Latest / Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast / 5 Obstacles, 5 Friends

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5 Obstacles, 5 Friends · Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

0:11
The title of today's talk is 5 Obstacles, 5 Friends.
0:17
So it's going to be a talk about meditation.
0:20
That's going to be the main kind of theme of the talk and to kind
0:26
of put that in context. So that's actually just to give
0:31
me a bit of an idea how many people are here that are kind
0:34
of, they haven't been to the centre very much like kind of a
0:37
few times or something like that.
0:40
Yeah. So a few people.
0:42
OK. So yeah, to put it in context,
0:46
I'll just say a little bit about what's called the freefall path.
0:49
So this is a very good way of kind of structuring the whole of
0:54
Buddhism basically. So the freefall path is this.
1:07
So ethics, meditation and wisdom.
1:11
And in terms of ethics, what we're looking at is, well, in
1:15
terms of one of the kind of formulations of ethics, what
1:18
we're looking at put positively, is cultivating loving kindness,
1:23
cultivating generosity, cultivating contentment,
1:28
truthfulness, and mindfulness. So they're what are called the
1:32
five precepts or the five training principles and well,
1:42
ethics. What it involves is transforming
1:45
our body, speech and mind. So in relationship to those five
1:49
things and, and with Buddhism, we tend to put well, not we tend
1:54
to put mind is primary. So basically our actions of body
2:00
and our actions of speech, they spring from the mind.
2:04
So we can work in terms of ethics, we can work kind of more
2:09
externally in the world. So for instance, with something
2:12
like generosity, we could we could give time, we could give
2:16
money, we could give energy more kind of externally in the world.
2:22
But we can also work more internally in terms of what are
2:26
the underlying mental states that will underlie those
2:31
actions. Because actually in a way,
2:35
ethics are ethics of the mind. What we're transforming is the
2:39
mind and that affects the the body and the speech.
2:45
And so then in terms of so that's ethics.
2:48
So then in terms of meditation, one way of talking about
2:52
meditation is that it's working directly with the mind and mind
2:56
working with the mind. And then in terms of of how
3:07
meditation is kind of is split, for want of a better word, there
3:14
are kind of two very big broad categories of meditation.
3:18
So one of them is called summer time meditation and one of them
3:21
is called Vipassana meditation. So summer time meditation means
3:26
various things. So it means things like
3:29
practices that help us to gather, help us to feel
3:32
integrated, help us to feel more calm, more tranquil, absorbed.
3:39
So these kind of words for Samatar meditation.
3:44
And then Vipassana is more to do with insight or seeing things as
3:49
the way that seeing things the way they are.
3:52
And it's the Vipassana practices which lead to wisdom.
3:57
Yeah. So that that is kind of like a
4:01
bit of a sort of a broad kind of overview very quickly of, of
4:06
Buddhism in a sense. So this ethics is kind of like
4:09
how we live our life to do with our behaviour, this meditation
4:13
directly working with the mind. And you've got these two
4:16
different types of meditation. One of them is more to do with
4:20
calm, calming, and the other ones to do with more seeing,
4:23
seeing through. So, yeah, and that that kind of
4:33
seen through it can be talked about in lots of different ways.
4:36
So it can be talked about as things like seeing.
4:44
I'm just I'm aware that might be start using lots of technical
4:47
terms. I never that's a good idea.
4:49
It could be seen seen as seen through self or going beyond
4:53
self. Some people talk about it in a
4:55
slightly different way in terms of something like recognizing
4:58
the nature of mind. That's another way of talking
5:00
about this element of insight. Yeah.
5:08
And and also, I suppose the thing to the thing that's
5:12
important to also say, even though what we've got here is
5:16
wisdom, when the seeing through happens, the actual experience
5:22
where it kind of leaves you is in a state where you are.
5:27
Well, it's sometimes described more as kind of like a state of
5:29
bliss. It's a very positive emotional
5:34
state. It's also kind of like related
5:37
to compassion, partly because when we see through that, when
5:40
we see through the sense of self.
