Buddhist Meditation

Module 1: Shamatha

Jim Clark and Roy Sutherwood 2008

Supporting material for the Buddhist Meditation class at Jamyang Buddhist Centre

Jamyang Buddhist Centre

The Old Courthouse

43 Renfrew Road

London

SE11 4NA

www.jamyang.co.uk

This document may be freely copied and distributed, but may not be modified or sold, in any shape or

form. No book editions, recordings, or other products using this transcript may be offered for sale. The

copyright and the colophon must be included in all copies made, and any copies, full or partial, must

include full attribution.

Contents

One 1

Shamatha and its role in Buddhist meditation

The need for shamatha

Importance of relaxation

Two 5

Using an object to train the awareness

Types of objects

Choosing an object

Meditation: taking breath as the object

Three 9

The nine stages

The six powers

Mindfulness and introspection

Four 13

The five faults and their antidotes

Excitation and laxity

Coarse, medium and subtle excitation

Working with distraction

Five 17

Coarse, medium and subtle laxity

Working with dullness and sleepiness

Striking the balance

Six 21

The four mental engagements

Attaining shamatha

Meditation: taking mind as the object

Seven 25

Access concentration

The first concentration

Union of shamatha and insight

Meditation: shamatha without an object

Table 28

Synopsis of the nine stages

Recommended reading and References 29

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One

Shamatha and its role in Buddhist meditation

This first module deals with a practice that aims to develop stable, clear attention, that

is, the ability of the mind to be able to rest with a chosen domain of attention without

being distracted or becoming dull, effortlessly and at will, for any length of time.

This is a practice that pre-dates the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. It is a meditation

practice the prince Siddhartha Gotama was taught by his first teachers when he first

embarked on his spiritual path, which he perfected to the final stages of the practice.

He found that in fact this meditation practice, although it brought levels of peace,

calm and bliss that far surpassed any pleasure that could be attained by the senses, it

still was not the final answer he was looking for. When the Buddha came out of his

Samadhi in this practice he found he was still subject to exactly same sufferings of

conditioned existence he was seeking an end to.

He therefore looked elsewhere for the answers he was seeking and engaged in many

years of severe ascetic practices. Eventually the Buddha-to-be found this approach

was not bringing the results he was looking for either. After taking some nourishment

his body was returned to a state of ease and well being, at which time he was

reminded of a Samadhi he entered quite effortlessly when he was a child and thought

to himself ‘maybe therein lies the way’. Upon considering this he resolved to not rise

from his seat until he attained his awakening. That night he found the middle way and

attained his enlightenment. The meditative state he recalled having entered as a child

was what is called the first meditative stabilisation that can be attained as a result of

shamatha practice. So although it the practice of concentration did not bring an end to

suffering, it brought about a state of body and mind that was conducive for the

necessary attainment of insight and awakening. Because of its usefulness in this

regard the Buddha continued to teach this practice after his enlightenment as a firm

foundation in meditation skills and states of mental calm and clarity that prime the

mind for insight practice.

The need for shamatha

By western psychological standards, the goal of continuous, undistracted and fully

wakeful attention, sustained at will, may sound unrealistic but Buddhist

contemplatives testify that such a standard is attainable. In fact, from the Buddhist

perspective, it is argued without such balanced and focused attention the genuinely

transformative fruits of Buddhist practice may remain out of reach:

“A mind easily distracted or prone to dullness is simply unfit for meditation of

any kind… when attention is impaired, it detracts from everything we do, and

when it is well focused, it enhances everything we do.”

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And:

“Truly effective meditation is impossible without focused attention. The

untrained mind oscillates between agitation and dullness, between restlessness

and boredom.”

(B. Alan Wallace)

Our mind in its default state is therefore unhelpful for any activity we undertake. We

are easily distracted, forgetful and live in a perpetual state of dull unrest. Cultivating

shamatha would help to bring greater clarity, awareness and ease in our daily

activities. In addition to this, shamatha also primes the mind for other meditation

practices of a Buddhist theme that are aimed at gaining insight into the nature of

reality. In fact, from a Buddhist perspective, making the mind serviceable for other

meditation practices is the main reason to engage in shamatha practice.

“If one engages in a practice before the attainment of shamatha… there is a

great deal of competition from all kinds of conceptual activity. One is

bombarded, confused and congested with other conceptual processes right at

the outset of the practice… for the whole course of the practice, from

beginning to end, it is difficult for the practice to have the potency that it

would if one had already attained shamatha.”

(Gen Lamrimpa)

“The person whose mind is distracted lives between the fangs of the

afflictions.”

and

“The One Who Knows Reality has said that, prayers, austerities, and such –

even if practiced for a long time – are pointless if done with a distracted

mind.”

(Shantideva)

Therefore the aim of engaging in shamatha practice is to overcome the tendencies of

distraction and dullness, thereby making the mind serviceable for meditation.

“Thus, the aim of attaining a concentration in which your mind is non-

discursively stabilized on a single object without distraction is to have a

mental serviceability – the ability to wilfully direct your attention to virtuous

objects of meditation.”

(Lama Tsong Khapa)

Shamatha is a path that leads step by step towards a focused and balanced attention

with profound levels of stability and clarity and acts as a doorway to unravelling the

possibilities and potentials of human consciousness.

“A method for achieving previously inconceivable levels of

concentration…..a direct path leading to the realisation of our deepest nature

and the potentials of consciousness.”

(B. Alan Wallace).

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Importance of relaxation

Resting in the posture and bringing the mind into the body in a relaxed and alert way

is the first and fundamental step. Profound and alert relaxation is the key to successful

meditation. This point is not often emphasised in traditional Indo-Tibetan texts but it

is indispensable in providing the basis for the stability of body and mind that we need

from the outset.

The content of this module has been greatly informed by the work of Dr. B. Alan

Wallace PhD who through his books, translations, academic papers, lectures, retreats

and scientific research has made by far the greatest contribution to the understanding

of this system of shamatha meditation in the West. Dr. Wallace has described

eloquently the primary role of relaxation in shamatha practice. Commenting on how

the traditional presentations of shamatha do not often appear to emphasise the need

for relaxation at the beginning of the practice, he comments on the difference between

the Tibetan lifestyle and our contemporary Western lifestyle. When these practices

were introduced in ancient Tibet, the lifestyle of the average Tibetan was marked by

living in vast open landscapes, closely attuned to the natural rhythms of nature with

little else to concern them than the whereabouts of their yaks and the next meal. By

contrast, our lifestyle is one of constant distraction and agitation, with never enough

time to complete our to do lists and from a very early age facing a continuous barrage

on our senses from the media.

When the Tibetans were introduced to the practice, they were coming to it with a

fairly settled and relaxed nervous system and psyche. We on the other hand are more

likely to be coming to the practice with a much more agitated state of mind, in a state

of unbalance, marked by distraction, tension and fatigue.

At the outset, it will be an invaluable use of your time to establish methods of

relaxation, ways of finding a place of ease in body and mind. It may well take several

weeks or even months of regular practice to find a posture in the body and an attitude

of mind that allows the agitation to settle. If nothing other than this is done in the

session it will be time very well spent. If one attempts to bypass this stage it will

hinder progress at later stages of shamatha.

A way to understand this is based on Dr. Wallace’s analogy of a tree to describe how

the two main mental qualities of shamatha, stability and clarity, emerge from the basis

of relaxation. Relaxation can be imagined to be like the roots of a tree, they provide

the very foundation of the training. From the roots grow the trunk and main branches;

so out of relaxation grows stability, the ability for the mind to rest, to be still, to not be

distracted and wander. From the branches grow the stems, leaves and fruit. This

symbolises the emergence of clarity and lucidity of awareness from stability of mind.

As the practice grows, each aspect deepens, including the relaxation. At each stage

the practitioner deepens their relaxation such that in the final attainment of shamatha,

the practice is effortless; the attention can rest undistracted and with a brilliant

luminosity of awareness completely effortlessly. Therefore relaxation is important at

the beginning, middle and end of the practice.

