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Discovering Buddhism - How To Meditate (15 December 2011)

Carol Corradi · 15 December 2011 · 1 h 28 min · Tse Chen Ling via Internet Archive


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  • 0:14

    So let's begin with a little bit of meditation just to set our motivation and prepare our minds. So finding your meditation posture, which by now should... From all the practice you've been doing at home, it should be a cinch, just having your back straight, spine like a row of coins.

  • 1:56

    And now just bring your awareness to the breath. Just focus on the breath as you inhale and exhale. Just breathing comfortably. And to help keep your focus there, you can try to count your breaths, seeing if you can reach a count of ten without being distracted.

  • 13:25

    So the five faults are laziness, forgetting, laxity and excitement, non-application and over-application. So laziness, we'll go into that in a few minutes in a little more detail. Forgetting really refers to forgetting our object, the object we're meditating on. And the mind just wanders. So it's not that we totally forget, but we become distracted.

  • 19:19

    And then the fourth antidote here, pliancy. It's said that this arises from applying the first three of these antidotes. It arises in dependence upon having this stabilization of mind. And pliancy is kind of a little bit more of an esoteric term, I think. And this is where we learn of this from.

  • 27:57

    And then there are the six powers, which here it said that through the power of hearing, the mental state of placement is accomplished. So these are more specifically about calm abiding and stages of calm abiding. So first there's the state of placement. And through the power of thinking, the mental state of continuous placement is accomplished. So again, very, they're subtle changes because at this point we are,

Transcript

0:00 And then we'll take a little break and I have the How to Meditate Discovering Buddhism video. So we're going to watch that in the bookstore with our little snacks. Report an error in the passage at 0:00

0:14 So let's begin with a little bit of meditation just to set our motivation and prepare our minds. So finding your meditation posture, which by now should... From all the practice you've been doing at home, it should be a cinch, just having your back straight, spine like a row of coins. Report an error in the passage at 0:14

0:46 Your hands either right on top of the left with your thumbs touching or your palms on your knees. Having your elbows out, your shoulders back and your head tilted forward slightly. Report an error in the passage at 0:46

1:05 Just taking a few breaths and as you exhale, let go of all the tension in your body. Report an error in the passage at 1:05

1:14 again and just let go of all the The concerns in your mind. Report an error in the passage at 1:14

1:23 Just allow yourself to be here, let go of everything else. Report an error in the passage at 1:23

1:56 And now just bring your awareness to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 1:56

2:03 Just focus on the breath as you inhale and exhale. Just breathing comfortably. And to help keep your focus there, you can try to count your breaths, seeing if you can reach a count of ten without being distracted. Report an error in the passage at 2:03

2:24 And if you find yourself distracted, just gently bring the attention back to the breath. Report an error in the passage at 2:24

· · · silence, 5 minutes

7:46 Focus our minds to quiet them. Let's turn our thoughts to our motivation, Report an error in the passage at 7:46

7:55 calling that like ourselves, all beings wish to be happy, free of suffering, Report an error in the passage at 7:55

8:03 thinking how wonderful it would be if we could end the suffering of all beings, if we could bring them happiness, Report an error in the passage at 8:03

8:25 remembering that the best way to achieve this end, to Report an error in the passage at 8:25

8:33 tame our own minds, Report an error in the passage at 8:33

8:39 to strive for enlightenment, Report an error in the passage at 8:39

8:47 so making this our heart motivation, Report an error in the passage at 8:47

8:52 the wish to attain enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Report an error in the passage at 8:52

9:18 Okay, thank you. Report an error in the passage at 9:18

· · · silence, 1 minute

9:50 So welcome again. Report an error in the passage at 9:50

10:16 So this is our last class. Report an error in the passage at 10:16

10:21 And does anybody have any questions or anything before we start with? I did send some notes from the first two classes. And if you want to read through them, they're good, just a good review, good just to keep in your files. And I thought that would be nice to do on your own so we don't have to spend a lot of time reviewing tonight. Report an error in the passage at 10:21

