(6.9) Theravada - Various Contemplations

[Niết Bàn Tầm]

THERAVADA

4. VARIOUS CONTEMPLATIONS

4.1. CONTEMPLATING THE IMPERMANENCE (Anicca)

▪ Gather your concentration on something that strongly represents the concept of impermanence. A grave is a perfect example for this visualization. When the grave image appears as real in front of your ajna, contemplate on the harsh truth: "I will end up in there. Once that happens, so does everything else linked with me: my wife, lover, children, company, job, position, property, money, and so forth. All will vanish into thin air."  
▪ After you have successfully contemplated this image of impermanence, you will become indifferent to worldly matters and daily happenings.
▪ Keep practicing this for a while, your indifferent feeling will go through three stages with an increasing intensity: damp (slightly), wet (sufficiently), and finally soaked (abundantly). When your indifference becomes abundant, the grave image will turn into a bright yellow lotus flower with exactly five petals.

A special note:
For someone who practices the Pure Land Buddhism: With this five petalled lotus, the cultivator recites the mantra 'Namo Amitabha Buddha' or 'Om, Amitabha Hrih Svaha', he/she will suddenly enter the Pure Land. Please try and see whether it is true!

4.2.    CONTEMPLATING DEATH

This R-rated contemplation is only for fearless and very well established cultivators. In Vajrayana, there is a picture of a Vajra god making love with a Vajra female. A number of cultivators misunderstand the picture and think that they are allowed to do the same. The ridiculous result is: Every night, the master finds his followers to have sex.

When meeting a person of the opposite sex, do not look. If accidentally see, do not say anything. If inadvertently say, use the right mindfulness. Right mindfulness also depends on the personality of a cultivator. For me [Tibu], I am prepared with the technique of death contemplation (see below). For someone who can easily be attracted by someone else of the opposite gender, get ready to fight against the Mara's temptations. Instead of death contemplation, you could also think the attractive person as one of your family members. This may subdue the arousal thought immediately.

Impermanence contemplation may not work in this case, especially when the target is too beautiful for you to remember the transitory nature of things.

The practice: Visualize the target >> make that person as stiff and motionless as a corpse >> the corpse becomes bloated and discolored >> it bursts out thousands and thousands of flesh-eating worms >> what finally remains is a white skeleton. The maximum effect this contemplation provides is when you could smell the foul odor from the corpse. (See also the section on the impurity of the body)

4.3. CONTEMPLATING LOVING-KINDNESS (Metta)

This type of contemplation is considered as one of hardest practices because it is much easier said than done.
(1) Close your eyes completely.
(2) Visualize the face of a girl that you love and like to please the most. This is easy.
(3) Next, try to visualize the face of someone you hate the most. This is also easy if your hatred towards that person is strong enough.
(4) Make both images in steps 2 and 3 appear at the same time, of the same size, and next to each other. This is extremely difficult. The mind of an average person will not want or able to do this. This task is only doable if you possess sufficient merits and virtues. Otherwise, you will end up sitting there and letting the mind loose.
(5) Finally, vow to cultivate loving-kindness.

Tibu has been to many places and seen many Buddhas. One of whom is Vairocana Buddha in Vajrayana. Another one is Victorious Fighting Buddha, the first Buddha in the Ten Thousand Buddhas Sutra. Once, I went to see how Victorious Fighting Buddha looks, and I saw him with a skull stick. I asked him the way he had followed to become a Buddha, and he replied: "My only way is contemplating the impermanent nature of things". Buddhas never read books to gain their knowledge of a certain thing. They applied sammā samādhi to investigate and understand it. Also, there was not any Buddha who imitated another Buddha. They each had their own and unique characteristi*** ***, and they all said: "I had no one who was my master".

4.4. CONTEMPLATING LOVING-KINDNESS (Mettā), COMPASSION (Karuṇā), EMPATHETIC JOY (Muditā), AND EQUANIMITY (Upekkhā)

This contemplation is for cultivators of the Fourth Jhana or higher.
(1) Visualize the image of your enemy, and then that of your love.
(2) Visualize both images in front of your ajna as clear and real as possible. The images must also be equal to each other in terms of size, height, and appearance quality. By striving to make the hate and love images equal in all respects, you train your mind to be impartial, unbiased, and non-discriminatory, based on which the above four sublime virtues (Brahmavihāra) could develop. Keep practicing this!

Once you have successfully cultivated these four illimitable minds, they will automatically affect whoever/whatever you are in contact with. However, you can actively spread these sublime qualities by directing them to a specific target (either a person or an object). Afterwards, check out how the target changes. If, for example, the target is a tree, see if it grows better, blooms with larger flowers, and yields sweeter fruits. If the target is a person that hates you, see if he/she suddenly becomes friendly to you. Then, practice spreading the Brahmavihāras to two, three targets, and so on. The more targets you could spread these illimitables the better your Brahmavihāra cultivation.

