by Ajahn Chah
If people were to practice and realize this for themselves so the truth of it penetrated their hearts, that would be the most excellent sort of merit. I would really rejoice to see people genuinely come to understand the Dharma like that, and I would feel that the opportunity of being born as a human and meeting the Buddhist religion has not been wasted. But if one has all the conceptual knowledge, as many of us do now, but doesn’t practice, what’s the point? What will come of that?
Please understand this. We have only this one gathering this year. Next year at this time we will meet together again to do the traditional water ceremonies of the New Year once more. But it isn’t certain, is it? We can’t really be sure that the people who are here now celebrating the New Year will be here again next year. Put simply, we can’t really entertain any hopes for anyone. We may not be able to do the sprinkling of water with some people next time. Why is this? Because things keep passing. These days, impermanence is in hot pursuit, out to destroy us. Sometimes people come and ask, “Luang Por, aren’t you afraid of the communist guerillas?” Hey, why should we be worrying about communists? Have they been out to kill us from the day we were born? I’m not so afraid of communists. There are many things that are inherent in this life and in this body that are much more frightening. So don’t go thinking about too many extraneous matters, things that are far away.
Thus, let all of us who are Buddhists disengage ourselves from meaningless activities and make serious efforts to practice goodness. If we don’t yet have virtue, we should strive to develop it. If we have a little virtue, we should strive to increase it. If we have great virtue, we should continue on until we can be released from the cycle of samsara. And by the blessings of the Three Jewels may all of you be protected and supported in your practice of this morality and Dharma. May you have happiness and long life; may your practice lead to the end of suffering and bring you to the place of peace and happiness. Please don’t be heedless.
Today, I have spoken for an appropriate length of time. I only wish to remind you now to practice Dharma. Whatever precepts and actions we have established here at Wat Pah Pong, you should determine in your minds to practice them and make yourselves good examples for your families and loved ones. This would really be something auspicious. Now I will make the wish that all your pure aspirations be fulfilled.
Meditation Practice
MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING: LECTURE AT A RETREAT AT THE INSIGHT MEDITATION SOCIETY1
I would like to ask you about your practice. You’ve all been practicing meditation for a while. Are you sure about the practice yet? These days, there are all sorts of meditation teachers around, and I’m afraid it might cause you to have some uncertainty about what you should be doing. Actually, there is nothing greater than the Buddha’s teachings on concentration and insight meditation that you are practicing. If you have a clear understanding of them, it will bring about unwavering peace in your hearts.
Making the mind peaceful is known as samadhi (concentration meditation). The mind is extremely changeable and unreliable. Have you noticed this? Some days, you sit down to meditate and in no time at all the mind is calm. Other days, you sit and no matter what you do there’s no calm. The mind constantly struggles to get away. Some days, it goes well; some days, it’s awful. The mind displays these different conditions for you to see.
You should understand that the eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path come together in sila (virtue or moral conduct), samadhi, and wisdom. There is nowhere else to look for them. This means that in order to have a successful practice, there must be morality, there must be mental collectedness, and there must be wisdom present in the mind. So in practicing meditation you are creating the causes for the path to arise in a very direct way.
You are usually taught to close your eyes in sitting meditation so you aren’t busy looking at external things. With eyes closed, your attention is naturally turned inward toward the mind, the source of many different kinds of knowledge. Sitting with the eyes not focused on any external objects, establish awareness on the breath. Make awareness of the breath more important than anything else. By keeping with it, you will come to know the place that is the focal point of awareness. When the factors of the path are at work together, you will be able to see your breath, feelings, mind, and mental objects as they are in the present moment. Ultimately, you will know that place that is both the focal point of samadhi and the unification of the path factors.
When developing samadhi, fix your attention on the breath and imagine that you are sitting alone with no other people and nothing else around to bother you. Develop this perception, sustaining it until the mind completely lets go of the world outside, and all that is left is simply the awareness of the breath entering and leaving. The mind must set aside the external world. Don’t allow yourself to start thinking about the people sitting around you. Don’t give opportunity to any thoughts that will stir the mind. It’s better to throw them out and be done with them. There is no one else here—you are sitting all alone. Develop this perception until all memories and thoughts concerning people and things subside, and you are no longer taking an interest in such externals. Then you can fix your attention solely on the in and out breaths. Breathe normally. Allow the inhalations and exhalations to continue naturally, without forcing them to be longer or shorter, stronger or weaker than normal. Allow the breath to continue normally and smoothly, and observe it entering and leaving the body.
Once the mind has let go of external objects, you will no longer feel disturbed by the sound of traffic or other noises. You won’t feel irritated with anything outside. Whether it’s forms, sounds, or whatever, they won’t be a source of disturbance because the mind won’t be paying attention to them as it becomes centered upon the breath.
