The Breath of Love
Author
Most Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi Mahàthera
The Five Faculties
“Again Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to
develop the five spiritual faculties. Here a monk develops the
faculty of faith which leads to peace, leads to awakening.”
The faculty of faith is also called the faculty of confidence. As you
become interested in letting go of the pain of living, your curiosity
becomes stronger. Thus, you begin to look for a meditation teacher.
If you are fortunate enough to learn from a competent guide, you
will begin to see some slight changes in the way you perceive
the world. As you begin to see this through direct practice, your
confidence begins to grow. As a result, enthusiasm towards the
practice increases so that you will want to practice more!
“He develops the faculty of energy, which leads to peace, leads
to awakening.”
When your confidence grows, you will naturally put more
energy into your practice. You begin to sit a little longer and
mind becomes a little clearer. For the beginner it is recommended
to sit not less than 30-45 minutes at a time.
When a sitting is good, please stay with that sitting for as long
as it lasts. A good sitting might last for one hour, one hour-ten
minutes, or longer. It is good to sit progressively for longer periods
of time and not worry about becoming attached to the sitting.
The only way you become attached is by the thinking about
the meditation instead of doing the meditation in the correct
manner. There is nothing wrong in sitting for long periods of
time as long as you do not hurt yourself physically and you have
enough exercise.
Sitting for one or two or three hours is fine only when you are
ready to sit comfortably for such long periods. If you sit in a
way which causes pain to arise every time, then you are causing
yourself unnecessary physical discomfort. This is not a wise
thing to do, because the sitting posture should be comfortable. It
is alright if you use a stool or chair, as long as you do not lean too
much into anything. Leaning is good for sleeping and dullness,
but not for meditating! Thus, the more confidence you have, the
more energy you put into your practice. Your enthusiasm will
naturally increase as you continue practicing.
“He develops the faculty of mindfulness which leads to peace,
leads to awakening.”
As your energy improves, your awareness and mindfulness will
naturally become stronger. This is a very natural “non-forced”
process. Let’s take a look at the mind of an ordinary person, a
person like you or me. What you find is a grasshopper mind, a
butterfly mind, or one could also say, a mad monkey mind. It
is always moving, ever-jumping around. It changes its fantasies
and impulses at every moment.
Mind’s attention is prey for all stimuli and its own emotional
reaction to them. This is actually a reaction that is mostly re-
acting to conditions the way you always act when a certain stimuli
arises. It is a chain of linked associations, hopes, fears, memories,
fantasies, or regrets that are streaming constantly through mind.
These are triggered by memories of the outside world.
Mind’s attention is blindly moving, never-stopping, never-
satisfied in its search for pleasure and satisfaction. It is no wonder
that mind becomes so crazy and filled with un-satisfactoriness
and was described by the early monks as a restless mad monkey
swinging from branch-to-branch in the quest for satisfying fruit
through the endless jungle of conditional events.
Thus, when you first begin to meditate, mind’s attention
naturally runs all over the place and it stays away from the object
of meditation for a long time. Sometimes it even takes two or
three minutes before you are able to recognize that it is being
pulled away and then, you gently let it go, relax the tension in
the head, calm mind, smile and re-direct mind’s attention back
to the breath and relaxing.
When this happens, this is only natural, because mind is used to
running wherever it likes to go. When it does happen, please don’t
criticize yourself or beat yourself up because mind’s attention
is so unruly. Instead, release the distraction, relax, smile as you
return back to the object of meditation and continue on.
As your practice develops and you are able to recognize and let
go more quickly, your mindfulness gradually becomes sharper.
Mind might only stay away from the breath and relaxing for
one minute before recognizing that it is not on the breath and
relaxing. It then lets go, relaxes, smiles, and comes back to the
breath and relaxes again.
At this time mind’s attention begins to stay on the breath
and relaxing for longer periods of time, perhaps, as long as
thirty seconds, before it goes off again. However, you are now
becoming better at seeing when mind’s attention goes away. Your
mindfulness becomes sharper and you are able to recognize
what mind is doing. Thus, when your confidence becomes better,
energy improves, and as a result, the alertness of mind naturally
develops and this is sharpening your mindfulness. One of the
most important parts of this meditation is to realize that the
‘breath and relaxing’ should be your re-centering point for each
cycle.
“He develops the faculty of collectedness or stillness, which
leads to peace, leads to awakening.”
When your mindfulness of the present moment improves,
mind will naturally stay on the object of meditation for much
longer periods of time. Most people would describe this as
‘concentration’ but this is not an accurate description because
this is not that kind of concentration. Mind is not absorbed into or
fixed on just the breath. Instead, it is very still, relaxed, composed
and stays on the breath and relaxing very well. Remember that
the breath is the reminder for the RELAX step and that is very
important.
At this time a strong feeling of joy arises and the body becomes
very light and this feels like floating. When joy fades away, a
powerful feeling of tranquility, equanimity, and comfort arises.
Due to your sharp awareness, you do not become involved with
these feelings. But if you begin to think or internally verbalize
about how nice this state is, and how much you like it, you will
lose that state and sleepiness very often comes into mind. This
is because you are caught by the attachment to those feelings
(craving and clinging) and it slips off the object without coming
back to the breath and relaxing.
