How to meditate correctly

[Gerard]

Vipassana is True Awareness, clear-seeing presence in the moment absent of wandering thoughts. There is no Awakening without some success in Vipassana practice. Continued Vipassana practice results in Complete Enlightenment. Buddhism is really that simple and that's why the Buddha said "Mindfulness is liberation"!

 

Mahasi Sayadaw's method:

 

https://buddhismnow.com/2013/09/12/vipassana-as-taught-by-the-mahasi-sayadaw-of-burma/

 

Please read the entire article carefully and with detailed attention until you grasp really well the whole thing. Written by highly accomplished monastic practitioners and fellow seekers.

 

May all sentient beings have happiness

and the causes of happiness;

May all sentient beings be free from suffering

and the causes of suffering;

May all sentient beings never be separated from

the happiness that knows no suffering;

May all sentient beings live in equanimity,

free from attachment and aversion.

 

With much Love,

 

Gerard

Edited April 3, 2017 by Gerard

[EmeraldHead]

That guy, Absolutus, said in his AMAs that the buddha originally taught concentration meditation and it is modern buddhism that teaches/focuses on vissapana. Is that it?

Edited April 3, 2017 by Arramu

[allinone]

That guy, Absolutus, said in his AMAs that the buddha originally taught concentration meditation and it is modern buddhism that teaches/focuses on vissapana. Is that it?

 

nope(edit:)read the link

 

 

In other words, the concentration in vipassana is only there to support awareness (sati) and intuitive intelligence (panna).

 

It is at that point that true vipassana consciousness arises, right awareness (samma sati), and our intuitive intelligence (panna)—free of the distortion of thought and image—can finally begin to understand and see the way things really are (nanadassana-yatha-bhutam).

 

Edited April 3, 2017 by allinone

[allinone]

its in mahayana you need samadhi for vipasyana. And then you can jhana.

 

When you follow vipassana then you recon that the instructions are for momentary concentration at first, to get a sense what the Sati is. Sati is awareness. Union with that awareness is samadhi, so you start see what arises within.

 

head ->heart-> lower abdomen/ass area.

Edited April 3, 2017 by allinone

[allinone]

can you put link to Satipatthana Sutta?

 

here is wikipedia link for Satipatthana

 

why that's important is that to have more information. What is not only edited, reorganized etc commentaries by certain people, from more originals.

Edited April 3, 2017 by allinone

[allinone]

Meditation Retreat - Meditation or Self-Hypnosis with Bhante Punnaji and Bro Billy Tan

 

 

some of the slides there..

 

Hypnosis for relaxation:
Characteristics:

 

*relaxing the body fully rested relaxation posture;
*calming mental state through suggestions;
*positive expectancy accentuates the calming effect;
*self-talk and affirmations reinforce the suggestions;
*visualization and mental imagery enhance the effects;

 

Depends on:

 

*Suggestion-based projection of memory, imagination and expectations;
*Non-critical/non-analytical susceptibility to suggestions and positive expectancy(bypassing the "critical factor" of mind).

 

The Hypnotic Effect:

 

*susceptibility to purposeful suggestions;
*non-judgmental and non-critical acceptance;
*experiential attention to present moment;
*projection of mental imagery and visualization;
*a lagging attitude of perceptual associations;
*altered state of consciousness of a guided subjective reality;

 

How does meditation work:

 

*Conscious relaxation
*attention focused inwards-withdrawn from sensory objects
*attention withdrawn from memory, imagination and expectation
*"critical factor"- the leading and introspective mind
*altered state of consciousness with introspective attention ("Uppekha")
*Leading to cultivation of Insight("Panna")
*Ultimately leading to Full Consciousness("Vijja") and emancipation("Vimutti")

 

Anapanasati->Satipatthana->Satta Bojjihanga->Vijja and Vimutti

Edited April 3, 2017 by allinone

[EmeraldHead]

But can you become superhuman and develop superhuman powers and abilities with vissapana (without concentration meditation) ?

