How to Meditate by Yutadamo Bikku, read by Adder Oaks.
Introduction This booklet is taken from a six-part video series on YouTube, available at youtube.com slash yutadamo.
It was originally intended for use in the Los Angeles Federal Detention Center, where it was impossible to distribute teachings by video, but has since become my preferred means of introducing the meditation practice to newcomers in general.
While the videos provide a useful visual guide, this booklet contains much updated and expanded information that is not in the videos.
The lessons are laid out according to how I would expect a newcomer to learn meditation step by step.
It may seem odd that chapters 2, 3, and 5 are presented in the opposite order in which they are to be practiced.
The reasoning is that sitting meditation is easiest for a beginner to appreciate.
Once one has become comfortable with the concepts involved in meditation...
They may expand their practice to include walking and even mindful prostration if they are so inclined.
My only intention in completing this task is that more people may benefit from the meditation practice.
It seems proper that if one wishes to live in peace and happiness, one should work to spread peace and happiness in the world in which one lives.
I would like to thank all who have helped to make this book possible, my parents and all of my past teachers, my current teacher and preceptor, Ajahn Tong Sri Mangalo, and those kind beings who originally transcribed the teachings from the YouTube videos.
May all beings be happy.
Yuta Dhammo.
Chapter 1.
What is Meditation?
This book is meant to serve as an introductory discourse on how to meditate for those with little or no experience in the practice of meditation, as well as those who are experienced in other types of meditation but interested in learning a new meditation technique.
In this first chapter, I will explain what meditation is and how one should go about practicing it.
First, it is important to understand that the word meditation means different things to different people.
For some, meditation simply means the calming of the mind, the creating of a peaceful or pleasurable state, as a vacation or escape from mundane reality.
For others, meditation implies extraordinary experiences, or the creation of mystical, even magical, states of awareness.
In this book, I'd like to define meditation based on the meaning of the word itself.
The word meditation comes from the same linguistic base as the word medicine.
This is useful in understanding the meaning of meditation, since medicine refers to something that is used to cure bodily sickness.
As a parallel, we can understand meditation as being used to cure sickness in the mind.
Additionally, we understand that medicine, as opposed to drugs, is not for the purpose of escaping into a temporary state of pleasure or happiness and then fading away, leaving one sick as before.
Medicine is meant to effect a lasting change, bringing the body back to its natural state of health and well-being.
In the same way, the purpose of meditation is not to bring about a temporary state of peace or calm, but rather to return the mind suffering from worries, stresses, and artificial conditioning back to a natural state of genuine and lasting well-being.
So when you practice meditation according to this book, please understand that it might not always feel either peaceful or pleasant.
Coming to understand and work through deep-rooted states of stress, worry, anger, addiction, etc.
can be at times quite an unpleasant process, especially since we spend most of our time avoiding or repressing these negative aspects of our mind.
It might seem at times that meditation doesn't bring any peace or happiness at all.
This is why it must be stressed that meditation isn't a drug.
It isn't supposed to make you feel happy while you do it, and then return to your misery when you are not.
Meditation is meant to affect a real change in the way one looks at the world, bringing one's mind back to its natural state of clarity.
It should allow one to attain true and lasting peace and happiness through being better able to deal with the natural difficulties of life.
The basic technique of meditation that we use to facilitate this change is the creation of clear awareness.
In meditation, we try to create a clear awareness of every experience as it occurs.
Without meditating, we tend to immediately judge and react to our experiences as good, bad, me, mine, etc.
which in turn gives rise to stress, suffering, and mental sickness.
By creating a clear thought about the object, we replace these sorts of judgments with a simple recognition of the object as it is.
The creation of clear awareness is effected through the use of an ancient but well-known meditation tool called a mantra.
A mantra refers to a word or phrase that is used to focus the mind on an object, most often the divine or the supernatural.
Here, however, we use the mantra to focus our attention on ordinary reality as a clear recognition of our experience as it is, free from projection and judgment.
By using a mantra in this way, we will be able to understand the objects of our experience clearly and not become attached or averse to them.
For example, when we move the body we use a mantra to create a clear awareness of the experience, using a mantra that captures its essence.
as in moving.
When we experience a feeling, feeling.
When we think, thinking.
When we feel angry, we say in our mind, angry.
When we feel pain, we likewise remind ourselves silently, pain.
We pick a word that describes the experience accurately and use that word to acknowledge the experience for what it is,
not allowing the arising of a judgment of the object as good, bad, me, mine, etc.
The mantra should not be at the mouth or in the head, but simply a clear awareness of the object for what it is.
The word, therefore, should arise in the mind at the same location as the object itself.
Which word we choose is not so important, as long as it focuses the mind on the objective nature of the experience.
To simplify the process of recognizing the manifold objects of experience, we traditionally separate experience into four categories.
Everything we experience will fit in one of these four categories.
