Tranquility (Dharana)
When we start placing our attention inward, we progress through pratyahara and towards tranquility.
Words such as dharana, shamata, shyiné are all the same thing. In English translations, a variety of words such as tranquility, mental peace, concentration, and calm abiding are used.
Know this well:
The natural state of the mind is peace.
Normally our mind is dispersed and agitated.
Disengaging from the elements which agitate and disperse the mind allows it to return to its natural state.
Do we know our natural state? It is very unlikely unless you have made a special effort to do so. When we meditate, we can know what our natural state is.
Possessing concentration means we can place our attention upon something, and the mind does not wander off. Perfect concentration means the mind never wanders, not once, over a period of hours.
The good news is that we don’t need perfection of concentration in our practice in order to have success. Even mediocre concentration is good enough for beginners.
More concentration is the same thing as more mental peace. They are the same thing. So, mental peace is the first and most immediate benefit from starting a meditation practice.
Yet, we need to be a little technical here. Actually, mental peace (concentration) is not the result of meditation, but the starting point! Mental peace is very good, and if that is our initial reason to practice, that is good. It is the normal reason people start.
You should know however, that peace is just the prerequisite for the real purpose of meditation: to receive information. Therefore, to achieve perfect concentration is good, but also, does nothing for us ultimately if we do not move into true meditation.
Remember: the purpose of meditation is to acquire information.
The shortest way to describe our practice is as follows:
Relaxation (all the steps prior to this one)
Concentration (this is where we are now)
Meditation (this is next)
Returning our main point: how do we develop concentration? By the skillful application of attention.
In the beginning, our effort is applied in two primary ways:
Mindfulness
Vigilance
Mindfulness
This is smrti स्मृति in Sanskrit and sati in Pali.
Mindfulness is just as it seems. Mindfulness is the remembrance of doing the practice of placing your attention on some thing. This thing is called the object of concentration.
Say, for example, you chose a religious image to meditate upon. You see the image mentally and place your attention there. Your object of concentration is the religious image.
Another example is mindfulness of breathing: anapanasmrti. You place your attention on the sensations of breathing. Your object of concentration is your breath.
If you forget your object of concentration, you have lost your mindfulness. Simply return to the object of concentration again.
When you return, again and again, you strengthen your concentration and mindfulness becomes easier.
In the beginning, mindfulness needs to be applied very intensely. Later, when some concentration has been established, the effort is not so intense, but still present. At the end, in perfect concentration, there is no effort of mindfulness needed at all.
Vigilance
This is samprajanya, which can be translated as vigilance, introspection, or meta-awareness.
This is a type of attention that inspects or watches the state of the mind. Mindfulness set up the practice, attending to the object of concentration, while vigilance spots issues with the mind that we need to take care of.
Vigilance spots imbalances in the mind before they become too overwhelming.
Our consciousness can make use of mindfulness and vigilance simultaneously. You may think it is not possible, but it a natural function of the consciousness.
For example, if you are riding a bike, you must take care to not hit any of the obstacles in front of you. You are (1) riding the bike to your destination (mindfulness), and (2) adjusting for obstacles as they spring up along the way (vigilance).
In terms of what we need to be vigilant against, there are two broad categories:
Laxity: overly deflated mind.
Excitation: overly aroused mind.
Vigilance helps maintain the balance between laxity and excitation. With vigilance we see imbalances cropping up at the more subtle level. When issues are seen early, “antidotes" can be applied before they sabotage the session.
In mediation, antidotes are behaviors which counteract imbalances.
When generalize laxity as: gross, moderate, or subtle. Likewise with excitation: gross, moderate, or subtle.
Laxity
Mental laxity is a sense of heaviness, darkness, and torpor within our practice. This often leads us into sleep if it is the gross type. When we attempt to meditate and quickly fall asleep this is obviously due to very gross laxity.
More subtle types occur when we have some level of concentration established. Then, laxity appears more like a dark, vague nothingness. This ‘nothingness’ is not the emptiness of voidness often spoken about in Buddhism, so do not confuse it with that. In this state, there appears to be nothing going on at all within the mind, yet, this is actually a type of inattentiveness.
This may seem confusing to you, so let us reflect a little here. Have you ever seen yourself become very tired when you attempt to do something you don’t truly want to do? Say you try to do pay the bills and suddenly you are very tired. Yet you may then spend hours doing something else which actually requires much more exertion. In a western psychoanalytic context, we can say this sleepiness is a type of unconscious defense mechanism against doing something undesirable.
When we intend to meditate there are other mental factors which have no interest in meditation. These aspects may very easily overwhelm the small part that wishes to meditate. Thus, laxity prevails.
This is why we need a great intensity in our mindfulness and vigilance in the beginning. David (our small amount of mindfulness and vigilance) needs to overcome Goliath (our unconscious mind which is quite uninterested). We can do it, but it takes skill and determination. We need to practice a lot (discipline), we need intensity, and we need to begin to develop skill. How do we develop skill? Just like riding a bike - you try, and you try again.
When David defeated Goliath he needed the right effort, but he also needs the right technique. We need both.
