Dhyana factors and Hindrances

In the final week of the course we explored how each dhyana factor acted as an antidote to one of the 5 hindrances that characterize distracted consciousness (a.k.a. unmindfulness):

• Consciously cultivating or being open to the dhyana factor of one pointedness is an antidote to desire for sense experience.
• Enjoyment (piti) is an antidote to ill will.
• Aiming attention (vitakka) is an antidote to sloth and torport
• Peace (sukha) is an antidote to restlessness and anxiety
• Sustaining attention (vicara) is an antidote to doubt and indecision.

When you meditate if you notice a particular hindrance is weakening your mindfulness you can simply notice and re-aim your attention to the breath or other object of meditation. That might be enough and the first adjustment to try.

If the hindrance persists one thing to try is to consciously cultivate or encourage the appropriate dhyana factor to act as an antidote to the hindrance.

There are other ways to work with hindrances. This is one approach for your mediation toolkit.

here is the link from week 4 of the strength training course.

http://www.archive.org/details/StrengthTrainingWeek4

here is the audio from week three of the strength training series
led meditation, talk on the dhyana factors focusing on piti sukha and integration


http://www.archive.org/details/StrengthTrainingWeek3

Getting back on the cushion after the holidays

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. Maybe there were a few moments when you felt fully present, engaged, alive, mindful?

If you are like many people, the holidays may have been a time when your routines were disrupted a bit and for some that might have meant that you didn't find the conditions to meditate. No worries. You can always pick up your practices again including strengthening your mindfulness.

Times when you lose routine or shift gears are good times to be vigilant and a little more disciplined about getting back on the cushion rather than giving up entirely.

A 10 minute morning sit can warm you up again to meditating and is do-able.

Or drop-in to the morning meditations Monday to Friday that start at 7:30am (arrive 5 min. early)

Wednesday night is always a good opportunity to pick it up again with the group meditation at sangha night.

Reflection/Meditation Journalling Questions

1. In my meditation, how did I experience any of the dhyana factors? (connecting with object of attention, sustaining attention, stability/equanimity, enjoyment, peace)
2. Is my general tendency to over-do or under-do? How does this show up in the kind of effort I make in meditation?
3. How can I apply intentional, appropriate effort in my meditation?

• Relaxation without dullness
• Effort without tension

Week 2 exercise to strengthen vicara/sustained attention

Working more with sustained attention with an exercise on the duration of the breath

Exercise (20 min.)

1. Using counting as an expedient: (10 min.)

a. Count at a consistent pace

b. Notice how long a breath is by the number you get to (1, 2, 3, …)

c. Notice how the breaths change (e.g., from a breath of a duration of three counts to a breath of duration of five counts)

2. Sensing the duration without counting (10 min.)

As in the 4th stage of the mindfulness of breathing, place and keep attention where breath first enters the body and intuitively sense the relative duration of each breath, without counting, using this one point as a reference point for the beginning, middle and end of each breath

➢ Does the breath feel long or short?

➢ What the duration of this breath feel like relative to the previous breaths?

Buddha’s instructions from the first two contemplations of the Anapansati Sutta

1. While breathing in long, one knows: "I breathe in long." While breathing out long, one knows, 'I breathe out long."

2. While breathing in short, one knows: "I breathe in short." While breathing out short, one knows, 'I breathe out short."

Here is the recording from week 2 of the strength training course:
http://www.archive.org/details/MindfulnessStrengthTrainingWeek2

Here is the link to the led meditation and the talk from week one of the mindfulness training course:
http://www.archive.org/details/MindfulnessTrainingWeek1

KEY INTRODUCTORY CONCEPTS Presented by Viveka – Week 1

Mindfulness practice is about intentionally moving from more unmindfulness to greater mindfulness. Mindfulness develops the powers of our mind.

• § Mindfulness is developed through repetitive mindfulness training in formal meditation and by simple practices that remind us to wake up in daily life (for example, a ritual to stop for a moment to take in each meal with our full senses and appreciation for its origins before digging in).
• § Mindfulness meditation is a form of training to develop the mind (like weight lifting regimens build the strength of muscles through repetition).
• § Like weight training, we don’t need to be counting our breaths every minute of our life or to be singularly focused on our breathing every minute of our life. By setting aside training time to meditate regularly, we gradually experience an overall stronger mind (or stronger muscles) generally. When we slack off the training, there can be atrophy in our powers of mindfulness (like how we lose muscle definition).

When we talk about mind we mean our capacity for consciousness and awareness. This includes more than just the rational, thinking mind. It also includes the heart and emotional intelligence and intuition. In Buddhism the mind is associated with the heart center (rather than the head).

Unmindfulness (our ordinary/typical consciousness) is characterized by the presence of hindrances in the mind that limit the powers of the mind. These are not permanent characteristics of mind. They take advantage of unmindfulness to assert themselves.