5:45
And that is one way of talking about wisdom.
5:48
There's a sort of very big liberation of energy.
5:50
There's there's no longer anything to protect.
5:53
So then that means that we can be fully present and available
5:58
for other people. So it's like at that point
6:02
there's also a natural kind of compassion or natural
6:05
responsiveness, a natural caring concern that arises in
6:10
relationship to other people, which isn't a self referential
6:15
because the self has been seen through.
6:23
So today what I'm going to be talking about is I'm going to be
6:26
talking about meditation and I'm going to be specifically talking
6:30
about Samatar meditation. So this thing about kind of
6:36
calming tranquillity, all of those things that I mentioned.
6:44
Yeah. And it's, and it's also worth
6:45
saying that what I'm going to be saying is a particular way of
6:48
working in meditation. It's a particular view of
6:51
meditation and it isn't the only way of working and it isn't the
6:56
only view. So I don't know what in a way
6:59
what you get up to in terms of your meditation, but I'm going
7:02
to be presenting a particular way of working that some of you
7:06
might find helpful. Yeah.
7:14
So what we're going to be looking at, we're going to be
7:15
looking at what are called the five hindrances and the five
7:20
Diana factors. So, so in a way we're going to,
7:25
we're going to be looking at this area of Diana, which means,
7:31
well, it can mean something like absorption or something like
7:33
that. And that's the kind of that's
7:35
the territory that we're going to be in.
7:41
And the way we're going to be doing that partly is through an
7:45
image. So some of you that are in the
7:47
WhatsApp group will kind of know what the image is.
7:50
So the image is the image of going clubbing.
7:55
So some of you will probably be familiar with that.
7:58
Being in Berlin, I'm also familiar with it to some degree.
8:04
But that's, that's the kind of image that we're going to be
8:06
using. And the what I'm going to be
8:08
talking about is kind of the entering, entering into the club
8:14
is going to be the representative of entering into
8:18
the states of Diana. So these higher states of
8:21
consciousness that can come about through meditation.
8:26
So last Saturday I was invited by a friend, a friend of mine to
8:33
a kind of techno party in her cellar.
8:37
So like you do, I kind of I prepared, I got myself dressed,
8:45
I had a shower, I checked out the music that was going to be
8:50
played. I had a bit of a dance in my
8:52
room, all of these kind of things.
8:56
I checked myself out in the mirror.
8:57
I put my new trainers on and then I went to to her place near
9:02
her house, around about 10 cycled over.
9:05
So this was just in in her cellar is in the kind of
9:08
basement of her flat. So it wasn't a club.
9:14
But if you went to somewhere like Bergheim for instance,
9:20
basically what you'd do is you would be queuing up for probably
9:24
a very long time. You'd eventually get to the
9:28
door, the bouncer would check you out, look you up and down
9:36
and either you would get in or not.
9:39
So I suppose this is the first point really about these Diana's
9:43
is that you're not, there's no guarantee that you're going to
9:48
get into them. So when we when we sit to
9:55
meditate, we're not, we don't know whether we're going to get
9:59
in or not. So what what prevents us from
10:06
getting in, what prevents us in, in specifically in relationship
10:10
to meditation is what I call or what could be called or what I'm
10:15
calling today the five obstacles, which actually
10:19
traditionally are called the five hindrances.
10:23
So I'll just say a little bit about them.
10:26
This is this is the model that or a kind of diagram that
10:29
somebody in Manchester kind of came up with, which I think is a
10:32
very good way of looking at the hindrances.
10:35
So the hindrances are what present prevent you from from
10:38
entering into deeper states of consciousness, the high states
10:41
of consciousness. And last week Padmasagra kind of
10:45
did an exercise with us and, and we were kind of holding our hand
10:49
up kind of here. This was balanced and we were
10:51
either going up or down. So in a sense, this is what this
10:56
part of the diagram is about. It's like the axis of energy.
11:01
So, so when we sit to meditate, we can kind of quite quickly
11:06
check what is, what's going on with the axis.
