| Self is everywhere, shining forth from all beings, vaster | | | | for you practice. You can, for example, use your |
| than the vast, subtler than the most subtle, | | | | breath as support: letting your awareness rest gently |
| unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heartbeat. | | | | on the inhalations & exhalations, perhaps counting |
| Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue utter | | | | the cycles of the breath, from one to ten, and then |
| it; only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure | | | | beginning again. Mantras (strings of Sanskrit or Tibetan |
| and silent, merge with the formless truth. As soon as | | | | syllables) or mandalas (visual representations of |
| you find it, you are free; you have found yourself; you | | | | aspects of mind), candles, or objects from the natural |
| have solved the great riddle; your heart forever is at | | | | world (e.g. a shell or a beautiful crystal) can also be |
| peace. Whole, you enter the whole. Your personal self | | | | used as support for your meditation practice. The idea |
| returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless source. | | | | here is that the "object" acts as "support" by helping us |
| ~ Mundaka Upanishad | | | | to keep our attention in the present moment (instead |
| This beautiful passage from the Mundaka Upanishad | | | | of drifting off into thoughts of the past or future). |
| comes perhaps as close as written words can to | | | | A more advanced practice is to use as "support" |
| "speaking the unspeakable" ~ to pointing to that which | | | | whatever happens to be arising in the fields of the |
| the tongue cannot utter (nor the ear hear, nor the eye | | | | senses. So, for instance, you could decide to use as |
| see) ... and giving us ~ its fortunate readers ~ a | | | | support every sound that you hear, or the smell of |
| "prescription," a practice for experiencing this that it is | | | | incense or perfume or food in the room, or whatever |
| pointing to, directly: | | | | taste happens to be in your mouth ... Emotions and |
| ... only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure and | | | | thought-patterns and eventually anything at all that is |
| silent, merge with the formless truth. | | | | arising, can be support for our practice. How exactly |
| The prescription, the practice being offered by the | | | | these things become "supports" (as opposed to |
| Mundaka Upanishad is the practice of "deep | | | | distractions) is a subject for a future essay ... or |
| absorption," a state of Being that can be accessed | | | | perhaps is best left to personal interaction with a |
| (perhaps most effectively) through meditation practice. | | | | meditation instructor. For now, the point is simply this: |
| So what is "meditation practice"? Let's explore ... | | | | eventually, every single thing in your experience can |
| In the same way that the practice of Hatha Yoga | | | | act as a support for your meditation practice, for your |
| includes (at least potentially) thousands of asanas, and | | | | becoming more Present, more awake, more "alive" in |
| in the same way that there exist thousands of | | | | the here and now. |
| different forms of Qigong (Taoist energy-cultivation | | | | Vipashyana/clear seeing practices (also know as |
| practices) ~ so also are there thousands of different | | | | analytic meditation) are meditation practices often used |
| forms of meditation practice. (I'm using the term | | | | in conjuction with hearing a Dharma talk or studying a |
| "meditation," in this context, to describe mind-training | | | | particular text/scripture. In such forms of meditation, a |
| practices performed with the physical body held in a | | | | particular idea or concept is taken into the space of |
| relatively stationary position.) | | | | meditation, and within that place "held" and "examined" |
| Within the Mahayana vehicle of Buddhism, meditation | | | | in a deeper way than is possible when we're engaging |
| practice is divided, most generally, into two categories: | | | | only with conceptual mind. A certain kind of clarity and |
| Shamata (calm abiding) and Vipashyana (clear seeing). | | | | certainty can then emerge, with respect to particular |
| The most basic form of Shamata/calm abiding | | | | aspects of the teaching. This sort of meditation is also |
| meditation ~ and a good place to begin, if you're new | | | | a means for yogic exploration: for exploring, in very |
| to the practice ~ is simply to sit, in a location where | | | | specific ways, the working of mind, for "going inside" |
| you're not likely to be disturbed, with the spine in an | | | | and having a "look" at aspects of ourselves which we |
| upright position, relax (body & mind), and do | | | | may, in our day-to-day living, be quite unaware of. |
| nothing else at all. Easy! Try not to even think of it as | | | | But if you're able to be happy with the very first |
| "meditation" ... but rather a time to just sit and be at | | | | Shamata( without support) practice ~ the practice of |
| ease, to cultivate stillness, with nothing at all to "do," for | | | | simply sitting, relaxing, and "doing nothing" ~ this is |
| five minutes or ten or a half hour. This is called | | | | excellent ... and will serve you well, on your journey |
| "Shamata without support." | | | | toward [merging] with the formless truth ... [solving] the |
| If this was too easy, you might like to explore | | | | great riddle ... and [returning your personal self] to its |
| "Shamata with support." In this form of meditation | | | | radiant, intimate, deathless source ... Sobeit! |
| practice, you use a particular "object" as a "support" | | | | |