[Gerard]

Stop the yabba, yabba, yabba and practice, practic, practice. Until you don't feel in your 'skin', 'flesh' and 'bones' what this is all about any discussions about this and that become a moot point.

 

Try this game:

 

See how long your wandering mind sets you off from the present moment.

 

30s, 1m, 2m? Keep going until the monkey is calm on the ground without needing to be tied up.

 

Your own mind it's going to play with you like a cat and mouse game. Past-future, future-past, and so on.

 

The mind will do whatever it is necessary to deviate you from the present moment. It dislikes concentration because of the

skandhas (mental volitions: past creates present, present creates future, future will lead to rebirth according to this constant continuum and karma).

 

HERE, NOW...not yesterday or next week.

 

Happy practice

[roger]

Gerard, thanks for sharing that link not only for the article but because the website seems awesome.

 

I'm sure I'll be reading more articles there.

[taoguy]

Let's sum up authentic meditation as one thing: Skillful mindfulness.

 

We are always in unskillful mindfulness, which gives rise to craving and suffering. To understand this vicious cycle, look at Dependent Origination. If you don't understand dependent origination, you cannot meditate properly because it is so incredibly difficult to gain the same insight as the Buddha did.

 

Actually, skillful mindfulness is also nearly 'effortless' and unskillfulness takes more energy. However, due to craving, we continuously reach out in desire, creating suffering.

 

 

What is right meditation?

 

The very best kind of meditation is natural awareness that is unattached to any object. But this kind of meditation is too difficult for beginners because they have too much karmic energy (sankhara/karmic formations) that arise and obscure the mindspace, dragging the attention along with it.

 

Otherwise, one uses ONE object (that is impermanent like the breath or body) and then uses it to realize the 'gaps' or when these things disappear. When you find where it disappears, then that is what we call the intermediate period or 'bardo'. This is the same as what we call the GAP between the thoughts, or the gap between death and life.

 

Note: They are different degrees of the gap, so we cannot say they are equal.

 

What we are seeking however, is not emptiness in a void sense. Rather, the emptiness meaning a universal, unlimited potential that has no substance whatsoever, enabling form/appearances/phenomena to arise within. Modernly put, we can trace it to quantum physics.

 

So if you use ONE object, this is what we call shamatha, calming, steadiness, quietitude, going into 'extreme yin' etc. The more you move towards yin, the more 'polarized' you are, and the more sensitive you will be to movement. Therefore you start to pick up movements of ordinary body chi (body-wind), all kinds of sensations over the body like itches, swelling, enlargement, shrinking, heat, cold, numbness, etc.

 

As soon as all of these fade away, just like ripples in the pond, or your own thoughts...

 

What actually happens is that BOTH the mind and body go into a temporary 'extreme yin' state where there is ZERO movement. This means the breath stops, the thought-stream stops, etc.

 

During this spontaneous resting, the I-Ching says that rest gives rise to rejuvenation/resurrection. Here, the yuan-chi or original primordial energy explodes upwards from the perineum at the base of the spine, travelling around the Microcosmic Orbit.

 

At this point, most people break out of the state due to fear... the thought-stream starts flowing again, the body becomes agitated, etc. Then because of this, the energy movements stop. Then the process repeats, where you keep going into the stillness (extreme yin) so that the seed of yang can spring forth spontaneously.

 

When the yuan-chi opens up the front and back channels completely (and this takes at least a few months depending on your health), as well as the 8 extraordinary channels and all the other small nadis... it then collects the 'essence' inside your navel chakra (lower dan tian).

 

Actually, when these channels open, you are dealing with what we call the body's karmic energy. So karmic energy is what impedes people from reaching pure, non-dual awareness (both mental karmic energy and body karmic energy).

 

It can't be helped that your body is like that, because you were born from your parents, you inherited some karma from your past lives as well. So the body by itself is already impure in a way. So it's almost like your monkey-mind - you have a monkey-body as well that jumps here and there.

