So, he asked Ālāra Kālāma if there might be an even higher state. Ālāra Kalama told Gautama he knew someone who taught the highest state attainable.
He was told to go study with Uddaka Rāmaputta, who taught him up to attain the eighth absorption jhāna, that of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. He mastered this state in a short time and then the same thing happened. This teacher also invited him to stay and teach. Again, Gautama refused, feeling there was still something more to learn, that this was not the way to Nibbāna.[iii] He still experienced subtle craving after coming out of these high states.
Once more he left, having been told there was nothing left to be learned. He had mastered the highest yogic state taught at that time. He could find no one else to teach him any higher technique to control his mind.
Venerable Bhikkhu K.¥ānanda states in his small book Nibbāna — The Mind Stilled, Vol. 2 in sermon 6, p. 127:
“These subtler layers of preparations (thoughts/formations) also have ignorance (craving) hidden within them. That is why…even Ālāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta thought that they could get out of this wheel of existence (saṃsāra) by tranquilizing the bodily activities, the verbal activities, and the mental activities. But they did not understand that all these are saṅkhārās or preparations; therefore, they were confronted with a certain dilemma. They went on calming down the bodily activities to subtler and subtler levels. They calmed down the in-breaths and out breaths, they managed to suppress thinking and pondering by concentration exercises, but without proper understanding. It was only a temporary calming down.”
No awakening had yet occurred for Gautama into the true nature of mind, so, disappointed, he rejected all mental absorption-concentration practices and set off to do the austere ascetic practices of the yogic sadhus. By controlling pain in the body through engaging in tortuous, pain-producing practices, he hoped to achieve control of his mind. This would hopefully bring him to peace and a balanced mind.
After six years of austerities, doing unspeakably difficult and even disgusting practices, like drinking his own urine and worse (see suttas MN 36 and MN 12), when he was on the verge of death, the Bodhisatta (the future Buddha) gave up that path as well. He did master control of his body and perfected any austerity that was asked of him, but this did not lead him to the end of desire.
After spending all this time mastering the yogic concentration jhānas and the yogic austerities, the future Buddha sat on the banks of the Ganges, near present-day Bodh Gaya. He was nearly starving to death, down to eating one rice grain per day. He knew he would die if he continued.
A young woman named Sujata came and offered him sweet milk rice to eat. For the first time in a long time, he allowed himself to consume a reasonable portion of food. Immediately, he felt his energy returning. Vitality started to course through his body and mind.
As he sat there on the river’s bank, in the shade of a Bodhi tree, he reflected on his past efforts, realizing they had all been in vain. He was no closer to the end of suffering than when he started. He had tried and mastered all of the practices of concentration and austerities and hadn’t gotten any closer to awakening.
Then Gautama, the future Buddha, began to reflect on the plight of human beings. In the Saṃyutta Nikāya, the Book of Causation (Niddānnavagga [Origination]),[iv] it says:
“Bhikkhus, before my awakening, while I was still a Bodhisatta not yet fully awakened, it occurred to me: Alas, this world has fallen into trouble, in that it is born, ages, and dies, it passes away and is reborn, yet it does not understand the escape from suffering [headed by] aging and death.
“Then it occurred to me: ‘When what exists does aging, and death come to be? By what is aging and death conditioned?’…there took place in me a breakthrough by wisdom: When there is birth, aging-and-death comes to be: aging-and-death has birth [of action] as its condition.”
Then it goes on to explain how the Bodhisatta discovered each of the links of dependent origination through reasoning them out. He saw how each link ceased and if that link ceased then the link that followed also ceased. Following the cessation of the last link of ignorance, then the unconditioned arose, Nibbāna.
Then the Bodhisatta had a memory arise from a time when he was a young boy. He had been left by himself on a sofa under a Roseapple tree while his father, the king, was at the plowshare festival.
He remembered as he became completely tranquil and relaxed, he naturally had fallen into a very peaceful and energetic state, where his mind let go of all hindrances and desires. He entered a completely wholesome, joyful state.
Fully observant and aware, a special tranquil state had arisen. He had let go of all striving at that moment and just observed what was happening; he just let everything be and relaxed even further into it. This was the state the Buddha would later refer to with the Pāli word Jhāna.
As the future Buddha sat beneath the Bodhi tree and reflected on this childhood memory, he realized that this was a different kind of state. As he contemplated this condition of mind, he entered this state again naturally.
By completely relaxing both body and mind without trying or controlling, just being there in the present, content and joyful as he had been as a young boy, he achieved the same tranquil, open, and light-minded state. What the Buddha-to-be had found were what Bhante Vimalaraṁsi calls the Tranquil Aware Jhānas. This was different from the concentration states he had practiced with his teachers before and it can accurately be more described as a state of collectedness.
Collectedness is defined in English as “the state of being calm and composed: “he is the very picture of collectedness and confidence” (Webster’s dictionary).
Then he went even deeper. And in the third watch of the night (from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m.), he became the Buddha.
“Buddha” is a title for a fully awakened one. This is not his name, but rather his title. After all, Buddha Gautama was not the first Buddha, nor will he be the last.
