Bhavana practice, Schedule.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Bhavana practice, Schedule.

The beginner of the Bhavan practice may start his practice for a duration of 5 to 15 minutes in the early morning and in the evening, daily. This is only a guide. One can discover his own time limitations gradually.

Who may start with 5 minutes only?

One has to calm both the mind and the body to come to the Samadi state of one pointedness. Thoughts and thinking give rise to emotions. For instance, if there is an angry thought or thinking, it will make one emotionally angry. The emotions may be not apparent and visible to others usually, but one can detect it in himself easily. Then if the thinking has more power, and maintain itself by repeating, the power of thinking gathers more momentum, hence emotions will increase, giving rise to 'Feelings'. Once, feelings of anger engulfs the mind, it engulfs the body as well. When anger covers the body as a 'feeling', it will be visible to outsiders as well.
Similarly, thoughts and thinking in terms of Desire and Ego, if they have more 'force' in them, they will get translated into 'feelings of Desire' and 'feelings of Ego' thus becoming apparent to others as well.

When these feelings engulfs oneself, due to the 'force' created by thinking, heart start to beat fast, and breathing become quicker and uneven. A person who continuously have such a situation, due to different problems in life, in the household life as well as in the work place, is having an aliment known as 'hypertension'. Such a person, when trying to meditate, the tensions may sometime increase, if he tries to the practice more than 5 minutes. What he will really be doing at those 5 minutes to understand his present state of mind and to gradually calm down the 'feelings', which give rise to the tension.

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Paying Attention to Breathing.

A lot of Bhavana practitioners may consider that by paying 'Attention' to breathing, one would end up in one's mind being concentrated, and there would be happiness and joy. Yes, it is true. But this is not the purpose of the Bhavana, though it is a welcome state.

First and foremost, one develops the Skill of 'Attention', needed for the next step in the Bhavana, that is to get established in 'Sati' in the breathing, and then to transform that skill of 'Sati', to get established in 'Sati' on the four states of one's activities, thus bringing the 'Sati' to entire life of living.

'Attention' is a skill, but it is not fully developed as such, where we cannot use it wholly on single object, thus paying attention, fixed, unwavering. By practicing this 'Paying attention on Breathing', the skill is Developed further, making it an 'Obsessive Attention', where the attention prevails most of the time, as it has developed further.

Finally, this 'Obsessive Attention', by further development, becomes 'Sati', for that there is no word in English to be translated, since it is a state of subconscious. So, finally one would have 'Sati' on the breathing, instead of 'Attention'. 'Sati' is the perfect skill developed from the mere skill of 'Attention'.

Then one has to transform that skill of 'Sati', to daily life, from the sitting practice of Bhavana, where one is in Samadi, as he has established in 'Sati.

The Four activities of oneself, where one has to get established in 'Sati' are, Bodily activities, Sensations of body and mind, Mind states, and the Function of the Mind. Once 'Sati' is established in these, mind would start to Penetrate deeper giving insight into the mind, thus enabling, the Development of Wisdom, within.

Root Defilement and Manifest Defilement.

The manifest defilement of the Root defilement are 'thinking', emotions, feeling, perceptive consciousness of Ego, ideas and opinions as thinking.

The Root of them are Anger, Desire, Lust and Ignorance.

One cannot become aware of these root defilement, but become aware of the outcomes, the manifestations of them as thinking in anger, thinking in desire, thinking in lust, thinking in Ego and thinking in ideas and opinions.

In the same way there is manifest thinking, emotions, feelings, in Desire, Lust, Ego and Ignorance.

In the practice of Samatha Bhavana, one puts away, cuts down, these manifested defilement, by understanding them, and then to make an Adistana (Determination, Resolution), to put them away, to cut them down.

But, by this putting away or cutting down the manifest defilement, will not affect the roots. By practicing Panna Bhavana (Development of the Wisdom), after practicing and developing insight into the mind by Vipassana Bhavana, and by that Wisdom alone, which is the sword, one cuts out the roots of the defilement, cutting the roots completely, thus freeing oneself.