For generations, Tibetan practitioners have been guided by a chart outlining the 9 phases of samatha meditation. Jan Willis takes us by means of the map and introduces us to the characters alongside the way in which.
“Good Storm,” 2015 by Michaela Martello. Acrylic and gesso on distressed linen.
Although we might have the loftiest of objectives, they may come to naught if we now have no manner of reaching them. We might sincerely want to assist others, to supply what’s finest for them, to steer all beings from struggling, and so forth, however we can’t accomplish these goals with out a means, a path, to take action.
When the Buddha defined the 4 noble truths in his first discourse, he ended by saying that to perform the top of struggling—for ourselves in addition to others—we should observe the trail (marga) that he had simply laid out. The time period he used for following and cultivating the trail was bhavana, which accurately means “to develop, to nourish, to develop,” simply as a gardener does her greens and flowers.
Such “cultivation” applies to a terrific number of practices, however right here the Buddha meant that we must always domesticate meditation. One other manner of claiming that is that solely knowledge, which immediately sees issues as they are surely, can liberate us from struggling. And for knowledge to mature absolutely, it wants nourishing by bhavana, or meditative improvement.
As British scholar Peter Harvey places it in An Introduction to Buddhism:
Studying meditation is a talent akin to studying to play a musical instrument: it’s studying easy methods to “tune” and “play” the thoughts, and common, affected person follow is the means to this. Progress is not going to happen if one is lax, but it surely can’t be compelled. Because of this, meditation follow can also be like gardening: one can’t power vegetation to develop, however one can assiduously present them with the correct situations, in order that they develop naturally. For meditation, the “proper situations” are the suitable utility of thoughts and of the precise method getting used.
In widespread Buddhist formulations, the phrases bhavana, samadhi, and dhyana are sometimes used interchangeably. For instance, we often hear, particularly in Theravada sources, concerning the “three larger trainings” (adhi-sikshas). These are coaching in ethical self-discipline (sila), in meditation (samadhi), and in knowledge (prajna). The Mahayana tells us that Buddhist knowledge consists of “three wisdoms.” These are sruta-mayi-prajna, the knowledge that comes from listening to and finding out the dharma; cinta-mayi-prajna, the knowledge that arises from reflecting upon what’s heard or studied; and bhavana-mayi-prajna, the knowledge that arises from meditating (bhavana) on what’s studied and mirrored upon.
Concerning the six perfections, or paramitas, the “transcendent actions of a bodhisattva,” essentially the most used time period for “meditation” is dhyana, however this time period can also be glossed as samadhi. No matter context, nevertheless, all these phrases check with a agency and regular sort of one-pointed meditative focus. Such regular focus serves as the premise for, and due to this fact all the time precedes, the ultimate and supreme type of knowledge (prajnaparamita).
All types of Buddhist meditation, no matter custom, include two elements: samatha and vipasyana. These two are commonly known as focus and perception, or calm abiding and better seeing (the perception or knowledge that sees the true nature of actuality, which is its impermanence and vacancy). Even easy respiratory practices embrace each parts, for they concurrently calm and focus the thoughts in addition to divulge to us insights about how the thoughts operates.
In contrast to most Buddhist calm abiding practices, through which the meditator calmly observes and notes with out judgment no matter seems to the thoughts, the Tibetan model of samatha follow calls on meditators to visualise a given object and to develop a agency give attention to it, whereas noticing, and over time meting out with, gross after which extra refined distractions to focus.
The Tibetan custom has developed many partaking tales and analogies for our current predicament as struggling (ignorant) beings. It has a few of the finest outlines and creative representations of the cultivation and improvement of calm abiding follow.
For instance, talking to our present circumstance as struggling beings, the revered Tibetan trainer Chagdud Tulku supplied this description of our scenario in his ebook Gates to Buddhist Apply. His phrases are encouraging, if, initially, additionally a bit horrifying:
Every of us is like somebody standing on the sting of a crumbling cliff, the earth quickly breaking away. If we inform ourselves, “I’m too sizzling, too drained, too sick, or too busy to do my follow,” it’s like saying we are able to’t take the time to maneuver away from the bottom that crumbles beneath our ft. …As soon as we do absolutely comprehend [the truths of Buddhism], we’ll see the need of leaping clear. What’s extra, once we see another person near the sting and about to fall, we’ll rush to assist; we received’t declare we’re too drained or too busy.
