The forty subjects for meditation

In the 5th century CE, an Indian Buddhist monk left India to Sri Lanka, where he settled in Anuradhapura. Not much more is known of this monk, Buddhaghosa, except through his monumental commentary on the Suttas, the Visuddhimagga - Path of Purification.

Perhaps the main reason for the Visuddhimagga's appeal stretching to our time is its detailed instructions on meditation, clarifying some obscure points in the original Suttas.

Some learned Ajaans (namely Buddhadasa), in modern times, envisioned a return to the sources, considering that only the Suttas and the Vinaya are the Buddha's words: not the Visuddhimagga, not even the Abhidhamma (the third Pitaka - Basket of Scriptures - of the Pali canon).

Here are the forty subjects for meditation you can find in the Visuddhimagga, together with references (links) to the original Suttas.

Ten devices (kasina) [The Greater Discourse to Sakuludāyin, MN 77]

1. Earth device
2. Water device
3. Fire device
4. Air or wind device
5. Blue device
6. Yellow device
7. Red device
8. White device
9. Limited space device
10. Consciousness (MN77) or Light (VSM) device

Ten kinds of foulness of a corpse [Kayagata-sati Sutta, MN 119]

1. A corpse that is bloated
2. A corpse that is livid (has patchy discoloration)
3. A corpse that is festering (trickling with pus in broken places)
4. A corpse that is cut up
5. A corpse that is gnawed
6. A corpse that is scattered
7. A corpse that is hacked and scattered
8. A corpse that is bleeding
9. A corpse that is worm-infested
10. A corpse that is a skeleton

Ten recollections [Ekadhammapali Sutta, AN 1.296-297]

1. Recollection of the Buddha
2. Recollection of the Dhamma
3. Recollection of the Sangha
4. Recollection of Virtue
5. Recollection of Generosity
6. Recollection of the Devas
7. Mindfulness of Death
8. Mindfulness of the Physical Body
9. Mindfulness of Breathing
10. Recollection of Peace

Four divine abodes [Kalama Sutta, AN 3.65]

1. Loving-kindness
2. Compassion
3. Sympathy
4. Equanimity

Four immaterial states [Ariyapariyesana Sutta, MN 26]

1. Sphere of Infinite Space
2. Sphere of Infinite Consciousness
3. Sphere of No-thingness
4. Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception

One perception [Sañña Sutta, AN 7.46]

1. Perception of the loathsomeness of food

One defining [Dhatu-vibhanga Sutta, MN 140]

1. Analysis of the four physical elements

There are several contemporary expositions on the forty subjects for meditation, but I would like to leave you a very concise one, by the Mahasi Sayadaw, in Buddhist Meditation and its Forty Subjects. It is, as far as I know, the only text where the Sayadaw gives instruction, in parallel, on samatha and vipassana meditation.

As I said before, mindfulness of breathing (the 9th recollection, above) is still the most used meditation subject. It is said to be appropriate for all meditators' temperaments, conducive to the deepest meditative states (not all forty subjects are), and safe (not all forty subjects are). If you want to try other meditation subjects please try and find a suitable meditation master - it will not be easy.

Pranayama - the Science of Breath

http://greenyogaindia.com/prana-and-pranayama/

Remember Rishi Patanjali's eight-limbed Yoga?

1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

We've seen a little on asana - the physical posture - and on the last four limbs that deal with the mental posture.

Meditation, particularly Buddhist meditation, is often centered on watching the breath, just watching it go in and out without forcing it in any way.

Pranayama is completely different: we control breath.

Patanjali doesn't offer a very detailed explanation. The verses that refer to pranayama are only five: II-49 to II-53

49. Asana having been perfected, regulation of the flow of inhalation and exhalation is Pranayama.
50. Pranayama has external operation, internal operation and suppression. These, again, when observed according to space, time and number become long and subtle.
51. The fourth Pranayama transcends external and internal operations.
52. By that the veil over manifestation of knowledge is thinned.
53. Moreover, the mind acquires fitness for Dharana.

