"The Significance of Meditation in Tibetan Buddhism" An Article written by the late Khenpo Migmar Tsering, Abbot of Sakya College* from May 1989 until February 1999 (This Article has been extracted from the Silver Jubilee Magazine 1997 of the prestigious Sakya College for the studies of the Highest Buddhist Philosophy at Dehra Dun, Northern India) and is dedicated to my precious Teacher's memory, sharing his exemplary knowledge with all dharma friends. Serene Tan, December 2002 Introduction Meditation is considered as an indispensable part of practice in all the Buddhist traditions. Whether it is one particular form of practice or a complete set of practices for someone in pursuit of Nirvana, learning and contemplation always precede meditation. A practitioner first learns the concerned subject through listening to the teachings of learned masters. Next through the intelligence of the mind-consciousness he contemplates on whatever he has studied. Finally, he sets his mind upon the resolved point and familiarises with it, which is called the practice of meditation. The literal meaning of meditation, which is "Bhavana" in Sanskrit and "sGom" in Tibetan, is to familiarise with or to get accustomed to or to acquaint with. The procedure is that in the search for the truth when you come to a certain conclusion of an analysis then you practice to place your mind one-pointedly on the object until your mind becomes inseparable from it. To achieve this one must seek the help of mindfulness and alertness. The first part of meditation where an investigation is carried out is called "analytical meditation" whereas the actual part of one- pointed concentration is known as "meditation of placement". Meditation is also represented by the fifth of the six paramitas or perfections, which are generosity, morality, patience, effort, absorption (dhyana) and knowledge. It is also one of the three meritorious deeds, of which the other two are generosity and morality. In every case meditation is the only way to put the teachings onto practice. There are different meditation practices meant for common and uncommon practitioners. The common practitioners follow the teachings of the sutra, which includes Mahayana and Hinayana, and the uncommon ones, practice according to Tantra. To put it briefly the Tantric meditations involve meditations on deities, breathing, chakras, energy- channels and elements. Tantra also deals with meditations of "Mahamudra", "Great Perfection" and "the Non-differentiation of Samsara and Nirvana". It is quite a popular practice in Tibetan system for practitioners to engage in meditation retreats of specific deities and sadhanas for a length of period ranging from one month to three years and even the whole life. Since Tantric practices cannot be discussed in public without the audience having the prerequisite of receiving an "abhishekh" or "empowerment" I will not deal with this any further. Loving Kindness The common transic absorption consists of loving kindness, compassion and enlightenment thought. The common experience is the practice which generates a pure and uncontrived wish to selflessly undertake the benefit and happiness of sentient beings throughout space. The method to gain such a wish is to meditate on loving kindness, which is the desire to benefit other beings; to meditate on compassion, which is the desire to destroy the suffering of others and to meditate on the thought of enlightenment, which is the desire to gain Buddhahood or greater Nirvana for the sake of others. Regarding the first meditation one should think that from beginningless time one has been disregarding all sentient beings who have been one's kind mother by striving to gain the happiness of liberation for oneself alone. This is like a mother being carried away by a river while her son happily remains indifferent on the dry bank though he has the means to rescue her. The enlightenment of Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas is incomplete because it fails to accomplish the perfect qualities of realisation and abandonment for the purpose of self, and lacks the vast activities that benefit the purpose of others. It is like bad workmanship that is hard to correct, and ultimately it will take a long time to gain Buddhahood. Therefore, it is not an object for which intelligent persons should strive. For these reasons one should love sentient beings like a mother loves her children, and one should diligently practice meditation of loving kindness from the bottom of one's heart with the desire that all sentient beings gain happiness. The nature of loving-kindness is as follows. One's perception is directed towards the object, sentient beings, through the manner of wishing that they be possessed of happiness and the cause of happiness. To meditate on loving kindness, one should begin by meditating on loving kindness for one's enemies because it is more difficult to generate it toward them. Finally, one should meditate on loving kindness for all sentient beings. As for the first, one should begin by meditating on loving kindness for one's mother. Secondly one should merge that meditation with other relatives and, finally, one should merge that meditation with ordinary beings. To meditate on loving kindness for one's mother one should first think of one's mother, then thinks of her kindness and lastly think of the need to repay her kindness. The same process should be applied to all other objects. Compassion Compassion is of three types: a) compassion in reference to sentient beings b) compassion in reference to Dharma and c) Compassion in reference to no object. To meditate upon the first compassion one should bring one's mother to mind recollect her kindness, her being one's mother in many lives, and so on, as done during meditation on loving kindness. Then one should think, "For the reason of having worked and worked for me, she has been roaming in this world without free will and has experienced great torment. This is pitiful. I need to repay her kindness by kindness and her