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THE MEDITATIVE PATH: A Gentle Way to Awareness, Concentration, and Serenity by John Cianciosi Getting to know the mind and training it can lead to nothing less than freedom. Chapter One -- Turning on the Light Interest in meditation in its various forms has grown dramatically over the last thirty years throughout the Western world. What started as something of a fad for alternative-minded seekers who had encountered meditation during their travels in Asia has come to be regarded quite favorably by a wide cross-section of mainstream society. Meditation is now being taught in colleges, recommended to patients by medical practitioners, and even used by basketball coaches to help players improve their game. Traditionally, the practice of meditation has been an integral part of spiritual life in many religions. Even today, meditation is often presented within a religious context. While this approach is perfectly valid and even desirable for those with religious inclinations, this book will demonstrate that meditation is relevant and accessible to everyone. Meditation is a systematic, introspective practice to facilitate growth in three main areas: • Getting to Know the Mind: carefully studying our inner world of feelings thoughts emotions, and various mental states. • Training the Mind: intentionally cultivating three essential qualities for mental well-being--awareness, concentration, and serenity. • Freeing the Mind: gradually reducing the power of negative tendencies that diminish inner peace and outer harmony. It is important to note that these three aspects of meditation are not unrelated or separate, but rather constitute a single process of inner exploration discovery, and development that I call the Meditative Path. There is nothing mysterious, haphazard, or bizarre about this process. It is very logical and the principles involved can b easily understood in the context of a few basic concepts. Human Beings Can Be Trained Let us begin by considering the object of our study, the human being—a composite of body and mind. The body is the physical aspect of a human being, while mind refers to everything else that constitutes a person. A student went to the meditation master and asked, "What is mind?" Without the slightest hesitation, the master replied, "No matter." We are all aware of the body and, to some degree, understand how it functions, what its needs are, and how to take care of it. There's nothing mysterious, for example, about using aerobic exercise to enhance one's general fitness, resistance training to build muscle mass and strength, or stretching exercises to increase flexibility. The body can be trained by these techniques to promote good physical health. The mind can also be trained in various ways. Education is systematic raining designed to develop intellectual capacity—the ability to think, reason, remember, plan, and so forth. Meditation is simply another way of training the mind, using various "exercises" to cultivate better mental health and well-being. Getting to Know the Mind So, meditation is primarily concerned with this thing called mind. But what is mind? For most of us, the mind is a mysterious realm we have not known how to explore. One reason the mind is so mysterious is that it is too close to us. Because we identify so completely with the mind, we are unable to objectify our mental world and observe it carefully. Our experience can be compared to that of a fish in water. The fish is completely surrounded by water, but it is unaware of the water in which it swims. Similarly, though we identify with the mind,, we often cannot see its functioning clearly. An ancient Sufi story is very revealing about this human blind spot: On one occasion, the Mula Nasruden was outside his house crawling on his hands and knees, searching the ground Only by turning on the light inside his house will Nasruden find the missing key. Similarly, if we wish to understand the nature of the mind, we must turn our attention inward and observe our feelings, thoughts, an emotions. The mental faculty that allows us to observe the mind is awareness, which can be compared to light. While normal light allows us to see external objects, awareness enables us to know our internal mental processes. Three Essential Qualities I said that meditation involves cultivating three qualities essential to well-being: awareness, concentration, and serenity. Let's take a moment to define these terms, because in order to cultivate them, we must have a fairly good understanding of what they are. Awareness, which we might also call mindfulness, is the state of "mind being fully present." An aware mind is not just conscious in the ordinary sense, because we can be conscious without being fully aware, without clearly knowing what we are doing, why we are doing it, and what we are feeling. We often move through life with only a modicum of attention to our present experience, operating mainly on automatic pilot and reacting to situations habitually. However, we can have some awareness, or moments when the mind is fully awake to the present experience. It is important to recognize the subtle, but profound difference between just being conscious and being mindful, or having consciousness with awareness. Have you ever been driving a car when you suddenly think, "Oh! Where am I? I've going past my turn-off!" What was your mind doing before that moment