Self-assessment
These are the five
barriers (bandits) which would try their best to stop you from progressing in
your meditation practice and therefore slow you down from reaching your mental
destination.
1)
Craving bandit -
being hit by thoughts that drawn towards sensual desire. You will feel like to
do everything else which can offer you more pleasure and joy. Your thoughts
will tell you to abandon this boring difficult practice and do something else
which has more fun and excitement. You might be hit very severely by sexual
craving especially male, homesickness in the case that you have to be away from
home and join a retreat and other symptoms. Be spontaneous and really work on
the first foundation of awareness. With a bit of effort, the bandit will back down
and probably disappear.
2)
Angry bandit
- being hit by thoughts and feelings that cause ill will, agitation, resentment
and anger either towards someone, something or a situation. You will feel
miserable in being here at the retreat and feel annoyed with everyone and
everything people do.
You
can counteract the angry bandit by bringing in the thought of loving, kindness
and compassion. Try to think that other people also have to bear such miserable
feelings just like you do. Then spread your loving kindness to others and wish
all beings to be at peace. Work hard on the first foundation of awareness, the
angry bandit will back down.
3)
Sleepy bandit
- being hit by sleepiness, laziness, sluggishness, inactivity and idleness. You
can hardly keep yourself awake and your brain cannot absorb anything at all.
This bandit seems harmless but is extremely difficult to fend off.
You
can counteract this by changing the method of practice. Involve more movements,
walking meditation backwards, do practical work or even take a shower to wake
yourself up. If there is no way you can get rid of your sleepiness, go and lie
down for 15-20 minutes, no more, get up, wash your face and start the practice
again. Do not sit meditate because you will fall to sleep in no time at all. Do
it when you are fully awake.
4)
Bombshell bandit
- being bombarded by an explosion of thoughts, worry, anxiety, distraction and
so on. This is a state of mind that makes it quite impossible to meditate.
This
bandit has to be killed by extreme patience. Try to involve in practical work
instead and work hard on the first foundation of awareness. Just do your best.
If all your effort fell to alter this frustrating state of mind, you must turn
the situation around. Pretend that you are sitting very patiently on a bench in
a very busy train station and watch all these speedy trains passing by. Then,
bring in wisdom. Tell yourself that an untrained mind can play up just like
what you are feeling right now. This should encourage you not to be complacent
and work harder on your practice when your mind allow you to do so.
5)
Doubtful bandit
- being hit by doubt and uncertainty about the whole practice and the
achievement.
When
this happens, you must work on spontaneity. Immediately burst that bubble of
doubt in the same way that you burst other bubbles of thoughts. You should gain
profound wisdom every time you burst the doubtful bubble. If you can
successfully defeat this bandit and come out safely, you will become wiser very
quickly. This barrier is a very good test and difficult to break through
because you are dealing with the most subtle illusion. The further you walk
down this path, the more often you will be tested by this bandit. Only
spontaneity and the real knowledge can help you to break through this barrier.
Fighting with these
five bandits is the biggest task on earth. There are not many people who want
to fight with them because it is very difficult. If you don’t fight, they will
take over your life and all your actions will stem out from these bandits.
Doubtful bandit is the cause of ignorance, the most damaging one. To make the
practice easier, you must initially have the will or desire to fight these
bandits and subsequently you must have the right weapon and the skill to fight
with. I tell you now that the four foundations of awareness is the very weapon
and the skill is what I have shared with you in my Tai chi class. Here is the
quick summary.
Ideally, your
awareness or consciousness (the real you) should be with the following of the
foundations of awareness. When you are not with either of the foundation, it
means that your mind is either drifting along with your thoughts and feelings
or in a dreamlike state when nothing is clear although there don’t seem to have
any thoughts or feeling. If your mind has no thought nor feeling, you should
see the innocent world or see things as they are and know that this is the
destination you have wanted to achieve. The knowledge and the experience have
to be clear.
1)
The
first foundation of awareness - know your physical movements.
Know your breathing or other
physical movements, Tai chi, walking, every detailed movement involving your
practical work. This is the foundation that you will have to work on most all through
the day depending how spontaneous you are. Remember that the Buddha still
recommend the fully enlightened ones (Pra Arahants) to work on this foundation.
This is the direct route which can help you to feel good both body and mind
rather quickly. Please check with me if you still don’t know how exactly you
can practise this foundation.
