11 Further StepsSTEPS 5–7
IN THE DISCOURSE on transcendental dependent arising, the next, deeper absorptions now follow. Having entered the first room of the eight-room mansion mentioned earlier, there is no real difficulty in making our way into the other rooms. It is a natural progression.
In the second absorption two factors disappear: initial application and sustained application. They are no longer necessary, because if one has been able to concentrate one-pointedly, there is no need to apply oneself again. So it is a natural progression that centers upon one of the factors that arose in the first meditative absorption, namely, happiness, inner joy. Because of the very pleasant physical sensations that are present in the first absorption, joy arises. In the second absorption one has to separate the physical feeling from emotional joy. The meditator now knows quite consciously that physical feelings are still very gross sensations, and naturally wants to progress toward something more subtle. Emotional joy is comparatively more subtle than pleasant physical feelings. Since joy is already present in the first absorption, there is no difficulty in focusing on it. It’s a matter of separation, which means letting go of the physical sensation and fixing one’s attention on the emotional aspect of being happy.
It is a progressive letting go, and the first step is to let go of the pleasant physical sensation. Both the physical feeling and the joy are somewhat akin to exhilaration. They are, at first, quite amazing and exciting. Although they demand some depth of concentration, there is a natural recognition that this surely cannot be all.
In the second meditative absorption, self-confidence arises. This is not a feeling of superiority, which is usually based on a feeling of inferiority, but the certainty of being able to find happiness within, and at will. When the process is still “hit or miss,” it does not inspire confidence; however, when it becomes an established procedure, self-confidence is gained. This self-confidence is not only based on finding happiness within but also on the ability to make progress on the spiritual path—a progress so marked that one knows with certainty that it is entirely different from one’s former discursive thinking, so that an inner stability is created. This self-confidence in one’s ability to proceed on the spiritual path and to find happiness within bears fruit in our daily life. One outcome, which is quite significant, is a lessening of the need for appreciation and support from others, because with inner support, one is moving toward independence and self-sufficiency.
Since we are all looking for happiness, to be self-sufficient in happiness is, of course, a very important step. Up to that point we have been looking for happiness somewhere outside ourselves. To become really self-sufficient in our most significant emotional aspect carries with it an inner security, which is not dependent on other people’s approval. Neither does it depend on the understanding or the love of others. If these are not available, happiness is not in any way impaired.
Inner happiness depends on concentration and not on someone else’s approval. From that realization arises a very distinct understanding that one is the maker of one’s own happiness or unhappiness. One loses a lot of the foolishness that most of us carry around, namely thinking thoughts detrimental to our own happiness. The practice of tranquility, if carried out correctly, brings insight, and is the skillful means toward that end.
Insights arise to an intelligent mind as an inner reality. There is nothing to grasp or crave in order to gain insight. Understanding our experience makes it possible to relate cause to effect and be deeply touched. This applies to all experiences in our life. Not watching carefully when crossing a street and almost being run over enables us to relate crossing the street to being more careful, without searching for that insight. It’s an automatic progression. Having experienced inner happiness that results from concentration, we automatically realize that other people or outside circumstances do not of themselves make us happy or unhappy. It’s entirely up to us. The arising of self-confidence shows us that we are actually capable of making ourselves happy, not through indulgence or through pleasures of the senses, but strictly through spiritual practice. Self-discipline is the most important, most significant aspect of staying with the practice and gradually acknowledging its priority more and more.
Although the second meditative absorption brings self-confidence, the meditator knows that its inherent experience of inner joy still has a certain gross aspect, because it contains a subtle excitement. As a natural further progression, he or she inclines toward something more restful, more peaceful.
The next depth of absorption can be described as contentment. Traditionally it is not called by that name, but in experiencing it, that quality is evidenced. The mind is settling down, whereas at the stages of physical rapture and inner joy it appears to be flying high. The actual experience feels as if the mind is moving into a new depth. Wishes and desires that are usually present, even subconsciously, subside after we have experienced inner joy. When there is no desire, no craving, then there is also no suffering, and that brings peaceful contentment.
