The Breath of Love
Author
Most Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi Mahàthera
The 6R’s
The 6R’s are steps which evolve into one fluid motion
becoming a new wholesome habitual tendency that
relieves any dis-ease in mind and body. This cycle begins
when MINDFULNESS remembers the 6R’s which are:
RECOGNIZE
RELEASE
RELAX
RE-SMILE
RETURN
REPEAT
Development of mindfulness (your observation power) observes
each step of the practice cycle. Once you understand what
the purpose of mindfulness is, keeping it going all the time is
no longer a problem, and this makes the meditation easier to
understand, plus, it is much more fun to practice. It becomes a
part of happy living and this brings up a smile. Remembering
the 6r’s leads you to having a wholesome up-lifted mind.
This remembering by mindfulness is very important. Before
practicing the 6R’s you have to REMEMBER to start the cycle!
That’s the trick! You have to remember to gas-up the engine, so
it can run smoothly!
Then we begin to:
RECOGNIZE: Mindfulness remembers how you can recognize
and observe any movement of mind’s attention from one thing
to another. This observation notices any movement of mind’s
attention away from an object of meditation, such as the breath,
sending out Mettà or, doing a task in daily life. You will notice a
slight tightness or tension sensation as mind’s attention barely
begins to move toward any arising phenomena.
Pleasant or painful feeling can occur at any one of the six sense
doors. Any sight, sound, odor, taste, touch, or thought can cause
this pulling sensation to begin. With careful non-judgmental
observation, the meditator will notice a slight tightening
sensation. RECOGNIZING early movement is vital to successful
meditation. You then continue on to;
RELEASE: When a feeling or thought arises, you RELEASE it, let
it be there without giving anymore attention to it. The content of
the distraction is not important at all, but the mechanics of HOW
it arose are important! Just let go of any tightness around it; let
it be there without placing attention on it. Without attention, the
tightness passes away. Mindfulness then reminds you to;
RELAX: After releasing the feeling or sensation, and allowing it
to be there without trying to control it, there is a subtle, barely
noticeable tension within mind/body. This is why the RELAX
step [“TRANQUILIZATION” step as stated in the suttas] is
being pointed out by the Buddha in his meditation instructions.
PLEASE, DON’T SKIP THIS STEP! It would be like not putting
oil in a car so the motor can run smoothly. The important Pàli
word here is ‘pas’sambaya’. This word specifically means ‘to
tranquilize’ and appears as ‘an action verb to be performed’
as described in the suttas and is not ‘a general kind of relaxing
that is included within other release steps found in other kinds
of meditation. This point is sometimes mis-understood in
translation which then changes the end result!
Without performing this step of relaxation every time in the
cycle, the meditator will not experience a close-up view of the
ceasing (cessation) of the tension caused by craving or the feeling
of relief as the tightness is relaxed. Note that craving always first
manifests as a tightness or tension in both one’s mind and body.
You have a momentary opportunity to see and experience the
true nature and relief of cessation of tightness and suffering
while performing the RELEASE/RELAX steps.
Mindfulness moves on by remembering to;
RE-SMILE: If you have listened to the Dhamma talks at www.
dhammasukha.org you might remember hearing about how
smiling is an important aspect for the meditation. Learning to
smile with mind and raising slightly the corners of the mouth
helps mind to be observant, alert and agile. Getting serious,
tensing up or frowning causes mind to become heavy and your
mindfulness becomes dull and slow. Your insights become
more difficult to see, thus slowing down your understanding of
Dhamma.
Imagine for a moment, the Bodhisatta resting under the rose
apple tree as a young boy. He was not serious and tense when he
attained a pleasant abiding [Jhàna] and had deep insights with a
light mind. Want to see clearly? It’s easy!
Just lighten up, have fun exploring and smile! Smiling leads us
to a happier more interesting practice. If the meditator forgets to
Release/Relax, rather than punishing or criticizing yourself, be
kind, re-smile and start again. Keeping up your humor, sense of
fun exploration and recycling is important.
