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What is Meditation?

Before presenting the actual meditation, there now follows a general explanation of the nature and purpose of meditation. To meditate is to familiarize our mind constantly and thoroughly with a virtuous object. Meditation has many functions: it overcomes inner problems such as those created by anger, jealousy, attachment and ignorance; it controls our mind and brings inner peace; it enables us to cultivate virtuous intentions that lead us to perform good actions; and it eliminates non-virtuous intentions that lead us to perform harmful actions. By practising meditation we gain experience of the many levels of spiritual realization and progress to higher and higher levels of spiritual attainment until we accomplish the highest of all, the state of Buddhahood.

To practise meditation we first need to learn Dharma by listening to and reading correct instructions. We then need to contemplate the meaning of what we have heard and read. We contemplate Dharma to understand its meaning clearly and to gain conviction, testing it to see if it is logical and coherent, whether it makes sense in terms of our own experience and whether its purpose is worthwhile. Once we have gained a firm understanding of the meaning of Dharma and have confidence in its reliability we are ready to practise meditation.

There are two types of meditation, analytical meditation and placement meditation. In analytical meditation we engage in a purposeful process of investigation, or thought, about an object; analyzing its various aspects and examining it from various points of view. We use our imagination, mindfulness and powers of reasoning until through the power of our investigation a special thought or feeling arises in our mind and our state of mind changes. As we will see, there are different types of object. Some, such as impermanence or emptiness, are objects apprehended by the mind. Others, such as love, compassion, renunciation or the determination to rely purely upon our Spiritual Guide, are actual states of mind. We engage in analytical meditation until the specific object that we seek appears clearly to our mind or until the particular state of mind that we wish to generate arises.

For example, when we meditate on how to rely upon our Spiritual Guide we consider the various benefits of committing ourself with faith, the dangers of losing our commitment and trust, and the different ways in which we can practise faithful reliance in thought and in deed. Through the power of this analytical meditation we develop a strong determination to rely wholeheartedly upon our Spiritual Guide. When this determination arises clearly and definitely in our mind we have found our object of placement meditation.

In placement meditation we concentrate on a virtuous object single-pointedly, without allowing distractions to disturb our concentration. The object of placement meditation can be any virtuous object, or special thought or feeling, that is generated in our mind through the power of analytical meditation. With placement meditation we hold this virtuous object, thought or feeling until it begins to fade, then we renew our analytical meditation to make the object clear or definite again. Just as when we make a fire with bellows there comes a time when the fire is strong enough for us to put down the bellows and let it blaze, so there comes a time when we stop analytical meditation and let placement meditation take over. Then, in the same way as a fire gradually loses its intensity so that we have to apply the bellows again, the object of our placement meditation will gradually fade so that we have to apply analytical meditation once again.

Je Tsongkhapa said that meditators should combine these two types of meditation because good analytical meditation brings good placement meditation, and good placement meditation brings good analytical meditation. We need to combine these two types of meditation even when the object of placement meditation is not hard to find or generate in the mind. For example, if we want to do placement meditation on our breath we first have to investigate it in order to identify our object clearly. When our investigation makes the object appear clearly to our mind we stabilize this appearance by doing placement meditation. Objects such as emptiness or bodhichitta are harder to find and so we need to do more analytical meditation; but the process of alternating between analytical and placement meditation is the same.

Analytical meditation makes the object appear clearly or definitely to our mind and placement meditation makes our mind more and more closely acquainted with the object so that eventually the mind and its object mix. For instance, if we do analytical meditation on the sufferings of all living beings, compassion will arise clearly in our mind. When this happens we do placement meditation to make our mind more and more familiar with compassion. Eventually, our mind will mix with compassion. This does not mean that henceforth compassion is the only object of our mind, but that compassion has become inseparable from our mind and so, in all that we think and all that we do, our mind is never without compassion.

In the beginning our placement meditation is very weak and we are hardly able to hold onto our object for more than a moment. Whenever we lose our object we have to keep returning to analytical meditation until the object becomes clear again, and then we renew our effort to stabilize the object. We have to repeat this process over and over again. The way to increase our powers of concentration is explained in detail below.

