The How & the Why

　　Thanissaro Bhikkhu November 14, 1996

　　Two important questions you have to answer about meditation are “how

　　” and “why

　　”—how to do it and why you are doing it—because meditation is not just a technique. There”s a context for the practice, and only when you see the practice in context can you really understand what you”re doing and get the most out of it.

　　The “how” is pretty simple. With breath meditation, sit straight, hands in your lap, right hand on top of your left hand, your legs crossed, right leg on top of the left leg, your eyes closed. That”s getting your body into position. Getting your mind into position means focusing it in on the present moment. Think about the breath and then notice how the breath feels as it comes in, how it feels as it goes out. Be aware of the breathing. That means you have two qualities at work: the thinking or mindfulness, which reminds you where to stay; and the alertness, which tells you what”s happening with the breath. Those are two of the qualities you want.

　　The third quality is what the Buddha called atappa, or ardency, which means you really put an effort into it. You really focus on what you”re doing. You”re not just playing around. You give it your whole attention. You try to be ardently mindful and ardently alert.

　　Ardently mindful means that you try to keep your mindfulness as continuous as possible, without any gaps. If you find that your mind has slipped off the breath, you bring it right back. You don”t let it dawdle here or sniff at the flowers there. You”ve got work to do and you want to get it done as quickly, as thoroughly, as possible. You have to maintain that kind of attitude. As the Buddha said, it”s like realizing that your head is on fire. You put it out as fast as possible. The issues we”re dealing with are serious issues, urgent issues: aging, illness, and death. They”re like fires burning away inside us. So you have to maintain that sense of ardency because you never know when these fires are going to flare up. You want to be as prepared as possible, as quickly as possible. So when the mind wanders off, be ardent in bringing it back.

　　Ardently alert means that when the mind is staying with the breath, you try to be as sensitive as possible in adjusting it to make it feel good, and in monitoring the results of your efforts. Try long breathing to see how it feels. Try short breathing, heavy breathing, light breathing, deep, shallow. The more refined you can make your awareness, the better the meditation goes because you can make the breath more and more refined, a more and more comfortable place for the mind to stay. Then you can let that sense of comfort spread throughout the body. Think of the breath not simply as the air coming in and out the lungs, but as the flow of energy throughout the whole body. The more refined your awareness, the more sensitive you can be to that flow. The more sensitive you are, the more refined the breath becomes, the more gratifying, the more absorbing it becomes as a place to stay.

　　This is the basic trick in getting the mind to settle down in the present moment—you”ve got to give it something that it likes to stay with. If it”s here against its will, it”s going to be like a balloon you push under the water. As long as your hand has a good grasp on the balloon, it”s not going to pop up, but as soon as you slip a little bit, the balloon pops up out of the water. If the mind is forced to stay on an object that it really finds unpleasant, it”s not going to stay. As soon as your mindfulness slips just a little bit, it”s gone.

　　Or you can compare it to parents raising a child. If the parents are constantly beating the child, the child is going to run away from home as soon as it finds the chance. Even if they lock the w…

《The How & the Why》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…