Attaining Enlightenment Through Meditation

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#meditation #enlightenment #thoughts

Ven. Pomnyun's Answer to “Attaining Enlightenment Through Meditation”
Selection from Casual Conversation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님) (Sep. 14, 2024)

Question:
How can we reach enlightenment through meditation during which we are not supposed to think about anything?

<Attaining Enlightenment
Through Meditation>

(Questioner) Hi Sunim, thank you
for giving me a chance to ask a question.

I have a question about meditation
and the study of the Buddhist scriptures.

I learned that the Buddha attained
a peaceful mind and profound enlightenment

through meditation.

I am trying to practice meditation
for the same purpose,

However, as a beginner
who has yet to follow the path,

I have doubts about how I can reach
such a deep state of enlightenment

simply by not thinking.

Could you explain how meditation leads
to peace of mind and enlightenment?

(Sunim) All our suffering actually happens
because we think too much.

So, we need to truly liberate ourselves
from our preconceptions of ethics,

morality, religious faith, and other
paradigms. These guard our thoughts.

For example:

Say a man and a woman who like
each other have become lovers.

So, in a regular relationship between
two ordinary people, they like each other.

However, if they are Buddhist clergy
or Catholic clergy, they have been taught

not to engage
in sexual relationships.

So, those people
who are trained in that way,

while they enjoy being with the other
person in a romantic relationship,

also feel guilt.

So, that guilt, that negative feeling
they have, is not the result of their

actually having a romantic relationship
with another person they like.

It comes down to their own preconceptions
that they shouldn't be doing this.

So, a lot of the suffering and issues
we experience today actually happen

because of the contradiction or collision
between what is happening in reality,

what we experience in reality, and our
preconceptions of how things should be.

That suffering disappears
when we erase the contradiction

of choosing to abandon our
preconceptions and accept reality as it is

or adhere to those preconceptions
and give up what we want in this reality.

However, we can never solve this problem
as long as we try to adhere

to our preconceptions
while simultaneously trying to get

what we want in reality, because
that contradiction will always persist.

So, another example:

If there are traditional ethics or morals
that say men and women of certain ages

can't see each other as romantic partners,
then doing so creates suffering.

Similarly, if we're taught that divorce is
unacceptable after marriage,

yet circumstances call for separation
or divorce,

this contradiction creates
suffering.

But in the natural course of things,
people come together

and separate all the time.

It's all coming together.
It's not the cause of our suffering.

Separation or divorce is
not the cause of our suffering.

It's our preconceptions of "what ought to
be" that actually cause our suffering,

whether it's a first meeting
or a separation.

If we can just erase "what ought to be,"
then we actually eliminate

a lot of suffering
from our own internal conflicts.

For example, when we teach our daughters
that having sex before marriage is a sin,

and they then engage in premarital sex, it
causes them a lot of internal suffering.

We don't teach our sons this as much,
so they may engage in premarital sex

without the same level of guilt.
This is all because

of the preconceptions
that we instill in our children.

For example, if you stop thinking
right now, there is no cost to suffer.

So, that is why the foundational piece
of our meditation is to stop thinking.

What position you take,
however you breathe,

all that doesn't really matter.

Many of you say you meditate,
but you end up quietly thinking.

That is thinking,
not meditating.

Thinking good thoughts does not mean
you meditate well.

Meditation is
a state of absence of thoughts.

If your thinking stops,
most of your suffering will go away.

But once you try it,
you will know your thinking does not stop.

Naturally, your thinking is amplified
by 2, 3, 10 times more.

So when you are meditating,
your body may be still,

but you are
always thinking.

So how do you stop thinking?
Because if you intend to stop thinking,

that intention itself gets
amplified.

That is why the old teachers told us
this:

There's dust
flying all over the room.

And we don't see it well.
It is almost invisible.

But if there's a ray of sunlight coming
through the room,

we suddenly realize
that a lot of dust is floating around.

And we take a cloth or duster
and try to dust it off.

We realize
that we are actually creating more dust.

Then, what do we do?
We just have to let it be.

As time passes,
most of the dust will gradually settle.

So basically, what they're saying is
that we constantly live

in a flux of thoughts and distractions,
but we don't realize it

because we lack a single ray of light
to actually illuminate them.

So, the fact that you actually sit down
and start realizing

how dusty the room in your mind is,
is not a failure in the meditation.

It's actually a process
of meditating on that recognition.

It's the same as seeing that single ray
of light illuminating all that dust.

