Beginner's meditation

Q:  What kind of meditation do you recommend for a beginner like myself?

A:  There are many different approaches to meditation.  Various schools of Buddhism have their own particular kind of meditation.  Not all are the same.  Generally speaking, all require that you sit with your legs crossed with your spine straight like a plumber’s line with a bob on the end of it.  Next, your hands are to be put into a particular mudra.  Some schools teach that the dominate right should cradle the left hand with the tips of the thumbs touching making a flattened oval-like shape.  Overall, this comes under the heading of meditation for a beginner which takes some time to accomplish because we in the West are chair-sitters.  Beginners need to keep in mind what the maid goal of meditation is.  It’s trying to discover pure Mind in our own mind which is like a madhouse with a never-ending internal dialogue going on, not to mention a lot of weird mental images—oh, and I forgot to add emotions.  In a word, meditation begins by identifying all this crap.  By doing this we observe that our mind is anything but calm and controlled.  For a beginner it is important to become familiar with the territory of their crazy human mind.  Hopefully, the beginner learns not to get caught up in it—not to feed it.  If, for example, we fly into a jealous rage just having learned that our lover is sleeping with someone else, the only means of controlling or taming this emotion is by non-action towards it.  It is like having the flu.  We just wait it out and eventually it subsides.  Sitting in meditation helps us to tame this wild emotion as with other emotions such as anger.  Basically we observe the theater of our mind.  Next, we try not to feed what is going on in it.  Then we focus our attention on something other than the craziness going on in our mind.

Q:  What would you recommend I focus upon?

A:  Again, there are different approaches as to what, in particular, a beginner might focus on.  A beginner might focus on the mental image of a Buddha statue or just focus on the Buddha’s crown or his face which is always calm.  The beginner could also focus on the dharma wheels of his hands and so on.  If you wish, put a Buddha statue in front of you or a picture of the Buddha and focus on some aspect of it.  According to the beginner’s ability to focus, there are various things to focus on some gross; some not so gross.  Keep in mind that by bringing the mind under control—taming it—we can then begin to do real meditation which is about trying to discover pure Mind which is luminous and pure—being thoroughly empty of any and all determinations.  It’s here right now—but with a wild mind, fed on gross images, we can’t possibly see it.  An important point to bring up is that beginners meditation deals only with consciousness which is the fifth skandha and the fact that it is also mutually conditioning.  If the beginner gets caught up in anger, as consciousness, it can quickly end up in a vicious circle affecting the body.  On the other hand, if the beginner puts his attention on something like the image of the Buddha, in time he will calm down.  Call it a placebo/nocebo effect but this is the way consciousness works.

Q:  That is interesting.  I never thought of meditation that way.  So if I am around circumstances that are anything but calm—say at my job—I can get sucked into it and become anxious.  Or if I engage in focusing on the Buddha or chanting his name, I will calm down.  Is that right?

A:  For all practical purposes, you’re correct.  Think about reading verses from the Dhammapada for a solid hour—or just sitting in zazen.  Eventually, you become aware that you are more relaxed and calmed down.  But when it comes to real meditation we have to transcend consciousness.  Whatever grade of consciousness we are in, it never escapes samsara.  No state of consciouness is perfect.  Consciousness is absolute Mind split into subject and object.  We have to go beyond the bewitching power of this split being always deceived; chasing after illusions.  This split or duality hides Mind.  But what happens when we really see absolute Mind?  Because it is the fundamental substance of our thoughts and also external things, everything is seen to be illusory.  Things are just configurations of absolute Mind.  This is what the Buddha’s meditation is about: overcoming subtle grades of consciousness until pure Mind is uncovered.  Right now, you might not be ready for this.  That time comes when you can’t give up looking for this pure Mind in your crazy, all-too-human mind.

Comments

[Klonra]

Interesting book:

Nagarjuna and the Philosophy of Openness. By Nancy McCagney

Abstract:

"Most Nagarjuna scholars agree that the idea of sunyata is central to Nagarjuna's version of Madhyamaka philosophy, and especially in his master work, the Mulamadhyamakakarika (MK). The term sunyata is usually translated as "emptiness," sometimes even as "nothingness." McCagney holds that the best translation within the context of Nagarjuna's work is "openness," tracing this aspect of its meaning from the metaphors of etheric space (akasa) used in such early Mahayana Buddhist sutras as the Astasahasrika Prajñaparamita and the Lankavatara. For McCagney, this concept of space, drawn from ancient Indian cosmology, denotes "a luminous ether, filled with light" (xx), a boundless openness not filled with essence."

[Klonra]

In my experience Dogen's Zen is all about ritualism, monastic rules, and following rituals and monastic rules as perfectly as possible. For Dogen, ritualism and monasticism is the essence of Buddha's teaching. Everyone who studies his writings thoroughly or goes to live in a real, old skool Soto Zen temple, will come to the same conclusion.

[The Zennist]

Klonra:

Posture has everything to do with Dogen's Soto Zen.

Dogen claims, "Sitting is itself the treasury of the eye of true Dharma and the mystic mind of nirvana" (Carl Bielefeldt, Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation, p. 169)

[Klonra]

You forgot to add that posture is just for practical reasons and has nothing to do with Zen. Or you think folding your legs in a special way, or forming a special mudra with the hands, is the cause of "seeing Absolute Mind"? That would be pretty absurd.

[minx]

My master told me;

"Opinion doesn´t enter into IT. What is, simply is. That is its beauty."