An interesting analogy is used in one of the commentaries on the first four absorptions, which vividly illustrates what happens.
A person is wandering through the desert without any water and is suffering from extreme thirst. This is us when we are beset by discursive thoughts. We are thirsting for peacefulness, inner ease, and harmony while wandering through the desert of our discursive thinking. No relief is yet in sight.
The wanderer in the desert sees a pool of water in the distance. He becomes quite excited and certainly extremely interested. This relates to the first absorption, containing physical rapture, which has an element of excitement in it. It is possible to translate the word pīti (physical rapture) as “interest,” because usually real interest in meditation begins at this point—a feeling of hopefulness and pleasure arises that relief from thirst is near.
The wanderer draws close to the water, stands right at the edge of it, and knows he will now be able to find relief. There is happiness mingled with excitement at this prospect. This is an analogy for the second meditative absorption. He bends down to drink and is content, having obtained what he needed and wanted. Finally, he lies down in the shade of a nearby tree, totally at ease.
The third meditative absorption is described as contentment, the physical feeling of rapture having disappeared. One-pointedness and happiness are the two factors remaining of the five initial aspects encountered in the first absorption. In the fourth absorption, only one-pointedness remains; this results in equanimity, or total peacefulness, comparable to our wanderer having found complete ease in the shade of a tree. This peacefulness is of such depth that sounds are no longer heard, and it is a complete rest for the mind. This is the state of meditation in which the mind recharges itself with new energy.
We are apt to take the mind for granted. It thinks from morning to night and it dreams from night to morning, constantly busy. We expect that it will keep on doing that, and we hope that one day it may do it better. Unless we provide an opportunity for it to do so, it is highly unlikely that it will. On the contrary, it will do it increasingly badly, because the mind, being the finest tool in the whole universe, has to be treated like any other delicate tool. If it is abused and not given a moment’s rest, it will eventually stop functioning, or at least it will not function very well. So instead of hoping that our mind will one day do better, we should realize that by overworking it with all our discursive thinking we shall blunt its capacity. The mind has the potential to regenerate itself, and it is imperative that we make use of that potential. When the mind is totally at rest, when it does not have to attend to any sense contacts, it is completely secluded, and can revert back to its primal purity to regenerate its energy.
The four absorptions are modes of getting in touch with the original purity of the mind, which is available when we are not thinking. It is our thinking process that brings the defilements or impurities. We have lost the ability to stop thinking, and therefore we are no longer aware of the original purity. In the meditative absorptions we have an opportunity to retrieve the original mind, which has the potential for rapture, joy, contentment, and peace. Our experience of these states makes it possible to progress on the path of insight.
When we experience deep peace and contentment, with no wishes, no problems, the world can no longer hold the same attraction for us as it used to, and we have taken a step toward liberation. When we have the ability to actualize within ourselves exactly that which we have subconsciously yearned for, then we will no longer search for happiness outside. The experience of a totally peaceful state of mind, which has no contact with the senses, tells us that our senses are our temptations. They are constantly tempting us into reacting. Only when we have had an experience without sense contacts—so much superior in happiness to anything we have previously known—are we willing and able to abandon our search for pleasant feelings. This doesn’t mean that we shall be without agreeable sensations from now on; but our expectation that we shall find fulfillment through our senses is dropped, and with it all disappointments. When we no longer look for lasting results through our senses, we are able to enjoy ourselves far more fully.
As a result of the peacefulness of the meditative absorptions, the mind gains the ability to accept the premise of no individual personality. The mind that does not possess its own inner happiness and peace finds it hard to accept that all our striving has been in vain. But the mind that is already peaceful and happy has no objection. On the contrary, it is delighted to find that worldly matters are truly inferior. The path through the meditative absorptions to insight is beset with far fewer obstacles to the acceptance of absolute reality.
