10
VICTORIOUS MEDITATION
Virtuous behavior always comes first,
then skill in casting away conceptions,
and letting go of the definitions and characteristics of objects:
these are the instructions of the Victorious One.
—CHAPTER 14
UP UNTIL this point we have discussed the cultivation, conduct, and effort of a bodhisattva, which are the virtuous internal and external conditions that support meditative practice. Now it is time to learn the meditation of the Buddha. The root text of the King of Meditation Sutra says that those who meditate skillfully will be joyous and free from physical pain. They will naturally maintain their conduct, and their paths will be free from obstacles. Finally, they will sustain the view of the Buddha and will liberate themselves.
Whenever the Buddha speaks of the principles of Mahayana meditation, he always mentions three pillars: emptiness, the absence of characteristics, and wishlessness. We will discuss meditation in the context of these three pillars.
Nagarjuna taught that emptiness goes beyond the four extremes of existence, nonexistence, both, and neither. If we believe something to be real and to have inherent substance, we are grasping at existence. If we believe that all is void, we fall into the extreme of nonexistence. To believe that appearances are both existent and nonexistent is still grasping at an extreme, and likewise to believe that objects are neither existent nor nonexistent is the final extreme. Emptiness transcends conceptual grasping altogether. Until we realize emptiness, we jump from one extreme to another.
Shakyamuni Buddha said that to sustain the view of emptiness is to become free from the effort of maintaining samadhi, yet to nonetheless remain in samadhi. There are essentially two stages within the practice of meditation that lead to this effortless sustaining. Our meditation practice first takes an object of support, then subsequently it does not. The Buddha teaches both of these stages in the King of Meditation Sutra.
1ST: VISUALIZE THE RADIANT BUDDHA
With his pure body of golden hue,
the lord of this world is magnificent.
A bodhisattva who focuses on this perception
is maintaining samadhi….
Whoever brings to mind the form of the Tathagata
will have pacified senses and peace of mind.
His mind will always rest free of confusion.
—CHAPTER 4
We begin by visualizing the golden body of the Buddha and resting our attention upon that form. Imagine the Buddha appears in the sky before you upon a lotus throne. His shining body is immaculate—it is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen. Intentionally recollect his splendor. He is heavy and radiant with love and wisdom, and he directs his gaze at you. He is wide awake, free from judgment, compassionate, and omniscient. His wisdom light radiates out to you and to all beings. Endeavor in visualizing the Buddha, and the benefits will always follow you.
By cultivating the mind stream in that way,
you will see the protector of this world day and night.
When one day you become sick and unwell
and experience the suffering of imminent death,
your recollection of the buddha will not wane
and you will not be overcome by the experience of suffering.
Thus, those who inquire with wisdom
know all past and future phenomena to be empty,
and, abiding in the way things are,
they enjoy their practice and never tire.
—CHAPTER 4
Sustain this visualization and recall that the blissful nature of the Buddha is not separate from your own nature. This nature is unconditioned and causeless. Nobody made this causeless nature.
The wise understand the conditioned and the unconditioned
and, repudiating the conception of causes,
they abide within the causeless.
Thus they know all phenomena to be empty.
—CHAPTER 4
2ND: DISSOLVE THE VISUALIZATION
Abiding within the recognition that the nature of the Buddha is your nature, sustain the visualization of the Buddha for some time. Then, dissolve his form into space. As soon as you dissolve the visualization, rest in ease without focusing on anything whatsoever. Simply rest. This is shamatha, or calm-abiding, without focus. When we develop the ability to rest in shamatha without focus, we are beginning the practice of emptiness.
Youthful Moon, bodhisattva mahasattvas who master the wisdom that all phenomena are by nature insubstantial do not get attached to any form, sound, smell, taste, sensation, or mental phenomenon. They do not have aversion to them. They are not ignorant with regards to them. Why is that?
They do not truly perceive these phenomena; they do not ascertain these phenomena. So what attachment could they possibly have? To what could they be attached? Who could be attached? What aversion could they have? What could they have aversion to? Who could have aversion? What ignorance could they have? What could they be ignorant about? Who is there to be ignorant? They do not truly perceive or ascertain any of these phenomena.
—CHAPTER 8
Resting in stable shamatha free from focus, ask yourself the question: “Who is holding this view?” Look for the observer. The observer is neither in nor out. When you cannot find where the observer arises, let go of looking. This is how to see the mind. This is called “the absence of characteristics.” If you meditate in this way, the state of wishlessness comes naturally. You don’t cling to the thought of enlightenment and you don’t wish to be free from the lower realms. You have no hope and you have no fear. In this space, the empty nature will become apparent. When you see the empty nature, you see that form, sound, smell, taste, and touch are all empty. In the moment of seeing the empty nature, you have no desire, no anger, and no ignorance. In the moment of seeing, you will not see a single thing that has substantial existence. Do not cling.
When they are in the midst of a mountain forest,
people will sing, laugh, and cry out loud.
Though you hear these echoes, you pay them no heed.
Likewise, understand all phenomena to be this way.