[Adapted from https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qUHabpdmSCkC)]

Apart from continual oral transmission, we had to wait almost 1000 years to have a detailed written instruction on pranayama, in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

Let's make a little experiment.

Lie down on your back and relax. Remember savasana?
Now pay attention to your thorax and abdomen and try to discern how they move with breath. Take your time...
If you're stressed (aren't we all?) you'll find that you are breathing from the top of your lungs. That's bad.
Now inhale deeply: begin by dilating your abdomen and then propagate the dilation to the chest, like a wave that begins just above the pubis and ends by the throat. Don't hold your breath; just let physics work and empty your lungs. When they're naturally emptied, there are still a few gases remaining: contract your chest and then the abdomen to expel the last possible ounce of residual gas. You've never taken such a deep, full breath in your life!

Traditionally the phases of breath are called

1. Puraka - Inhalation
2. Kumbhaka - Retention
3. Rechaka - Exhalation

There is also kumbhaka after exhalation. If you are very mindful you can detect both kumbakhas even in your normal breathing. In fact, that's one of the advanced themes for Buddhist calm (samatha) meditation.

You may have noticed that the amount of air that flows through the left and right nostrils is not the same. This is natural. We have a dominant nostril, and it changes along the day - it is said that the dominant nostril changes every 108 minutes. If your dominant nostril is always the same, especially if you never breath through one of them, see a doctor: you probably have some physical obstruction.

When you do long breathing meditation (not pranayama) sessions you sometimes catch the dominant nostril slowly switching. It's a lot of fun...

Did this experiment make you want to further explore pranayama? Then sit. The ideal position for practicing pranayama is one of the meditative asanas that we've seen in a previous post on meditation.

I'm going to show you four pranayamas based on Swami Sivananda's The Science of Pranayama. The idea is to take a few minutes every day, preferably early in the morning, and practise one exercise during one week. Try not to skip steps. If at any time you feel dizzy, stop immediately. Your body is warning you that you are over-straining. As I said before, this is Yoga - not gymnastics!

First week: exercise #1

Close your eyes. Inhale deeply, as before, through both nostrils, very slowly and gently until your lungs are full. Remember that inhalation begins in the abdomen. Do not retain the breath. Then slowly exhale. Do twelve times. This will constitute one round. You can do two or three rounds according to your capacity, strength, and time at your disposal.

Second week: exercise #2

Close your eyes. Close the right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale very slowly through the left nostril as long as you can do it with comfort. Then exhale very slowly through the same nostril. Do twelve times. Do not make any sound during inhalation and exhalation. Then inhale through the right nostril by closing the left nostril with your right ring and little fingers and exhale very slowly through the same nostril. Do twelve times.

Vishnu Mudra - used for opening and closing nostrils.
http://sacred-earth.typepad.com/yoga/2008/07/mudras-for-pranayama.html

Third week: exercise #3

Close your eyes. Then inhale slowly through your left nostril. Close the left nostril with your right ring and little fingers and open the right nostril by removing the right thumb. Exhale very slowly through the right nostril. Then draw the air through the right nostril as long as you can do it with comfort and exhale through the left nostril by removing the right ring and little fingers. There is no kumbhaka in this pranayama. Do twelve times.

Fourth week: exercise #4

Close your eyes. Close the right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale slowly through the left nostril while mentally counting one-two-three. Using the ring and little finger, close the left nostril too and retain the air for the time it takes you to count to twelve; exhale through the right nostril for the time it takes you to count to six; keeping the right nostril open, inhale through it counting to three; close both nostrils while counting to twelve; open the left nostril and exhale through it while counting to six. Do twelve times.

As you have guessed, the aim is to have a 1-4-2 proportion for puraka-kumbhaka-rechaka.

