“This is vimaṁsā (investigation) in meditation.”

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

21 July 2024

“This is vimaṁsā (investigation) in meditation.”

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Question: I am able to note my breath when it gets refined or when it becomes coarse or when I start to get restless, exercising vimaṁsā both during and after my meditation sitting. However, my focus still increases and wanes. Am I doing it correctly? Could Ajahn please advise me what to do next to develop vimaṁsā correctly?

Tan Ajahn: When you meditate for calm, you should not analyze. You should not use your thoughts at all because the goal is to stop your thoughts. When you analyze, then your thoughts will keep thinking.

When you are watching the breath, all you want to do is to know, to be aware or to acknowledge whether the breath is short or long, coarse or subtle. You don’t want to analyze or have any thoughts about it, just using your breath as your point of focus in order to stop your mind from thinking about other things.

If you think, you are going to think about your breathing, and it will obstruct your mind from entering into jhāna. So you want to just know, be aware of your breathing and be aware that you are not thinking about anything, not even about your breath. This is the proper way.

With vimaṁsā, you only do it after you withdraw from your samādhi, when you finish your sitting session. 

Then you can analyze: How come today I sat and I didn’t get the result I wanted? Am I thinking too much? 

Do I have mindfulness? This is what you should do afterwards. But when you are watching your breath, you should not think.

It is like a boxer, when he goes up to the ring, he doesn’t analyze. He has to box and beat his opponent. 

But after he finishes the match, he can look at the tape, analyzing what he did right and what he did wrong. So this is vimaṁsā (investigation) in meditation. You should do it afterwards.

“Dhamma for the Asking, Dec 9, 2014”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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