They will serve as a guide in systematizing our practice, allowing us to quickly recognize what is and what is not real, and identify reality for what it is.
It is customary to memorize these four categories before proceeding with the meditation practice.
1.
BODY The Movements and Postures of the Body
Two, feelings, bodily and mental sensations of pain, happiness, calm, etc.
Three, mind, thoughts that arise in the mind of the past or future, good or bad.
Four, Dhammas, a group of mental and physical phenomena that are of specific interest to the meditator, including the mental states that cloud one's awareness, the six senses by which one experiences reality, and many others.
These four, the body, the feelings, the thoughts, and the Dhammas, are the four foundations of the meditation practice.
They are what we use to create clear awareness of the present moment.
First, in regards to the body, we try to note every physical experience as it happens.
When we stretch our arm, for example, we say silently in the mind, stretching.
When we flex it, flexing.
When we sit still, we say to ourselves, sitting.
When we walk, we say to ourselves, walking.
Whatever position the body is in, we simply recognize that posture for what it is, and whatever movement we make, we simply recognize its essential nature as well, using the mantra to remind ourselves of the state of the body as it is.
In this way, we use our own bodies to create a clear awareness of reality.
Next are the feelings that exist in the body and the mind.
When we feel pain, we say to ourselves, pain.
In this case, we can actually repeat it again and again to ourselves as pain, pain, pain, pain.
so that, instead of allowing anger or aversion to arise, we see it merely as a sensation.
We learn to see that the pain and our ordinary disliking of it are two different things, that there is really nothing intrinsically bad about the pain itself, nor is it intrinsically ours since we can't change or control it.
When we feel happy, we acknowledge it in the same way, reminding ourselves of the true nature of the experience as happy, happy, happy.
It is not that we are trying to push away the pleasurable sensation.
We are simply ensuring that we do not attach to it either, and therefore do not create states of addiction, attachment, or craving for the sensation.
As with pain, we come to see that the happiness and our liking of it are two different things, and there is nothing intrinsically good about the happiness.
We see that clinging to the happiness does not make it last longer, but leads rather to dissatisfaction and suffering when it is gone.
Likewise, when we feel calm, we say to ourselves, calm, calm, calm.
clearly seeing and avoiding attachment to peaceful feelings when they arise.
In this way, we begin to see that the less attachment we have towards peaceful feelings, the more peaceful we actually become.
The third foundation is our thoughts.
When we remember events in the past, whether they bring pleasure or suffering, we say to ourselves, thinking, thinking, thinking.
Instead of giving rise to attachment or aversion, we simply know them for what they are, thoughts.
When we plan or speculate about the future, we likewise simply come to be aware of the fact that we are thinking, instead of liking or disliking the content of the thoughts, and thus avoid the fear, worry, or stress that they might bring.
The fourth foundation, the Dhammas, contain many groupings of mental and physical phenomena.
Some of them could be included in the first three foundations, but they are better discussed in their respective groups for ease of acknowledgement.
The first group of Dhammas is the five hindrances to mental clarity.
These are the states that obstruct one's practice.
desire, aversion, laziness, distraction, and doubt.
They are not only hindrances to attaining clarity of mind, they are also the cause for all suffering and stress in our lives.
it is in our best interest to work intently to understand and discard them from our minds, as this is, after all, the true purpose of meditation.
So when we feel desire, when we want something we don't have, or are attached to something we do, we simply acknowledge the wanting or the liking for what it is, rather than erroneously translating desire into need.
We remind ourselves of the emotion for what it is thus, wanting, wanting, liking, liking.
We come to see that desire and attachment are stressful and causes for future disappointment when we cannot obtain the things we want or lose the things we like.
When we feel angry, upset by mental or physical experiences that have arisen,
or disappointed by those that have not, we recognize this as angry, angry, or disliking, disliking.
When we are sad, frustrated, bored, scared, depressed, etc.,
We likewise recognize each emotion for what it is and see clearly how we are causing suffering and stress for ourselves by encouraging these negative emotional states.
Once we see the negative results of anger, we will naturally incline away from it in the future.
When we feel lazy, we say to ourselves, lazy, lazy, or tired, tired.
And we will find that we are able to regain our natural energy in this way.
When we are distracted, worried, or stressed, we can say, distracted, distracted, worried, worried, or stressed, stressed.
And we will find that we are more focused.
When we feel doubt or are confused about what to do, we can say to ourselves, doubting, doubting, or confused, confused, and likewise we will find that we are more sure of ourselves as a result.
The clear awareness of these four foundations constitutes the basic technique of meditation practice as explained in the following chapters.
It is therefore important to understand this theoretical framework before beginning to undertake the practice of meditation.
Understanding and appreciating the importance of creating a clear awareness about the objects of our experience as a replacement to our judgmental thoughts is the first step in learning how to meditate.