From the end of the fourth week onwards you can try to slowly increase the time, by both slowing and deepening the steps. You began with 3-12-6; next week try 4-16-8. After a few months you may be able to get to 16-64-32 without undue strain. 

Watch Baba Ramdev demonstrating pranayama.

http://ramdevyoga4all.blogspot.com/2010/07/complete-eight-pranayamas.html

Gymnosophists - the naked philosophers

When Alexander the Great's army invaded India, sometime around 320 BC, his Greek followers were puzzled to find what they called 'naked philosophers' - the gymnosophists.

The Greek found nothing out of the ordinary in 'street philosophy'; after all, Alexander had been tutored by the great Aristotle. They also found nothing out of the ordinary in male nakedness since there was no concept of shame associated with the body. The word 'gymnos' - naked - can be found in gymnasium - a place to exercise naked.

As happens many times, it was the conjunction of two common things that felt, maybe, odd: naked philosophers...

We can easily imagine those gymnosophists to be the ancestors of modern naga babas.

https://www.pinterest.pt/pin/155514993357883219/

One Greek philosopher, a member of Alexander's court, seemed to be especially struck by Indian philosophy: Pyrrho of Elis, known today as the founder of skepticism.

https://alchetron.com/Pyrrho-807275-W#-

Not much is known today about Pyrrho. In fact, what remains of his philosophy is a fourth-hand report: a summary of Pyrrhonism which was preserved by Eusebius, quoting Aristocles, quoting Pyrrho's student Timon, in what is known as the "Aristocles passage:"

"Whoever wants to live well must consider these three questions: First, how are pragmata (ethical matters, affairs, topics) by nature? Secondly, what attitude should we adopt towards them? Thirdly, what will be the outcome for those who have this attitude?" Pyrrho's answer is that "As for pragmata they are all adiaphora (undifferentiated by a logical differentia), astathmeta (unstable, unbalanced, not measurable), and anepikrita (unjudged, unfixed, undecidable). Therefore, neither our sense-perceptions nor our doxai (views, theories, beliefs) tell us the truth or lie; so we certainly should not rely on them. Rather, we should be adoxastous (without views), aklineis (uninclined toward this side or that), and akradantous (unwavering in our refusal to choose), saying about every single one that it no more is than it is not or it both is and is not or it neither is nor is not."

This exposition has led Christopher Beckwith to find some parallel with the Buddhist three marks of existence: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), anatta (absence of an inherent, independent self), and to infer an influence of early Buddhism on Pyrrhonism.

While there is a clear formal similarity - three characteristics that are negatively defined - and we can equate adiaphora with anatta and astathmeta with anicca, anepikrita and the following consequences, which seem to be the core of Pyrrho's thought, remain unpaired, as does the Buddhist view of suffering.

We can find, however, a perfect parallel between anepikrita and one of the tenets of a less known religion that was contemporary with Buddhism: Jainism. These are

Ahimsa - non-violence,

Aparigraha - non-possessiveness,

Tapas - asceticism, and

Anekantavada - many-sidedness, pluralism, pluralism of viewpoints.

Not only anekantavada is strikingly analogous to Pyrrho's anepikrita but the primitive Jains (and some today) were naked ascetics - gymnosophists.

http://jainteerth.com/photo-gallery-mahaveerji-rajasthan/

https://theatuljain.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/myths-of-jainism-demystifying-jainism-for-a-layman/

I will return to Jainism some time in the future. This beautiful religion deserves to be better known in the West. For the time being, you can freely browse the online Jain Library.

Suryanamaskara, Salutation to the Sun

We meditate in the adorable glory

of the radiant sun.

May he inspire our intelligence.

(Rig Veda)

Yoga postures - asanas - are static, right? As I said before, it is better to hold a position for three breath cycles than to repeat it three times.

There are two notable exceptions: salabasana, the locust, which we will see some other time, and Suryanamaskara, the salutation to the Sun.

