Meditation - Part 1: Preparation and The Six preliminaries

 THIS SERIES OF BLOGS EXPLORES THE PREREQUISITE ACTIVITIES TO A MEDITATION SESSION.

Meditation is more than just a new popular trend sweeping the globe. It is a means by which we can come to understand the workings of our own mind as well as learn to control it. Due to ignorance, which is an active mis-knowing of the way things really are, we experience suffering and dissatisfaction. There are three types of suffering according to Buddhism: the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and all-pervasive suffering. The first suffering refers to the physical and emotional pains we all experience just from having a body and mind. The second kind of suffering refers to the pain and discomfort that emerges due to the revealed impermanence of whatever it is to which we have been attached. And the final suffering refers to the ongoing subtle causes that we create through our body, speech, and mind that trap us in an incessant circle of suffering called Samsara – life, death, and rebirth.

So, what is meditation? Well, that answer depends on the type of mental skill you are sharpening. For beginners, there are three types of meditation with which one should become, literally, familiar: review/memorization, analytical, and fixed. In Sanskrit, these are known as bhavana, which means “familiarization.” First, the practitioner receives an instruction or a text from their spiritual teacher and commits it to memory. Then, they analyze it and think about the teaching deeply, until they themselves arrive at a conclusion that redefines their understanding of the topic. Finally, they hold that conclusion in their mind as to re-calibrate their consciousness with the new knowledge.

Other types of meditation include concentration (dhyana), calm-abiding (shamatha), special insight (vipashyana), and deep absorption (samadhi). As this blog is introductory, we will investigate these in a future post.

There are five parts to your meditation practice, if you’re following the tried and true methods employed by the Tibetan and the Indian Nalanda masters. Just like a good scientific hypothesis is to be tested by accurately recreating the steps of the experiment, it has been my experience that devotedly following these methods make a far bigger impact in the long run than omitting parts and jumping right in to sitting on the cushion. The five parts we’ll explore in five separate posts are:

1.) Preparations and The Six preliminaries

2.) Six conditions of the surrounding environment.

3.) Posture - Eight-Point Posture of Vairochana

4.) Mental process - Three steps:

1) five problems

2) eight corrections

3) nine mental stages

5.) Object of Meditation

It’s important to remember that meditation is a tool with which we train and tame the mind. There are temporary benefits that come from meditating, but it’s important to keep in mind that these are not the end themselves. Meditation itself is neither virtuous nor non-virtuous unless the object of meditation is a holy object, like an image of the Buddha. Remember that “consciousness is like a mirror; it simply reflects that which is before it.”

Preparing for the actual meditation session is necessary to set the mind in the right direction. There are six preliminary activities we do before actually sitting on the cushion and beginning our session:

1.       Clean the room

2.       Arrange offerings

3.       Go for refuge and generate Bodhicitta

4.       Visualize your teachers/lamas

5.       Purify obstacles and gather merit through the Seven-Limb Practice

6.       Request blessings

When our environment is organized it facilitates organizing our own mind. When I conduct a rehearsal with my marching band students around the country, I ask the to keep the side of the field neat and organized. The students line up their instruments in an orderly manner, as well as their water bottles and bags, before they step onto the field. I have found that this creates an impression and an environment for organized learning and thinking. Therefore, clean up the room in which you have placed your altar.

And speaking of an altar, let’s talk about what you should have for your little sacred space. A Buddhist shrine should have representations of the Buddha’s body, speech, and mind. These are represented by a statue, a holy text, and a stupa. A stupa is a reliquary often containing relics to be venerated and are symbolic of the enlightened mind. Your altar can be very simple or quite elaborate. It is important that your sacred space bring you a sense of awe and respect to the enlightened potential actualized by the Buddha and others whose image you place there.