Laxity can come about in very subtle ways. One may be doing the main practice, but in a semi-incoherent state. This may sound strange, but those who practice know that before losing the practice entirely, the practice is begins to fade into incoherence.
Vigilance is the mental factor that notices this. Once it is noticed, antidotes can be applied.
So, we have various degrees of laxity. We can call them: very gross, gross, subtle, very subtle, etc.
Subtle forms of laxity can be dispelled due to its recognition. Simply by recognizing it, it dispels.
When it is less subtle, simply recognizing it may not be enough. Then, we need to increase our intensity and look closer. Closely examining the state of our inner experience always reveals something. When there appears to be nothing more, it is because we are not looking closely enough. We need to increase our intensity without losing our relaxation. Looking closely is like looking for a small stain on your clothing. Just examine closely your own mind, without tension.
If closer examination of the mind does not dispel laxity, a more forceful antidote is required. We can use our imagination to see an extremely bright light shining directly into your vision, like a very bring flash light, or perhaps the sun directly in front of you.
A further antidote is to perform pranayama. This is extremely helpful. This can be a light pranayama, or a deeper one, depending on your needs.
Another excellent method is to recite prayers or mantras with a lot of intensity.
Excitation
Excitation just the opposite of laxity. The most obvious symptom of this is a mind that cannot stop thinking about something.
What causes us to think endlessly? We may think it is because we have too much energy. This is actually a very poor answer that lacks understanding.
Endless thoughts are due to desires and fears. An abundance or lack of energy is just a circumstance, not a root cause.
Perhaps you are not convinced, so let us break it down. When we have energy, the mind has the ability to buzz around with more ease and clarity. So like a bee going from flower to flower, we unconsciously wander around the field of our inner world. This much is obvious.
However, reflect a little. Is it the energy itself which causes us to ruminate?
No. It is the desires and fears we have. This is the root cause.
It is a mind which is afraid of possible outcomes which, when having sufficient energy, runs through all of its fears until exhaustion.
It is a mind full of desires which, when having sufficient energy, thinks about fulfilling of all of them until exhaustion.
The truth is we need to have energy in order to meditate. We need to know how to work with energy. Our mind is conditioned to waste it.
We have a lot of negative elements within. We can call them pride, fear, jealously, hated, lust, etc. They are parts of our self which have become programmed to always act in a particular way based upon how external events play out in our life.
When we sit to meditate we often have a runaway mind. This is because there is some aspect of our self which is fueling a procession of thoughts and emotions. We are unconscious to this process, and without a special effort, we have no control over it.
Again, we can talk about this in subtle and gross forms.
The subtle forms of excitation subside just by our mere recognition of it.
More likely for a beginner, you will need a more concrete antidote. There are many.
You can recall your motivation to start meditating in the first place: you are discontent with some part of your life. In short: you suffer. So recall this notion, and turn your attention towards those things in your life that are causing this suffering. Doing this will clarify what is important and may dispel your attachments to various scenarios of your external life.
Those who study the philosophy of Buddhism know that impermanence is a core teaching. Impermanence means everything that is made, will be unmade. Everything born will die. We will all die, and we do not know when. Life is a short and temporary situation. The more you know all of this, the less you will be reflexively attached to every little problem in life.
Closely examining the content and process of thoughts will identify where the activity is come from. Let us say you are ruminating over a past event where you made a mistake. Why can you not let it go? You can spend all day fighting it, telling yourself you stop it, but the mental activity persists. One main reason is that you have not identified the actual source. If you think you have identified it but your rumination remains, you actually just fooled yourself. You have to search deeper than a simple label or intellectual reason.
This type of examination of the content and process of thoughts is, itself, meditation. So, with meditation one can dispel the excitement that was preventing you from meditation. This is psychological judo. Take the energy of your excitation and turn it against the mind.
What we are describing here is a process of observing and perceiving your own mental activity. It is done with the absence of thought.
When we intend to meditate upon something our mind gets in the way. The mind does not behave, instead it is thinking, worrying, distracted. This proves, of course, there is energy. We need to leverage it. Do not ignore or fight the mind. Observe it, do not become attached or identified with it. At such time, let the mind bring you all the things, and, one by one, see the all the things for what they are: bundles of programmed energy.
In other words, they are mental forms, formations. When we remain mindful and vigilant, the forms dissolve. What remains is our practice of meditation.
And what if it is too difficult to do this? Perhaps our mind is too crazy, too unwieldly. In this case, pay attention to something else entirely. Recite prayers and mantras until the mind calms down. Pay attention to your breathing for some time. Perform pranayama. This is a way to calm down the mind.
Summary
The natural state of the mind is peace.
Normally our mind is dispersed and agitated.
Disengaging from the elements which agitate and disperse the mind allows it to return to its natural state.
Dharana, concentration, tranquility, mental calm, calm abiding are all the same thing. It is the natural state of the mind.
The skill to disengage from the discursive elements is divided in two aspects:
Mindfulness: not forgetting to be in the practice.
Vigilance: keeping watch over the appearance of obstacles to your practice.
The primary obstacles to concentration are:
Laxity
Excitation
In the beginning the exertion is intense to remain in the practice. As more concentration develops, less exertion is needed.