4.3 (a): Attention Method on the Present Moment

[Full title: 4.3: The Practice Method of Dhyāna (a): Attention Method on the Present Moment]

There are different ways of meditation. We want to present a comprehensive picture of the methods or approaches in meditation, rather than requiring that one becomes fully skillful in one method before giving the next one. The Buddha related an illustrious parable in one of his greatest Sātras, The Sātra of Mahā-Paranirvāṇa: Some inherently blind people were touching an elephant in order to determine what it was like. One blind person touched the trunk and thought that an elephant was like a long tube. Another blind person touching the tail imagined that an elephant was like a rope. Each of them had his own concept of the elephant. They were all telling the truth as they perceived and they were all right–yet they were all wrong. They were only telling part of the whole. Thus, there is a danger in presenting only part of the facts. However, there is also a danger in presenting everything at once; that way, one may know everything, but doesn’t practice. One seems to know everything, but it will not bring him anything; therefore, he is not going to enjoy the fruit of it.^[1]

Author thinks, in an intelligent way, we will approach meditation and get the whole picture of it. Then we will practice some of the methods. Finally, we will select from among them one or two approaches or methods which we will stay with and practice very hard. Then we will accomplish something! This is my view and I will try to do it this way. This was also the method adopted in the past by many great masters.

Often with meditation, there will be some hard work at the beginning, but be willing to bear that hard work knowing that it will lead you to experience some very beautiful and meaningful states. They will be well worth the effort! It is a law of nature that without effort one does not make progress. Whether one is a layperson or a monk, without effort one gets nowhere, in meditation or in anything.

Effort alone is not sufficient. The effort needs to be skilful. This means directing ones energy just at the right places and sustaining it there until its task is completed. Skilful effort neither hinders nor disturbs you; instead it produces the beautiful peace of deep meditation.

The effort is directed to letting go, to developing a mind that inclines to abandoning. One of the many simple but profound statements of the Lord Buddha is that “a meditator whose mind inclines to abandoning, easily achieves Samādhi.” Such a meditator gains these states of inner bliss almost automatically. What the Lord Buddha was saying was that the major cause for attaining deep meditation, for reaching these powerful states, is the willingness to abandon, to let go and to renounce.

During meditation, we are not going to develop a mind which accumulates and holds on to things, but instead we develop a mind which is willing to let go of things, to let go of burdens. Outside of meditation we have to carry the burden of our many duties, like so many heavy suitcases, but within the period of meditation so much baggage is unnecessary. So, in meditation, see how much baggage you can unload. Think of these things as burdens, heavy weights pressing upon you. Then you have the right attitude for letting go of these things, abandoning them freely without looking back. This effort, this attitude, this movement of mind that inclines to giving up, is what will lead you into deep meditation . Even during the beginning stages of this meditation, see if you can generate the energy of renunciation, the willingness to give things away, and little by little the letting go will occur. As you give things away in your mind you will feel much lighter, unburdened and free. In the way of meditation, this abandoning of things occurs in stages, step by step.

You may go through the initial stages quickly if you wish, but be very careful if you so do. Sometimes, when you pass through the initial steps too quickly, you find that preparatory work has not been completed. It is like trying to build a town house on a very weak and rushed foundation. The structure goes up very quickly, but it comes down very quickly as well! So you are wise to spend a lot of time on the foundations, and on the “first storey” as well, making the groundwork well done, strong and firm. Then when you proceed to the higher storeys, the bliss states of meditation, they too are stable and firm.

In the method meditation, we like to begin at the very simple stage of giving up the baggage of past and future. Sometimes you may think that this is such an easy thing to do, that it is too basic. However, if you give it your full effort, not running ahead to the higher stages of meditation until you have properly reached the first goal of sustained attention on the present moment, then you will find later on that you have established a very strong foundation on which to build the higher stages.

In the discourse on “Bhaddekaratta” Lord Buddha taught:

The past should not be followed after,
The future not desired.
What is past is got rid of
And the future has not come.^[2]

The discourse on “Bhaddekaratta” explained the meaning implied in the above teaching. With regard to this discourse, a person thinks of his material shape in the past, thinks of his feeling, his perception, his activities, his consciousness in the past, and delights therein: this is the meaning of following after the past that should not be done.

The person thinks of his future and a thought arises in his mind that: “may my body, my feeling, my perception, my activities, my consciousness be thus in the future” and he delights therein: this is the meaning of desiring future that should not be done.