Although it is possible to gain insight without the meditative absorptions, because the mind calms down anyway when meditation is practiced for long enough, it is a difficult path. The mind revolts against the unknown and untried, and it very often blocks off the insights, which a completely happy, contented, and peaceful mind would never do. On the contrary, a contented mind is wide open, pliable, malleable, and expansive. The Buddha took the path of the meditative absorptions.
Some people are more inclined toward the peaceful, calm, and gentle way, and others are attracted to a dynamic, quick, and forceful approach. The latter easily results in resistance. It is to our advantage to use the absorption capacity of our mind to alter our level of awareness to the point where we have no difficulty in accepting the absolute truth of “being nobody.” That takes courage and a willingness to relinquish our concepts. To meditate without discursive thinking requires the abandonment of our ego awareness, which only exists through the support of our thoughts. Naturally, the ego manifests itself again after we come out of meditation. But if we have had the blissful experience of no “I,” even momentarily, we will find it much easier to recognize the ego illusion.
The first three meditative absorptions are not difficult to achieve. It is a matter of relaxing, letting go, with no desire to be anything or anyone or to gain new knowledge. We allow the mind to settle down, to release itself from conceptual thinking, from its worries and ideas, and to concentrate on the subject of meditation instead. People often find it difficult even to form an idea of inner joy, much less experience it. We need to accept the fact that it exists within us and that we can discover it.
Meditative absorptions are dependent on inner purity, even though that purity may be momentary. Whatever purity we can arouse in daily living helps us to enter into the meditative absorptions. To attain purity in daily living means that we are mindful of our thoughts and our reactions, so that we can let go of unwholesome and negative ones. This makes the meditative path much easier. The way of practice with the meditative absorptions creates a deep-seated interest and keeps us on the meditation pillow, which in turn makes daily life far easier to cope with. It is no longer full of great burdens and difficulties, but only contains the ordinary unsatisfactoriness that is universally acceptable, and doesn’t impinge on one’s consciousness in such a way that one feels depressed or unhappy about it. Although we can’t carry our meditation experience with us into daily life, we certainly carry a residue that sustains us, and the mind knows it has a home to which it can retreat.
QUESTIONS
STUDENT: Is it possible to practice both calm and insight at the same time?
AYYA KHEMA: When it is possible for the mind to enter into the absorptions, insights are generated spontaneously. Both have to be practiced.
S: Does discursive thinking totally disappear, or does it just lose its solidity?
AK: In the beginning it loses its solidity; that is called “neighborhood concentration”—when we need no longer put a label on our thoughts. Thinking becomes like a cloud in the background. The next step is to lose even that wispy kind of thinking and be only with the breath. The mind eventually relaxes and is absorbed in the breath, so that mind and breath become one.
S: You said at one point that terror arises when we realize that we are not the personality we thought we were. Could that be the first real experience of “egolessness”?
AK: It is a result of experiencing impermanence so strongly that we find nothing to hang on to. Then there is “nobody,” but because this terrifies us, it cannot develop into a path moment of total inner vision.
S: Do we automatically develop a happy mind as we progress through the absorptions, or do we have to make a special effort, such as practicing more loving-kindness meditations?
AK: For some people, loving-kindness meditations can in themselves be an entry into absorptions. When we are able to open our hearts, our minds do the same.
S: Would these absorptions happen in one meditation session, or is this something that takes many years? Does one finish with one absorption and stop a while before going on to the next?
AK: They follow each other quickly if there’s some guidance. The first and second absorptions actually arise together—we just have to differentiate between them—and the third is a natural progression. The fourth is more difficult; more time has to be spent in meditation, such as is available in a solitary retreat, for instance.
S: Can one do this without a teacher?
AK: Yes, but it’s tedious, it takes much longer, and it isn’t quite as satisfying, because one is never quite sure that one is doing it correctly. In the end one usually looks for somebody to substantiate one’s own experiences.