I did once have the experience of going into a concentration jhāna, by accident, ironically (wasn’t following instructions — typical!), on a TWIM retreat with Bhante Vimalaraṁsi. When I came out, there was a very high, powerful state of awareness with a lot of happiness. It was interesting because it felt very “holy” or sacred and secluded, very much as what I envisioned a “holy” monk would feel. It dissipated in about an hour and just faded away.
The next day it was completely gone, and it felt like nothing had been gained at all by having the experience. I felt empty, in fact, at having gained nothing from such a powerful experience. It was strange that something so potent had no effect on my personality. I wanted to believe otherwise, but really no positive change had taken place. This was an insight to me. I went back and reviewed the instructions again and found that I hadn’t been mindful enough. I had let myself become absorbed in the object.
On another TWIM retreat, I purposefully did the breathing meditation using concentration to focus on the breath at the belly, in the way I had done doing Vipassanā. I found a very different experience happened when I forced mind to stay on the breath. Mind became very concentrated. I saw what looked like a border of lights, like a window frame, as if I was looking out a porthole on a ship. There was absolutely nothing inside this ring; just void and silence.
Yet when I came out of that state, I did not feel the same clarity of the TWIM method. The deep concentration left a kind of torpor-like state and was rather uncomfortable. The mind did not feel bright and balanced. It had lost its pliancy and ability to think clearly. Strangely, it felt a little like I was stressed out, jumpy. I went to the Dhamma Talk, and it was a bit hard to follow the talk. Gradually, however, mind returned back to a more balanced state.
With the TWIM meditation, you start by establishing an easy, open, light-minded state. This is accomplished by using the feeling of mettā or loving-kindness as the object of meditation, and by smiling. Radiating mettā outward keeps our attention light and open, while smiling is
a wholesome movement that keeps us from taking the meditation too seriously, thereby creating tension and tightness (or, as the suttas call it, craving). We prefer the loving-kindness object as it leads to faster progress, but breath can also be used if we employ the relax step properly. Below we will use the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta to understand the meditation process in terms of breath and the relax step needed.
The most important step toward experiencing the “TWIM” or aware jhānas is the correct practice of Right Effort; in particular, the Tranquilize step as defined in the suttas, or what we call the Relax Step. In Pāli, it is passam bhayaṃ. The relax step is the key to removing hindrances (and craving) through true Right Effort, which allows this different kind of jhāna to arise, an aware jhāna.
In both the SatipaṭṭhānaSutta andĀnāpānasati Sutta it says: “As the student breathes in, he knows that he breathes in…when he breathes out, he knows that he breathes out.” You don’t focus on the breath alone but simply know that you are breathing. You simply understand that you are breathing.
The Pāli word for this is sati, which is to observe and to know. You know what a long breath is and you know what a short breath is. This just means to observe whatever is there in a light-minded way without trying to control it. You don’t make a short breath long or a long breath short, you don’t breathe in deeply or change the breath in any way and don’t focus tightly on the breath — you just understand what is happening.
If someone said to you, “Do you know where you are?” you would look around and say, “Yes, I am in my garden.” You don’t focus and concentrate on the garden — you don’t peer inside the bushes, look under rocks; you just know you are in the garden.
The Buddha makes this process even clearer with the next step where he says that “breathing in…and out he experiences the whole body.” He’s not saying to observe the breath. He’s saying that as he breathes, he is experiencing the whole body. He is mindful of what is happening, both inside and outside. This softens the attention to encompass a greater field of awareness.
But then there comes the most important step in the Satipaṭṭhāna sutta’s instruction, which is omitted or overlooked by other methods and practices. “The student tranquilizes the bodily formation on the in-breath…and he tranquilizes the bodily formation on the out-breath” [italics added]. This is the critical step that will lead you to the elimination of craving and the attainment of Nibbāna!
Why is this relax step ignored or just treated as a general “relax-the-body” step? Other methods don’t value the importance of this. It isn’t seen as an active step in practice — it is just understood as a general relaxing but not an active relaxing of tension in the head, a tension that is actually contained in the thought itself. In fact, it is a critically important step that runs counter to deep concentration, because focusing tightly creates tension, not tranquility.
What is it that you are relaxing? You are relaxing the tension and tightness which are signs of craving — craving that gives rise to thinking and to all kinds of habitual emotional tendencies, causing mind to wander away into daydreams and thoughts. What is all this? They are Mental Formations.
The Buddha addresses all this “noise” of the distractions and asks us to relax and tranquilize this also. Here is the quote from the Ānāpānasati Sutta MN 118. This follows the instruction to tranquilize the bodily formation.
MN 118. “He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the mental formation’; he trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the mental formation. ’ He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in tranquillizing the mental formation’; he trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out tranquillizing the mental formation.’”
So here we see the Buddha is asking us to specifically relax both the body and mind as a total process and specifically to relax the thoughts, which are the mental formations, that come up.
Why does the thinking come up? Everything draws your attention to it: thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc. Pleasant feelings are beckoning you to come and “taste” them and unpleasant feelings are poking you to dislike them because they are painful. It is how suffering is born. The mind is running free after this and that with no restraint. Gradually you come to see how this really is suffering!
