1 00:00:04,564 --> 00:00:09,445 2 00:00:09,445 --> 00:00:17,577 (Questioner) Hi Sunim, thanks for giving me a chance to ask a question. 3 00:00:17,577 --> 00:00:22,736 So, I have a question on meditation and studying Buddhist scripture. 4 00:00:22,736 --> 00:00:27,626 I learned that the Buddha achieved a peaceful mind and profound enlightenment 5 00:00:27,626 --> 00:00:29,493 through meditation. 6 00:00:29,493 --> 00:00:33,302 I am trying to practice meditation for the same purpose, 7 00:00:33,302 --> 00:00:39,838 but as a beginner who hasn't gone through the path, I have some doubts 8 00:00:39,838 --> 00:00:46,135 about how I can achieve such a deep state of enlightenment through not thinking. 9 00:00:46,135 --> 00:00:54,557 Could you explain how meditation can lead to such peace of mind and enlightenment? 10 00:00:54,557 --> 00:01:04,211 (Sunim) All suffering actually happens because we think too much. 11 00:01:04,211 --> 00:01:21,423 So, we need to truly liberate ourselves from our preconceptions of ethics, 12 00:01:21,423 --> 00:01:30,680 morality, religious faith, and other paradigms. Those guard our thoughts. 13 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:36,509 For example: 14 00:01:36,509 --> 00:01:52,330 Say a man and a woman who like each other have become lovers. 15 00:01:52,330 --> 00:02:03,015 So, in a regular relationship between two ordinary people, you like each other. 16 00:02:03,015 --> 00:02:17,905 However, if you are Buddhist clergy or Catholic clergy, you have been taught 17 00:02:17,905 --> 00:02:23,327 not to engage in relationship with, in a sexual relationships. 18 00:02:23,327 --> 00:02:35,112 So, those people who are trained in that way, 19 00:02:35,112 --> 00:02:39,209 while they enjoy being with the other person in a romantic relationship, 20 00:02:39,209 --> 00:02:42,117 also feel guilt. 21 00:02:42,117 --> 00:03:00,869 So, all that guilt, that negative feeling, is not a result of having this romantic 22 00:03:00,869 --> 00:03:03,427 relationship with another person you like. 23 00:03:03,427 --> 00:03:09,852 It comes from your own preconceptions that you shouldn't be doing this. 24 00:03:09,852 --> 00:03:30,322 So, a lot of the suffering and issues we experience today actually happen 25 00:03:30,322 --> 00:03:34,523 because of the contradiction or collision between what is happening in reality, 26 00:03:34,523 --> 00:03:41,234 what we experience in reality, and our preconceptions of how things should be. 27 00:03:41,234 --> 00:03:56,363 That suffering disappears when you erase the contradiction 28 00:03:56,363 --> 00:04:03,833 of choosing abandoning a preconception and accepting reality 29 00:04:03,833 --> 00:04:08,123 or adhering to that preconception and foregoing your desires. 30 00:04:08,123 --> 00:04:26,252 However, we can never solve this problem as long as we simultaneously adhere 31 00:04:26,252 --> 00:04:31,083 to a preconception and desire what we want in reality; 32 00:04:31,083 --> 00:04:34,204 that contradiction will persist. 33 00:04:34,204 --> 00:04:38,342 So, another example: 34 00:04:38,342 --> 00:04:53,094 If traditional ethics dictate that men and women of certain age 35 00:04:53,094 --> 00:04:58,997 cannot be romantic partners, then such relationships create suffering. 36 00:04:58,997 --> 00:05:11,972 Similarly, if we are taught that divorce is unacceptable after marriage, 37 00:05:11,972 --> 00:05:21,315 yet circumstances call for separation, this contradiction creates suffering. 38 00:05:21,315 --> 00:05:28,370 However, observing the natural course of relationships, 39 00:05:28,370 --> 00:05:31,540 people come together and separate all the time. 40 00:05:31,540 --> 00:05:37,000 It is all part of coming together. 41 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:42,550 It shows that separation or divorce is not inherently a cause of suffering. 42 00:05:42,550 --> 00:05:54,082 It's your preconceptions of "what ought to be" that actually causes you suffering, 43 00:05:54,082 --> 00:05:58,045 whether it's a first meeting or a separation. 44 00:05:58,045 --> 00:06:11,182 If you can just erase "what ought to be", 45 00:06:11,182 --> 00:06:20,129 then you eliminate much suffering from internal conflict. 46 00:06:20,129 --> 00:06:58,311 For example, when we teach our daughters that premarital sex is a sin, 47 00:06:58,311 --> 00:07:05,306 it causes them internal suffering when they engage in it. 48 00:07:05,306 --> 00:07:11,533 But we do not teach our sons this to the same extent, 49 00:07:11,533 --> 00:07:16,438 so they may not feel the same guilt. 50 00:07:16,438 --> 00:07:22,500 This is all due to the preconceptions we instill in our children. 51 00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:34,933 For example, if you stop thinking right now, there is no cost to suffer. 