How to meditate

[mjaviem]

Hi. Now I have a beginner question on how to meditate, if you allow me.

Though I have no access to a Theravada monastery to learn, I can only be grateful to the Internet and DW.

There are many posts on the forum about the topic, and I'm learning on other sources as well (e.g., MN 118, MN 10, the book "With Each & Every Breath" by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu's podcast) but I'm confused, there are many things to the topic: Anapanasati, Sati, Satipatthana, Vipassana, Samatha, Samadhi and I need also to read all those sources all over again:

I was taught to focus on the breath (feel the air flowing through the nose or on anywhere where I can feel breathing) and keep at that and cut any thoughts off, going back to the breath whenever I notice I'm thinking about anything (plans, memories, etc.), but I have doubts about this technique. I've heard of people that after a few years they learn they were doing it wrong. I don't expect to see progress soon but I don't want to learn later that I was doing meditation wrongly. Buddha instructed bhikkhus to meditate so they were not regreting it later and I learned one should be meditating every single day.

A few times the feeling of a breeze on my skin remembered me of my meditation practice and I realized then that focusing on the sensation of the air through the nose is not focusing on the breathing but just on the wind. For me now, breathing is different to the wind in that the chest and belly are the ones moving the air. So now I think focusing on the sensation of the air through the nose combined with the sensation of the chest and belly moving is perhaps closer to focusing on the breath. Or that's how I'm seeing it.

Thanissaro bhikkhu talks about relaxing senses of strain and about breath energy, so I don't know what even breathing is.

Also not sure how meditation is part of the noble eight-fold path, only that we need to meditate. Many things I need to connect. But I'm not after the details of deep states of meditation. I just want to know how to meditate as the buddha taught.

Anapanasati, sati, satipatthana, vipassana, samatha, samadhi, awareness, concentration, meditation, sense restrain, generosity, 5 or 8 precepts, etc. Perhaps what I need is to have time to sit under a tree to watch the mind. But if then, how to watch? Too many questions.

Thanks in advance if you decide to drop a comment on the topic. I would appreciate any of them.

Metta

[coconut]

- Establish Right View, think about suffering, and how craving leads to suffering, how cravings arises from 6 senses -> contact -> perception -> feelings -> thoughts -> speech -> action -> lifestyle
- Establish Sati-Sampajanna, be aware of unwholesome qualities as they arise and dispel them, read Nanda sutta (AN 8.9) and MN 20 as examples and intructions
- When you're very good and proficient at dispelling unwholesome qualities and preventing them from arising (this can take several months to a year), find a secluded dwelling, focus on your virtue and wholesome thoughts like metta, when you have metta, then you have wholesome vitakka and vicara, then you have the 3 conditions for first jhana: 1) secluded from unwholesome qualities, 2) secluded from sensuality, and 3) wholesome vitakka and vicara, this should result in pamojja.
- Allow pamojja to develop into piti and tranquilize the mind
- When the mind is tranquilized, and sukha has pervaded the body, you can "pull back" and drop the wholesome metta thoughts, as per nuns quarters sutta (SN 47.10), and enter second jhana.

Also I'd like to add, as part of step one: establishing right view. Thinking about all the sadness in the world which arises from unwholesomeness and impermanence (people murdering eachother, diseases, aging, loss, etc..) arouses dispassion in me, and makes me not want to indulge in sensual desires. So contemplating the first noble truth alone is very powerful in stirring wholesome emotions to escape samsara, and a huge motivator.

[cappuccino]

I learned one should be meditating every single day.

you really need to read the teaching daily


first, understand the teaching


then meditate, or maybe not

[DooDoot]

- Establish Right View, think about suffering, and how craving leads to suffering, how cravings arises from 6 senses -> contact -> perception -> feelings -> thoughts -> speech -> action -> lifestyle
- Establish Sati-Sampajanna, be aware of unwholesome qualities as they arise and dispel them, read Nanda sutta (AN 8.9) and MN 20 [plus MN 19] as examples and intructions
- When you're very good and proficient at dispelling unwholesome qualities and preventing them from arising (this can take several months to a year), find a secluded dwelling...

[mjaviem]

But you are not mentioning meditation. I can try that, thinking about suffering, dispelling and preventing unwholesome qualities but shouldn't I be sitting cross-legged focusing on the breath or repeating what I notice as a mantra ("body", "body", "feeling", "feeling")?

