Envy
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
— The Tenth Commandment
[Addendum to number 10: . . . or his or her girlfriend or boyfriend, their vacation home, their hot tub, their sports car, their computer system, their high paying job, nor anything else they’ve got that you judge better than yours.]
“Who is poor?
He who is not contented.”
“How is heaven attained?
The attainment of heaven is the freedom from cravings.”“What destroys craving?
Realization of one’s true self.”— Shankara (687–718)
Imagine you are alone in the world. Everyone else has disappeared and all the possessions of others have been left behind for you. You could go into any building and possess any object. You could claim ownership of any building or vehicle or piece of land.
How long would the novelty of possession last? What good would an abundance of things do you in the absence of people? What would you value? How long would you be happy?
Now imagine you are surrounded by people, but you have absolutely nothing. Perhaps you are in a refugee camp with thousands of others and there is no food and no shelter. Maybe the sun beats down on you all day and the nights are cold. Your possessions are gone, but you have relationships. You are surrounded by family. A child sleeps in your arms. Now what do you value?
Imagine you live a life where you have enough to eat, you have clothing that protects your body from the cold, you have adequate shelter from the weather, and there are people in this life who could use some love. What more do you need?
Envy is desire for or attachment to something that is not yours. It is a form of craving. It is a thought—a delusion actually, a delusion that what we have is inadequate, but that something someone else has will bring us happiness.
How happy can an envious person ever be? If we aren’t happy with what we have now, can we ever be happy? Envy prohibits satisfaction. It creates an emotional force field around a person that prevents satisfaction from occurring.
Envy is a signal that we have not yet learned to appreciate the sufficiency of our life. It tells us and those who observe us that we are entangled in a condition of lack. It tells the world that we have not fully accepted ourselves as ourselves. It signals that we are cut off, separated from the oneness of creation.
We never experience envy when we understand that we are part of the whole and all that is is part of us.
As the 8th century Hindu mystic Shankara said, realization of one’s true self destroys craving. When we meditate upon the nature of the self we come to understand that an independent self is an illusion. When in meditation, our frame of reference expands out beyond the horizon we realize that there is no independent self. We are all in this together, each a part of the whole. What is mine is yours. What is yours is mine. We have no reason to be attached to desires for more. We have no sense of not having enough.
A good description of a basic meditation to practice each day is A Sitting Meditation found in Buddha’s Little Instruction Book by Jack Kornfield.
Tom Barrett
Hara Meditation
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
When you meditate, sit with the dignity of a king or queen; when you move through your day, remain centered in this dignity.
— Jack Kornfield, Buddha’s Little Instruction Book
Back in the 1950s and 60s, meditation was frequently described as “contemplating your navel.” I tried this. “OK, it’s an innie. Got a bit of lint. Now what?” It didn’t seem like a very satisfying spiritual practice. In fact, the idea of contemplating one’s navel seemed so silly that the phrase was popularly used to deride meditation and poke fun at Eastern religion. Possibly I missed something in my initial attempt at meditation.
Later, a football coach would teach me about being aware of my “center of gravity.” He would say, “If you run around with a high center of gravity your opponent is going to knock you on your kiester. So move as if your center of gravity is a couple of inches below your belly button.” It turned out that if you maintained mental consciousness of your weight centered in your abdomen you could flatten large young men moving at high speeds. It was better to be the flattener than the flattenee.
Further down the road I encountered an Aikido master who taught about keeping one point of consciousness at the hara. Hara is the Japanese word for a point in your body about two finger widths below your navel. It is a major center of ki (chi, life energy). He demonstrated how maintaining “one point” was useful, not only in Aikido, but in daily life. When he put his consciousness at his hara he became immovable. Several men much larger than he could not lift him, nor could they push him off his base stance. Yet in demonstration he could throw six attacking students in what appeared to be a graceful and nearly effortless dance of martial art. I found that by putting my mind at my hara, I was more balanced, and activities like opening heavy doors, pushing a car, or even just walking and running were easier and more graceful.
The hara has many names: t’an-tien, dantien, chi-chung, second chakra (or third chakra in some systems). In any discipline that is sensitive to the subtle energies of the body, it will be identified as an important seat of power and balance. Using the hara in meditation can help counterbalance our tendencies to be in our head.
