MEDITATION - MIND CULTURE
Ven. Thera Piyadassi

We live in an age of rush and speed. Tension is everywhere. If you stand on the corner of a busy street and scan the faces of the people hurrying feverishly by, you will notice that most of them are restless. They carry with them an atmosphere of stress. They are mostly pictures of rush and worry. Rarely will you find a picture of calm, content and repose in any of these faces. Such is the modern world.

Today's world is characterized by inordinate haste that leads to quick decisions and imprudent actions. Some shout when they could speak in normal tone, others talk excitedly at a forced pitch for long periods and finish their conversations almost exhausted. Any kind of excitement is a stress in the physiologist's sense of the word, and stress causes the speeding up of bodily processes. It is increasingly more common to see a person driving a vehicle getting agitated on seeing the green traffic light giving way to amber. The anxious person regards even a minor event as if it were a crisis or a threat. As a result people are worried and unhappy.

Another mark of the modem world is its noisiness. "Music hath charms," they say, but for many today, even music is not agreeable if there is no noise; the louder the noise, the greater the music is to them. Those who live in big cities don't even think about the noise. They are conditioned by it and accustomed to it. The stress and strain of all this noise is responsible for many ailments - heart diseases, cancer, ulcers, nervous tension and insomnia. Many illnesses, anxiety, nervous tension, economic distress and emotional unrest are all products of modern life.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

Our nervous exhaustion is increasing with the speeding up of our lives. People often return home after work with their nerves on edge. As a consequence their concentration is weakened and mental and physical efficiency are lowered. Man becomes easily irritated and is quick to find fault and pick a quarrel. He becomes morbidly introspective, experiences aches and pains and suffers from hypertension and sleeplessness. These symptoms of nervous exhaustion clearly show that modern man's mind and body require rest - rest of a high quality.

Let us bear in mind that certain aloofness, a withdrawing of the mind from the busyness of life is a requisite for good mental hygiene. Whenever you have the opportunity, try to get away from town; engage yourself in quiet contemplation, call it yoga, concentration or meditation. Learn to observe the silence. Silence does so much good for us. It is wrong to imagine that they alone are powerful who are noisy, garrulous and fussily busy. Silence is golden; we should speak only if we can improve upon silence. The greatest creative energy works in silence. Observing silence is important. We do that in our meditation.

People are so used to noise and talk, they feel lonely and out of place if they do not speak. But if we train ourselves in the art of cultivating silence, we can learn to enjoy it.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember that there is peace in silence. We must take time off to go into retreat in search of silence. We must, now and then, break away from motion to remain motionless. It is a peaceful form of existence. In lonely retreat we experience the value of silent contemplation. We make an inward journey. When we withdraw into silence, we are absolutely alone, able see ourselves as we really are; then we can learn to overcome the weaknesses and limitations of ordinary experience. Time spent in secluded contemplation is not wasted; it goes a long way to strengthen a person's character. It is an asset to our daily work and progress if we can find time to cut ourselves off from the routine and spend a day or two in quiet contemplation. This is surely not escapism or living in idleness, but the best way to strengthen the mind. This is beneficial introspection; for it is by examining our thoughts and feelings that we can probe into the inner meaning of things and discover the powers within.

MENTAL DEVELOPMENT

Modem man is starved for solitude. A little solitude every day, a little aloofness, a little cutting away from the maddening crowd, is very necessary to give balance to the mind which has been greatly upset by the rush and speed, din and turmoil, clash and clang of modem life. It is in and through solitude that the human mind gains strength and power.

Meditation is not a practice of today or yesterday. From time immemorial people have been practicing meditation in diverse ways. Yogis, saints and enlightened ones of an ages have gone on the path of meditation and have attributed their achievements to meditation. There never was, and never will be, any mental development or mental purity without meditation. Meditation was the means by which Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, gained supreme enlightenment.

Meditation is not only for India or for the Buddha's time, but is for all mankind, for all times and chmes. The boundaries of race and religion, frontiers of time and space, are irrelevant to the practice of meditation.