Now, if we give it some thought, controlling our our bodies is much simpler than controlling our minds. Calm abiding follow requires us to carry steady management to our minds, but, nearly counterintuitively, we’re instructed to not power the thoughts to settle or chill out.
Quite, we’re instructed to calm the thoughts, initially, by calming the physique. We’re instructed to chill out bodily, breathe calmly, and never power something. As Chagdud Tulku mentioned:
Taming the thoughts may be likened to taming a wild horse. As an alternative of tying a horse tightly to a brief tether, which could frighten it and trigger it to harm itself making an attempt to get free, we should put it in a really giant corral. It’s probably not free, but it surely doesn’t really feel confined as a result of it has freedom of motion. As we spend extra time with the horse, because it will get to know us and realizes that we’re not going to hurt it, it slowly loses a few of its worry and we are able to come nearer. Because it begins to relax, we are able to regularly make the corral smaller.
As soon as we now have calmed the physique, we are able to flip our consideration to calming the thoughts in earnest. Calm abiding (samatha) means centering consciousness and balancing the thoughts and its psychological occasions, evenly, on a single object. That is referred to as the “one-pointedness of thoughts.” Within the phrases of Tarthang Tulku in Methods of Enlightenment,
Focus means the state of being centered and calm, unscattered, and undistracted…. [It] will increase the capability of the thoughts to see immediately how the self operates, how “I” and feelings come up. Deep focus penetrates to the extent of consciousness the place these feelings originate and develops stability that doesn’t waver as feelings floor. This stability is important for clear commentary and for producing the arrogance to disengage from dangerous patterns.
The gZhi-gnas Path
In Tibetan, the time period for “calm abiding” is gZhi-gnas (pronounced Zhi-nay), which suggests “dwelling, or abiding, in peace.” The Tibetan follow to perform focus or one-pointedness is a fairly particular method, and Tibetans Buddhists have developed a widely known graphic information to its phases of improvement.
Throughout the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties, I noticed an illustration of this path on the partitions of monks’ cells all through India and Nepal. Each time and wherever I visited with Tibetan monks of their monastery rooms, I noticed this diagram. It was, together with pictures of assorted deities, their private yidams, and calendars, one of the vital ubiquitous wall decorations. All of the monks often used the diagram or had studied it up to now. It was stored and displayed for its sensible and pragmatic recommendation, providing a particular antidote for every drawback that may come up of their focus follow.
In my expertise, no different chart or illustration of the trail of meditation supplied such available and detailed explication. In 1970, I had the lucky alternative to check and follow the “Levels of gZhi-gnas” diagram underneath the famend lama Geshe Rabten. Let’s look intently at this famed illustrated information and the evaluation of the “Path of Calm Abiding” it particulars.
The Characters
There are 4 primary “characters” depicted on the chart: the monk, who represents the meditator; the monkey, who stands for apparent distractions; the rabbit, who seems solely at stage three and who represents the extra refined obstacles to focus; and the elephant, who stands for our thoughts.
Why is the elephant the image for our thoughts? Geshe Rabten as soon as advised me (in my ebook The Diamond Mild) that the elephant is used for a number of causes:
First, if an elephant is wild, it is extremely harmful to all different animals. Likewise, if the thoughts isn’t managed, it may possibly hurt others. All struggling is brought on by an untamed thoughts. Second, if an elephant is tamed, he obeys his grasp higher than another animal. Even when the grasp says to select up a really giant sizzling ball with its trunk, the elephant will do it. If the thoughts is as soon as tamed, it may possibly carry out any motion, irrespective of how troublesome. Third, the footprint of the elephant is bigger than another animal’s print. If our thoughts is tamed and comes underneath the management of the dharma, it serves its grasp higher than another factor. If our thoughts could be very peaceable and nicely tamed, for instance, there’ll not be any enemies of that particular person anyplace. If our thoughts is peaceable, we make all others round us peaceable. All the outcomes of our thoughts—whether or not good or unhealthy—are better. The physique and speech of an individual are solely servants of the thoughts.
Many different nice Buddhist thinkers and meditators of the previous additionally made use of the elephant analogy. Maitreyanatha, Asanga, Kamalashila, and Tsongkhapa all employed it. The good eighth-century sage and poet Shantideva additionally referred to the concept of the elephant when he wrote in The Means of the Bodhisattva of the significance of taming our “elephant-mind”:
1. Those that want to hold a rule of life
Should guard their minds in excellent self-possession.