Since most of the problems we experience when we are new to meditation come from overstraining at placement meditation, it is important to be moderate and avoid becoming tense from exerting too much pressure. The effort we apply should be relaxed and steady, and whenever we become tired we should rest.

The practice of meditation is very extensive. It is not just a matter of sitting cross-legged and doing formal sessions. Even if our placement meditation is weak we can still be practising analytical meditation at any time. For instance, if we now pause to consider more deeply some of the points we have read, we may find that our contemplation leads us naturally into analytical meditation while we are sitting in our armchair. In a similar way, we can engage in analytical meditation while we are walking about, travelling or doing simple manual work.

What is the goal of meditation? Through analytical meditation we will perceive our object clearly, then through placement meditation we will gain deeper levels of experience or realization. The main purpose of all Lamrim meditations is to transform our mind into the path to enlightenment by bringing about the deepest levels of realization. The sign that we have gained perfect realization of any object is that none of our subsequent actions are incompatible with it and that all of them become more meaningful. For example, when we have gained a perfect realization of compassion we are never again capable of willingly inflicting harm upon any other living being and all our subsequent actions are influenced by compassion.

In the instructions that follow, outlines and guidance are given for the analytical meditations, and the objects of placement meditation are indicated. The instructions are in the spirit of guidelines. We should use our own wisdom and be flexible in the way we apply the advice that is given. Whenever a line of thought is indicated for our analytical meditation we should first consider where that line of thought is intended to take us. Then thoughts, feelings and recollections of our own will naturally spring to mind to take us in the same direction. In a disciplined way we use our own thoughts and experiences to strengthen our meditation while remaining careful to avoid engaging in thoughts and recollections that are irrelevant.

Since the purpose of Lamrim meditation is to gain personal experience of all the stages of the path to enlightenment, many different kinds of reasoning or lines of thought are presented, as well as scriptural references and examples for our consideration. The reasonings are not given merely to establish proofs. In fact, many of the points that we meditate on do not need to be proved because they are self-evident. For example, we meditate on the point ‘The time of death is uncertain’, but we do not need to prove this logically because everyone knows that the time of death is uncertain. Nevertheless, it is one thing to know that something is true on the level of information and it is quite another thing to have personal experience of its truth. Everyone knows that the time of death is uncertain but how many people live their lives in such a way that they never act or think with the assumption ‘I will not die today’? Most of us spend most of our time thinking and acting as if we were not going to die. Consequently, when death strikes we react with shock, distress, or anger, as if something unheard of and unnatural were taking place.

Very often our habitual ways of thinking and our unexamined assumptions contradict the knowledge that we possess. Lamrim meditations resolve such contradictions. Since our habitual ways of thinking and behaving are deeply rooted we need to use many different methods to dislodge them. Reasoning according to strict syllogistic logic is one way. There are also many other ways of reasoning and many different lines of thought that we can use to induce realizations that will change our mind and bring our behaviour under control. Lamrim presents a many-sided challenge to all our mistaken habits of mind.

It is much more important to gain the actual experiences of Lamrim than just to learn the various points. Although knowledge of the instructions is a necessary prerequisite for gaining experience, if we do not persevere in putting the instructions into practice our knowledge will be worthless. If we have knowledge without experience it will be difficult for us to control our mind, and when we teach others they will find it difficult to gain realizations.

Realizations are not easy to attain. We have to listen to or read the instructions many times. If necessary, we should listen to or read them one hundred times or more, and engage in the meditations over and over again. It is not time to stop until we have gained perfect realizations of every stage of the path to enlightenment. If we find that we are reluctant to receive the instructions once we have listened to them or read them just a few times, this indicates that we have not yet experienced Dharma.

The meditations are presented in sequence because one realization naturally leads to the next. However, we can practise the whole cycle repeatedly rather than stay with one meditation until we gain a perfect realization, because whatever experience we have at each stage deepens in dependence upon our practice of the other stages.