52 00:07:34,933 --> 00:07:43,476 That's why the foundation of our meditation is stopping your thinking. 53 00:07:43,476 --> 00:07:54,930 What posture you take, how you breathe, none of that really matters. 54 00:07:54,930 --> 00:08:08,360 Many people say they are meditating, but they end up thinking quietly. 55 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:10,581 That is thinking, not meditating. 56 00:08:10,581 --> 00:08:16,932 Thinking good thoughts does not mean you meditate well. 57 00:08:16,932 --> 00:08:24,044 Meditation is a state of absence of thoughts. 58 00:08:24,044 --> 00:08:31,509 If your thinking stops, most of your suffering will go away. 59 00:08:31,509 --> 00:08:40,375 But once you try it, you will find your thinking does not stop easily. 60 00:08:40,375 --> 00:08:52,380 Your thinking is naturally amplified many times over. 61 00:08:52,380 --> 00:08:59,630 So when you are meditating, your body may be still, 62 00:08:59,630 --> 00:09:02,780 but you are always thinking. 63 00:09:02,780 --> 00:09:18,794 How do you stop thinking? Intending to stop thinking amplifies it. 64 00:09:18,794 --> 00:09:25,245 So the old teachers said: 65 00:09:25,245 --> 00:09:32,074 There's dust flying in the room. 66 00:09:32,074 --> 00:09:36,742 We don't see it well. It is almost invisible. 67 00:09:36,742 --> 00:09:42,010 When a ray of sunlight shines into the room from the outside, 68 00:09:42,010 --> 00:09:48,120 we realized that dust floats in the room. 69 00:09:48,120 --> 00:10:02,320 We are trying to get rid of dust in the room with something. 70 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:06,870 Then, we are realizing that trying to do so only creates more dust. 71 00:10:06,870 --> 00:10:12,551 What do we do? We just have to let it be. 72 00:10:12,551 --> 00:10:20,783 As time passes, most dust will gradually settle. 73 00:10:20,783 --> 00:10:42,120 They mean we constantly live in a flux of thoughts and distractions, 74 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:50,178 but we do not realize it without that "ray of light" to illuminate it. 75 00:10:50,178 --> 00:11:13,191 Realizing how "dusty" your mind is isn't a meditation failure; 76 00:11:13,191 --> 00:11:16,710 it is part of the process of meditation to recognize that. 77 00:11:16,710 --> 00:11:25,624 It's the same as seeing that ray of light illuminate all that dust. 78 00:11:25,624 --> 00:11:36,659 The first key is to realize that "I live amidst distracting thoughts". 79 00:11:36,659 --> 00:11:50,016 When you practice performance-oriented meditation, 80 00:11:50,016 --> 00:11:54,235 which aims to meditate better and faster, it creates more distractions. 81 00:11:54,235 --> 00:11:57,104 It causes more dust fly. 82 00:11:57,104 --> 00:12:00,622 You have to just let it be. 83 00:12:00,622 --> 00:12:07,901 But it doesn't really settle that quickly because it just flies around. 84 00:12:07,901 --> 00:12:15,397 That's why the strategy is to focus your thoughts on one thing. 85 00:12:15,397 --> 00:12:25,852 The easiest place to focus your thought on is your breath. 86 00:12:25,852 --> 00:12:38,115 Basically, it is a strategy of focusing 87 00:12:38,115 --> 00:12:42,537 on the inhalation and exhalation of your breath. 88 00:12:42,537 --> 00:12:51,336 In Pali, it is called Ānāpāna. 89 00:12:51,336 --> 00:13:05,487 Another strategy that came up during the Zen Buddhist tradition is 90 00:13:05,487 --> 00:13:08,277 to focus on one single thought. 91 00:13:08,277 --> 00:13:13,488 Or one single question, like "Who am I?". 92 00:13:13,488 --> 00:13:17,664 Just focus on that single question. 93 00:13:17,664 --> 00:13:23,434 Other thoughts will constantly be there. 94 00:13:23,434 --> 00:13:26,591 You just let them be. 95 00:13:26,591 --> 00:13:35,215 But the only thing you actually focus on is that single question. 96 00:13:35,215 --> 00:13:43,127 For example, say I read a book in the middle of the forest. 97 00:13:43,127 --> 00:13:46,658 You know, there are birds tweeting. 98 00:13:46,658 --> 00:13:49,339 You hear a stream. 99 00:13:49,339 --> 00:13:52,127 And you have cars down the road. 100 00:13:52,127 --> 00:13:57,150 I can't really focus if the cars were not running, if the birds would stop tweeting, if the stream would stop running then I can actually focus in a quiet forest right? 101 00:14:17,343 --> 00:14:18,984 But we can't stop those. 102 00:14:22,309 --> 00:14:26,420 Just because you stop those externalities doesn't guarantee that you can focus. 103 00:14:48,629 --> 00:15:06,650 So but if you really focused on the book and you get really into the substance of the book Dancing Birds may tweet but you don't pay attention to it. The cars may be running on the road next to it but you don't really pay attention nor do you pay attention to the stream actually running beside you because you're really focused you are in that zone of focus. 