of awareness? You were conscious, but your mind was not fully present--not awake, clear, and mindful. In meditation, we want to cultivate that fullness of mind that lets us be truly sensitive to the present moment. Stop for a moment and consider, 'What am I feeling now? Where is my attention? " Awareness makes this type of introspection and exploration possible. It is an essential element in the practice of meditation, and only through the development of this quality can we cultivate concentration and serenity. Concentration is the ability to direct and hold our attention on one thing for a desire period of time. If we think of awareness as light, then we might think of concentration as a laser, or focused light. The strength of concentration is determined by how fully we can focus and sustain our attention. Concentration is the mental counterpart of physical strength. Although we all concentrate to some extent, most of us would agree that the mind is rather unruly, and that it behaves much like a restless monkey, jumping from one thing to another. This unruly mind not only prevents us from applying ourselves fully to a particular task, but it can also make us miserable. Constantly thinking about the past, usually with longing or regret, or the future, often with hope or trepidation, can be oppressive. The mind is in overdrive, and we feel stressed. The need to slow down and develop some mastery over this mental activity is illustrated in the following Buddhist verses: More than those who hate you, more than all your enemies, an undisciplined mind does greater harm. Hard it is to train the mind, which goes wherever it likes and does what it wants. But a trained mind brings health and happiness. The wise can direct their thoughts, subtle and elusive, wherever they choose; a trained mind brings health and happiness. (The Dhammapada, translated by Eknath Easwaren, 87-88) Through systematic and gentle effort, we can teach the mind to stop running from one thing to another and to concentrate on one object. But before we can train the mind to concentrate, we must know what the mind is doing. That is the role of awareness. With awareness, we simply know where our attention is at this moment. Even if the attention moves from one object to another, we can still remain aware, because awareness flows, just as a beam of light illumines each object it touches. However, if we wish to develop concentration, then, in addition to knowing where our attention is, we must also make an effort to sustain our attention on the same object. Every time our attention moves to something else, we need to be aware of that movement and bring it back to the original object. With patient effort and regular training, the mind gradually achieves better concentration. The light of awareness becomes focused into the laser of concentration. Serenity is an experience of rest, tranquility, even joy. The concentration we are interested in developing through meditation is characterized by serenity and clarity. It is impossible to achieve this type of concentration through sheer force of effort or will power. Forcing the mind to concentrate on a task produces tension, and after only a short time, we may feel exhausted. That is hardly a meditative experience or desirable state. I can still remember my first driving lesson during which I was concentrating so hard that my head was aching, and I was perspiring all over. I certainly did not feel serene. Unfortunately, most of us can concentrate only through force or will power. As a result, we often feel like we're jumping between the frying pan and the fire. Either the mind is tormenting us by being the unruly, out-of-control monkey, or we are struggling to pin the monkey down until we're exhausted. In meditation, we do not force the mind to concentrate. Instead, we try to encourage the mind through vigilant, gentle effort simply to slow down, to be at peace. By means of awareness and patient effort, the mind can be taught to appreciate the pleasant feeling of resting with one object. It will then be happy to remain with that object. Emerging from a period of good meditation, we feel refreshed and serene. Cultivating the Meditative Path involves developing these three qualities by means of various formal and informal meditation techniques that will be described in the next several chapters. Later, we will explore how these three qualities can be applied to a process of self-discovery that leads to insight, growth, and freedom. The Meditative Path is not an intellectual preoccupation with abstract concepts, nor is it just a matter of doing a few mental exercises for concentrating the mind. As you will discover, it is a journey marked by thoughtfulness, clarity, and understanding that touches every aspect of your being and your life. The goal is inner peace and outer harmony. Meditation is the path, and we are all fellow travelers on the journey. [A note from the editor: Chapters are followed by helpful exercises, searching questions and informative answers.] John Cianciosi is a former Buddhist monk now married and teaching in the United States. He draws on thirty years of experience to make meditation relevant for ordinary people. (The Meditative Path - softcover, 267 pages, $16.95, Quest Books.) For a "Conversation with John Cianciosi", see The Monthly Aspectarian (www.lightworks.com), archive for September, 1997.
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