With out this guard upon the thoughts,
No self-discipline can ever be maintained.
2. Wandering the place it can, the elephant of thoughts
Will carry us all the way down to pains of deepest hell.
No worldly beast, nevertheless wild,
Might carry upon us such calamities.
3. If, with mindfulness’ rope,
The elephant of the thoughts is tethered throughout,
Our fears will come to nothing,
Each advantage drop into our palms.
4. Tigers, lions, elephants, and bears,
Snakes and each hostile beast,
Those that guard the prisoners in hell,
All ghosts and ghouls and each evil phantom,
5. By easy binding of this thoughts alone,
All this stuff are likewise certain.
By easy taming of this thoughts alone,
All this stuff are likewise tamed.
A great consequence if we are able to attain it!
The Obstacles and Antidotes
The monk within the diagram holds two gadgets: a rope or lasso, which stands for remembrance, and a hook, which symbolizes watchfulness.
The fireplace on the diagram represents the vitality for meditation. (Word that it blazes on the early phases of this follow and lessens as one’s focus grows, thereby requiring much less vitality.) In very detailed depictions of this path, there’s additionally a conch (or a material), cymbals, a mirror, fragrance, and fruit. These 5 signify the sense objects, since throughout meditation the thoughts is well distracted by the objects of sense.
The elephant, monkey, and rabbit (when it seems) are all initially depicted as being black. This represents the dullness, heaviness, or sinking of the start meditator’s thoughts. The colour regularly lightens because the meditator progresses by means of the follow.
For every of the attainable obstacles to the follow, there’s a particular antidote or treatment prompt. For instance, it’s mentioned that there are two kinds of “scattering”—towards sense objects and towards emotions and feelings. One treatment for scattering is to cease concentrating on the item and to follow a fast respiratory train. One other is to meditate on the sufferings of samsara. If neither of those helps, the recommendation is to rise up and take a short stroll.
If sinking or weak point is an impediment, the prompt treatments are to meditate on “pleased issues,” to consider the virtues of meditation, or to visualise white mild just like the moon or some brilliant object. If these don’t assist, the instruction is to rise up and “wash the top.” The types of distraction every develop into progressively much less darkish and extra light-colored because the meditation itself progresses.
The Levels of the Path
Within the first stage of the trail, the start of the focus “chase,” the monkey is proven main the elephant. This represents the thoughts being led round by distractions of assorted varieties. As famend thangka painter Andy Weber feedback:
A monkey can’t hold quiet for a second—it’s all the time chattering or fidgeting and finds the whole lot engaging. Simply because the monkey is in entrance main the elephant, our consideration is distracted by sensory objects of style, contact, sound, odor, and imaginative and prescient. These are symbolized by meals, material, musical devices, fragrance, and a mirror. The particular person behind the elephant represents the meditator making an attempt to coach the thoughts. The rope within the meditator’s hand is mindfulness, and the hook is consciousness. Utilizing these two instruments, the meditator will attempt to tame and management his thoughts.
Within the second stage, each the elephant and the monkey start to have mild spots on their heads, although the monk continues to be behind them, as he has little management over them.
Within the third stage, the monk–meditator has thrown his lasso across the elephant’s head, and each the elephant and the monkey flip their heads again towards the meditator. The rabbit seems right here for the primary time, indicating that the meditator “notices” for the primary time the extra refined types of distractions.
In stage 4, the our bodies of all three misbehaving animals have develop into half white, although the monk–meditator nonetheless is led by them. Within the fifth stage, the meditator has gotten out in entrance and is eventually main the animals.
In stage six of the trail, the rabbit has disappeared, the elephant and monkey are about two-thirds white, and the monkey of distraction is being led by the elephant-mind. The meditator not even wants to have a look at them; she or he now faces ahead. Commenting on this a part of the diagram, Weber notes, “Because of this the practitioner doesn’t need to focus regularly on controlling the thoughts, and the absence of the rabbit reveals that the refined dullness, which appeared on the third stage, has now disappeared.”
Within the seventh stage, we be aware that the elephant-mind may be left to observe by itself. The monk doesn’t want to carry it tightly or information it; each the lasso and the hook have disappeared. Distracted consideration, the monkey, and dullness, the rabbit, happen solely often.
