2021-03-15 Mindfulness of Breathing (54) Deepening Samādhi
IInsight Meditation CenterMar 16, 2021 at 4:37 am12min
GGil Fronsdal00:02
Continuing on the topic of samādhi, the 11th step of mindfulness of breathing. The word samādhi is sometimes used as a generic word for meditation – cultivating our mind or body in the meditation practice. When we look within this universe of samādhi, there are all kinds of things that we are gathering together. We're unifying to develop, grow, and enhance our experience.
GGil Fronsdal01:03
Samādhi is not meant to be an experience that diminishes, lessens, or deprives us. It's actually the opposite. It's one of the richest ways of experiencing ourselves. It's very fulfilling and nourishing. It's about developing these beautiful, wholesome qualities and states of mind. It's also about getting out of the way, without adding extra tension and stress that can exist in the mind. It moves us toward less and less stressful states of mind, or states of being – less and less activated places of agitation, and into deeper and deeper peace.
GGil Fronsdal01:56
As we do so, even wholesome activities of mind that are more energetic than need be, begin to be shed, relaxed, or settled. It's a movement from more energetic states to quieter and stiller states. I think some people have very negative experiences of quiet, stillness, and silence. So we have to try to put those associations aside, and somehow realize that the quietness, stillness, silence that we're developing – this letting go – is filling us with feelings of real goodness, contentment, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
GGil Fronsdal02:46
There is movement toward less and less agitation. Fewer energetic movements. In the context of the mind getting more and more peaceful, things that were wholesome and wonderful before can feel a little bit too agitating or stressful.
GGil Fronsdal03:07
For example, in samādhi there can be a lot of joy. But at some point, joy seems like it's too much, too agitating – even though at the beginning, it felt like the best thing anybody could ever experience. As we get more familiar with it, the energy of it seems to be too much. Then we settle down more and more into peace, or a quiet place that feels even more satisfying.
GGil Fronsdal03:51
Developing samādhi is a movement from more agitated and energetic states toward less energetic states, and we feel more and more satisfied as we go into them. A guiding principle for tuning into our practice – the way to see the path forward in samādhi – is to appreciate that what felt really wonderful at one stage of practice is now something we're ready to let go of. We become quieter, and move toward a less energetic, less activated state. That's the direction in which the practice is going. Various landmarks stand out along the way that, as we do this process of more and more settling. There is more peace.
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