I’m going to talk a little about shamatha
meditation, and I thought it would be good to try and actually do the
meditation as we go along. The actual technique is very simple. All the
great meditators of the past advised us to sit up straight when we
meditate. When we sit up straight, there is a sense of alertness, a
sense of importance—it produces the right atmosphere. In this particular
instruction, I’m going to suggest we don’t use an external object, such
as a flower, but instead follow the standard Theravada tradition of
using our breath as the object. So we concentrate on our breathing: we
simply follow our breath in and out. That’s it. Our mind is focused on
the breathing, our posture is straight, our eyes are open. That’s the
essential technique: basically doing nothing.
Let’s do that for a while.
Short meditation session
We simply sit straight and we watch our breathing. We are not
concerned with distractions, with all the thoughts that occupy our mind.
We just sit—alone, by ourselves, no reference at all. Us, the
breathing, and the concentration. That’s all we have.
Short meditation session
So we sit, we concentrate on the breathing, nothing else. Then some
thoughts may come, and any number of distractions: things you talked
about yesterday, movies you watched last week, a conversation you just
had, things you need to do tomorrow, a sudden panic—
did I switch off the gas in the kitchen this morning?
All of this will come, and when it does, go back to the breathing. This
is the slogan of shamatha instruction: just come back. Every time we
notice that we’ve gotten distracted, we remember the instruction and we
come back to the breath. Let’s do this for a while.
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If we have ambitions—even if our aim is enlightenment— then there is
no meditation, because we are thinking about it, craving it,
fantasizing, imagining things. That is not meditation. This is why an
important characteristic of shamatha meditation is to let go of any goal
and simply sit for the sake of sitting. We breathe in and out, and we
just watch that. Nothing else. It doesn’t matter if we get enlightenment
or not. It doesn’t matter if our friends get enlightened faster. Who
cares? We are just breathing. We just sit straight and watch the breath
in and out. Nothing else. We let go of our ambitions. This includes
trying to do a perfect shamatha meditation. We should get rid of even
that.
Just sit.
The beautiful thing about having less obsessions and ambitions—and
just sitting straight and watching the breathing—is that nothing will
disturb us. Things only disturb us when we have an aim. When we have an
aim, we become obsessed. Say our aim is to go somewhere, but somebody
parks right in front of our car, blocking us. If something gets in the
way of our aim, it becomes a terrible thing. If we don’t have an aim,
though, it doesn’t matter.
Meditators often have a strong ambition to achieve something with
their meditation. But when meditators get distracted, they go through
all kinds of hell: they lose their confidence, they get frustrated, they
condemn themselves, they condemn the technique. This is why, at least
during the first few moments of meditation, it doesn’t matter whether we
are getting enlightened or not, it doesn’t matter whether the hot water
is boiling in the kettle, it doesn’t matter whether the telephone is
ringing, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s one of our friends. For a
few moments, things don’t matter.
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You
don’t have to meditate for the sake of attaining enlightenment. If you
are not interested in enlightenment, you can practice shamatha to be
natural—to not be so swayed by circumstances. Most of the time we are
not in control of ourselves; our mind is always attracted to, or
distracted by, something—our enemies, our lovers, our friends, hope,
fear, jealousy, pride, attachment, aggression. In other words, all these
objects and these phenomena control our mind. Maybe we can control it
for a split second, but when we are in an extreme emotional state, we
lose it.
Letting go of ambition is a bit like the renunciation that Buddhists
talk about. The Buddha renounced his palace, his queen, his son, and his
parents, and went out in search of enlightenment. You can say that the
Buddha was trying to diminish his ambition. At least, he was trying to
see the futility of it, and he was letting go. Letting go is quite
important if you want to become a shamatha practitioner. We do shamatha
meditation so we can achieve this power to let go.
Meditation is one of the rare occasions when we’re not doing
anything. Otherwise, we’re always doing something, we’re always thinking
something, we’re always occupied. We get lost in millions of obsessions
or fixations. But by meditating—by not doing anything—all these
fixations are revealed. Beginners might find this a little frightening,
but slowly they will gain inner confidence, and these fixations will
automatically lessen. The classical meditation instruction texts say our
obsessions will undo themselves like a snake uncoiling itself.