My altar with the water bowl offerings and a butter lamp

First, light the butter lamp or votive and a stick of incense. Draw three clockwise circles with the incense in front of the altar and repeat “Om Ah Hum” three times then lay it in a tray or an incense burner. Then, stack the water bowls in one hand except for one in which you fill full of water. Use it to pour most of the water into the second bowl, then lay the first bowl on the altar to the left-most position the offerings will align. Then, the second bowl should be poured mostly into the third bowl and then set beside the first bowl to it’s right, about the space of the width of a grain of rice apart. Repeat this for each successive bowl, leaving space between the fourth and fifth for the butter lamp or votive. When you are done, all the bowls should have just a little water in them. With the pitcher of water, top off all the bowls to just below the brim – again, about the width of a grain of rice from the top.  Finish by reciting the holy syllables, “Om Ah Hum” three times as to secure the merit that has been created.

You can also offer flowers, fruit, and cookies (look for the ingredients to have milk, butter, and yogurt – the three whites – and sugar, molasses, and honey – the three sweets). Keebler’s Sandies or vanilla wafers will suffice. Arrange them nicely.

At the end of the day, empty the water bowls from right to left (reverse order of presenting them) and take the water and other offerings outside and discard them where no one will walk over them. Dry the bowls and turn them upside down for the next day.

The third preliminary is to take your seat and make an affirmation or resolve to go to the Three Jewels – Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha – for knowledge that can benefit yourself and others. This is called “going for refuge,” and it refers to the Buddhist practitioner’s devoted reliance upon the teachings. The only way that a Buddha can protect us, or give us refuge, is by teaching. Therefore, we study the Dharma and practice applying it to our daily lives. The second affirmation is called “generating Bodhicitta.” Bodhicitta is the greatest compassion, which is the wish that others be free from suffering. The great difference between Bodhicitta and ordinary compassion is that Bodhicitta is a vow one realizes toward achieving enlightenment for the sake of all other beings. It means that we devote ourselves to become a Buddha so that we can help others be freed of Samsara and become Buddhas, too.

The following is the first prayer recitation followed by an affirmation to develop four states of mind/heart: Love, Compassion, Loving-kindness, and Equanimity.

Taking Refuge and Generating Bodhicitta 

༄༅།  །སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ།  བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདང་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི།

བདག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས།  འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག  །ལན་གསུམ།

sang-gye chuh-dang tsok-kyi chog-nam-la/    jang-chub bar-du dak-ni kyab-su-chi/

dag-gi jin-sok gyi-pai suh-nam-kyi/  dro-la pen-chir sang-gye drup-par-shog/

From now until my enlightenment, I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. And by the merit created in this practice, may I attain the state of Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. (3 x)

Four Immeasurables 

༄༅།  །སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེ་བ་དང་བདེ་བའི་རྒྱུ་དང་ལྡན་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག  སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་སྡུང་བསྔལ་གྱི་རྒྱུ་དང་བྲལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག 

སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་མེད་པའི་བདེ་བ་དང་མི་འབྲལ་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག  སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཉེ་རིང་ཆགས་སྡང་གཉིས་དང་བྲལ་བའི་བཏང་སྙོམས་ལ་གནས་པར་གྱུར་ཅིག

sem-chen tam-che de-wa dang-de-wai gyu-dang den-par gyur-chig/  sem-chen tam-che du-ngal dang du-ngal gyi-gyu dang-dral war-gyur-chig/  sem-chen tam-che du-ngal me-pai de-wa dang mi-drel war-gyur-chig/   sem-chen tam-che nye-ring chak-dang nyi-dang drel-wai tang-nyom la-ne par-gyur-chig/

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and its causes. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and its causes.

May all sentient beings never be separated from joyful bliss. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger. (3x)

The fourth step is to visualize all your spiritual teachers before you, as if you’ve invited them to sit with you and witness your meditation session. The clearer you can visualize this field of inspirational figures the more confidence you’ll have as you sit there. Remember, Buddhas were once ordinary beings just like us. And our spiritual masters and teachers should be regarded as already enlightened Buddhas, even if they are merely humans that are just further along the path than ourselves. Look to them for inspiration that you yourself can achieve transformation and purify all your negative karma.