Mindfulness fades away when you start to think or internally
verbalize about things and you become involved in wanting
to control these things and thoughts. This also happens when
you crave for the experience of joy and tranquility to arise. This
desire makes mind try too hard so that it can’t get back to that
experience!. But when you try harder and put in more energy,
the restlessness becomes bigger. Often times, you will put even
more energy into overcoming this hindrance when what is really
needed is to put in less energy and relax and smile more. Turn
your meditation into a fun game to play with instead of making
the hindrance an enemy to fight with.
These arising combinations of hindrances will stop all spiritual
practice from occurring because the desire for things to be in
a particular way (craving) makes all the spiritual development
fade away. Therefore, you must be more mindful of the thoughts
about these pleasant abidings.
As your confidence and smiling increases, your energy grows
naturally. This improves your mindfulness which enables the
collectedness and stillness of mind to become stronger and last
longer.
“A monk develops the faculty of wisdom (or understanding
of how Dependent Origination occurs), which leads to peace,
leads to awakening . And thereby many disciples of mine
abide having reached the consummation and perfection of
direct knowledge.”
As your mind becomes more calm and still, you are able to see the
true nature of things. This development of wisdom or intelligence
is gained by personally seeing things arise and pass away by
themselves. For instance, even while you are sitting in a Jhàna [a
meditation stage of understanding] you see how joy arises. It is
there for a while, then fades away. You then see how tranquility
and happiness arise. You are there for a while and then, they
fade away. You are able to see the true nature of impermanence,
even in the beginning of your practice, by observing thoughts
arising and passing away.
You begin to observe feeling and emotions arising and passing
away. You will also notice that these things that arise and pass
away are un-satisfactory and these feelings and emotions
are a form of suffering, especially when they don’t behave
in the way you want them to. When you see how truly un-
satisfactory this process is, you can then clearly see that it is an
“impersonal process” (anattà). No one controls the appearance
and disappearance of these things.
Even while in Jhàna [a meditation stage of understanding] you
have no real control over joy arising because joy arises when
the conditions are right for it to come up. At the same time, you
simply cannot force joy to stay because it will fade away when
the conditions are right. Whatever arises, passes away.
This causes more un-satisfactoriness to arise, because joy is such
a nice feeling! In this way, you are able to see the characteristics
of existence very clearly, i.e. anicca (impermanence), dukkha
(suffering), and the impersonal nature of these things (anattà).
This is how to develop wisdom which gradually leads us to the
seeing of Dependent Origination both arising and ceasing (that
is, seeing and realizing The Four Noble Truths). An interesting
observation found in the Vinaya is that you can see the three
characteristics of existence without ever seeing the links
of Dependent Origination, but you can never see the links of
Dependent Origination without seeing the three characteristics
of existence (i.e., impermanence, suf fering and the impersonal
nature of everything) at the same time. We will discuss this in
more detail at a later time.
The Five Powers
“Again Udayin, I have proclaimed to my disciples the way to
develop the Five Spiritual Powers.
Here a monk develops the Power of Faith, which leads to peace,
leads to awakening.
He develops the Power of Energy, which leads to peace, leads
to awakening.
He develops the Power of Mindfulness, which leads to peace,
leads to awakening.
He develops the Power of Collectedness, which leads to peace,
and leads to awakening.
He develops the Power of Wisdom (which means seeing and
understanding the links of Dependent Origination), which
leads to peace, and leads to awakening.
And thereby many disciples of mine abide having reached the
consummation and perfection of direct knowledge.”
These are the same as the five faculties but, they are called powers
because of their ability to purify mind and make it wholesome
and clean.
We will now continue with the ânàpànasati Sutta.
14] “In this saïgha of monks there are monks who abide devoted
to the development of loving-kindness ... of compassion ... of
joy ... of equanimity ... of the meditation of foulness ... of the
perception of impermanence—such monks are there in this
saïgha of monks. In this saïgha of monks there are monks
who abide devoted to the development of mindfulness of
breathing.
Loving-kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity are known
as the Four “Brahmà Vihàras” or the Four Boundless states of
mind, or the Limitless or Immeasurable states of mind. This is
because there are no boundaries or limitations on mind when
they are practiced.
The meditation of foulness is suitable for those who have a strong
affinity for lust arising in their minds. It is practiced by reflecting
on the elements and the disgusting nature of our body parts. For
example, when you look at a beautiful person and thoughts of lust
arise, you can imagine how desirable that person would be if all
of their body parts were to be turned inside-out! Will your mind
then think, “Oh! what a lovely intestine or liver!” or “Wow! What
beautiful bile, pus and phlegm that person has!” How much lust
is there in mind at that time? Thus, this meditation helps people
with a lustful personality to come more into balance.
The perception of impermanence does not actually refer to sitting
down and thinking about how everything changes. (Remember,
“Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation” (TWIM) is about seeing
with a silent and spacious mind). It is referring to the meditation
states of “infinite space” and “infinite consciousness” where mind
sees just how fleeting these mental and physical phenomenon
truly are and you realize just how unsatisfactory this is. Plus,
the biggest insight is when you realize all states of existence are
just a part of an impersonal process. In other words, you see and
understand that there is no controller and that there is no self-
making these things to arise. They arise by themselves. They are
there for a brief moment and they go away without you having
any control over what happens.
We will now proceed to the next section of the sutta which speaks
about “Mindfulness of Breathing”.
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