Samadhi And Wisdom | 19 Oct 2023

Training the mind with wisdom, for the arising of samādhi” begins with hearing and listening (to the Dhamma). When we contemplate, we understand more deeply. Our minds become peaceful and enter into samādhi. It develops from momentary concentration (khanika samādhi) to access concentration (upacāra samādhi). When samādhi wanes, we return to investigating and contemplating.

Venerable Ajahn Chah told us to contemplate this body—see the impermanent, unsatisfactory, non-self nature of the body. Though at first contemplation is based on memory and perception, through contemplation samādhi becomes solid and secure. When the mind withdraws from samādhi, continue with contemplating, and investigating. Rapture, concentration, and wisdom become stronger than before, to the point where the mind becomes one-pointed and the Path arises, destroying the defilements: Vipassana and Wisdom arise.

Transcript

So in the practice of training the mind to bring it to peace,

There are some practitioners for whom it's difficult for them to just stay with a mantra or a meditation word and to bring their minds to calm through that means.

It's hard for them to just cultivate samadhi,

To try to just bring the mind to stillness like that.

And they feel that if they practice in that way,

Then they don't have any wisdom.

They like to think,

They like to find reasoning behind things.

And so this is using wisdom,

Spanya.

So in that way we use our wisdom to train the mind to bring it to peace.

And so really it depends on what we're proficient in,

What we're skilled at.

And some practitioners,

They don't have much thought going on.

Their teacher instructs them to have mindfulness over the word buddho,

And so they give that a go.

And as they recite buddho,

Buddho,

Buddho,

And do this over and over,

Then the mind becomes collected on that object and it stays with just that one object coming into peace.

And so they don't like to think much,

They don't like to proliferate.

So there are other people,

However,

Who are walking the way of wisdom.

And for those,

When they see someone who is just reciting buddho,

Then they think,

Well that person doesn't have any wisdom.

But when that practitioner who recites buddho,

Their mind comes to peace already,

And they look at someone who's thinking,

Who's proliferating,

And they think that that person,

Their mind's just a mess,

It's chaotic,

They don't have any samadhi,

Their mind's not collected.

And so it's really,

In the beginning this is how it is,

But whatever the case,

We just practice in line with our nature,

In line with our personality and the way our minds work.

So for example,

Using the contemplation of the body as our main practice,

Can see the body as just being a pile of elements,

A heap of inconstancy and stress and not-self.

And when people think in this way,

Contemplate in this way,

Then there's a sense of ease that comes up,

And the mind isn't scattered,

Thinking here and there.

And so there's this peace then,

And an understanding that arises,

This wisdom that comes up to one degree.

So initially there's the wisdom that we get from listening,

From reading,

From studying,

And so this is a kind of paññā,

This is an understanding that we gain.

And then we take that knowledge,

And we think about it and contemplate it,

And then we gain a deeper understanding.

And then from that deeper understanding,

Then peace can start to arise.

So this is the peace of the mind.

So this is the way of using wisdom to train the mind in order to give rise to samadhi.

And so when there's wisdom like this,

Then this samadhi comes up more and more frequently.

And initially there's peace to the level of kanaka samadhi,

And so this minor form of collectedness.

And there's a coolness there,

A sense of ease in the mind and the heart.

And then as one becomes more and more skilled at doing that,

Then a lightness appears in both the body and the mind.

And so this shows that the samadhi is getting better.

Then as one sits,

And perhaps the hands feel like they've disappeared,

Or the feet feel like they've disappeared,

The body becomes lighter and lighter until it feels light throughout the whole thing.

There's a great sense of buoyancy and ease pervading the body,

Until it feels like we don't have a body at all.

And there's just emptiness,

Like we're sitting in mid-air.

And this is upajara samadhi,

This neighborhood collectedness.

And there's a joy that arises from sitting for long periods.

And so sometimes you can sit like this,

And there's no chaos in the mind,

It's not scattered,

And we can just carry on sitting.

But then when that state reduces,

The mind starts thinking again.

But as we carry on with that,

And we become more and more skilled,

And then really wondrous states can start to arise.

