From Moment to Momentum

When people think of meditation, they imagine a yogi sitting with his eyes closed. The sitting posture alone doesn’t mean the yogi is meditating. He could be sitting very still, lost in thoughts!

So when do we meditate? Do we begin when we get to the Dhamma Hall? We meditate wherever we are, from when we wake up to the time we fall asleep. Can’t we also meditate in the shower or washroom? Don’t just sit and daydream away on the toilet! Remember to be aware at any time, when you are in the Dhamma Hall, on the walkway, while brushing your teeth, washing up, cleaning, taking a shower, reading, talking, hanging clothes, or doing any other daily activity.

Since this is a practice we do consistently over the entire day, it isn’t necessary to spend so much energy all at once. The mind, however, needs to be awake, alert, relaxed and balanced as these mental qualities allow wisdom to arise.

It is Dhamma only when we learn to meditate, are able to meditate, and continue to meditate.

ANy oBjEcT

Observe your body now. What do you observe when you are aware without pinpointing a specific place like the nostrils or abdomen? Know that you are sitting, standing, walking, feeling heat, hearing, etc. Do you see only when you look? Can you also see without looking? There is the sound of the clock and the sound of birds in the Dhamma Hall. You can hear these without listening. How hard is it to be aware of all these things? Does it take much energy? You only have to be aware like this the whole day.

Please don’t think that one object or place is better than another because one object is not better than another object. Objects are objects and they are all just arising according to their own natures. As such, it doesn’t matter what object you begin with. Start with any of the six sense objects suitable for you. But remember that whatever you begin with, having awareness and wisdom is what’s important.

cHEck THE MEDITATING MIND

When you put on red tinted glasses, everything you look at will be red. With blue tinted glasses, everything you look at will be blue. Observing objects with greed or aversion is like wearing these tinted glasses. When the observing mind watches with greed, then the objects will be objects of lobha. When the observing mind watches with aversion, then the objects will be objects of dosa. The mind can’t see an object as an object (or dhamma object) anymore.

It is difficult to see this greed or aversion in the mind when you are very intent on watching objects (without seeing what is happening in the observing mind). Is there greed? Is there aversion? It’s not what is happening with objects that matters, but how the mind is observing them that is important.

Only when the mind observes without lobha, dosa, or moha do objects become dhamma objects.

oBSERvING NATuRAlly

When does the mind feel tightness or tension? There is tension when the mind wants something other than what is happening or when the mind rejects what is happening. Defilements don’t want to let things be as they are; they want something to happen, they want results, or they want to control what is happening and they’ll force, focus, create, or restrict to get what they want.

Instead of creating, focusing, or restricting, we want to only wait and watch.

Is there any need to focus if we let whatever happens happen? If we are not looking for anything special or specific, we don’t need so much energy. We only need intelligence and interest:

What is happening?
How is it working?

If we want to observe how something is working naturally as it is, we also have to observe naturally. That’s why I say not to control or force anything. We just let the body do its job while we pay attention to the mind and are aware as much as we can be aware, consistently throughout the day.

SITTING MEDITATIoN

What can you observe? You can observe whatever object that arises. If the mind’s attention goes to the nostrils, you can observe that. If attention goes to your hands, you can observe that as well. Are you going to put your attention back at the nostrils if your attention is already at your hand? No. Working to put your attention back at the nostrils when the mind is paying attention to something else is too tiring. What is the difference between the objects at the nostrils and the objects at your hand? There’s no difference!

What happens when the mind pays attention to sounds? (Yogis: “We’ll become aware of the sounds.”) Are sounds going to bother you? They shouldn’t bother you if you just consider sounds as natural phenomena. You just want to recognize hearing if there is hearing. When you initially begin meditating, you may find the mind feeling agitated, drowsy, or restless. That’s not a problem.

In daily life, you’ve accomplished things mainly using defilement-produced mental energy. Here, because you are asked to practice without craving or aversion, the mind initially loses strength and becomes weak. Within a couple of days, as you develop a little more awareness, stability and calm, you’ll find the mind more awake. What will happen when the mind wakes up a bit? You will notice many, many thoughts! But don’t worry—this is just nature and not a problem at all.

