This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Samadhi Review Day 2 Guided Meditation & Dharmette. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by Unknown at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.
Hello everyone and welcome to this broadcast on YouTube from IMC, 7 a.m. in the morning. This week, I’m away teaching an eco-chaplaincy retreat and so could not be here. The other teachers who substitute for me are also not available, so we’re doing a replay, a rerun of the third week in the Samadhi1 series that is a precursor for this series we’re doing now on insight. It might be nice to go back to near the beginning of Samadhi, at the basics of practice, practicing with breathing as a reminder that we always want to come back to the beginning and get established and not be in a hurry to have insight.
So I hope you enjoy a repeat of this week. For those of you who heard it before, and for those of you who are new to this section on insight, it might be nice also to come back to something more foundational, beginning to create a better context for these teachings on insight. I’ll be back on July 28th, so next week. And I hope you enjoy these days returning to the beginning of Samadhi. Thank you.
Hello from Redwood City. It’s clearly getting lighter earlier now. It’s starting to get light outside the windows here. In Buddhism, it’s said that the dawn is the harbinger of wisdom because with light, we can see clearly.
Yesterday I said Samadhi is simplicity. Today I’d like to offer a different aspect of Samadhi: that Samadhi is settleness. To become settled, a kind of settleness that creates a foundation to hold all things. For example, a tripod, when it’s well-placed with its three legs, can hold whatever telescope is going to be on it. You can’t really do that if the legs are not spread apart but are all bunched together, so it’s basically one leg. Then it’s going to wobble and it’s not going to stay up by itself. Maybe you have to hold it, but even your hand is not so steady to hold it still. So, a steadiness to create a steady foundation that can hold all of who you are, that allows us to turn on the light to include everything. Because as I keep saying, Samadhi is a unification of all things in a certain way.
So, a settleness. And so to use the different elements of meditation for the purposes of feeling settled, becoming settled. It’s closely related to being relaxed, to settle and be relaxed. It’s related to being fully invested, fully engaged, fully interested in the here and now, this process here. And to engage in that process of being here in a settled way, in a relaxed way, in an enjoyable way. And of course, the mind will wander off. Consider that to be part of the process. It wanders off, and then the task is to begin again. It’s almost like a massage. The mind has to be massaged enough to settle, and wandering off and then coming back is a gentle kind of relaxing massaging of the mind, so it eventually settles to be here.
So, to assume a meditation posture that allows you to feel somewhat grounded into the surface that holds your weight, whatever surface it is. If you’re standing, the soles of your feet. If you’re sitting on a cushion or chair or couch, it’s the seat of the chair, the seat of your cushion against your bottom. If you’re lying down, it may be in a bed or on the floor. It’s the full extent of your back, perhaps, in contact with the floor, the bed. And allow that to be a kind of grounding for your weight, as if this surface receives your weight to provide a grounding, a settling.
Closing your eyes and taking some long, slow, deep breaths. With the exhale, relaxing the body, softening the body. And as you do so, settle into this grounding, a settling into this place where you’re meditating.
And then letting your breathing return to normal. And for now, can you find a settling point, a grounding point, maybe deep in your body? It might be the lowest point in your body or the most grounding place in your body for the end of the out-breath. If you follow your exhale, the physical experience of the body releasing, contracting, settling, the diaphragm lifting as you exhale. Maybe the belly gently pulling in as you exhale. At the end of the exhale, the last place of clear sensations in the body from where the movements of the inhale begin, maybe spreading outwards as the torso expands.
For some people, there might be the image of a balloon that expands as it fills with air. So the torso expands as we breathe in, expanding in all directions. And as the balloon deflates, as the air leaves and contracts, pulls in, so with the exhale, the body settles back in, back to the settling point. And maybe even the image for people who visualize, the balloon expanding and contracting will keep you simply with the experience of breathing.
And as you breathe in, you might gently say the word “one.” But see if you can say it in a way that doesn’t activate the mind or agitate the mind, but is part of quieting and settling the mind into the breathing. Especially when you say “two” as you exhale. A long pronunciation of “two.” The “two” as an invitation to now settle the mind down towards the settling point. Maybe imagining or feeling or allowing these numbers, one, two, to not arise in the mind so much, in the brain, but in the wider mind, as if it’s arising in the belly itself, rising from the settling point without any tension or pressure. The numbers just float up as an invitation to feel the breath, to be with it.