Next, recite the Seven-Limb Prayer, which encompasses elements of creating merit and of purifying negative karma. Those elements are: Prostration, Offering, Confession, Rejoicing, Requesting the spiritual teachers to give teachings, Requesting the spiritual teachers to stay and continue guiding us out of Samsara, and Dedication.

Making a Prostration

The illustrations above show where to place the hands in the Lotus Bud mudra - which is much like holding your hands in the gesture for praying except that the thumbs are tucked inside.

"At the crown, a white OM,
Think, 'May I be purified of negativities collected through the body.'
By placing the pressed palms at the crown, may I be reborn in the supreme land, Tushita.
By placing the pressed palms together at the forehead, between the eyebrows, may all my negativities of the body be purified."

"At the throat, a red AH.
Think, 'May all the negativities collected through speech be purified.'
By placing the pressed palms together by the throat, may all the negativities be purified."

"At the heart, a blue HUM.
Think, 'May all the negativities collected through the mind be purified.'
By placing the pressed palms together at the heart, may all negativities of the mind be purified."

Then, you can prostrate in a number of ways: slide fully onto the floor with your hands raised at the crown just as before, then stand back up quickly. Or, drop to all fours and press your forehead to the ground, then stand up quickly. Or, simply bow your head in reverence. Many devoted practitioners do hundreds of prostrations per day. At a minimum, you should do three prostrations after making the offerings on your altar and also in the practice where indicated.

While prostrating, also recite the mantra: Om Namo Manjushriye Namo Sushriye Namo Uttamashriye Soha

There are many seven-limb practices. The following is a daily practice called The Seven-Limb Practice to Tara. Tara is the Buddha of Enlightened Action. You can use her practice to focus your intentions, make your dreams manifest quickly, send aid and protection to loved ones and all sentient beings in general.

༄༅།  །སྒྲོལ་མའི་ཡན་ལག་བདུན།

Seven-Limb Prayer to Arya Tara

Visualize that Tara is hovering in the space before you, about six feet away and at the level of your forehead.

Invocation:

།མ་ལུས་སེམས་ཅན་ཀུན་གྱི་མགོན་གྱུར་ཅིང་།       །བདུད་སྡེ་དཔུང་བཅས་མི་བཟད་འཇོམས་མཛད་ལྷ།

།དངོས་རྣམས་མ་ལུས་ཡངས་དག་མཁྱེན་གྱུར་པའི།     །བཅོམ་ལྡན་འཁོར་བཅས་གནས་འདིར་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ།

Ma-lu sem-chen kun-gyi gon-gyur-ching    duh-de pung-che mi-ze jom-dze-lha

Nguh-nam ma-lu yang-dak kyen-gyur-pa’i    chom-den kor-che nen-dir sheg-su-sol

God destroyer of inexhaustible armies of hordes of demons,  a protector for each and every sentient being, 

perfectly knowing every single thing that is, Bhagawans and your retinues please come to this place.

༈པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཡི་གནས་མཆོག་ནས།    །ཏཾ་ཡིག་ལྗང་གུ་ལས་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང་།

འོ་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱི་དབུ་ལ་རྒྱན།   སྒྲོལ་མ་བཁོར་བཅས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོལ།

Po-ta la-yi ne-chog-ne   TAM-yik jang-ku le-trung-shing

Uh-pak me-kyi u-la-gyen   drol-ma kor-che sheg-su-sol

From your supreme abode, the Potala, arising from a green syllable TAM,

Amitabha adorning your crown, Tara and your entourage please come to us.

Prostration:

༈   རྗེ་བཙུན་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་དང་།     །ཕྱོགས་བཅུ་དུས་གསུམ་བཞུགས་པ་ཡི།

།རྒྱལ་བ་སྲས་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ།   །ཀུན་ནས་དང་བས་ཕྱག་བགྱིའོ།

Je-tsun pag-ma drol-ma-dang     chok-chu du-sum zhuk-pa-yi

gyal-wa se-che tam-che-la     kun-ne dang-we chak-gyi-o

1)     Respectfully, I prostrate to Arya Tara and all the victorious

and their sons residing in the ten directions and the three times.

