The Breath of Love - TWIM

The Breath of Love
Author
Most Venerable Bhante Vimalaramsi Mahàthera


Prelude to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation (TWIM)

Before  you  start  practicing  the  meditation,  it  is  very  important
to build a strong foundation of morality (sãla). If you don’t even
practice the five precepts, you will lose interest and finally stop
meditating, because you think that the technique is incorrect.
Actually the Buddha’s technique works very well. This is just a
case of not having the complete practice and not doing it in the
correct way. Keeping the precepts is essential to the development
and purity of mind. If you break any of these precepts, you will
experience a lot of restlessness, remorse, and anxiety due to your
guilty  feelings.  This  causes  mind  to  be  tight  and  clouds  your
thoughts.
These  precepts  are  absolutely  necessary  for  any  spiritual
attainments.  They  support  your  general  mindfulness  and
awareness to help you to have a peaceful mind that is clear from
any  remorse  due  to  wrong  doing.  A  peaceful  calm  mind  is  a
mind that is tension-free and clear.


Thus,  it  is  a  very  good  idea  to  take  these  precepts  every  day,
not  as  some  form  of  rite  or  ritual,  but  as  a  reminder  for  your
practice. Taking the precepts every day helps to keep your mind,
speech, and actions uplifted. There are people who recite these
precepts in the Pàli language. However, it can turn into an empty
exercise if you don’t completely understand Pàli. For the earnest
meditator  it  is  best  to  recite  these  precepts  daily  in  a  language
that  you  understand  so  that  the  meanings  are  clear  without  a
doubt.
These precepts are:
1.]  I  undertake  to  keep  the  precept  to  abstain  from  killing  or
harming living beings on purpose.
This precept includes non-killing of beings like ants, mosquitoes,
wasps or cockroaches, etc.
2.] I undertake to keep the precept to abstain from taking what
is not given.
This covers any forms of stealing which even includes taking a
pencil  from  work  without  permission  or  using  equipment  like
copy machines for personal use.
3.] I undertake to keep the precept to abstain from wrong sexual
activity.
Basically, it means not having any sexual activity with another
person’s partner, or having sexual activity with someone that is
still under the care of a family member. It also means that one
must follow the sexual laws of the land.
Any sexual activity that causes undue pain to another being will


cause one to have remorse and guilty feelings to arise.
4.] I undertake to keep the precept to abstain from telling lies,
using  harsh  speech,  slandering  others,  and  speaking  gossip  or
nonsense talk.
This  means  abstinence  from  any  type  of  speech  which  is  not
true or helpful to others. It also includes abstinence from telling
white lies.
5.] I undertake to keep the precept to abstain from taking drugs
and alcohol which dulls mind.
Many people think that drinking one glass of beer or one social
glass of wine or smoking a joint of marijuana would not affect
their  mind.  But  this  is  not  true!  If  you  are  seriously  practicing
meditation, you become very sensitive and will notice the effects
of even taking something as harmless as aspirin. It can dull your
mind  for  a  whole  day.  How  much  more  will  this  happen  with
alcohol and other drugs?
 However, when you are sick and the doctor says that you must
take a certain drug as medicine, then please take the medicine.
This precept refers to taking drugs or alcohol in order to relax
and escape from the stress of the day.
As  soon  as  you  realize  that  you  have  broken  a  precept,  you
should first forgive yourself and acknowledge that you are not
perfect. This helps you to free your mind a little. You then retake
the precepts as soon as possible and make a determination not
to break the precepts again.
Taking  the  precepts  again  will  help  to  re-purify  mind.  Over
a  period  of  time,  you  will  become  more  aware  and  naturally


abstain from breaking them because you realize these harmful
effects.
Please practice only one meditation technique at a time because
mind will become confused if you try to mix and match various
meditations. Mixing and matching only stops your progress.
How do you find a good teacher? The best way is to pick only one
teacher who truly understands the meditation and can explain
things clearly and precisely.
The  way  to  select  a  good  teacher  is  by  seeing  if  the  teacher  is
teaching  you  about  how  to  know  and  recognize  the  links  of
Dependent  Origination  and  the  Four  Noble  Truths.  Then,
stay with that teacher for a period of time and see for yourself
whether your mind becomes more happy and peaceful; not just
while meditating, but in daily life as well. This is ultimately the
best way to choose.
Does your awareness of mind states become clearer and easier to
recognize, can you let go of them, relax and smile during your
daily activities as well as during the sitting practice? If not, check
with  the  teacher  and  the  suttas  to  see  if  what  is  being  taught
agrees with them. As your practice deepens and the meditation
becomes better, the suttas get easier to understand. This always
happens when the teacher is using the suttas as their guide.
The Hindrances
Lastly,  it  is  very  important  for  the  meditator  to  recognize
whenever the five hindrances” arise. They are:
1.Lust or greed, 
2.Hatred or aversion, 
3.Sloth and torpor or sleepiness and dullness,