11:09
Yeah. So the so too high means that
11:14
well, we've got too much energy. We're agitated, we're fidgeter,
11:20
we're anxious or we're worried. So these kind of States and then
11:26
too low would be we feel quite tired.
11:30
We feel quite sleepy. That's that kind of axis.
11:36
That's what you can kind of check sort of as you sit to
11:38
meditate. And then this, this other axis,
11:41
this kind of towards or away from is to do with, well, it's
11:49
to do with pleasure and pain. So when we start to experience
11:54
pleasure or something comes into the mind which we experience as
11:58
pleasurable, or when we start to think about something which is
12:01
pleasurable, we move towards it. And well, because it's
12:07
pleasurable, we tend to want to maintain it, we tend to want
12:11
more of it and we get lost in it.
12:15
So that's one movement. The other movement is that we
12:18
we're moving away from something.
12:21
So that generally means pain. So that could be physical pain,
12:26
it could be more mental or emotional pain, but it's this
12:30
movement away from so. So this gives you a bit a bit
12:45
more of a sense of of what? It's a bit like a map that you
12:50
can just quickly get a sense of in your meditation.
12:53
Where are you and what is kind of occupying your mind?
12:57
Yeah. So are you, is there a sense of
13:00
more high energy? So that's actually called
13:02
traditionally, it's called restlessness and anxiety.
13:06
Is there a sense of low energy which you traditionally call
13:09
Slough and Topper? Probably words that not a lot of
13:11
people are familiar with, not even myself, which basically
13:14
means sleepiness, tiredness, actually one's more physical,
13:18
one's more mental, or this movement towards this sense of
13:24
this kind of wanting and, and anticipating pleasure.
13:30
And then we kind of get lost in it.
13:32
And that's called craving for sensuous experiences.
13:35
We want, we want to be satisfied through the senses or we're
13:44
moving away from something which is this aversion or irritation.
13:53
And then you've got this, this 5th hindrance, which is called
13:56
doubt. So yeah.
14:06
So, so I suppose to to kind of keep it simple when it's too
14:12
much energy, what we need to do is kind of bring things down.
14:17
So like spend more time grounding, feeling the weight of
14:22
the body, breathing deeper down in the body.
14:27
So there's probably lots of ways of working it.
14:29
So I'm just going to give you a couple.
14:30
I'm not going to spend so much time on this.
14:33
Whereas if the energy is low, we need to kind of brighten up
14:38
more. We need to sort of enliven.
14:43
So that might mean that we open our eyes.
14:47
It might mean that we take our awareness favor up the body.
14:51
It might mean that we we notice more the in breath because the
14:55
in breath is bringing energy in. And so these are some ways of
14:59
working with high and low energy and then we've kind of craving
15:06
and diversion. Well, I would say that the the
15:13
big thing actually in a sense with all of these hindrances
15:17
that the big thing actually is acknowledgement.
15:20
So actually to know where you are, to know that you're in in a
15:27
hindrance and then you sort of work out over time.
15:32
How do you work with that? There are also kind of
15:34
tendencies that we have in our life.
15:36
They're not just kind of on the meditation cushion.
15:39
It's like that's what you'll probably start to to recognize
15:46
the more and more you meditate. It's like, all right, these,
15:49
this particular hindrance is what I occupy quite a bit.
15:57
Yeah, I knew. I suppose the other thing to
15:58
bear in mind is that, so, so one way of kind of working in
16:07
meditation, well, in a sense, it's sort of what generally what
16:09
happens, like kind of whether you use this model or not, if
16:13
you start to get a little bit more absorbed in meditation,
16:16
what will happen is that these things will start to recede
16:22
quite naturally into the background.
16:23
This is just what happens. And then it's like if you're, if
16:28
you're moving towards these kind of states of Deanna states of
16:34
absorption, what you're actually moving towards is deeper and
16:40
deeper levels of pleasure and happiness, which I think is very
16:48
good to to remember, particularly if you hear like
16:51
about like Buddhism, for instance, when you talk about
16:55
something like the four noble truths, you hear, oh, all
16:59
conditioned things are suffering.
