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Thag 1:49 Rāmaṇeyyaka
Even with all the whistles & whistling,
the calls of the birds,
this, my mind, doesn’t waver,
for my delight is in
oneness.
the calls of the birds,
this, my mind, doesn’t waver,
for my delight is in
oneness.
.............
Jui asks: (? Question about samadhi)
John: actually what is more important is
that background is completely gone. Then when the background is completely
gone, you do not have a behind, only the sound. Then your experience becomes
most direct, cannot be more direct. Then when you hear the basketball sound,
bum bum bum.. only. You understand what I mean? Initially even if you have seen
through, there will always be a tendency – you and the basketball. I ever went
through a period where I thought that I will not have that problem anymore.
After about three months later, it comes back. Then I wondered why does it come
back after I have seen through? Then after that, the tendency (comes back?).
for yours (me/Soh) it is quite clear, because lucid dream until one can control the
three states, it is quite deep already. After the initial insight one needs 4-5
years to have that kind of calibre, you see? So some people are different. So
it is sufficiently deep into the mind body tendency. For me, three months after
(?) it has a dual sensation, then after still a period (?) after.
Jui: I always hear people say when you
see one object you are like the object… but in my experience…
John: In your experience now, your self
at the behind will be gone. But you are unable to reach completely mind to
object (one pointedness). But your behind disappears. But to zhuan zhu yi ge
(be absorbed in one [object]) you are unable to reach, that requires Samadhi
state. That is, that behind is gone, but you are one pointed into one object,
then with view you will experience maha experience, total exertion. He (me/Soh) is
also the same, the behind is gone, no more self, only the sound but there is no
self, there is just this, there is just that. That is because the insight has
arisen but concentration (?) my way is different. Before insight of anatta I
had decades of practicing meditation, then I AM, then meditation, then I AM. My
practice is like that. (?) but for you guys, you see clearly first, the behind
is gone and your experience becomes very clear and vivid and yet you are unable
to concentrate. So you must understand that concentration is different.
Peacefulness and releasing is (different), clear vivid awareness is also
different. It requires different insights and practice. You still have to
meditate, it is impossible that (?) you should be in this stage, you are very
clear, the click click sound is felt to be very vivid, then one day you will
have total exertion feeling, but you must practice releasing and concentration.
When the mind is discursive and wandering, you need practice. your mindfulness/thought
needs to be practiced. You need to have a stillness/Samadhi. (to me/Soh) Your
stillness is still not enough. Your mind is still having thought after thought,
you are unable to have stillness. But your insight is able to reach no self.
You are still unable to reach stillness and releasing. It is not a matter of
saying then you can reach it, it requires practice.
(Comments by Soh: before my realization of anatta I would do samatha and enter into jhanic bliss [samadhi bliss but not resting in nature of mind], afterwards it is more towards the bliss of no-self luminosity, yet samadhi is still vital)
(Comments by Soh: before my realization of anatta I would do samatha and enter into jhanic bliss [samadhi bliss but not resting in nature of mind], afterwards it is more towards the bliss of no-self luminosity, yet samadhi is still vital)
Me: best way is to practice vipasssana?
John: Vipassana … when it becomes non
conceptual and non dual, it is even more difficult like for you, your insight
is there, there is no self, yet when you sit you are unable to reach it.
Because you need to focus. You need to focus your breath, (otherwise?) unable
to reach it. For normal people they are able to reach it even easier. For you
it is somewhat more difficult. So I always tell you, for example, for you and
him the way of entering is by clear luminosity… feel as clear as possible. For
example when you breathe, feel your breathe entirely. So you feel very very
clear, just this breath you know. Then you feel the vividness. It is easier to
enter this way.
Me: so you are advising Anapanasati?
John: yes of course, then you do many
times. But when you do many times you are not counting. Don’t count. Just feel
the entire sensation of the breath. You are just that sensation of your breath.
Then you are so clear with your entire breath. That whole aircon that touches
your nostrils, then going into your lungs. It is just this sensation. This is
what we call breath. So you keep on doing. You are very aware of it. Actually
it is not you are very aware of lah. This is what I call awareness and the
whole thing is awareness, there is no somebody awaring. It is just breath. Then
slowly you will have this (Samadhi?), you need to keep doing.
.............