10:44 And I also included these slides for tonight, which are fairly short. So tonight we're going to talk about the difficulties with meditation. And the things that are mentioned here really come from the teachings on calm abiding, but they're also relevant to some extent for all your meditation. Because I think as I've mentioned before, the ultimate... Report an error in the passage at 10:44

11:15 The goal in meditation is to quiet, to transform our minds and to take that as part of this path to enlightenment. So we're learning mindfulness by meditating and we're taking that mindfulness both in the meditation session and the time between our meditation sessions. And the ultimate goal in our meditation is really to achieve Special insight, which is realizing emptiness, which releases us from this cyclic existence. And to achieve that special insight, we need to generate or attain calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 11:15

12:00 So all the meditation practice we do is kind of preparation for that ultimate of meditational practices, which is this achievement of mental stabilization. Report an error in the passage at 12:00

12:16 So the teachings... These are mainly from the Kadampa teachings. And difficulties with meditation include what are called, there are some faults that are identified. Then there are antidotes to those faults. And then there are the six powers which give us just more methods to enhance our meditation. We want to be able to identify faults and kind of label them. Report an error in the passage at 12:16

12:48 So that we can overcome them. We can do something about them. Because if we don't see our faults, then we can essentially not, you know, we won't have a fruitful meditation. Report an error in the passage at 12:48

13:02 We can spend a lot of time meditating and have, you know, very little benefit. Or we can spend a lot of time meditating, applying some of these antidotes, recognizing faults and, you know, really... Enhance our meditation practice and the results. Report an error in the passage at 13:02

13:25 So the five faults are laziness, forgetting, laxity and excitement, non-application and over-application. So laziness, we'll go into that in a few minutes in a little more detail. Forgetting really refers to forgetting our object, the object we're meditating on. And the mind just wanders. So it's not that we totally forget, but we become distracted. Report an error in the passage at 13:25

13:52 Laxity and excitement are sort of that dullness of mind versus an overactive mind. And then non-application refers to finding a fault and not applying an antidote. And over-application refers to not having a fault and then trying to apply an antidote. So we need a balance there. Report an error in the passage at 13:52

14:23 Let me know if I'm going too fast. Like I said, you do have these. And then the three types of laziness are the laziness of neutral activities. And this one's kind of interesting because it's actually said to be the worst of the three because neutral activities refer to things like sleep, you know, just it could be reading, sewing, just normal activities. Report an error in the passage at 14:23

14:52 And the danger of those is that they're not really recognized as non-virtuous. I mean, they're neutral. They're not non-virtuous. But because of that, we don't really put much thought into abandoning this kind of laziness. So these would be the kinds of things that just keep us from meditating because we're too busy. Report an error in the passage at 14:52

15:12 We're just focused on other things. We talked before about making our practice or our meditation a priority. Because if we don't make something a priority, even if we're studying for a class, you want to learn a language. If you don't set a time to... To study and to put the time in practice, then you won't achieve fluency in the language or really excel in that class. Report an error in the passage at 15:12

15:44 It's the same with meditation. We have to put the practice time in. So the laziness, which is an attachment to bad activities, is pretty identifiable. That's sort of thinking about negative activities like... Report an error in the passage at 15:44

16:05 Spending time thinking about what an enemy will do or what you will do to an enemy. Those are kind of classic examples. But it might be something as simple as getting involved, thinking about what you have to do, if you have to drive somewhere, what traffic's going to be like and how that's going to be a pain and kind of creating a lot of negative energy in your mind or just sort of... Report an error in the passage at 16:05

16:36 Latching onto our problems as problems and not seeing them as an opportunity to transform and to practice. So just getting caught in stumbling over the negative side of things, the negative activities, the negative mind. Report an error in the passage at 16:36

16:55 And then the laziness of inadequacy refers to a mind that looks at the activities of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as being Report an error in the passage at 16:55

