Summary
- There are different meditations
- Judeo-Christian traditions
- Prayer: direct address to a spiritual entity
- Contemplation: prolonged period of conscious thought on a specific topic
- Hindu traditions
- Yoga: focus mind on a single object, stone, candle flame, syllable
- different Buddhist meditations
- Zen: sitting meditation, or some schools use koan (unsolvable riddles)
- Tantra: visualizing a tantric deity to escape ego
- Vipassana: insight meditation, focus of this book
- Buddhist basics
- 3 marks of existence: dissatisfaction (dukkha), impermanence (anicca), not-self (anatta)
- Normal people approach: categorize perceptions into good, bad, neutral, if good, try to freeze time, if bad, try to push away, if neutral, ignore. This doesn’t work well
- Buddhist approach: instead of control everything, control your mind to step out of endless desire and aversion
- 3 factors in meditation (aka 3 fold training): morality, concentration, wisdom. Each influences another.
- attitude of meditation
- Don’t expect anything and treat it as experiment
- Don’t cling or reject
- Don’t compare and notice similarities instead (e.g. breath is universal)
- Basic approach of meditation
- focus on breath (but don’t control breath, just notice)
- why breath: portable, cheap, mimics cycle of life, nexus between inside and outside. universal to all living things, present moment.
- mindfully watch bodily sensations
- when emotions arises, watch as is
- being aware of thought instead of thinking a thought, keep a distance
- also mindfulness watch pain, distractions. don’t fight them
- External stuff
- sitting with straight back, still and stable, reflect immobility of mind
- loose and soft clothing
- formal practice schedule, same place each time, place where comfortable and no disturbance
- morning and evening both good
- choose a realistic length of time beforehand, stick with it
- Set-up exercise
- Start with metta (loving friendliness), banishing thoughts of self-hatred with the opposite of it: may i be well/happy/peaceful…
- Extend metta to people close to you, then direct it to ememies and all living beings
- why wish enemies well: help them overcome their problems so you can live in peace
- Metta is one of the 4 sublime states of mind, the other 3: compassion (karuna), appreciative joy (mudita), equanimity (uppeka)
- compassion: feels the pain of others
- appreciative joy: happy with others’ success, no jealous
- equanimity: care and respect with no intention to control
- Mindfulness vs concentration
- Mindfulness → bare attention, impartial/nonjudgemental observation, nonegotistic alertness, present-moment awareness
- Concentration → like a lens, produces intensity
- too much mindfulness without concentration → over-sensitized state
- too much concentration without mindfulness → stone buddha syndrome
- start with concentration until monkey mind cools down, then emphasize on mindfulness
- Applying to everyday life
- Seated meditation is not the game, it’s the practice
- Walking meditation can help with transition from static pose to everyday life → be mindful of each step
- In daily activities, intentionally slowing down thoughts, words, movements to allow mindful observation
- Use every spare seconds to be mindful, e.g. waiting time
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