Suddenly you are with that distraction rather than with your object of meditation. In other words, your attention is somewhere else. You are not sure how you got there or what you are supposed to be doing. Then you remember that you are meditating and that you are supposed to be on your object of meditation. Remember—that is the first part of the definition of mindfulness.
If you let go of your thinking about the distraction and relax slightly, you can observe that there is a tight mental fist wrapped around that sensation or thought. You can also observe that you don’t want it there. You want it to go away. But, the more you want it to go away, the bigger and more intense the distraction becomes.
So your mind is on this itch, this pain, this thought. How did it get there? It didn’t just jump there. There is a process that happens, and you begin to see how your mind moves from one thing to another. Don’t think about that, but observe carefully how the process happens. We aren’t talking here about analyzing why anything happens—simply observe what is happening. Observe the way the mind moves and reacts in the present—that is the second part of mindfulness.
The truth is that when a sensation is there, it’s there! It’s okay for it to be there. You are going to have distracting thoughts and sensations come up, and that’s okay. Thoughts are not your enemy. In fact, they are opportunities.
Every thought, every feeling, every sensation that arises and distracts your mind also causes tightness.
The First Noble Truth is that there is suffering. The Second Noble Truth is that suffering is caused by Craving. The Third Noble Truth is that there is the cessation of suffering. The Fourth Noble Truth is that there is the path to the cessation of suffering. This path is the Eightfold Path.
This tightness is how you can recognize the very start of Craving and, as you may know, the Second Noble Truth says that craving is the cause of suffering! Life is not suffering; craving is what makes it so.
Distractions are telling you what you crave—the things to which you are attached. Seeing and understanding what you like and dislike is the first step toward letting go of those attachments.
Your brain has two lobes that are contained in three membranes called the meninges. It is like a bag wrapped around your brain and spine. Any time that there is a distraction, there is a perceptible movement in the brain, and the brain seems (some will disagree with this, but something is felt) to start to expand against this membrane. The thought causes tightness or tension to arise, which we are actually able to observe for ourselves.
Any time you notice this tension and tightness, you want to actively relax and soften into it. By relaxing, you are releasing the Craving. More on this when we get to the 6Rs.
When Craving is released, there is a slight feeling of expansion in your head. Right after you relax, you will notice that your mind is very peaceful and calm. Your mind is alert, and there are no thoughts. At this time, you have a pure mind. Now bring that pure mind back to your object of meditation—the feeling of Lovingkindness and smiling—that warm, radiating, happy feeling. Now make another wish for your happiness, put that feeling into your heart, and radiate that happy feeling to yourself.
It does not matter how many times your attention is pulled away by a distraction. Thoughts and sensations don’t go away the first time you notice them, and that’s okay. As these distractions come back again and again, you will become increasingly familiar with how they arise. With practice, their intensity and frequency will subside.
Hindrances
The Buddha talked about five hindrances to meditation. Hindrances are distractions that will pull you away from your object of meditation—five troublemakers who will surely come calling!
Every distraction is based on at least one of the five hindrances. Often they come two or three at a time and gang up.
The Five Hindrances are:
Sensual Desire: “I like that,” otherwise known as Lustful or Greedy Mind. You will hang onto things that are pleasant and want more. This will cause attachment to pleasant states of mind that have arisen in the past, and desire for pleasant states to arise in the future.
Anger, Aversion, Fear: “I don’t like that.” You will want to push away states of mind that you don’t like. Or, you might experience fear or anger over unpleasant or painful feelings that have already arisen. You will try to push away and control anything causing you pain. You will even try to force your mind to experience things in a certain way that you think is right when you actually should just observe what is there. Now, that is really overly controlling!
Sloth and Torpor: Dullness and Sleepiness. These will cause lack of effort and determination because you’ve lost interest in your object of meditation. You will experience a mental fog. When you look at it closely, you actually see that it has tightness and tension in it. There is even Craving in sleepiness.
Restlessness: With Restlessness you constantly want to move and change, to do something other than what you are doing, to be somewhere other than here. Restlessness can manifest as very tight, unpleasant feelings in the body and mind.
Doubt: You are not sure you are following the instructions correctly, or even if this is the right practice. It makes you feel unsure of yourself and may even manifest as a lack of confidence in the Buddha’s teaching or your teacher or both.
When the hindrances arise, your job is neither to like them nor to fight with them. Your job is to accept them, to invite them in, and to “offer them tea”!
Don’t feed them with your attention. Forcing and not liking their being there just gives them the attention they crave and makes them stronger.
That’s what happens with one-pointed concentration meditation. You force the hindrances away by practicing intense concentration. However, as soon as you stop meditating they come back, sometimes even stronger.
