Today we will continue to listen to the Dhamma during the Dhammaramsi retreat on June 28th, 2022.
Today I’m going to speak about four meditations, four protections that we need when we are practicing Vipassana in order to be able to practice meditation without disturbance.
In our workplace, especially in building construction, we need to have protections in order to do our work safely. Only when we have this protection can we do our work without danger. We need protection for our head, for our eyes, maybe for the nose, for the ears. We may need protection for the hands or the feet and wear a uniform, a protective uniform.
Safety first, that’s the most important, and in the same way, when we do Vipassana, we need to have these four kinds of protective meditation in order to practice safely. These four kinds of meditation are number one, Buddhānussati, number two, Metta Bhavana, number three, Asubhā bhavana. And number four, Maranassati.
Of these four, Buddhānussati is the recollection, repeated recollection, of the virtues of the Buddha. The Buddha has a countless number of virtues. We only need to choose one on which to reflect.
The Buddha has countless virtues, and therefore, if we were going to reflect on them one after another, on each of these countless virtues, we wouldn’t have time for our main activity of Vipassana practice. For that reason, we don’t need to reflect on all of them. [We just need to,] It’s sufficient to just reflect on one of them.
We take the three refuges, Buddham saranam Gacchami, Dhammam saranam Gacchami, Sangham saranam Gacchami. We take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. And of these three, we give priority to the Dhamma in our practice. But if we practice the Dhamma respectfully, then we will come to know about the qualities of the Buddha through our practice.
The Buddha has countless virtues, and if we were to speak about them and to reflect on them, listen about them, all of them, it would become wearisome. But in the past, in the area of meditation practice, the people who have gone before have used this as a protection. And in order for the yogis to know about this protection for their meditation, we’re going to speak about this to a suitable extent.
The qualities of the Buddha are none other than what we recite when we pay respects to the Buddha by reciting Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhassa. This sentence contains three special qualities of the Buddha. Of those three special qualities, when we say Arahato, that expresses the quality of Araham.
The meaning of Araham is that the Buddha, when he realized the path knowledge of Arahantship, he eliminated all the mental defilements, the kilesas, that had bothered him throughout his samsaric existence. It is the quality of being completely pure. That is the meaning of ‘araham’.
When we say being completely pure of all the kilesas that have bothered beings throughout samsaric existence, the silent buddhas and arahants, the Pacceka buddhas and arahants also gained complete purity from the kilesas.
They removed all the kilesas with the path knowledge of Arahantship. The Buddha too, he removed all the kilesas with the path knowledge of Arahantship. Although they all eliminated the kilesas with the path knowledge of Arahantship, the way that the Silent Buddhas and Arahants did so, and the way the Buddha did so are different.
The Pacceka Buddhas and the Arahants eliminated all the kilesas, but there was still remaining in them what is called vāsanā. Vāsanā means that when their…when they still had kilesas, the habitual actions and speech that they committed at that time, the traces of that still remain. [This is a clumsy sentence. It might be better to say, “Vāsanā means the traces of habitual actions and speech that they committed when they still had kilesas.”] The Buddha removed all the kilesas and he also removed vāsanā. There were no remnants of his past verbal or physical behavior that remained.
To use the most obvious analogy, if you have a bottle of strong alcohol. and empty it and wash it completely, repeatedly, there’s still a scent. The smell of that alcohol still remains in the bottle, even though you’ve washed it many times.
And this is like the way that the Arahants and the silent Buddhas have dispelled the kilesas. With the Buddha, the way that he dispelled the kilesas and eliminated vāsanā is like not only [having] completely emptied the bottle so that there’s no more alcohol but also there is no more trace of the alcohol that was there.
This is how the dispelling of kilesas by the silent buddhas and arahants is different from how the Buddha dispelled the kilesas. Because of his complete purity, the Buddha had the resultant quality of being worthy of respect by all the world. Because the cause, that is complete purity, was fulfilled, the result of receiving the respect of the many was automatically achieved.
In the world, most people respect purity. And the more respectful [should be ‘respectable’], the more pure a person is, the purer something or someone is, the more they receive respect. This is the nature of the quality of ‘Araham’.
The purity of the Buddha can be seen in a practical way. It is evident in his teachings. The training of Sila, morality is evident. The training of Samadhi is evident. The training of Pañña, wisdom, is evident. And especially the training of Vipassana, the teaching of Vipassana, is evident because there are people who still practice it today. [Sayadaw, I am not sure of the meaning of this paragraph. I think that you used the word tin shar deh. Maybe we can discuss this.]
In practical terms, we put our mind in ourselves, in our body to observe the arising object. We apply effort and aiming in order to observe the object steadfastly.
When we make effort, aim the mind, and observe steadfastly, there is momentary peace in the mind, momentary purity in the mind. When the mind is connecting directly with the object, Then we come to know its true nature. When we know the true nature of the object, the initial attachment that we had is released.
It falls away. And when we practice like this, the mind will gradually become mature. For practicing yogis, as they practice, to the extent that they practice, their mind becomes pure. The mind becomes clear and pure. And when we know this, there’s joyous interest, delight, when we perceive the clarity of the mind.
When we keep the precepts, our actions and our speech are pure. When we develop concentration, the mind becomes pure. And when knowledge, paññā, develops, we give up our attachments and gain peace. When the mind’s endurance or maturity increases, concentration develops, and wisdom develops, then in the end, we realize the cessation of peace. [I think I should have said, the peace of cessation. ‘Cessation of peace’ could be misinterpreted.]
