ben
11 Lessons
11 Lessons
Dear friends
Next week I will share the final lesson of this term which will be a meditation for you to practice for the rest of the summer as you go on to embed what you have learned and stabilise and deepen your concentration.
This week please continue with the practice from last week working through the body.
I have now taught you all the fundamentals of concentration. The skills and training practices that refine the quality of both your way of attention and your direct perception. You have also learned how to restrain and stabilise your wandering and scattered mind in a skilful way that should increase an inner sense of ease and calmness rather than cause tension.
These are truly delicate and important practices which I feel are in general poorly taught or glossed over by many teachers and in many of the manuals of meditation practice. The work you have done so far this year, if you have really followed this course, will serve you for the rest of your lives as meditators.
These are also the concentration practices that will serve you in your daily life because they will gradually reverse the unwholesome tendencies that we are developing in our fragmented and rushed approach to life. Patience lies at the the very heart of this and if you feel you are making progress in reducing both restlessness and laziness then you are already achieving much. For these are negative habits that are difficult to break free from.
These meditation practices will also support you if you are also seeking to develop liberating insight or if you have a spiritual practice and are practicing Dharma as the path out of suffering.
More concentration than this is not necessary for the daily life, and is in general only suited to those who have chosen to live a quiet and simple life of few needs. Further progress in both concentration and insight will depend upon the continued refinement of character and commitment to living considerately and upholding our sila (virtue).
I encourage you to continue over the coming weeks to keep up a regular practice. But I also caution you against striving too hard or pushing yourself. I have laid out this work in such a way that allows concentration to emerge naturally out of an ever deepening place of natural rest. This is counter to some approaches that might give the impression that it is something we should strive for with determination. Greed and over-striving even for what should be for our welfare ultimately works against us.
Remember the Buddha teaches us the middle way, which is balanced and not extreme. I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough. No one succeeds by wanting success too much. Those who succeed do so only through the patient, committed and diligent removal of the hindrances and obstacles, which ultimately are the negative qualities of our own mind. Concentration practice alone will not do that for us and our ability to concentrate deeply and peacefully is ultimately a reflection of the gradual purification of our unwholesome mind.
So at this stage I ask you to review sincerely what prompts your practice and if you do find an element of greed or wanting more hidden somewhere, please try to uproot it and replace it with a genuine commitment to cut-off at the root the causes of suffering that remain in you. I am well aware that these teachings are offered in a condensed and concentrated period of time when in reality it would normally take years rather than months to truly master them.
I will run a third session where we will explore the Brahma Viharas ( loving kindness, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity ) as well as some of the reflective meditations that the Buddha taught. And following this I will also host a series on 4 elements meditation that focuses on kasina practice.
Sending you all much love
Burgs
