..續本文上一頁”s exciting and what”s calming. Buddhist meditation – why is this so boring
Repetitions and chanting ... why don”t we sing arias
I could do it! I”ve always wanted to be an opera singer. But on the conventional level of propriety, or when I”m sitting on the teacher”s high seat doing my duty, then I chant in monotone as best I can. If you really concentrate on monotone chanting, it”s tranquillising.
One night, we were sitting in our forest monastery in Thailand meditating, when I heard an American pop song that I really hated when I was a layman. It was being blasted out by one of those medicine sellers who go to all the villages in big vans with loudspeakers that play this kind of music in order to attract the villagers to come and buy their quacky medicines. The wind was blowing in the right direction and the sound of ”Tell Laura I Love Her” seemed right here in the meditation hall itself. I hadn”t heard American pop music for so many years, so while this smarmy sentimental song was playing I was actually beginning to cry! And I began to recognise the tremendous emotional pull of that kind of music. If you don”t really understand it, it grabs your heart and you get caught up in the excitement and emotion of it. This is the effect of music when you”re not mindful.
So our chanting is in monotone, because if you concentrate on it it”s not going to carry you away into sentimental feelings, into tears or ecstasy. Instead, you feet tranquil, peaceful, serene. Anapanasati [See Note 3] also tranquillises, because it has a gentle rhythm – subtle, not exciting. And though the monastic life itself is boring in the sense of lacking romance, adventure and excitement, it is tranquillising, peaceful, calming....
Therefore, reflect in your life upon what excites and what calms, so that you begin to understand how to use Pañña: your wisdom faculty. As Buddhists, we do this so that we know what”s affecting us. We understand the forces of nature with which we have to co-exist. We can”t control everything so that nothing violent or exciting ever happens around us – but we can understand it. We can put forward some effort towards understanding and learning from our lives as we live them.
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Notes.
1. That is to say, although the statement is quite correct, taken out of context it could be used - as this talk points out - to justify any action. Similarly, the meticulous ”mindfulness practice” described later can also be used unskilfully. Ajahn Sumedho is not criticising these views, but pointing to the danger of attaching to any view.
2. kamma: action which comes from habitual impulse, volitions, or natural energies, leading to an inevitable reaction. See also ”Kamma and Rebirth”.
3. ”anapanasati”: a widely used meditation technique. One composes the mind by focussing attention on the inhalation and exhalation of breath.
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SKILFUL MEANS:LETTING GO
Truly, wisdom springs from meditation;without meditation, wisdom wanes;having known these two pathsof progress and decline,let one conduct oneselfso that wisdom may increase.
Dhammapada 282
WE HAVE BEEN DISCUSSING the First Noble Truth – suffering – which becomes increasingly apparent as you sit here contemplating your own body and mind. Just be aware of what happens: you can see that when good thoughts pass by, or physical pleasure, there”s happiness, and when there”s pain or negativity, there”s despair. So we can see we are always habitually trying to attain, or maintain or get rid, of conditions. The Second Noble Truth is that of being aware of the arising of the three kinds of desire that we have – desire for sense pleasu…
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