Offering:

།ཞལ་ཟས་རོལ་མོ་ལ་སོགས་པ།   །མེ་ཏོག་བདུག་སྤོས་མར་མེ་དྲི།

།དངོས་བཤམས་ཡིད་ཀྱིས་སྤྲུལ་ནས་འབུལ།   །འཕགས་མའི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་བཞེས་སུ་གསོལ།

Zhal-ze rol-mo la-sok-pa   me-tok duk-puh mar-me-dri

nguh-sham yi-kyi trul-ne-bul   pak-mai tsok-nam zhe-su-sol

2)    I offer flowers, incense, and butter lamps, perfume, food, music and the like,

both those actually arranged here and those imagined. Please accept them, assembly of Arya Taras.

Confession:

།ཐོག་མ་མེད་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར།    མི་དགེ་བཅུ་དང་མཚམས་མེད་ལྔ།

།སེམས་ནི་ཉོན་མོངས་དབང་གྱུར་པས།   བགྱིས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཤགས་པར་བགྱི།

Tok-ma me-ne da-tai-bar    mi-ge chu-dang tsam-me-nga

sem-ni nyun-mong wang-gyur-pe    gyi-pa tam-che shak-par-gyi

3)    I confess all that I have done from beginningless time until now,

with my mind being under the sway of delusion: the ten non-virtues and five immediate misdeeds.

Rejoicing:

།ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས༑   ༑སོ་སོ་སྐྱེ་བོ་ལ་སོགས་པས།

།དུས་གསུམ་དགེ་བ་ཅི་བསགས་པའི༑    ༑བསོད་ནམས་ལ་ནི་བདག་ཡི་རང་།

Nyen-tuh rang-gyal jang-chub-sem    so-so kye-wo la-sok-pe

du-sum ge-wa chi-sak-pai   suh-nam la-ni dag-yi-rang

4)    I rejoice in whatever virtuous merit that has been collected throughout the three times by hearers,

solitary realizers, and Bodhisattvas and ordinary beings.

Requesting Teachings:

།སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ཀྱི་བསམ་པ་དང་༑    ༑བློ་ཡི་བྱེ་བྲག་ཇི་ལྟ་བར།

།ཆེ་ཆུང་ཐུན་མོང་ཐེག་པ་ཡི།   ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བསྐོར་དུ་གསོལ།

Sem-chen nam-kyi sam-pa-dang   lo-yi  je-dak  ji-tar-war

che-chung tun-mong tek-pa-yi   chuh-kyi kor-lo kor-du-sol

5)    I request you to turn the wheel of Dharma – the great, small, and common vehicles in accordance with the needs of all sentient beings and suited to their individual minds.

Requesting to Remain:

།འཁོར་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་མ་སྟོངས་བར།    །མྱ་ངན་མི་འདའ་ཐུགས་རྗེ་ཡིས།

།སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱ་མཚོར་བྱིང་བ་ཡི།    །སེམས་ཅན་རྣམས་ལ་གཟིགས་སུ་གསོལ།

Kor-wa ji-si ma-tong-bar   nya-ngan mi-da tuk-je-yi

duk-ngal gya-tsor jing-wa-yi  sem-chen nam-la zik-su-sol

6)    I beseech you to remain until Samsara ends and not pass away to the state beyond sorrow.

Please, with your boundless compassion look upon all beings drowning in the ocean of suffering.

Dedication:

།བདག་གིས་བསོད་ནམས་ཅི་བསགས་པ།    །ཐམས་ཅད་བྱང་ཆུབ་རྒྱུར་གྱུར་ནས།

།རིང་པོར་མི་ཐོགས་འགྲོ་བ་ཡི།    འདྲེན་པའི་དཔལ་དུ་བདག་གྱུར་ཅིག།   །

Dak-gi suh-nam chi-sak-pa   tam-che jang-chub gyur-gyur-ne

ring-por mi-tok dro-wa-yi     dren-pai pel-du dak-gyur-chik

7)    May whatever merit I have accumulated be totally transformed into the cause of enlightenment and may I become, without a long passage of time, the glorious deliverer benefitting all migrating beings.