1) Desire for sense experience and its opposite 2) Ill will

3) Sloth and torpor and its opposite 4) Restlessness and anxiety

5) Doubt and indecision

The meditator is encouraged to bring an intention and tools move along the spectrum from relative unmindfulness to greater mindfulness in each meditation. This movement in a shift in the quality of the mind. In early Buddhist meditation language, this movement is described as moving from ordinary unmindfulness to:

• § Access concentration – characterized by no gross hindrances (think of the list of 5 above) distracting us. They may still arise momentarily but we aren’t lured out of mindfulness into distractedness by them. We let them come and go and use the meditation form to help us stay present and mindful.
• § And more deeply, to Dhyana (Sanskrit) or Jhana (Pali) – a more strongly established mindfulness.

The dhyanic mind is described in many ways:

• § A basic happy, healthy mind. Rewarding in itself.
• § Absorbed (rather than diffuse and scattered). Able to concentrate and be unified with a chosen object of focus.
• § Clear and bright. Sharp.
• § Integrated (rather than conflicted, internal tension).
• § Tranquil, restful (rest from the constant chasing or resistant mind, from the affliction of the hindrances).
• § Stable. Fully aware but unafflicted and not knocked off center or distracted by passing thoughts, emotions, images, memories, etc.
• § Creative, flexible, non-reactive. Open rather than narrow/rigid.
• § Peaceful, inner ease.

In Buddhism, the cultivation of mindfulness for the purposes of creating a basically healthy, happy mind is called samatha or tranquility. Samatha is any kind of meditation that develops dhyana. Samatha is the basis for the development of vipassana or wisdom or insight. Increasing the power of the mind through regular mindfulness practice allows us to see more clearly into the reality of what is happening inside and outside. Mindfulness of breathing and the Cultivation of Loving Kindness (metta) meditations are both samatha and vipassana meditations. They develop both deeper mindfulness and give rise to insight.

Dhyana arises out of conditions that we develop. It is built upon conditions.

We can deepen mindfulness and cultivate dhyana through 5 mental factors that conduce to dhyana. We can get to know them, strengthen them, remember them and engage them. These five are:

1. Vitakka – initial thought, aiming the mind to connect with an object of focus, vivid, energizing/rallying attention. Directed attention. Counteracts the hindrance of sloth/torpor.

2. Vicara – sustained attention, remaining with and attending to the object of attention. Getting more intimate with and getting to know the object of attention. Investigation, interest. Counteracts the hindrance of doubt/indecision (doesn’t leave spaces of non-attentiveness in which doubt and indecision can creep in).

3. Ekaggata – one-pointedness of attention, unwavering focus, stability. Serves to keep the mind centered on the object of focus and present awareness and protected from distractedness pushing/pulling and generally buffeting the mind.

4. Piti – A physical sense of lightness. Energy moving freely in the body from subtler sensations to rapture, pleasurable bodily sensation, tensions unblocking. Joyful, ebullient quality.

5. Sukha – peace, bliss, contentment, ease.

This week we are focusing on the first two dhyana factors. In traditional metaphors vitakka is likened to the initial sound of a striker making contact with a gong. Vicara is like the lingering ringing of the gong. Or, if you were cleaning a tarnished silver pot vitakka would be like firmly grasping the pot in your hands and vicara would be rubbing it until the tarnish comes off.

Homework Exercise for Initial and Sustained Attention

Homework Exercise

Mindfulness of Breathing to develop the first two dhyana factors - initial attention (vitakka) and sustained attention (vicara)

In the mindfulness of breathing use the 4 stage meditation format:

1. Count each breath after each exhale. Start with the number 1, then next exhale 2 and so on. If you get to 10, start with 1 again. If you get lost, just start at 1 again. The counting is just enough energy to rouse vitakka or to aim the mind back at the breath. Just one breath at a time use vicara to stay with the whole of the next inhale and exhale. Then reconnect with the breath with the next count and vitakka. And use vicara to remain attentive to the duration of one more breath. Strengthen mindfulness with this repetition

2. In the second stage, count similarly but at the beginning of each inhale

3. In the third stage, drop the counting. Adjust your mindfulness to stay as continuously with the breath as it changes from moment to moment as you can. Whenever you get distracted and notice, then simply ask, “Where in the body do I sense the breath now?” and aim the attention back to the breath (vitakka) and sustain that attention as long as you can (vicara)

4. In the fourth stage, center your awareness at the point where the breath first enters the body. Leave the awareness there and stay attentive to the changing sensations of breath as continuously through each inhale-exhale as you can. If you get lost, aim the mind back to this spot where the breath first enters the body and re-establish your sustained attention of the breath at this point. There may be moments of silence, not much action and practice remaining attentive even then. This will develop ekaggata or one-pointedness alongside the vitakka and vicara dhyana factors.

Mindfulness

is developed through consistent training and repetition. We will work through exercises to strengthen five factors that give rise to happy, clear, concentrated, peaceful and stable states traditionally called “dhyana” or “jhana.” The 5 dhyana factors feature prominently in traditional Buddhist mindfulness meditation instruction and course teachings will draw from traditional texts (suttas). The five factors are:

1. Directing the mind to an object of attention
2. Staying connected with that object over time
3. Enjoyment
4. Contentment
5. One-pointedness / equanimity