1 00:00:04,564 --> 00:00:08,901 2 00:00:08,901 --> 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 our 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. These 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, they like each other. 16 00:02:03,015 --> 00:02:17,905 However, if they are Buddhist clergy or Catholic clergy, they have been taught 17 00:02:17,905 --> 00:02:23,257 not to engage in sexual relationships. 18 00:02:23,257 --> 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 --> 00:02:59,482 So, that guilt, that negative feeling they have, is not the result of their 22 00:02:59,482 --> 00:03:02,947 actually having a romantic relationship with another person they like. 23 00:03:02,947 --> 00:03:09,852 It comes down to their own preconceptions that they 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 --> 00:03:40,334 what we experience in reality, and our preconceptions of how things should be. 27 00:03:40,334 --> 00:03:56,363 That suffering disappears when we erase the contradiction 28 00:03:56,363 --> 00:04:03,833 of choosing to abandon our preconceptions and accept reality as it is 29 00:04:03,833 --> 00:04:08,123 or adhere to those preconceptions and give up what we want in this reality. 30 00:04:08,123 --> 00:04:26,252 However, we can never solve this problem as long as we try to adhere 31 00:04:26,252 --> 00:04:29,759 to our preconceptions while simultaneously trying to get 32 00:04:29,759 --> 00:04:34,204 what we want in reality, because that contradiction will always persist. 33 00:04:34,204 --> 00:04:38,342 So, another example: 34 00:04:38,342 --> 00:04:53,094 If there are traditional ethics or morals that say men and women of certain ages 35 00:04:53,094 --> 00:04:58,997 can't see each other as romantic partners, then doing so creates suffering. 36 00:04:58,997 --> 00:05:11,396 Similarly, if we're taught that divorce is unacceptable after marriage, 37 00:05:11,396 --> 00:05:17,036 yet circumstances call for separation or divorce, 38 00:05:17,036 --> 00:05:21,315 this contradiction creates suffering. 39 00:05:21,315 --> 00:05:29,007 But in the natural course of things, people come together 40 00:05:29,007 --> 00:05:31,330 and separate all the time. 41 00:05:31,330 --> 00:05:39,466 It's all coming together. It's not the cause of our suffering. 42 00:05:39,466 --> 00:05:42,550 Separation or divorce is not the cause of our suffering. 43 00:05:42,550 --> 00:05:54,082 It's our preconceptions of "what ought to be" that actually cause our suffering, 44 00:05:54,082 --> 00:05:58,045 whether it's a first meeting or a separation. 45 00:05:58,045 --> 00:06:12,637 If we can just erase "what ought to be," then we actually eliminate 46 00:06:12,637 --> 00:06:20,129 a lot of suffering from our own internal conflicts. 47 00:06:20,129 --> 00:06:57,831 For example, when we teach our daughters that having sex before marriage is a sin, 48 00:06:57,831 --> 00:07:05,306 and they then engage in premarital sex, it causes them a lot of internal suffering. 49 00:07:05,306 --> 00:07:14,563 We don't teach our sons this as much, so they may engage in premarital sex 50 00:07:14,563 --> 00:07:17,206 without the same level of guilt. This is all because 51 00:07:17,206 --> 00:07:22,580 of the preconceptions that we instill in our children. 52 00:07:22,580 --> 00:07:34,933 For example, if you stop thinking right now, there is no cost to suffer. 53 00:07:34,933 --> 00:07:43,476 So, that is why the foundational piece of our meditation is to stop thinking. 54 00:07:43,476 --> 00:07:50,933 What position you take, however you breathe, 55 00:07:50,933 --> 00:07:54,930 all that doesn't really matter. 56 00:07:54,930 --> 00:08:08,360 Many of you say you meditate, but you end up quietly thinking. 