The soil, water, and sunshine of meditation is shamatha. The Sanskrit term, shamatha, has been variously translated into English. Examples include:
tranquil abiding
peaceful abiding
equipoise
resting the mind
clean-clear spaciousness
focused peaceful awareness
taming the mind so as to train the mind
establishing the ground or establishing ground awareness.
Each translation is correct to what shamatha is, can provide, and opens to. If there is a challenge for a practitioner, especially if unseasoned, one might think that each translation is a distinct result requiring specific practices. There’s a yes/and here. Shamatha is the entire process from learning to recognize how wild one’s mind is, initial taming, grounding and calming practices, up to and including spacious emptiness-clarity, true nonmeditation, and awareness recognized as original face beyond all conceptual references. Each translation, then, is an instruction.
To abide is to float in a stability that has no craving or grasping, no rejecting or preference. Tranquility implies a restfulness, peacefulness, and serenity that is content and has no needs thus no distractions. Equipoise indicates at-one-with-all; no center or periphery; nothing pulling, nothing pushing. Resting the mind – how does one do that when the mind is “all that appears and exists”? Machig Lapdron indicated how. She said, “Buddha is the mind; the mind is space.” Therefore, what all the translation-instructions are pointing toward is spaciousness: a loose floating equipoise, alert, acute, and awake. “Awareness in its seat.” With such instructions, over time and dedicated practice on and off the cushion, one discovers that ground awareness is ever serene, acute, and present; and that this is who or what we are.
since the British first traveled to India. Although the Indian subcontinent and the entire Himalayan area are still living harsh negative results from British colonization, division, and devastating treaties, the world received yoga and meditation.
Meditation, like playing an instrument, keeps the mind supple and alert. Freshly engaging each moment means that habits of consciousness which so easily distract or derail one’s mind and awareness are disallowed to do so. Yet, this is not accomplished through trying to control habitual propensities; observation, humor, and letting be are employed.
We frequently pause and refresh. Using that which has been cultivated, we newly engage a technique and/or subject that has been explored before. Each time, each of us has opportunity to newly discover and build confidence in ongoing awakening – because we experience our transformations and releases.
What if everyone was dedicated to the goodness, brilliance, and empathy of their heart? and essence of Being? All human confusion, human-made problems, and human-driven selfish agendas would cease, exhaust, and extinguish.
We are invited to live from such a dedication. Now, in our times of world need.