Initially, a way into the relaxed quality of body and mind is to have a sense of

welcome and allowing to the practice. One goes through each stage of the posture

giving attention to areas of tension and agitation inviting relaxation, letting go, ease.

It is common for people to find there remain tensions in the body in spite of attempts

to relax. Some tensions are deeply held in the body and may take some time to

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release. In such circumstances one does not add to the tension by resisting it, reacting

to it, trying to make it stop. One ‘gives up the fight’ with oneself. Don’t try to block or

follow whatever thoughts, emotions or sensations arise. Just rest in the present

moment, allowing whatever happens to happen. Don’t fixate on anything in anyway.

Just be aware of whatever is happening, here and now. Take it slowly. Dispense with

expectations. Don’t lust after a ‘result’. Be free from any kind of grasping for any

particular experience.

Remember: ‘do what you can and accept what you have’.

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Two

Using an object to train the awareness

As has been said, the main objective of shamatha is to develop clear and stable

attention. In order to do this, we take an object as a tool to help us in the training. By

taking an object as a focus for our awareness, we have a means of identifying if the

mind is stable or distracted. If it is distracted, we have lost the object. If it is stable the

awareness is with the object. It acts as an anchor, a marker, a guide.

Therefore the object itself is not as important as the mental qualities of stability and

clarity that are the main purpose of the training. The object can theoretically be

anything that that arises in the field of awareness. One can even develop shamatha

without an object. In such a practice the focus is directly on developing the subjective

qualities of stability and clarity of attention.

There are a number of factors that are to be considered when choosing the object for

shamatha.

Firstly, the object one chooses to use should be one that can be focused on with

relative ease. The object needs to be relatively easy to apprehend so that one can

come back to it without too much searching when the attention is distracted. Some

objects are not immediately apparent, such as a visualised image or the mind itself.

Such objects will usually require a period of familiarisation to make it easier for the

mind to clearly recognise and focus on them. If one has an interest in using such an

object one needs to allow for this period of familiarisation.

Secondly, different objects are suited to different dispositions. There are long lists of

different objects and the particular advantage each offers to the practitioner. Some of

these objects are outlined below.

Thirdly, the final attainment of shamatha can only occur if a mental object is used.

One can start with an object ascertained by the physical senses of sight, sound, touch,

smell or taste but these can only take the meditator so far. At the higher stages of

shamatha the awareness is entirely withdrawn from the physical senses and is

absorbed into the mental sense. Therefore the object used at the higher stages must be

mental.

Types of objects

Body. The body provides a good reference point for shamatha. The tactile sense is

easily known. Using the body as an anchor for the attention is useful because tactile

sense, like all of the physical senses, is always present centred. If the attention is with

the body, it is in the present. It therefore works as a good counter to a mind easily

distracted. It can also be very grounding, bringing the awareness into the earth

element of density and weight.

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An external visual object such as a candle, stone, flower etc. Again, this is an

easily and immediately available object. If one uses such an object and wishes to

progress to deeper stages of shamatha, a mental object will need to be adopted later.

Kasina. These are visual forms described in the early Buddhist manual the

‘Visuddhimagga’ as methods used for training the attention. Coloured symbols of

simple design representing the four main elements would be made and set up in front

of the meditator to act as objects for developing concentration. The practice would

progress by the meditator first focusing on the external object and later focusing on

the mental after-image.

Objects chosen as remedies for predominant mental afflictions. Traditionally, if a

person is largely dominated by a disturbing mental state they could use the mental

state that is the direct antithesis of that mind. For example, if the person has a lot of

anger and aversion, they could take love as an object for shamatha. Similarly, if

attachment dominates the mind impermanence and death can be used, or

contemplation of the unpleasant parts of the body. If the mind is dominated by

discursive thoughts and compulsive thinking, the Buddha recommended using the

breath to calm and soothe the mind (see next).

The breath. Recommended by Buddha for minds dominated by compulsive thinking

for its soothing qualities. It also has a very responsive quality that assists with the

gradual refinement of attention as you progress through the stages of shamatha. At

first the object is the tactile sense in the body associated with the breathing. As such it

is initially an object of the physical, namely, tactile sense. It is a sensation on quite a

gross level of awareness. As the attention becomes more refined the body and mind

relax. At that time the breath becomes more and more refined.

As the breath becomes more subtle the awareness has to respond by paying attention

more closely to ascertain the increasingly subtle sensations. There comes a point

during the practice where the sensations become so refined that one develops what is

called an ‘acquired sign’, that is, a mental image that appears in the place where the

attention was focusing on the subtle sensation of the breath. This sign may be, for

example, an image of a small ball of light. At such point one takes this object up to

progress through the subtler levels.

The breath should therefore not be seen as a ‘beginners meditation object’. It can take

you all the way to shamatha, and can also be used for inquiry into the nature of reality

and be a suitable object for the attainment of insight.

There are various ways in which breath can be taken as an object: specific tactile

sensations related to the respiration at the abdomen, or at the nostrils, or just the

general rhythm of the breath throughout the body.

Visualised object. One can employ the imagination and use a visualised object for

training the awareness. Any object can be visualised. However, the great Tibetan

Buddhist scholar yogi Lama Tsong Khapa recommends visualising a Buddha as it has

additional benefits. For example, by visualising the Buddha one can use the same

visualisation for other purposes such as the practices of taking refuge and creating

merit, and one will be at an advantage if one wishes to pursue the path of Buddhist

tantra where such visualisations play a central role in generation stage practices.

It is important to remember that if one is using a visualised image, the image is one

that appears to the mental sense. One may use an object such as a statue or painting of

a Buddha to familiarise oneself with the form, but the actual image one focuses on is a

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mental image created freshly in one’s own mind. The term ‘visualisation’ is

somewhat misleading as it has nothing to do with the visual sense; it is strictly an

object that appears to the mental awareness, much in the way a dream image appears

to the mind. When one sees images in a dream there is no stimulation of the retina by

photons, it is merely an appearance to the mind. When we are generating a

‘visualised’ image for shamatha, we are relying on the same mental sense. It may be

better to think of it as an ‘imagined’ image.

Mantra. The use of mantra is somewhat like use of the visualisation. Initially one can

focus on the verbal repetition of a word or phrase, but one moves towards a mental

recitation of the mantra.

The mind itself. There are a number of instructions on how to take the mind as an

object for shamatha. B. Alan Wallace recommends a method called ‘settling the mind

in its natural state’, in which the space of the mind and its content are the object. This

practice takes thoughts and other mental events as the object for shamatha, and at

those times when thoughts are not present one focuses on the space of the mental

awareness; the ‘space’ in which thoughts, mental images, memories, fantasies etc all

occur. More will be said on this practice later in the module.

No object. Here the focus is trained by settling in the present moment, developing

clarity and stability as mental qualities in themselves. Again, this will be discussed

further later in the module.

Choosing an object

The important thing to consider when taking any object is to take one in such a way

that does not compromise the relaxation of body and mind.

If one is starting out in this practice it would be encouraged to spend some time

exploring the different objects available to see which suit your own disposition and

ability. When one has decided on an object it is important to stick with that object. In

particular, if one goes into long retreat with the intention of achieving shamatha it is

of vital importance to counter the fickle and changeable mind by resolving to focus on

one object until attaining shamatha.

There is an argument for changing objects at certain stages in the meditation, such as

when moving through specific milestones in the practice. This will be discussed later

when describing the stages of shamatha. If one is going into retreat, it is good to do it

under the guidance of a teacher, at which time one can consult the teacher for advice

on the object of choice.

The breath will be used as an example for the remainder of this module, except at

specified times, in order to explain the principles of the meditation. The instructions

apply equally well to whatever object one chooses.