17:01
So you can have this idea what Buddhism is, is kind of like
17:03
about concentrating on suffering and pain.
17:07
But actually what these Diana stakes are showing us is that
17:14
there the Buddhism is also saying there is a lots of, lots
17:18
of different levels, deeper and deeper levels of pleasure that
17:26
actually go beyond the senses that are cultivated through
17:32
through the mind, through concentration.
17:34
So if you kind of come back, if you come back to this image of
17:37
the the club, it's kind of like as you, as you're there or as
17:42
you're getting close to the entrance, if you start to
17:47
anticipate what might happen when you're inside, how kind of
17:51
amazing it might be, who you might meet, what will you drink,
17:56
what drugs might you take? I don't know.
17:59
In a way, you're kind of like you're, you're thinking about
18:03
pleasure in the future. You don't get in if you're in
18:09
the queue and you're looking quite grumpy and you're critical
18:15
and you're looking around. If you're something like
18:17
Berghaund, you're looking around and you're just thinking, God,
18:20
what are all these people? Why they're all dressed in
18:22
black, Like kind of why don't, why don't they kind of wear
18:25
something a bit more colourful, kind of what's wrong with them?
18:29
So you're in a, in a kind of like sort of critical sort of
18:31
frame of mind. You don't get in if you if you
18:42
if you start to doubt. Well, maybe I won't get in.
18:46
Is this the right club? Do they come at the right time?
18:50
I'm aware in the right clothes, all of this kind of thing.
18:54
You don't get in. What have I done?
19:00
Doubt. Craving.
19:05
Yeah, if if you're, if you're worried, I kind of like, am I
19:10
get in? Am I going to get in or am I not
19:12
going to get in? Oh, God, is it possible?
19:15
Maybe I should not have come tonight.
19:17
I've got too much work to do. You don't get in if you're, if
19:24
you are too tired, well, maybe you don't even bother to go or
19:30
maybe you get halfway there and you give up or you fall asleep
19:38
in the queue. You don't get in.
19:42
So they're the they're the five hindrances.
19:47
So let's see where we are. Yep.
19:53
So, So what do we need to do? So in a sense, how do we work
20:00
with all of this stuff? So we need to relax.
20:05
We need to stay curious, we need to open to our experience as it
20:13
is, so not fight it. And, and in terms of meditation,
20:20
in terms of kind of sort of working with these these kind of
20:27
tendencies, you need to look also to your life as much as you
20:31
are doing to sitting on a cushion.
20:39
So what I mean by that is like I was thinking that so say like in
20:45
the morning when I meditate, it's actually a very good time
20:48
to meditate because I've just woken up.
20:52
I haven't checked my phone. I'm pretty fresh, so therefore
20:58
the conditions are right for me to sit if I start or if I decide
21:03
to meditate. And actually I've been scrolling
21:04
through my phone and then I start getting really into that
21:09
and I've realised, oh, I've got to do this and I've got to do
21:11
that. Then I remember this and
21:12
remember that and then I try to meditate.
21:16
It's like I'm in a completely different state of mind.
21:19
So it's like your whole life will obviously affect how you
21:22
are when you're sitting. So, so to kind of come back to
21:32
this image of the club. So you're kind of you're quite
21:35
close to the door and every now and again the door opens.
21:39
Probably some of you again have had this experience and you kind
21:41
of hear the music come out just for a short amount of time and
21:44
then the door closes. You get a kind of frill.
21:47
You're very close. And at this point these various
21:56
kind of obstacles are mentioned from getting in.
21:58
They've kind of, they've receded, they've kind of
22:00
dissolved. And luckily you have 5 friends.
22:08
So the title of the talk is 5 obstacles, 5 friends.
22:13
And actually these five friends know how you can get in.
