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The major ethical practice is the keeping of the precepts—227 for monks, 311 for nuns, but only 5 for lay people:
Akin to the 613 mitzvot and the Torah, Talmud, and Mussar processes
To refrain from killing living beings, To refrain from taking that which is not given, To refrain from committing sexual misconduct, To refrain from wrong speech, To refrain from intoxicants.
Akin to the 7 Noahide laws
sati as “mindfulness,” but we need to keep in mind that it is etymologically related to the Sanskrit smṛti, which means “memory.”
being content
middah of histapkut which is peer to manuchat hanefesh (equanimity) and anavah (love) and whose foundation is in ahavah (humility)
relaxed diligence.
middah of zerizut
If you are craving to experience a jhāna, you have the hindrance of wanting. You have to set aside such craving—those expectations—to
heart center, particularly if they’re using mettā—loving-kindness—meditation
two major drawbacks: the pleasant mental sensation, which is most likely an emotion, is likely to have a story connected with it that then leads to distraction, or the pleasant mental sensation is unstable and soon fades away.
If mettā practice generates any pleasant bodily sensation, use that. If
A more common problem than the preceding ones is that working with concentration—whether it is jhānic concentration, access concentration, or even a lesser form of concentration—can result in someone’s unresolved psychological issues surfacing. All that energy that was being used to keep those issues at bay has now gotten quiet; all the hustle and bustle of a busy life has gone, and there is no longer the noise to drown out those issues. The arising of such psychological issues is not a bad thing; in fact, it is actually a very useful thing. But it’s not a pleasant thing! However, it is much
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It does not mean, as some people incorrectly say, that you have to go and seclude yourself in the forest. You just have to seclude your mind from the hindrances, and this is what will generate the pīti and sukha.
wanting is an instance of the first hindrance,
In the first jhāna, the pīti predominates and the sukha is in the background. To move toward the second jhāna, you want to do a foreground-background reversal.
maintain it for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
middah of histapkut
all. The third jhāna is a very still state. There
To become skilled in this state, you should learn to maintain it for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
Also after you have become skilled in these jhānas, it is not necessary to spend the 10 to 15 minutes in each one every time. Just make sure that you don’t always shortchange the same jhāna(s) (although you might always be spending a very short time in the first jhāna before taking the deep breath to move on toward the second jhāna).
Meditations Meditation techniques involve the wordless, or nearly wordless,
Contemplations Contemplation techniques involve thinking about a specific topic.
The trick for moving to the sixth jhāna is to shift your attention from the space to your consciousness of the space. Become aware of your awareness; become conscious of your consciousness. It’s a trick of turning your attention back on itself.
It’s very helpful to go back and forth a few times between jhānas five and six—1-2-3-4-5-6-5-6-5-6—staying in both five and six for at least five minutes each time to let them deepen. You also want to become skilled enough that you can enter this state of infinite consciousness and remain in it for 10 to 15 minutes before moving on to learning/entering the next jhāna.
The no-thingness can manifest visually in two different ways, though of course it doesn’t have to manifest visually, especially if you are not a visual person. The most common way it manifests is as blackness or deep purple or dark blue—much like if you were peering into a room with no windows and no lights. There is a sense of space there, but what really gets your attention is not the space but the overwhelming sense that there is nothing at all to be found in that space. In the fifth jhāna, there is a big space with nothing in it; in the seventh jhāna, there is nothing as far into the space
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However with the eighth jhāna, you might have time for one brief sentence—not containing the words I, me, or mine—before it completely disappears.
It is also good to practice 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. These four immaterial jhānas will deepen your concentration so that you have a mind that is even more concentrated, purer, brighter, more malleable, wieldier, steadier, and more imperturbable. This will enhance your insight practice by enabling you to have an even less egocentric viewpoint and maintain it for an even longer period of time.
You might spend several minutes trying to stay focused on the sense of outward expansion but become tempted to “look for” the infinite space. That won’t work—doing so means you are losing your focus on the outward expansion.
to generate some gratitude—gratitude
to get in touch with your motivation.
some determination—not
zerizut
always do some mettā (loving-kindness) practice—always
switch. If indeed you can make the switch, it’s actually going to be very useful because when you put your attention at the nostrils, you’re signaling yourself, “concentrate”; when you put your breath at the belly or chest, you’re signaling yourself, “do insight practice,” and that can be quite useful.
Forget about deserving happiness, “deserving” is not ever part of mettā practice:
love.” “Deserving” has no part in something unconditional. The far enemy—the opposite—of mettā is hatred; this is obvious. The near enemy—something that masquerades as mettā—is said to be attachment. But we could also say the near enemy of mettā is “conditional liking.” So true mettā practice is simply wishing the best for someone just because they are a someone.
Of course you can run through the above in less than a minute, but that won’t generate access concentration.