Usually, there’s a little stronger feeling experience of the body as we breathe in. Allow that strength to support being attentive. And letting there be a settling as you exhale. The body can settle. And sometimes the number two, saying “two” with the exhale, can be a way of staying connected and settling the mind as well.
Seeing as you exhale, if you can ride the whole exhale. Stay in touch from the beginning and the end in a way that the whole exhale settles, quiets the mind, the awareness, into the body.
And as we come to the end of this sitting, maybe if it’s possible, to settle the heart. Maybe as you exhale, to allow the heart center to soften, to relax, and to settle, almost as if it’s gently being invited by gravity to come to rest in itself. With every exhale, settling the heart. Settling the heart so that it can be supported by the deeper settling place within, the place where breathing comes to a settled point, or the place where the body feels most settled. Let that hold, receive the settling heart.
And what if it is this settled heart that can love most peacefully? A settled heart can have goodwill, kindness, can have care and respect for others. A settled heart doesn’t sacrifice itself for anger or resentments, frustrations, fears. Settling the heart so we can gaze upon this world, this suffering world, with an attitude of care, of kindness. An attitude that we would like to spread kindness, support, so everyone’s heart can settle. Everyone’s heart can settle, so the best quality of heart can grow in all people.
May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.
And may we stay close to this aspiration, these aspirations, by staying close to a settled heart, a settled body, a settled mind.
So hello and welcome to this series on Samadhi, and slowly moving into it. Today I want to mention that sometimes I think of Samadhi as settling, as a settleness. Samadhi is settleness. And when we sit down to meditate, it’s often good to start with the idea of discovery, to discover how we are. How are we right now? And one of the questions you can ask is, given how I am, what is unsettled that maybe it would be good to settle?
Now, if what’s unsettled is something, ideas about things in the world, something outside of ourselves, we maybe won’t settle those things, the problems we have. But we could settle what can be settled, which is the mind’s agitation, the heart’s activation around things that feel unsettled. This is where meditation comes in to highlight for us how, when we come back to notice where we’re unsettled inside, then we can ask, “Now, how do we settle this?”
There are many answers, different for different things. One of them, for when it’s hard to stay focused on meditation and the mind wanders off a lot, one thing to become settled about is that that’s happening, and that we can fold the distracted mind into the meditation in this way: to think of it that what we can do is offer a massage to the mind. That there’s a natural process, a cycle of wandering off and returning, wandering off and beginning again. And that cycle provides a massage. We don’t know what’s being softened and needed and relaxed, but to appreciate that there’s a cycle, that our job is the coming back. Our job is to wake up again, is to be connected here again. And we know we’re going to wander off, but be relaxed and settled. This is a process. So that as soon as we notice we’ve wandered off, we’re relaxed and at ease and know, “Oh, good, come back, be here. Show up here again.”
And if we’re counting the breath, the in-breath and the out-breath, you’re less likely to wander off so much because you have a reference point, or you’re more likely to notice if you wander off. One of the values of counting is to notice when this massage is operating so you can be part of it more intimately, more closely. So you count one for the inhale, and if you’re counting two for the exhale and you don’t say two, you might be really drifting off. If you’re able to say two for the exhale, you might then see that you’re not really there. It’s become mechanical, it’s become automatic because now you’re drifting off in thought, and that gives you the clue that you’re drifting sooner than you would normally. Or if you don’t catch it at all during the exhale, you might catch it on the inhale. “Oh, I’ve drifted off in thought.” And then saying “one” is the settling word. “One,” “two,” or “two” is a settling word.
What I mean by that is you want to be able to, if you do the counting of the breath, to do it with a tone of voice, a loudness, an energy in the mind of saying the word or imagining you’re saying the word in such a way that it just feels settling to say it. Like if someone comes to you who’s really upset, maybe hurt, maybe angry, you would maybe change your voice to be available clearly, and you’re the settling force. “It’s okay. I’m here with you. It’s okay now.” And so something can kind of begin to relax and settle.