Westerners, especially, are trained to focus consciousness in the upper energy centers. We are thinking people or feeling people. Our life energy seems to be centered in our heads or hearts. Some of us identify our egos with our brains and we experience the world through our heads. It is as if our bodies just dangle down from our noggins, never really touching the earth. Or we go through life centered in our hearts. We feel deeply. We are compassionate loving beings, yet we can be swept away in our emotion, and our hearts are prone to breaking.
As children, our attention is drawn away from our lower centers of energy. We are taught not to touch the “naughty bits.” We are instructed not to look at our nether parts or those of others. Anything below the navel and above the knees is off limits to any more than a passing awareness. Consequently, some of us become absolutely fascinated with the region and others cut off any relationship with it.
Given these circumstances, one might predict that Western civilization would develop a struggle between sexual titillation and self-righteous prudery, and that it would have some difficulty maintaining its sense of harmonic balance with the planet.
So let us consider a practice of meditation that is immanently simple, but that will allow us to bring our energy down to earth, find our balance point, and connect with a locus of balanced power.
Practice:
Traditionally, this meditation would be done in a classic cross-legged sitting meditation position. However, it may also be done sitting in a chair. Luckily, the proper position for sitting at a computer is nearly identical to the proper position for meditating in a chair. If as you do this, your boss asks what you are doing, you may say that you are performing an experiment in computer workstation ergonomics. In fact, if you find the correct meditation position and apply it to your keyboard work, you will likely experience less muscle strain.
Adjust your chair so that with your feet flat on the floor your torso, thighs, and shins roughly form the shape of a stair step. In other words, the angle between your spine and thighs is about 90 degrees and the angle between your thighs and lower legs is about 90 degrees in the other direction. It is better that these angles be a little more than 90 degrees rather than less. Your head should rest comfortably on your neck. Your spine should be erect so that your head balances there without much muscle tension keeping it in place. Sit up straight and find that balance point. Your gaze should be slightly downward.
Your nose and your navel should be in line. So should your ears and your shoulders. You may rock a little front to back and to each side to find the balance point.
When keyboarding, your hands should be in such a relationship with your body that the angle between your upper and lower arms is 90 degrees or a little more. If it is less than 90 degrees you will likely develop muscle strain in your neck and shoulders. For meditating you may simply rest your hands on your thighs. Alternatively, you can place your hands in the traditional Buddhist meditation position, the “cosmic mudra.”
Shunryu Suzuki, in his classic Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, says, “If you put your left hand on top of your right, middle joints of your middle fingers together, and touch your thumbs lightly together (as if you held a piece of paper between them), your hands will make a beautiful oval. You should keep this universal mudra with great care, as if you were holding something very precious in your hand. Your hands should be held against your body, with your thumbs at about the height of your navel. Hold your arms freely and easily, and slightly away from your body, as if you held an egg under each arm without breaking it.” This hand position will assist you in focussing on your hara.
Now release any remaining muscle tension and concentrate on your breathing. Let your breathing become very natural. It will find its own pace and you may notice that it slows and deepens. Allow the breath to sink into your abdomen. Imagine that the breath is moving like a wave between your lungs and your hara, that point in the center of your abdomen a couple of inches below and behind your navel.
Bring your attention fully to that energy center, that balance point we are referring to as hara. Allow all of you attention to focus at that point. It may be helpful to imagine a point of red light in the dark of your abdomen. Some people imagine a tiny Buddha there sitting perfectly still in total peace. Whatever image you choose, allow it to aid you in focussing, and then when it has lost its usefulness, let it go.
Continue to return your awareness to your hara whenever it drifts away. Focus all of your attention there. Be in that place. Own that part of your body. Note any sensations you have there and let them go. Releasing your mental constrictions there will allow the energy of this chakra to move up your spine and throughout your body. You may feel energized, yet at the same time you may feel the peace of being in balance. Experience whatever comes without grasping. Focus your attention without desire for any particular result. Check your posture and bring it back to balance when you feel it slip. Allow the emptiness of non-doing to bring you peace.
Consider making this exercise a part of your daily meditation practice.
Tom Barrett
Maya
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“Everyone wants to know and realize the Truth, but Truth cannot be known and realized as Truth unless ignorance is known and realized as being ignorance. Hence arises the importance of understanding Maya or the principle of ignorance.”
— Meher Baba“I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly. I was conscious only of following my fancies (as a butterfly), and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddently, I awakened; and there I lay, myself again. I do not know whether I was then dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming that it is a man.”
