Meditative concentration ( Dhyana )

 

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Meditative concentration ( Dhyana ) - The fifth of the six paramitas is defined as the capacity to remain undistracted. It is the topic of the eighth chapter of the *Bodhicharyavatara.

* Bodhicharyavatara An Introduction to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life is Shantideva's classic guide to the Mahayana path.  Tsoknyi Rinpoche said:

The Bodhicharyavatara teaches the complete Mahayana path to enlightenment, including all necessary preliminary, main, and concluding practices. A perfect path in itself, it is also, at the same time, a perfect support for all practitioners of the Vajrayana teachings in general. Practitioners learn how to develop the motivation of Bodhichitta as well as how to carry out the application of the six paramitas, or transcendental perfections. They learn how to fuse their practice of bodhichitta and the five first perfections with the sixth perfection, wisdom.

Patrul Rinpoche explains that there are two preliminaries to developing meditative concentration.  

1. Giving up mundane concerns

As regards renouncing mundane concerns, our mind will never settle into a state of one-pointed absorption as long as it is under the sway of attachment to parents, relatives, and friends or attendants. So we must give up all our habitual preoccupations and busyness and remain alone in an isolated place suitable for meditation.

Being attached to rewards and honours, praise or good reputation, or trifling necessities and then pursuing them will only obstruct the authentic path, so we must cut through any expectations and anxieties about such things and train ourselves to be content with whatever comes our way. 

2. Letting Go of Discursive Thought 

Even though we may be in an isolated place, not seeking possessions and such like to any great extent, if our mind falls under the power of desire, a genuine state of meditative concentration will not arise in our being, and our mind will be unable to rest in a state of absorption.

Therefore, thoughts of desire must be given up. To turn our thoughts away from attachment to desirable things is particularly important for gaining the special higher levels of concentration, so we should certainly turn the mind away from craving after members of the opposite sex by reflecting on the cause, the fact that they are not easy to obtain; their nature, which is impure; and the result, which involves a lot of harm, and so on.  

Moreover, we must understand that the eight worldly concerns and all thoughts of the present life are our real enemies. We must therefore reflect at some length on the problems caused by negative thoughts of desire and, generating a sense of inner dignity, make heartfelt efforts to abandon them, no matter how many may arise. 

Subdivisions - The Two Types of Dhyana:

• the causal meditative dhyanas
• the resultant Dhyana levels at which one is reborn

The causal meditative dhyanas are the states of meditation that are realised while still here in this world of Jambudvipa. For example, we might reach the meditation of the first or second dhyana. If we can maintain that state of meditation, then when we die, we will be reborn in the corresponding first or second dhyana level of the form realm.

The Three Types of Meditative Concentration

Chökyi Drakpa says:

"Meditative concentration includes the childish concentration of those who practice isolation away from distractions and busyness but are attached to the experiences of bliss, clarity, and absence of thought. There is also the clearly discerning concentration in which emptiness is clung to as an antidote and the concept-free samadhi of intrinsic reality, which is known as 'the concentration delighting the Tathagatas'. These should be practiced successively, in stages." 

The Four Dhyanas - Khenpo Pema Vajra says:

• The first Dhyana level, which is accomplished in this way, has five features: conception, discernment, joy, physical wellbeing, and samadhi.

• The second Dhyana, which is even more peaceful, has four features: the perfect clarity in which conception and discernment have been relinquished; joy; physical wellbeing; and samadhi.

• The third Dhyana, which is more peaceful still, has five features: equanimity, in which the concept of joy has been abandoned; mindfulness; watchful awareness; physical wellbeing; and samadhi.

• The fourth dhyana, which is called the ultimate dhyana because it is yet more peaceful, has four features: the neutral sensation, in which the sensation of physical wellbeing has been abandoned; mindfulness; the mental formation of equanimity; and samadhi.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease.

But increase further and further.

 

Dedication of Merit

By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

 

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