4.5. CONTEMPLATING THE IMPURITY (Asubha) OF THE BODY

It has been quite a long time since my last talk about this complicated thing: sense desires and lust. Because I used to be a strong and energetic guy, sexual involvement was like a mountainous burden on me. According to the Buddhist texts, to deal with a lustful temperament, we should contemplate the impurity of the body. This technique is analogous to that in Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do: Pre-emptively attack the enemies before they have a chance to harm us. Specifically, develop a habitual thinking process towards the opposite sex so to kill off any sexual thought at its very early stage of development. Below include the practice steps.
(1) Choose the subject
  + Look at (a picture of) an 80 year old humpback woman with wrinkles.
  + Recollect the heart-rending scene of a funeral, especially the one you have been to.
  + Lastly, recall the lonely, sad, and lifeless scene of the grave.
After remember these three images, proceed to the practice.
(2) Practice
  + Lie down on the bed, recollect the three scenes, and compile them into a short movie. Play the movie as real as possible. It may run like this: An old wrinkly woman appears standing in some place. Her image gradually becomes blurry and finally disappears. Next come the crying and tearful scene of her funeral, which also becomes hazy and hazier until it is replaced by the last scene, the grave: damp, cold, lonely, lost, and lifeless. If you could successfully direct this movie and play it as actual as possible, you have effectively mastered the technique of 'contemplation' often mentioned in meditation texts.
  + Then change the main character in your movie with a regular looking lady. If you could make this character die in the movie, the result is that you do not know whether you have any sexual thought at all or it has been completely eliminated. So, do this contemplation again and again until your feelings are soaked in the movie.
When you first practice this, you should not choose a very attractive long hair lady as the subject of contemplation; but rather, an old lady. The reason is that it is quite acceptable and easy for the mind to let an old woman die rather than a beautiful lady. Out of the fifty families that I showed this technique of impurity contemplation in 1991, 99 percent of the families had successfully cultivated them.

 An alternative

There is an alternative to the above technique to eliminate lustful thoughts. That is after you have reached the First Jhana, which is in accordance with the Buddhist texts: 'Separation from sensuous desires brings the First Jhana'. Specifically, as explained in 'The Buddha and His Teachings', pleasures that come from the stimulation of the senses are worldly and coarse happiness. These sense-based pleasures are the main hindrance to a cultivator's spiritual progress. However, once the cultivator is able to inhibit these sensuous desires by way of culminating in the First Jhana, he/she can experience a transcendental happiness with only five mental states left: vitakka, vicāra, pīti, sukha, and ekāgratā (see more in the First Jhana section).

4.6. CONTEMPLATING THE FOUR ELEMENTS

Everything will end one day. For us, cultivators, we should leave something behind: Our cultivation experiences. These self-realized experiences, as recordings or writings, are the highlights of Hoasentrenda and will become very useful references for future cultivators during their course of liberation cultivation.

Contemplating the Four Elements: Earth (pathavi), Water (āpo), Fire (tejo), Wind (vāyo) is one of the practices that Tibu is really fond of. The effect of this contemplation is to understand more about the health of your body by checking out possible surpluses and deficiencies of these elements and rebalancing them. To do this you need to spend a bit of your cultivated virtues, i.e., thinking that you would want to use part of your virtues to upgrade your health.

4.6.1. FOR CULTIVATORS OF THE FOURTH JHANA

These cultivators should easily resize the kasina and effortlessly switch from one kasina to another. First and foremost is to enter the Fourth Jhana and then visualize a 3D TV. After that do the following:
(1) Earth (pathavi)
▪ Visualize the Earth kasina (a round dark ball) in your TV.
▪ Recite 'Earth is the element of life'. While reciting, think that earth represents patience, tolerance, and endurance. Also, think that your existence includes three parts: perception, soul, and body; and these three parts should be perfectly superposed into one unity.
▪ The smaller, smoother, and clearer the ball is the better you balance this element in your body.

(2) Water (āpo)
▪ Visualize the Water kasina in your TV. If the water drop is as in the picture, the cultivator is still pretty much influenced by ego. If it is round, the cultivator is in a more advanced, sublime state of mind; and non-egoism is apparent.
▪ Recite 'Water is the principle of life'. While reciting, think about the characteristi*** *** of this kasina:
  + Flexibility – it can be in any shape in accordance to its container. This characteristic also represents the ability to approach a problem from different angles to solve it.
  + Cohesion – it has the ability to attract, connect, bind, and hold strong together. This attribute also is helpful in sharing and inheriting the same qualities.
  + Softness but defiance – it is very soft but does not yield to any force. This feature also indicates self-improvement and self-effort.
▪ The smaller and more limpid the water drop is the better you balance this element in your body.

(3) Fire (tejo)
▪ Visualize the Fire kasina in your TV: yellow color and unmoving. Similar to the Water kasina, if the flame has a somewhat ellipse shape, the cultivator still has a relatively big ego. If it is spherical, the cultivator's mind is light and undisturbed by egoism.
▪ Recite 'Fire is the factor of life'. While reciting, think about its characteristi*** ***: heat, warmth, coolness, and the temperature regulation of the body. For a human being, warmth in the bones is very important because life depends on them.
▪ The smaller and brighter the flame is the better you balance this element in your body.