One approach is to use the grounding qualities of taking the body as the object and

using that as a platform for picking up the breath as an object. In progressing this way

one can use the body to emphasise the stage of relaxation, and then work on

developing the stability by finding the sensations of breathing amidst a general and

relaxed tactile sense of the body. B. Alan Wallace describes this process:

“This is a ‘field approach” to training the attention. Instead of pinpointing the

attention on a mental image, a prayer, a mantra, or a specific region of the

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body, open your awareness to the entire field of sensations throughout the

body, especially those related to the respiration. The emphasis here is on

mental and physical relaxation. If you constrict your mind and your body,

shamatha training will aggravate the tension you already have.”

Meditation: taking breath as the object

So start with a relaxed general awareness of the body. Give attention to the posture so

that the muscles and soft tissues can relax around the structure of the skeleton. Bring

the awareness fully into the body and invite a profound relaxation throughout the

body. Fully saturate the body with the awareness, and settle into the quality of

relaxation. Allow the awareness to fully attune to the tactile sense of the body alert

and relaxed.

This is the first stage. Gathering the awareness in, bringing it into the body. This

establishes a working platform for picking up the primary object for shamatha

practice. If you wish to use an object for shamatha different other the breath, or you

are going to do another kind of meditation, on loving kindness for example, it may

still be helpful to start the meditation session by settling the awareness into the tactile

sensations of the body to establish the base of stillness and relaxation.

If one is going to proceed using the breath as an object for shamatha, one can spend

some time with this broad focus on the breath to get used to the practice of settling the

body and resting the awareness in the tactile sense. Within this field of awareness

begin to draw the attention in by paying particular attention to the tactile sensations

associated with the breathing.

At first simply be satisfied with whatever sensation one feels with the respiration,

wherever it can be sensed. Be sure to be focusing on the tactile sensations of

breathing, not the idea of breathing or an imagined flow of invisible air. Pay attention

to the sense of expansion and contraction, density and lightness, surface sensations, or

movements of the inner tissues. There is not a ‘right’ sensation that one is looking for.

Whatever arises in the tactile field associated with breathing is what one pays

attention to.

As much as you can, withdraw the intentional control from the breath. The effort that

one is applying relates to preventing the attention from wandering. The effort does not

need to interfere with the object. Allow the breath to be just as it is, however you find

it. Simply be with the object.

As one progresses one can then gather the awareness further, bringing more definition

and boundary to the awareness. Spend some time finding one area that the breath can

be felt more clearly. Starting out it can be useful to lower the awareness as this helps

to counter distraction, as will be discussed later in the module. See if you can notice

sensations around the area of the lower abdomen, say just below the navel. Continue

to allow the breath to be as it is and pay attention to whatever sensations one feels.

If you find the sensations of breathing at the nostrils are easy for you to discern then

you can use this area to focus as this is also a recommended object. If you find you

are prone to compulsive thinking and distraction, it may be helpful to initially work

on an object that is lower in the body even if the sensations at the nostril are clear

until such time the distraction has become less of a problem. Once distraction has

calmed time one can then return the awareness to the sensations at the nostrils.

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Three

The nine stages

The most complete and detailed description in any contemplative literature for the

gradual development of attention and the cultivation of shamatha is to be found in

Kamalashila’s ‘Stages of Meditation’. This eighth-century Indian Buddhist master of

meditation set out a clear framework in nine stages that can be used as a ‘road map’ of

the interior territory and also provides excellent, simple criteria that you can use to

assess where you think you are at any given time. These nine stages are presented

below. Also see the table at the end of the handbook that sets the nine stages out

alongside other relevant variables:

Stage 1 – Directed Attention. Basically, you achieve this stage by reading or

following the instructions, trying to meditate and realising that you are able to direct

your mind in a focused way to a chosen object for very brief periods. All you have to

be able to do is to be confident that it is possible for you to do this for a few moments,

literally a few seconds at a time when you sit and meditate. It does not matter that

there is no continuity of attention on the object at this stage – this is something to be

developed in the next stage. At this stage the attention is mostly not with the chosen

object. You will be very conscious of the movement of the mind and the torrent of

thoughts, feelings and sensations. The biggest obstacle to developing continuity of

attention from here is most often distraction, coarse mental excitement – allowing the

attention to be drawn away from the intended object by following and getting lost in

other involuntary passing psycho-physical events. From Stages 1 to 3, Kamilashila

said that you will experience involuntary thoughts like a cascading waterfall.

Stage 2 – Continuous Attention. When you can keep your attention focused on the

object without distraction for up to a minute, you have achieved stage two. You do

this by thinking about the practice, attending to it, mindfully placing your attention on

the chosen object, staying with it and not forgetting what you are supposed to be

doing for about a minute or so at a time. This stage is the best point at which to begin

identifying what kind of things are unfavourable to the practice – for example,

laziness and forgetfulness are the two major hindrances traditionally identified in the

first two stages.

Stage 3 – Resurgent attention. You will know that you have reached stage three

when you can easily and swiftly recover your distracted attention. You achieve this by

developing mindfulness. Over the period of the meditation you have been more on the

object than off it – and don’t forget that as long as a reasonable proportion of your

attention, say thirty-percent, is on the object, in spite of the power of distractions or

‘background’ mental traffic, you are on the object and not off it! You are only truly

missing the mark when you are off it completely. At this stage you can still find

yourself forgetting the object entirely for brief periods. Distraction is still most likely

to be the principal obstacle to development. Your experience will be that of

interrupted, short periods of focus. You will start to be aware of being with the chosen

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object in a relaxed, almost effortless, way for a few minutes and then finding yourself

somewhere else before recognising this in a relaxed way and gently returning your

attention to the object.

Stage 4 – Close Attention. When you achieve level four you never completely forget

the chosen object – that is not to say that the attention does not waver or at times

nearly lose the plot. You arrive here by the mindfulness you have developed and

strengthened in regular practice from the beginning – this is what you have been

doing in the earlier stages. At this point you can easily become complacent and rest

on your laurels a little because you begin to experience a real sense of achievement of

the beginnings of samadhi or single-pointed absorption with the object. The power of

distraction is now not so strong but coarse laxity in which you lose the clarity of the

object starts to become the main hindrance for most practitioners. You will still

engage in an interrupted way and return swiftly. Kamalashila describes the experience

of involuntary thoughts at this stage more like a river quickly flowing through a gorge

than a cascading waterfall.

Stage 5 – Tamed Attention. When you arrive here you start to take a genuine

satisfaction and pleasure in samadhi, although there still remains some subtle

resistance to it. You have achieved this by means of the development of introspection,

by not forgetting what you are supposed to be doing and wandering off the object.

The power of both distraction and laxity will have reduced to a medium level with

neither one nor the other dominant as a hindrance. You still experience the pulls and

pushes that could take you more or less off the object, but never completely, and so

interruption rather than unmoving stability remains as the overall quality of your

mental engagement.

Stage 6 – Pacified Attention. Now there is no remaining felt resistance to training

the attention. Your sense of achievement will still probably be the positive quality of

the experience. Continued development and strengthening of introspection has got

you here. Laxity and distraction are still going on at a medium level and the main

hindrances that are emerging now are likely to be desire, depression, lethargy and

drowsiness. Fragility around stability still makes for an interrupted quality of mental

engagement. Kamilashila likens involuntary thoughts at this stage to a river slowly

flowing through a valley.

Stage 7 – Fully Pacified Attention. Enthusiasm as a result of achievement is used to

pacify the hindrances such as attachment resulting from desire, melancholy and

lethargy. Swiftly rectified, subtle imbalances of attention remain. Distraction due to

mental excitation and laxity also remain but in quite subtle forms. The type of mental

engagement will still be interrupted but an important quality of the experience will be

one of growing familiarity.

Stage 8 – Single-Pointed Attention. You will know that you have reached this stage

when you are able, merely by enthusiastically directing the mind towards the object of

observation to stay there, fully stable. It is automatic, almost effortless and the

meditation has its own flow. Samadhi is long and sustained without any distraction or

laxity, although some effort to ward them off is still required. Latent impulses for

subtle distraction and laxity are still there. You will be engaged with the object in an

uninterrupted way for the first time and will experience a profound stillness of the

mind. Kamalashila describes the experience of this stage as the conceptually

discursive mind being calm, like a calm ocean without waves. The power of effort is

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fulfilled and just by maintaining the continuum of this level you pass in to the ninth

stage.