— Chuang Tzu
Imagine it is the end of a beautiful summer day. The air is clear and the sun will set soon. The rays of sun come from low on the horizon, and everything you see is apparent in high contrast. The shadows are deep, but where the light strikes the reflection is brilliant.
You are standing near a great old tree. You can see its ancient trunk with the sunlight creating deep shadows in the patterns of the bark. The limbs of the tree spread out in a canopy overhead. The leaves, moving gently in a light breeze vibrate slightly. You can see in this light that some of them brightly reflect the light in hues of green. Others are dark in shadow.
You know at this moment that your image of this tree is dependent on this reflected sunlight. You are not seeing the tree. You are seeing the light reflected off parts of the thing your mind perceives as a tree.
Your image of this tree is happening in your eyes and in your brain/mind. You believe the tree is there, but if not for your mind’s response to the patterns of light hitting your retina, how would you know it is there? You believe the leaves are there, even those you can’t see in the darkening shadows. You believe that the back side of the tree is there, even though you cannot see it. You understand that the “out there” is happening “in here.” The entire phenomenon of this tree that you experience is occuring within the confines of your nervous system.
How is the experience of seeing a tree different from dreaming it, except that the light bounced off the tree “out there” is the stimulus for the image in your mind?
How did you create the image of the tree that you just visualized? You constructed it out of your thoughts of “treeness” based on some symbols you read here. Amazing really. You can dream the tree. You can create it out of symbolic instructions, or you can create it out of light impulses striking your optical system. In any case, your conception of the tree does not exist independent of your mind.
We constantly make judgments based on our assumptions about reality. We believe that if we reach out and touch a tree that we see with our eyes it will be there, and our touch will confirm it. We normally live our lives completely convinced that our sensory experiences are real. It works so well that we assume that what we perceive is reality.
This is a characteristic of the Sanscrit concept of “maya.” Maya, sometimes described as illusion or ignorance, is the way we measure off the world separating things into categories. We think the world is out there and I am in here. Yet our world and our perception of it are mutually arising. We are in it, of it, and creating it as we go along. There is no there there. It is you and the world happening together.
Imagine that you lived your life always aware of the ephemeral nature of your experience. How would that be different? From the point of view of the ego it might be terrifying, since suddenly you become alone in the great void. But with a little more understanding, your perception of your own ego would become clear as a manifestation of maya. You would know that the boundary between what you perceive as the limits of your own personal identity and the rest of creation is false. You would attend to your direct experience of the world as immediately sensed. You would not be misled by labels. You would know that you and everything else are not separate, and in that knowing you would find an immeasurable and profound sense of peace.
Practice:
This week, and perhaps every week, develop the habit of spending some time experiencing clear awareness.
Use a simple meditation practice that will allow you the tranquility of mind to perceive the world in its pure essence unmarred by labels, limits, and conceptions.
Allow yourself to give up boundaries between what is inside and what is outside your thinking mind.
Allow the peace of understanding to fulfill you.
Tom Barrett
Aversion
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“When aversion is present, it stiffens the body and the mind. The aversions we feel, the prejudices we feel, the anger we feel, all push the world away. These aversions all resist what is; all block the free-flowing mind which knows things a moment at a time as they are and wishes nothing to be otherwise.”
— Steven Levine
We come into this world with some built-in tendencies to be attracted to and repelled by certain things and experiences. We are attracted to sweetness and softness. We tend to withdraw from the bitter or rough. As we grow we expand the range of things we are attracted to and repelled by. We lose interest in picking things up off the floor and putting them into our mouths. What was attractive has become repulsive. We develop a taste for things bitter, and what once made our lips curl in revulsion becomes our substance of choice.
Through experience we develop our preferences and our aversions. When we think of a person, place, or thing we may feel unpleasant emotions arise in us in response to the thought. Years after leaving an unpleasant job we may have an uncomfortable feeling each time we drive by the building where we worked. There is nothing there to harm us now, but the feeling remains, even though the feeling is cut off from any real danger.
Some feelings of aversion may be quite strong and obvious. These we may identify as anger or hate. Just thinking about some person we hate may bring up powerful feelings and a desire to do them harm. These thoughts and feelings separate us from the other and create a barrier that somehow protects us from them. If nothing else, the barrier prevents us from seeing similarities between the object of our hate and ourselves.