You can sit and feel this great lightness of the body and the mind,

And it can be like this for one hour,

Or two hours.

And then slowly the samadhi starts to fade.

And then when this happens,

We use our thinking and our reflective capacity to contemplate again,

To contemplate over physicality and mentality,

And how that's not self,

It's not me.

So with contemplating like this,

Then we try and do that frequently as well.

And then next,

When we get up and go to walk,

Then we're able to maintain that state of peace that we had.

There's still that coolness there,

That sense of inner contentment that still abides in the mind.

And so we have that feeling like this,

And that samadhi,

It stays very firm.

As we carry on practicing like this,

And do this frequently,

Then our sati,

Our mindfulness grows and grows,

And we contemplate more and more.

As we're walking we're able to maintain that state of peace.

And then even when we do various functions,

Duties,

There's still this great lightness that imbues the body.

And we can feel that in the same degree that what we had felt before when we sat in meditation,

Even when we're doing various activities.

And then we think to ourselves,

Ah,

This is possible to feel this way as well.

And so the samadhi becomes better,

It becomes more established than it was before.

And even when we're talking,

The mind can still maintain the state of samadhi.

Even when we're standing,

Sitting,

Walking,

Lying down,

Then there's this mindfulness there,

This stillness,

Samadhi,

The mind is still collected.

But we need to be cautious here as well,

Because when we gain this feeling of peace,

We may wish to just contemplate the mind.

And why is that?

It's because we've read some scriptures,

And we've heard that contemplating,

Or read that contemplating the body is for people who have a lot of lust.

Contemplating vedana,

Or feelings,

Are for people who have more subtle lust.

Contemplation of the mind is for those who have coarse wisdom,

And contemplating the dhamma is for those who have subtle wisdom.

And so for myself,

I wanted to have wisdom,

To be someone who was wise,

Even if that meant coarse wisdom.

And so I take this samadhi to contemplate the mind.

And so I was deluded in this way,

Wishing to just watch the mind,

See its arising and ceasing,

Seeing whether the mind had states of greed,

Hatred,

And delusion there,

Or whether there was an absence of greed,

Hatred,

And delusion.

Seeing that the mind is just a mind,

It's not a being,

Not an individual,

Not a self,

Not me,

Not you.

And so thinking that when I saw that,

I would attain to the dhamma.

So see,

This is what can happen when the mind is peaceful already.

We start thinking about things in our own way,

Wishing to just look at the mind,

Contemplate the mind.

And so when I'd watch the mind in this way,

Then thoughts would come up and I'd watch them and then they'd just disappear.

But the truth is,

What was happening was samadhi was holding them at bay.

That the samadhi,

It was holding those defilements down.

The defilements,

They were still there,

They hadn't been destroyed yet,

They were still present.

It was just they were being held back through samadhi.

So now what do we do in that situation then?

Well we need to train.

And so sometimes Venerable Ajahn Chah said we should look at the body first.

Observe this body contemplated as being a heap of change,

Of suffering,

Of not-self.

So take this heap of flesh and contemplate this well.

So he had passed through this level already,

He'd already experienced this himself.

And so he thought that the amounts of samadhi that I had,

It was just a very small amount.

But I thought it was a great amount,

I was like a little child who didn't know anything.

But I did listen to my teacher and so followed what he said,

Contemplated this body and could see it as being something that was changing,

Something unattractive.

And the heart became more and more attractive.

And there was joy that arose,

The samadhi became better,

More well-established,

And I could see more clearly than I could before.

And so this wisdom arose,

And the wisdom steadily grew and grew.

And so when it does that,

The wisdom comes up and it grows and grows.

And then it can all gather together,

There can be,

The path gathers together in harmony.

And at this point we're able to destroy the defilements.

And so there's this wisdom to the level of vipassana insight that comes up.

So therefore may you put your efforts and be sincere and really practice.

If you carry on without ceasing,

Then you need to see the Dhamma,

To attain to the Dhamma.

If you carry on going with it,

Then the contemplation becomes more and more enjoyable.