—CHAPTER 9
3RD: IN POST-MEDITATION, EVERYTHING IS ILLUSION
Imagine you are alone in a mountain forest. All is quiet and clear and fresh. Drifting through the trees, you hear people laughing and talking and crying. You do not see the people, but the sound comes nonetheless. When you look for the sound—where it arises, where it abides, and where it goes—you cannot find it. It is mere sound, without basis. All phenomena are like this. Examine sounds this very moment. Where do they arise, where do they abide, where do they go?
When the moon rises in a clear sky
and its reflection appears in a clear lake,
the moon did not enter the water.
Likewise, understand all phenomena to be defined in this way.
—CHAPTER 9
In an utterly clear sky, you see the bright moon. Before you is a placid lake with not a single ripple stirring its surface. You look into the lake and there is the moon again. The moon did not come down and settle in the lake. It is only a reflection. All phenomena are like this reflection. Consider this and then look at appearances. Maybe you have heard this metaphor before? Do not leave it as a mere thought now but look freshly at what appears. Look and see how everything is like the moon in the lake.
Through the power of insight, which comes from training in meditation again and again, you witness nothing actually present within the appearances of our world. You don’t fabricate the experience of phenomena being insubstantial, nor do you overlay “nothingness” onto the world. You look with the power of increasing insight and see that all is like the moon in the clear lake. This is why we say that everything is emptiness, peace, and stainless from the beginning. What is there to be stained?
In the same way, a practitioner who desires to attain samadhi observes how the three poisons of attachment, aversion, and ignorance are dependent on the six objects of the senses. You see a pleasing form, and you experience desire. You hear a harsh sound or smell a repulsive odor, and you feel anger or aversion. When you meet the objects of form, sound, smell, taste, feeling, and phenomenal experience, you engage the continuity of karma. If you see the illusory nature of these objects, you will not be attached to them, and you will not perpetuate the cycle of samsara. Likewise, when you cannot find the desiring self, the angry self, or the ignorant self, then samsara untangles. This is how samadhi dawns.
Youthful Moon, how is it that bodhisattva mahasattvas master the essential wisdom of the insubstantiality of all phenomena? Youth, bodhisattva mahasattvas need to fully know that all phenomena are substanceless, essenceless, uncharacterized, undefined, unborn, unceasing, unwritten, empty, primordially peaceful, and naturally pure.
—CHAPTER 8
The Buddha says that whoever really practices insight meditation will not become stirred. They will be careful; they will recall the Buddha. They will maintain their conduct, and their wisdom will not flicker in and out. They will not abandon the Dharma, and they will always tame their mind in the correct way.
The true nature is empty, it is peace, and from the beginning it is stainless. Whoever realizes this and is never separate from this realization, we call a buddha. Whoever sees phenomena to be naturally untainted from the beginning, we call a buddha. A buddha has let go of all extremes.
Both “existence” and “nonexistence” are extremes,
just as purity and impurity are extremes as well.
Therefore, letting go of both types of extremes,
the wise do not remain in the middle either.
—CHAPTER 9
We cannot dwell in the extremes of existence and nonexistence, pure and impure, good and bad. But we should not remain stuck in the middle either, because that is also a position to which one clings. When we hold any position at all, we are entering into debate with other positions. As long as the tension of a position remains, we suffer. When we don’t have a position to defend, either through internal debate or debate with others, our suffering dwindles.
In the realization of emptiness, there is no conceptual thought. There are no objects to cling to. The appearances of the world are not truly established. That is the samadhi. One day, while meditating with the intention to realize this nature for the benefit of all beings, the subtle conceit of there being a meditator who is meditating will fall away altogether. That is the samadhi.
It is not possible for a normal being to be born with no fear. However, over the course of a single life, one can attain fearlessness. Fearlessness comes from wishlessness, which comes from abandoning pretense or conceit. It is possible to speak very eloquently about the Buddha’s teachings, meditate very diligently, and investigate the mind continuously with the intention to become liberated, yet still maintain conceit.
Even as they talk about the four noble truths,
the immature claim, “I see the truth.”
There can be no conceit in seeing the truth:
the Victorious One said truth is without conceit.
—CHAPTER 9
Immature people may say, “I saw the truth,” but in saying so they are grasping at it. The truth is actually the absence of grasping. If you grasp at having seen the truth, then you are no longer seeing the truth. Some people think they understand many teachings and are proud of hearing so much Dharma, but they never keep their discipline. Because they break their discipline, they descend into the lower realms. What you hear does not save you, and what you say about the truth does not save you. Once you completely rest in the absence of clinging, samadhi will dawn.
4TH; ALLOW FOR REALIZATION
Once you rest in meditation
without believing in anything,
this state devoid of any pretense
is known as samadhi.
—CHAPTER 13
There are two kinds of conceit. The first relates to view, and the second relates to conduct. The first conceit is to hold the thought, “My view is superior to your view.” If you think in this way, your view cannot be superior. The second conceit is to become inflated by the purity of your own conduct. If you are inflated, you haven’t attained the ultimate discipline. If you don’t study much and you don’t listen much, but you become so proud of your rigorous discipline, you are bound to fall from your proud heights. In this world, there are many meditators, but they do not reduce their ego-clinging at all. Consequently, negative emotions arise in them, again and again. These practitioners do not understand selflessness and do not apply the meditation that sees the empty nature. When they do, they will attain nirvana.