Thoughts may only seem like a problem if you have the preconception that they are distracting you from your practice and you try to stop the thinking. But aren’t thoughts also the mind? If you really want to learn about the mind, these thoughts are showing the way. Can you observe this? So why is there an aversion to thoughts? (Yogis: “There are feelings and emotions that come about because of these thoughts.”) If that’s the case, how are you going to view these feelings? Are they a nuisance? (Yogis: “We’ll take them as objects.”) Yes. When you recognize these feelings as objects, then the practice becomes vipassanā meditation.

Please don’t set your sitting meditation to the clock. If you have determined that you will sit for a set time period, you may begin to worry when you have to break your determination for some reason. The resulting anxiety will destabilize the mind and weaken samādhi. So, don’t set any special time. It’s enough to know what is happening in the moment. It’s also ok to get up and walk if it is difficult to sit. Just remember to maintain awareness of what is happening in the mind and body.

WAlkING MEDITATIoN

Walking meditation is just like sitting meditation in that you are just aware of whatever is arising or happening. Let the body go in an easy, natural manner. Walk in a natural way and at a natural pace. Please don’t walk extremely slowly.

Don’t force yourself to watch objects just related to the body while walking. You will get tense from keeping your attention at your feet for the hour or so that you are practicing walking meditation. Just be aware of the body as a whole. If the mind becomes aware of sweating, know that. If it is aware of the hands, know that too. Are your hands clasped? Are they swinging? You can be aware of all of these actions.

You can also be aware of what you see, hear, think, smell, touch, or feel while walking.

What is the mind aware of?
How is the mind?
What is happening in the mind?
What state is it in? Is it at peace?

It’s good if you can be aware of the intention to stop or to move. It’s even better if you can recognize why you continue walking.

EATING MEDITATIoN

Which one should be stronger: The desire to eat or the desire to practice? Greediness tends to come in as soon as a meal begins. Observe the mind first. The eagerness to eat is very strong.

There’s a certain high feeling that accompanies this desire to eat. Awareness is either very weak or not present in the presence of this strong eagerness. How is the mind while you are eating? Is it relaxed? Check regularly that you are not eating with eagerness. The wanting is pretty obvious and the mind will feel a bit tight when there is a desire to eat. The mind is planning the different ways to combine food on the plate. How will you eat? What will you eat after you finish this portion? The mind is already planning the next scoop. So unless you are paying attention to what the mind is doing, you’ll just continue down the path of thinking and planning motivated by eagerness.

Don’t be so concentrated on the food or plate. Instead, continue to observe the mind while you are eating. More and more, try to recognize how the mind is working while you are eating.

What state of mind are you eating with?
How is the mind feeling?
Is it relaxed? Is it intent on eating?

When the mind is relaxed, you can observe how you are moving your body. For example, you can observe how you are holding the utensils, touching, opening your mouth, chewing, or breaking apart pieces. You can also know different tastes like saltiness or spiciness. You can know any or all of these. Can’t you also observe what you like and what you don’t like? Is being hungry the same as wanting to eat? Being hungry happens in the body. Wanting to eat happens in the mind and is the work of thinking. Sometimes the mental desire to eat and the bodily sensation of hunger become interconnected. You just want to observe these things and everything that is happening as it is.

DAIly AcTIvITIES

Meditation doesn’t happen only in sitting. How do you get up from sitting meditation to go to your daily activities? Please get up and go with awareness. As you transition from your sitting meditation to various daily activities, please do not forget this: Be mindful. There ought to be continuity of awareness throughout the day whether in sitting, standing, eating, going, or doing daily activities, making it harder for unwholesome thoughts to enter.

You can be aware of what the mind is doing as you go up or down the stairs, as you put your keys in the lock, or open and close the door. Do you enter your room with your head first or your feet first? You need to observe yourself in these daily activities. What do you do when you are back in your room? Do you just take your shawl off and toss it on the bed? Continue to be aware of what you can while you are in your room. You can learn from whatever is happening. Every moment is the right moment for meditation.