104 00:15:14,145 --> 00:15:22,495 So meditation is all about the absence of thoughts but from a strategy perspective, it's all about focusing on that one single thought. 105 00:15:27,074 --> 00:15:31,160 Let's say we focus on the breath in and breath out. 106 00:15:34,996 --> 00:15:39,050 So when the breath comes in to know that the breath is coming in. 107 00:15:42,770 --> 00:15:45,660 So you're not thinking about the breath coming in. 108 00:15:54,420 --> 00:16:04,950 This is a kind of an experience of your sensation of the flow of the air as it actually travels over your skin, through your nostrils as it enters your lungs 109 00:16:11,855 --> 00:16:31,480 and you also feel that kind of tactile sense of the breath leaf in your nose. So this is our thought. This is experiencing. You're just experiencing that breath. You might think of your mother at that time. 110 00:16:39,160 --> 00:16:57,319 But once you actually get distracted by the thought of your mom, you start thinking, oh, what about the time we went on a picnic with my mom? What about the time we had an argument with her? So you actually create narratives around those stores and this becomes distraction. 111 00:17:00,675 --> 00:17:32,618 So you can't really stop the thought of your mom kind of rising. But despite whatever thoughts come to you, you keep focusing on that but basically do not pay attention or energy to that thought. And then the thoughts kind of dissipate. Then other thoughts will come you'll think about but nevertheless you focus on their brain the thought of coffee dissipates. 112 00:17:41,925 --> 00:17:47,405 So you'll have connous thoughts rise and fall, rise and fall as long as you don't pay attention to it. 113 00:17:55,796 --> 00:18:05,910 But once if you start actually start doing it, when you think of coffee, you kind of follow it and create a story out of it. What kind of coffee do I want you? With whom do I want this coffe? 114 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:13,362 At that time you already lost that focus on that breath 115 00:18:16,723 --> 00:18:29,275 because our attention can only focus on one thing at a time. If I focus on here, I lose focus there and if I pay attention there, I lose attention here. 116 00:18:37,111 --> 00:18:42,595 Thoughts are just that as long as you don't pay attention to it, it'll just rise and fall, rise and fall. 117 00:18:53,378 --> 00:19:04,420 So when we say we're distracted, those random thoughts are not distractions of themselves. It really becomes a source of distraction when you start creating stories around those thoughts. 118 00:19:20,266 --> 00:19:32,755 So if you keep on practicing your time that you can sustain that focus on that single breath, it can be one minute before you're distracted, then five minutes and 10 minutes it'll actually increase. 119 00:19:42,870 --> 00:19:51,130 So the attention span on that single breath is going to continue to increase and less dractions you'll experience less distraction. 120 00:20:03,429 --> 00:20:10,955 Then you start actually gaining autonomy. You're no longer beholding your past memories or future hopes. 121 00:20:21,186 --> 00:20:28,870 The reason you get angry, you get sad, you feel this emotion and that is because all these past memories come haunting you 122 00:20:39,111 --> 00:20:44,260 and you become fearful and anxious and nervous because you're thinking about the future. 123 00:20:52,507 --> 00:20:58,130 So if you're not captured by the thoughts of the future, then all your anxiety and nervousness goes away. 124 00:21:06,970 --> 00:21:14,840 So that's why we teach to be awakened here and now without being captured by your past memories or the future that has not come yet. 125 00:21:22,684 --> 00:21:31,365 So even if Buddha's a thought about Buddha comes unbidden to you or doing meditation, that's just another distraction. 126 00:21:36,980 --> 00:21:41,213 So just singular focus on that breath everything else is a distress. 127 00:21:50,953 --> 00:21:58,835 If it's a Zencen, anything that actually falls outside the scope of the exploration of that question is a distraction. 128 00:22:03,850 --> 00:22:11,790 And so in that state, even what you read in the scriptures, sutras or even Buddha's own teachings, they're just distractions. 129 00:22:19,370 --> 00:22:26,950 That's why there's teaching if you see a Buddha, if you think about the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you encounter your teacher, kill the teacher. 130 00:22:34,435 --> 00:22:49,210 So we don't really mean literally kill them but obviously what we are saying is that do not pay them any mind. They're just distractions. Sorry for the lengthy response. Thanks.