57 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:10,581 That is thinking, not meditating. 58 00:08:10,581 --> 00:08:16,932 Thinking good thoughts does not mean you meditate well. 59 00:08:16,932 --> 00:08:24,044 Meditation is a state of absence of thoughts. 60 00:08:24,044 --> 00:08:31,509 If your thinking stops, most of your suffering will go away. 61 00:08:31,509 --> 00:08:40,375 But once you try it, you will know your thinking does not stop. 62 00:08:40,375 --> 00:08:52,380 Naturally, your thinking is amplified by 2, 3, 10 times more. 63 00:08:52,380 --> 00:08:59,630 So when you are meditating, your body may be still, 64 00:08:59,630 --> 00:09:02,780 but you are always thinking. 65 00:09:02,780 --> 00:09:15,231 So how do you stop thinking? Because if you intend to stop thinking, 66 00:09:15,231 --> 00:09:18,794 that intention itself gets amplified. 67 00:09:18,794 --> 00:09:25,245 That is why the old teachers told us this: 68 00:09:25,245 --> 00:09:32,074 There's dust flying all over the room. 69 00:09:32,074 --> 00:09:36,742 And we don't see it well. It is almost invisible. 70 00:09:36,742 --> 00:09:41,931 But if there's a ray of sunlight coming through the room, 71 00:09:41,931 --> 00:09:48,120 we suddenly realize that a lot of dust is floating around. 72 00:09:48,120 --> 00:10:02,320 And we take a cloth or duster and try to dust it off. 73 00:10:02,320 --> 00:10:06,870 We realize that we are actually creating more dust. 74 00:10:06,870 --> 00:10:12,361 Then, what do we do? We just have to let it be. 75 00:10:12,361 --> 00:10:20,783 As time passes, most of the dust will gradually settle. 76 00:10:20,783 --> 00:10:39,271 So basically, what they're saying is that we constantly live 77 00:10:39,271 --> 00:10:45,064 in a flux of thoughts and distractions, but we don't realize it 78 00:10:45,064 --> 00:10:50,178 because we lack a single ray of light to actually illuminate them. 79 00:10:50,178 --> 00:11:07,164 So, the fact that you actually sit down and start realizing 80 00:11:07,164 --> 00:11:12,951 how dusty the room in your mind is, is not a failure in the meditation. 81 00:11:12,951 --> 00:11:16,710 It's actually a process of meditating on that recognition. 82 00:11:16,710 --> 00:11:25,844 It's the same as seeing that single ray of light illuminating all that dust. 83 00:11:25,844 --> 00:11:34,228 That first realization that "I live amidst all this dust, 84 00:11:34,228 --> 00:11:36,659 in these distracting thoughts". 85 00:11:36,659 --> 00:11:49,217 Then you start engaging in a kind of performance-oriented meditation, 86 00:11:49,217 --> 00:11:52,475 in which you want to do meditation better and faster. 87 00:11:52,475 --> 00:11:57,104 Thereby creating more distractions and letting dust fly even more. 88 00:11:57,104 --> 00:12:00,622 You have to just let it be. 89 00:12:00,622 --> 00:12:07,901 But it doesn't really settle that quickly because it just flies around. 90 00:12:07,901 --> 00:12:15,397 That's why the strategy is to focus your thoughts on one thing. 91 00:12:15,397 --> 00:12:25,852 The easiest thing to focus your thoughts on is your breath. 92 00:12:25,852 --> 00:12:38,115 Basically, it is a strategy of focusing 93 00:12:38,115 --> 00:12:42,537 on the inhalation and exhalation of your breath. 94 00:12:42,537 --> 00:12:51,336 In Pali, it is called Ānāpāna. 95 00:12:51,336 --> 00:13:05,327 Another strategy that came up during Zen Buddhist tradition is a Koan, 96 00:13:05,327 --> 00:13:08,277 just to focus on one single thought. 97 00:13:08,277 --> 00:13:13,488 Or one single question like "Who am I?". 98 00:13:13,488 --> 00:13:17,664 Just focus on that single question. 99 00:13:17,664 --> 00:13:23,434 You know, other thoughts will constantly be there. 100 00:13:23,434 --> 00:13:26,591 You just let them be. 101 00:13:26,591 --> 00:13:35,215 The only thing you actually focus on is that single question. 