Abandoning the past means not even thinking about your work, your family, your commitments, your responsibilities, your history, the good or bad times you had as a child... you abandon all past experiences by showing no interest in them at all. You become someone who has no history during the time that you meditate. You do not even think about where you are from, where you were born, who your parents were or what your upbringing was like. All of that history is renounced in meditation. In this way, everyone here on the retreat becomes equal, just a meditator. It becomes unimportant how many years you have been meditating, whether you are an old hand or a beginner. If you abandon all that history, then, we are all equal and free. We are freeing ourselves of some of these concerns, perceptions and thoughts which limit us and which stop us from developing the peace born of letting go. So every “part” of your history you finally let go of, even the history of what has happened to you so far in this retreat, even the memory of what happened to you just a moment ago! In this way, you carry no burden from the past into the present. Whatever has just happened, you are no longer interested in it and you let it go. You do not allow the past to reverberate in your mind.

Some people have the view that if they take up the past for contemplation they can somehow learn from it and solve the problems of the past. However, you should understand that when you gaze at the past, you invariably look through distorted lenses. Whatever you think it was like, in truth it was not quite like that!

You can bury the past, just as you bury a person who has died. You place them in a coffin then bury it, or cremate it, and it is done with, finished. Do not linger on the past. Do not continue to carry the coffins of dead moments on your head! If you do, then you are weighing yourself down with heavy burdens which do not really belong to you. Let all of the past go and you have the ability to be free in the present moment.

As for the future, the anticipations, fears, plans, and expectations–let all of that go too. The Lord Buddha once said about the future “whatever you think it will be, it will always be something different”! This future is known to the wise as uncertain, unknown and so unpredictable. It is often complete stupidity to anticipate the future, and always a great waste of your time to think of the future in meditation.

So, you don’t know about the future. It can be so strange, even weird, completely beyond whatever you expect.

Experiences like this give you the wisdom and courage to abandon all thoughts about the future, and all expectation as well:

But whoever has vision now here, now there, of a present thing, knowing that it is immovable, unshakable, let him cultivate it. Swelter at the task this very day. Who knows whether he will die tomorrow?

There is no bargaining with the great hosts of Death. Thus abiding ardently, unwearied day and night, He indeed is “Auspicious” called, described as a sage at peace. ^[3]

As to the present things, he should regard his body, his feeling, his perception, his activities, his consciousness as not his self, or self not having them, or they are not in the self, or the self not in them: this is the meaning of having vision of present things he should practice day after day.

So, the above teaching really shows individuals the practical way to live in peace of mind: if a person practices it one day, he will be a sage at peace in one day; if he practices it day after day, he may become a true sage, who completely destroys the cause of all troubles and sufferings, and abides in happiness for good.

In the case of a worldly man who just can practice it partly, he may reduce his immediate troubles to the least, and save a lot of energy for use for his jobs.

In stage of the meditation keep your attention right in the present moment, to the point where you don’t even know what day it is or what time it is–morning? afternoon?–don’t know! All you know is what moment it is–right now! In this way you arrive at this beautiful monastic time scale where you are just meditating in the moment, not aware of how many minutes have gone or how many remain, not even remembering what day it is.

The reality of now is magnificent and awesome. When you have abandoned all past and all future, it is as if you have come alive. You are here, you are mindful. This is the first stage of the meditation, just this mindfulness sustained only in the present. Reaching here, you have done a great deal. You have let go of the first burden which stops deep meditation.

In the author’s opinion, following after the past or desiring the future is living with the image of reality, but not living in reality; this is an unrealistic and unpractical way of life. Living in the very present moment is living a true life which can help a man see things as they really are: this is a realistic and practical way to live: this also is the meaning of the spirit of partialness taught by Lord Buddha.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Reverend Cheng Kuan. The Sweet Dews of Ch’an, Taipei: Vairocana Publishing Co., Ltd, 1995, p. 8.

[2]:

Middle Length, Vol III, Pāli Text Society, London, 1990, p. 233.

Atītam nānvāgameyya, nappatikankhe anāgatam Yad atītam pahīnan tam, appattanca anāgatam. (M. III, p.193)

[3]:

The discourse on “Bhaddekaratta.” Middle Length, Vol III, Pāli Text Society, London, 1990, p. 233.

Paccupannan ca yo dhammam, tattha tattha vipassati, Asamhīram asamkuppam, tam vidvā manubruhaye. Ajj'eva kiccam ātappam; ko jannā maranam suve? Na hi no samgaran tena, mahāsenena maccunā. Evam vihārim ātāpim, ahorattam atanditam Tam ve bhaddekaratto ti, santo ācikkhate munīti. (M.III, p.193).