Other aversions are more subtle. We may not notice any obvious emotion connected with the aversion, but in some way our behavior is affected. Perhaps we have some work to complete, but time passes and the task remains undone. Maybe we have a phone call we should make, but the call is never made. Maybe we have a self-improvement goal, but we never meet it. We find that in spite of our best intentions we don’t do the exercise, we don’t sit to meditate, we don’t read the book, we don’t say the affirmations. We may not know why, but something blocks our progress.
As we develop ourselves spiritually and psychologically, one of our critical tasks is to identify our aversions and work through them. We can free ourselves by dropping useless aversions. We can heal ourselves by letting go of our hatreds.
Practice:
Place yourself in a calm state of mind. Allow your breathing to come and go by itself. Release the tension you may be holding in your muscles.
Close your eyes and think about your own attractions and aversions. Imagine that you can look at the many parts of your life as if they were laid out on a map. Family is here. Work is over there. Relationships are someplace in between. And imagine that components of your life that are attractive to you are a warm, pleasant color, perhaps a rosy pink. Now imagine that the areas of your life that you respond to with aversion are a cold color, perhaps an icy blue. Those things in your life that you love are warm and comfortable. Those parts of life that are aversive appear less inviting.
Now take your time and scan the map. Look for the warm comfy spots, and also notice the colder bluish areas. When you encounter a part of your life on this map that you identify as less warm, less comfortable, focus in on it and try to sense what about it is aversive to you. What aspect of this area repels you? Do you feel threatened? What is the nature of the threat? Is this a current threat or is it from the past? Can you relinquish the experience of feeling threatened by something that is no longer a real threat?
You may find areas on your personal map of attraction and aversion that stimulate anger. Notice these feelings of anger. Look carefully at them. Feel where they reside in your body. Ask yourself what the anger is about? What is the thought that keeps the anger alive in you?
If it is a person you have anger about, are they still doing the thing that made you angry in the past? Who is making you angry? Is it them, or is it you clinging to the anger? Might it be useful to drop this emotion that gnaws at you?
Tell yourself that you release your anger. Tell yourself that you will no longer be limited by outdated negative emotions. Create an opening in your heart where the anger once was, and allow warmth and compassion to flow in.
Looking again at your life map, you may find places where you may feel very little emotion, but you sense stagnation. Maybe you see these as greenish areas. Perhaps these are areas where you would like something to happen, but nothing happens. Maybe you feel that you just can’t get going. Try to visualize what is keeping you stuck. Do you sense some element of fear around this issue? What is the fear? What has your imagination told you might happen if you made progress? Is this realistic? Note that there has been an element of aversion active in this area. Let this awareness begin the process of dissolving the aversion.
As you go about your life this week, be aware of when you are responding to things and events as aversive. Map out for yourself the cold dark areas of your psyche that keep you from feeling joy in life. Warm those places with the antidotes to aversion, which are love, forgiveness and compassion.
May all beings be filled with joy and peace.
May all beings everywhere,
The strong and the weak,
The great and the small,
The mean and the powerful,
The short and the long,
The subtle and the gross:May all beings everywhere,
Seen and unseen,
Dwelling far off or nearby,
Being or waiting to become:
May all be filled with lasting joy.Let no one deceive another,
Let no one anywhere despise another,
Let no one out of anger or resentment
Wish suffering on anyone at all.Just as a mother with her own life
Protects her child, her only child, from harm,
So within yourself let grow
A boundless love for all creatures.Let your love flow outward through the universe,
To its height, its depth, its broad extent,
A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.Then as you stand or walk,
Sit or lie down,
As long as you are awake,
Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;
Your life will bring heaven to earth.— Sutta Nipata
Buddha’s Discourse on Good Will
Tom Barrett
Mantra Mystery
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA!
— Mantra of the Prajna Paramita
(Hint: Gate is pronounced like “gah-tay”)
The mantra of the Prajna Paramita is found at the end of a brief but classic Buddhist scripture, The Heart of the Prajna Paramita Sutra, often called The Heart Sutra or The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra. “Prajna” means “wisdom.” “Paramita” means a crossing over or going beyond. The last verse of the sutra goes like this:
“Therefore, Prajna Paramita is know as the most divine mantra,
the great enlightening mantra,
the utmost mantra,
the incomparable mantra,
destroyer of all suffering!
Since what is true is not in vain,
listen to the mantra of the Prajna Paramita—it goes like this:
GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA!”
Years ago I wrote down a translation of this mantra on an index card and have kept it in a special place. That translation was:
“Going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming Buddha.”
