Ch.1 - Mahayana and Theravada Approaches to the Purification of Mind
[This discourse was given on a five month Vipassanā retreat and investigates the systematic and direct approaches, pointing out the advantages of practising both paths and learning how they may support each other at different times.]
Different Approaches to The Path out of Suffering
I want to start to mention these things now. Maybe not in a complete way yet, and we can look at it in a complete way as we complete our jigsaw. Traditionally, there are two approaches to the path out of suffering, to freedom. There is the one which focuses on the lower or conditioned or defiled state of mind and seeks to unravel and untangle it through the light of insight. Mindfulness penetrates and breaks down the compactness of that lower mind-state so that we can extract ourself from that conditioned mind. This is the practice of Samatha and Vipassanā. This could be seen as the traditional Theravāda type approach.
And then there is the practice of introducing or being introduced to an enlightened state or an awakened state or a higher state of mind that is already innate within us and using that as our reference and cultivating the connection to that awakened mind. In this way, over time one sees how the ego or self-centred mind is nothing but a vexation and our need to be at the centre of our experience is the very cause of our suffering.
So in this approach, as in the systematic approach, it is the insight into no-self that frees us in stages of ego clinging. The difference being that in this direct approach the cultivation of that higher mind becomes the cause for the relinquishing of the lower mind. Really the essence of this approach is this. As you meditate on the innate state of enlightenment within you, and as you manage to enter more and more completely into it, and eventually get some meditative stability upon it, that deepening connection to our innate awakened state becomes the cause for a more committed rejection of the lower mind. So that is the Mahāyāna type approach.
With the Theravāda type approach we investigate the nature of the experience that we are currently engaged in and dig out the causes within it for our not being satisfied, not being at peace, for not being happy. So within the experience that you are having, you look for what it is that is the cause of suffering. This is the way that the Buddha taught in the suttas. This is what is called the Sutta practices and the way highlighted in Abhidhamma, and in the Visuddhimagga, which is the way of investigating reality and our experience of it, in search of the causes of suffering and their cessation. This is the practice of vipassanā.
I am trying to teach you to develop a skilful way of integrating both of these two approaches without leaning exclusively on one or the other. Because there are dangers, in both approaches, of working things out at a view level and coming to a view that is satisfying without getting to the experience of awakening.
That was definitely my experience. While I was doing intensive practice, there were many people who had reached a complete view of either one of these approaches and yet had not come to a definitive experience that had freed them. There is a danger with the Mahāyāna approach in that the view is quite easily reached without bringing a definitive experience of awakening. There is also the danger with the Theravādan approach, that if you stay focussed on that which you have got to relinquish, without seeing that which is going to reveal itself to you upon relinquishing it, you can fold in on yourself and get stuck in a loop beyond which you cannot see or go.
The benefit of integrating the Direct approach is that knowing something beyond your ego gives you far more confidence and makes the idea of dismantling the ego far less terrifying than it is if you cannot see what you would be presented with when you do let go. The danger of this approach, and I have seen many yogis fall into this, is that you come to this view of annihilation and you can’t see within it: “I can see that I am suffering but I can’t see where the enlightened state or the awakening or the freedom that I am looking for lies.”
The point is that sooner or later you have to become dispassionate towards the things that are clung to. There is the point where your equanimity to formations, your dispassion to them, will create an unwillingness to investigate them, certainly with regards to the really detailed analysis that you are having to do. If it is just this square-bashing, mechanical process that is seeing mind as this binary type process, you can get so locked in on it that after you are so locked into it you can’t then enter into a different way of functioning. There is a danger that the mind gets so focused upon itself that it can’t then see beyond it.
Anyway, you all know by now that the way that I have taught you is to develop both of these approaches as you go. Some of you are leaning too much on the Mahāyāna type view at the expense of enough investigation, enough breaking down of the compactness of your ego, leaning on the view, “Well, this higher mind is free from all of that. Therefore I’ll just reject all of that.” But you see, the view does not purify. The experience of what is the cause of suffering purifies as you go and the experience of the cessation of the causes of suffering purifies. If you get too content with your awakened experience, your maturing experience of the empty state of mind, there is a danger of becoming complacent, assuming that that is enough purification.