22:20
And these five friends have got quite strange names, so one of
22:25
them is called Ekagata, another one is called Pitaka, another
22:32
one is called Pichara, another one is called Piti, and another
22:40
one is called Piti. So they're your 5 friends.
22:46
And because you're at the door, you're quite close, you have
22:50
access, there's a possibility that you will kind of get in,
22:59
get into the club, get into the high states of, of
23:02
concentration. So there is actually a phase in
23:04
meditation, it's called access concentration.
23:10
So it's a very important phase in meditation.
23:12
It's before you enter the absorptions, but it means that
23:17
there is a possibility there's an access to go in deeper,
23:20
there's an access to these absorptions.
23:25
So, so to come back to these friends with the strange names.
23:32
So the first two friends, for some reason in my mind, they
23:36
appeared as kind of two brothers.
23:38
So the first two friends are Vitaka and Vichara.
23:43
And you're curious to know what do their names mean?
23:47
So what one of their names means?
23:51
Initial application might be a strange translation of the
23:55
names. You have to bear with me rivers.
23:59
So initial application or initial fault or initial
24:06
intention or initial turning towards.
24:10
So this is what Pitaka, this is what his name means.
24:16
And then Vichara means sustained intention, sustained
24:23
application, sustained fault or sustained turning towards.
24:39
So Vitaka has invited you to the club and what what he says is
24:47
that you've got to make an initial effort.
24:50
That was his advice. Vichara reminds you that to get
24:56
in, you need to keep turning towards or remembering what
25:01
you're doing. He says your intention needs to
25:05
be sustained, relaxed and not goal orientated.
25:11
Ekagata, the name that intrigues you the most, is dressed a bit
25:17
like a samurai, and their sense of Ekagata is there.
25:23
Very clear, precise, 1 pointed. They know how to stay present
25:34
and their attention is sharp. When the two sisters appear pity
25:42
and sucker, you feel incredibly happy.
25:49
You've never experienced such happiness kind of as when pity
25:54
and sucker turn up and compared to worldly happiness.
26:00
Well, you can see that worldly happiness, it just it just
26:03
doesn't do it really compared to being with these two, two
26:09
sisters. So that's how they paid in my
26:12
mind, two sisters. So although, although they're
26:20
although all 5 friends are present, it's pity that takes
26:26
you by the hand and leads you in to the club into the high states
26:32
of consciousness. And, and again, like with the
26:37
other two, you're kind of you wonder what, what these two
26:40
names mean. You know what, what do they
26:42
mean? Pity sucker.
26:44
And you're told that pity means rapture or joy, and sucker means
26:51
happiness or bliss. And actually in their presence,
26:57
you understand why they are so named because that is what you
27:01
feel like in their presence. And as you, as you go into the
27:10
club, you notice the sign. You've never noticed this
27:13
before. So the sign is not Bergheim.
27:18
It's called meditation proper. So this sign can be a bit
27:25
troubling. It's troubling if you don't get
27:30
in or if you've tried to get in. You've tried to get in for years
27:34
and years and very occasionally the door has opened.
27:39
But actually, as pity takes you by the hand and she takes you
27:43
in, all of your worries and concerns are forgotten.
27:51
So what does it feel like when Pity takes you in?
27:58
So it feels delightful, it feels lovely and chanting.
28:08
It can feel, it feels like when you're with when you're with
28:11
Pity, it feels like the body feels very light.
28:16
That's one way it feels with her.
28:20
You can use him if you want. Sometimes it feels like the
28:25
body's boundaries are dissolving when you're with pity, or it
28:31
feels like there's a sense of well-being or a sense of warmth.
28:36
That kind of or sense that just spreads throughout the whole
28:39
body. This is how it is.
28:43
Or it feels like a sense of kind of tingling or it feels like the
28:47
hair that the hairs on your body are kind of standing on end.
28:53
And the more times that you visit the club and the more you
28:56
get to that you get to, you get in, the more you notice the felt
29:03
sense of what it's like to be with Peter.
