9: Factors of Meditation

Manjushri Mandala

Serenity and transcendent insight (arise) from the mind staying in the mind and from the critical discernment of things grounded on that perfect stability.

– Maitreya Buddha, Mahayanasutralamkara, 18:67

It is not possible using simple, subjective introspection to penetrate the illuminating void. It is not possible using simple, subjective introspection, to deeply comprehend the ego. Therefore, meditation is necessary.

Despite all the popularity today surrounding meditation and mindfulness, it is quite rare to find practitioners of proper meditation.

There are several requisite factors which must be understood in depth. Proper meditation occurs when all the factors are present and balanced.

In order for the state of meditation to be maintained for long periods, the consciousness must have self-cognizance of such state. It other words, familiarity of the awake (unobscured) state is needed.

In order for the state of meditation to be achieved for even a short period, a combination of the projective and receptive qualities of consciousness must be perfectly balanced.

The projective quality of consciousness is called willpower. This is willpower of attentiveness. This is also called concentration, the perfection of which is called shamata.

It is critical to understand that willpower is not the quality of thinking or the repression of thinking. Thinking and the repression of thinking are activities which occur within the subjective mind.

Willpower is the maintenance of attention in skillful ways which ultimately neutralizes the mind of all activity. Thus, the mental fluctuations cease. The more skill one develops, the greater degree of willpower one obtains to achieve deeper states of concentration.

The most elemental type of insight is developed by naively resting within these states of concentration. Buddhist lore states that the ancient Indian yogis explained eight levels of profound absorption. Certainly these ‘jhanas’ or ‘dhyanas’ were and are experienced by the master practitioners of any true contemplative tradition.

They developed great familiarity of these states, yet, even the state called “Neither Perception Nor Non-Perception” cannot produce the wisdom needed to achieve the liberation of suffering.

The emotional afflictions are laid to rest in the initial stages of the first absorption called shamata or shyiné. Those who reach the first absorption have complete pliancy to remain in meditation for very extended periods. The ego and the physical body are dormant.

All of this is wonderful. Nevertheless, something more than the reduction of the fluctuations of the mental strata are needed. Therefore, the receptive quality of the consciousness is necessary.

The liberation of suffering requires something ‘new’ which does not come from the body, emotions, or mind. Only the receptive quality of the consciousness can provide this. Thus, the receptive quality of the consciousness is necessary.

Presently, many ‘venerable’ and ancient traditions exist which do not utilize the receptive quality of the consciousness. Thus, they remain without insight. These traditions are like shells which no longer house life, or, like a lame person trying to climb a great mountain.

Without engaging in the receptive quality of the consciousness, profound insight is impossible.

The receptive quality of consciousness is called imagination. It allows for the spontaneous reception of information which is completely new.

The lower (but still positive) form of imagination is called visualization. The egotistical, negative, subjective forms of imagination are fantasies and dreams.

Do not confuse imagination with fantasy. Fantasy is the fornication of imagination. Imagination is a radiant property of consciousness, fantasy is the misuse of imagination for the satisfaction of desires.

In the common person, the mind is always active. Therefore, the ego is always active. Therefore, the imaginative quality of the consciousness is acting subconsciously or unconsciously. The radiant or luminous quality is unconsciously and continuously filtered and distorted, producing an incessant flow of ‘self’, of ‘other’, of dreams, hallucinations, and subjective images (day dreams, projections, ideas, etc.).

All of these aforementioned images are products of the ego. Any ego represents patterns of behavior which are based on fundamentally ignorant relationships to the true nature of reality.

All activities of the ego are based on the past. The ego can never make anything truly new. Life occurs in the now, which is always new. The ego takes that which is new and distorts and filters it in accordance with its own idiosyncratic patterns.

The reader should now understand why naive or simple use of introspection often produces pain. It is because the first thing one contacts with their own awareness is the ego, with all of its mechanical projections.

It is imperative to make use of introspection within deep concentration, to assure the ego has been deactivated.

When visualization is combined with deep concentration, profound insight is developed.

During deep concentration, acquired through the skillful application of attention, the receptive quality of the consciousness can ‘make sense’ of that which was hitherto incomprehensible.

The reception of insight can be combined with visions, or it can be a purely abstract intuition.

There is the insight which is like lightning, and there is the insight which is like sand.

The visualization of any spiritual deity is extremely convenient for the awakening of consciousness. Every image of the divine provides a vessel for the consciousness to understand something profound.

Again, all of this is wonderful, yet, there are several more factors the student must not skip if profound insight is sought.

In order to develop real concentration, the sense organs of the body should be disengaged.

In order for the sense organs to disengage, it is necessary to shift attention away from the exterior sense impression and towards the mental fluctuations.

In order to disengage the sense organs, they must not be overly agitated.

In order for the sense organs to be appropriately relaxed, a stable nervous system is needed.

In order to obtain a stable energy stream, proper breathing must be done. This is called pranayama in the East. In the West, we refer to the ‘Science of Peter’ (we will discuss this in a future chapter).

In order for pranayama to be effective, a stable posture is required.

In order for a stable posture to come with ease, one must live ethically.

In order to live ethically, one must know the teachings and constantly reflect upon their behavior.

The culmination of profound insight, in turn, provides the final perfection of ethical behavior.

Perfect ethical behavior, based on transcendent insight, unties the interdependencies of suffering and thus unmakes samsara, which is liberation.