17:07 Incredible and wonderful, but having the thought that, oh, you know, I could never achieve that. So having a, just imagining or thinking that, you know, we could never attain great qualities of mind and that essentially cuts through the effect of our practice. So we'd like, ideally, we want to abandon those. Report an error in the passage at 17:07

17:40 So then there are these eight antidotes that address these five faults. So the antidotes to laziness are four, and the first is faith. And faith is the conviction of the good qualities of achieving mental stabilization. So it's sort of recognizing the benefit of having this transformed mind, of attaining calm abiding, of attaining this meditative stabilization. Report an error in the passage at 17:40

18:08 If you don't have faith in the benefit of that or any conviction, then there's no basis for this practice. So we have to know something about it. We have to perhaps have read about others who have done this practice, what they've achieved, what is the benefit of this practice. And then aspiration. Aspiration is the wish to attain. Report an error in the passage at 18:08

18:38 These qualities that arise from achieving mental stabilization. Report an error in the passage at 18:38

18:47 Then effort is the actual exertion, Report an error in the passage at 18:47

18:56 the effort, the time and practice we put in to achieving this meditative stabilization. So it's kind of having the understanding of the benefits, the wish to achieve it, and then... The determination to do so. Report an error in the passage at 18:56

19:19 And then the fourth antidote here, pliancy. It's said that this arises from applying the first three of these antidotes. It arises in dependence upon having this stabilization of mind. And pliancy is kind of a little bit more of an esoteric term, I think. And this is where we learn of this from. Great meditators who have achieved meditative stabilization. So pliancy by definition is a mental factor. Report an error in the passage at 19:19

20:01 And it removes the functioning of bad mental states. It's in a class of very pure phenomenon. It takes to mind a true object. Here's the thing I think that... The part of the definition that probably or the quality that's most relevant Report an error in the passage at 20:01

20:27 or understandable for us. It joyfully and happily engages its object of observation unimpededly. So pliancy is the quality of being able to meditate without any physical limitations, physical pain, mental distraction. It's sort of a quality of really having... This blissful meditation. Bliss is, I'm using that term loosely, because if you pick up Genlam Rinpoche's book on calm abiding, or if you read some of the commentaries on calm abiding, bliss is a very specific term. Report an error in the passage at 20:27

21:13 But what I'm trying to say, it's sort of like a, it's just a joyful state of being. And there are different levels of pliancy. There's also a factor of lightness that goes with pliancy. And the basic, there are four stages of pliancy. And there's mental pliancy, physical pliancy, the bliss of physical pliancy, and the bliss of mental pliancy. Report an error in the passage at 21:13

21:40 And those are four stages that arise at various levels of attaining. There are, I think, nine mental... Levels of calm abiding. So these stages arise along with those, or at different levels of the mental awareness that go with this meditative stabilization. Report an error in the passage at 21:40

22:09 It's kind of complicated, but at this point, just take pliancy to mean just a very, I mean, I think sometimes when we have a really excellent meditation, That's kind of a glimpse of what pliancy is like. It's far more than what we experience at this level because we haven't even begun to focus our minds. Report an error in the passage at 22:09

22:33 But if you can imagine kind of taking that experience of a good meditation and multiplying it like 100,000 times, you'll approach what pliancy is. Report an error in the passage at 22:33

22:49 And then the next fault was forgetting. And the antidote to forgetting is mindfulness. So forgetting is what's called afflicted mindfulness. It has the function of causing distraction. And then mindfulness has the feature of knowing an object of observation and holding it, being familiar with it. And its mode of apprehension is non-forgetfulness. So it's kind of like forgetting and mindfulness are opposites here. Report an error in the passage at 22:49

23:28 And mindfulness has the quality of remembering the object vibrantly. So think of it as being sort of the ultimate non-forgetting. Report an error in the passage at 23:28

23:51 And then finally, let's see. Oh, that's not really final. Okay, we get down to laxity and excitement. And let's see. Laxity and excitement really encompass various... Report an error in the passage at 23:51