Saluting the Sun has a certain 'pagan' ring to it, but doesn't have to. After all, our star is the source of life on Earth. We can pay our respects, our homage, our gratitude to it. Every day, billions are spent on trips to... places in the sun! We can have our little place in the sun at home and daily bathe in its invigorating energy. Naked, if possible.

I am lucky to have a garden for the warmer months and windows facing East for the colder ones, but that isn't strictly necessary.

Suryanamaskara is not a position but a sequence of twelve positions to execute in sync with the breath.

Remember to do every movement as slowly, intentionally, and mindfully as you can. In each position, feel the muscles and ligaments being extended and contracted.

Here is the classic sequence:

1. Pranamasana (Prayer)
Raise your hands to the chest while inhaling, then exhale.

2. Hasta Uttanasana (Raised Arms)

While inhaling, raise your arms over your head and stretch back as far as you can.

3. Padahastasana (Hand to Foot)
Exaling, bend forward until you touch the ground with your hands on either side of your feet. Try keeping your hands there until step 10. If possible, your legs should be straight, which can be difficult at first but will happen with practice.

4. Ashwa Sanchalanasana (The Horse)

While inhaling, extend the right leg backwards as far as you can, bending the left knee and arching your back. The right knee should touch the ground (unlike on the following picture!)

5. Parvatasana (The Mountain)While exhaling, bring the left foot close to the right one, raise the buttocks and lower the head. Your feet should be flat on the ground which, at first, is not easy. Don't worry, and don't over strain your hamstrings: in time it will naturally happen. The head does not need to touch the ground.

6. Ashtanga Namaskara (Salute with Eight Parts)
Still holding your breath out, bring your knees, chest and chin to the ground.

7. Bhujangasana (Cobra)
While inhaling, raise your torso as far as you can first only with your back muscles, in the end with the help of your hands. Tilt your head back.

8. Parvatasana (The Mountain) [=5]

9. Ashwa Sanchalanasana [=4, with reversed legs: bent right knee, left leg back]

10. Padahastasana [=3]

11. Hasta Utthanasana [=2]

12. Pranamasana [=1]

This completes one round of Suryanamaskara. If you have the time, do several rounds: I try to do at least three at dawn. If you are really into it, the tradition sets 108 rounds daily... Don't overdo your practice: the middle way is the way to go - not slack, not self-punishing. Between rounds, rest standing up, with your arms loose by your side, and normalize the breath. In the end, after all the rounds, if possible, do a few minutes of savasana.

Suryanamaskara is an almost complete Hatha Yoga session. You can complete it with a side bend, such as trikonasana, a spinal twist, such as ardha matsyendrasana, and an inverted posture, such as sirshasana. We'll get to that later. But remember: if you are pressed for time, do at least one round of suryanamaskara per day. You'll feel the benefits.

There is one book that describes and analyzes suryanamaskara in great depth: Suryanamaskara, a Technique of Solar Vitalization, by the great Swami Satyananda Saraswati, the closest disciple of Swami Sivananda Saraswati. Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Surya-Namaskara-Technique-Solar-Vitalization/dp/8185787352

Mantra: meditation is not confessional

When we hear the word 'mantra' what comes to mind?

Hare Krishna?

Credit: http://www.krishnayoga.info/radhanath-swami/the-hunger-for-krishna/

Actually

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna

Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

is an old Hindu, Vaishnava, mantra, probably dating back to the 15th century CE.

A mantra is just a sentence, heavily loaded with significance, which helps us to concentrate - or meditate. Significance does not equate to linguistic meaning. What is maybe the oldest Sanskrit mantra, Om, cannot be translated.

If we slowly pronounce it A - U - M, lengthening the 'M', it induces a peaceful, insightful state of mind.

Theravada Buddhism doesn't use mantras much. However, some of the forest tradition masters recommend using the word Buddho to help in the beginning stages of concentration: thinking 'Buddh' while inhaling and 'dho' while exhaling.