This seems a marvelous thought. It suggests movement toward awakening. It expresses the enlightenment of a buddha as an unfolding process, rather than a steady state. It puts us in the hopeful position of one who may not have arrived, but who may be on the way. The destination may not be an end, but the trip itself.
As appealing as this translation is, it is by no means the only one. When you do an internet search for the terms “Heart Sutra” or “Prajna Paramita” you get numerous references. You will find several different translations of the mantra, including:
Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone altogether beyond. Oh what an awakening! All hail!
Gone, gone, gone beyond altogether beyond, Awakening, fulfilled!
Gone, gone, gone to the Other Shore, attained the Other Shore having never left.
Gone, gone, totally gone, totally completely gone, enlightened, so be it.
Oh, you have done! You have done! You have completely crossed the margin. This is Enlightenment! Congratulations!
You will also find the point of view that the mantra is essentially untranslatable. Untranslatable does not mean meaningless, so how can one approach the meaning? We are most fortunate to have access to varying translations of this powerful phrase. Like a detective we can view the pieces, recognize the commonalities and find the truth behind the inadequate English words.
Better yet, perhaps we can hold each interpretation in mind to taste its unique flavor. As a connoisseur of fine wines can distinguish the character of different vintages of similar wines, we can sniff the mantra, swirl it around, and drink deeply of its essence.
The Sanskrit mantra carries such meaning that one can easily take it half a dozen ways. Each of the translations may be true, yet any one may be inadequate to express the full meaning. But that is the marvel of a mantra. It is just a word or just a sound until you hold it in your heart, mind and soul. The meaning comes through repetition and involvement.
Practice:
Use the mantra of the Prajna Paramita to take you beyond.
Let it take you to the other shore.
Allow it to awaken you.
Let it remind you of your becoming.
Let it carry you away without your leaving.
Repeat the mantra to yourself.
Say it out loud or silently to yourself.
Say it over and over. Through repetition it will become part of you.
Through diligent practice you may become part of it. As you repeat this “most divine mantra,” hold in your mind the alternate interpretations noted above. Sense the subtle differences in meaning. Carry the various meanings until they merge and all the meanings blend into one pure understanding.
GATE GATE PARA GATE PARASAM GATE BODHI SVAHA
Tom Barrett
Empowered Humility
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“Tubwayhun l’makikhe d’hinnon nertun arha.”
— Jesus Christ, The Beatitudes
Translation: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
Alternate translation: “Blessed are the gentle; they shall inherit the earth.”
Alternate Translation #2: “Healthy are those who have softened what is rigid within; they shall receive physical vigor and strength from the universe.”from Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus
Translated and with Commentary by Neil Douglas-Klotz, New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990.“Why is the sea king of a hundred streams?
Because it lies below them.
Therefore it is the king of a hundred streams.
If the sage would guide the people, he must serve with humility.
If he would lead them, he must follow behind.”— Lao Tsu, Tao Te Ching
Humility is an important virtue, and one that is easily misunderstood.
Jesus appears to have talked about it in several different contexts, including in The Beatitudes. How many of us have thought, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth? How could that work?”
In English, meek (which is generally synonymous with humble) has meanings that include the connotation of lacking assertiveness, submissive, timid, even embarrassed out of a sense of inadequacy. It’s hard to find the virtue there. Beyond that, Jesus and his Post-Pentecost Apostles were hardly timid, so this can’t be the flavor of meekness Jesus was referring to.
Part of the difficulty in understanding this beatitude may be the translation into English from a Greek translation of Jesus’ Aramaic speech. Neil Douglas-Klotz writes:
“L’makikhe could be translated as ‘the meek’ (as was done from the Greek), but the Aramaic would say ‘gentle’ or ‘humble.’ Behind these words, the old roots carry the meaning of one who has softened that which is unnaturally hard within, who has submitted or surrendered to God, or who has liquified rigidities, heaviness (especially moral heaviness), and the interior pain of repressed desires.”
So in this sense, a person who is virtuously humble or meek might be one who has loosened up, given up rigid thinking, and has put aside personal glorification to live in harmony with the universe. This sounds like the image of the Taoist sage. Lao Tsu said:
“Surrender yourself humbly; then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.”
One might say that humility is not highly valued in Western culture. It rarely is in male-dominated warrior cultures, which has been the European norm for the past 3,000 or so years.