Stage 9 – Balanced Attention. Familiarity produces a flawless samadhi, sustained

effortlessly for a long period. There is still the possibility of distractions, laxity and

imbalances of the attention recurring as the latent causes of them still remain.

Effortlessness comes to the fore as the nature of the mental engagement and

perfection is the abiding quality of the experience. For Kamalashila, the conceptually

discursive mind has now become completely still, like Mount Meru, King of

Mountains.

The six powers

Specific mental qualities are identified as being instrumental in being able to progress

through these nine stages, called ‘the six powers’. They are skills that are used as the

meditator moves from novice to expert in the practice. These are also pictured in the

diagram at the back.

These powers and the stages with which they are associated are:

1. By the power of ‘Learning the instructions’ one can reach the first stage,

‘directed attention’

2. By ‘Thinking about the practice’ one is able to establish the second stage,

‘continuous attention’

3. The power of ‘Mindfulness’ is decisive in establishing stages three and four,

‘resurgent attention’ and ‘close attention’

4. ‘Introspection’ is the primary power to shift to the fifth and sixth stages,

‘tamed attention’ and ‘pacified attention’

5. ‘Enthusiasm’ is the power identified as that which establishes the seventh and

eighth stages, ‘fully pacified attention’ and ‘single pointed attention’

6. and the power of ‘Familiarity’ is what enables the final attainment of the ninth

stage, where the attention is perfectly balanced.

Mindfulness and introspection

“Generally speaking, the concentration which leads to the path and propels

one along the path is single pointedly focused upon its object. For the

cultivation of proper concentration there are two essential ingredients: One of

these is mindfulness – the ability to maintain continuity of awareness on the

object. The second is vigilance – the mental faculty of guarding or watching

over the meditative process to recognize if distraction has occurred. These

must be cultivated in the course of the practice.”

(Gen Lamrimpa)

It is worth looking at the powers of mindfulness and introspection in greater detail. In

the list of six powers they are highlighted as particularly important for stages three to

six. However, they are used much earlier than that and an awareness of them is

needed further on. They are meditative skills that will also be of great use when

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applying what one has learned in shamatha practice to other meditations, such as

vipashyana, the four immeasurables, analytical meditation and deity yoga.

Mindfulness is the translation for the Pali word sati, the Sanskrit word smriti, and the

Tibetan word dren-pa. This mental faculty has a primary connotation of memory, not

in the sense of recalling a memory of past events, rather a non-forgetting of the

present. As such it also has an important quality of present-centred awareness. It has

the function of holding the chosen object so that the mind does not stray. It is non-

discursive; it does not get involved in describing the qualities of the object or

analysing it. It merely holds the attention where it has been set. Its primary function is

to train and strengthen the stability of attention and counter distraction.

Introspection is a translation of sampajanna (Pali), samprajanya (Sanskrit), she-zhin

(Tibetan). By contrast this mental faculty has the quality of inquiry. It is discursive,

analytical and based in concept. In shamatha its function is to look within the domain

of awareness held by mindfulness and examine the quality of the attention. In

shamatha practice it is used sparingly and precisely; it is simply concerned with

whether the attention is on the object or scattered and distracted, and whether it is

vivid and clear, or dull and withdrawn.

“Mindfulness is the principal means of accomplishing shamatha, but it must

be accompanied by the mental faculty of introspection. While it is the task of

mindfulness to attend, without forgetfulness, to the meditative object,

introspection has the function of monitoring the meditative process. Thus,

introspection is a type of metacognition that operates as the ‘quality control’ in

the development of shamatha, swiftly detecting the occurrence of either

excitation or laxity.”

(Gen Lamrimpa)

These two mental faculties work together. As it is presented in the literature it appears

they are distinct aspects of the attention. However, experientially they have a more

symbiotic relationship. Mindfulness holds the attention, helping it to learn to settle

and stay in one place without wandering. Introspection checks mindfulness is doing

its job and has not allowed the attention to wander. When the attention wanders –

because it will definitely wander – it is the job of introspection to register this, to

recognise where the attention is and that it is no longer on the object. It is good to take

a short moment to recognise the distraction as a distraction and then deliberately

refocus the attention in the chosen place. This is part of the training.

At first it may come in the form of noticing that the attention has been distracted from

the object for a long time and you become aware you are lost in a plan or a memory or

a train of thought. The moment you become aware, make it conscious by simply

recognising and noting the distraction before restoring the attention. As you progress

in the practice the gap between becoming distracted and noticing the distraction

shortens, until such a point that you can notice distractions before they even begin to

pull the awareness away.

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Four

The five faults and their antidotes

The traditional list identifies five common faults to shamatha practice which must

have a remedy applied to them.

1. Laziness. This is described in three ways. Firstly, it is the thought that oneself

could not achieve it, a low appreciation of one’s capacity to succeed in the

practice, “I can’t do it”. Secondly, it is a tendency to give into unhealthy habit

and activities that do not serve the goal. Lastly, it is procrastination. The

antidote to laziness is fourfold and each is appropriate to the stage of the

practice one is at. The best antidote to laziness is pliancy, a state of physical

and mental ease that is naturally and effortlessly inclined towards wellbeing

and activities that cultivate it. However, this does not arise until the highest

stages of attainment. So one starts with the antidote of faith. Faith in the sense

of hearing the instructions and learning of the benefits that can come from the

practice and having a sense that oneself can achieve that too if only the right

effort was applied. From this comes aspiration, the heartfelt wish to attain

shamatha and from this, exertion arises and leads to the final goal.

2. The second fault is ‘forgetting the precept’, or forgetting the object and the

training. The primary antidote for this is mindfulness, just remembering the

object and returning to the practice.

3. Next are laxity and excitement. These are remedied by the power of

introspection. Laxity and excitement will be discussed further below.

4. Non-application is the fault of not applying the correct antidote at the right

time. If one is finding laziness creeping in, then one should apply the

appropriate remedy. If forgetfulness or laxity or excitement are present and

one fails to apply the antidote this is the fourth fault.

5. The last fault is application. This is when an antidote is applied at a time when

it is not needed. This is particularly applicable in the eighth stage onwards

when laxity and excitation do not arise during the meditation. If at this stage

when laxity and excitation do not occur one uses introspection to check the

quality of the meditation this would be extraneous and in fact impair the

quality of the meditation. Therefore at this stage, the antidote is equanimity.

Excitation and laxity

The initial challenge one faces comes in the form of a resistance to and

procrastination about cultivating shamatha in the first place. Once we have decided to

meet that challenge and have committed to sit, we inevitably come across the

challenges of excitation and laxity.

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This is the experience of mental imbalance wherein one swings between the poles of

too much coarse mental energy, which results in a scattering of attention, and too

little, resulting in a dullness of mind. These mental qualities are the direct opposite of

that which we are trying to cultivate in shamatha.

“The samadhi to be accomplished has two qualities: it has a potency of clarity

in which the attention is extremely vivid, and it has a non-conceptual stability

that is sustained single-pointedly upon the object… Laxity hinders the

emergence of such potency of clarity, and excitation obstructs single-pointed

non-conceptualization. Thus, those are the reasons why laxity and excitation

are the chief obstacles to accomplishing pure samadhi”

(Lama Tsongkhapa)

Coarse, medium and subtle excitation

Excitation is dealt with first in order to establish a relaxed and steady foundation to

one’s meditation. B. Alan Wallace defines excitation in its coarse, medium and subtle

forms:

“Coarse excitation: The attention completely disengages from the meditative

object.

Medium excitation: Involuntary thoughts occupy the centre of attention, while

the meditative object is displaced to the periphery.

Subtle excitation: The meditative object remains at the centre of attention, but

involuntary thoughts emerge at the periphery of attention.”