If you just let hindrances be there, turning your attention to something that is wholesome instead, the energy inherent in them will gradually fade away. They will disappear like a fire that runs out of fuel. That’s how you overcome the hindrances for good. The fire just goes out. In Pāli, Nibbāna translates as “Ni” or no, and “bāna” or fire. No Fire. No Craving. No hindrance.
The 6Rs
Now we are going to give you specific instructions on how to work with the hindrances in the way the Buddha taught.
Imagine, for a moment, the Bodhisattva resting under the Rose Apple tree as a young boy. He was not serious or tense; he was having fun, watching his father’s festival. Right then he “attained to a pleasant abiding” (jhāna) as stated in the suttas. With a light mind, he was able to come to a very tranquil and aware state.
Later, on the eve of his enlightenment, after he had tried every method of meditation and bodily exercise that was known in India at that time, he remembered this state.[14] And he realized that this simple state—this tranquil, aware, and happy state—was the key to attaining awakening. But how to convey this?
When he was teaching, the Buddha worked largely with uneducated farmers and merchants. He had to have a simple, effective practice that was easy and worked quickly. He had to have a method by which everyone could experience the path and benefits for themselves easily and immediately. This is how he was able to affect so many people during his lifetime.
Do you want to see clearly? It’s easy! Lighten up, have fun exploring — relax, and smile! Relaxing and smiling leads you to a happier, more interesting practice.
That sounds like great advice, but how do you do it? When you have been carried away by distraction, and you lose your smile, just follow these steps:
Recognize that mind’s attention has drifted away and that you are lost in thought. You have forgotten what you were doing. You are no longer on your object of meditation.
Release your attachment to the thought or sensation by letting the distraction be—by not giving it any more attention. Just stop feeding it. Just back away from it.
Relax any remaining tension or tightness caused by that distraction.
Re-smile. Put that smile back on your lips and in your heart. Feel that happy feeling of Lovingkindness again.
Return or redirect. Gently redirect mind’s attention back to the object of meditation, that is, to Mettā. Continue with a gentle, collected mind to stay with your object of meditation.
Repeat this entire practice cycle. Repeat this practice whenever your attention is distracted away from your object of meditation.
We call these the “6Rs.” They are drawn directly from the sutta text as part of Right Effort. The first four ‘R’s are the four right efforts, with the last two ‘R’s to remind you to Return and Repeat as needed.
Notice that you never push anything away. You never try to control anything—trying to control is using Craving to eliminate Craving!
Please don’t do the 6Rs for some slight noise in the background or a minor bodily feeling. As long as you are still with your feeling of Lovingkindness, just stay with that feeling and let it deepen. Ignore those slight distractions in the background. As a beginner do the 6Rs only if your attention is completely “gone” from the object.
In the explanation of the Eightfold Path in the suttas, one of the components is Right Effort. Right Effort and the 6Rs are exactly the same things.
What is Right Effort?
You notice that an unwholesome state has arisen.
You stop paying attention to that unwholesome feeling, letting it be there by itself with no pushing away or holding on to it.
You bring up a wholesome feeling.
You stay with that wholesome feeling.
The 6Rs just add the Return and Repeat to complete the cycle. We are practicing Right Effort by repeating the 6Rs cycle again and again. We see and experience for ourselves what suffering is and how to relieve it.
You notice what causes you to become tense and tight, and then how to reach its cessation by releasing and relaxing and bringing up a wholesome object. You discover how to exercise the direct path to the cessation of suffering. This happens each time you Recognize and Release an arising feeling, Relax, and Re-smile. Notice the Relief.
When you look at the benefits discussed in the sutta about the Dhamma, there is a phrase that says the Dhamma is “immediately effective.” By practicing the 6Rs, you fulfill this statement! When you relax the tension or tightness caused by a distraction, you immediately experience the Third Noble Truth, the cessation of suffering.
In other words, you are purifying the mind by relaxing and letting go of suffering. You see this for yourself.
Then you bring up a wholesome object by smiling and return mind’s attention back to Mettā, which is a wholesome feeling.
You do not have to practice for long periods—months or years—to feel relief. You can see it right after the Relax step of the 6Rs. You notice the moment of a pure mind, free from Craving.
By repeating the 6Rs over and over, depriving the hindrances of attention, their fuel, you will eventually replace all of the unwholesome mental habits with wholesome ones. In this way, you bring up only wholesome states and will eventually achieve the cessation of suffering.
To be successful in meditation, you need to develop your mindfulness skill and observation power. Also, keeping up your sense of fun and exploration is important. This helps to improve your mindfulness. The 6Rs training develops these necessary skills.
Sometimes people say this practice is simpler than they thought. Some have actually complained to the teacher because they want this meditation to be more complicated!
Now let us go through each of the steps in more depth.
Recognize
Mindfulness remembers to observe and recognize movements of mind’s attention from one thing to another—that is, from the meditation object to the distraction. This observing notices any movement of mind’s attention away from the object of meditation. One can notice a slight tightness or tension as mind’s attention begins to move toward the arising phenomenon.