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Thoughts are coming and I’m telling you to go back to the breathing.
You automatically interpret this as “We should stop the thoughts.” This
is not what I mean. I’m not saying you should stop thinking. All I’m
saying is, concentrate on the breathing. When thoughts come, don’t stop
them, don’t increase them, don’t encourage them, don’t discourage them.
Your job is to concentrate on the breathing. That’s it. Stopping the
thoughts is not your job. It’s important to understand the difference:
thoughts are going to come; all you do is just concentrate on the
breathing. That’s it.
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Lord Maitreya has some really good advice for shamatha practice: When
we are doing shamatha and the mind gets distracted, it is important
that we remember the antidote. The antidote here is very simply to go
back to the breath. We call this “Applying the antidote.” But sometimes
we apply the antidote too much, which can cause both dullness and
agitation. You got that? If you keep applying the antidote—antidote,
antidote, antidote—it’s like applying the antidote when there’s no
poison. That becomes a problem.
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Always do short but frequent shamatha sessions. I’m talking
especially to beginners. If you’re going to meditate for fifteen
minutes, start fresh at least thirty times. Over time we can start doing
longer sessions—in a fifteenminute session, we can do it fifteen times
with a break in between. And when you take a break, take a real break—
walk, stand up, do something else. Don’t just linger there half
meditating, half not meditating. After a while, you can practice seven
times within fifteen minutes.
Keeping it short is important because if you do too much at the
beginning, you’ll get fed up with the technique. We are human beings—we
don’t like to get bored. We like to change what we eat, we like changing
our clothes. We like change.
Likewise, the spiritual path is a long process, and we need a lot of
patience. We need to like the path, so keep the meditation short and
precise and frequent. That way we develop strong habits. Later on, it
becomes part of us. It’s like drinking alcohol: when we first start
drinking, we drink a little; we don’t drink two or three bottles at one
time. If we did, we’d get so sick we’d never touch it again. So practice
shamatha for a short time but many times. That way you’ll get
habituated. This is necessary. Shamatha should become part of your life.
And during the off sessions, also, if it’s possible, remember you are breathing. We always forget that we are breathing.
Also, you should not limit your meditation to only in the morning or
only in the evening: you should do it any time, all the time. Practice
time is always now—it’s never in the future. Don’t ever leave your
shamatha thinking, “I’m going to do it next weekend, next month, or next
year.” Do it now.
Anyway, you’re only doing it for about forty-five
seconds, if you’re a beginner. It’s easy. You can do it anywhere. It
only requires this: to sit straight.
Short meditation session
As we meditate, we simply sit straight and watch the breath. So what
does that do? It creates space. In fact, the technique itself is just a
trick. The main point is to recognize all these thoughts and
distractions that are constantly bombarding us. We still get angry, but
we know that we are angry—this kind of anger has so much humor. We can
actually drive it in certain directions—we have more control.
The frustrating thing about our life is that there is no control over
these emotions. That’s why there’s no fun. The whole purpose of
Buddhism is to have fun, isn’t it? And in order to have fun you have to
have control. If someone else has control over you, that’s it: there’s
no fun.
Short meditation session
Shamatha involves a lot of discipline. Lamas often advise us to do
meditation in a group, because when we are doing meditation in a group,
we want to be the best, the fastest; we have so much pride and ego, and
we’re so competitive—why not use this competitiveness as a tool on the
path? It’s like working out—if you buy the machines and bring them home,
you do three or four days and the machines end up in the garage. But if
you go to a gym, you see the other people who are diligently doing it,
and all the other beautiful bodies, and it gives you inspiration. What a
wrong motivation!
But at least it will lead you somewhere.
Keep it simple, don’t make it complicated. Concentrate on the
breathing, sit straight—that’s all. Every day, do a few minutes, and, on
top of that, do it spontaneously in different places—not just in front
of the shrine, but everywhere. There’s so much merit in just sitting
there.
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche was born in Bhutan in 1961
and is recognized as the main incarnation of Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi
Lodrö (1894-1959). From early childhood, he has studied with some of the
greatest contemporary masters, including His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse
Rinpoche. He has established dharma centers in Asia, North America,
Australia, and Europe.