24:09 I'm looking at this in a very simple way. And if you read Gen Lam Rimpa's text, which is in the bookstore, it's Calming the Mind. There's another one called Calm Abiding and Special Insight by Geshe Lodro. There's also the, I think there's a text that comes from Emily's class, the Midland Lamrim, that has a section on calm abiding. Report an error in the passage at 24:09

24:33 It goes into a lot of detail because laxity can, it can involve, you know, Some of the laziness, the qualities we were talking about before, it can involve lethargy. There are dullness, a lot of different aspects of laxity and excitement also can refer to many, many aspects. But the antidote to both of these is introspection. And it said that if laxity or excitement arises, introspection allows one to realize that. Report an error in the passage at 24:33

25:07 Just to recognize what's happening. So that's why we need this introspection. It essentially is a signal to the mind that, oh, there's a fault happening, a fault arising. Without introspection, we wouldn't realize it. Because some of these, as you get into these texts and start reading more about this meditative stabilization, they're very subtle stages. Report an error in the passage at 25:07

25:35 At this point, we're still at... Pretty much at the core stages of just trying to keep the mind quiet. And that's also why pliancy is more of an imagined quality at this point. But as the mind becomes more adept at this meditation practice, then we achieve subtler and subtler levels where we can identify more Report an error in the passage at 25:35

26:07 distractions. Kind of identify more specific obstacles arising as we do our meditation practice. And then the seventh antidote, the antidote to non-application is application. It just says that applying the antidotes is an incentive to meditative stabilization. It urges one on. So you apply an antidote and there's benefit there. And that helps reinforce the... Report an error in the passage at 26:07

26:43 The meditative practice. Report an error in the passage at 26:43

26:48 And then, as I said before, for the fault of over-application, the antidote is equanimity. And that's really the idea of desisting from application when the mind is set in a spontaneous meditative state. And it's kind of recognizing that you don't need to apply an antidote. the meditation practice. Report an error in the passage at 26:48

27:13 Sort of learning when the meditation is going well. As I mentioned before, we're talking about subtler and subtler stages. So to get there, the mind is practicing introspection and anxious, kind of observing. It's that part of our mind that watches our concentration. It's the mind watching the mind. And so there's a tendency to think, okay. Report an error in the passage at 27:13

27:43 What antidote do I need to apply? And there's a time to recognize that everything's fine, that we don't need to apply an antidote. Report an error in the passage at 27:43

27:57 And then there are the six powers, which here it said that through the power of hearing, the mental state of placement is accomplished. So these are more specifically about calm abiding and stages of calm abiding. So first there's the state of placement. And through the power of thinking, the mental state of continuous placement is accomplished. So again, very, they're subtle changes because at this point we are, Report an error in the passage at 27:57

28:34 keep in mind that when you're to achieve calm abiding, people will usually do a calm abiding retreat and it could very well, it's often months of retreat and it's months of meditating most of the day. And really focusing. Sometimes their retreats would have a retreat master, and it might be a three-month retreat. Report an error in the passage at 28:34

29:05 And then usually it's a longer period, like about six months. It's said that with continued practice that in six months there's a potential for some people to achieve calm abiding, which is pretty incredible if you start reading. What calm abiding brings. Anyway, so through the power of mindfulness comes the two mental states of patchy placement and close placement. Report an error in the passage at 29:05

29:38 So again, we're kind of taking that placement. When we talk about placement, we're talking about the mind placed on the object, the object of meditation. And when you do this kind of meditation, you are using a single object. kind of staying with a one object Report an error in the passage at 29:38

30:07 Then through the power of introspection, you attain the two mental states of taming and pacification. And then through the power of joyous effort, you accomplish the two mental states of complete pacification and what's called making single pointed. So abandoning even the subtle occurrences of discursive thought. So it's a mind that is placed on the object that doesn't respond to afflictions that arise that would distract the mind. Report an error in the passage at 30:07