That first realization
that "I live amidst all this dust,

in these distracting thoughts".

Then you start engaging in a kind
of performance-oriented meditation,

in which you want to do meditation
better and faster.

Thereby creating more distractions
and letting dust fly even more.

You have to just
let it be.

But it doesn't really settle that quickly
because it just flies around.

That's why the strategy is
to focus your thoughts on one thing.

The easiest thing to focus your thoughts
on is your breath.

Basically, it is a strategy
of focusing

on the inhalation and exhalation
of your breath.

In Pali, it is called Ānāpāna.

Another strategy that came up
during Zen Buddhist tradition is a Koan,

just to focus
on one single thought.

Or one single question
like "Who am I?".

Just focus
on that single question.

You know,
other thoughts will constantly be there.

You just let them be.

The only thing you actually focus
on is that single question.

For example, say you read a book
in the middle of the forest.

There are birds tweeting.

You hear a stream.

And you hear cars down the road.

So you can't really focus.

If the cars were not running,

if the birds stopped tweeting,

if the stream stopped running;

then you could actually focus
in a quiet forest, right?

But you can't stop those things.

Just because you stop those externalities
doesn't guarantee that you can focus.

But if you really focus on the book
and get into the substance,

birds may tweet,
but you don't pay attention;

cars may run on the road nearby,
but you don't pay attention,

nor do you pay attention
to the stream beside you

because you are really focused;
you are in that zone of focus.

So, meditation is all about the absence
of thoughts, but from a strategic

perspective, it's all about focusing
on that one single thought.

Let's say you focus
on the breath in and breath out.

So, when the breath comes in
to know that the breath is coming in.

You are not thinking
about the breath coming in.

This is a kind of sensory experience:
the flow of the air as it actually travels

over your skin, through your nostrils,
as it enters your lungs.

And you also feel that kind of tactile
sense of the breath and leaf in your nose.

This is experiencing,
not thinking.

You are just experiencing
that breath.

You might think of your mother
at that time.

But once you actually get distracted
by the thought of your mother,

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 thoughts.

This becomes a distraction.

So, you can't really stop the thought
of your mother rising.

But despite whatever thoughts come to you,
you keep focusing on the breath.

Basically, do not pay attention
or give energy to that thought.

And then the thoughts
kind of dissipate.

Then other thoughts will come.

You'll think about coffee.

But nevertheless,
you focus on the breath.

Then the thought of coffee dissipates.

So you will have countless thoughts
rise and fall, rise and fall,

as long as you don't pay attention
to them.

But once you start actually 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?
With whom do I want this coffee?".

At that time, you have already lost
that focus on your breath.

Because your attention can only focus
on one thing at a time.

If you focus on here,
you lose focus there.

And if you pay attention there,
you lose attention here.

Thoughts are just that;
as long as you don't pay attention

to them, they will just rise and fall,
rise and fall.

So, when we say we are distracted,
those random thoughts are

not distractions in themselves.
It really becomes a source of distraction

when you start creating stories
around those thoughts.

So, if you keep practicing, the time
you can sustain focus on a single breath

before getting distracted can increase
to 1 minute, then 5 minutes,

and then 10 minutes.
It will gradually increase.

So, the attention span
on that single breath will continue

to increase,
and you will experience less distraction.

Then you start actually gaining autonomy.
You are no longer beholden

to your past memories
or future hopes.

The reason you get angry, you get sad,
you feel this emotion and that is

because all these past memories come
haunting you.

You become fearful, anxious, and nervous
because you are thinking about the future.

So, if you are not captured
by thoughts of the future,

then all your anxiety and nervousness
will go away.

So that is why we teach to be awakened
in the here and now,

without being captured
by your past memories

or the future
that has not come yet.

So even if a thought
about Buddha comes unbidden to you

while meditating,
that is just another distraction.

So, just singular focus on that breath;
everything else is a distraction.

If it's a Zen Koan,
anything that falls outside the scope

of exploring that question is
a distraction.

And so, in that state, even what you read
in the scriptures, sutras,

or even Buddha's own teachings
are just distractions.

That is why there is a teaching:
if you see a Buddha,

if you think about the Buddha,
kill the Buddha.

If you encounter your teacher,
kill the teacher.

So, we don't really mean to
literally kill them,

but obviously, we are saying is
to not pay them any mind.

They are just distractions.

Sorry for the lengthy response.

(Sunim/Questioner Laughter)

(Questioner) Thanks.

(Audience Applause)