[DooDoot]

But you are not mentioning meditation.

its all meditation or "bhavana". the scriptures say:

Endowed with this noble aggregate of virtue, this noble restraint over the sense faculties, this noble mindfulness & alertness, he seeks out a secluded dwelling: a wilderness, the shade of a tree, a mountain, a glen, a hillside cave, a charnel ground, a forest grove, the open air, a heap of straw. After his meal, returning from his alms round, he sits down, crosses his legs, holds his body erect, and brings mindfulness to the fore.

Abandoning covetousness with regard to the world, he dwells with an awareness devoid of covetousness. He cleanses his mind of covetousness. Abandoning ill will & anger, he dwells with an awareness devoid of ill will, sympathetic with the welfare of all living beings. He cleanses his mind of ill will & anger. Abandoning sloth & drowsiness, he dwells with an awareness devoid of sloth & drowsiness, mindful, alert, percipient of light. He cleanses his mind of sloth & drowsiness. Abandoning restlessness & anxiety, he dwells undisturbed, his mind inwardly stilled. He cleanses his mind of restlessness & anxiety. Abandoning uncertainty, he dwells having crossed over uncertainty, with no perplexity with regard to skillful mental qualities. He cleanses his mind of uncertainty.

Having abandoned these five hindrances — imperfections of awareness that weaken discernment — then, quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful qualities, he enters and remains in the first jhāna:...

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

I can try that, thinking about suffering, dispelling and preventing unwholesome qualities but shouldn't I be sitting cross-legged focusing on the breath

Focus on the breath if you can. Devote lots of effort & skill focusing on the breath. But generally you cannot focus on the breath consistently & clearly without clearly understanding & preventing unwholesome qualities

or repeating what I notice as a mantra ("body", "body", "feeling", "feeling")

Body, body, feeling, feeling, etc, is not a mantra (although can it can occasionally be used at times like a mantra to dispel & prevent wrong views & unwholesome qualities)

[coconut]

But you are not mentioning meditation. I can try that, thinking about suffering, dispelling and preventing unwholesome qualities but shouldn't I be sitting cross-legged focusing on the breath or repeating what I notice as a mantra ("body", "body", "feeling", "feeling")?

Sati-Sampajanna is 24/7 and in any posture.

When you are ready to dwell in seclusion (third point in my response), then you can sit down and try to develop the jhana factors by directing your mind to a wholesome subject like brahma viharas, and "thoughts of a great man" (from anaruddha sutta), and other dhamma related subjects.

Mindfulness of breathing has to do with the frequency in which you maintain mindfulness. I.e. uninterrupted mindfulness as it is established with each breath. When your mindfulness is uninterrupted then unwholesome qualities cannot arise. It has nothing to do with focusing on a breath, but instead focusing on your mind, and what is Arising, Persisting, and Passing in your mind, and if it's wholesome or unwholesome, aka sati-sampajanna.

[Pondera]

For what it’s worth, I have a completely different approach to breath meditation.

To begin with, breathing starts and ends at the breathing diaphragm.

To “know I am breathing in and out” is to be aware of the rise and fall of the breathing diaphragm.

Quite frankly, Anapanasati tells us to experience the body - not the nostrils. However, if you want a very, very close experience of the nostrils - it can be had in the following way (and you can confirm this for your self. Ie. don’t just take my word for it).

1) concentrate on relaxing the breathing diaphragm (don’t know where it is? It’s right behind the solar plexus).

2) allow your relaxed breathing diaphragm to make the centre of your mind pliable or malleable (I say “centre” because other techniques make the temporal lobes more malleable and other techniques make the frontal lobe more malleable - this one makes the centre more malleable)

3) notice the effect this has on your “sacral chakra” (from here - if you extend your insight to “permeate and suffuse your body” - you will arrive at “adukkhaasukkha” - which [paradoxically] is interpreted by many as a “neutral” feeling. Nothing could be further from the truth. Adukkhaasukkha is a SUBLIME feeling that cannot rightly be called pain or pleasure. This convention in Buddhism of saying “neither - nor” indicates that it is “something beyond description.”

Note: “neither perception nor non perception”. Same gist).

4) at this point you can experience a relaxation of the nostrils. And any reference to your nostrils at this point is not really part of the Anapanasati objective. The objective is to release your mind. By relaxing your sacral chakra you’ve already prepared your heart for the release and experience of mental equanimity.

... for what it’s worth - contemplating your breathing diaphragm will accomplish so much more for you than starting at your nostrils.