After re-smiling, mindfulness recalls the next step.
RETURN or RE-DIRECT: Gently re-direct mind’s attention back
to the object of meditation (that is the breath and relaxing, or
Mettà and relaxing) continuing with a gentle collected mind and
use that object as a “home base”. In daily life, having been pulled
off task, this is where you return your attention back to releasing,
relaxing, and re-smiling into the task.
Sometimes people say this practice cycle is simpler than expected!
In history, simple things can become a mystery through small
changes and omissions! Doing this practice develops better focus
on daily tasks with less tension and tightness. Mind becomes
more naturally balanced and happy. You become more efficient
at whatever you do in life and, actually, you have more fun doing
all of the things that used to be a drudgery. Nearing the end of
the cycle.
Mindfulness helps with the final remembering to;
REPEAT: REPEAT your meditation on your object and keep it
going as long as you can and then repeat this entire practice
cycle as needed to attain the results the Buddha said could be
reached in this lifetime!
Repeating the “6R’s cycle” over and over again will eventually
replace old habitual suffering as we see clearly for ourselves what
suffering actually is; notice the cause of it and how we become
involved with the tension and tightness of it; experience how
to reach a cessation of that suffering by releasing and relaxing;
and discover how we can exercise the direct path to that same
cessation of suffering. We achieve this cessation each time we
Release an arising feeling, Relax and Resmile. Notice the Relief!
In summary, Mindfulness (Sati) is very relevant to Buddhist
meditation and daily life. Sharpening your skill of mindfulness
is the key to simple and smooth meditation. The process
of remembering keeps the six steps of the practice moving.
Practicing this meditation as close to the instructions (found
in the suttas) as possible will lighten life’s experience. A very
similar practice was taught to people in the time of the Buddha.
It was taught as Right Effort. Within the 6R’s we have added a
couple more steps to make things a little easier to understand.
The remarkable results of doing the meditation in this way are
“immediately effective” for anyone who diligently and ardently
embraces these instructions. When you have an attachment arise
this practice will eventually dissolve the hindrance, but it does
take persistent use of the 6R’s to have this happen.
When you practice in this way, because it is found to be so
relevant in daily life, it changes your perspective and leads
you to a more successful, happy, and peaceful experience. As
mindfulness develops, knowledge and wisdom grow naturally
as you see HOW things work by witnessing the impersonal
process of Dependent Origination.
This leads to a form of happiness the Buddha called
“Contentment”. Contentment is the by-product of living the
Buddhist practice. This meditation leads to balance, equanimity,
and the dissolution of fear and other dis-ease. With less fear
and dread you find new confidence. Then Loving-kindness,
Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity can grow in our lives.
Your degree of success is directly proportional to how well you
understand mindfulness, follow the precise instructions, and use
the 6R’s in both your sitting practice and daily life. This is the
way to the end of suffering. It’s interesting and fun to practice
this way and certainly it helps you smile while changing the
world around you in a positive way.
When you are practicing “Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation”
(TWIM), you do not suppress anything. Suppression means we
would push down or push away or not allow certain types of
experience. This would temporarily stop hindrances from arising.
Instead, when a hindrance arises, you must work to open your
mind by seeing clearly anicca (impermanence, it wasn’t there
and now it is), dukkha (suffering or un-satisfactoriness, you see
that when these distractions arise they are painful), and anattà
(not taking it personally, seeing the hindrances in the true way as
being an impersonal process that you have no control over and
not taking these hindrances as “I am that”).
You then let go of this obstruction, relax the tightness in the
head, calm mind and finally, redirect your craving-free attention
back to the practice of ‘Mindfulness of Breathing’.
As a result, you begin to see clearly how mind works and this
leads to the development of wisdom. Instead of identifying
with them, when you allow them and relax, these hindrances,
will naturally fade away. Mind becomes more clear and bright.
Every time you let go of the ego attachment of “I am that”, mind
naturally becomes more expanded, alert, and mindful.
