Meditation Inspiration

‘In what is seen there should be only the seen; in what is heard, only the
heard; in what is sensed, only the sensed; in what is perceived mentally, only
the mentally perceived’

Shakyamuni Buddha, Udana 1, 10

Don’t just do something! Sit there!

7 Point Posture:

Check the position and comfort of your:

1. Seat
2. Hands
3. Backbone
4. Mouth, jaw & tongue
5. Head
6. Eyes
7. Shoulders………..
………………Then focus on the breath……………

‘This is the direct path, monks, for the purification of

beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for
overcoming sorrow and lamentation, for overcoming pain
and grief, for reaching the authentic path, for the
realisation of nirvana – namely the four applications of
mindfulness’

Shakyamuni Buddha, Satipatthanasutta 2

 Mind Training:

Relaxation – Stillness – Vigilance

The purpose of meditation has two benefits. Temporally, it calms and relaxes,
ultimately, it will take you to enlightenment.

‘Just as in the last month of the hot season, when a mass of dust
and dirt has swirled up, a great rain cloud out of season disperses
it and quells it on the spot, so too concentration by mindfulness of
breathing, when developed and cultivated, is peaceful and
sublime, an ambrosial dwelling, and it disperses and quells on the
spot unwholesome states whenever they arise’

Shakyamuni Buddha, Samyutta Nikaya 321-2

Mindfulness:

 Mindfulness is a practice that stabilises the mind

 Mindfulness pursues cognitive balance through attending to the body, feelings,
mental states and mental objects without conceptualisation
 We distinguish between real phenomena and imaginary phenomena
 We pay bare attention to the object of meditation
 We experience directly what is being presented to the senses
 Observe, do not identify with what arises and dissolves in our minds
 On the way we experience greater levels of peace, awareness and greater insight to
reality which benefits our lives now

“Mindfulness in this context is sometimes called bare attention, ‘a

quality of awareness that is relatively free of conceptual pre-
structuring, filtration, modification, interpretation and projection. It’s
not absolutely free of such conceptual superimpositions. It is unlikely
that we can just flick a switch, bringing compulsive conceptual activity
to a halt. But we can attenuate it, make it less compulsive, by
attending more closely so that we have a clearer picture of what is
being presented to our six senses’”
B. Alan Wallace
 “The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human
beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer
aspects of their lives.”
William James

Stabilising Meditation:

 Ultimate purpose is to achieve samadhi –- meditative absorption/meditative quiescence/

tranquillity/concentration – utilising shamatha meditation or Calm Abiding - free from
distraction of the senses and focused on the object of concentration within mental
consciousness.
 Samadhi is a very blissful and serene state of mind
 To stabilise the mind we practise mindfulness to achieve shamatha – Calm Abiding
 To achieve Calm Abiding we need 6 powers: familiarity, effort, introspection, mindfulness,
thinking
 Pure ethics supports meditation, as does limiting desires and abandoning unnecessary
activities
 Visualisation techniques can also be used to stabilise the mind but mindfulness is the main
method

“The psychology of attachment is overestimation;

it is an unrealistic attitude. That is
why we are suffering; and for that reason
Buddhism emphasizes suffering, suffering,
suffering. Westerners can’t understand why
Buddhism talks about suffering so much. “I
have enough money. I can eat. I have enough
clothes. Why do you say I’m suffering? I’m not
suffering. I don’t need Buddhism.” This is a
misunderstanding of the term “suffering.”
Attachment itself is suffering.”

Lama Thubten Yeshe

 “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has
forgotten the gift”

Albert Einstein

Analytical Meditation

 Helps us to develop a more realistic view of inner and outer worlds

 Emptiness is the most powerful remedy to deluded views of reality
 Analysis checks assumptions and expectations
 Analysis helps us handle daily problems that create negativities
 Penetrates topics with intellectual thought, questions, images & illustrations from our own experience
 Takes the form of an internal debate/lecture
 Doubts need to be challenged and considered
 During an analytical meditation if we have an intuitive experience – hold the feeling and drop the analysis,
then when the feeling fades, resume investigation
 The union of analytical and stabilising meditations essential to achieve true mind transformation
 Analysis – thinking about
 Stabilisation – absorbs into everyday experiences

“Meditation opens the mind of humankind to the greatest mystery that

takes place daily and hourly; it widens the heart so that it may feel the
eternity of time and infinity of space in every throb; it gives us a life within
the world as if we were moving about in paradise; and all these spiritual
deeds take place without any refuge into a doctrine, but by the simple and
direct holding fast to the truth which dwells in our innermost beings”

Suzuki Roshi

“The limits of the definite limit understanding.

Drowsiness and distractions are not meditation.
Acceptance and rejection are not acts of will.
A constant flow of thought is not Yoga.
If there be East and West, It is not Wisdom;
If birth and death, It is not Buddha.”

From The Song of the Snow Ranges, By Jetsun Milarepa

Visualisation Techniques:

 Visualisation combines both stabilising & analytical methods

 Visualisation is a gentle introduction to analytical meditation as we use it in analytical
meditations to sharpen our awareness e.g. when meditating on death we will visualise
ourselves dying
 We visualise a lot without realising it – e.g. a beautiful Mediterranean Island raises an
automatic image of sandy beach, etc. Our thinking combines with mental images from our
experience
 Images arise spontaneously like in – Daydreaming & Dreams
 This natural capacity to think in pictures can be used to deepen meditative experiences
 In Tibetan Buddhism it is used in several ways to develop our spirituality
 As well as in analytical meditation, we also use Buddha or deity images to stabilise our minds
in single-pointed concentration
 In prayers such as refuge we visualise to strengthen our faith and conviction
 In Vajrayana – tantra, visualisation is used to its optimum
 In tantra we identify with a deity and take the result of what we are trying to achieve as our
starting point, so visualising a pure being and the environment as pure
 The deities are symbols of different kinds of enlightened mind like Avalokitshvara and Tara –
compassion and compassion in action
 Details are symbols of different aspects of enlightened body, speech and mind activities
 Meditation on these deities helps us to open our hearts to the energies they symbolise –
opening ourselves to our Buddha nature
 Developing clear imagery depends on stabilisation
 This method increases our familiarity with positive images and their associated emotions and
strengthens our ability to control and concentrate the mind
 Visualisation is also used to purify our minds and pure ethics is a pre-requisite to calm abiding

“Meditation techniques are discovered naturally by infants and little children:

holding their breath, staring unblinking, standing on their heads, imitating
animals, turning in circles, sitting unmoving and repeating phrases over and
over and over until all else ceases to exist. Stop thinking that meditation is
anything special. Stop thinking all together! Look at the world around you as
if you had just arrived on Planet Earth. Observe the rocks in their natural
formations, the trees rooted in the ground, their branches reaching to the
sky, the plants, animals and the inter-relationships of each to the other. See
yourself through the eyes of a dog in the park. See a flower through its
essence. See a mountain through its massiveness. When the mind allows its
objects to remain unmolested, there may be no mind and no object – just
breathless unity”
Surya Singer
Colophon: I have collected these quotations through time, as sources of inspiration for myself and my
students, and the notes are mine, gathered from various sources that I have used in my classes. I hope you find
them useful. They can be made freely available. Ondy Willson