 

Note: Body and mind are actually one and the same, because all five senses of the body eventually meet in the 6th sense (mental consciousness). 

 

So only after the yuan-chi completely rises through the central channel, up the 3 cauldrons to the crown chakra, we can finally say... Oh my god, finally... We can practice the Buddha's dharma!!! (Before this, we were qualifying to practice the dharma.)

 

Now that you have your channels opened... your body's karmic energy is settled. In Mahayana, we call this the Form skandha, so this is finally done with and purified! Four more skandhas to go.

 

Here is where we start to go into Jhana... which deals with WHOLESOME feelings like bliss, joy, etc. So obviously this has to do with feelings - this is the Feelings skandha/aggregate.

 

In later Jhanas, we finally finish everything to do with the damn body and our body feels amazingly light, almost like the form devas. The elements have completely changed inside, it's no longer the same body. So here, we move on to the mental karmic energies that cause all of these things to rise again and again.

 

So here... it is finally the skandhas of conception and consciousness. Tricky bastards. So these, you refer to the Surangama Sutra and deal with all these crazy side-paths one by one.

 

TADA.

 

You are finally at fourth jhana. At fourth, you finally turn to authentic 'vipassana'. This is why the last 4 steps of the anapanasati sutta are these watching things, not at the start. Why do you think anyone can jump straight to the end and get a shortcut????

 

Then we will have many fully enlightened buddhas right now that can communicate with the triple-world and transcend it! Where can you find such a wonderful human nowadays?

 

From here, we are following the sutras, not bullshitting ourselves. If you read the sutras, all of these steps align completely. This is the authentic dharma, not spun by some trickster who bends the dharma to fit with his own practice, especially if they discard the original definitions of jhana by the Buddha.

 

Then from here on, it's just wisdom, wisdom, wisdom. Higher and higher wisdom... You move up the Bodhisattva bhumi stages... all the way... until you reach Buddhahood in a future life.

 

Summing it back up... the first step is skillful mindfulness that does not require effort.

 

The Buddha said he experienced jhana when he was a little kid, he was relaxing under a rose-apple tree. Relaxing! That's the feeling you get when you're enjoying something and just chilling. Not sleepy-drowsy, but the kind where you're soaking in immersion, 'absorbed' effortlessly without strain.

 

But you also have to note that the Buddha was accomplished in his practices in many lives before... so he built enough virtue to be born in a nearly perfect body that had the marks of a great man.

 

So... as a child he already could enter jhana -this is the reason!

 

The sutras also say he was an unawakened Bodhisattva.

 

Note: If 'unawakened' meant bodhisattva, why use it twice in meaning? Obviously unawakened is used there to imply that he IS a bodhisattva... and that he just has not fully awakened yet. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by taoguy

[allinone]

Stop the yabba, yabba, yabba and practice, practic, practice. Until you don't feel in your 'skin', 'flesh' and 'bones' what this is all about any discussions about this and that become a moot point.

 

Try this game:

 

See how long your wandering mind sets you off from the present moment.

 

30s, 1m, 2m? Keep going until the monkey is calm on the ground without needing to be tied up.

 

Your own mind it's going to play with you like a cat and mouse game. Past-future, future-past, and so on.

 

The mind will do whatever it is necessary to deviate you from the present moment. It dislikes concentration because of the

skandhas (mental volitions: past creates present, present creates future, future will lead to rebirth according to this constant continuum and karma).

 

HERE, NOW...not yesterday or next week.

 

Happy practice

 

Thanks for sharing it with us. If you have other concerns, don't hesitate, we will help you by changing ourselves!

 

Lots of love and happiness to you too.

[amar]

Not to be too flip, but is there an incorrect way to meditate? Sincere question....

[sagebrush]

-----

Edited April 21, 2017 by sagebrush

[doc benway]

Not to be too flip, but is there an incorrect way to meditate? Sincere question....

