Bodhinyana

A Collection of Dhamma Talks

by Ajahn Chah | 1982 | 36,083 words

Bodhinyana; A Collection of Dhamma Talks by The Venerable Ajahn Chah (Phra Bodhinyana Thera)...

Part 6 - Calm Meditation

Samatha

Our practice of Samatha is like this: We establish the practice of mindfulness on the in and out breath, for example, as a foundation or means of controlling the mind. By having the mind follow the flow of the breath it becomes steadfast, calm and still. This practice of calming the mind is called Samatha Meditation. Its necessary to do a lot of this kind of practice because the mind is full of many disturbances. Its very confused. We cant say how many years or how many lives its been this way. If we sit and contemplate well see that theres a lot that doesnt conduce to peace and calm and a lot that leads to confusion!

For this reason the Buddha taught that we must find a meditation subject which is suitable to our particular tendencies, a way of practice which is right for our character. For example, going over and over the parts of the body: hair of the head, hair of the body, nails, teeth and skin, can be very calming. The mind can become very peaceful from this practice. If contemplating these five things leads to calm, its because they are appropriate objects for contemplation according to our tendencies. Whatever we find to be appropriate in this way, we can consider to be our practice and use it to subdue the defilements.

Another example is recollection of death. For those who still have strong greed, aversion and delusion and find them difficult to contain, its useful to take this subject of personal death as a meditation. Well come to see that everybody has to die, whether rich or poor. Well see both good and evil people die. Everybody must die! Developing this practice we find that an attitude of dispassion arises. The more we practice the easier our sitting produces calm. This is because its a suitable and appropriate practice for us. If this practice of Calm Meditation is not agreeable to our particular tendencies, it wont produce this attitude of dispassion. If the object is truly suited to us then well find it arising regularly, without great difficulty, and well find ourselves thinking about it often.

Regarding this we can see an example in our everyday lives. When laypeople bring trays of many different types of food to offer the monks, we taste them all to see which we like. When we have tried each one we can tell which is most agreeable to us. This is just an example. That which we find agreeable to our taste well eat, we find most suitable. We wont bother about the other various dishes.

The practice of concentrating our attention on the in and out breath is an example of a type of meditation which is suitable for us all. It seems that when we go around doing various different practices, we dont feel so good. But as soon as we sit and observe our breath we have a good feeling, we can see it clearly. Theres no need to go looking far away, we can use what is close to us and this will be better for us. Just watch the breath. It goes out and comes in, out and in — we watch it like this. For a long time we keep watching our breathing in and out and slowly our mind settles. Other activity will arise but we feel like it is distant from us. Just like when we live apart from each other and dont feel so close anymore. We dont have the same strong contact anymore or perhaps no contact at all.

When we have a feeling for this practice of mindfulness of breathing, it becomes easier. If we keep on with this practice we gain experience and become skilled at knowing the nature of the breath. Well know what its like when its long and what its like when its short.

Looking at it one way we can talk about the food of the breath. While sitting or walking we breathe, while sleeping we breathe, while awake we breathe. If we dont breathe then we die. If we think about it we see that we exist only with the help of food. If we dont eat ordinary food for ten minutes, an hour or even a day, it doesnt matter. This is a course kind of food. However, if we dont breathe for even a short time well die. If we dont breathe for five or ten minutes we would be dead. Try it!

One who is practicing mindfulness of breathing should have this kind of understanding. The knowledge that comes from this practice is indeed wonderful. If we dont contemplate then we wont see the breath as food, but actually we are "eating" air all the time, in, out, in, out... all the time. Also youll find that the more you contemplate in this way, the greater the benefits derived from the practice and the more delicate the breath becomes. It may even happen that the breath stops. It appears as if we arent breathing at all. Actually, the breath is passing through the pores of the skin. This is called the "delicate breath." When our mind is perfectly calm, normal breathing can cease in this way. We need not be at all startled or afraid. If theres no breathing what should we do? Just know it! Know that there is no breathing, thats all. This is the right practice here.

Here we are talking about the way of Samatha practice, the practice of developing calm. If the object which we are using is right and appropriate for us, it will lead to this kind of experience. This is the beginning, but there is enough in this practice to take us all the way, or at least to where we can see clearly and continue in strong faith. If we keep on with contemplation in this manner, energy will come to us. This is similar to the water in an urn. We put in water and keep it topped up. We keep on filling the urn with water and thereby the insects which live in the water dont die. Making effort and doing our everyday practice is just like this. It all comes back to practice. We feel very good and peaceful.

This peacefulness comes from our one pointed state of mind. This one pointed state of mind, however, can be very troublesome, since we dont want other mental states to disturb us. Actually, other mental states do come and, if we think about it, that in itself can be the one pointed state of mind. Its like when we see various men and women, but we dont have the same feeling about them as we do about our mother and father. In reality all men are male just like our father and all women are female just like our mother, but we dont have the same feeling about them. We feel that our parents are more important. They hold greater value for us.

This is how it should be with our one pointed state of mind. We should have the same attitude towards it as we would have towards our own mother and father. All other activity which arises we appreciate in the same way as we feel towards men and women in general. We dont stop seeing them, we simply acknowledge their presence and dont ascribe to them the same value as our parents.

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