Excitation has the quality of the attention spilling out, expanding and scattering. It is

so called because it has grasping at its root. It stimulates and excites the object-

ascertaining awareness. It is an arousing of the attention wherein it is drawn to objects

of attachment and aversion.

Excitation occurs when you are drawn to something that arises to the mental or

physical senses and scatters the mind outwards, away from focus on the object – you

follow that thought, feeling, memory, image, sensation, sound or whatever and forget

about your intention to stay focused on the chosen object. In coarse excitation the

mind is drawn away from the object of meditation completely.

“The initial challenge in this training is to develop continuity of sustained,

voluntary attention, but in the first [stage of practice], the mind is strongly

dominated by excitation. Indeed, because one is now consciously trying to

sustain the attention unwaveringly on a single object instead of allowing it to

roam about freely, it seems as if the mind were more overwhelmed by

compulsive ideation than usual. One brings the mental image [or chosen

object] to mind, but almost immediately it is lost and the attention is

scattered.”

(B. Alan Wallace)

As one proceeds, the attention remains in the domain of awareness but is pushed to

the background and the side by involuntary thoughts. This is medium excitation.

With continued practice one can stay on the object for longer and longer periods until

it is able to stay on the object continuously. At such times it is possible there is still

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subtle grasping and involuntary thoughts appear at the periphery, but their pull is no

match for the mindfulness which is now strong and is not distracted from the chosen

object.

Working with distraction

It is often the experience of distraction that makes the initial phases of meditation feel

the most difficult. However, it is in no way a sign of failure or inability to meditate. In

fact, noticing just how easy it is for the mind to become distracted is a sign of

progress in the meditation.

Even though we are told distraction is expected at this stage in the practice, it can

difficult to manage it so it doesn’t become simply a very frustrating experience. The

remedy is to counter the cause of the distraction, which is the grasping mind.

When distraction arises, what one has lost is stability. One needs to remember that

stability arises out of relaxation, not tension, and therefore mindfulness needs to be a

subtle relaxation from, not an increase in, the grasping.

At the beginning we are often not subtle enough with our tools; we either forget about

them altogether or we use them heavy-handedly. When the mind wanders the initial

tendency is to try to hold the attention tighter onto the object. The problem with this is

that his tight mindfulness is gained at the cost of the relaxed base. A better course of

action would be first to relax deeply, touch in with the body, and then pick up the

object from a place of ease, rather than tighten up an already scattered and tense mind.

As we progress we can learn to pick up mindfulness with the subtlety that is required.

“Two methods for dealing with discursiveness don’t work very well. One is to

chase after our thoughts and get completely involved with them. One thought

comes and then another, another, and another. The other way is to try to stomp on

thoughts – just stop them cold. That doesn’t work very well either. What is

recommended at this point is a very subtle kind of mindfulness. We bring in our

mindfulness, not with forceful concentration, but with a light touch.”

(Thrangu Rinpoche)

The following strategies may be helpful when the main obstacle is coarse excitation:

Let go of past and future. Check to see if the attention has been drawn to plans

about the future or thoughts about the past. Very often, our thoughts are not new. We

have the same old fantasies and ruminations again and again. See if you can recognise

this occurring and resolve to let them be where they are, in the future that has not yet

occurred and the past that has gone never to return. Come back to just this breath in

this moment.

Relax with the out-breath. When you find you are distracted, note the distraction

with an in-breath, and imagine letting go of all the things that have drawn the

attention away as you release a long, gentle out-breath.

Lower the object. If you are using the breath and are focusing on the sensation at the

nostrils bring the awareness to the sensations related to the breath at the area of the

abdomen. This will draw the attention down.

Background and foreground. When one finds there are many different events in

one’s experience, such as many thoughts, disturbing sounds, smells or distracting

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sensations, try to become aware simply of how the attention is no longer with the

chosen object. Don’t try to force the object back into the awareness. Simply notice the

content of awareness. Then on the basis of this, as much as you are able, bring your

chosen object to the fore and allow the rest of your experience to move to the

background.

Counting. A tried and tested method is to count the breaths. After breathing one full

in breath and one full out breath count “one”. After another full in breath and out

breath, count “two”, and so on until you reach ten. The point is not to try to reach ten,

but to use the counting as an aid to the cultivation of mindfulness. It really doesn’t

matter if you notice you are distracted and have forgotten about the breathing and the

counting. What is important is that you notice and start again. It is a practice of

cultivating awareness, not counting to ten!

Patience. Training the mind to rest with the object is often in traditional teachings

likened to training an animal, a small dog or a monkey. You do not get the best result

by becoming angry and impatient, histrionic, brutal and violent. “Softly, softly

catchee monkey”, as the old saying goes. You need to befriend the monkey mind. The

showing of patience, kindness and the repeated skilful generation of a relaxed and

stable interest in the chosen object will bring the greatest rewards in the shortest time.

In particular, relax and become accustomed to starting again and again. There is no

fault in resetting the attention as many times as is needed, even if it is every second or

so.

Take a break from the object and return to the body. Sometimes involuntary

thoughts come at such a rate that the best remedy is to take a break from the object.

One can continue in the session, but by recognising that one has intentionally chosen

to shift the emphasis of the practice one has not erred. It is sometimes the correct

thing to do to change gear and work on another aspect of the practice in the service of

the shamatha. One can simply relax from focusing the awareness and come back to a

general sense of the body, feeling into the earth elements of density, mass, weight,

and temperature. Allow the attention to settle there.

Corpse posture. Lying on your back is the easiest way to relax the body. If you can

relax the body you have greater chance of relaxing the mind. If the mind is relaxed it

is easier to let go of grasping. If one can let go of grasping it is much easier to avoid

being caught up in the snare of compulsive ideation.

Keep sessions short – quality over duration. It is much better to have a very short

session of good quality than a long session being distracted and lost in thoughts. Good

quality here also includes being distracted time and time again, but noticing the

distraction and applying the remedy, restoring the meditation quickly. If you find you

are becoming tired from the meditation take a break.

Alternative meditation times. See if there are other times in the day that you find

you are less affected by distraction.

Lifestyle considerations. There is a connection between what we do in our life and

what we find in our meditation. If all we do is constantly look for ways to keep busy,

remain entertained, always with something to do and a new thing to have or enjoy, we

are continually feeding the habit of dissatisfaction and grasping. See if you can begin

to practice some moderation, patience and contentment. Look back at the section on

lifestyle in the general introduction to this course.

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Five

Coarse, medium and subtle laxity

We have looked at excitation, the first of the two primary obstacles to shamatha. The

second is laxity. If excitation is a scattering of attention where the mind is distracted

and lacks stability, laxity is dullness instead of clarity in the attention, where the mind

has become dull and withdrawn. Like excitation, B. Alan Wallace describes laxity in

its coarse, medium and subtle forms:

“Coarse laxity: The attention mostly disengages form the object due to

insufficient vividness.

Medium laxity: The object appears, but not with much vividness.

Subtle laxity: The object appears, but the attention is slightly slack.”

In its most coarse form, laxity causes the awareness to apprehend the object with so

little energy and vividness that it simply slips off the object. The awareness is so dull

it withdraws inwards into a state of metaphorical darkness of the attention. It can even

lead to falling asleep.

Medium, and certainly subtle, laxity are not as easy to discern and usually only

become apparent at later stages in the meditation when some stability has been

established and the awareness is able to settle relatively easily on the object for

extended periods. Subtle laxity can only really be noticed when the attention is largely

free from excitation.

It is said that there is a particular danger when a meditator reaches the stage of the

practice where stability has been cultivated and the attention can rest quite easily

without distraction. The stability in the awareness can produce a profound sense of

ease and bliss even if subtle laxity is present. If laxity goes unrecognised, there is a

danger that the meditator thinks they have attained shamatha because the attention is

steady and they are experiencing bliss, however, subtle laxity will prevent the

attention reaching the necessary vividness and clarity to move through the final

stages. By not recognising the fault, the meditator can get stuck by subtle laxity.