benefit by benefit. What would be most beneficial to her? She can be benefited directly by being separated from suffering, and indirectly being separated from the cause of suffering can benefit her. However, at the present time, having gone in a completely opposite direction, she is experiencing suffering manifestly in this life, and through enjoying non-virtue she is producing the cause of suffering. This is pitiful. How greatly I wish that she could be free from suffering and from the cause of suffering. I will make her gain the state that is free from suffering and its cause". Likewise, one should meditate on compassion for one's relatives and other ordinary beings. In order to meditate on compassion in reference to Dharma one should think, "Since suffering also arises from cause of Karma and Delusion, which in turn originate from Ignorance, it is pitiful that sentient beings are being endowed with Ignorance". As for compassion in reference to no object one should think that even though sentient beings do not exist in their own essence they are tightly bound by self-grasping, the cause of suffering. Having directed one's thought to this one meditates in the manner of desiring to free them from suffering and self- grasping. Thought of Enlightenment Although the above-mentioned meditations are needed in assisting one to accomplish the unsurpassable enlightenment, but through them alone one will not be able to obtain enlightenment. For example, if one doesn't cut the root of a plant, no matter how many times one cuts off the leaves and branches, they will grow back again. Likewise, if one doesn't cut off the root of worldly existence, i.e. self-grasping, one should forget about enlightenment because the suffering of Samsara arises from Karma, Karma arises from the delusions and delusions arise from the self-grasping. Being under the sway of complete Ignorance of one's own nature, just as one mistakes a coloured rope for a snake, so one holds a "self" and an "I" where there is no "self" and "I". Therefore, there arises the grasping at the thought, "I", which is imputed upon a baseless object. Due to this, in relation to that "I" there arises the grasping of "others". In this way, one has attachment to self, hatred toward others and Ignorance of one's own nature. So based upon the accumulation of Karma, which are motivated by the three poisons, one gains this chain of births in the world of existence, and having taken birth here, all faults arise. Therefore, the root of all faults of Samsara is self-grasping. The intelligent ones who care for their own well being look upon self-grasping as an enemy and diligently meditate on the two enlightenment thoughts in order to subdue it. Through meditating on them the relative enlightenment thoughts restrains self- grasping and the ultimate enlightenment thought is able to extract self-grasping from its root. The characteristic of the thought of enlightenment is an extraordinary practice of gaining perfect enlightenment. It excludes both the worldly mind and personal liberation (Nirvana). Therefore, it is established that the enlightenment thought is the thought of non-residing Nirvana of Mahayana. The actual practice of enlightenment thought consists of cultivating: a) the wishing enlightenment thought, which is the desire for the result for the sake of others, b) the entering enlightenment thought, which is the training on the path for the sake of the result and c) The ultimate enlightenment thought, which is the combination of calm abiding and insight wisdom. The first two thoughts are called the relative enlightenment thought because these can be obtained through a strong determination or a ritual. The third one is called the ultimate enlightenment thought because it is obtained simultaneously with the direct realisation of the ultimate truth. Calm Abiding and Insight Wisdom The method for producing the ultimate enlightenment thought has two aspects of calm abiding (samatha) and insight wisdom (vipasyana). In the practice of calm abiding all discriminating thoughts are pacified and the mind is placed upon and remains in its own radiance. In the insight wisdom one dispels the obscuring veil of subject and object and penetrates into the true nature of all phenomena individually without confusing them and sees the face of primordial mind itself. Insight wisdom is necessary to extract the delusion of self -grasping from its root, and calm abiding is necessary to produce that insight wisdom. Since calm abiding depends upon isolation of the body and mind one should first abandon all worldly activities like farming and trading, and all mental relations to outer and inner sense-objects like attachment to other living beings. If one does not abandon these one will not be able to produce the real meditative state of one- pointedness of mind. Obstacles of Meditation Having resided in a solitary place one should meditate on calm abiding through first recognising the five obstacles to be rejected and relying upon the corrective measures of these obstacles. The five obstacles are as follows: 1) Laziness: This is an obstacle we face for everything virtuous we try to do in our life. It prevents oneself from engaging in the practice and obliterates one's motivation in the practice. One needs to familiarise oneself with the teachings on impermanence in order to develop diligence in meditation. To test your diligence you need to go for short meditation retreat and experience real peace and calmness. 2) Forgetfulness: This obstacle is experience by those who have already engaged themselves in meditation and who have received some instructions but now cannot remember all the details of the practice. To overcome this one needs to attend more teachings from one's master and associate with many learned colleagues to clarify one's understanding. One main cause of forgetfulness is one's lack of proper motivation, which is also an indication of an insufficient knowledge of practice. One should not forget to prepare all necessary requirements before starting the session, such as a comfortable cushion etc. Next ensure that you know all the body postures and their significance before watching the breath as the object of meditation. If you have fully developed mindfulness then all the antidotes in the practice of meditation will appear continuously without forgetfulness, as in being constantly mindful of food and drink when hungry or thirsty. 