The Happiness of a Beautiful Mind
喜滿禪心- 幸福來自美麗的心
燃燈禪師(Sayalay Dīpaṅkara)
Faith I (part 5)
Concentrate on the Breath
Peacefully note in-and-out breaths and relax. Slowly, slowly, you need to train to be happy. Once you don’t feel happy on the breathing, it is very difficult to get concentration.
So, don’t let go of the breath. Train slowly, day by day, every moment, every session, each and every minute.
ānāpānasati
Put the pleasant feeling on the breathing. Only then, you’ll like it. This feeling of liking it will make you concentrate. So if you feel comfortable concentrating on the object, then slowly, the mind gets happy with this object. The mind gets brighter in our mind.
The mind becomes very bright with concentration. After the mind becomes bright, you will feel a kind of bright light appearing, from the mind or outside of your body, or in front of your body, or on the face.
Actually, the bright light is not from the outside, not from an external window, etc. Don’t be confused by those things. All of the light comes from the concentrated mind, from our heart-base.
So, the happy and concentrated mind will produce the bright light. Different colours will appear.
That’s the first step of nimitta, the first sign of concentration.
So now, many meditators have this pleasant feeling. This is a very good sign. Because you feel comfortable, your concentration will improve. That’s the reason you see the light.
And then, you know the rest already. You have listened to talks about jhāna many times already about what absorption is. I’m also bored talking about this. So, you know that concentration improves because the nimitta appears in front of you.
When any colour appears, you don’t concentrate on the colour. That’s the first thing. You just concentrate continuously on the breathing. Don’t let go of the original object of the breath.
Stick continuously to the breathing. Then slowly, slowly, in the beginning, the colour will come and go. It doesn’t matter. Just keep concentrating on the breath. Sometimes, the breath can stop for a while. It doesn’t matter. Keep on concentrating on the breath.
Then slowly, slowly, the colour will change to white. When it changes to the white colour, it is the second level of nimitta.
Even when the colour changes to white, you still need to place the awareness on the breath. Don’t let go of the original object. At this time, you should not use energy on the breathing.
Sometimes, you want to make the breath clear. You are worried about losing the breath. At this time, the breath is very subtle. Because you don’t want to lose your concentration on the breath, you may use a lot of effort to breathe.
You want to make the breath very clear. Because of this, you push too hard and this can cause the movement of the breath to be very fast.
Because the breath movements become fast, the heartbeats and heart palpitations also become very fast. You can feel the connection of the movement of the breath and the beating of the heart. So easily, you will get tired, nervous and frustrated.
That’s the reason, when this happens, you need to relax and breathe. You can adjust the breathing. We purposely make it slower and breathe in and out very softly. So, when you breathe in this way, that is, when you breathe slowly, the breath will become soft and subtle again.
Pacing Heartbeat
The heartbeat can also be slowed down. And also, you’ll feel more peaceful. So we can adjust in this way. Even when the breathing is fast, make it slow. Sometimes, when the breathing is too slow, the breath will disappear. You need to breathe again. Slowly, you breathe again.
When you breathe, the subtle breath will appear again. Then concentrate again. After a while, the mind becomes peaceful. Then slowly, the nimitta becomes brighter and transparent, clearer and clearer. In the end, you need to have the clear nimitta.
The third level of nimitta is the clear nimitta, a clear light. The clear light is like a crystal ball, like a clear, bright star. If your nimitta can be like the crystal ball or like the transparent diamond, then that is the best nimitta.
If you cannot get the nimitta like the crystal ball or the transparent diamond, you need to practise until the nimitta is like a clear bright star. Only then, the nimitta will slowly come and stop. We need to concentrate on the breath until this clear light is stable. It needs to be stable for at least five or ten minutes.
Only then, the mind will slowly focus on the nimitta, the clear light. If you absorb or concentrate too early on the nimitta when it just comes and stops, it will slowly spread to the whole body.
After spreading to the whole body, you will feel comfortable in body and mind. But in the end, there is no longer an object. You don’t feel the nimitta in front of you.