The underlying causes of laxity are lethargy and drowsiness. It is a withdrawal and

dullness of mind. Therefore, the antidote is in arousing the attention, fostering

wakefulness in the awareness.

It is important to recognise that it is about having brightness in the quality of

cognition, not in the object. If one notices dullness in the awareness of the breath, the

fault is not that the object itself has become dull, but rather the awareness that has

apprehended it has withdrawn and lost clarity.

The main power by which laxity is dealt with is introspection. Introspection is

employed to check if the attention has become lax and remedial action needs to be

taken.

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Working with dullness and sleepiness

It is usually excitation, particularly distraction, which needs to be dealt with first.

Once one has established a base of relaxed stability in the attention, then one turns the

introspection towards the arising of laxity. If laxity is present, a remedy needs to be

applied. One usually works with laxity in its most coarse form first. Once that has

been dealt with subtle laxity becomes more apparent and is dealt with next.

The primary way of working with laxity is to counter its withdrawn and dull state.

“Lax attention entails excessive internal withdrawal followed by a

degeneration in the way the meditative object is apprehended. So for this,

pleasurable things are brought to mind that cause the attention to diffuse

outwards.”

And

“If you apply the antidote of brightness to the underlying causes of laxity –

namely, lethargy, drowsiness, and a combination of the two in which the mind

takes on a gloomy aspect – there will either be no resultant laxity or it will be

counteracted once it has arisen.”

(Lama Tsongkhapa)

If laxity is recognised by introspection and the attention can be brought to a higher

pitch this may be enough to remedy the meditation. However, if laxity persists it is

entirely appropriate to stop the shamatha and apply an antidote. One does not need to

end the session but simply spend some time arousing and brightening the awareness

through any effective means. Lama Tsongkhapa cites a traditional list of remedies:

"For this, the Sravakabhumi [Asanga] suggests such behaviour as going for a

walk; holding an image of brightness in mind and familiarizing yourself with

it repeatedly; pursuing any of the six recollections of the Buddha, the Dharma,

the Sangha, ethical discipline, generosity, and gods; stimulating the mind by

means of other inspiring meditative objects; orally reciting the teachings that

discuss the faults of lethargy and drowsiness; gazing in different directions

and at the moon and stars; and washing your face with water”

In general, one should apply a remedy proportional to the problem. The measures one

would take against subtle laxity would not be as severe as those against falling asleep

on the cushion. The following are some other methods that can be experimented with.

Pay attention to the posture. Bring the awareness to the quality of alertness in the

physical posture. Straighten and lengthen the spine, broaden and relax the shoulders,

balance the head finely on the top of the vertebrae.

Bring awareness up in the body. If you have been focusing on the sensations of

breath at the abdomen try bringing the awareness up to the sensations of breath at the

nostrils.

Keep your eyes open. If you have been meditating with your eyes closed, try opening

them. If you meditate with your eyes partly open, open them wider and raise your

gaze.

Brighten and freshen the room. Open a window, draw the curtains, turn up the

lights.

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Invigorate the body. Stimulate the blood vessel in the face by stretching and rubbing

the skin. Stretch the arms and legs. Even splash the face with water.

Standing meditation. Stand still with the eyes open and continue the meditation.

Walking meditation. Find a space where you can make a ‘path’ – a stretch of floor

that you can walk back and forth along. It need only be a few feet in length. Walk

mindfully back and forth noticing all the movements in the body. This method will be

discussed further in the next module.

Rest. If none of the above helps, it may be a sign that what is really needed is rest. Lie

down and sleep if necessary.

Alternative meditation times. See if there are other times in the day that you find

you are less affected by sleepiness.

Lifestyle considerations. Have a look at your life and activities. Are you burning the

candle at both ends? Do you get enough restful sleep? Is there any way you could

manage workload so that it does not create as much stress. There is a connection

between what we do in our life and what we find in our meditation. Look back at the

section on lifestyle in the general introduction to this course.

Striking the balance

There is a delicate balancing act between countering excitation and laxity. When

distracted, the mind is flighty and scurrying about. The remedy is therefore to

cultivate relaxation and withdraw the mind from the distracting sensations and

thoughts, and bring the principle object clearer and to the fore. The remedy for laxity

is to arouse the energy, brighten the mind and expand the awareness outwards so as to

apprehend the object with greater clarity.

While the attention is still prone to excitation and laxity, the remedy for excitation –

the withdrawal of the awareness – actually increases the potential for laxity to arise.

At the same time, the remedy for laxity – the arousal of the attention – could actually

increase excitation.

“When I apply great effort and hold on to the object tightly, I become excited,

and when I use less effort and relax a little, I generate laxity. It is very difficult

to use moderate effort, to make it even. When I cultivate meditative

stabilization, my mind becomes disturbed.”

(Candragomin)

As one works with these two tendencies it is possible the meditation can swing from

one extreme to another and striking the balance can be a very subtle effort. A general

piece of advice would be to remember that the base lies in the relaxation, that the

stability arises out of the relaxation, and the clarity arises out of the stability.

Therefore it is good to make sure that the attempts to gain clarity do not compromise

the stability. If one tries to work on increasing clarity too soon, at the expense of

mental and physical relaxation, one may initially experience some sharpness and

vividness, but the compromised stability would undermine the mental engagement

which would ultimately undermine the clarity too. Ultimately, it is a balance that you

have to find yourself.

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“There is no formula to this equation. It is something one has to determine for

oneself, finding the middle ground, walking the razor’s edge between agitation

and laxity. It is indeed in the middle way that you must cultivate stability.”

(Gen Lamrimpa)

Summary: distracted? Withdraw and subdue the roving awareness. Lax? Expand,

increase and brighten the dull awareness. But strike the balance between arousal and

withdrawal.

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Six

The four mental engagements

Another list used in mapping out this progressive path towards perfectly balanced

attention is one that describes the way in which the attention engages with its object.

There are four of these ‘mental engagements’

1. Focused

2. Interrupted

3. Uninterrupted

4. Effortless

The attention progresses from requiring a great deal of effort to engage with the

object at the beginning of the practice to requiring no effort at all by the ninth stage of

shamatha. At the beginning of the practice, the attention is almost never able to settle

on the object and hence the mental engagement is mostly broken, and any

engagement with the object is entirely the result of the effort applied.

Often in more traditional Tibetan presentations, the translation used for the first

mental engagement is ‘forced’. This captures the quality of the attention at this stage

that requires specific effort to engage with its object. However, this also has

unfortunate connotations of tension and coercion that does not support the practice in

the early stages.

As has been discussed earlier, levels of stress in ancient India and Tibet when these

terms were first used were very likely not the same as can be found in contemporary

Western society, and it may have been quite appropriate to advise meditators to hold

their meditation object tightly with ‘forced’ engagement. However, for most people

brought up in Western culture it is often helpful to have a different emphasis on the

type of effort that is applied. Therefore, the term ‘focused’, has been borrowed from

B. Alan Wallace’s translation as it avoids the connotation of coercion but still

conveys the sense that the attention cannot hold its object without effort.

As one progresses, the engagement has increasing periods of continuity until the end

point where the engagement is continuous and is sustained without any effort at all.

Attaining shamatha

Once one has moved through the nine stages and developed this profound potential of

consciousness where the attention can rest at ease for long periods of time without

distraction and without laxity, at will and completely effortlessly, one has reached the

threshold for the attainment of shamatha. There are many incremental changes in the

balance of the attention up to this point, but the shift from stage nine to attaining

shamatha is marked by a unique psycho-physical event.

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Traditional accounts of the achievement speak about the initial experience of a

heaviness and numbness on the top of the head. Wallace describes this as signalling:

“…freedom from mental dysfunction and the achievement of mental pliancy and

mental fitness.”

Spontaneity, stability and clarity are the hallmarks of the achievement of the ninth

stage but the consciousness of calm abiding must be conjoined with a special pliancy.

