Focus Comes First
September 28, 2015 Leigh Brasington tricycle
A practice to develop the steady mind
necessary for attaining wisdom
Perhaps no aspect of the Buddha's teaching
has been more misunderstood and neglected than right concentration.
Yet right concentration is an integral part of the Buddha's path to
awakening. It is, for instance, one of the qualities cultivated on
the eightfold path.
In general, Buddhist teachings can be
divided into three parts: sila, samadhi, and
prajna: ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. Or to
put it into the vernacular: clean up your act, concentrate your
mind, and use your concentrated mind to investigate
reality.
The Buddha thus makes it clear that a
concentrated mind is necessary for the proper examination of
reality. The jhanas are the method he taught over and over
again for developing such a mind.
The word jhana literally means
"meditation.'' In the sutras, there are four jhanas and four
immaterial states. In modern times these eight states are simply
called the eight jhanas. Thus the jhanas are eight altered states
of consciousness, brought on via concentration and each yielding
more concentration than the previous. Upon emerging from the
jhanas—preferably the fourth or higher—you begin doing an insight
practice with your jhanically concentrated, indistractable mind.
This is the heart of the method the Buddha discovered. It reminds
us that these states are not an end in and of themselves—they are
simply a very useful way of preparing your mind, so you can more
effectively examine reality and discover the deeper truths that
lead to liberation.
The method for entering the jhanas begins
with generating access concentration. The phrase access
concentration means concentration strong enough to provide
access to the jhanas. It is distinguished from momentary
concentration—which is less concentrated—and from fixed or
one-pointed concentration, which is the stronger concentration
associated with the jhanas.
You begin by sitting in a comfortable,
upright position. It needs to be comfortable, because if there is
too much pain, the unwholesome mental state of aversion will
naturally develop. You may be able to sit in a way that looks
really good, but if your knees are killing you, you will be in pain
and you will not experience any jhanas. So you need to find some
way to sit that is comfortable. But you also need to be upright and
alert, because that tends to get your energy flowing in a way that
keeps you awake. On the other hand, if you are too comfortable, you
might be overcome by sloth and torpor, which is also an unwholesome
mental state that of course is totally useless for entering the
jhanas.
So the first prerequisite for entering the
jhanas is to put your body in a position that you can hold for the
length of the meditation period. If you have back problems or some
other obstacle that prevents you from sitting upright, then you
need to find some other alert position you can maintain
comfortably.
Now, this is not to say you cannot move. It
may be that you have taken a position and you discover something:
“My knee is killing me; I have to move because there is too much
aversion.” If you have to move, you have to move. Just be mindful
of the moving. The intention to move will be there before the
movement. Notice that intention; then move very mindfully, and then
resettle yourself into the new position; finally notice the mind
working to get back to that place of calm it had before you
moved.
This process encourages you to find a
position you can keep, because you'll notice the amount of
disturbance that even a slight movement generates. And in order to
become concentrated enough to have the jhanas manifest, you need a
very calm mind.
Generating access concentration can be done
in a number of ways. A common means for doing so is through
following the breath, a practice known as anapanasati. The
first word of this Pali compound, anapana, means
"in-breath and out-breath," while the word sati means
"mindfulness." The practice is therefore "mindfulness of
breathing." When practicing anapanasati, you put your attention on
the physical sensations associated with breathing. It is extremely
important to not control the breath in any way—just pay attention
to the breath as it naturally occurs. If you control the breath, it
does make it easier to focus. But it makes it too easy, so you
won't generate sufficient concentration to enter the
jhanas.
It is probably better if you can observe
the physical sensations at the nostrils or on the area between the
nose and the upper lip, rather than at the abdomen or elsewhere. It
is better because it is more difficult to do; therefore, you have
to concentrate more. Since you are trying to generate access
concentration, you take something that is doable, though not
terribly easy to do, and then you do it.
When noticing the natural, uncontrolled
breath at the nose, you have to pay attention very carefully. In
doing so you will notice the tactile sensations, and then your mind
will wander off. Then you'll bring it back, and it will wander off;
then you'll bring it back, and it will wander off. Eventually,
though maybe not the next time you sit in meditation, maybe not
even tomorrow or next week or next month, you'll find that the mind
locks onto the breath. Any thoughts you have are relegated to the
background. The thoughts might be something like, "Wow, I'm really
with the breath now," as opposed to, "When I get to Hawaii, the
first thing I'm going to do is…"
Whatever method you use to generate access
concentration, the sign that you've gotten to access concentration
is that you are fully present with the object of meditation. So if
you are doing metta (lovingkindness meditation), you're
just fully there with the feeling of metta; you're not getting
distracted. If you're doing the body-sweeping practice, you're
fully there with the sensations in the body as you sweep your
attention over the body. You're not thinking extraneous thoughts;
you're not planning; you're not worrying; you're not angry; you're
not wanting something. You are just fully there with whatever your
object is.
As you start to become concentrated, you
might notice various lights and colors even though your eyes are
closed. These are signs that you are starting to get concentrated.
There is generally nothing useful that can be done—just ignore
them. When you actually do get quite concentrated, the random blobs
and laser shows will disappear. They might be replaced by a
diffused white light, which is a sign of good concentration. It
always appears for some people, it never appears for others, and
many people find it sometimes appears and sometimes does not
appear. But again, there's nothing you need to do with that sign
either—it's just a sign. Remain focused on your meditation
object.
Not everyone who undertakes jhana practice
becomes proficient in this skill, but the only way to find out if
it is something that works for you is to try learning it. It is
indeed learnable by serious lay practitioners as well as by modern
monks and nuns.
May your journey on the spiritual path be of great
fruit and great benefit to all beings.
If you'd like to learn more about concentration practice,
read Tricycle's interview with
Brasington as well as other
articles that appeared in our Winter 2004 special section
on the jhanas.