That’s the reason that your absorption cannot last a long time. And that is not the true ānāpānā-jhāna. This happens because your light is spread to the whole body. You feel comfortable with the body. Your mind is so happy and peaceful with the body.
We need to remember that the body-object is not the ānāpāna object. That’s the reason why even though the body is comfortable and the mind is happy, we still need to stick to the meditation object of the nimitta. The nimitta cannot disappear or spread.
Look at the nimitta When It Is Clear
Also, don’t penetrate inside the nimitta. When you go inside the nimitta, the nimitta will also spread. Slowly, it can disappear and your mind is inside the feeling of the spreading of the nimitta. This is also not correct.
The feeling is very comfortable, very peaceful and boundless. But it is not yet the ānāpāna object.
That’s the reason why we should not go inside. The first step is to just relax and watch the nimitta. Watch slowly, like you are gazing at the full moon in the night. Your mind is so happy and so relaxed watching the moon.
It’s the same for nimitta. Relax and watch the nimitta slowly, with happiness. Then you look at it again. At the beginning, it’s a little bit unstable. It doesn’t matter. Keep on thinking about this object. Oh, this is nimitta, nimitta.
And then, continuously, the awareness for your mind is to know the object, i.e. nimitta nimitta. Then slowly, you feel happy and mind stick to the nimitta, that is called jhāna. Absorption starts! The mind becomes happy, and the body becomes lighter and lighter.
In the end, you don’t feel your hand, your body. Your body form is lost. There are only the mind, the happiness-mind and nimitta only. If you continue in this way for one or two hours, this is what we call absorption, first jhāna.
First jhāna means, vitakka (applying thought), vicāra (sustained thought), pīti (joy), sukha (happiness) and ekaggatā (one-pointedness of the mind). Five jhāna factors arise during the concentration of the mind on the nimitta.
Absorption
The arising of these jhāna factors, is what we call absorption. It can be said that during the time of the first jhāna, feeling also arises. This is what we call first jhāna.
If you can enter the first jhāna, it’s very good. After you got the experience of the first jhāna, you will know, how peaceful your concentrated mind is. At the same time, because you’re doing absorption on the wholesome object, every moment, every thought process can produce wholesome kamma, kusala kamma.
Don’t think, “Why do I have to stay with this object for one hour or two hours? I am wasting my time.” Don’t think in this way. Some people have that kind of thought.
Many people question staying with the nimitta object. Only concentrating on the nimitta, seems a waste of time. Some people feel that way.
It is not because we just want to force you to practise in this way. When you concentrate on the nimitta, you will know. The mind is so happy, so alert and it doesn’t have any akusala, unwholesome thoughts.
Unwholesome and wholesome thoughts cannot happen at the same time. So when thinking about dhamma object, this is dhamma object also. Because you are contemplating on the nimitta object and because of the concentrating and penetrating mind, you don’t have unwholesome thoughts.
Every thought process is producing wholesome kamma. In one minute, you are producing a lot of wholesome kamma. And at the same time, if you have happiness, then your kamma is higher than normal kusala kamma.
Among the mental components of consciousness, there is intention. We call this intention, cetanā. For good things, the intention must be with happiness, only then, your producing kamma becomes stronger and stronger.
So that’s the reason it is important to concentrate on the nimitta. When you are entering jhāna time, you can feel the mind is so quiet, so happy, so relaxed, without tension. At that time kusala kamma is produced.
After emerging from the absorption, you can feel the mind is so powerful. It is very alert and very bright. Whatever you want to concentrate on or penetrate into, you can easily penetrate and understand.
Sometimes before you penetrate, the insight is already there. You want to know something. After emerging from the jhāna, you concentrate. You think about that, and you directly find the answer in your mind. There is no need to use psychic power.
Automatically, in you mind, you know what you need to do. And the guidance is there. After practising jhāna many times, automatically in your mind, you will be guided and know this is wholesome or unwholesome.
That is produced by the Dhamma. So, it is very, very important for us to get concentration and wisdom for our kamma and for our way to the Nibbāna. Although you’re tired, please be patient, and put in more effort until you get jhāna. Also, don’t talk too much. When you talk, you cannot get jhāna. Remember that.