The humble person is not generally recognized as successful in our society. For instance, when was the last time you heard a successful general or politician express self-doubt? Of course they do doubt themselves—probably a lot in some cases, but they would never do it in public. The political consequences would be undesirable.
Yet we ordinary folk tend to be filled with self-doubt. We get enough criticism along the way that we fall into habits of subservience, unassertiveness, self-abasement. We hide our lantern under a basket, something the great advocate of meekness told us not to do. Some of us acquire the weak side of humility that prevents us from shining forth. We repress our true desires because we feel unworthy of their fulfillment.
As my friend Jeanie Marshall said recently, self-doubt can be a useful tool for reality testing, but it is debilitating as a place of residence. You can go there, but don’t stay long. It can be useful to think of doubt as a momentary friend. You can check in, get the information you need, and check out. If you habitually hang out in self-doubt and false humility, you can easily become depressed and immobilized.
Instead of crippling self-doubt, I suggest that humility has to do with putting aside false pride and false agendas, and finding a flexible position that attunes to the natural way of things. One can achieve great things and stay humble by letting loose of the need for acclaim.
One can be a leader by finding a talent for service. You can do great deeds and know that the greatness flows through you but does not belong to you. For all that you have has come from somewhere else. We attain an empowered humility when we realize that in this bounteous world all possession is impermanent, all capability is temporary.
Exercise
Ask yourself these questions:
• When complimented, do you tend to discount the compliment?
• Is it possible you could accept the praise and remain free of excessive pride?
• How much do you require the praise of others to feel valuable?
• How else could you know your worth?
• Where does your sense of worth come from?
• Is it from inside you?
• Is it from other people’s opinions of you?
• Do you have a sense of your value in the eyes of God?
• Do you have a sense of your place in creation?
• Do you realize what a marvelous and powerful being you are?
• Do you realize that we all are?
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be! You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
— Marianne Williamson (often attributed to Nelson Mandela)
Tom Barrett
Mantra Meditation II
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
For some preliminary thoughts on using mantras in meditation, see my previous blog, Mantra Meditation I.
OM MANE PADME HUM
At the time of reciting:
Neither too fast nor too slow,
Neither too loud nor too soft.
It should be neither speaking
Nor Distraction.— The Subahupariprichcha
This most ancient and venerable Sanskrit mantra is especially important in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It is associated with the Buddha of Compassion and includes the meaning “jewel in the lotus.” A rough translation might be, “My heart is the jewel in the lotus,” or “Hail to the jewel in the lotus.” The jewel is equated with the enlightenment-mind, which arises in the lotus of human consciousness. The symbolism is deep and beautiful far beyond my ability to describe it here, nor do I claim any great understanding of Tibetan Buddhism, but perhaps I can begin to explore this powerful mantra in the spirit of “Beginners Mind.”
Practice:
Say this mantra to yourself, either aloud or silently: OM MANE PADME HUM (AH-OWM MAH-NAY PAHD-MAY HOOM).
Let the sound or the mental representation of the sound, fill your mind and body. Let the vibrations surround you and infuse your body.
Make your repetition of the mantra neither too fast nor too slow, neither too loud nor too soft, but continue to repeat it as you visualize its meaning.
Allow yourself to soak in the beauty of this mantra, knowing that these syllables have been chanted innumerable times in the spirit of compassion by innumerable beings of great wisdom and compassion. As you express the chant, your vibration merges with the vibration of the chants of all those beings still echoing through the universe.
PADME means lotus. In the area of your heart, visualize the beautiful many-petalled lotus flower. This glorious water lily is rooted in the mud of the earth, but its flower is exposed to the pure light of consciousness. See it blooming in the center of your chest radiant and pure, untouched by any defilement. The lotus represents compassion. Revel in the presence of compassion in your heart.
With the sound MANE think of a jewel in the center of the lotus. This jewel is the pure crystal of enlightened consciousness. It is many-faceted and perfect. Its brillance illuminates the lotus and shines forth from your heart. As you recite the mantra hold these images in your mind. Allow them to become real for you. Realize that the beauty of a jewel in a lotus is the beauty of your consciousness when it resides in compassion. Let your capacity for consciousness arouse your compassion. Let your compassion draw you to greater consciousness.
May all being be free from suffering.
May all beings realize enlightenment.
OM MANE PADME HUM
Tom Barrett
References:
The Shambala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen, Shambala, Boston, 1991.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche, HarperSanFrancisco, New York, 1994.