See all the different activities you can be aware of in your daily activities, from washing your face, to brushing your teeth, combing your hair, to changing clothes. Try to be aware of all these things down to the smallest activity.

Observing these bodily actions may be dominant in the beginning, but it is important to regularly check the mind as the meditating mind is more important than what is happening in the body. Have interest in whatever is happening, and whatever you are doing. You want to know everything about how the mind and body are operating here.

Also see what you can be aware of as you go to bed and as you fall asleep. When you wake up, you can be aware of the groggy feeling or wanting to go back to sleep. This is also meditation.

What are you aware of the moment you wake up?
Is the body on its back? Is it on its stomach?
What is happening in the body?
What is happening in the mind?

You are using your intelligence and wisdom and continually sharpening them for the practice in this way by being interested in the process of meditation, in what you are doing, and by asking these kinds of questions:

What is this?
What is happening?
Why is it happening?

When you think about your practice and how you are practicing, you are basically filling the mind with wholesome thoughts, making it more difficult for unwholesome thoughts to arise. Meditation is the work of sharpening awareness, and developing stability of mind and wisdom. Here are some more questions you can consider:

What am I doing?
How am I meditating?
Am I practicing the right way?
How do I proceed with the practice?

In the beginning, you may feel a little tired when you are learning how to practice skillfully. Once you know how to practice with the right attitude, both the mind and body will feel at peace.

PAIN

It’s greed at work if you immediately change your posture to alleviate a little discomfort! On the other hand, determining not to move at any cost could be aversion at work. Of course nobody likes these aches, sharp pains, dull pains, or itchiness. Aversion will naturally arise in the mind when you observe this pain. You can begin to recognize these reactions at work and avoid falling into either extreme of immediately changing or not moving at any cost.

Is it meditation if you continue to be aware of this pain with aversion in the meditating mind? For example, what happens when you are angry at someone and the mind takes this person’s image as an object? Similarly, pain will increase when the mind observes it with aversion. As soon as there is pain, the mind is attracted to the pain and pays attention to it. This happens not because it is a pleasant experience but because it is an undesirable one!

What can you do in this situation? While the pain may be quite prominent at this point, please don’t look at the pain just yet. Don’t look at this pain directly when there is resistance. Check the mind first. How do you see or view this pain? How is the mind thinking about this pain? There are thoughts associated with this pain. The mind will feel constricted and tense with the presence of this pain. It’s difficult to live with this discomfort. Try to see the sensation in the body and the mental feelings associated with this sensation happening together.

So after you have changed the object of attention from the pain to the mind, you can have an attitude of “let it be.” The mind’s attitude towards it can be, “It can pass away on its own, or stay for some time. I’ll just observe as much as I can handle and I’ll move only when it is not possible to watch like this.”

So when there is pain, observe the mind. There’s a little discomfort in the mind and it’s finding it hard to live with this pain. Aversion exaggerates the situation, making the pain seem stiff, hard, or solid. In reality, it may not be that painful. In the absence of aversion, there are just subtle sensations; the pain will no longer seem solid. Even the initial concept of “pain” may disappear.

In short, there is some wisdom in backing up a bit only when you can’t handle the situation. Trying to escape when pain first appears doesn’t have any element of wisdom. Lobha is only satisfied in shifting positions and dosa becomes dissatisfied that it has to change postures. Only wisdom recognizes things as they are.

So you can work so that only when you can’t handle the pain will you try to back up a bit, relax, and change your position. When making these changes, do so with awareness—this is also a part of meditation. The Buddha never told us not to move while meditating. If there is a need to shift your body, please do so. Or if moving is not necessary, don’t move. There is no wisdom in forcing yourself to bear and endure pain when it has become very intense in the body.

Little by little, you can try to increase the time that you are sitting and you will also find that you are able to sit there longer. Once the mind is clear and cool (with the right attitude present), you can observe anything you want. This relaxed mind, when looking at what was considered “pain” before, will no longer consider it painful. When the mind begins to understand this, acceptance will naturally follow.

vEDANā

So long as there is a mind, there will be mental feeling and the presence of some kind of vedanā: Sukha vedanā, dukkha vedanā or upekkha vedanā. These are pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral feelings. So long as there is a body, there will be aches, pains, sickness, or disease.