Thus, one of the main reasons for this book is to show that
whenever you suppress anything, you are not purifying
mind, or experiencing things as they truly are. At the time of
suppression, you are pushing away or not allowing part of your
experience. Thus, mind is contracted and pulls the tension even
tighter instead of expanding and opening. As a result, this is
not purifying mind of ignorance and craving. You are actually
stopping the purification of mind!
It is impossible to experience the unconditioned state of the
supramundane Nibbàna when one does not let go of everything
that arises, and in that way, purify mind of the ego belief of “I
am that”.
The Buddha never taught suppression of any experience nor
did he teach a meditation that causes mind to fix on or become
absorbed into the meditation object. Remember, he rejected
every form of ‘concentration meditation’ as not being the correct
way. Actually, any kinds of pain, emotional upset, physical
discomfort, and even death must be accepted with equanimity,
full awareness or strong attention without identifying with these
states or taking pain personally.
Real personality change occurs when you open and expand
your mind and let go of any kinds of hindrances, pain, suffering
and tension even in your daily lives. This means that you open
and expand your awareness so that you can observe everything
with a silent mind free from tightness and all ego-attachment.
You gradually lead a happy and calm life without a lot of mind
chatter, especially during your daily activities.
When you practice “concentration meditation”, you will feel very
comfortable and happy while in the deep meditation. But, when
you get out of these exalted stages, your personality remains
the same. Old anger, fears, or anxiety remain. This means when
the hindrances attack you, you do not recognize them and open
your mind and allow the hindrance to be there without taking it
personally. Thus, you contract your mind and become even more
attached! You might even become prideful and critical! This is
because whenever a hindrance arises during the meditation,
you let it go and immediately go back to the object of meditation
again. You do this without calming and relaxing the tightness
caused by the distraction. While in meditation, your mind tends
to close or contract and tighten around that experience until
mind becomes more deeply ‘concentrated’.
As a result, although this suppresses the hindrance, you have not
completely let go of the ego-attachment to that distraction. Your
mind is also tight and tense because you are not seeing clearly.
You are not opening and allowing, but, instead you are closing
and fighting with that distraction.
This explains why nowadays meditators complain that they have
huge amounts of tension in their head. Actually, if you truly let
go of any distraction, there will not ever be any tension in the
head. It is as a result of this suppression that there is no real
purifying of mind, and thus, personality change does not occur.
Talking About Words
Now, we are almost ready for the ânàpànasati Sutta. But, before
we go into that, let’s look at some words which have been
simplified so that their meanings in the texts become clearer.
For instance,
The word ‘rapture’ is replaced by ‘joy’.
The word ‘pleasure’ is changed to ‘happiness’.
The word ‘concentration’ is replaced by ‘stillness’, ‘collectedness’,
or ‘unified mind’.
The phrase ‘applied and sustained thoughts’ is replaced by
‘thinking and examining thoughts’ which seems to be more
immediately understood.
The word ‘contemplation’ has, in most cases been changed to
‘observation’.
When you practice according to the Buddha’s instructions, as
described here, afterwards, you will be able to confirm your
experiences by reading the suttas. As a result, there will arise a
better understanding of these profound texts.
One last note: In these few opening chapters, the author has
touched on some controversial views about the practices of
absorption or fixed concentration (appanà samàdhi), access
concentration (upacàra samàdhi) and momentary concentration
(khanika samàdhi). Thus, the author would appreciate it very
much if the reader finds any mistake; they should indicate the
suttas which mentioned these various concentration practices by
e-mailing the Author.
When you practice “Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation”
(TWIM) there is only opening, expanding of mind, and allowing;
then relaxing the tightness caused by the hindrance or distraction,
before going back to the object of meditation again. This opening
and allowing helps you to be more aware of the things which
cause pain and suffering so that you can open up and expand
even further. With this kind of awareness, there is personality
change and only then can you fulfill the Buddha’s admonition
of “We are the Happy Ones”.
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