Now recite Tara’s mantra as many times as you like, perhaps using a Buddhist rosary, called a mala, to keep track of your recitations. Visualize healing light shining from Tara’s crown, throat, and heart. These beams of light enter your crown and fill you with her blessings.

ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་སྭཱཧཱ།

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha

The last of the preliminary practices is Dedication. Though there is a dedication in the Seven-Limb Prayer to Tara, we conclude with a final general dedication.

༄༅།  །བསྔོ་བ།

ngo-wa/

Dedication

༄༅།  །བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་མཆོག་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།  མ་སྐྱེ་པ་རྣམས་སྐྱེས་གྱུར་ཅིག

སྐྱེ་བ་ཉམས་པ་མེད་པར་ཡང་།   གོང་ནས་གོང་དུ་འཕེལ་བར་ཤོག

jang-chub sem-chok rin-po-che/   ma-kye pa-nam kye-gyur-chig/

kye-wa nyam-pa me-par-yang/   gong-ne gong-du pel-war-shog/

May the supreme jewel, Bodhicitta that has not arisen, arise and grow.

And may that which has arisen not diminish but increase more and more.

༄༅།  །གངས་རིའི་རྭ་བས་སྐོར་བའི་ཞིང་ཁམས་འདིར།  ཕན་དང་བདེ་བ་མ་ལུས་འབྱུང་བའི་བནས།

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་དབང་བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་ཡིས།  ཞབས་པད་སྲིད་མཐའི་བར་དུ་བརྟན་གྱུར་ཅིག

gang-ri ra-we kor-wai zhing-kam-dir/   pen-dang de-wa ma-lu jung wai-ne/

chen-re-zig wang ten-dzin gya-tso-yi/   zhap-pe si-tai bar-du ten-gyur-chig/

In the land encircled by snow white mountains, the source of all happiness and benefit flows from you,

 Chenrezig, Tenzin Gyatso. Please remain until Samsara ends.

༄༅།  །འཇམ་དཔའ་དཔའ་བོ་ཇི་ལྟར་མཁྱེན་པ་དང་།  ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་དེ་ཡང་དེ་བཞིན་ཏེ།

དེ་དག་ཀུན་གྱི་རྗེས་སུ་བདག་སློབ་ཅིང་།  དགེ་བ་འདི་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་རབ་ཏུ་བསྔོ།

jam-pel pa-wo ji-tar kyen-pa-dang/   kun-tu zang-po de-yang de-zhin-te/

de-dak kun-gyi je-su dak-lo-ching/  ge-wa di-dak tam-che rab-tu-ngo/

Just as the Bodhisattva Manjushri attained omniscience, and Samantabhadra, too,

so now do I dedicate these merits to train and follow in their footsteps.

༄༅།  །དུས་གསུམ་གཤེགས་པའི་རྒྱལ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱིས།  བསྔོ་བ་གང་ལ་མཆོག་ཏུ་བསྔགས་པ་དེས།

བདག་གཞན་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་འདི་ཀུན་ཀྱང་།  བཟང་པོ་སྤྱོད་ཕྱིར་རབ་ཏུ་བསྔོ་བར་བགྱི།

du-sum shek-pai gyal-wa tam-che-kyi/   ngo-wa gang-la chok-tu ngak-pa-de/

dak-zhen ge-wai tsa-wa di-kun-kyang/   zang-po chuh-chir rab-tu ngo-war-gyi/

As all the victorious Buddhas of the past, present and future praise dedication as supreme,

so now I, too dedicate these sources of my merit for all beings to perfect good actions.

In the next blog we’ll continue with the second part to meditation, the Six Conditions of the Surrounding Environment.

Love eternal,

Marc