Also see: Right Samadhi
Many people have a very warped understanding of the so called "highest teachings" such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra, thinking that these teachings allow us to bypass or skip meditation training, or that it does not require "practice" and "meditation". This cannot be further from the truth.
Here are the words from Lopon Malcolm, a qualified dharma teacher who was asked by his Dzogchen master, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa to teach Dzogchen -
Malcolm (Loppon Namdrol) wrote:
Many people have a very warped understanding of the so called "highest teachings" such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra, thinking that these teachings allow us to bypass or skip meditation training, or that it does not require "practice" and "meditation". This cannot be further from the truth.
Here are the words from Lopon Malcolm, a qualified dharma teacher who was asked by his Dzogchen master, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa to teach Dzogchen -
Malcolm (Loppon Namdrol) wrote:
Rongzom makes
the point very clearly that Dzogchen practitioners must develop the mental
factors that characterize the first dhyana, vitarka, vicara, pritvi, sukha and
ekagraha, i.e. applied attention, sustained attention, physical ease, mental
ease and one-pointedness. If you do not have a stable samatha practice, you
can't really call yourself a Dzogchen practitioner at all. At best, you can
call yourself someone who would like to be a Dzogchen practitioner a ma rdzogs
chen pa. People who think that Dzogchen frees one from the need to meditate
seriously are seriously deluded. The sgra thal 'gyur clearly says:
The faults of
not meditating are:
the
characteristics of samsara appear to one,
there is self
and other, object and consciousness,
the view is verbal,
the field is
perceptual,
one is bound by
afflictions,
also one throws
away the path of the buddhahood,
one does not
understand the nature of the result,
a basis for the
sameness of all phenomena does not exist,
one's vidya is bound by the three realms,
and one will
fall into conceptuality
He also added:
Dhyanas are
defined by the presence or absence of specific mental factors.
The Dhyanas
were not the vehicle of Buddha's awakening, rather he coursed through them in
order to remove traces of rebirth associated with the form and formless realms
associated with the dhyanas.
...
Whether you are
following Dzogchen or Mahamudra, and regardless of your intellectual
understanding, your meditation should have, at base, the following
characteristics:
Prthvi --
physical ease Sukha -- mental joy Ekagraha -- one-pointedness Vitarka --
initial engagement Vicara -- sustained engagement
If any of these
is missing, you have not even achieved perfect samatha regardless of whether or
not you are using an external object, the breath or even the nature of the
mind.
...
Even in
Dzogchen, the five mental factors I mentioned are key without which you are
really not going to make any progress.
...
Samadhi/dhyāna is a natural mental factor, we all have it. The problem is that we naturally allow this mental factor to rest on afflictive objects such as HBO, books, video games, etc.
Śamatha practice is the discipline of harnessing our natural predisposition for concentration, and shifting it from afflictive conditioned phenomena to nonafflictive conditioned phenomena, i.e., the phenomena of the path. We do this in order to create a well tilled field for the growth of vipaśyāna. Śamatha ultimately allows us to have mental stability and suppresses afflictive mental factors so that we may eventually give rise to authentic insight into the nature of reality. While it is possible to have vipaśyāna without cultivating śamatha, it is typically quite unstable and lacks the power to effectively eradicate afflictive patterning from our minds. Therefore, the basis of all practice in Buddhadharma, from Abhidharma to the Great Perfection, is the cultivation of śamatha as a preliminary practice for germination of vipaśyāna.
...
Samadhi/dhyāna is a natural mental factor, we all have it. The problem is that we naturally allow this mental factor to rest on afflictive objects such as HBO, books, video games, etc.
Śamatha practice is the discipline of harnessing our natural predisposition for concentration, and shifting it from afflictive conditioned phenomena to nonafflictive conditioned phenomena, i.e., the phenomena of the path. We do this in order to create a well tilled field for the growth of vipaśyāna. Śamatha ultimately allows us to have mental stability and suppresses afflictive mental factors so that we may eventually give rise to authentic insight into the nature of reality. While it is possible to have vipaśyāna without cultivating śamatha, it is typically quite unstable and lacks the power to effectively eradicate afflictive patterning from our minds. Therefore, the basis of all practice in Buddhadharma, from Abhidharma to the Great Perfection, is the cultivation of śamatha as a preliminary practice for germination of vipaśyāna.