Mantra Meditation I
Filed Under Meditation | 2 Comments
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1, The New Testament“A mantra provides a boat with which you can float through your thoughts unattached, entering subtler and subtler realms. It is a boat that steers itself–to the threshold of God.”
— Ram Dass
A mantra is a tool for concentrating the mind. A mantra is a word or sound one repeats aloud or silently that brings one to a focused state of peace. Often it is a name of God or a spiritual phrase.
The Hindu and Buddhist traditions have identified many mantras and elaborated upon their various characteristics and effects upon the meditator. Mantras are used in most every other mystical tradition as well. The mantra is a spiritual tool worthy of deep study by the spiritual seeker. Yet, one can benefit from the use of a mantra without adhering to any particular set of beliefs.
In his book The Relaxation Response, Herbert Benson describes how his research found that physiological changes associated with the relaxation response, for instance, decreased oxygen consumption; decreased carbon-dioxide elimination; decreased the rate of breathing; and could be elicited using a meaningless word or phrase, just as they can be elicited with a sacred mantra.
Benson suggested using the word “One” as a mental device to shift the mind from logical, externally oriented thought. Repeating the word in coordination with the breath shuts off the flow of thoughts that keeps us revved up in our normal waking state.
When we think words, our vocal apparatus moves. If you observe closely, you may notice this subvocal activity in your throat as you read. A mantra may work, in part, by blocking the activity in our vocal apparatus, which in turn halts the regular flow of thoughts. A mantra also occupies space in our conscious mind, which slows the data flow.
It’s a bit like multitasking. If you use up most of your RAM, your software will run more slowly. You might wonder, do smarter people need a longer mantra to use up more of their mental system resources? No. Fortunately it doesn’t work like that.
In a practical sense, any soothing word or sound can be used as a mantra. Some teachers suggest using a nonsense word. Others prescribe a word of deep spiritual meaning. We suggest you use one that will grow in meaning for you through repetition.
While meditation has physiological and psychological benefits as a mental exercise alone, it is also a fundamental tool for attaining deeper meaning in life, for reaching a higher level of consciousness. Its benefits are transformational if you allow them to be. One could do hatha yoga or Tai Chi in the same spirit as one approaches calisthenic exercises and receive benefit. One could do meditation as a relaxation exercise and obtain benefits. But one would also be missing out on the wonderousness of it all.
Sometimes people are given a mantra by their spiritual teacher. If you don’t have such a guide, then you can pick a mantra that resonates for you. It is also suggested that once you have chosen a mantra that feels right, you stay with it and make it part of you, rather than switching from one to the other haphazardly.
Some mantras:
OM
OM GURU OM
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
AUM MANE PADME HUM
SOHAM
HAMSAH
ALLAH HU
ALLAH AKBAR
ALLELUIA
JESUS
YESHUA
LORD HAVE MERCY
CHRIST HAVE MERCY
KYRIE ELEISON
CHRISTE ELEISON
RAM
KRISHNA
HARE RAMA
HARE KRISHNA
SHANTI
SHALOM
PEACE
PEACE TO ALL
LOVE
AGAPE
ONE
ALL IS ONE
Practice:
In the Vedic tradition, “OM” is the great mantra. It is written, “Even as all leaves come from a stem, all words come from the sound OM. OM is the whole universe. OM is the truth of the whole universe.”
When one practices the mantra OM, one can come to sense the unity of all things. The vibration of “OM” is said to contain all vibration. It is the sound of water falling, the voice of thunder, the pealing of cathedral bells, the sacred sound of the ram’s horn. It is the hum of honey bees, the beat of a drum, the hum of an engine, the whisper of your computer fan, the purr of a kitten, the beat of your heart, the sound of your breath.
Traditionally, OM, or AUM, is pronounced AH-OWM. When spoken aloud, this word starts in the back of the throat with “AHHH,” works its way forward with “OOWW,” and finishes at the lips with “MMM.” It uses the whole vocal apparatus. In part this is why it is said, “All words come from the sound OM.”
If you are in an appropriate place, pronounce the mantra aloud. As with any mantra, it should be repeated by lovingly coordinating it with the incoming and outgoing breaths. You can also use the mantra silently. Hear it in your mind. Repeat it over and over.
Let the vibration of OM fill you. Let it activate your life energy. Let the sound vibration merge with thought vibration. Allow your mind to be clear of all other thoughts. If thoughts arise, let them go and come back to the mantra.