And this is the key.

We aren't used to watch our breath and soon our mind runs away like a crazy monkey. Associating words with each in and out breath helps us to keep focused.

Ajaan Maha Boowa said that he spent several days repeating Buddho in every waking moment. And he didn't sleep much...

Aren't the Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary mantras, especially when concatenated in a rosary? The four largest religions in the world, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, all use prayer beads.

If, like me, you have trouble concentrating, especially at the beginning of a meditation session, use a mantra. Only two conditions: it must be meaningful to your heart and it must have an even number of syllables (or just one - OM) so that you can sync it with your breath.

Some of the mantras that I use are

OM

BUDDHO

OM NAMO BUDDHAYA

OM MANI PADME HUM

OM NAMAH SHIVAYA

So, why not

MARY

or

YAHWEH

or

ALLAH

?

Samatha meditation and vipassana meditation

Two methods of Buddhist meditation

Phra Ajan Jerapunyo, Abbot of Watkungtaphao, meditating in Sirikit Dam, Thailand. Wikimedia Commons.

If you read about it, you'll find endless discussions among learned monks.
Essentially, the issue boils down to three attitudes:
 - You can attain enlightenment by samatha (serenity) meditation alone.
 - You can attain enlightenment by vipassana (insight) meditation alone.
 - You need both.

Let's see the problem with a little more detail.

Samatha meditation

This is what I tried to introduce in a previous post. You calm your mind's ripples by focusing on a single very well defined meditation subject, like breath, blue, water, or the Buddha - there are forty of them. When a sensory input or a thought arrives, you mindfully return to your meditation subject.

If you can still your mind enough, you are now practicing samadhi. Further along, sometimes you get a sign (nimitta) - colors, shapes, sounds, scents - which shows you are entering jhana (Pali for the Sanscrit dhyana). Some say you can enter jhana without the nimitta appearing first. There are four jhana states, or levels, which can be followed by four formless attainments, in a progression from grosser to more refined forms of consciousness.

Simple suttas blog. Pt. 2 Is Jhana Really Necessary (hint: yes)

The Buddha said that His enlightenment occurred after attaining all four jhanas and then the four formless states. At His death bed, He walked through the four jhanas in direct, then reverse, then direct order again, and He died in what is called His Parinibbana (state beyond nirvana, or nirvana in death).

Many modern meditation masters, such as the Pa Auk Sayadaw or Ajahn Brahm, consider that jhana is the way to nibbana (nirvana).

Don't overthink this. Keep on with mindfulness of breathing, for all your life if need be.

Vipassana meditation

Vipassana is more analytical. You are trying to get insight into the nature of all phenomena as impermanent, suffering, and selfless (anicca, dukkha, anatta).

Anicca-dukkha-anatta, by Michael Bond.

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/anicca-dukkha-anatta-michael-bond.html

So, when a sensory input or a thought arrives at your mind, you watch it with detachment and see it arise, stay for a while and go away. I mentioned this earlier relating to the pain that - always! - happens after some time of sitting meditation.

Vipassana meditation is spread worldwide today, thanks to the work of a lay master, S. N. Goenka, a pupil of another layman, Sayagyi U Ba Khin (once accountant general of Burma), who learned vipassana meditation with Webu Sayadaw, a monk who was regarded as enlightened. All three were Burmese so, in a way, the modern Vipassana Movement was born in Burma.

So, what should I do?

A polemic took place between the Burmese Mahasi Sayadaw and the Sri Lankan monk Soma Thera, in the late 1950s. The Sayadaw defended that nibbana is attainable by 'dry insight' - vipassana alone - and the other monk defended the necessity of samadhi. There is an account of this polemic in Satipatthana Vipassana: Criticisms and Replies. Dry.

