“This is vimaṁsā (investigation) in meditation.”
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Question: I am able to note my breath when it gets
refined or when it becomes coarse or when I start to get restless, exercising
vimaṁsā both during and after my meditation sitting. However, my focus still
increases and wanes. Am I doing it correctly? Could Ajahn please advise me what
to do next to develop vimaṁsā correctly?
Tan Ajahn: When you meditate for calm, you should not
analyze. You should not use your thoughts at all because the goal is to stop
your thoughts. When you analyze, then your thoughts will keep thinking.
When you are watching the breath, all you want to do
is to know, to be aware or to acknowledge whether the breath is short or long,
coarse or subtle. You don’t want to analyze or have any thoughts about it, just
using your breath as your point of focus in order to stop your mind from
thinking about other things.
If you think, you are going to think about your
breathing, and it will obstruct your mind from entering into jhāna. So you want
to just know, be aware of your breathing and be aware that you are not thinking
about anything, not even about your breath. This is the proper way.
With vimaṁsā, you only do it after you withdraw from
your samādhi, when you finish your sitting session. Then you can analyze: How
come today I sat and I didn’t get the result I wanted? Am I thinking too much?
Do I have mindfulness? This is what you should do afterwards. But when you are
watching your breath, you should not think.
It is like a boxer, when he goes up to the ring, he
doesn’t analyze. He has to box and beat his opponent. But after he finishes the
match, he can look at the tape, analyzing what he did right and what he did
wrong. So this is vimaṁsā (investigation) in meditation. You should do it
afterwards.
“Dhamma for the Asking, Dec 9, 2014”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com
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