Once these types of conceit fall away, you become a spiritual medicine for the world. You become a treasury of wisdom with boundless dignity. You become open and generous. When you encounter people without support, you effortlessly become their support. You become the vessel that brings people to the shore of awakening. You become the answer.
What is the answer? It is the Dharma. You become the Dharma. Your mouth is the source from which words of truth flow. If you don’t have realization, the Dharma doesn’t issue forth from you—cannot issue forth from you—and your words lack power. The provisional words of the teachings are sacred, but even more sacred are the words that spring forth from an enlightened being as he or she moves through the world—words that are perfectly suited to your current situation the moment they issue forth.
If the Buddha hadn’t attained realization, then the Dharma would not have flowed forth from his mouth. We turn toward the Buddha because the Buddha is the source of the Dharma. If you connect with the realization that radiates from the Buddha, you become the Buddha in that moment, and all buddhas praise you. When you sit in connection with that realization, countless buddhas bless you. This is an overwhelming feeling.
This realization is not a state of absorption. It is nonmeditation, arising from the supportive conditions of making offerings, visualization, meditation, ethical conduct, and correct view. It is training in the nature. This nature is the dharmakaya, the ultimate state of the Buddha.
Those who abide in the dharmakaya
know all entities to be insubstantial.
Unraveling the perception of entities,
they do not see the form bodies of the buddha.
—CHAPTER 4
Training in the nature comes down to resting in the sky-like dharmakaya. This is what we call nonmeditation. Right and wrong, good and bad—the whole dualistic function of mind is abandoned. From meditation without focus, we gain the capacity for nonmeditation. We gain the capacity to just sit in the essential nature. We don’t retract the senses. If you sit like this, you are not abiding within the mind that discriminates and parses experience. When you leave the senses wide open and naturally sustain the absence of clinging, all things that appear are ornaments of the dharmakaya. Most of the time, we experience samsara, but when we sit like this, the mind itself is luminous.
Youth, the qualities of the buddha are infinite, inconceivable, unthinkable, unimaginable, immeasurable. Why is that? Youth, the nature of mind is formless and undefinable. Youth, that nature of mind is the essence of the Buddha’s qualities. The essence of the Buddha’s qualities is the essence of the tathagatas. The essence of the tathagatas is the essence of all phenomena.
—CHAPTER 12
The Wisdom of the Time of Death Sutra says that when the mind realizes itself, it is wisdom. Do not search for the Buddha elsewhere. When you realize the empty nature of the mind, that is the moment of knowing buddha, the awakened state that is indivisible from Shakyamuni Buddha and that is the essence of all phenomena.
This meditation eliminates attachment, liberates aversion, and is beyond ignorance. When you start to meditate in this way, you surpass ignorance and the source of samsaric struggle. We all innately have this wisdom. We must simply unfold it.
I must say again that in order to practice this profound meditation that is nonmeditation, many conditions must come together. If we just try to sit and rest in the mind’s nature, we throw ourselves against an invisible wall and we won’t achieve the result we wish for. The Buddha teaches us here, in this text, how to bring about the conditions that lead to realizing emptiness. So, assemble all of the conditions! Then, place your mind on the form of the Buddha, dissolve the form, and rest in calm-abiding without focus. When you effortlessly see the mind’s nature, that is the great seal of the dharmakaya, that is the great understanding.
The fruition of the mind
that rests in meditation
has the same character, name, and form;
these are pure and luminous.
—CHAPTER 18
Awakening to Victorious Meditation
Developing Shamatha by Visualizing the Buddha
1. Train in maintaining a clear and steady visualization of the form of the Buddha. He is golden-hued, heavy with love and wisdom, and he directs his transcendent eyes at you. Feel the presence of the Buddha and the ceaseless blessings he bestows.
2. Dissolve the visualization into space by shrinking the form of the Buddha until it is completely gone.
3. Rest in shamatha, calm-abiding, without focusing on anything.
4. Endeavor in this practice until you have developed stable shamatha without a focus. This will take many practice sessions. Once you have developed stability in this, begin to connect with the natural buddha, as instructed below.
Connecting with the Natural Buddha
Proceed through the visualization and recollection of the Buddha’s wisdom-presence, just as stated above. Remind yourself that the Buddha before you is always present and is never separate from the nature of your mind. The Buddha slowly shrinks, but instead of dissolving into space, he melts into light and then dissolves into you. Then, rest in the state of knowing that you are never separate from the Buddha’s nature.
Within this resting state:
1. Whatever thoughts arise within your mind, their very nature is empty.
2. When looking at the awareness of that, it is also empty.
3. Rest without grasping.
Enhance your practice in the following ways:
- Make offerings to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
- Practice the visualization of the Buddha continuously in order to enhance the transcendent dignity that knows you are never separate from the Buddha.
- Develop compassion through training in all aspects of the path.