Mahasi Sayadaw. http://www.mahasiusa.org/sayadaw.html

If you google "vipassana meditation" you get 733,000 hits, while "jhana meditation" gets you 129,000. On the other hand, if you search "vipassana" and "jhana" in accesstoinsight.org you get 155 and 368 hits, respectively. This shows that, while vipassana, maybe because it seems easier, has a much wider global following, the Dhamma texts, on the other hand, have much more samatha references.

My experience tells me that you cannot have the necessary concentration to observe the transient nature of all phenomena without previous samatha practice. If you take a vipassana 10-days course from the Goenka 'school', you'll find that the first two days are dedicated to samatha meditation. You should, by the way.

"Serenity and insight are the two great wings of Buddhist meditation. They each have a special role to play in the path to Awakening. While some modern approaches seek to marginalize serenity in favor of ‘dry’ insight, the Buddha’s own discourses place serenity right at the center of the path" in A Swift Pair of Messengers by Bhante Sujato (the messengers are samatha and vipassana.)

Anyway...

Don't overthink this. Keep on with mindfulness of breathing.

Savasana - the corpse

The hardest yoga pose

The corpse posture, savasana, is said to be the hardest yoga pose to fully accomplish.

But, well, anything is hard to fully accomplish!

Savasana should always be at the beginning and at the end of your physical (hatha) yoga sessions.

Undress and lie down on your back, with your arms beside you and your legs slightly apart - somewhere between 2 inches (5cm) and one foot (30cm) between your heels.

Take a few deep and slow breaths.

Your hands may rest on the floor palm up or palm down, whatever feels more comfortable and, most of all, effortless. Remember you are a corpse.

You also have to find the best position for your head by trial and error, sliding the back on the floor, so that it is closer or further away from the shoulders - but always looking up.

Now, close your eyes and feel.

Feel the touch of the floor on your body, feel gravity's pull down.

And... Relax.

This is easier said than done. As with everything, there are methods.

Begin feeling your right foot. Is it relaxed? Does it tilt naturally to the right side or are you unconsciously trying to keep it up? Let it go. Are there any points of stress on your right foot? Relax them. Are you curling up your big toe? Let it go.

Slowly move your attention - your mindfulness - up your right leg, until you reach the hip. Identify and relax all points of stress. When your right leg is totally relaxed, move to the left foot, leg and hip, slowly, the same way as before.

You get the idea.

Proceed slowly through the buttocks, the pelvis, the abdomen, the thorax, right hand, arm, and shoulder, left hand, arm, and shoulder, and the neck. The trickiest part is probably the head, especially the face. Depending on your head's pitch your jaw may fall a bit when you relax it. If you're very good at this, after relaxing the neck muscles, the jaw, and the tongue, you may even begin to snore! Stay awake.

After letting go all the stress in the facial muscles, take a fast tour of the whole body. It should feel completely relaxed. Corpse-like...

The Buddha advised to contemplate death (maranasati) with each in and out breath - and this is an easy and refreshing way to begin doing it.

Savasana is a good practice before formal sitting meditation because it allows for a smooth transition between the struggle of daily life and the peacefulness of meditation.

For the same reason, you should do it before your hatha yoga practice. Try this:

1. When you feel fully relaxed, spread your arms to the sides while inhaling; take three full breaths, then
2. Bring your hands to the chest in 'anjali' while exhaling; take three full breaths, then
3. Project your arms up while exhaling; take three full breaths, then
4. Stretch your arms back while inhaling; take three full breaths, then
5. Do the previous steps in reverse order until you are back in savasana.

Respiration might seem too complicated but in fact is simple: the general 'rule' is to inhale with expansive, outward, or upward movements and to exhale with contractile, inward, or downward, movements. In time, you'll find your own respiratory rhythm to accompany your asana practice.

Just remember two things: slow down and sustain. It is much better to sustain a pose for three breaths than to repeat it three times. This is not calisthenics. Eventually your 'yoga rhythm' will extend to your life.