30:46 And then finally, with familiarity or thorough acquaintance, I think actually in the slides I sent out, These were reversed in order, but in looking through these, the first reference I looked at just had them listed, but when you go through the explanation of what they are, it clearly starts with hearing, and the final state is familiarity or thorough acquaintance, and that means by that power we accomplish the mental state of what's called even placement. Report an error in the passage at 30:46

31:28 It's a state of meditative stabilization that just operates naturally and effortlessly. So just arising. And that's, again, where we get this idea of cliancy arising as well. Report an error in the passage at 31:28

31:57 Okay, Joey, single-pointed mindfulness. It's called, I don't know, it's loosely translated as making single-pointed. And I think it's kind of... Report an error in the passage at 31:57

32:09 This pacification of the afflictions and single pointed placement upon your object of meditation. Report an error in the passage at 32:09

32:25 So if there aren't any questions at this point, let's do a little bit of calm abiding meditation. And I don't know, have you been trying any of this at home? Report an error in the passage at 32:25

32:43 It's something that... Columbining meditation, have you done any kinds of, I mean we've been doing different meditations in class. We've done visualization, we've done some analytical meditation and that's a good thing for you to practice at home. I know it's difficult at first if you don't have a kind of a basis in various, in terms of the topic you're choosing. Report an error in the passage at 32:43

33:13 Like if you decide to do an analytical meditation on death. Then you need to think about, you know, I mean, actually death I suppose you could do, but it really, if you don't want to get totally depressed, you definitely want to do it from a Dharma viewpoint. Report an error in the passage at 33:13

33:29 Recognizing, you know, and even if you do, you're going to recognize, you know. So there's a nine-point death meditation that brings to mind the fact of, you know, the uncertainty of death, the uncertainty of the time of death, and basically reminds us that. Nothing can really help us at the time of death except for what we've done with our minds. That's why it's a valuable practice to do. Report an error in the passage at 33:29

33:59 Or maybe doing an analytical meditation on the precious human rebirth. If you're feeling hopeless, you start thinking about this life and the fact that you've met the teachings, that you have this opportunity, that you've learned about meditation, that you have... You live in a place where you can meditate, where you can do all these things. That would be an analytical meditation that would help kind of reinforce that understanding and bring it to a deeper level so that it doesn't just stay in the intellect. Report an error in the passage at 33:59

34:38 It becomes something that's part of our way of life. That's the purpose of an analytical meditation. And when you have that experience, You stop your analysis and you really just focus on that realization, kind of staying with that point. Theo, did you have a question? Yeah, I said there are 18 points to rebirth meditation. Report an error in the passage at 34:38

35:07 Yeah, I don't know about the 18 points for the, you mean on the precious human rebirth? Oh, okay, the 18 points, what you're talking about is like the eight freedoms and the ten endowments. And those are qualities of the perfect human rebirth. Report an error in the passage at 35:07

35:23 You can find those pretty much in, if they're not in How to Meditate, they're probably in other lamrim texts, or you can even look that up online. Report an error in the passage at 35:23

35:33 Thupten Chodron has a great website for some basic lamrim teachings, and you would find it there. It's called the Eight Freedoms and the Ten Endowments, and it's just sort of reminding. Those are the qualities. That's a good start. Yeah, that's a very good start for that meditation. Report an error in the passage at 35:33

35:52 So we did, as I said, we did visualization and then we talked about meditative state or stabilizing meditations. And we did some purification meditation where we visualized our breathing, breathing in like a white light and then exhaling black smoke and representing our elimination of all negativities. Report an error in the passage at 35:52

36:17 We did a body of light meditation, which again is a... A visualization meditation, kind of seeing this white light, having it dissolve into our crowns and then completely fill our bodies. And then we can, you know, send that, you know, you can kind of start with that and then you can send that light out to all sentient beings. We did probably a little bit of Tonglen or giving and taking meditation. Report an error in the passage at 36:17

36:43 You can visualize all beings, you know, being surrounded by all sentient beings. Essentially taking their suffering on and sending out happiness, sending out everything that they need, joy, happiness. And as we take in the suffering of beings, we're cutting through our own self-cherishing mind. You visualize taking on their sufferings as just... Report an error in the passage at 36:43