3) Sinking and Excitement: These obstacles occur only when one has already got into the habit of doing meditation practice and already overcome the problems of aches and pains in the body. By now one would have already become familiarised with the object of meditation and face the obstacle of gross sinking. This is a form of internal distraction, which is often mistaken for meditation, a depression in the intensity of the mind's clarity. The meditator would notice a sense of stability, thinking it is the development of meditation when in fact it is gross sinking. The mind will have not much clarity nor will any external object distract it any longer; it is a mental stagnation. In other words, there is mental stability without any clarity. Subtle sinking takes place when one has mental stability with clarity but no intensity. This is the most common obstacle, which many meditators think is true calm-abiding. Here one requires to tighten one's awareness to avoid the problem of looseness, which has caused the lack of intensity. Excitement is the agitated mind that involuntarily goes after external objects. Whether it is going after virtuous thoughts or not it should be stopped in this case of calm-abiding as it is forgetting the object of resting the mind. 4) Non-application: This problem is related to third obstacle. If one does not recognise the obstacles with mindfulness and awareness one will not use the antidotes. So one has to be fully familiarised with the possible obstacles that may occur in one's meditation and know the exact antidotes. 5) Over- application: When the antidotes to sinking and excitement are applied one can develop a habit of using them too often, even when it is not necessary. It is therefore a fault to use antidotes when there are no obstacles. The forceful attention should be interrupted or relaxed. But one should not relax it totally, as there is the danger of re-occurrence of the third obstacle. The antidote to this problem is applying the antidotes equally and only when necessary. Seven-Point Meditative Posture The seven body postures of Meditation are as follows: 1) One should sit in the cross-legged posture symbolising an unbreakable pledge and firm foundation. Remember that Lord Buddha became enlightened in this posture. 2) One should straightened one's spine like a straight arrow which represents the directness and sharpness of the path of meditation. 3) One should place one's right hand in the left hand in meditative posture and hold them beneath one's navel. This posture represents the nature of the path of meditation, which is the harmonious unification of skilful method and penetrative insight. 4) One should balance one's shoulders and arms like the wings of a vulture about to fly. This posture represents the wings of compassion and wisdom ready to fly to the state of ultimate happiness. 5) One should let one's chin press down so as to bend the neck slightly. This helps to focus one's mind and prevents one from falling asleep. 6) One should neither shut one's eyes nor open them widely. Keep one's eyes gazing at a point straight ahead from the tip of one's nose for the auspiciousness of finding the eye of wisdom. 7) One should leave one's tongue and lips in a normal condition. This helps to avoid the extreme problems of dryness and wetness of mouth and allows to feel the cool breath going in and out in between one's teeth. Insight Wisdom The practitioner, who has attained the joy of one-pointed concentration of mind through meditating on calm abiding in this way, should then strive to master the ways which produce the discriminative understanding of insight wisdom. The reason for this is that the true purport of all the teachings of Buddha is the development of this wisdom. One will not be able to transcend worldly existence because the root of viewing self existence cannot be cut off by the mere meditation on emptiness devoid of the realisation of the two types of selflessness, nor by mental concentration devoid of discriminative insight wisdom. To ascertain this realisation of selflessness, one has to first recognise the nature of appearances, then keep the mind in the state free from conceptual extremes and finally develop the unshakeable understanding that the nature of mind is inexpressible. Conclusion Mixing together the stilling of all thoughts, in which there is no mental activity whatsoever at the time of calm abiding, and the destruction of all imputations by perfect wisdom, in which no objects of mental activity whatsoever are found at the time of insight wisdom, into the one taste of the practice of meditating on emptiness (shunyata) is the practice of the merging of calm abiding and insight wisdom. Through placing the mind in this way in many short periods with short intervals in between, one will accomplish this merging meditation and will be free from deviating from the path. If one fails to understand these essential points, then no matter how firm one's calm abiding practice maybe, it will still be within the worldly meditative states. Likewise, no matter how good one's realisation of insight wisdom maybe, it will deviate into one of the four formless realms. Therefore, it is very important to cut off deviant transic absorptions and practice correctly. Even between meditative sessions, one should not let the consciousness of the sense organs be widely diffused into their respective objects and one should understand that all appearances are not beyond the sphere of reality (i.e. dharmadhatu) and so are merely projections of mind. Within that state of mind one should work for the welfare of sentient beings as much as one is able.