If the mind is agitated by different things and you can’t concentrate, try taking an extra-deep breath until the lungs are completely full, and then release all the air until there is none left inside. Do this several times, then reestablish awareness and continue to develop concentration. Having reestablished mindfulness, it’s normal that for a period the mind will be calm; then it will become distracted again. When this happens, bring it back, take another deep breath, and expel all the air from your lungs. Fill the lungs to capacity again for a moment, then reestablish mindfulness on the breath. Fix your mindfulness on the inhalations and exhalations once more.
The practice tends to go like this, so it may take many sittings and a lot of effort before you become proficient. Once you are, the mind will let go of the external world and remain undisturbed. External phenomena will be unable to penetrate inside and disturb the mind. When they cannot penetrate, you will see the mind. You will see the mind as one object of awareness, the breath as another, and mental objects as yet another. They will all be present within the field of awareness, centered at the tip of your nose, where mindfulness is set up on the inhalations and exhalations. Then you continue to practice at your ease. As the mind becomes calm, the breath, which was originally coarse, correspondingly becomes lighter and more refined. The body feels lighter, and the mind becomes progressively lighter and unburdened, letting go of external phenomena.
From this point onward your awareness will be turned away from the world outside and directed inward to focus on the mind. Once the mind has become concentrated, maintain awareness at that point where it is focused. You will see the breath clearly as it enters and leaves. Mindfulness will be sharp, and awareness of mental objects and mental activity will be clearer. At that point, you will see the characteristics of sila, samadhi, and wisdom and the way they merge together. Once this unification of the path factors occurs, your mind will be free from all forms of turbulence. It will become one-pointed, and this is samadhi. When you focus attention in just one place—in this case, the breath—you gain clarity and awareness because of the uninterrupted presence of mindfulness. As you continue to see the breath clearly, mindfulness will become stronger, and the mind becomes more sensitive in ma
ny different ways. You will see the mind one-pointed in the center of the breath. The external world gradually disappears from your awareness, and the mind will no longer perform any work on the outside.
It’s as if you’ve come inside your own house. All your sense faculties have come together to form one unit. You are at your ease, and the mind is free from all external objects. Awareness remains with the breath, and over time it will penetrate deeper and deeper inside, becoming more and more refined. Ultimately, awareness of the breath becomes so refined that the sensation of it seems to disappear. You could say either that awareness of the sensation of the breath has disappeared, or that the breath itself has disappeared. In other words, awareness of the breath becomes so subtle that it’s difficult to define it.
Really, there is still breath, but it has become so refined that it seems to have disappeared. Why? Because the mind is at its most refined, with a special kind of knowing present. All that remains is the knowing, even though the breath seems to have vanished. Take this very knowing as the meditation object and sustain that.
At this point you might begin to doubt, because it is here that the visionary meditation experiences called nimitta can occur. These can be of many kinds, including forms and sounds. It is here that all sorts of unexpected things can happen in the course of the practice. If nimitta do arise—some people have them, some don’t—understand them for what they are, meaning impermanent phenomena. Don’t doubt or allow yourself to become alarmed.
At this stage, you should make the mind unshakable in its concentration and be especially mindful. Some people become startled when they notice the breath has disappeared. When it appears the breath has gone, you might panic or become afraid you’re going to die. So you need to understand it’s just the nature of the practice to progress in this way. Observe this feeling that there is no breath, and sustain it as the object of awareness as you continue to meditate. The Buddha described this as the firmest, most unshakable form of samadhi. There is just one firm and unwavering object of mind. When your practice of samadhi reaches this point, you will be aware of many unusual and subtle changes and transformations taking place within the mind. The body will feel extremely light or might even disappear altogether. You might feel like you are floating in midair and seem to be completely weightless. It might be like you are in the middle of space, and wherever you direct your sense faculties they don’t seem to register anything at all.
As you continue to practice, you should understand there is nothing to worry about. Establish this feeling of being relaxed and unworried securely in the mind. Once the mind is concentrated and one-pointed, nothing will be able to penetrate or disturb it, and you will be able to sit like this for as long as you wish. You will be able to sustain concentration without any feelings of pain or discomfort.
Having developed samadhi to this level, you will be able to enter or leave it at will. When you do leave, it’s at your ease and convenience, rather than because you’re feeling lazy or tired. This is samadhi, relaxed and comfortable. You enter and leave it without any hindrance. If you genuinely have samadhi like this, sitting to meditate for just thirty minutes or an hour will enable you to remain cool and peaceful for many days. Receiving the results of samadhi like this has a purifying effect on the mind. Whatever you experience will become an object of contemplation. This is where the practice really begins. It’s the fruit that comes as samadhi matures.
Samadhi performs the function of calming the mind. Samadhi has one function, sila has its function, and wisdom performs another function. These aspects you are developing in your practice are linked, forming a cycle. Once the mind is calm, it will become progressively more restrained and composed due to the presence of wisdom and the power of samadhi. As this occurs, it gives rise to an energy that acts to purify conduct. Greater purity of conduct facilitates the development of stronger and more refined samadhi, and this in turn supports the maturing of wisdom. They assist each other in this way. Each aspect of the practice acts as a supporting factor for the other two, and in the end these terms become synonymous.