29:05
So sometimes what, what, what you realise is that the, the,
29:11
the sense, the sense of being with her is like has got lots of
29:14
different levels of intensity. So sometimes it can be quite
29:19
weak, this sort of sense that I've met, these various things
29:22
that are mentioned. Sometimes it can be moderate or
29:25
sometimes it can be strong. It can be overwhelming or it can
29:32
be tentative. So it's depend.
29:36
It kind of depends on how much attention, how much you're kind
29:41
of concentrated on her. So now you're inside, and you
29:50
couldn't have imagined how delightful it is kind of inside
29:56
the club meditation proper. And what you realize is that
30:05
this is just the first room. So being in this room, being in
30:10
this space with pity is delightful and all of the other
30:14
things that I kind of mentioned. But you also notice that there
30:18
are other doors. So there's one door that leads
30:23
up higher, there's one door that leads down deeper.
30:27
Both of them go to the same place.
30:31
So in a way, you choose. You choose to go down, you
30:34
choose to go deeper. And at this point, you you say
30:42
goodbye to two of your friends. So you say goodbye to your
30:47
friend Pitaka and your friend Pichara.
30:54
And actually, this, this point, Suka comes forwards.
31:00
So she comes more into the foreground.
31:02
Yeah. And as delightful and as amazing
31:09
it is to be with pity, what you notice is that he's like, oh,
31:18
with Suka, you feel even more happy.
31:22
The happiness is a bit different.
31:25
It's a bit more broad, but it's even it's even there is even
31:32
more happiness kind of with with her.
31:35
So you go into you go down even further into another room.
31:44
You can't imagine that things could get any better than this,
31:47
really. Being with her, Suka and
31:53
Ekagata. That's who.
31:54
Who's there? And then you say goodbye to
32:02
Suka. You go deeper, You go even
32:08
deeper. Maybe I've just gone there.
32:17
Time for that. I forgot what I'm saying.
32:19
So, so basically as you go deeper and deeper still, what
32:25
you experience is it's kind of like that sense of happiness
32:30
that you was experienced with with Sucker becomes more and
32:36
more still. It becomes more and more
32:39
peaceful. Yeah, to the point where
32:42
actually in the end, so this is the kind of the the third room,
32:47
you say goodbye to Sucker. So all that's left is Ekagata.
32:53
So Ekagata can also mean unification.
32:56
Yeah. So you really with what is kind
32:59
of what is going on. And in this last room, this kind
33:04
of this 4th room, you meet a new friend.
33:08
So this new friend is very solid, deeply reliable,
33:18
unshakable, and his name is Rebecca.
33:23
And what you notice when you're in in the room with him is that
33:31
all sense of pleasure and pain just dissolves.
33:37
So that doesn't mean indifference, it doesn't mean
33:40
blank. It means actually you've, you've
33:45
entered an even deeper level of peace, or even you could call it
33:53
happiness or satisfaction, being with being with pekka, whose
34:01
name means equanimity. So what I've, what I've been
34:05
describing is, is actually what I called the, the four Rupa
34:13
Dianas, the four levels of absorption.
34:17
And that's as far as we will go today.
34:23
But actually there, there is even further to go.
34:26
There is another four, what I call the formless absorptions,
34:30
which are also a whole area that can be explored.
34:43
So what, what I thought, what I thought I'd I'd do next is just
34:46
sort of describe a little bit, well, how does all of this work
34:50
in meditation? So say for instance, you're
34:57
doing, you're doing the mindfulness of breathing
34:59
practice. So something else kind of came
35:07
into my mind. Really.
35:14
Yeah, it doesn't matter. Forget about that.
35:17
So you're doing, you're doing the mindfulness of breathing
35:19
practice. So generally when I start to
35:25
meditate, what I do is just open and just see open.
35:29
Don't do anything. See what's actually in my
35:32
experience. And then what, what you'll
35:36
notice is what we notice is that our we will be with something.
35:41
So we'll either be with sensation, we'll be with thought
35:45
or images, or we'll be with emotion.
35:48
And depending on what we find at that point will depend on how we
35:52
work in meditation. Yeah.