What is more important: For vedanā to disappear or to learn about vedanā?

So what does it mean to overcome vedanā? You overcome vedanā when the mind doesn’t react with greed or aversion but remains with awareness+wisdom. The way I understand it is that there are no unpleasant mental feelings (domanassa) or pleasant mental feelings (somanassa) in the mind in the presence of what is happening in the body. The mind lives in equanimity (upekkhā) and wisdom. That’s what it means to overcome vedanā.

Even when we say we want to learn about an object, there is frequently a rejection of the unpleasant object and a desire for it to disappear. We want to make something negative go away quickly and we make an effort to end it. When something positive arises, we try to make it last a little longer. Is this Dhamma?

Your job is to recognize any feeling as just feeling. This feeling is not a person or entity and it also doesn’t have anything to do with “you”.

You practice for this type of understanding and wisdom to arise. When you realize that this is nothing personal, you’ll no longer find an issue with this. It is only a problem when you take this feeling as “yours”. So please recognize the underlying attitude that is present when this feeling arises. You practice because you want to understand.

ANGER IS ANGER. IT IS juST oNE DHAMMA NATuRE.

Shwe Oo Min Sayadaw used to ask, “How big is your anger—as big as a fist or as big as a ball?” Is Chinese anger stronger than Indian anger? One is not stronger than another because they’re the same! Anger is anger.

We are used to labeling anger that’s happening in others as “their anger” and anger happening within as “my anger”. That’s wrong view. While we meditate to understand the true nature of these defilements, we can’t learn when we take possession of these defilements as our own.

Anger and greed each have their own specific natures. Anger is rough and has the nature of breaking or destruction. Greed, on the other hand, has the nature of clinging and entangling; greed doesn’t want to let go.

It’s the nature of the mind to have good experiences followed by bad experiences and vice versa while we are meditating. With wrong views and ideas, greed or anger comes in; with right views, wisdom arises. Our difficulties arise from not having the right background information and not understanding the nature of the mind. It is difficult to practice without a thorough understanding of how to practice. When there’s real understanding, everything works out well.

coNSISTENT EFFoRT

We want the type of awareness that develops naturally from consistent effort, moment-to-moment. We don’t want this doing, forceful effort that uses a lot of energy all at once, only to slack off when we are tired. When we get some energy back, we may recover from our drowsiness and start to be aware once again. It’s impossible to develop continuity of awareness in this random way.

Please work toward continuity in awareness. When there is continuity of awareness and the mind is able to see the whole process of what comes before and what happens after, without forcing, the mind will begin to recognize cause and effect.

Only work to be aware of what is happening and what comes next. There is only this work and no other work. With persistence, you will develop a certain mental fortitude and confidence in yourself. Try it out if you don’t believe me. You’ll experience happiness when you are able to see this for yourself. Where is this happiness coming from? This is happiness that arises from knowing.

AWARENESS GAINS MoMENTuM

When sati and samādhi are weak and defilements are very strong in the mind, you will not be able to see reality no matter how much you try. Without the continuity of awareness, the mind sees something, misses something, and sees something again. Can you thoroughly understand the whole story if you’ve missed a couple of episodes in a TV series? This inconsistency makes it difficult to grasp a complete picture and wisdom doesn’t have a chance to develop. That’s why I emphasize consistent, continuous awareness.

You only try to be aware more continuously so that there is a chance for momentum to grow. As awareness gains strength, the mind will be aware of many more things and awareness develops a momentum of its own. You don’t do the work of being aware of more and more objects.

vAluE oF AWARENESS

When you begin meditating, the sati, samādhi, and paññā that were absent before are now present. Appreciate the presence of these wholesome qualities in the mind. What is the value of awareness? What does awareness remove? Awareness removes and replaces non-awareness.

We meditate because we want to understand defilements. We want to be aware of the defilements that arise as dhamma nature. What is wholesome is dhamma nature and what is unwholesome is also dhamma nature. We are practicing to have the right attitude, to understand dhamma nature, and to extinguish defilements.