You're able to actually see that the body is just a heap of elements,

Able to separate the things out,

And the mind it just works on its own accord,

Separating out the body.

And the samadhi grows,

And the samadhi gets better,

Then through the wisdom we're able to see to more and more refined levels,

Until the heart comes to a state of emptiness.

It enters into joy and happiness,

It enters into emptiness,

And you can see all physicality and mentality as being anatta,

Not self.

And the profundity of these insights grows and grows to deeper levels,

Until we gain this knowledge,

And there's the wisdom that comes up that lets go of this knowledge as well,

And sees that even that is not me,

That there's no one who attains to anything.

So in the beginning we can use paññā to contemplate for the arising of peace,

But some practitioners they use samadhi as their basis,

As their foundation,

And they use this to really focus on an object,

To keep their minds there with one thing,

In a state of peace.

And so they're holding these defilements at bay for now,

And then their samadhi grows and they're working on that,

Then after that they get around to contemplating.

And so they become skilled at that,

At giving rise to peace and then using that peace to contemplate.

And this too is the magga,

This too is the path,

This is also sila,

Samadhi,

And paññā,

This virtue,

Collectiveness,

And wisdom.

And so these are the two ways that one can walk,

The way of wisdom,

The way of samadhi.

But we need to be skilled at one of those ways.

Just like various people who have their own occupations.

So maybe two different people are working some land,

But one person is skilled at planting orchards,

And so that's what they do.

Another person is skilled at planting rice,

And so that's what they do.

And then other people are skilled at different things,

Skilled at engineering,

Skilled at accounting.

They have to be skilled at something.

Some people are skilled at being doctors,

Others at nurses.

So if we gain knowledge,

Then we don't argue with one another,

Because we see that it's all the sila,

Samadhi,

And paññā,

And it's not any other path.

So in the practice,

Try to bring your mind to peace,

And to be sincere in your practice.

Whether standing,

Walking,

Sitting,

Lying down,

Try to have a lot of mindfulness.

So that the thoughts,

Or the creations of the mind start to reduce.

So you can contemplate in order to bring the mind to peace,

So that this thinking reduces.

And in the beginning,

What we use is saññā,

So this perception or memory.

And that's what this level of contemplation is in the beginning.

So maybe it's the asubha saññā,

So this memory that we're bringing up of how the body is something unattractive,

Or a memory of the various parts of the body,

The various organs there,

Or this perception or memory of how the body is inconstant and stressful and not self.

So we use these objects of memory first,

Of perception,

But it's not an actual,

Genuine seeing of anicca,

Dukkha,

Anatta,

But we use these memories or perceptions first.

And we carry on doing that until peace arises and grows.

Or sometimes people are watching the breath,

Reciting bhutt and then do,

Until that mantra disappears all of its own accord without our intending for that to happen.

And as they carry on watching the breath,

And even the breath just goes,

Until the mind is in a state of peace and stillness.

And that stillness becomes very firm,

And then joy,

Happiness arise.

And so when we do that,

Then there's an energy there within the mind,

And that energy is able to hold these defilements down.

And we do that until the mind comes out of that state and it starts to create again,

It starts to proliferate,

And then we can contemplate those creations of the mind.

And so it's not just when we sit in meditation that the mind can gain knowledge,

It's whenever really the mind gathers together and then there's a creation,

Proliferation that happens.

And at that point,

Wisdom comes up.

So we can see then the body,

It's just like a robot,

Just a robot that's walking back and forth.

And see how when the mind is in peace,

It's able to separate out,

That the mind can separate out from the body and see it as just being a body,

And see it as just being like a biological machine.

And this can be very clear.

We can see it as just being like a puppet,

A puppet that pulls strings and pulls it into various positions,

And that's just what it's like,

The body orders it around.

And so we see it's merely a body.

And we see that,

And we can see the Dhamma.

But for that to happen,

We need firm mindfulness and samadhi.

So really set your hearts on this,

Whether you're a monk or a novice or a layperson,

That's close to the end of the rains retreat,

But don't be heedless.

It's not much time left,

It's just ten days left.

And so may you really be intent on your practice.

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