35:58
So because I'm doing, because I'm doing the mindfulness of
36:02
breathing practice I have at the very beginning of the practice.
36:09
Well, even before that actually, I suppose what I would do was
36:13
some kind of initial kind of settling in.
36:17
That might be a body, a body awareness practice like we did
36:22
with Lolly to Ratner, or it might be some other way of
36:24
helping us to kind of settle and ground.
36:29
Sometimes that can be the whole of your practice.
36:31
It's like that is as far as it goes, basically.
36:34
And that is also very useful. Getting to know the hindrances
36:38
in meditation is also useful. It's not like wasted time if
36:44
that's what you're working with, but to kind of to go through
36:48
this model a bit more. So at the beginning of the
36:53
practice, I know. So I'm doing the mindfulness of
36:56
breathing and I have a particular intention.
37:00
So my intention is that I'm going to see whether I can be
37:04
with the sensations of the breath.
37:06
I'm going to notice when when I wander off and become distracted
37:12
and I'm going to at that point re establish contacts with the
37:16
sensations of the breath. So that is that is my intention.
37:20
Yeah, that is my initial application.
37:25
That is my initial turning towards that is what is called I
37:30
have attacker. Then as I start to to be with
37:39
the breath kind of more and more, if I can do that, if I
37:42
start to really sort of notice, well, where do I feel the breath
37:46
in the body? How does that feel?
37:48
What's the sensation of the breath?
37:51
I'm not necessarily thinking all this, but more just my awareness
37:54
is, is really with the breath. Then my attention is a bit more
37:58
sustained there. I'm sustaining my attention with
38:02
the objects, with the the breathing and that is kind of
38:07
happening through time. So that is the charter.
38:11
That's the sustained application or the sustained intention.
38:16
The intention is kind of is happening through time.
38:20
And because it's an intention, that means that as I'm wandering
38:23
off, if I remember those two things, as I wander off, I will
38:28
remember and come back. So I'm gently guiding myself
38:31
back. This is what is sustained, this
38:34
sense of noticing and coming back, noticing and coming back.
38:42
Then then there's also that sense of is my attention able to
38:49
kind of is my intention with the breath.
38:55
So is there a sense that over time my attention in the breath
39:00
kind of come together as one? So that's like the kind of the
39:03
unification that is the one pointedness that's echogato.
39:09
And actually as we're sitting, if we were working in this way
39:11
in meditation, you can be looking for these things as
39:16
you're sitting, like kind of do I need to bring in a little bit
39:20
more of a sense of looking for this one pointedness or
39:23
unification? Then you've got these other two
39:31
elements. You've got pity and sucker.
39:37
So I've said that that that pity can can mean rapture or joy and
39:46
succour can mean happiness or bliss.
39:50
So it's said that all of these five things are present.
39:53
Well, it is true actually as we enter the first absorption.
39:59
But the important thing is, is that as as we are.
40:04
This was, this was a kind of a bit of a revelation for me I
40:06
think a few years ago in terms of meditation.
40:10
For a very long time I had the idea that that you just stay
40:16
with the breath, stay with the breath, stay with the breath,
40:18
stay with the breath, stay with the breath and you don't do
40:21
anything else. And occasionally you get lucky
40:28
and actually you went to, you went to the first absorption.
40:33
Then I read, well, actually what you need to do is so you stay
40:39
with the breath, stay with the breath, stay with the breath.
40:42
And then something starts to happen.
40:45
There's a kind of shift. So the, the, the hindrances have
40:49
kind of receded to the background.
40:51
And what you are starting to also notice are these two
40:55
things, sucker and pity. Pity is rapture.
40:59
So, and remember what I said was it's pity that takes you by the
41:03
hand and leads you in. So in a sense it's kind of like
41:07
it's pity what comes more to the fore.
41:12
So we need to get to know what is that like?
