For the past few days, I’ve been bringing effort and attention to remaining completely still during formal meditation. I’m finding it truly fascinating, and I think it is worth sharing a few notes.
First, I should point out that I enjoy sitting. I am committed to the practice, I’ve got lofty goals, and I don’t lack in determination or perseverance. I sit in formal practice for a minimum of one 30+ minute period daily, and on most days I find time for more than one formal meditation period. To illustrate, my timer app (Insight Timer) tells me that my daily average for the past two weeks is 80 minutes.
But doing an activity, and doing your best at it, are not always the same thing. We all know how in different activities, we give varying degrees of effort. In meditation this is no different, and in some ways it can be easier than other activities to slack off, because let’s face it – I’m the only one paying attention (or not – LOL). So naturally there are days when I feel locked in, and also days when I’m wandering more than not. That’s just how it is. And, quite paradoxically, some teachers may tell you that those challenging times are the ones that can really benefit the practice. Well that sounds nice, but when I’m finding that my mind is being unruly and resisting efforts to coax it back to the object, it just feels like I’m not making a good effort. And the inclination of my eager-to-train self is to feel an aversion to that wandering rather than to just observe it. So – it can be tough. While watching the wandering mind is important, having had strong concentration in the past and knowing what that feels like makes it difficult to not ask myself how can I improve my ability to stay with the object?
Recently I was re-reading my current favorite meditation manual by Sayadaw U Pandita, called In This Very Life, and I came across a passage that struck me. In a section describing patience and perseverance as factors in developing what he calls the controlling faculties (positive mental factors that contribute to mindfulness), he states that “calmness and tranquility of mind have their foundation in stillness of body.” Their foundation. That’s pretty strong language. He discusses how, as you encounter pain or any uncomfortable sensation while sitting, you may want to shift position to improve your comfort. But, he explains, “if such movement becomes habit, you will lose the chance to deepen your meditation practice.” Again the language is pretty clear. He’s not talking about just optimizing your meditation. This seems to be more important than that. I sit for the explicit reason of deepening my meditation practice.
After reading this, I thought to myself – how often am I making these small adjustments? I need to look at this closely. So I did. And when I looked, the answer was – I move a lot! I make micro adjustments. I stretch up a bit. I move my face. I flex a muscle a tad. I rotate or shift my spine position. I tilt my head. I swallow unnecessarily. I practice with eyes open and allow my gaze to meander about. The more I looked, the more I discovered that I was moving a ton during my supposedly still practices.
“Calmness and tranquility of mind have their foundation in stillness of body”
-Sayadaw U Pandita
So I tried not moving. It wasn’t hard to try this. I simply set the intention, for a sit, to remain absolutely motionless. Not mostly motionless, but a completely, stone-like, barely-allowing-my-lungs-to-expand kind of still. The immediate result was a resounding HOLY SMOKES!!! Within just a few minutes, I was noticing that my attention had been wandering off much less frequently. Instead of every 10 seconds, it was like 30 seconds or longer. And after 10 minutes, I felt more focused than I usually do after 15 or 20 minutes.
It has only been a week or so, but I’ve already come to realize that I’m on to something. Physical stillness is extremely important, at least for my mind’s ability to get collected. I can see this by just coming to complete stillness for a minute or two. Stillness quickly becomes interesting. It becomes a challenge. It becomes an opportunity. And as I sit longer, the stillness gains a sort of traction or momentum – a kind of gravity. It pulls me in, and my body stops wanting to move about. I find that movement gets forgotten for the most part, while the mind grows brighter. I don’t know the terrain well enough yet to understand exactly why or how this works, but it is absolutely clear that it helps my concentration a great deal. Wow – who would have thought? Everyone, Patrick. Everyone knows that.
So today I’m adding stillness to the growing list of obvious things which everyone told me to do, but to which I had not brought adequate attention before.
It reminds me of something that Bop It (this battery-powered game we have at home) says all the time, in an annoying voice, when you mess up. It says “do it the same…but better!!”