At different times, as we discover what’s going on for us—and in some ways, meditation is a continual process of discovery—we discover what can be relaxed, what can be settled. Sometimes what’s being settled is the body, and sometimes what’s being settled is the musculature and activity of breathing itself. Maybe in the exhale, we’re really settling and relaxing those muscles that get engaged when we breathe in, so that when we breathe in, there are maybe less extra muscles engaged in that process. There’s an easeful process of breathing in and breathing out.
Maybe what could be settled would be the mind. And sometimes, counting the breath, we’re there with the breathing, but since the words are a little bit of a mental activity, it is to say the words so that there’s a settling and expanding of the mind, that the mind opens up to be wider, bigger. The shape of the mind is arbitrary, but if we’re caught up in thoughts, caught up in preoccupations, the mind gets tight and sometimes shriveled, sometimes constricted. But to say these words, “one,” so the mind expands. “Two,” so the mind expands. And then after a while, go back to just the breathing, but to stay close to that rhythm of breathing through it all. The rhythm of breathing is the ultimate massage, the ultimate reference point for this process of settling, connecting, receiving the experience of the moment. Receiving the inhale, relaxing with the exhale, settling.
One of the interesting things about counting the breath, if you’re doing it—and I recommend that you try it for a while this week—is that the amount of energy or effort or strength of that inner voice that does the counting, you have to pay attention that as you get more settled and relaxed in meditation, you have to turn the dial in the mind so you’re saying “one,” “two,” the count quieter. If you say it too quiet before you’re ready, the mind can drift off too quickly. So you have to kind of adjust the volume in such a way that it keeps you present but helps you to settle without agitating you. But as you settle, you might have to turn the dial down to quiet it even more.
So I want to repeat a little bit some of the choices you have for how to count. And I apologize if offering you too many options makes it confusing, but different people find different things are useful, and I find at different times different ways of counting are good. Sometimes just counting “one” with either the exhale or the inhale is enough. I find it very nice sometimes to just count “one” for the inhale and “two” for the exhale. Sometimes it’s nice because it engages a little bit more to count “one” for the inhale, “two” for the exhale, “three” for the next inhale, and then be quiet for the next exhale that would normally get the count “four.” And sometimes I can’t help myself but to somehow in the back of the mind say the number four, but the idea is to not do it, so there’s space for some real deeper connection, some space to allow some deeper relaxation and opening. And I find it kind of delightful if in the back of my mind I still want to do the number four, and I kind of appreciate how effortlessly it just arises by itself. And not counting on the four is a protection from the counting getting automatic. It’s kind of refreshing to start again at one.
So that’s very, very simple. Another way of doing it is to count to 10. So five inhales and five exhales, you get to 10, and then you start over. Another way is to only count the exhales. Or to count the same count for the inhale and the exhale: “one, one,” “two, two.” So, probably I shouldn’t be giving you so many options, but if one of them sparks your interest, keeps you engaged, you’ll learn a lot about yourself by counting. You’ll learn a lot about the forces of distraction. You’ll learn a lot about how you’re practicing because sometimes the inner voice that does the counting provides the evidence that we’re straining or we’re hesitating or we’re seeing it as work. The whole meditation is work, and it’s kind of like a burden. And so we can see a little bit through that voice unnecessary attitudes, and then see if through the voice you can change the attitude, so it’s simpler, easier, cleaner how you’re being here with the experience.
So, count the breath, and then tomorrow I’ll give you a little bit more discussion about how this counting really supports this process of Samadhi in a deeper, deeper way. So, may you continue with this for a while. And again, as I said yesterday, I really encourage you to, if you have the time and the inclination, to add a second meditation in the day so that you can practice this more on your own. So you bring that with you for the next day, a little bit more of a foundation or a little bit more of a momentum to go along with what we’re going to do here over time. So thank you.
Samadhi: A Pali word that refers to a state of meditative concentration or absorption. It is a key component of the Buddhist path, leading to tranquility and insight. ↩