37:17 Crashing through like this mountain of self-cherishing, this sort of ice mountain that we have that completely shatters and then you just have this well of love and compassion that you can continually send out to being. So various types of meditation you can do and beyond that is this type, there's sort of all of those, all of these types of meditation reinforce the lamrim practice. Report an error in the passage at 37:17

37:47 They go hand in hand with living that practice because it strengthens our mindfulness. It helps us to realize more deeply the lamrim teachings and the basic tenets. Report an error in the passage at 37:47

38:06 And then along with that, we can take it to this more, maybe, I don't know if advanced is, you know, is a... It's a more intense practice in terms of this calm abiding. So it's sort of taking all of those basic meditations and focusing on really developing this mind, the concentration qualities of the mind. Report an error in the passage at 38:06

38:46 So let's do a little bit of practice on that now. And what we'll do for, what we'll use as our object, unless you already are doing something and you have a, we talked before about, you know, an object of meditation, the object of meditation could be virtually anything, but it's always good to choose a virtuous object. Report an error in the passage at 38:46

39:08 We also, it's helpful in the beginning when you're doing calm abiding to choose, to focus on the breath, because focusing on the breath is very, it's a very good antidote or very good tool. For quieting discursive thought. So in the beginning our minds are just so busy because the mind is just this continual train of thoughts and emotions arising. Report an error in the passage at 39:08

39:34 So if you haven't been doing this where you have another object that you've been meditating on, it might be good to begin first just watching the breath. Report an error in the passage at 39:34

39:47 So let's do a little bit of that right now. Just focus. I mean, find your... Your meditative pose. Report an error in the passage at 39:47

40:01 When you're doing calm abiding, this is the time when it's really good to keep your eyes open. Because having your eyes closed is a definite stumbling block in the process of calm abiding meditation. It will definitely give you issues down the line. So if you can, this is the time to keep your eyes open, looking down on the floor. Report an error in the passage at 40:01

40:29 About three feet in front of you or whatever's comfortable. Report an error in the passage at 40:29

40:41 So just take your attention to your breath. And you can count breaths to sort of focus the mind first. And if you lose your focus, you can bring the, you know, again, begin counting. But just try to focus on the breath. Let go of everything else. Report an error in the passage at 40:41

· · · silence, 11 minutes

51:48 So let's take a short break. And then we're going to have some refreshments in the bookstore. And we'll watch the... Discovering Buddhism video in there. Report an error in the passage at 51:48

· · · silence, 1 minute

52:36 I'm sorry. Has it? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 52:36

52:49 Do you find that it's got, do you do it every day? Yeah. Report an error in the passage at 52:49

52:57 Yeah. Just, yeah. Report an error in the passage at 52:57

53:05 Yeah. But it's amazing how the lasting effects. Report an error in the passage at 53:05

53:19 Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, I noticed, I think lately, I've been having trouble with allergies. And that makes it a little bit more challenging. Report an error in the passage at 53:19

53:41 Yeah, yeah, that does make it too. Report an error in the passage at 53:41

53:47 But what's neat is that, I mean, that's one of the Report an error in the passage at 53:47

· · · silence, 1 minute

54:32 I'm on the floor of them. Report an error in the passage at 54:32

54:55 definitely the body gets used to, know, that position, that repetition. There's something, yeah, I know something that I just can't remember. Oh, yeah, there's definitely a brain. I love that. I love that. I don't know that part of those two parts because I stretch the way you miss, you know, that's a brain. Yeah. So when I get stuck down there, I don't know if it's a freak. Report an error in the passage at 54:55

55:14 So I get it out. Yeah. It's hard to just move. Thank Report an error in the passage at 55:14

55:22 you. Report an error in the passage at 55:22

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Talk by Carol Corradi, recorded 15 December 2011. Original at Tse Chen Ling Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies via Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/CC_Meditate_201110. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. Transcript generated automatically and may contain errors; the audio is the authoritative version.

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