The unshakeable peace of concentration

One of the most significant meditations in Buddhism – arguably in the world! – is taking the mind itself as the object of contemplation. Taught in Sutra Mahamudra, this helps us to overcome our distractions, attain tranquil abiding, and realize emptiness. It also makes it easier to recognize the very subtle mind that travels from life to life, and paves the way for the great bliss of Tantric Mahamudra.

So, one of the best things about meditating on our own mind is that it’s the easiest yet most powerful method for improving our mindfulness and concentration. And why would we want to do that?!

How can we enjoy an unceasing banquet of delight?

If you’ve been meditating for a bit, you may have this sense, once you’re in your heart: “Wow, there’s this feeling of peace here! There’s happiness here. There’s love, compassion, even some fearlessness – this is a treasure trove of wonderful mental qualities. Why would I ever leave this?” Answer: “I wouldn’t! It’s like that “unceasing banquet of delight” mentioned in The LIberating Prayer! I think I’ll just stay here.”

In an all-you-can-eat buffet, this finite body sack becomes more uncomfortable the more food we try to stuff into it. In distinct contrast to that, the more we partake of this mental banquet the better it gets!

In other words, when we first access this natural source of peace and happiness inside us through even the simplest breathing meditation, we start to recognize in our own experience: “Yep, there’s something important here to nurture. I didn’t realize that before. There’s something here to cultivate. I can sense an infinite potential.”

But we have a problem. A big problem, really. A problem that derails us time and again, and that could easily prevent us from ever finding what we really want or really need. And that problem is distraction.

Last week’s New York Times magazine contained an article about the search for the perfect bite. In fact, it wasn’t just one article, it was the entire magazine! I mean, I know I’m no foodie, but I cannot figure out what is interesting, let alone meaningful, about traveling halfway across the world in search of one “perfect” morsel of food, let alone reading about other people who have done that. And what an expensive bite that was! And how quickly did its effects wear off?! Was the tenth morsel any good, or was the good experience entirely ephemeral – in the words on Starbucks coffee cups, just: “That first sip feeling”?

Meanwhile, in meditation, we approach that extraordinary table that really does bear an unceasing banquet of delight, we think “This looks delicious!!!” – and then we just turn around and walk away. Usually we are distracted or lured away by the tasteless, paltry, irksome, yukky, fleeting, painful, or disgusting objects of our delusions – the objects of anger, attachment, envy, anxiety, fear, confusion, and so on. It’s a tragedy, to be honest.

Focus

However, what would it mean NOT to be distracted?

It would mean we were focused. Which would mean we had some concentration.

This Mahamudra or clarity of mind meditation is the one practiced by the great Yogis you may have read about, people who could do extraordinary things through the power of their focused minds. For example, they could live in mountain caves in winter wearing practically nothing, go without food for months, never see a soul, and all the while remain utterly contented, simply dining out on the unceasing banquet of delight.

This is not an encouragement to head for the hills, by the way, tempting as that may be. Thanks to Venerable Geshe Kelsang’s skill in introducing Buddhism and Mahamudra to the modern world, we can practice this meditation anywhere. We can do it in a cave, but we can just as successfully do it on our sofa. However, we do need to do it – to train in mindfulness and concentration – which means we first need to want to do it.

Tranquil abiding

Perfect concentration is given a special name in the Kadampa Buddhist tradition, “tranquil abiding”. It can be really helpful just to think about that term because it indicates the nature of concentration – otherwise, in our society, “concentration” may be associated less with tranquility and abiding than with tension and hard work. This probably goes back to our school days or something, when the teacher would order us, “Concentrate!”, and we’d have to scrunch our brows. Perhaps we still do that in our meditation practice: “I have brought the meditation object to mind and now the teacher is saying, “Concentrate!”, so here I am getting all tight and tense again.”

Essentially, when we develop tranquil abiding, our mind is completely under our command. We can simply place our mind on whatever we want. So let’s say we place it on a feeling of joy in our heart that has arisen from a breathing meditation – with concentration there’s no grasping, there’s no clutching, there’s no tension … we’re just there. We’re just abiding tranquilly – or tranquilly abiding – serenely, utterly peacefully, with that joy in our heart. Because of this we experience a total absorption into that wonderful state of mind such that it pervades us, and such that it changes us. As TS Eliot put it:

Music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.

Stayin’ alive  

Recently I took M to El Dorado Canyon, where we spotted some Spider Men scrambling up a sheer cliff; and we spent the next hour watching these climbers while biting our nails. As far as we were concerned, they were out of their minds. But we did discuss why they might be doing this and, according to what we’ve read, it’s to experience a bit of concentration. Why are they concentrating? Because otherwise they’ll die. So their minds come into a relatively sharp focus, and within that they’ll experience, well, a lot. They’ll experience a mental flexibility. They’ll experience a sense of happiness. They’ll feel fully alive.

You don’t need to climb a sheer rock face, however, to get this. I mean, do as you wish, and not to try to take that away from anybody – but you could just use this as an example of what it’s like whenever we manage to really focus our mind. Those climbers were probably in what athletes, musicians, gardeners, and indeed all of us to a greater or lesser extent might experience as a “flow state;” and that’s the whole point. “Tranquil abiding” is describing a flow state, but an unbelievable flow state – one where we can abide for as long as we want to in that state of peace or joy, or even in universal compassion or bliss or the profoundest liberating wisdom. And (added bonus!) with no risk of falling a thousand feet to our death.

More about that here: State of flow.

The peace that passeth all understanding

People who have spent time with Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, including me, may well tell you that it is not the same as spending time with anybody else because he’s like a different order of being. (You can also watch him on YouTube and you can read his books and, if you allow yourself to tune in, you can still have that direct experience.) Hard to explain, but the thing about it was this feeling of unbelievable love and definitely bliss that he exuded. It was very, very peaceful. And it wasn’t like he was commenting on it, as in, “Good morning, Geshe-la, how are you today?” “Well, as you ask, I am unbelievably blissful.” No, he would just say, “I am okay, thank you,” just like anyone else; but because of his concentration, which was second nature to him, there was always this deeply peaceful energy. (And this was the case whatever we were talking about or whatever else was going on.) His mind was always fully tuned in to happiness, love, kindness, compassion, and wisdom.

Look, we already have some mindfulness – we can have pretty great mindfulness on objects that bother us. For example, if we’re really unhappy about something, even if somebody tries to draw us away, “See! I laid out an unceasing banquet of delight for you!”, we’ll still ignore it to stay mindfully focused on our object of delusion. Which at least shows us that we can do it. It would just be a lot better if we stayed mindfully focused on what actually makes us happy.

So, for this reason, and one or two others, I want to say more about this meditation in future articles. In the meantime, please leave comments!