A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Mindfulness and Concentration: Establishing Mindfulness of Body and the First Jhāna
RIGHT MINDFULNESS Establishing Mindfulness of Body
A person goes to the forest
or to the root of a tree or to an empty place and sits down. Having
crossed the legs, one sets the body erect. One establishes the presence
of mindfulness. (MN 10) One is aware: "Ardent, fully aware, mindful, I
am content." (SN 47.10)
Mindful, one breathes in; mindful, one breathes out. . . . One is
just aware, just mindful: "There is body." And one abides not clinging
to anything in the world. (MN 10)
Reflection
The path factor
of right mindfulness will be explored by going carefully through the
meditation instructions found in the classic text Satipatthāna Sutta, or Establishment of Mindfulness Discourse.
The first thing we notice about it in this introductory section is how
deliberate and intentional the practice is: one goes to a quiet place,
sits down, and engages deliberately in the establishment of mindfulness.
Daily Practice
Mindfulness of
the body begins with breathing. Take some time to sit quietly and just
breathe in and out. Breathing mindfully simply means bringing full
awareness to the various micro-sensations that accompany every in-breath
and out-breath. As the refrain prompts us, see if you can attend to
these sensations directly, without thinking about them and without
clinging in any way by favoring or opposing any sensation.
RIGHT CONCENTRATION Approaching and Abiding in the First Phase of Absorption (1st Jhāna)
Having abandoned the five
hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded
from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, one enters
and abides in the first phase of absorption, which is accompanied by
applied thought and sustained thought, with joy and the pleasure born of
seclusion. (MN 4)
Reflection
Since there are
seven days in the week and eight path factors, we dedicate Sundays to
practicing both kinds of meditation: mindfulness and concentration.
Concentration practice involves focusing the mind on a single object,
such as the breath, and returning attention to this focal point whenever
it wanders off, which it will do often. All forms of meditation involve
some level of concentration, so it is a good thing to practice.
Daily Practice
Formal concentration practice, involving absorption (Pali: jhāna)
in four defined stages, requires more time and sustained effort than
occasional practice generally allows and would benefit from careful
instruction by a qualified teacher. You may begin on your own, however,
simply by practicing to abandon the five hindrances, since jhāna
practice only really begins when they temporarily cease to arise.
Tomorrow: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering One week from today: Establishing Mindfulness of Feeling and Abiding in the Second Jhāna
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