The Buddha says: "Though one conquers in battle a thousand times a thousand, men, yet he is the greatest conqueror who conquers himself". This is nothing other than self-mastery. It means mastering our minds, our emotions, likes and dislikes and so forth. Milton echoes the words of the Buddha when he says: "The command of one's self is the greatest empire a man can aspire unto, and consequently, to be subject to our own passions is the most grievous slavery. "

From the Buddhist point of view the mind or consciousness is the core of our existence. All our psychological experiences, pain and pleasure, sorrow and happiness, good and evil, life and death, are not caused by any external agency. They are the result of our own thoughts and their resultant actions.

APPLICATION OF MINDFULNESS

In recent times people have been busy examining and investigating psychic phenomena, the study of which seems to reveal the hidden resources of the human mind. The urge in man to seek spiritual guidance, his desire for inner development, is on the increase. This is a good sign.

Meditation is not a voluntary exile from life or something to be practiced for the hereafter. Meditation should be applied to the daily affairs of life and its results obtained here and now. It is not separated from the work-a-day life. It is part and parcel of life. This fact becomes clear when we study the four-fold setting up, or application of mindfulness (satipattana). When free from the rush of city life, from nagging preoccupation with the world, we are not so liable to lose control. It is only in society that it takes some effort to check such lapses. Any meditation we do is of immense help in enabling us to face all this with calm. If we ignore meditation, life lacks meaning, purpose and inspiration.

Meditation can inspire us to discover our own intelligence, richness and natural dignity. Meditation can also stimulate the latent powers of the mind, aid clear thinking, deep understanding, mental balance and tranquility. It is a creative process that aims at converting the chaotic feelings and unwholesome thoughts into mental harmony and purity. It is the most meaningful therapy for the problems of modem life. When the mind is trained through meditation, it can perceive things that are beyond the range of normal senses. All these benefits can be obtained through meditation, not all at once, but gradually, through systematic training and practice.

In addition, meditation has physical ramifications. Meditation can relax the nerves, control or reduce the blood pressure, make us zestful by stemming the dissipation of energy through tension, improve our health and keep us fit. The medical profession has taken cognizance of the use of meditation as is shown by this article:

MEDITATION CURES PRESSURE

It has now been proved that high blood pressure and other diseases connected with the heart could easily be cured by Buddhist meditation.

Dr. Buddhadasa Bodhinayake, Consultant Psychiatrist, Harley Hospital Essex, UK, and Post graduate tutor of the British Medical Federation in charge of doctors' appointment in East London, said that the British Cardiac Society had recently accepted the curative effects of Buddhist meditation.

Dr. Bodhinayake stated that over 68,000 British patients were now practicing 'Anapanasati meditation! They had found that this meditation treatment did more than drugs.

He said that all religions had meditation practice, but the Anapanasati (breathing meditation) was exclusive to Buddhism.

Unlike other meditation practices, this had an effect on both sides of the brain. Thus it was capable of bringing marvelous results on patients.

He said that 30 minutes of meditation -15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening gave patients body relaxation equal to 6 or 7 hours of sleep.

It was scientifically proved through electroencephalograph (EEG) readings that the Anapanasati meditation was capable of synchronizing the working of the two sides of the brain,

This reduced the patient's oxygen needs, reduced the heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing rate. Fifteen minutes of Anapanasati meditation had the effect of three Aldomet 250mg tablets on a high blood pressure patient.

Dr. Bodhiayake said that it had also been proved that this meditation could be used to get people out of drug addiction. It also greatly helped brain development, thinking capacity and retentive power.

A large number of students of Harvard University were now practicing Anapanasati meditation to get them through their through their examinations.

BREATHING MEDITATION

Keep the body as motionless as possible, mind alert and keenly observant. Body and mind alike must be as well strung as a bow, as well tuned as a lyre. Meditation is a practical occupation. Just as the tortoise shelters its limbs under its shell, so should the meditator guard his five sense organs and overcome the sex impulse with mindfulness. He should preserve all his energy to gain mental development. Try to do your meditation regularly. If possible, at the same time every day; for these psychological factors make for the success of the meditation.