[SarathW]

But you are not mentioning meditation. I can try that, thinking about suffering, dispelling and preventing unwholesome qualities but shouldn't I be sitting cross-legged focusing on the breath or repeating what I notice as a mantra ("body", "body", "feeling", "feeling")?

There are two types of Buddhist meditation. Samatha and Vipassana. Generally Samatha leads to Vipassana using Satipathana meditation.

[mjaviem]

you really need to read the teaching daily
first, understand the teaching
then meditate, or maybe not

Good advice. And what do you mean by "maybe not"? I always thought that no matter what, one should meditate without delay.

its all meditation or "bhavana". the scriptures say:
...

All right, this. But I don't know if it means I should meditate (sit cross-legged, focusing the attention on something without shifting focus, etc.) right away or not. I only know that I want to be applying good effort to practise the teachings but I don't know if we are talking about meditating or about reflecting on some topic (e.g., suffering, impermanence, craving) as many times as I can during the day. Or if my effort should go into be as watchful as I can about the intentions of my speech and actions (but then how to be 'watchful').

I don't know what MN38 you are quoting exactly instructs. Virtue, sense restrain, mindfulness, how do I cultivate these? Should I meditate to build those up or should I put effort on reflecting on special topics, or is it that I should watch after my mind but then how? Meditating?

...
Focus on the breath if you can. Devote lots of effort & skill focusing on the breath. But generally you cannot focus on the breath consistently & clearly without clearly understanding & preventing unwholesome qualities

Sounds as good advice but how to understand and prevent unwholesome qualities? Is it about reflecting on the consequences of my actions and about sense restrain? Is it more about bhavana during the day or is it more about formal meditation?

Sati-Sampajanna is 24/7 and in any posture.
...

Do you mean by this that the effort should be put on being wacthful of the mind as many times as possible during the day?

...When you are ready to dwell in seclusion (third point in my response), then you can sit down and try to develop the jhana factors...

So it's not about meditating right away, right? First, it's necessary to establish Right view and Sati-Sampajanna (and it would usually take several months of diligent practice if I understood you correctly), right?.

On MN20 it reads "The Blessed One said: “When a monk is intent on the heightened mind, there are five themes he should attend to at the appropriate times. Which five? There is the case where evil, unskillful thoughts—connected with desire, aversion, or delusion—arise in a monk while he is referring to and attending to a particular theme.""

I don't know if the Buddha by attending to a theme is referring to during formal meditation or during the day, in an effort on attending to wholesome topics as many times as possible. Perhaps it's because he is addressing monks devoted 24/7 to the practice while I'm a layman with many distractions only trying to practise? I'm trying to figure out if the effort should mainly go to spend time on formal meditation or one should put effort on being aware of its own mind and actions during their layman activities.

3rd, 4th and 5th points of your previous response I find it useful for whenever I get more advanced in the practise, if I'm getting it correctly. But don't know if formal meditation starts there or with 1st and 2nd points.

...
Mindfulness of breathing has to do with the frequency in which you maintain mindfulness. I.e. uninterrupted mindfulness as it is established with each breath. When your mindfulness is uninterrupted then unwholesome qualities cannot arise. It has nothing to do with focusing on a breath, but instead focusing on your mind, and what is Arising, Persisting, and Passing in your mind, and if it's wholesome or unwholesome, aka sati-sampajanna.

I love this but why so many people teach to focus on the breath? Is it that one must have two focuses of attention: One on the breathing and another one on what is arising and passing away on the mind?

... To “know I am breathing in and out” is to be aware of the rise and fall of the breathing diaphragm...
... Quite frankly, Anapanasati tells us to experience the body - not the nostrils.

Good. I think this can be much better than feeling the air flowing as I commented before and I find that the "diaphragm moving" can be perceived better than the belly moving because sometimes it's only the chest moving and not the belly.

... However, if you want a very, very close experience of the nostrils - it can be had in the following way (and you can confirm this for your self. Ie. don’t just take my word for it)....

Ok, will take your advice and try it (though I don't know about chakras, I always found it kind of mystical beliefs). Anyway, thanks for the advice, will try it without knowing anything about chakras

There are two types of Buddhist meditation. Samatha and Vipassana. Generally Samatha leads to Vipassana using Satipathana meditation.

Does it mean it's better to practise Satipathana meditation than to practise Anapanasati meditation?

[coconut]

Sati-Sampajanna is 24/7 and in any posture.
...