And it is enough purification when the conditioned states, unwholesome states aren’t arising but it is not enough purification when they are. So it is dangerous. The conclusion that I am coming to is that this is really a practice for the later stages. Once you have realised Nibbāna, or at least equanimity to formations, you can practise like that. At that point it will carry you forward. But until that time you will need to balance these two approaches and not fall into complacency.
To practise the direct path without enough insight knowledge is dangerous. Your mind remains unpurified. It is really hard to purify your mind all the way, simply through that experience of the awakened state and the rejection of the unawakened state, because your experience of it won’t be complete enough until your mind is sufficiently purified. It is only when the mind is almost completely purified that your experience of the awakened state is enough. It is very subtle. You see what I mean?
But that does not mean you should not develop the direct approach, that experience of the pure awareness state. It also has more insight in it than your samatha practice. So as a refuge it is a better refuge whilst practising vipassanā than your samatha attainment is.
Just reading people’s interviews, reading people’s reflections, it is clear that there is a confusion about what this is. There is a tendency to believe that knowing the basic awakened state of awareness as ‘such’ is the same as knowing Nibbāna – it is not. Knowing Nibbāna is knowing the cessation of formations. I am not going to talk about that here but I will cover this in detail later. But they are fundamentally different experiences.
How to Meditate Skilfully
You have got to get beyond always needing to come back and ask me. You have got to get to the point that you understand clearly about these two aspects and how to skilfully work both of them into your practice. Because I think that’s what truly marks you as a skilful meditator.
Everybody when they are learning, appears like a rabbit in the headlights, “Where am I? What am I doing? I am just doing this. Am I doing this right? I’ll just keep going.” This is not skilful, this just putting forth the effort and hoping that you will get it. Actually, there are a lot of meditators like that. I dare say we meditate like that for a long time when we are coming to understand the ground.
But when you understand the ground, you don’t need to meditate like that. I am hoping that, now that you have done so much work, you should get to the point where you are not having to meditate like that. That you are informed enough about all the different states of meditation, how you access them and where the insight is that is inherent within them. You should be able to knit your whole practice together comprehensively.
You’ll still need steerage but you won’t need to be carried. That’s a big point, when you get to the point where you have enough knowledge that you don’t need to be carried by the teacher any more. Some of you are getting to that point, but some of you are still a bit loose. It’s all a bit loose. It’s just not quite skilful enough. This attitude that some of you have where you think to yourself; “It’s not going very well, maybe I’ll try this.” This is still a little bit freestyle, not enough really clear, incisive understanding of what is what and how it all functions. So over the next few days and weeks I want to help you to clarify all this so that you can become a truly skilful meditator and not just one who knows a lot of techniques and just hopes for the best.
I want you, while you are doing your practice, to review how clearly you understand what you are doing. Because when you really understand what you are doing, then you are an independent meditator. You only need to refer to the teacher for pointing out instructions and to clarify your experience. And that is a really big step.
All of you will have your own ideas of how clearly you have understood all of this. Maybe we do try to convince ourselves that we understand it more clearly than we do. So it is really important that you clear up the grey areas and get clarification now so that you’ll always know - this is samatha, this is vipassanā, this the direct approach, and this is how I am using them.
Because the nuance and subtlety of the states now needs to be really clearly understood. You need to understand what is upekkhā, equanimity, what is meditating on equanimity, what is equanimity to formations, what is awareness, what is the clear mind state, what is Nibbāna. When all these things are really clear you can be skilful and know what it is that you are doing.
So in the next week I want you to overcome doubt about that. Honestly, it’s amazing how long so many of you have meditated at a view level, an ideas level. Only now are some of you beginning to start to meditate at an embodied, experiential level. It’s like your understanding mind has run miles on ahead of you and put the pieces together in the mind, only then to find out that that is not the transformative experience. Some of you have even formulated the idea of being enlightened – in your mind that subscribed to the view that this is enough. It is not.
