Vinaire's Blog

The original word for becoming enlightened is Bodhi, which means “awakened”. The words the Buddha uttered involuntarily at the moment of enlightenment were: 

“Wonder of wonders! Intrinsically all living beings are Buddhas, endowed with wisdom and virtue, but because men’s minds have become inverted through delusive thinking, they fail to perceive this.”

A human being, whether clever or stupid, male or female, ugly or beautiful, is capable of being awakened to the fact that he is naturally endowed with wisdom and virtue. There is no perfection other than this state of being awakened.

At the moment of enlightenment, the person is suddenly out of the trap of his deluded thinking that is preventing him from perceiving his true nature.

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The Goal of Meditation

The goal of meditation is to become enlightened. When you start practicing meditation, it immediately reduces the turbulence in your mind so you can become more aware. With increased awareness you can start spotting your deluded thinking and make it disappear.

At first you may be in doubt about your true nature. But as you make progress through meditation there comes a point when you suddenly awake to your true nature. You now have a certainty that harbors no doubt. It is a unique moment that fills you completely with joy and happiness.

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The Enlightened Individual

An enlightened individual is not absolutely free of flaws, but he is cleared of his deluded thinking. He has a mind in which perceptions continually divide into fine discriminative elements and get freely associated and assimilated into an orderly mental matrix providing rational solutions.

The cleared individual does not avoid, resist, suppress or deny any thoughts, emotions, and sensations when thinking; and so, he perceives things objectively with clarity. He is able to examine and overcome all prejudices, biases and fixations. He is keenly perceptive and knowledgeable and continues to explore new areas of knowledge.

The cleared individual is universal in his outlook. He rises above any idea of self or individuality. He is not subjective, self-centric, or human-centric. There are no conflicts within him. He would not hesitate to sacrifice himself if need be.

The cleared individual can look from the viewpoint of others as well as objectively from the viewpoint of all life and the environment. He continues to expand his understanding of the physical and spiritual aspects of the universe without resorting to superstitions.

The cleared individual is the first to realize his error and correct himself. Whenever he senses resistance or observes some oddity, he follows it up until it is cleared. If he suffers a painful experience, heavy loss, or confusion he is able to sort it out quietly in his mind.

The cleared individual is in good health and has no psychosomatic illnesses. He is purposeful in his demeanor, and graceful in his movements. He is strong and calm even in adversity. In no way is he trying to win or dominate, but he is passionately engaged in bringing order to his environment.

Above all, he is compassionate.

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Twenty-six hundred years ago Buddha launched a grass-root movement of spiritual awakening, which was so successful that it civilized three-quarters of the world. That ancient movement was based on the concept of meditation. Wikipedia states:

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Scholars have found meditation difficult to define, as practices vary both between traditions and within them.

When you look up meditation in a dictionary, it provides synonyms, such as, concentration, contemplation and reflection. Meditation seems to have become difficult to practice today because most people find it difficult to define.

We need to define meditation more precisely using a scientific approach.

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The Problem of Meditation

In meditation, a person is using concentration, contemplation and reflection to settle the mind; but none of these actions can be accomplished until the mind is already in a settled state. This is a catch-22. Therefore, one must understand why the mind is in turmoil in the first place.

We all have heard the analogy that the muddy water in a bucket will remain muddy if it keeps on getting stirred. One must stop stirring the water to give mud a chance to settle down at the bottom. The same approach is needed to calm an agitated mind.

The mind is agitated because it is continually being interfered with.

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The First Step

One must stop interfering with the mind to let it settle down into a quiet state. But for most people this is easily said than done. As soon as a person sits down to meditate, he is hit with the mental chatter that soon makes him tired and sleepy. He then spends his meditation time trying not to fall asleep.

But, to not interfere with the mind also means to not interfere with the mind falling asleep. This is an extreme example, but it is given here to drive home the point that the principle of non-interference applies to all activities of the mind, including sleep.

So, if the mind is falling asleep don’t interfere with it. It would eventually wake up. Then you can continue with meditation without having to fight with the sleep. Just make sure that the body does not slump when it is asleep (see the chapter Posture in Meditation).

The first step in meditation is to stop interfering with the mind, so it has a chance to settle down naturally.

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This walking meditation extroverts the mind while allowing senses to become clear and sharp. You may practice this meditation when you are having trouble meditating in a sitting position. Make sure you walk in a pleasant and safe place.

Meditation Exercise:

Walking Meditation on Environment

Purpose:

To extrovert the mind while improving the perception of the environment.

Pre-requisites:

Study Walking Meditation

Instructions:

Find a safe and pleasant environment, such as, a farm, park or a garden where you may spend half an hour. Start walking leisurely.  Become aware of your natural breathing. Start noticing the environment around you. Notice the size, shape and color of the things and their overall visual pattern. Look as far as you can see.

Next focus on the perception of touch. Touch the bench, the swing, the bark of the trees, the leaves of the plants, the flowers, and other surfaces. Feel the different textures, the hot and cold temperatures, and the bulkiness of objects. Experience as much as you can.

Then start putting your attention on the perception of hearing. Notice the quality, tone and loudness of sounds. Do this until your perception of hearing start to become clearer.

All this while, you use your breathing as the stabilizing factor. In other words, whenever your attention strays you bring it back to your breathing and then start noticing the environment again through the perceptions of sight, touch and hearing.

Continue this exercise for at least 20 minute. At the end of your walk you may go to a coffee or tea place. There you observe the perceptions of taste and smell in addition to the perceptions above.

You may repeat this exercise as often as you wish.

End of Exercise:

When attention is extroverted and the perceptions have become sharper, this exercise may be ended.

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