Pleasant or painful feelings can occur at any one of the six sense doors. Any sight, sound, odor, taste, touch or thought can cause a distraction to arise. With careful nonjudgmental observation, you will notice a slight tightening sensation arising both in mind and physically in the brain itself.
Recognizing early movement of mind is vital to successful meditation. You then continue on to…
Release
When a thought about something arises, release it. Let it be there without giving any more attention to it. The content of the distraction is not important at all, but the mechanics of how it arose are important! Don’t analyze it or try to figure out why it is there; let it be without keeping mind’s attention on it. Without your mind’s attention, the distraction loses energy and passes away. When you do not keep your attention on it, a distraction and the mental chatter about it ceases. Mindfulness then reminds the meditator to…
Relax
After releasing the thought and allowing it to be by itself without trying to watch it or get involved in it, there is a subtle, barely noticeable tightness or tension remaining within mind and body.
To remove this remaining tension, the Buddha introduced a relax step. The suttas[15] call the relax step “tranquilizing the bodily formation.” This is true especially in your head, which is part of your body.
It means to “unclench” your attention from and around the thought. It is more than just letting it go. It actively softens and relaxes, and lets the distraction be there, which then weakens its power. Gradually it disappears completely on its own.
Please do not skip this step! It is the most important part of this meditation. It is the missing step we talked about in the introduction. It is the key to progress!
Without performing this step of relaxing every time you are distracted from your meditation object, you will not experience the close-up view of the cessation of the tightness caused by Craving. You will not feel the relief as this tension is relaxed.
Remember that Craving always manifests first as a tightness or tension in both your mind and body. The Relax step gives you a kind of “Mundane Nibbāna.” You have a momentary opportunity to see and experience the true nature of and relief from tightness and suffering while performing the Release and Relax steps. Mindfulness then continues to remember to…
Re-Smile
If you have listened to the Dhamma talks on our website, you might remember hearing about how smiling is an important aspect of the meditation. Learning to smile and raising the corners of the mouth slightly helps the mind to be observant, alert, agile, and bright. Getting serious, tensing up, or frowning causes mind to become heavy and your mindfulness to become dull and slow. Insights become more difficult to see, thus slowing down your understanding of Dhamma.
Return
Redirect your mindback to your object of meditation. Gently redirect the mind and don’t “jerk” it back before you are ready. Make this a harmonious movement, a movement that is timely and not forced.
Repeat
Repeat this entire practice cycle as often as needed. Stay with your object until you slip, and then run the 6Rs again.
Spiritual Friend
For the first ten minutes of your sitting, radiate Lovingkindness to yourself. Wrap yourself up in that happy, tranquil feeling using the previous instructions. For the rest of the sitting, radiate loving and kind thoughts to a Spiritual Friend. What is a Spiritual Friend?
Now we will select our next object of meditation, the Spiritual Friend. It is very important that they are a living person, of the same sex, and are not a member of your family.
When the Spiritual Friend is of a different sex, it may lead to lustful feeling, and this complicates your experience. This is the traditional way of teaching Mettā. If this instruction does not fit you, then just make sure the person you select does not raise lustful feelings in your mind when you are radiating loving-kindness—remember, you will be spending a long time with this person.
Your Spiritual Friend should be someone who you
deeply respect and sincerely wish well. They are someone who makes you smile when you think of them. It might be a favorite teacher or counselor who has your highest goals in mind. It might be a friend who always has your back and supports whatever you do.
Please do not use a member of your family as your Spiritual Friend, because family members are too close to you. Family members will be brought into your practice at a later time, but for now, they may raise hidden issues that interfere with the practice. Initially, we want to keep this easy and uncomplicated. Do not radiate to a person who is dead—the feeling will not arise correctly, as there is no personal connection that can be made.
You make the wish for your spiritual friend in this way: “As I feel this happiness in myself, may you be happy and peaceful!” Wrap them up in the feeling of Lovingkindness, place them in the center of your heart, and smile at them as you are doing this. Really be sincere about this. Really believe it. The more you believe it, the stronger the feeling will become.
Continue wishing them well and see them in your mind’s eye, but don’t put too much emphasis on the actual mental image of them. Again, some people are very good at visualizing, and some are not. Just know who they are and that you wish them well.
The phrases are a way of priming the pump—they evoke the feeling. As you make that wish, shift your attention to the feeling itself. Remember that your object of meditation is the feeling. Stay with that feeling and let it grow as it will. Don’t force it; just give it some gentle encouragement.
Sooner or later the feeling will fade. When it does, repeat the phrases again. It is not helpful to repeat phrases rapidly. That makes the phrase feel mechanical. Rather, say it sincerely and rest for a few moments with the feeling it evokes. Repeat a phrase again only if it hasn’t brought up the feeling.
The Path to Nibbana Page 18