2)
The second foundation of awareness - know
your physical sensations
Know your
physical sensations, pain, itching, tinkling, throbbing, buzzing and so on.
Spend at least 10 seconds or more in that sensation without drifting or before
you change to work on the other foundations of awareness. However, you can skip
away from this foundation only when you have to burst the bubble of your
thoughts. When you can do it, it means that you have worked well on your
spontaneity. When the work regarding the second foundation ends, go back to the
first foundation right away. If not, your mind will float and allow one of the
five bandits to take you over.
3)
The third foundation of awareness – know
your thoughts and mental feelings.
This is the most difficult foundation both to teach
and to work on. At this stage, just know that do not drift along with your
thought too long. If you drift, you must be spontaneous and get out of it right
away. This mental action is what I call “bursting the bubble of thought”.
The range of time that you will sit in any bubble of thoughts can range from
split seconds to a few minutes. You actually drift from one thought to another
and yet another endlessly. If I am around, I will remind you to be spontaneous
and you can instantaneously burst that bubble of thought. If I am not around,
you must find a way to stop yourself from drifting. Drifting in a matter of a
full minute while you are in this retreat considers far too long. This is one
aspect of dealing with the third foundation.
The
other aspect is to observe the ups and downs of your mind. When you cannot seem
to burst any thoughts at all, it is very likely that you are hit severely by the
bombshell bandit. You must pretend that you are sitting tight on a bench at a
very busy train station platform and watch the train passing by. It is very
painful to watch if you are hit by unpleasant thoughts and feelings. Be
patient.
As soon as you have burst your immediate thought and feeling, dive into
the first foundation of awareness without any hesitation. This will improve
your skill very quickly.
4)
The fourth foundation of awareness –
engulf or melt yourself in the innocent world.
If you have done the first three foundations correctly and successfully, you
will naturally see the innocent world without having to do anything like the
above three foundations. Your mind has to be crystal clear before you can
welcome the innocent world – that is there are no echo of thoughts and no
traces of feeling left in your mind whatsoever. Therefore, you will see
everything as it is – that is there are no names, concepts, price and value in
everything you perceive. Your sense of self will disappear too at that
immediate moment when the innocent perception is happening. You should have the
strong sense of mental and spiritual freedom – a state that there is no word
can penetrate. The innocent world is self-knowledge and therefore, it is an
absolute knowledge in itself. If you hit the real knowledge (innocent world),
you can guarantee yourself that this is it. This is the indication for you to
judge for yourself. My words just help you to confirm what you already know.
The
fourth foundation can be easily cheated but can be detected by your experienced
teacher without much difficulties. Your reaction and appearance in describing
this ultimate state is a matter of black and white to a teacher who knows the
innocent world well enough to teach others. You are highly advised to be humble
and very honest about the result. Whether you know or don’t know, it doesn’t
matter, just simply be honest about it. This is not a competition. You don’t
need to make yourself look good to others and especially not to your teacher.
It is much more important that you hit the real knowledge. If you don’t
understand and cannot gain the experience like others, I am here to help you.
If you cannot reach me, please refer to my latest book “A Handful of
Leaves” or write to me.
1) Name of the activity i.e. sitting
meditation, walking meditation, cooking, cleaning, eating, sleeping, Tai chi
and so on.
2) How
long did the activity last?
3) Which
of the five barriers have you been hit most while doing this activity?
4) How
well did you manage the first foundation? 0-3
5) How well did you do the second
foundation? 0-3
6) Did you burst any bubbles of thoughts
and feeling?
yes, no
7) How spontaneous could you burst those
bubbles? 0-3
8) Did your mind reach your mental
destination (calm and still mind) after the activity? Yes, no
9) How certain are you about the experience
of your mental destination (the calm nature)? 0-3
10) Can
you see the innocent world? Yes, no
11) How
certain are you about the innocent world experience? 0-3
12) How
well (long) could you maintain the innocent world experience? 0-3
13) As
regard this activity, how satisfy are you with the overall outcome? 0-3
Please
remember that the poor result doesn’t mean that you are no good. No matter your
result is poor or good, you have learnt the skill of how to walk the path may
be in the nature that you don’t realise. Knowing how to walk the path is much
more important. There will always be another day that you can do better than today.
Please keep on and don’t give up. Even after this retreat, try to assess
yourself at least once a day. This will help you to constantly walk the path.
May peace be always with you.