In
the practice of Bhavana, after siting for the practice, and after
making suitable Adistana (Determinations, Resolutions), then
forgetting about those Adistana, and even without any expectation or
desire, that they should happen, one must start to practice the skill
of maintaining the 'Attention' on breathing, clearly understanding
that one is developing a 'skill' by repeating the same action. For
instance, when one wants to develop the skill of typing or playing
guitar, he has to repeatedly do a certain exercise, until one becomes
skilful, where one can do it automatically without any effort,
continuously, uninterrupted by any distractions.
So
it is the main aim of Practicing Bhavana, where one tries to achieve,
continuous, uninterrupted 'Attention' on breathing, by repeating this
'attention' on breathing as an exercise. Though, there is less
distractions in the practice of typing and in the practice of playing
guitar, but in the practice of Bhavana, there are more distractions
and the main distractions are within, that is 'Thinking'.
Forgetting
the practice and dropping the 'Attention' on breathing, one would
start to think on many different things. Then the ability to stop
this thinking is also a skill one has to develop, while developing
the Attention on breathing.
How
to stop thinking?
Luckily,
the thinking is an action of oneself similar to the other two actions
one can perform. That other two action one can do are speech and
deeds. If one has not become addicted to speech or any deed, such as
gossiping, smoking, drinking, etc., then he can easily stop the
speech and any other deed as he is not addicted.
But
most of us are addicted to thinking, hence we cannot stop the
thinking as and when we want. It needs restrain as the first part of
the practice, to overcome the 'Thinking', which are addictive, within
and without.
For
that first we have to identify those 'Thinking's which are addictive
and to see the uselessness of them or even harmful nature of them.
How do we do this? It is by Contemplation, which can be named as
meditation. And this is the beginning part of the Bhavana practice,
when one starts to practice the 'Attention' on breathing, and when he
get distracted by 'Thinking'.
So,
how does one Contemplate? Meditate?
Whenever
one discovers the 'Attention on the breathing' is distracted by
'thinking', one should identify the 'thinking' and its subject
matter. To facilitate the identification of such distractive
thinking, one can make an Adistana, at the beginning of the Bhavana,
sating, "I will detect the 'thinking', which would disrupt the
practice of paying attention, when it happens, immediately",
several times. This Adistana would make the detecting of the
'attention' going astray, because of thinking taking place. And also
one can make Adistana, while practicing Bhavana, to enhance the
Adistana, saying the Adistana, when one finds, something like this,
which needs to be done, thereby practicing the Adistana as well. Even
when one makes such an Adistana while in the practice, he must be
careful to forget the Adistana immediately and to embark on the
practice, even without any expectation or desire that the Adistana
should materialize.
Once
the distractive 'thinking' is detected, one must stop the practice of
paying attention to breathing, and start to analyze the 'thinking'
which has taken place. One may be thinking about one of the
unresolved problem one has, it may be a problem of life, work, study
or even a conflict. By contemplating the problem from different
angles one will be able to get answers to them. We don't get answers
to many situations, because we don't contemplate on them calmly and
deeply. To get a solution for many problems or questions, one can
forward the question to one's own mind after analyzing the situation
thoroughly. If most of the data available is presented to the mind,
it wouldgive an answer, as a 'splash'.
To
a complicated situation of doubt, about any ideas and opinions, one
should factually analyze, whether there are any factual basis for
such ideas and opinions.
For
instance, let us take a such a situation, which would be more helpful
in the practice of Bhavana. Some express the idea that practice of
Bhavana, cannot make one to have Samadi. If this idea had an impact
on oneself, while practicing Bhavana, as distractive thinking, it
would come up.
So
if someone has said the same to you, you could have asked him,
whether he practiced Bhavana and if so how did he decided that one
cannot get at the Samadi. But contemplating on this issue, one would
contemplate as, "May be he did not know how to practice Bhavana
or he may be expressing the same idea, which was put forward by
someone else. Or he may be a weak person, or does not have the
capacity to practice Bhavana. Even Lord Buddha said, that everyone do
not have the capacity to do the practice. Then one can decide, "OK,
I will practice, but will not be influenced by others, as this is a
practice, where one has to discover things on one's own." This
is the way of contemplation, mediation on the issue.
As
an another example, one may get distracted, by 'thinking' about
someone, with a dislike, in his work place. The he can contemplate
this and look at the different thoughts which come about regarding
that person. Then one will find out there is a dislike for that
person in his thinking of him. But if he could not understand, why is
that he is thinking in an angry way, he can pose the question to the
mind. Then with a splash, the answer would come, may be after a
while, where one would get the answer. The answer may be something
like, that someone else have given the idea that he as a bad
character, and that has influenced to think about in hate.
I
this way when one contemplates, meditates, on the thoughts which
distracts, one from attention, the effect and the incidence of
'thinking' will get reduced and they may not appear more and one
would be free to practice the 'Attention on Breathing', with less
distractions.
Though
one can free oneself from such thoughts which distracts, one from
attention, after understanding them, there are other thoughts, even
if one understand those thoughts, by contemplations, by meditations,
they will come again and again, distracting the practice.
What
are those thinking? How one can deal with them? These I would discuss
in the next post.
Warning:
This contemplation, this meditation is only a small part of the
Bhavana Practice and it has its end, and should not get involved in
it much, and should do it only to understand the 'thinking' to
certain extent only, and after that understanding, to come back to
the practice of paying 'Attention on Breathing'. Here 'thinking
process' itself is not analysed, as one would understand the
'thinking process', once he has stopped the 'thinking' only, and
would understand the mind attributes which were behind the
'thinking'. When one has stopped the 'thinking', he will find the
causes of thinking, i.e. the reason for thinking, or mind attributes
behind the thinking, which would become apparent, or reveal itself,
as they are covered by the thinking itself, or hidden behind the
thinking.
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