102 00:13:35,215 --> 00:13:43,127 For example, say you read a book in the middle of the forest. 103 00:13:43,127 --> 00:13:46,658 There are birds tweeting. 104 00:13:46,658 --> 00:13:49,339 You hear a stream. 105 00:13:49,339 --> 00:13:52,127 And you hear cars down the road. 106 00:13:52,127 --> 00:13:55,528 So you can't really focus. 107 00:13:55,528 --> 00:13:59,778 If the cars were not running, 108 00:13:59,778 --> 00:14:03,424 if the birds stopped tweeting, 109 00:14:03,424 --> 00:14:06,947 if the stream stopped running; 110 00:14:06,947 --> 00:14:14,130 then you could actually focus in a quiet forest, right? 111 00:14:14,130 --> 00:14:19,481 But you can't stop those things. 112 00:14:19,481 --> 00:14:27,912 Just because you stop those externalities doesn't guarantee that you can focus. 113 00:14:27,912 --> 00:14:54,524 But if you really focus on the book and get into the substance, 114 00:14:54,524 --> 00:14:57,046 birds may tweet, but you don't pay attention; 115 00:14:57,046 --> 00:15:00,554 cars may run on the road nearby, but you don't pay attention, 116 00:15:00,554 --> 00:15:03,435 nor do you pay attention to the stream beside you 117 00:15:03,435 --> 00:15:07,940 because you are really focused; you are in that zone of focus. 118 00:15:07,940 --> 00:15:17,950 So, meditation is all about the absence of thoughts, but from a strategic 119 00:15:17,950 --> 00:15:23,200 perspective, it's all about focusing on that one single thought. 120 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:31,906 Let's say you focus on the breath in and breath out. 121 00:15:31,906 --> 00:15:39,430 So, when the breath comes in to know that the breath is coming in. 122 00:15:39,430 --> 00:15:46,660 You are not thinking about the breath coming in. 123 00:15:46,660 --> 00:16:01,995 This is a kind of sensory experience: the flow of the air as it actually travels 124 00:16:01,995 --> 00:16:06,057 over your skin, through your nostrils, as it enters your lungs. 125 00:16:06,057 --> 00:16:17,023 And you also feel that kind of tactile sense of the breath and leaf in your nose. 126 00:16:17,023 --> 00:16:22,780 This is experiencing, not thinking. 127 00:16:22,780 --> 00:16:26,692 You are just experiencing that breath. 128 00:16:26,692 --> 00:16:32,275 You might think of your mother at that time. 129 00:16:32,275 --> 00:16:42,464 But once you actually get distracted by the thought of your mother, 130 00:16:42,464 --> 00:16:45,494 you start thinking, "Oh, what about the time we went 131 00:16:45,494 --> 00:16:47,816 on a picnic with my mom? What about the time 132 00:16:47,816 --> 00:16:49,237 we had an argument with her?" 133 00:16:49,237 --> 00:16:53,935 So, you actually create narratives around those thoughts. 134 00:16:53,935 --> 00:16:58,214 This becomes a distraction. 135 00:16:58,214 --> 00:17:05,780 So, you can't really stop the thought of your mother rising. 136 00:17:05,780 --> 00:17:12,429 But despite whatever thoughts come to you, you keep focusing on the breath. 137 00:17:12,429 --> 00:17:18,160 Basically, do not pay attention or give energy to that thought. 138 00:17:18,160 --> 00:17:21,459 And then the thoughts kind of dissipate. 139 00:17:21,459 --> 00:17:23,828 Then other thoughts will come. 140 00:17:23,828 --> 00:17:26,221 You'll think about coffee. 141 00:17:26,221 --> 00:17:29,899 But nevertheless, you focus on the breath. 142 00:17:29,899 --> 00:17:33,148 Then the thought of coffee dissipates. 143 00:17:33,148 --> 00:17:45,328 So you will have countless thoughts rise and fall, rise and fall, 144 00:17:45,328 --> 00:17:48,374 as long as you don't pay attention to them. 145 00:17:48,374 --> 00:18:00,273 But once you start actually doing it, when you think of coffee, 146 00:18:00,273 --> 00:18:02,902 you kind of follow it and create a story out of it; 147 00:18:02,902 --> 00:18:06,772 "What kind of coffee do I want? With whom do I want this coffee?". 