The mind becomes extremely peaceful, and you will find this happens as you practice. You’ll experience how the mind becomes more and more pure through your practice. Just as we can gain purity moment by moment in our practice, in accordance with our practice, the Buddha gained the highest knowledge of Arahantship and dispelled all the defilements.
That’s how pure the Buddha became. And when we compare our own purity gained through the practice with that great purity, we certainly can feel respect and reverence for the Buddha. At that time, we will feel reverence, we will see the teacher who taught the Dhamma and we will feel reverence for him.
How to recollect the quality of ‘Araham’ is simply to understand and reflect in the mind that the Buddha dispelled all the mental defilements together with vasana and because of that he is worthy of the respect of all the world.
As a way of explaining just how many qualities, special qualities, there are that the Buddha has, imagine a flower garden that is full of flower bushes. And imagine that a person goes, a person who likes flowers, goes into the garden and picks one and That’s not enough, picks another, continuing picking, going through the garden, picking all the flowers one after another, not getting satisfied with any one.
In the same way, the Buddha has so many special qualities that one can’t get enough of them. One can’t get enough of reflecting on one and then another and another.
So, this explains just how many qualities there are that the Buddha has. Just like in the flower garden, when we go around, we smell one after another, without getting enough, and not only are there so many, but it would take a lot of time for us to go around to smell all the flowers in a big flower garden.
And similarly, if we were to recollect one quality of the Buddha after another, after another, we would keep on doing that, reflecting on them without getting time for our practice of Vipassana. Our time for practicing Vipassana would become very small [we should say ‘short’ and not ‘small’ when talking about time]. For that reason, it’s sufficient just to reflect on one quality of the Buddha.
To explain what benefit we get from doing recollection of the Buddha, when we recollect the quality of the Buddha, our mind is pure. When we practice Satipatthana meditation, sometimes we can hear or see frightful objects. At that time, it can happen that by the power of that pure mind, the fear is dispelled or it doesn’t arise at all.
That can happen. That is the immediate benefit that is gained. Fear is dispelled or at times it doesn’t even arise. And this is because of the power of the recollection of the quality of the Buddha. Therefore, this is called Ārakkha Bhavana. That is, it is called a guardian meditation because it protects us.
That is the first type of protective meditation. The second protective meditation is Metta Bhavana. Metta Bhavana is the development of a friendly mind, the mind that wants the welfare of all living beings, from the smallest bug, smallest being, whatever living beings there are. When we develop the attitude of wanting the welfare for other beings, our mind is pure.
And the beings that receive our loving kindness feel friendly towards us, towards the one who is wishing their welfare. Just as we want their welfare and have a friendly mind towards them, they also feel friendly towards us. And feeling friendly towards us, they won’t relate to us as enemies. That type of consciousness won’t come up in them. If they don’t feel the feelings of an enemy [better: ‘unfriendly’] towards us, then they won’t disturb us.
If we develop this feeling of goodwill, if we develop mettā systematically, then 11 benefits come about for us. To say in brief what these 11 benefits are, or the benefits are for a person who has strong metta, first of all, they will sleep peacefully. And also, when they wake up, they will awake peacefully with a clear mind. They won’t lose their sleep, they won’t find themselves unable to sleep. And when they sleep, they won’t have bad dreams.
Other beings, both the ones that we can see and the ones that we can’t, will feel friendly towards us. That is, we will receive their metta. Therefore, they will help to overcome dangers such as flood or fire, or winds, storms, or bad rulers, and so on. They will help to get us free from those dangers.
And metta bhavana can also be done as a concentration practice, and if so, then it will lead to rebirth in the Brahma realms. These are higher than the deva, the angelic realms. And if someone who has practiced metta bhavana as a concentration practice switches over to vipassana practice, because they have good concentration, they can develop knowledge easily and can gain the higher path knowledge and fruition knowledges.
As for how to develop metta, we should reflect, “May all beings be free of danger and enemies. May all beings be free of distress. May all beings be free of physical suffering. May all beings be able to care for themselves easily.” To reflect like this is enough.
And the yogis are developing metta every night. We are reciting metta every night, aren’t we? And if we do this wholeheartedly, then we can get these benefits.
Whether we recite Aham avero homi, abyāpajjo homi, Anīgho homi, Sukhi attanam Pariharami, or else if we recite it, recollect it in our own language, whether we’re doing Vipassana practice or we’re at home in our daily lives, this is a practice that should be done.
If we have been developing this Metta, then when we find ourselves in a safe situation, free of danger, it is because of our Metta that this is happening, even though we don’t see how it happens. Every person, in fact all beings, like this attitude of metta. They like to feel this wish for others welfare.
Everyone likes this type of attitude and it’s suitable for all religions. If everyone were to develop this attitude of wanting the welfare of others, then we would feel satisfied with others, with each other. That’s why, whether we’re at home or on retreat, this is a practice that should be done every day, every time we can.
Because we have an attitude of loving kindness for others, others feel friendly towards us, and friends don’t disturb each other. So, this lack of disturbance is due to the power of metta. For that reason, this dhamma of metta is called a protective meditation, ārakkha bhavana. So now, we take the practice of recollection of the Buddha’s qualities as protection and we have the protection of metta bhavana.
Protection, because we don’t want dangers to happen to others. [This is not a complete sentence.] And therefore, we have the chance to practice this meditation without disturbance, happily. If we can practice peacefully, then it’s easy for samadhi to arise. When samadhi is present, then wisdom, paññā, can also arise. With wisdom, we are able to realize Nibbāna. Therefore, by establishing protection, may you be able to develop concentration and wisdom and realize peace.
With this, I conclude the talk, tonight’s talk on the protective meditations.