Yes

[doc benway]

Vipassana is True Awareness, clear-seeing presence in the moment absent of wandering thoughts. There is no Awakening without some success in Vipassana practice. Continued Vipassana practice results in Complete Enlightenment. Buddhism is really that simple and that's why the Buddha said "Mindfulness is liberation"!

 

I'll lovingly and respectfully disagree with some of this.

 

I've met folks who have experienced deep Awakening with no experience with Vipassana practice whatsoever.

 

I would also propose that not everyone who practices Vipassana over a long period of time experiences Complete Enlightenment.

 

There are factors of karma involved and there are many paths for many different creatures. 

 

And no doubt Vipassana is wonderful and powerful for many.

Edited April 20, 2017 by steve

[dwai]

Vippasana is just a label. Buddhism too is just a label.

[Spotless]

Not to be too flip, but is there an incorrect way to meditate? Sincere question....

This is a yes / no answer - as Gerard intimated earlier - just do it - get to It - because in that will come Presence more and more and the mind will fall away.

 

As you progress all of the "incorrect" aspects will also fall away.

 

Some are simply somewhat technical - eating a large meal just prior to meditation is just one example.

 

Try to be in the body - center of head - while trance states can be fun, in-body meditation in awareness is far more effective.

Trance is what you already do - it is the illusion.

 

There is an exception to nearly everything - in meditation looking for exception falls away, awareness emerges in stillness.

 

In general the "rules" will become transparent - discipline is helpful and it will fall away as you find your way. Presence is a very vital Awakeness - you will come to reside in it as you progress- it is that that you are. All of the "trials" of meditation fall away - eventually it is residence in Presence and it is not work or effort - it is abidance in radiance.

[Drifting_Through_Infinity]

I don't believe in Buddhism. 

[Spotless]

I don't believe in Buddhism.

 

Excellent!

 

Belief is not necessary and assumption is certainly not a virtue.

 

Check it out and verify everything - in this you will come to know it in knowing yourself - that which is unborn - spotless.

[doc benway]

I don't believe in Buddhism. 

 

Nor do the Buddhas believe in "you"

 

[rex]

Not to be too flip, but is there an incorrect way to meditate? Sincere question....

According to Buddhism yes - getting into dull blank mental states and mistaking them for clarity and stillness.

[dwai]

Nor do the Buddhas believe in "you"

 

 

That made me laugh

[Spotless]

According to Buddhism yes - getting into dull blank mental states and mistaking them for clarity and stillness.

This is primarily a conceptual state - (the concept of a state) but not experienced by many with the exception of very novice meditators and even then it would be very hard for someone truly set on exploring meditation to come to the conclusion that a "dull blank state" was something they were seeking or in any way a high state.

 

This is primarily the judgement of a state - spiritual competition and simply not found in practice.

Anything similar to it would be seen as some energy you are releasing but certainly not clarity or stillness

 

You need not worry about mistaking this.

 

There are many high trance states that do deceive and also the effects of over-reading and not enough practice can lead to very elite and absurdly off base ideas regarding all and everything.

[rex]

This is primarily a conceptual state - (the concept of a state) but not experienced by many with the exception of very novice meditators and even then it would be very hard for someone truly set on exploring meditation to come to the conclusion that a "dull blank state" was something they were seeking or in any way a high state.

 

This is primarily the judgement of a state - spiritual competition and simply not found in practice.

Anything similar to it would be seen as some energy you are releasing but certainly not clarity or stillness

 

You need not worry about mistaking this.

 

There are many high trance states that do deceive and also the effects of over-reading and not enough practice can lead to very elite and absurdly off base ideas regarding all and everything.

Even though I would use the term trance state advisedly that is an excellent point about trance states. But ouch!  Your response to what is given to Buddhist practitioners from Buddhist teachers with no thought of competition with other traditions exhibits a hostile undercurrent and makes for an eyebrow raising read.

Edited April 26, 2017 by rex

[flatwhite]

I like this very easy and practical advice by this Buddhist monk.