What Constitutes a Transformative Experience of Awakening?
The transformative experience is an embodied experience within you that changes you quantum-ly, quantifiably and permanently. So spend less time trying to figure it out and more time clarifying its experience. I think this is such an important point. I think that this is hugely overlooked. When I look at it now I think it could even be the case that each and every one of us could do our meditation at that mind level or view level and think that what has had to be done has been done. But this is why I am asking you now to spend so much time at it. It takes that time to turn it into an experience that transforms you.
Do you get what I mean about that? That there is some point where your mind is grasping the insight and there is the point at which it is watching that principle expressing itself directly in the moment. Is that a clear enough way of expressing it? It is while watching those principles express themselves directly to you in the moment that they transform you. And that comes from meditative stability, which comes from continuity of practice. So don’t worry if you are not always working at the edge of your capacity or the edge of your insight. Don’t always work at the threshold of your insight. Work on those pieces of the jigsaw that you know are in place and that you know to be in the right place. Then you will see them clearly. Even going back to four elements practice and developing more meditative stability there will produce extraordinary levels of insight that will help you let go.
The Wisdom of the Yogi
How clearly have you understood and experienced mind as the four aggregates and body as the fifth? How much have you just grasped Dependent Origination but can’t see it yet? This is where most of you now are starting to get to, seeing how Dependent Origination functions. But even quite a long time ago you could probably say that you understood Dependent Origination. A long time ago you could say “I’ve got a reasonably good understanding of kamma.” Now you are starting to experience its function, experience it as a universal principle so that you could say “I don’t have a doubt about it any more”.
When you had it as a formulated understanding you might have been inclined to say, “There is no doubt in my mind.” But there is doubt in your mind. There isn’t any doubt when you see the conditional arising of things in the moment and you know what it is that was the cause and what it is that arises. This comes from meditative stability.
And that’s something that will be just maturing in you, and the wisdom of the yogi is the wisdom of someone who has seen. Because when you see, you absolutely know how things are. Because you have seen it in your heart or with your own eye of wisdom.
But when you have worked it out in your mind you haven’t got that, “I have seen it”. So you still stand on your view. And the point is, your fully awakened mind does not stand on view any more. That is why it is empty. It doesn’t stand on ideas, it doesn’t have theory to stand on. It doesn’t even need to remember what it has learnt because it can see. And so, without knowing or without remembering, it just looks. Every time that it looks, it can see. That’s what it is to be awake.
This meditative stability, the stability of your mind, the composure of your mind that matures through practice, is what frees the mind. All the energy that you use filling the gap of not seeing, that is what view is. That is the unbearable friction of clinging to views.
In the days and weeks of pushing yourselves at the limit of your insight, and smoke is coming out of your ears with sparks flying, maybe you are strengthening some resolve. But just to be chipping away patiently, seeing more clearly all the time that your meditative stability is maturing, this is the path. And your meditative stability will always keep maturing. That is the one single quality that, above all else, you want to be actually cultivating. Because it is that one quality that will perform all the functions for you. It is this that will lead you out of suffering.
The other thing is that it will provide the coolness in your mind that you wanted all along and that you couldn’t have because your mind was always having to understand what was happening to it, which is noisy and hot and steamy and vexing and tiring, with no space. Trying to understand who I am and what is happening to me, pushing that poor mind all the time so that it is never having a chance to rest is exhausting.
That’s meditation for you. You get out what you put in, but try to put in skilfully. The more that you understand how it is functioning, what this arena is, the more skilfully you can practise and the more that you will get out of it, particularly now, when it feels quite overwhelming. You are only overwhelmed because you are at the limit of your capacity. Your insight is being stretched to the limit. Don’t always do that. That’s one way to extend your capacity but your stability may not develop that way.
These are just a few reflections that might help you approach what you are doing at the moment in a more conscientious, balanced and peaceful way. Because in this stage we are at, that involves so much detailed investigation of mind and matter, it is easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees, and when that happens we lose all sense of spaciousness. So maintain a balanced approach.