Do you mean by this that the effort should be put on being wacthful of the mind as many times as possible during the day?

Yes. See "Your own mind sutta" - https://suttacentral.net/an10.51/en/sujato

...When you are ready to dwell in seclusion (third point in my response), then you can sit down and try to develop the jhana factors...

So it's not about meditating right away, right? First, it's necessary to establish Right view and Sati-Sampajanna (and it would usually take several months of diligent practice if I understood you correctly), right?.

On MN20 it reads "The Blessed One said: “When a monk is intent on the heightened mind, there are five themes he should attend to at the appropriate times. Which five? There is the case where evil, unskillful thoughts—connected with desire, aversion, or delusion—arise in a monk while he is referring to and attending to a particular theme.""

I don't know if the Buddha by attending to a theme is referring to during formal meditation or during the day, in an effort on attending to wholesome topics as many times as possible. Perhaps it's because he is addressing monks devoted 24/7 to the practice while I'm a layman with many distractions only trying to practise? I'm trying to figure out if the effort should mainly go to spend time on formal meditation or one should put effort on being aware of its own mind and actions during their layman activities.

3rd, 4th and 5th points of your previous response I find it useful for whenever I get more advanced in the practise, if I'm getting it correctly. But don't know if formal meditation starts there or with 1st and 2nd points.

The sutta "Great Forty" MN 117 says that "Right Mindfulness", "Right Effort' and "Right View" circle around all the other path factors. In other words you need to have Path Factors 1-7 (Right View to Right Mindfulness) active 24/7 at all times. The path factors 1-7 allow you to achieve the first requirement for Samma Samadhi which is seclusion from unwholesome qualities. That means to attain Samma Samadhi you need to be in seclusion sitting down with your back straight and have the first two requirements met: 1) seclusion from unwholesome qualities, and 2) seclusion from sensuality.

So path factors 1-7 can be done at any time and any posture. The eighth path factor, Samma Samadhi, must be done in the meditation pose and in seclusion.

Paying attention to certain themes is a used for removing unwholesome qualities and developing wholesome qualities.

...
Mindfulness of breathing has to do with the frequency in which you maintain mindfulness. I.e. uninterrupted mindfulness as it is established with each breath. When your mindfulness is uninterrupted then unwholesome qualities cannot arise. It has nothing to do with focusing on a breath, but instead focusing on your mind, and what is Arising, Persisting, and Passing in your mind, and if it's wholesome or unwholesome, aka sati-sampajanna.

I love this but why so many people teach to focus on the breath? Is it that one must have two focuses of attention: One on the breathing and another one on what is arising and passing away on the mind?

There's many reasons. Many people do what their teacher teaches them, so they just follow tradition. Many people use textual references that are based on poor translations, like for example the translation of "Parimukkham" poorly translated as "to the nose" when it really means "within", as in Mindfulness set within, to the mind.

So a mixture of traditions and poor understanding has led to different interpretations. That is why one must read the entire 4 nikayas to properly understand the context. Many suttas say that one should guard the mind and watch the mind all the time. Therefore focusing on the breath would contradict that.

Also, the sutta on Mindfulness of Death says one is only properly practicing Mindfulness of Death when they aware of death with each bite of food, or with each in and out breath. So here the breath just implies the frequency in which Mindfulness of Death should be established, so it's not different than regular Mindfulness of Breath, it simply implies the frequency in which one should be watching their own mind.

When this was said, the Blessed One addressed the monks. "Whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for a day & night... for a day... for the interval that it takes to eat a meal... for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up four morsels of food, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedlessly. They develop mindfulness of death slowly for the sake of ending the effluents.

"But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food... for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ati/tip ... .than.html

So if your mindfulness is less frequent that's being heedless. If your mindfulness is more frequent then that's heedful.


Same thing with the Satipatthana sutta, which each turn, each step, each body movement, each breath, you should be watching your mind. The Buddha gives a metaphor for this in another sutta on how frequent you should be watching your mind.

“Bhikkhus, suppose that on hearing, ‘The most beautiful girl of the land! The most beautiful girl of the land!’ a great crowd of people would assemble. Now that most beautiful girl of the land would dance exquisitely and sing exquisitely. On hearing, ‘The most beautiful girl of the land is dancing! The most beautiful girl of the land is singing!’ an even larger crowd of people would assemble. Then a man would come along, wishing to live, not wishing to die, wishing for happiness, averse to suffering. Someone would say to him: ‘Good man, you must carry around this bowl of oil filled to the brim between the crowd and the most beautiful girl of the land. A man with a drawn sword will be following right behind you, and wherever you spill even a little of it, right there he will fell your head.’

