Staying Power (4)
With the stage #4 called "close attention" we leave the domain of beginning meditative training and enter the more advanced phases of shamatha which involve the "acquired sign". There's broad agreement across Buddhist traditions that an acquired sign is necessary at this point, since further stages can only be achieved relying on a mental object, not a sensory impression, since now shamatha entails the cultivation of exceptional vividness of attention.
It takes five to ten thousand hours of training in a discipline of eight hours each day for fifty weeks in a year to acquire expertise in a high-level skill, and that is roughly the commitment required to progress along the entire path to the achievement of shamatha. It is vital to maintain a high degree of mindfulness (smrti) and introspection (samprajanya) throughout the day between formal sessions. There is a brief instant of raw perception before concepts and responses overlay it, and to notice that gap we need a high degree of vividness. This window is an opportunity to gain clearer access to the subtle continuum of mental consciousness out of which all forms of perception and conception emerge.
The transition from stage #4 to stage #5, from close attention to tamed attention, presents a great challenge, for now, free from coarse excitation, you must face the problem of coarse laxity. With laxity, your attention tends to disengage by becoming dull; instead of fading out, it fades in, leading to lethargy and sleep. The peace of laxity is often mistaken for quiescence and equipoise. In the fifth stage, you learn to overcome coarse laxity without losing stability by arousing attention and interest in the object of meditation. The emphasis of stage five is balanced vividness achieved through introspection, the ability to monitor the quality of attention.
According to Buddhagosa, "Mindfulness has the characteristic of remembering. Its function is not to forget; it manifests as quarding. Introspection has the characteristic of nonconfusion. Its function is to investigate; it manifests as scrutiny." According to Asanga, "Mindfulness and introspection are taught, for the first prevents the attention from straying from the meditative object, while the second recognizes that the attention is straying."
While most teachers encourage meditators determined to achieve shamatha to continue with one object, some masters have also proposed use of multiple objects, and there are merits to both views. It's easy to get bored, and repeatedly experimenting with different techniques can prevent serious progress in any of them. One option, proposed by Wallace in "The Attention Revolution", is to skip to a more advanced method after stabilizing the fourth stage of close attention. Here he proposes "settling the mind in its natural state" taught in mahamudra and dzogchen (comparable to the Theravadan method of "unfastened mindfulness" or to taza as taught in various Japanese lineages). This method is suited for people with minds prone to excitation and conceptualization, and it is also most suitable for high-strung people with unstable minds who may run into trouble by adopting visualization for developing shamatha. Of course, one can use this method throughout the stages to shamatha, but many people find it difficult at first. The "natural state" features bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality. The object of mindfulness in this practice is the space of the mind and whatever arises in that space. The object of introspection is the quality of attention.
Stage #6, called pacified attention or calming, is achieved by the power of introspection, while the resistance to training drops. Through further refinement of attention, you become free of middle excitation and gross laxity. Involuntary thoughts pass through your consciousness, while you're able to witness the entire course of thoughts arising, playing out, and dissolving. By persistently meeting these challenges through many sessions each day, you ascend to the stage #7, called fully pacified attention or thoroughly calming, achieved through the power of enthusiasm. Subtle excitation occurs from time to time, and having overcome medium laxity, subtle laxity remains: while the object appears vividly, yet attention is slightly slack. Wallace says, "No one but a highly advanced meditator is even capable of recognizing such a subtle degree of laxity. It is detected only in relation to the exceptionally high degree of vividness of which the trained mind is capable." When reaching the seventh stage, the sessions may last for two hours and more without major interruptions, and the practice involves less and less.
To be continued...
It takes five to ten thousand hours of training in a discipline of eight hours each day for fifty weeks in a year to acquire expertise in a high-level skill, and that is roughly the commitment required to progress along the entire path to the achievement of shamatha. It is vital to maintain a high degree of mindfulness (smrti) and introspection (samprajanya) throughout the day between formal sessions. There is a brief instant of raw perception before concepts and responses overlay it, and to notice that gap we need a high degree of vividness. This window is an opportunity to gain clearer access to the subtle continuum of mental consciousness out of which all forms of perception and conception emerge.
The transition from stage #4 to stage #5, from close attention to tamed attention, presents a great challenge, for now, free from coarse excitation, you must face the problem of coarse laxity. With laxity, your attention tends to disengage by becoming dull; instead of fading out, it fades in, leading to lethargy and sleep. The peace of laxity is often mistaken for quiescence and equipoise. In the fifth stage, you learn to overcome coarse laxity without losing stability by arousing attention and interest in the object of meditation. The emphasis of stage five is balanced vividness achieved through introspection, the ability to monitor the quality of attention.
According to Buddhagosa, "Mindfulness has the characteristic of remembering. Its function is not to forget; it manifests as quarding. Introspection has the characteristic of nonconfusion. Its function is to investigate; it manifests as scrutiny." According to Asanga, "Mindfulness and introspection are taught, for the first prevents the attention from straying from the meditative object, while the second recognizes that the attention is straying."
While most teachers encourage meditators determined to achieve shamatha to continue with one object, some masters have also proposed use of multiple objects, and there are merits to both views. It's easy to get bored, and repeatedly experimenting with different techniques can prevent serious progress in any of them. One option, proposed by Wallace in "The Attention Revolution", is to skip to a more advanced method after stabilizing the fourth stage of close attention. Here he proposes "settling the mind in its natural state" taught in mahamudra and dzogchen (comparable to the Theravadan method of "unfastened mindfulness" or to taza as taught in various Japanese lineages). This method is suited for people with minds prone to excitation and conceptualization, and it is also most suitable for high-strung people with unstable minds who may run into trouble by adopting visualization for developing shamatha. Of course, one can use this method throughout the stages to shamatha, but many people find it difficult at first. The "natural state" features bliss, luminosity, and nonconceptuality. The object of mindfulness in this practice is the space of the mind and whatever arises in that space. The object of introspection is the quality of attention.
Stage #6, called pacified attention or calming, is achieved by the power of introspection, while the resistance to training drops. Through further refinement of attention, you become free of middle excitation and gross laxity. Involuntary thoughts pass through your consciousness, while you're able to witness the entire course of thoughts arising, playing out, and dissolving. By persistently meeting these challenges through many sessions each day, you ascend to the stage #7, called fully pacified attention or thoroughly calming, achieved through the power of enthusiasm. Subtle excitation occurs from time to time, and having overcome medium laxity, subtle laxity remains: while the object appears vividly, yet attention is slightly slack. Wallace says, "No one but a highly advanced meditator is even capable of recognizing such a subtle degree of laxity. It is detected only in relation to the exceptionally high degree of vividness of which the trained mind is capable." When reaching the seventh stage, the sessions may last for two hours and more without major interruptions, and the practice involves less and less.
To be continued...
Labels: meditation, shamatha
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