Practice the mantra daily. Invite the mantra to stay with you during your day. Incorporate it into any rhythmic activity, walking or typing or sweeping the floor, for instance. Insert it into the pauses between your thoughts. Let it float you to subtler and subtler realms.
Tom Barrett
Our Mother Nature
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
One of the easiest ways to change one’s mental state from tense to relaxed is to visualize one’s self in a peaceful scene in nature. It might be a forest scene or an ocean beach, maybe a babbling brook or a mountain meadow. When we close our eyes, breathe from the belly, and see ourselves in such a place our muscles relax, our heartbeat slows, and we feel a sense of peace.
Why would just imagining one’s self in nature cause a significant physiological change and give us a subjective experience of peace? Perhaps it is because nature really is our mother. She is the nurturer. We speak casually of Mother Nature and we see her represented in caricature in the media, but have we ever taken this image to heart? Let’s do that for a moment.
Think about how nature created you and the many ways that nature supports you. Some might think of nature as a feminine aspect of the divine creator. Some might see her as a personification of the Great Spirit. Say the following with a thankful heart.
Mother Nature, you gave me life, and I thank you.
You formed the earth from the swirling dust of the cosmos, and I thank you.
You filled the low places with water and gave a home to the fishes, and I thank you.
You filled the seas and the land with plants that give us air to breathe and food to eat, and I thank you.
You placed animals among the plants. They are our brothers and sisters. For them I thank you.
You placed my ancestors among the animals and the plants and they lived off the land. For their lives and their dreams, I thank you.
You have given us wood for our houses, stone for our roads, fiber for our clothing. You gave us minerals to build our machines. You gave us the means to live in comfort, and with the tools you have given we have built walls that separate us from you.
I thank you for the comfort in which I live.
I thank you for the tools of civilization.
Grant that I may use them wisely.
Grant that I may live in your bounty.
Grant that I may remember that I am your child and that my life depends on you.
May I and those that come after me treasure you and care for you.
May your spirit fill me and guide my ways.
Let me move beyond all walls so that I may be one with you.
Tom Barrett
Breath-Counting Meditation
Filed Under Meditation | Leave a Comment
“If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open to everything. In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.”
— Shunryu Suzuki, “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind”“The very essence of meditation is one-pointedness and the exclusion of all other considerations, even when these considerations happen to be enticing.”
— Meher Baba, “Discourses”
Developing concentration is fundamental to meditation. Persistently practicing a concentration technique over a period of time is traditionally the way to develop meditative concentration. A simple yet effective tool for deepening concentration is the meditation technique of counting the breath.
Breath-counting gives the mind something to focus on so that when distracting thoughts arise, you have a base thought to come back to. The method is easy to understand. Perhaps not so easy to do. The goal is to do this one thing with full mindfulness. Success comes from patient repetition.
Breath-counting is so simple that after you get comfortable with it, it can be done just about any place and any time when you don’t have to be concentrating on something else—on a bus or waiting in line, for instance. It is a great way to center yourself and return to a state of mindfulness.
You may find that this meditation form helps you to manage your stress. It allows you to let go of the negative thoughts and worries that create tension. It also induces the relaxation response, which has many physical and psychological benefits.
Practice:
We suggest that you practice this technique once or twice daily for 15 to 20 minutes. Use shorter periods if you must. The key is to do it, and do it regularly, rather than to follow some arbitrary schedule.
Begin by finding a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. Dim the lights if possible. You may wish to have your eyes closed or partially closed and cast downward. Sit in a comfortable posture that will allow you to remain still for about 20 minutes. Since our intent here is not to go to sleep, we suggest sitting upright. (Hint to insomniacs: counting breaths is not unlike counting sheep. It can put you to sleep).
Bring your attention to your breath. Counting up to four, count each out breath. After the fourth exhalation begin again at one. Inhaling…exhaling “1″, inhaling…exhaling “2″, inhaling…exhaling “3,” inhaling…exhaling “4,” inhaling…exhaling “1″…
Try to keep the count, but if you lose track, start over at “1.” Give your full attention to the count. If you have stray thoughts, just let them go and return to the counting. Don’t intentionally alter your breathing pattern. Let your breath find its own pace and depth like a stream finds its course.
Once you have become comfortable with counting to four, you may want to experiment with counting your breaths up to ten. The number you use isn’t so important. The clarity of your concentration is what is important.
Tom Barrett
keep looking »