A Shamatha Discussion
Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 2:59 pm
Hello,
I thought I'd make a post to see if we could get a thread going on training the mind in Shamatha. I am hoping that we can exchange experiences, advice, and resources.
Shamatha being the widespread meditation that it is in Buddhism (and beyond), there are many resources, but one that I find particularly helpful is The Attention Revolution by B. Alan Wallace. It is a great guide that draws from instruction from Tibetan sources and others.
One specific question, I'd like to bring up is related to mindfulness of breathing. The breath is my object of observation when I meditate, but I find that I'm prone to make a mental image of what is going on in my body when I'm breathing. However, Wallace instructs, " As you attend to the ... sensations of breathing, mental images of your body, based on visual memory, are likely to arise together with the bodily sensations themselves. Recognize the difference between the tactile sensations of the breath as they appear to bare attention, as opposed to the mental images of what you think your body looks like, which are superimposed by your conceptual mind. As soon as you note the presence of these mental images, release them and direct your attention solely to the immediate, tactile experiences of breathing."
I find this very difficult! It just seems so hard to me to "release" these sort of images and just focus on tactile sensations without the images arising again. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks and hopefully we can get a good discussion/exchange going!
John
I thought I'd make a post to see if we could get a thread going on training the mind in Shamatha. I am hoping that we can exchange experiences, advice, and resources.
Shamatha being the widespread meditation that it is in Buddhism (and beyond), there are many resources, but one that I find particularly helpful is The Attention Revolution by B. Alan Wallace. It is a great guide that draws from instruction from Tibetan sources and others.
One specific question, I'd like to bring up is related to mindfulness of breathing. The breath is my object of observation when I meditate, but I find that I'm prone to make a mental image of what is going on in my body when I'm breathing. However, Wallace instructs, " As you attend to the ... sensations of breathing, mental images of your body, based on visual memory, are likely to arise together with the bodily sensations themselves. Recognize the difference between the tactile sensations of the breath as they appear to bare attention, as opposed to the mental images of what you think your body looks like, which are superimposed by your conceptual mind. As soon as you note the presence of these mental images, release them and direct your attention solely to the immediate, tactile experiences of breathing."
I find this very difficult! It just seems so hard to me to "release" these sort of images and just focus on tactile sensations without the images arising again. Does anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks and hopefully we can get a good discussion/exchange going!
John