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What the Buddha Taught Why Meditate?

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What the Buddha Taught Why Meditate? Updated October 3, 2020 What the Buddha Taught Why Meditate? This first lesson, in addition to teaching breath meditation, also covers the follow- ing topics: The Four Noble Truth The Four Focuses of Mindfulness Why Meditate? Preamble to Sitting Meditation Sitting Meditation and Mindfulness of the Breath The Sound of Silence Clear Comprehension Moment by Moment Mindfulness Throughout the Day Appendix The Four Noble Truths The Buddha taught one thing and one thing only - that suffering exists and how to end it. Or in other words, he taught us how to be happy. This is exemplified in the title of the Dalai Lama’s book, “The Art of Happiness”. By suffering, the Buddha was refer- ring to the suffering that comes from mental anguish. We create our own suffering by ag- itating in our minds over things that are happening or wish were happening. I am sure we have all observed how the same calamity can happen to different people and how some appear unruffled by it and others appear destroyed by it. The teaching of the Buddha points the way to being unruffled by the ups and downs of life. This is the state of equa- nimity or serenity. The Buddha’s teaching on suffering and its end is known as The Four Noble Truths. These truths and the actions (duties) needed with each one are: 1. Suffering exists - we all know this from experience. The duty is to understand that suf- fering is occurring. 2. There is a path to suffering - this is the law of cause and effect. The effect (suffering) has discernible cause which boils down to wanting. The duty is to let it go, abandon the cause. 3. There is an end to suffering - this is the good news! The duty is to realize it when par- ticular sufferings have ended, which gives the hope that all suffering can be ended. (We all grow old, get sick and die. This will not change. What can end is our mental agitation about this reality and all the other stressors in our world). 4. There is a path to the end of suffering. The duty is to develop this path. The Four Focuses of Mindfulness Mindfulness is one of the key skills that is developed on the path to end suffering. There are four different focuses of mindfulness. These are: 1. The body or external physical objects. One aspect of the body is the breath. We will focus on mindfulness of the breath in this first session. In later sessions we will cover mindfulness of other aspects of the body. 2. Feeling tone - With every sensory input.there immediately arises a sensation that is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral In Buddhist teaching, thoughts are considered sensory in- puts along with sights, tastes, touch, smells and sounds. 3. The mind - referring to consciousness and its emotional colourings. 4. Dhamma categories, Dhamma referring to the teachings of the Buddha. Why Meditate? First, we should talk about, "What does meditation have to do with the ending of suffering?" Since wanting is the reason we suffer, our goal is to let go of wanting. As begin- ner meditators, this wanting refers to wanting things the world can't give us. For exam- ple: when we are restless or depressed or angry at someone for letting us down, wanting the situation to be different in this moment causes more suffering....because this is the re- ality at this moment. This is the way it is. We can also want future goals. That's ok, but they are in the future. Once we have put in place the steps to achieve our goal, we then need to return to this present moment, where that goal is NOT a reality yet, and to find contentment in this moment. Otherwise, we have condemned ourself to misery until the goal is achieved. So, we meditate to notice wanting and to let it go. It's not easy to notice wanting as it can be very subtle or is just lost in all the millions of thoughts that jam our brain. It's like leaves on the forest floor. There are so many, it's almost impossible to notice a particular leaf. But if we sweep away the leaves from a pathway, we will notice when a leaf falls on the bare path. This is like our mind. When it is so full of thoughts, we don't notice wanting arising. But if we sit in meditation and our mind stills, then it is obvious when a wanting thought arises. We can then sweep it away and prevent suffering from arising. To give us a complete picture: As we develop our meditation practice and experience the bliss that comes with stilling the mind, our definition of suffering may change. Initially we are infatuated with the pleasures that the sensory world can offer. We use the meditation practice to allow our- self to get maximum pleasure from the world and minimize any suffering. However we start to lose interest in these pleasures of the world when we have the option of the bliss of stillness in meditation. We see that the pleasures of the world are all temporary....im- permanent. We need to keep putting out effort to create new pleasures when the old ones cease. (This is known as the "continuous round of samsara") This grows weary. (The term for this is "nibbidha"). Preamble to Sitting Meditation We are starting off meditation instructions with sitting breath meditation, as this is what we first encounter when we attend a meditation group. Because established groups have many long term meditators in attendance, their peaceful energy "carries along" new people who are not used to sitting silently and still for 30 minutes or so. However, once a "new" meditator attempts this at home, alone, it may feel too agi- tating to do sitting meditation for more than a few minutes. This was my own case. I wrote a four part article called "Sanghamitta's Spiritual Journey" to give new meditators encouragement: that we can go from a frantic mind to a peaceful one. Part one is found under the Articles tab on our website, on the last page. For those who are also starting with a very agitated mind, lesson two, where walking meditation is discussed, may be a more appropriate starting point. One final comment re our meditation practice: meditation is like gardening. Gar- deners put in all the conditions they can for a good crop, but they can't make the crop grow. They can't hurry up the process by pulling on seedlings! They put in the condi- tions and then they sit back and wait.....for the sun and rain and quality of the seed and the earth to bring forth, in its own time, the fruits of their labour. In the same way, as meditators, we put in the conditions to still our mind in meditation, but we aren't in con- trol of when the result will be realized. So, don't focus on the result. Focus on the present moment, putting in the conditions as explained below, and then sit back and wait, being content in this present moment. Sitting Meditation and Mindfulness of the Breath There are 2 aspects of meditation: (1) stillness and (2) insight into the Four Noble Truths and other "truths" the Buddha taught. Both of these aspects are needed to relieve ourselves of suffering. We cannot truly separate these two aspects. They are like oppo- site ends of the same stick or the opposite sides of a coin. But we can lean our practice towards one or the other. However, it’s hard to gain insight if the mind is not still. So we will start by focus- ing on a calming meditation technique that allows us to experience stillness. a) Focus on our body: Make sure we are in a comfortable posture. If sitting on a chair, we have our feet touch the floor or a support. We have our back away from the chair back, to promote wakefulness. If sitting on a cushion, we make sure that our hips are level with or higher than our knees and that our knees are supported. We have our spine straight, chin slightly tucked and shoulders relaxed. If we rock back and forth on our sit bones, this helps us to find our point of balance. Coming to rest at this point, we can sit effortlessly compared to sitting in a slightly off-balance position. If we have back problems and have to medi- tate lying down, one suggestion is to bend our knees so our feet are flat on the floor and to raise one forearm straight up, with our elbow on the floor. This will help us maintain wakefulness. Eyes can be open or closed. If closed, we leave them shut unless we get sleepy. Then opening our eyes is one way to arouse wakefulness. If we start with eyes open, we have a soft focus onto the floor a few feet in front. We do not look around. If after awhile, our eyes want to close on their own, we let them do so. Other than these changes, we don't switch from open to closed and back again as this will disturb the development of stillness. Once we have adjusted our posture, we take several minutes to focus on the places (one at a time) where the body touches another part of the body, the chair, cushion or bench and the floor. We notice the characteristics of the touch.
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