41:18
How does that feel for us? So it could be that actually
41:24
there's a sort of sense of how I would kind of describe it is
41:28
like there's a sort of, there's definitely could be a sense of
41:32
well-being somewhere in the body or there's a sort of sense of
41:36
rippling up through the body. I tend to think of pity as a bit
41:39
more like an upward moving energy and sucker as a bit more
41:43
as a, as a kind of broadening out.
41:50
So it's kind of like as you've sustained your attention with
41:53
the breath for a period of time, and as you start to notice pity
41:57
more and more in your experience, you actually just
42:00
give your attention to it. And that might mean that
42:04
actually there is a small area of the body that feels a sense
42:11
of well-being and you just give your attention to that.
42:16
And again, that might be as far as it goes, but actually what
42:23
we're, what we're trying to do at that point is try to allow
42:27
that sense, that sense of pleasure, that sense of this
42:31
delightful sensation to extend fervour and fervour through the
42:37
body. So in a, in a sense, it's like
42:40
the whole space of our awareness, the whole sense of
42:44
the body is just pity, is just this sense of, of rapture.
42:50
And at that point, that is the that is the entry point into the
42:54
first Diana. I suppose the other, the other
42:58
thing maybe to say is, is that also what I notice myself is
43:03
like the more I get absorbed, the more attention is released.
43:10
So probably you've noticed this. It's like as you're sitting and
43:15
as you start to, if you've managed to stay with the breath
43:17
or whatever the object for a while, you notice that a part of
43:21
your body just relaxes. You didn't even know you was
43:24
holding, you didn't know you was holding your shoulders.
43:26
And suddenly your shoulders relaxed.
43:28
The breath has kind of deepened. Yeah.
43:39
So I'll finish with with one thing, which is to do with.
43:44
So in a sense, what I've been talking about a lot today is
43:46
more to do with working to or working with Samatar.
43:53
So I haven't really said anything about this for
43:55
passionate element of meditation.
43:58
So one of the kind of one of the insights, I must admit, this
44:04
doesn't come from me actually comes from Aya Kema.
44:07
So one of one of the insights that's related to this first
44:12
Diana, is that what you realize is that pleasure.
44:19
So we're, we're generally, we generally want pleasure in our
44:23
lives and we go around seeking it in lots of different ways.
44:30
And we tend to think that the way that the way to get pleasure
44:34
is through the senses. So that tends to mean that we're
44:38
a bit more outward looking to who or what could give us
44:43
pleasure. The one of the insights of the
44:47
first Diana is that the first absorption is that pleasure, a
44:54
deeper form of pleasure can be experienced inwardly.
45:00
A deeper level of happiness can be experienced simply by being
45:05
absorbed or by being concentrated.
45:09
So that's, that's one of the insights and the other, the
45:13
other insight, which is worth bearing in mind with all
45:18
meditation in a way is to do with you've got into this.
45:24
If you have, you've got into this amazing state and at some
45:32
point you come out, so you stop meditating and the state of mind
45:40
dissolves. You've set that up through
45:44
causes and conditions, and then now you've stopped making that
45:49
effort. The causes and conditions change
45:52
and we come out of the absorption.
45:59
That might sound quite disappointed, it might feel a
46:02
bit disappointed, but it shows us one of the fundamental things
46:08
that Buddhism talks about is that conditioned things are
46:15
impermanent. They are transitra.
46:17
So even even in the states, this is one thing that we that we
46:22
need to look for. It's like we need to get clear
46:26
that both both states of pain come to an end, but also
46:30
conditioned states of pleasure come to an end.
46:34
So in a sense, the insight is like, that's how we start to see
46:39
more and more the world. And what that means is, is that
46:44
because of seeing that more deeply, we grasp less because
46:50
we've seen that it doesn't that the, the particular pleasures
46:56
don't last. It doesn't mean that we don't
46:58
enjoy them. It means that there's there's,
47:02
we don't take them as seriously and we don't hold on to them,
47:07
which actually is, is liberating.
47:11
It's kind of moving us more and more in the direction of wisdom,
47:16
but it's wisdom. So that I'll do today.