In fact, the final achievement of shamatha is actually preceded by this special pliancy,

supreme joy and bliss – calm abiding is finally achieved by means of them.

The first experience following the unusual sensation at the crown is of mental pliancy.

The mind is entirely free from mental dysfunction and unwieldiness. It is at this stage

the mind for the first time is entirely fit and serviceable. It can be put to any task

without any sense of difficulty or hindrance; it is a state of optimum mental balance.

From the perspective of the contemplative, any mental state less than this would be

technically a state of poor mental health.

Following this state of mental poise, the body’s vital energies are released to course

through the entire physical system producing a profound and pervasive sense of well

being. The mental pliancy is conjoined with a physical pliancy which triggers an

extraordinary physical bliss, which in turn produces a mental bliss of equal measure.

As the bliss subsides, the attention settles down into perfect stability and clarity. Lama

Tsongkhapa says at this stage:

“..there occurs a pliancy, tenuous, like a shadow, that is compatible with

steady concentration. Once the rapturous delight of your mind has

disappeared, your mind stabilizes firmly on the object of meditation, and you

achieve meditative serenity, which is free of the turbulence caused by great

delight… Once such things happen, ‘You are said to have attention,’ you

achieve serenity and you are included among the ranks of ‘those who have

achieved attention.’ ”

Orgyen Padmasambhava, said of this perfect state:

“Flawless quiescence is like an oil-lamp that is unmoved by the air. Wherever

the awareness is placed, it is unwaveringly present; awareness is vividly clear,

without being sullied by laxity, lethargy, or dimness; wherever the awareness

is directed, it is steady and sharply pointed; unmoved by adventitious

thoughts, it is straight. Thus, a flawless meditative state arises in one’s mind-

stream.”

By this stage, all that is apparent to the awareness during the Samadhi are the

perfected qualities of attention themselves.

“In the mental state of meditative equipoise, only the aspects of awareness,

clarity, and joy of the mind appear, and all one’s other sense faculties remain

dormant. Thus, while one’s consciousness seems as if it has become

indivisible with space, one lacks any sensation of having a body; and when

rising from that state, it seems as if one’s body is suddenly coming into being.

When genuine quiescence is achieved, one’s attention can effortlessly be

maintained for hours, even days, on end, with no interference by either laxity

or excitation.”

(B. Alan Wallace)

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Meditation: taking mind as the object

When taking the mind itself as an object you focus on the domain of your own mental

experience. You begin to take an interest in your thoughts, emotions, memories,

desires, hopes and fears and mental imagery etc. You need to turn your attention

inwards, withdraw from the five physical senses and turn your mental gaze on the

theatre of the mind. The sphere of the mind and its contents become the primary

object of your interest and attention. If you are beginning this practice it is good to

start with a well-known traditional method called “settling the mind in its own state.”

Using this method it is good to pay attention first to resting your body in its natural

state. Bring the mind into the body and into the present and settle into a really relaxed

and comfortable posture – you will really need to establish the stability that comes

from a very good relaxed and well balanced posture. Alternating sessions between

being upright in the sitting posture and lying down in the ‘corpse posture’ can be a

very good thing to try with this particular method of meditation. Well grounded

stability is very important, as increasing the clarity and vividness of the attention is

necessarily a strong feature of this practice and doing this without first establishing

sufficient stability on the foundation of a really relaxed state can end up just being a

route to greater tension, mental excitation and distraction.

It is best, when you are suitably relaxed with the body resting comfortably in its own

state, with your eyes open or half open – using the by now familiar techniques

covered earlier in the module - to begin with mindfulness of breathing. Start by just

refining and focusing the attention on the breath, counting twenty-one rounds of

breath. Relax further while doing this and release any bodily tensions thoughts or

emotions on the out-breath. Once you have completed your twenty-one sets of

inhalations and exhalations, you should be settled and ready to focus your attention on

the sphere of your mind and its contents but as you do so, maintain a background,

peripheral mindfulness of the breathing, without counting.

Alan Wallace offers a useful description of this important aspect of the practice:

“Metaphorically, let’s keep one hand of the attention on the buoy of the

breath. To expand the metaphor, imagine you are out in the ocean in a gentle

swell rising and falling with one hand on a buoy to give you some stability, a

point of reference. Now, wearing a facemask, you sink your head beneath the

surface of the waves, aware with your body of the rise and fall of the incoming

swells but attending to whatever lies in the ocean, in the transparent, luminous

water.”

When stable in this state of awareness, “with one hand of the attention on the buoy of

the breath”, just quietly and gently, passively observe, as objectively and

dispassionately as possible, whatever comes up or arises in the mind without any

preference or selection whatsoever. Don’t chase after anything that arises, identify

with it or try to stop or repress anything in any way. Don’t intervene or manipulate

what is going on in any way at all. Just observe what is there, clearly and vividly and

let the mind settle in its own state. If nothing appears to be arising at all, either

deliberately generate a thought, let it go and let the associations following it continue

on their own or, just settle to pay attention to the empty theatre of the mind, the clear

undisturbed inner ‘space’ of the mind itself.

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Allow each mental event, whatever it is, to rise up, pass before you and pass away and

just let your relaxed but clear and bright awareness abide in its own stillness, in the

midst of the activity of the mind. Alan Wallace says of this process:

“In this way, the mind gradually settles in its natural state, which is quite

distinct from its habitual state. Habitually, the mind oscillates between

excitation and laxity. But with this practice the mind gradually comes to rest

in its ground state, calm and clear.”

Allow each mental event, whatever it is, to play itself out, unaffected by your

awareness of it. Try to be aware of any gaps between the various types of mental

events and processes that arise, linger and pass in the stream of mental activity. This

mode of observation is sometimes called “naked awareness”. Try to remain calm and

relaxed, even when the torrent of thoughts and emotions passing through your mind

may be disturbed. Continue breathing normally. If you lose your focus, become

distracted, dull, confused, disturbed or disoriented, remember your “hand on the buoy

of the breath”, return to fully focusing your attention on the breath, regain some

stability and use that as a platform to again return your relaxed awareness to patiently

‘hovering’, sentry-like, without any expectations or lust of result, in the ‘space’ of the

mind, watching silently and attentively for any internal passing traffic.

25

Seven

Access concentration

Within the Buddhist system there are three realms of existence: the desire realm, the

form realm, and the formless realm. The desire realm is so called because beings

therein are dominated by sensual desires. Compared to the other two realms of

existence the desire realm is the coarsest; sentient beings’ consciousness is most

contracted and bound by corporeality, consciousness is dominated by physical senses,

and life spans are generally short. The form realm is a more subtle realm of existence;

the coarser levels of pains of physical suffering associated with the desire realm are

largely absent, consciousness is not bound by the physical senses, and the life spans

of beings there are generally much longer. The formless realm is subtler still;

consciousness is entirely free of physical constraint, it is expansive and incredibly

refined, and life spans are aeons in length. Each of these three realms – even the

subtle form and formless realms – are within samsara, the conditioned cycle of life

and death, and hence in the nature of dukkha, or suffering.

All ordinary human experience is in what is called the ‘desire realm’ which includes

the nine stages leading to shamatha. With the initial achievement of shamatha, a

practitioner gains access to the ‘form realm’. This initial entry is called access

concentration.

The concentrations

When the meditator has stabilised this concentration, they have left the desire realm

and have accessed the first meditative stabilisation. This is the first of four

concentrations in the form realm. The marker of this is that the mind is entirely free of

the ‘five hindrances’ of 1) sensual craving, 2) malice, 3) lethargy and drowsiness, 4)

excitation and anxiety, and 5) uncertainty or doubt. There exist a series of practices

that can be undertaken to deepen the absorption and master the four concentrations of

the form realm and the following four concentrations of the formless realm,

culminating in what is known as the peak of cyclic existence.