In-breathing and out-breathing are spontaneous. Normally no one tries to breathe consciously, or mindfully, but when practicing breathing meditation it is essential to breathe mindfully and to be aware of the breath. The normal flow of breath should be noticed, observed. Breathing calms the body down and prepares it for deep meditation. Its aim is the power of concentration. Psychologists have recognized the value and importance of mindful breathing as tending to ease the tensions of body and mind. This meditation is, therefore, a really practical occupation, therapeutic in the best sense of the word. It is not for mere intellectual understanding but to liberate oneself from mental defilement and to attain purity and peace of mind.

In this breathing meditation, the most important thing is to be mindful of the breathing. It is essential to be mindful, to be aware (sati), attentive and observant (anupassana) in all the four types of meditation of mindfulness. Relax utterly, leave the world with clash and clang and stress when you sit down for meditation. When you do the first three in-breathing, imagine that you are taking in all that is good and pure in the environment, in the cosmos. When you do the first three out-breathings, imagine that you are putting out all the 'toxic' thoughts in you, all that is bad and ugly. That is how you should get into the meditative frame of mind.

Now start your meditation on mindfulness of in-and-out-breathing (anapanasati). Your breathing should be natural and effortless. Breathe calmly. There should not be any effort to control the breath. Merely allow the breath to ebb and flow freely in its own natural rhythm under the light of full awareness.

The meditator breathes in and breathes out mindfully with full awareness. He is mindful of the breath and not of himself. His one and only aim is to focus the mind on the breath to the exclusion of other thoughts and fix the mind there; for if what is in the 'marginal' zone breaks in upon the *focal' zone, he will find it difficult to concentrate, he becomes discursive. It may be helpful for a beginner to make note of 'in,' 'out/ when doing the breathing meditation. If you experience difficulty in keeping your attention on the breath, count 'one' for inspiration, 'two' for expiration, register 'one' at the end of one inspiration, 'two' at the end of an expiration and so forth. Do not count less than five or more than ten since your attention might divert from the breaths to count. Give up counting when concentration can be focused on breath alone.

When you practice mindfulness on in-breathing and out-breathing, fix your attention at the point where the moving air strokes the nostrils or the upper lip. Note your breath as it goes in and out, but do not follow the breath into your lungs or out into the air. There should not be any holding or stopping of your breath. It should be quite natural without any effort or force on your part. Keep your focus at the nose-door and be aware of the full passage of each in-and out-breath. At times the breath may become so fine that you can hardly catch it. You may no longer notice the breath, but that must not be taken to mean that your mind is blank. This is just impossible for you cannot think of mind devoid of thoughts. When you do not notice the breath you are aware of it, and that certainly is not a blank mind. You will become aware of the breath again.

Whenever your mind wanders to other thoughts, be aware of them, but do not get involved in them emotionally or intellectually; do not comment, condemn, evaluate or appraise them, but bring your attention back to the natural rhythm of your breathing. Your mind may be overwhelmed by evil and unwholesome thoughts. This is to be expected. It is in meditation that you understand how your mind works, become aware of both good and evil, ugly and beautiful, wholesome and unwholesome thoughts. Do not become elated with good thoughts nor depressed with bad ones. These thoughts come go like actors on a stage. When you hear sounds, become aware of them and bring your attention back to your breath. The same with regard to smell, taste (which you may get mentally), touch, pain, pleasure and so forth. Observe the thoughts in a calm detached way. Mindfulness means observing whatever happens inside oneself, whatever one does, not judging it as good or bad, but just watching with naked awareness. It is really using full concentration on whatever one is doing or experiencing.

Since worldly progress, gain and profit depend largely on your own efforts, surely you should strive even harder to train you mind and so develop the best that is in you. As mental training requires great effort and personal integrity, strive on now. "Do not let your days pass away like the shadow of a cloud which leaves behind it no trace for remembrance".

'BUDDHISM: A LIVING MESSAGE'