iMEDITATION

The top hindrance to samadhi is desire. For example sexual desire. There are a few things we can do to temporarilly off-set these thoughts of desire.

1. Think about something else that is wholesome.  ( ie..the dharma)

2. Consider the drawbacks

With everything, there is a negative side to it. During moments of desire we tend to overlook and only see the positive side. Only after do we realize the negative aspect and regret it.

The first step in meditation is letting go of the past and future  to come back to  this moment. This is hard to do sometime, especially when we hang on to resentment about something or someone in the past.  We will be sitting in peaceful meditation then all of a sudden a memory about the past comes up. It stirs up strong emotion that takes us out of stillness. Instead of being in the present , we are stuck in the past with aversion ( Hindrance 2)  as well.  The past ...

" Awareness is the process of cittas experiencing objects. For a citta to arise it must have an object (aaramma.na). The object may be a color, sound, smell, taste, something tangible, or a MENTAL OBJECT. Strictly speaking a mental object can be an internal phenomenon, such as a feeling, a thought, or an idea.The union of the object, the door or sense faculty, and the consciousness is called "contact" (phassa). There can be no awareness without contact. For contact to occur all three com...

Sloth and Torpor

Sloth and torpor always come because you have been controlling so much.  You've been doing so much your mind is actually tired, and worn out.  It wants to rest; it wants to turn off because it has no energy left.  So if sloth and torpor is in front of me I just put peace between myself and the sloth and torpor.  I do not put one of the first two hindrances between me and th...

Method of Supression: first jhana based on bodily foulness.

Is your relationship between the citta and what you are experiencing ( object, past memories) ' I want , ' I don't want', craving ? That's where the attachments are.  It's the link, the way you relate with the objects of your mind from moment to moment that causes delusion to grow and grow ( through the agregates of perception, feelings/ sensation, and conditioned response) . The hindrances ( ie. desire, c...

Make peace with whatever you are experiencing in everyday life and in meditation in order to let go of the fault finding mind.  For example, people, noise, lighting, clothing, etc. Remind yourself that ' This is good enough'.  In this way, you can be content with the present moment.  Then the mind opens up.  Aversion prevents the piti ( rapture , gladness, energy) which is the prerequisite to sucessful meditation.  That's why it's important to let go of t...

Restless Inner Chatter, Worry , Remorse

Sometimes we assume it is through the inner commentary that we know the world. Actually, that inner speech does not know the world at all.  It is the inner speech that spins the delusions that cause suffering.  Inner speech causes us to be angry with our enemies and to form dangerous attachments to our loved ones.  Inner speech causes all of life's problems.  It constructs fear and guilt, anxiety and ...

There are many people who spend years studying the dharma, and yet defilements still arise and remain inside. What is still haven't been abandoned internally?

The Buddha said that if you've abandoned attachment to sensual pleasure, you would not be attracted to the pleasure of the householder life. If you have attend to the rapture and pleasure that are apart from defilements (jhana) , then you would not be attach to sensual pleasure. After the understanding of dharma as well...

According to Ajahn Brahm in " Simply This Moment", when we investigate these states of stillness it becomes quite clear that every time we do something we are disturbing the mind. We are disturbing the process and making it tremble. We are making the mind wobble.  We are doing exactly the thing that stops the attainment.  That is why when we talk about these stages, the culmination of which is the stillness of the mind, it...