As these three factors continue to mature together, they form one complete circle, giving rise to magga, or “the path.” Magga is the synthesis of these three functions of practice working smoothly and consistently together. Preserve this energy. It is the energy that will give rise to vipassana, or “special insight.” Having reached this stage, where wisdom is funtioning in the mind independent of whether the mind is tranquil or not, wisdom will provide a consistent energy in your practice. You see that whenever the mind isn’t tranquil, you shouldn’t have any attachment to that; even when it is tranquil, you shouldn’t have any attachment. Having let go of the burden of such concerns, the heart will feel much lighter. Whether you experience pleasant or unpleasant phenomena, you will remain at ease. The mind remains peaceful in this way.
It’s also important to recognize that when you end a session of formal meditation, if wisdom is not functioning, you will give up the practice altogether without any further contemplation, development of awareness, or consideration of the work that still has to be done. When you withdraw from samadhi, you should know clearly that you have withdrawn. Then continue to conduct yourself in a normal manner, maintaining mindfulness at all times. It isn’t that you only practice meditation in the sitting posture; samadhi means a mind that is firm and unwavering. As you go about your activities, make the mind firm and steady, and maintain this steadiness as your state of mind at all times, with continuous mindfulness and self-recollection. As you experience phenomena that cause like and dislike, consistently be aware of the fact that such mental states are impermanent and uncertain. In this way, the mind remains calm and in a state of normalcy.
There are two kinds of peacefulness. One is the peace that comes through samadhi. The other is the peace that comes through wisdom. The mind that is peaceful through samadhi is still deluded. Such peace is dependent on the mind being separated from phenomena. When it’s not experiencing any contact or activity, there is calm, and consequently you get attached to the happiness that comes with that calm state. But as soon as there is impingement through the senses, the mind gives in right away. It gets to be afraid of phenomena. It will be afraid of happiness and suffering, of praise and criticism, afraid of forms, sounds, smells, and tastes. People who are peaceful through samadhi alone are afraid of everything and don’t want to get involved with anybody or anything, because they are afraid their state of mind will be disturbed. People practicing in this way just want to stay in isolation to experience the bliss of samadhi without having to leave it. They want to hide themselves away in a quiet place.
This kind of samadhi can involve a lot of suffering. People find it difficult to come out of it and be with others. They don’t want to see or hear anything. They don’t want to experience anything at all! They have to live in some specially preserved, very quiet place where no one will come and disturb them with conversation.
This kind of peacefulness alone can’t do the job. If you have reached the necessary level of calm, then withdraw and use that calm as a basis for contemplation. Contemplate the peace of concentration itself, and use it to connect the mind with and reflect upon the different phenomena it experiences. Use the calm of samadhi to contemplate sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tactile sensations, and thoughts in light of the three characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and lack of self.
When you have contemplated sufficiently, it’s all right to reestablish samadhi. You can reenter it through sitting meditation and then, with calm reestablished, continue with the contemplation. Use the state of calm to train and purify the mind, as well as to challenge it. As you gain knowledge, use it to combat the mental afflictions. If you simply enter samadhi and stay there, you don’t gain any insight; you are only making the mind calm, that’s all. However, if you use the calm mind to reflect, beginning with your external experience, this calm will gradually penetrate deeper and deeper inward until the mind experiences
the most profound peace of all.
The peace that comes from wisdom is distinctive, because when the mind withdraws from tranquility, the presence of wisdom makes it unafraid of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, physical sensations, and thoughts. It means that as soon as there is sense-contact, the mind is immediately aware of what is happening. When there is contact, you lay it aside because your mindfulness is sharp enough to let go right away.
When you are training the mind like this, it becomes considerably more refined than when you develop samadhi alone. The mind becomes very powerful and no longer tries to avoid anything. With such energy, you become fearless. In the past, you were scared to experience anything, but now you know phenomena as they are and are no longer afraid. You know your own strength of mind and are unafraid. When you see a form, you contemplate it. When you hear a sound, you contemplate it. You become proficient at contemplating mental objects. You are established in the practice with a new boldness that will prevail no matter what the conditions. Whether it be sights, sounds, or whatever, you recognize them and let go of them as soon as they occur. Whatever it is, you can let go of it. You see happiness clearly and let go. You see suffering clearly and let go. Wherever you see them, you let go of them right there. Keep letting them go, casting them aside as they arise. No phenomena will be able to maintain a hold over your mind. You leave them behind and remain secure in your place of abiding. All phenomena lose their value and are no longer able to sway you. This is the power of vipassana. When such a quality of awareness arises within your mind, the practice can be called vipassana, clear knowing in accordance with the truth. This is peace at the highest level.