148 00:18:06,772 --> 00:18:13,672 At that time, you have already lost that focus on your breath. 149 00:18:13,672 --> 00:18:19,938 Because your attention can only focus on one thing at a time. 150 00:18:19,938 --> 00:18:24,076 If you focus on here, you lose focus there. 151 00:18:24,076 --> 00:18:29,774 And if you pay attention there, you lose attention here. 152 00:18:29,774 --> 00:18:40,286 Thoughts are just that; as long as you don't pay attention 153 00:18:40,286 --> 00:18:43,678 to them, they will just rise and fall, rise and fall. 154 00:18:43,678 --> 00:18:57,319 So, when we say we are distracted, those random thoughts are 155 00:18:57,319 --> 00:19:01,104 not distractions in themselves. It really becomes a source of distraction 156 00:19:01,104 --> 00:19:05,160 when you start creating stories around those thoughts. 157 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:27,084 So, if you keep practicing, the time you can sustain focus on a single breath 158 00:19:27,084 --> 00:19:30,786 before getting distracted can increase to 1 minute, then 5 minutes, 159 00:19:30,786 --> 00:19:33,249 and then 10 minutes. It will gradually increase. 160 00:19:33,250 --> 00:19:46,270 So, the attention span on that single breath will continue 161 00:19:46,270 --> 00:19:52,790 to increase, and you will experience less distraction. 162 00:19:52,790 --> 00:20:07,908 Then you start actually gaining autonomy. You are no longer beholden 163 00:20:07,908 --> 00:20:11,546 to your past memories or future hopes. 164 00:20:11,546 --> 00:20:26,018 The reason you get angry, you get sad, you feel this emotion and that is 165 00:20:26,018 --> 00:20:29,781 because all these past memories come haunting you. 166 00:20:29,781 --> 00:20:45,573 You become fearful, anxious, and nervous because you are thinking about the future. 167 00:20:45,573 --> 00:20:55,744 So, if you are not captured by thoughts of the future, 168 00:20:55,744 --> 00:20:58,977 then all your anxiety and nervousness will go away. 169 00:20:58,977 --> 00:21:10,821 So that is why we teach to be awakened in the here and now, 170 00:21:10,821 --> 00:21:12,978 without being captured by your past memories 171 00:21:12,978 --> 00:21:16,636 or the future that has not come yet. 172 00:21:16,636 --> 00:21:28,138 So even if a thought about Buddha comes unbidden to you 173 00:21:28,138 --> 00:21:32,237 while meditating, that is just another distraction. 174 00:21:32,237 --> 00:21:41,930 So, just singular focus on that breath; everything else is a distraction. 175 00:21:41,930 --> 00:21:55,521 If it's a Zen Koan, anything that falls outside the scope 176 00:21:55,521 --> 00:21:59,342 of exploring that question is a distraction. 177 00:21:59,342 --> 00:22:09,622 And so, in that state, even what you read in the scriptures, sutras, 178 00:22:09,622 --> 00:22:12,692 or even Buddha's own teachings are just distractions. 179 00:22:12,692 --> 00:22:22,142 That is why there is a teaching: if you see a Buddha, 180 00:22:22,142 --> 00:22:24,347 if you think about the Buddha, kill the Buddha. 181 00:22:24,347 --> 00:22:27,868 If you encounter your teacher, kill the teacher. 182 00:22:27,868 --> 00:22:37,472 So, we don't really mean to literally kill them, 183 00:22:37,472 --> 00:22:41,055 but obviously, we are saying is to not pay them any mind. 184 00:22:41,055 --> 00:22:44,339 They are just distractions. 185 00:22:44,339 --> 00:22:47,288 Sorry for the lengthy response. 186 00:22:47,288 --> 00:22:48,778 (Sunim/Questioner Laughter) 187 00:22:48,778 --> 00:22:49,758 (Questioner) Thanks. 188 00:22:49,758 --> 00:22:51,488 (Audience Applause)