In stage eight, the elephant has turned fully white and follows behind the meditator. Weber factors out, “This reveals that the thoughts is obedient and there’s no sinking or scattering, though some vitality continues to be wanted to pay attention. On the ninth stage, the practitioner can sit in meditation whereas the elephant sleeps peacefully close by; at this level the thoughts can focus with out effort for lengthy intervals of time—days, weeks, and even months.”
Geshe Rabten was much more particular concerning the lengths of time for which such one-pointed focus may be maintained. He mentioned that, at stage 4, “focus on the item is feasible for a most of fifteen minutes, with none distraction,” however by the fifth stage, “fastened focus for greater than half an hour is feasible.” He famous that from the fifth stage on, “the item could be very clear, very ‘shut’ to the thoughts, and the thoughts is peaceable, with no distractions… From this stage on, the meditator can see the item of focus a lot clearer than along with his two eyes!”
At stage six, he famous, “when the monk isn’t even wanting on the elephant, focus with none disturbance is feasible for a minimum of one hour.” On the seventh stage, “after lengthy follow…no vitality is required; focus comes instantly…and is feasible for about 4 hours.” At stage eight, which known as “to make one-pointed,” Geshe Rabten mentioned that “there’s computerized focus till the meditator needs to cease it.” He famous, “At this stage, one’s different senses don’t function as nicely or in any respect…. Focus for one or two days with out a break is feasible.”
After which we come to stage 9, referred to as “to place equally.” Right here the monk meditates, and the elephant simply sleeps. In keeping with Geshe Rabten, “At this stage there’s no restrict to the size of fastened focus…. The meditator is completely nondependent upon the senses. For instance, he wants no meals. The scriptures point out that at this stage, the meditator makes use of solely ‘the meals of samatha.’”
The Fruit of the Path
Geshe Rabten opined that “Many individuals mistake [stage nine] because the objective of gZhi-gnas itself. However all these 9 phases are solely the trail to gZhi-gnas; they aren’t actually gZhi-gnas. The actual gZhi-gnas is reached on the tenth stage, when the monk is sitting astride the elephant.”
Geshe Rabten famous that after the ninth stage is attained, many new and extraordinary experiences come “which have by no means been skilled earlier than. When these experiences come, that is the signal that gZhi-gnas has been attained…. Not solely when meditating, however in all actions, the one possessed of gZhi-gnas is in full focus. His/her physique feels just like the wooden–wool flower or like a Mimosa blossom. All supernatural powers—similar to studying the minds of others, disappearing, and others come up.”
However none of this stuff is the objective. Geshe Rabten continued, “Like somebody who has ‘sharpened the axe to chop all issues,’ the meditator now could be able to doing another meditative follow. The miraculous powers should not vital issues…. One has to coach for investigation. That is referred to as ‘larger seeing’ (vipasyana; Tibetan, lhag-thong). It could be referred to as adi-gZhi-gnas.”
Within the diagram, the activation of extraordinary powers is represented by the monk–meditator flying within the air. The final “stage” depicted right here is the monk–meditator seated atop the elephant, heading again round, holding aloft a sword, the widespread image of the Buddha’s knowledge.
This implies the meditator is now absolutely ready to tackle the meditations for gaining vipasyana, or larger seeing, by the use of which they may search to appreciate the character of actuality itself. The flames of vitality for this new meditation flare up once more strongly. (A tantric commentary provides that “the flying monk represents bodily bliss; and his using the elephant, psychological bliss.”)
Geshe Rabten summarized the follow journey like this: “These are the 2 indispensable issues for larger follow, for abandoning delusion. If one needs to chop a tree, he will need to have each a powerful arm (gZhi-gnas) and an excellent axe (lhag-thong). After sharpening an axe, an individual should use it. After taming the thoughts in gZhi-gnas, one should use it for larger follow. We should use it for the attainment of enlightenment! We should ourselves develop into Buddha!”
We would ask, “Is the particular sort of one-pointed focus entailed by the Levels of Samatha actually needed? Can’t we simply focus in addition to we are able to, and have that be sufficient?” In fact, we should every reply for ourselves. But when we sincerely and really want to follow in earnest, to achieve knowledge to free ourselves and others from struggling, we have to give some critical consideration to creating samatha early on. For, in the end, as Shantideva remarked,
All of the recitations and austerities,
regardless that carried out for a very long time,
are literally fairly ineffective
if the thoughts is uninteresting or is targeted on one thing else.