree -- bodhi!

The Four Right Efforts (samma-padhāna), which together form the sixth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, are the effort: (1) to avoid, (2) to overcome, (3) to develop, and (4) to maintain. That is to say:

One endeavors, strives, makes an effort to avoid unwholesome states (generally, those states motivated by greed, hatred/fear, or delusion/wrong view) that are not yet present.

One endeavors to overcome unwholesome states that arise. 

One develops wholesome states (generally, those motivated by nongreed, nonhatred/nonfear, and nondelusion) -- such as the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

 

One endeavors to maintain (and consummate, bring to culmination, fruition) wholesome states that have arisen. 

SUTRA 

"Numerical Discourses of the Buddha" (Anguttara Nikaya)

Intensive sitting meditation is one kind of striving (meditationguidance.com)

 
"The meditator rouses the will to avoid the arising of harmful, unwholesome things not yet arisen... to overcome them... to develop wholesome things not yet arisen... [and] to maintain them, without allowing them to disappear, to bring them to growth, to maturity, and to the full perfection of development. One makes (a balanced) effort, rouses energy, exerts mind/heart, and strives" (AN IV, 13).  
 
NOTE: It is critical to bear in mind that overexertion is not right effort. The Buddha did not succeed under the Bodhi tree by overexerting as so many assume by not reading carefully. It is exactly because of struggling and overexertion that he could not succeed. Only when Siddhartha relaxed and began making a balanced-effort, which included the purifying meditative-absorptions (jhanas) he had fearfully been avoiding for years, did he finally reach the path to insight and enlightenment. He let go, allowed bliss of absorption and, remaining attentive, emerged to practice Dependent Origination -- the systematic pursuit of the 12 causal links that make up suffering. Siddhartha had set originally off to find the solution to the problem of suffering, so he asked: "Why is there suffering?" The practice of Dependent Origination answers this question through mindful application, insight-practice (vipassana), which begins as the fourfold setting up of mindfulness (on body, feelings, mind, and mind states). In this connection, the Buddha once taught a famous lute player to neither over-tighten nor under-tighten the strings of the instrument. Balance is the way to get the right sound -- balance between overexerting and underexerting.

Hi, I'm meditating (Kirsten Johnson)

(1) "What now, O meditators, is the effort to avoid? Perceiving a form, or a sound, or an odor, or a taste, or a bodily or mental impression, the medtitator neither adheres to (clings to, is entranced by) the whole nor to its parts. And one strives to ward off that through which harmful and unwholesome things might arise, such as greed and sorrow, if one remained with unguarded senses. And one watches over the (six) senses, restrains the senses. This is called the effort to avoid.

 

(2) "What now is the effort to overcome? The meditator does not retain any thought of sensual lust, or any other harmful, unwholesome states that may have arisen. One abandons them, dispels them, destroys them, causes them to disappear. This is called the effort to overcome.

 

(3) "What now is the effort to develop? The meditator develops the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, bent on solitude, on detachment, on extinction, and ending in liberation (deliverance, emancipation, nirvana), namely: mindfulness, keen investigation of phenomena, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration (collectedness of mind), and equanimity. This is called the effort to develop.

 

OK, breaktime! (Vincenzo Rossi/flickr)

(4) "What now is the effort to maintain? The meditator keeps firmly in mind (attention) a favorable object of concentration, such as the mental image (nimitta) of [light, or the cemetery meditations of] a skeleton, a (very repulsive) corpse infested with worms, a corpse blue-black in color, a festering corpse, a corpse riddled with holes, a corpse swollen up. [In this way, one frequently given to lust is temporarily freed of lust so insight may dawn and permanently free one of hindrances, fetters, and defilements.] This is called the effort to maintain" (AN IV, 14).