My brother introduced me to a story sometime ago: Once in an experiment, 10 monkeys were kept in a large confined area. On one side of the area was a big pile of ripe bananas which was protected with high pressure water spray. As the monkeys tried to reach the bananas they were hit with the water pressure and they went back. One by one all the monkeys tried their luck but none of them could reach the bananas. Eventually they all gave up and ignored the pile of bananas. Then one monkey was switched with a new monkey. The new monkey seeing the bananas immediately wanted to go there but he was stopped by the 9 other monkeys. By this the protected spray was removed but still the new monkey was convinced by others that it’s futile to try to get to those bananas. Slowly one by one each monkey was switched and finally there were 10 new monkeys in the area who had never experienced the protective water spray but still wouldn’t attempt to reach those bananas.
Similarly we are conditioned to look for fulfillment outside of us through centuries and generations. Fortunately at some point we come to a conclusion that we cannot find lasting fulfillment outside of us and start to notice an underlying sense of friction and dissatisfaction. When I reached that point, I wanted to find a way to deal with this underlying friction and sense of un-fulfillment.
After many years of exploring various traditions, courses, books and practices like Buddha’s teachings (Zen, Mahayana, Teravada, Shingon), Patanjali’s yoga sutra, bhagwad gita, vendanta, tao te ching, Ramana Maharishi’s teachings, Nisargadatta’s teachings, kriya yoga and Goenkaji’s vipassana. What resonated with me was the oldest teaching of Buddha as it gave a clear, practical and logical path. I was also able to experience the path during the 10 day vipassana course.
Before we go further, it’s important to know that most mindfulness teachings assume that one has come to a realization that fulfillment may not be found outside of oneself and one is now ready to look inwards. I liked how one of the ancient authors started his teaching - “Therefore, let’s begin the teaching”. Usually, there has to be something before therefore as the conclusion comes after it. It was explained in the translations that he was pointing towards a state of readiness before starting his teachings. I assume that is the case for you too.
First let’s start with some progress markers of regular practice. At some point we would start to see these amazing qualities in us that build on each other. We do have to remember though that we are not practicing to achieve these markers, we are practicing to eliminate friction and achieve lasting fulfillment in life.
Mindfulness - We would be able to stay present longer, we will become better listeners, observe the beauty around us and wouldn’t find the mundane boring
Investigation/Clarity - Our mind would have more clarity, we would be able to investigate our feelings and thoughts much more clearly
Energy/Stamina - The more we sit, the more stamina we will be able to build to sit longer. We will find ourselves more energetic for longer in everyday life
Joy - At times there will be an experience of natural deep joy during meditation and it will flow through our days even after the session
Tranquility - Slowly people around us will be telling us that we seem much more at peace and patient even in situations that might have aggravated us before
Concentration/Focus - We would find that we are able to maintain concentration longer, not only when we are meditating but also throughout the day
Equanimity - This is much harder to experience. During a retreat or after many days of long sessions, we can experience a completely steady mind. We are able to observe the feelings and thoughts as they arise and see how they lead to pleasant or painful reaction. We would be able to just smile at this process and not create further thoughts or action.
At the highest level the path is divided into 4 stages of awakening according to Buddha’s oldest teaching. The first stage is Stream entry. Once we cross this stage, the current of the stream takes us forward much more easily, getting there is the hard part. At this first stage the illusion of a separate self shatters. We realize that “I” is not in this body and it is neither separate from the universe nor a permanent thing as we believed it to be. The next three stages further refine our realization until the self-view completely falls away. We can discuss them after we have reached the first stage. After the first stage, friction in life will be drastically reduced and we will feel more aligned with the flow of life.
To get to stream entry, we need 3 realizations:
Suffering/Friction is a feeling when things don’t go as we wished or we have to put up with things we don’t like. With consistent meditation practice we can not only see suffering in our daily lives, we can also see the cause of this suffering
Impermanence - We realize that our feelings, sensations, thoughts are all impermanent including our body. We also see how change (impermanence) is woven in the fabric of the universe
No-‘I’ - We realize that ‘I’ has no control over our feelings, sensations and thoughts. Moreover, we can differentiate between observation and attention, eventually realizing that ‘I’ is fluid, impermanent just like our thoughts. We also find that attachment to ‘I’ is the cause of friction. At the stream entry stage we have a direct and irreversible knowing but self view will truly be eliminated by the fourth stage
There are primarily 2 types of meditations to reach these realizations:
Stillness meditation has 2 components, one is to still the body. Like when we stop moving glass of dirty water, the dirt settles down after some time. Similarly a still body helps still the mind. The second is to collect our scattered attention and make it more concentrated, like scattered light when concentrated becomes laser. Only then we will be able to use our single pointed attention to come to the intended realizations.
Initially when the attention is too scattered, it could be quite hard to get hold of our attention. Stillness requires patience and takes time, it cannot be rushed.There are many techniques to create stillness and aggregate our scattered attention e.g. observing the breath, chanting, counting the breath. I found that it’s easier to concentrate the attention around movement of something like breath or sound instead of something static like a point on the forehead.
A lot of us struggle to find the right technique for Stillness meditation because there is so much to choose from and we also lack experience at the beginning. I usually choose between 3 techniques depending on how I am feeling. If I am feeling too scattered I’ll focus on meditation music. If I am fairly calm, then I’ll just aggregate my attention under my nostrils and feel my breath. If I am not calm and not too scattered, I’ll count my breathing usually from 10 - 1 and repeat.
Insight meditation. Once we have practiced aggregating our attention we can then use this single pointed attention to investigate the nature of our experience. This practice will help us realize the 3 realizations mentioned earlier and come to stream entry.
We sit still and move our attention through each area of our body, as small an area as possible. We don’t stop, we keep the attention moving from top to bottom and back to the top. Insight meditation has 3 components or aspects of investigation. In one sitting we investigate only one aspect.One is to observe the impermanence of feelings, sensations and thoughts. We observe how feelings, sensations and thoughts begin and end as we move our attention through each area of our body. We realize that not only all sensations and feelings are impermanent, our physical body is also always changing.
The second component is to notice how our mind likes and wants more of the pleasurable sensations and how it wants to get rid of painful sensations. By not reacting to our minds automatic reflex, we realize how our mind creates friction by being in opposition of impermanence
The third component is to look for an “I” behind feelings, thoughts and sensations. We find all thoughts, feelings, sensations arise on their own and there is no “I” behind them. We also notice what actually is moving the attention is thought. We realize that the act of observation is mistaken for an unchanging, permanent observer. Ultimately realizing the real friction is caused by believing in permanence of “I”
Putting it all together, teaching can be mapped to the 4 traditional truths:
The truth of existence suffering, friction or unfulfillment in life
The truth of origin of suffering, it’s not realizing impermanence and no-I
The truth of cessation of suffering, it’s possible to cure friction and achieve lasting peace without changing the external world
The truth of the path, it’s the 4 stages of awakening, 2 types of meditations
We might think how can I do all this in 15-30 min a day :) A short daily practice with 1-2 hours of group meditation weekly or monthly can deepen our realizations and help us be more consistent on a daily basis.
Wherever we are starting from, practice itself will show us the way. Answers are out there, and they are looking for us. It’s the question that drives us. When we find the right question, the answer will be there!