(4) Wind (vāyo)
▪ Visualize the Wind kasina (a moving window curtain) in your TV.
▪ Recite 'Wind is the expression of life'. While reciting, think about its characteristi*** ***:
  + Mobility – it transports the above three elements to appropriate or needed places to maintain a good health. Also, Wind helps bring toxins and waste materials through the colon to the rectum for dumping them out of the body, and transfer blood to the liver for toxin filtering. In addition, thanks to Wind white blood cells could move through the cell membrane to fight against toxins and diseases.
  + Harmonization – it brings necessary elements together to fix problems in the most natural way.
  + Transitory nature of things ¬– this is especially realized when Wind stops.
▪ The smaller and more realistic the image is the better.

Some advice:
▪ You should not contemplate all four elements in one practice session. Perform the contemplation of one element per session.
▪ Rest between sessions so your body has enough time to fix itself.
▪ The image of each kasina should be made as small as a cell and as real as possible.

 Alternative techniques

1) For cultivators who have more experienced and stronger mind power, the element recitation can be performed as follows:
▪ Start with Earth: visualize the Earth kasina and recite its associated mantra as above.
▪ When changing to the Water kasina, the recitation has two tones running in parallel: Tone 1 is the Earth mantra and tone 2 is the Water mantra.
▪ Next is the Fire kasina, and the tones are: Tone 1 is the Water mantra and tone 2 is that of Fire.
▪ Final is Wind. The reading becomes: Tone 1 is the Fire mantra and tone 2 is the Wind's.

This type of recitation requires very strong concentration of the mind; and hence, no wandering thoughts can crop up.

2) For a sort of 'lazier' cultivators, the following contemplation will suit:
▪ Visualize a round smooth yellow ball and think that this ball represents all four elements.
▪ Then start reciting the Earth mantra as slowly as possible. Notice how the quality of the image changes. If, for example, it becomes coarse with scribbles on the surface, think of making it clean and smooth again. Apply this thought until the image quality returns to its original status.
▪ Next change to the Water mantra and pay attention to the image again, and so on ... until you complete the four mantras.

3) A special technique from a little monk (a.k.a., 'Nhí'). This little one commented that Tibu was not very good [because of spending up to thirty minutes to contemplate the four elements as described above]. He needed only two minutes. What he did was:
▪ Visualize all four images of the elements at the same time.
▪ Place them horizontally side by side.
▪ Then adjust their brightness and arrangement until they are equally bright and perfectly aligned.  
▪ Finally, keep them like that 24/24 for two days for the elements to complete the whole process of harmonization. When the process was finished, the little monk's mother told Tibu: "He looks so healthy, his face is pink, and he is like a new person. Everything is great: no more stomach ache, no back pain, no need to massage his back and shoulder. How great it is!" This was not to mention sparkling eyes, well regulated blood circulation, and no more muscle cramps. Note that the two days taken for this little monk is equivalent to one year for an adult cultivator (i.e., middle–old aged people).

4.6.2. FOR CULTIVATORS OF FORMLESS REALMS

▪ Visualize a white star and make it as small as a dot.
▪ Make the star bright and emit rays of light until the whole space is lit up.
▪ Then recite the mantras associated with the elements slowly. Also think about their characteristi*** *** as described above. Do this for one element at a time.

The following is the recount of a Nhí when she performed the above contemplation using the concentration in the Formless Realm: "When I read the Earth mantra, the bright little star becomes sturdy. Inside the star there are bits and pieces missed out like the real look of earth/soil [see the Earth picture attached above]. On top of the star is grass growing. When it comes to Water, the star surface becomes very clear, blue, and squiggly; and you can see yourself in there. For Fire, there is steam coming off the rim of the star. Its outside edge has dark red color, which becomes gradually brighter towards the center of the star. Finally, when the Wind mantra is read the star waves lightly and very smoothly, i.e., not in a jerky fashion." Note that although the recorded recount (attached) is not in the correct order of the Four Elements, Nhí's actual contemplation is: Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind.

4.6.3. FOR CULTIVATORS OF ACCESS-CONCENTRATION

It is very difficult for cultivators at the level of access-concentration to contemplate the Four Elements because their body does not understand and follow the mind's order yet. The more the body and mind work well together the easier it is to practice this contemplation. Also, it is advisable to strictly adhere to sīla. The practice is as below:
▪ Relax your body and harmonize your breath as described in detail in the early sections.
▪ Think of joy and happiness since without them the contemplation may not yield any result.
▪ Try to imagine the image of Earth element in front of the ajna (Although cultivators at this level generally do not see the kasina yet, the concentration helps you more easily absorbed in the meanings of its mantra and attributes). Read in your mind the Earth mantra and think about its characteristi*** ***.
▪ Do the above slowly before changing to the next element. Also, you should not contemplate all four elements in one practice session.


Remember: "They can do it. So can I!"



[Note: files attachments are error, hoasentrenda check 25/9/2019]