What is therefore experienced is a peace and wellbeing more profound than can be

imagined. However, because the concentrations within the form and formless realms

are still within samsara they are not considered liberation. These states are still

conditioned, impermanent, and do not last; they temporarily suppress the formation of

karma and influence of delusion, but they do not uproot the fundamental confusion

that misunderstands the ultimate nature of reality.

Union of shamatha and insight

Therefore the Buddha emphasised that if one seeks liberation, one must identify and

remove the root of samsara, the fundamental ignorance of ultimate reality. Shamatha

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can not do this; it does not investigate the nature of its object, it is simply awareness

trained to be stable and vivid. Therefore to eradicate ignorance, special insight must

be cultivated.

Shamatha is considered to still be of great use for this task. For this insight to

completely transform the mind, the insight must be stable, clear, vivid and

penetrative. It is therefore said that insight must be conjoined with the stability and

clarity of shamatha. Lama Tsongkhapa illustrates this in the following analogy:

“When examining a tapestry in a dark room, if you illuminate it with a radiant,

steady lamp, you can vividly examine the images. If the lamp is dim, or, though

bright, flickers in the wind, your observation will be impaired. Likewise, when

analyzing the nature of any phenomenon, support penetrating intelligence with

unwavering, sustained, voluntary attention, and you can clearly observe the real

nature of the phenomenon under investigation.”

The practice of insight involves questioning and challenging deeply held assumptions

and beliefs about how both you and the world exist. One of the reasons that great

stability is required in the attention is argued to be because one needs great strength

and fortitude to see the practice to its conclusion without being thrown off by the

impact of the challenge to oneself.

“Deep concentration promotes inner stability and integration. In this way, the

experience of deep concentration fulfils an important role in fortifying the ability

to withstand the destabilizing effect of those experiences that might be

encountered during advanced stages of insight meditation. Without a clam and

integrated mind, able to withstand the impact of such experiences, a practitioner

might lose the balanced stance of observation and become overwhelmed by fear,

anxiety, or depression. The development of mental calm thus builds up a healthy

degree of self-integration as a supportive basis for the development of insight.”

(Analayo)

Meditation: shamatha without an object

As with all the shamatha meditations, pay attention first to resting your body in its

natural state. Bring the mind into the body and into the present and settle into a really

relaxed and comfortable posture – again, you will really need to establish the stability

that comes from a very good, relaxed and well balanced posture. Just as in the

meditation settling the mind in its own state, well grounded stability is very important,

as increasing the clarity and vividness of the attention is necessarily a strong feature

of this practice and doing this without first establishing sufficient stability on the

foundation of a really relaxed state can end up just being a route to greater tension,

mental excitation and distraction.

The instructions for this practice are very, very simple. Once you are resting

comfortably in your posture, your mind in union with the body, present, calm, still

and alert, here and now and fully aware of all that is going on, begin with twenty-one

rounds of mindfulness of breathing. Keep your eyes open or at least half open, stare

into the space in front of you without focusing on anything at all and do nothing but

maintain your sentry-like awareness without attending to any object at all. That is it!

There should be no more or less to it than that.

27

You just rest in that state of awareness without being carried away or distracted by

any of the possible contents of the awareness – don’t follow anything, identify with

anything, embrace anything or repress or reject anything. Don’t grasp onto anything

at all. When any of this starts to happen, recognise it as early as you can and without

judgement or any sense of having failed, or any inner commentary whatsoever, just

gently and repeatedly bring yourself back to rest in the state of objectless awareness

and continue using just as much mindfulness and introspection as is necessary to

remain there in a really well balanced way without excitation or laxity - sufficient

focused mental energy to prevent your awareness from becoming dull but not so

much as it scatters and is prone to distraction.

You are resting your visual and mental gaze in the space between the point where you

feel you are looking from and the shapes and colours that appear in your field of

vision. It is very important just to rest your gaze in the space itself and not on any

particular visual or mental object. Most importantly, you are not directing or focusing

your awareness either inwardly or outwardly. Your awareness should be equally

present both inwardly and outwardly – in fact, prior even to making such a distinction

in your experience. You are cultivating a particular type of awareness here and its

predominant qualities are a combination of stillness, ease and calm with sharp, bright,

vivid clarity.

B. Alan Wallace advises:

“Continue breathing into the abdomen in an unforced manner. Now radically

simplify your awareness, not focusing on the breath, or even on the contents of

your mind. Settle your awareness in the very state of being aware. Perhaps

this is your most primary and reliable knowledge – prior to and more certain

than any knowledge you have of the outside world, even of your own body,

even of the contents of your mind. This is the awareness of the sheer fact of

being aware.”

Sometimes shamatha without an object is also called shamatha without a sign. You

are not focusing any object whatsoever, mental or physical. Simply let go and allow

the awareness to settle in its own nature. Whatever is going on externally, whatever

thoughts feelings and sensations occur, these events and processes just come and go

continually as they will. You are just not interested in them. You should not see them

as obstacles or things which disturb, threaten or obscure the nature of your awareness

but as manifestations of it. In the midst of all the relative noise and activity of the

world and the torrents of compulsive ideation and surges of feelings and sensations

you may become aware of a quality of your awareness that is profoundly relaxed,

unmoving, deep, unchanging, clear, luminous, knowing, silent and “still as space

itself.”

Be careful not to force anything, not to be impatient, not become either too tense or

intense in any way, physically or mentally. Don’t focus on increasing clarity and

vividness at the expense of your stability and relaxation and skilfully use a little

introspection to monitor your breathing – it should be flowing naturally and

effortlessly, breathing in to the abdomen as you started and in no way impeded or

constrained by the intensity of your concentrated attention.

28

Table

From: B. Alan Wallace. ‘The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the

Focused Mind’. Wisdom Publications.

29

Recommended Reading

B. Alan Wallace. ‘The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused

Mind’. Wisdom Publications.

Gen Lamrimpa (translated by B. Alan Wallace), ‘Samatha Meditation’, Snow Lion

Publications.

References

Analayo. ‘Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization’. Windhorse Publications.

Buddha. ‘The Dhammapada’, (translated by Gil Fronsdal), Shambhala.

Candragomin, quoted in: Lati Rimbochay, Denma Locho Rimbochay, Leah Zahler,

Jeffery Hopkins. ‘Meditative States in Tibetan Buddhism’. Wisdom Publications.

His Holiness Dalai Lama. ‘Stages of Meditation: Training the Mind for Wisdom’.

Rider.

Lamrimpa, Gen (translated by B. Alan Wallace). ‘Samatha Meditation’. Snow Lion

Publications.

McDonald, Kathleen (Sangye Khadro). ‘How to Meditate: A Practical Guide’.

Wisdom Publications.

Gedun Lodro, Geshe. (Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, co-edited by Anne C

Klein and Leah Zahler). ‘Walking Through Walls: A Presentation of Tibetan

Meditation’. Snow Lion Publications.

Orgyen Padmasambhava, quoted in: Gyatrul Rinpoche. ‘Natural Liberation:

Padmasambhava's Teachings on the Six Bardos’. Wisdom Publications.

Shantideva (translated by Padmakara Translation Group). ‘The Way of the

Bodhisattva’. Shambhala.

Thrangu Rinpoche, Khenchen. Essentials of Mahamudra: Looking Directly at the

Mind. Wisdom Publications.

Tsong Khapa, Lama. ‘Lam Rim Chen Mo: The Great Treatise on the Stages of the

Path to Enlightenment volume 3’. Snow Lion Publications.

Wallace, B. Alan. ‘Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfilment’, Wiley.

Wallace, B. Alan. ‘The Attention Revolution: Unlocking the Power of the Focused

Mind’. Wisdom Publications.

Wallace, B. Alan. ‘The Bridge of Quiescence: Experiencing Tibetan Buddhist

Meditation’. Open Court.

Wallace, B. Alan. ‘The Buddhist Tradition of Samatha: Methods for Refining and

Examining Consciousness’. Journal of Consciousness Studies. Available:

http://www.alanB. Alan Wallace.org/B. Alan Wallace-Samatha.pdf