“What do you think, bhikkhus, would that man stop attending to that bowl of oil and out of negligence turn his attention outwards?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“I have made up this simile, bhikkhus, in order to convey a meaning. This here is the meaning: ‘The bowl of oil filled to the brim’: this is a designation for mindfulness directed to the body. Therefore, bhikkhus, you should train yourselves thus: ‘We will develop and cultivate mindfulness directed to the body, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.’ Thus, bhikkhus, should you train yourselves.”

The Buddha uses the metaphor of a "bowl" referring to the "mind" in many suttas, here he uses the bowl to refer to the mind obstructed by the hindrances - https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .wlsh.html

So you should be watching your bowl/mind 24/7.

[cappuccino]

I always thought that no matter what, one should meditate without delay.

calm helps with insight

[SarathW]

There are two types of Buddhist meditation. Samatha and Vipassana. Generally Samatha leads to Vipassana using Satipathana meditation.

Does it mean it's better to practise Satipathana meditation than to practise Anapanasati meditation?

In my opinion, Satipathana and Anapanasati are the same but a diffrent tabulation.
I see Anapanasati as vertical tabulation and Anapanasati as a horizontal tabulation.

[Aerok]

This issued is very good issue to right consideration for the right way.

I will write the shortcut few points for anapanasati which are the main keys of anapanasati.

1. All the Tripitaka have around 50 sūtra that Buddha taught in only anapanasati 16 objects. Except one of them is Satipatthanasūtra that difference from 50 sutras because the Buddha said only 4 of 16 objects to recapitulated the practice principles after 6th year of his enlightened.

2. For the 2nd knowledge source are Patisambhidamagga on "Anapanakhata" composed by Ven. Śāriputra during Buddha era.

English version of Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu. The Path of Discrimination (Patisambhidamagga). Transl. from the Pali, 1982.

3. The 3rd source is The Vimuttimagga ("The Path of Freedom") is a Buddhist practice manual, traditionally attributed to the Arahant Upatissa (c. 1st or 2nd century). It was translated into Chinese in the sixth century as the Jietuo dao lun 解脫道論 by Sanghapala.

English version 
Author: N.R.M. Ehara
Publisher: Buddhist Publication Society
Publication Date: 1/1/1961

4. The 4th source is Visuddhimagga ("The Path of Purification") during 5th Century CE written by Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa.

English version of Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu. Translated from the Pali. First edition 1956. 3rd ed. 1991

------------
Summery notices,

- The Buddha have no point that Anapanasati is samatha or vipasana because on 16 objects will be sequentially developed on both of them.

The core of Anapanasati comparative study on 2-4 sources are
- Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga quite similar in the content and how to proceed in Anapanasati.

- Patisambhidamagga have very importance hi-light is Ven. Śāriputra didn't teach in counting method in Anapanasati.

- Ven. Śāriputra explained the big 2 things which difficult to find text or meditation class talk about. The 2 things are 1. Tip of the nose 2. Breath in/out long and short mean long/short in time (not space), :"how long" instead of "how far". That meant no need to change the breath sensation point from the tip of the nose, Then know the breath in and out have how long of duration of breathing.

Those 2 issues have made most meditators can't meet the Buddha's  Anapanasati practice. 

I created this vdo at 10 years ago.

[simsapa]

Though I have no access to a Theravada monastery to learn

Doesn't matter in most cases.

Anapanasati, Sati, Satipatthana, Vipassana, Samatha, Samadhi and I need also to read all those sources all over again:

No, you don't. You can't practice everything at once. Following the breath is doable. As has been mentioned, your ability to do this will depend on abandoning the hindrances, cultivating renunciation and virtue, etc.

I was taught to focus on the breath (feel the air flowing through the nose or on anywhere where I can feel breathing) and keep at that and cut any thoughts off, going back to the breath whenever I notice I'm thinking about anything (plans, memories, etc.), but I have doubts about this technique.

Here is the original instruction:

"[1] Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long'; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long.' [2] Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short.' [3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to the entire body.'[2] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.' [4] He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.'[3] He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.'

I've heard of people that after a few years they learn they were doing it wrong.

Then don't do it wrong.

Also not sure how meditation is part of the noble eight-fold path

Sīla, Samādhi, Paññā. This is worth reading:

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/aut ... toend.html