19.   Meditation in Motion                                     5/08/03

On the term meditation I found this passage of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche from, The Path is the Goal. 

“When we talk about the practice of meditation, we are talking about a way of being. Unfortunately, the term meditation is not quite an adequate translation of the Sanskrit term dhyana or *samadhi. Whenever we use a verbal form like “to meditate or “meditating,” that automatically invites the question, “What are you meditating upon?” or What are you meditating in?” That is a common question that always comes up. But according to the Buddha’s philosophy, there is no verb “to meditate.” There is just a noun, “meditation.” There is no meditating. You don’t meditate, but you be in a state of meditation. We have a linguistic, a grammatical problem here. Meditating is not part of the Buddhist vocabulary, but meditation is
…according to the Buddha dharma, meditation is a simple factor. You don’t meditate, you just be in the meditation….One just simply sits without aim, object, purpose, without anything at all. Nothing whatsoever. One just sits.”

So we could say that when we have our attention focused on the breath and on the body we are in a state of concentration or meditation. We just be. I feel with the use of keys to understanding, like the principles of alignment, that we can use the nowness of our experience to cultivate our awareness. No matter what we are doing we can feel our breath, our body, and all the energy activity as it responds to the different energies at play in the space.

Being mindful in motion whether it is in sports, which is highly energetic, at the job or just walking down the street with loved ones, provides a space to be in meditation. No matter what we are doing we can feel breath and the body moving and responding to different forces. I find that this is a way of using every moment to be with what ever is in the moment.

“Discovery is related with energy that feeds you constantly. It brings your life to a very full, healthy state.”  Chogyam Trungpa.

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*Samadhi- Concentration lit. Concentration—though often very weak—is one of the 7 mental phenomena inseparably associated with all consciousness.
In concentration one distinguishes 3 grades of intensity; preparatory, neighborhood, and attainment. Definition from Buddhist Dictionary by Nyanatiloka

Some more interesting points about Meditation by Rinpoche from The Path is the Goal.

Just sitting with no objective like a rock, was a favorite practice of Trungpa’s. He say’s; “this is unthinkable and outrageous that we would be; Wasting our time. Give time a rest. Let it be wasted. Create virgin time, uncontaminated time, time that hasn’t been hassled by aggression, passion, and speed. Let us create pure time. Sit and create pure time.”

Rinpoche's comments on mindfulness are instructive as a; “welcoming gesture” a relaxed attitude. “Mindfulness is taking an interest in precision of all kinds, in the simplicity of the breath, of walking, of the sensations of the body, of the experiences of the mind----of the thought process and memories of all kinds. Awareness is acknowledging the totality of the whole thing…It is just simply being and keeping a watchful eye, completely and properly.”

In further reading the notion of having bare attention is treated and in this practice the mind is kept not to loose and not to tight. We can put about 25 percent attention on the walking, sitting, standing and the breath while the rest of our mental activity is left loose and open; So you keep just on the verge of your technique, with just 25 percent of your attention. Another 25 percent is relaxing, a further 25 percent relates to making friends with oneself, and the last 25 percent connects with expectation—“your mind is open to the possibility of something happening during this practice session. The whole thing is synchronized completely.”

“On the Hinayana level alone, we have shila, samadhi, and prajna—discipline, meditation, and intellect” [knowledge].

“The path is personal experience, and one should take delight in those little things that go on in our lives, the obstacles, seductions, paranoias, depressions, and openness. All kinds of things happen, and that is the content of the journey, which is extremely powerful and important.”

On pg. 14 the talk is on shamatha, which means the “development of peace” but this peace refers to harmony connected with accuracy rather than to peace that is the opposite of pain. “Seeing the harmony in all things, seeing that we are both the pain and the pleasure. We are beautiful as we are. Unconditional potentiality which is different from the potentials of becoming.”

From Rinpoche's book The Myth of Freedom he gives us a further expression of relaxed attention while being in the work-a-day world. “If work becomes part of your spiritual practice, then your regular, daily problems cease to be only problems and become a source of inspiration. Nothing is rejected as ordinary and nothing is taken as being particularly sacred, but all the substance and material available in life-situations is used.”

So when we have quieted the mind “somewhat” each moment becomes a source of useful experience. The state of “being in meditation” becomes a useful quality we have harnessed.

Posted by harmon 5/8/03

Comments

Sadly, many contemporary teachers still will say things like: “I don’t like to meditate. I feel I have to be accomplishing something.” Such pronouncements leave me non-plussed.

Posted by: Solstice on May 14, 2003

As well they should, for it seems to me our being in awareness is all day long. What a treat to be alive and breathing. Yesssssssssssssss.

Bless

Posted by: Harmon 5/16/03

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