4.Restlessness or remorse, anxiety or scatteredness, and 
5.Doubt.
A hindrance is an obstacle or a distraction because it completely
blocks  your  progress  during  sitting  meditation  or  it  can  make
things  difficult  during  your  daily  activities.  It  keeps  you  from
seeing things clearly in the present moment. It also causes you
to take an impersonal process, personally.
Whenever  these  hindrances  arise,  you  identify  with  them  very
strongly  and  you  take  them  personally  i.e.,  “I  am  sleepy,  I  am
restless,  I  like  and  I  want,  I  dislike  and  I  hate,  I  have  doubt”.
These  hindrances  completely  cloud  your  mind  and  stop  you
from  seeing  clearly  whatever  happens  in  the  present  moment
due to the ego involvement of “I am that”.
When  you  are  practicing  “fixed  absorption  concentration’  you
let go of any distraction and then redirect your mind’s attention
back to the meditation object. On the other hand, while you are
practicing “Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation” (TWIM), you
let go of the distraction, and this part is exactly the same as the
‘fixed absorption concentration’, but then, you relax the tightness
in  the  head  and  feel  mind  become  open,  expanded  and  calm.
Now, you smile. Only then do you redirect mind’s attention back
to the object of meditation.
Over the past fifteen years, the author has developed a training
aid  to  assist  the  student  to  practice  this  technique  which  is  in
line with the suttas and which improves mindfulness very much.
This is called “The 6R’s”. The small difference of relaxing mind
and feeling it open and calm, changes the whole meditation from
a  ‘fixed  absorption  concentration’  to  a  more  flowing,  tranquil
kind  of  awareness,  that  doesn’t  go  as  deep  as  the  absorption
types of meditation. As a result, the meditator becomes more in


tune with the teachings in the suttas.
In Buddhist meditation, have the questions ever come up, “What
is  mindfulness  (Sati),  really?”…  “Exactly  how  do  you  practice
being  mindful?”…  “Can  mindfulness  really  lighten  up  my
perspective and help bring joy, happiness and balance into every
aspect of my life?”
If mindfulness is observing how mind’s attention moves when
a distraction arises and pulls you away from whatever you are
doing, then by doing this practice, life becomes easier and more
stress free, doesn’t it seem like a useful tool to develop?
To clearly understand this connection, you first have to start with
a  precise  definition  of  Meditation  (Bhàvanà)  and  Mindfulness
(Sati). Seeing this will help you gain a new harmonious perspective
(Samma  Ditthi)  of  exactly  how  mind  works  and  teaches  the
meditator ‘HOW’ to change old painful habits that cause great
suffering into a new way of having a contented, balanced mind.
This is the point of all of the Buddha’s teachings, isn’t it?
Meditation  (Bhàvanà)  is  “observing  how  mind’s  attention
moves moment-to-moment in order to see precisely ‘HOW’ the
impersonal  (anattà)  process  of  Dependent  Origination  (Pañicca-
Samuppàda) occurs and to completely understand the Four Noble
Truths.”
Seeing and understanding ‘HOW’ mind’s attention moves from
one  thing  to  another  and  understanding  that  everything  is
an  impersonal  process  is  what  the  main  thrust  is  in  Buddhist
Meditation! This is why Dependent Origination is so important
to  see  and  understand.  It  helps  us  to  develop  an  impersonal
perspective with all arising phenomena and leads you to see for
yourself the true nature of all existence.


Why  is  this  important?  Because  concerning  awakening,  it  has
been said by the Blessed One: in Majjhima Nikàya Sutta 28, section
28,  “One  who  sees  Dependent  Origination  sees  the  Dhamma;
one who sees the Dhamma sees Dependent Origination.”
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness  (Sati)  is  “remembering  to  observe  HOW  mind’s
attention moves moment-to-moment and remembering what to
do with any arising phenomena!” Successful meditation needs a
highly developed skill of Mindfulness. The 6R’s training taught
at  Dhamma  Sukha  Meditation  Center  is  a  reclaimed  ancient
guidance system which develops this skill.
The first R is to RECOGNIZE but before we do it, the meditator
must  remember  to  use  their  observation  power  [mindfulness]
for the meditation cycle to start running. Mindfulness is the fuel.
It’s just like gas for an engine. Without Mindfulness, everything
stops!
Being persistent with this practice will relieve suffering of all kinds.
To  begin  this  cycle  “smoothly”  you  must  start  the  engine  and
have lots of gas (mindfulness) in the tank!
Meditation  (Bhàvanà)  helps  you  to  let  go  of  such  difficult
delusional  states  in  life  as  fear,  anger,  tension,  stress,  anxiety,
depression,  sadness,  sorrow,  fatigue,  condemnation,  feelings  of
helplessness  or  whatever  the  “catch  (attachment)  of  the  day”
happens to be. (Delusional means here, taking things that arise
personally  and  identifying  with  them  to  be  “I”,  “Me”,  “Mine”
or “atta” in Pàli). These states result in suffering that we cause
ourselves. This suffering comes from a lack of understanding in
how things actually occur.