Noticing distractions, or hindrances, arise and ignoring them or pushing them away, or following the advice to “clench your teeth and put your tongue up against the roof of your mouth…to remove them and to destroy them,”[1] is not the way to let go of distractions. Why? Because you haven’t let go of the cause of that distraction, which is craving, the pulling of mind into thought.
Adding a step to actively relax into the tension and tightness in the head that pulls your mind away is what the Buddha found steadily reduces the energy of those distractions. The distraction will fade away naturally on its own because you’ve relaxed the tightness and tension feeding it. The more we pay attention to something the greater our attention is drawn and thoughts are created. Releasing your attention reduces thoughts and tension. So, we want to actively release our attention to distractions. We don’t want to push them away — that just makes them stronger.
The Buddha called this Right Effort (Sammā Vāyāma). In TWIM it is called the 6Rs. This is the way hindrances are removed, and craving is eliminated bit by bit. We will discuss this process later as we go into the instructions.
In Majjhima Nikāya (MN) No. 36 the Mahāsaccaka Sutta it clearly states that after the Buddha tried to control his mind through "clenching his teeth” and so on, he found that his efforts, rather than getting control over his mind, led to the tiring out of his energy and brought on restlessness:
“[I] crushed mind with mind and sweat ran down from my armpits. But, although tireless energy was aroused in me and unremitting mindfulness was established, my body was overwrought and uncalm because I was exhausted by the painful striving.’’[v]
This exertion did not work. Attempting to control the hindrances in this extreme way is just using aversion to push away what you don't want. There is no letting go here but only pushing away. We have created another hindrance. How many times have you heard some meditators say, “Darn it, I just can’t make my mind do what I want it to do, it’s really making me mad!” You can't use a hindrance to eliminate a hindrance! In other words, control will not work. Something else must be the correct path…
There is an article on the internet in which a jhāna meditation teacher wrote about his self-retreat practicing concentration meditation. He said he did a nine-month retreat and the first four months were spent “fighting” with his mind to stay on his breath! What? Fighting? How does that bring tranquility? Isn’t there a faster way to get progress? Yes, there is! Hold on, did you just say four months to get concentrated?
Concentration practice tries to control mind and push away distracting thoughts and sensations. It both focuses down onto the object and then pushes away the wandering mind. The Buddha in the texts tells us not to suppress what he calls the defilements. In the Anguttara Nikāya, Samādhi Sutta in several places this is quite clear:
AN 5.27 …(4) The knowledge arises that is personally yours: ‘This concentration is peaceful and sublime, gained by full tranquilization, and attained to unification; it is not reined in and checked by forcefully suppressing the defilements.’
And notice the word above — Concentration in pāli is actually samādhi which Venerable Punnaji already has translated as Tranquil State of Wisdom or a state of collectedness. The above is the Samādhi Sutta, and it is named and translated as “Concentration, ” and that is wrong. Are you beginning to see that the concentration methodology that the Buddha had already rejected keeps trying to make its way back into the teachings?
Since what you are trying to achieve is the removal of craving, you must see and understand it, not push it away. Absorption just puts it on the shelf such that when you come out of the absorption jhāna, the hindrances come back even stronger; like a vicious dog — you open the gate, now he
attacks you with full force. Instead of pushing away the distraction, you simply relax into it and accept that it is there.
The Buddha found that relaxing the tension and tightness from the things that are pulling your mind away will gradually reduce the energy of those distractions. Finally, after relaxing enough of tension and tightness, the distraction will fade away on its own.
Why? It is because you are not feeding it. You are not reacting to it. This is what “tranquilizing” means: relaxing any tension or tightness that is whisking you away into thinking.
When you react to your wandering mind with aversion (“I don’t like this!”), the reaction itself is the craving you are trying to remove. You need to tranquilize this reaction. Relax into it. Soften into it. Let it be. Let go of “beating yourself up.”
As it occurs in the suttas, tranquilize is an action verb. It involves removing, by softening and purposely relaxing into, any tightness and tension in mind or body. It is not just a general relaxing of the mood or the body.
You see a beautiful woman walking down the street. Your mind has a pleasant feeling and craving arises, “I like her.” You can feel your mind tightening around the form of the woman. Then comes thoughts about her, “Wow, I haven’t seen her around before, wonder where she came from…” So, if we are sitting and we are using concentration meditation, and we start thinking over this experience of the lovely lady, we pull, or even jerk, our mind back to our object of meditation. We try to hold it there, pushing away this distraction.
But because we did not allow that distracting mind that arose to be there by itself, and actively relaxed the tension and tightness around it (sensual desire), we had even more, thoughts. We keep thinking more thoughts because the craving embedded in those thoughts keeps generating even more thinking.
Then we start getting upset because our thoughts are out of control and get frustrated and think what it would be like to constantly have lustful thoughts — constantly thinking and unable to be quiet. Then we think even more about it and get completely lost. A daydream could just turn into a nightmare!
The Path to Nibbana Page 5
