Most meditation practice, whether secular or spiritual, Buddhist, Catholic, New Age or from another path, consists of placing one's concentration on a single point -- the breath, the light of a candle, an icon or religious image. The objective of such practices is to achieve a heightened awareness and understanding, or to gain insight and illumination. The Sanskrit word for this state is samadhi.
This is probably the most familiar form of meditation, even among Buddhists, particularly in some of the more ritual paths. This type of meditation produces the kinds of spiritual insights that we often label as "mysticism", and includes the beautiful writings of Teresa of Avila, Anthony de Mello, Maharaji Neem Karoli Baba, Therese Lisieux, John of the Cross, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. One could easily find Tibetan Buddhists, Thai and Southeast Asian Buddhists, Hindu sadhus and teachers of the many yogic schools, who likewise practice this form of meditation.
There is, however, another path... One which we find in the writings of the ancient Zen masters, in the teachings of Sensei Morehei Uyeshiba, the writings of Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hanh, Henri Nouwen and the Mahatma Gandhi. It is the path of the solitary Benedictine monk, living in a Camaldolese abbey, and the Zen Buddhist contemplative, living in the American heartland. It is called silent illumination.
Silent illumination draws on the understanding that there is "nothing to attain", and therefore, no real need to engage the mind, in the "study" of Dharma. It is a path of practice, in which we recognise that just because a window is obscured by years of accumulated dust and particulate obstruction, so that it appears dark outside, does not mean the sun is not shining brightly.
The meditative practice of silent contemplation recognises that our simple remembrance of the ever present illumination is enough to break through the layers of dust, so that radiant and clear light emerges.
It is a practice the moves us ever closer toward a full mindfulness of non-duality, and therefore, need not focus on any one thing, since all things are at once present and absent in the Silence.
In the late thirteenth century, Zen Master Muso noted that people practicing this form of Zen "carry out their ordinary tasks and activities in the midst of meditation and carry out meditation in the midst of ordinary tasks and activities. There is no disparity between meditation and activity."
People often ask how they can learn to integrate the Dharma and meditation more fully into their daily lives, without distraction. I try to explain to them that the concept of there being activities that occur "outside the practice" is the only distraction they must overcome. Once we learn to stop perceiving a difference between our meditative work or spiritual work and "other ordinary activities", then nothing can distract from the practice of the Dharma.
In many of the ancient schools of Buddhism, monks meditated and studied twenty-four hours a day. Similarly, in the Christian monastic orders, particularly such contemplative orders as the Benedictines, Camaldolese and Trappists, we find similar monastic rhythms of silent meditation, but interspersed with periods of communal prayer.
While the intention of these schools is to foster a greater and more expedient spiritual development for the monks themselves, what has happened historically is that many times, these orders attracted individuals who became monks in order to avoid the burden of having to live in the secular world. Their fear of "the real world" became their attachment, and distracted them from their true spiritual practice.
The Great Teacher admonished his disciples, "Love one another." That was really quite simple, and yet one cannot help but wonder how such a simple and profound teaching became so distorted, as to make the study of discipleship into such an ordeal! Instead of focusing on the simple path, we have courses on Patristics, Christology, Hermeneutics, Exegetics, Theology, and "History". Very little of any of these subjects, most of which I spent the greater portion of ten years of my own academic life studying, does anything to cultivate a greater awareness or practice of love.
Similarly, in the Great Lotus Assembly, Buddha Sakyamuni demonstrated that the Dharma was beyond the limitations of words, and that there was nothing to attain; and yet we have Buddhist monasteries today, which require ten to fifteen years or more of monastic formation, studying and memorising texts, engaging in discourse and debate. Again, I spend more than ten years of my early formation with such studies, but did not learn to cultivate compassion until I simply took the time to sit; where, in a moment of awareness without discrimination, great wisdom appears.
Suddenly, it made sense that Buddha and Christ, God or Goddess, are simply temporary names for what cannot be seen when we look... for what can not be heard when we listen... for what cannot be felt when we grasp.
In the fullness of Silence, we experience the single source of all awareness. Some call this single source, "God" or "Goddess", some find it in their saviours and enlightened masters; for some it is the Christ, while others call it Buddhafield. As the Zen scripture on Infinite Light says, "Rivers, lakes, birds, trees, and forests all invoke Buddha, Truth, and Communion."
It is a non-discursive path, neither reached by analysis or by the supression of reasoning, but by simply sitting, and realising there is nothing to attain, nothing for which to grasp.
Once one understands the Four Noble Truths, and engages the Eightfold Path, there are no more lessons to be learned intellectually; just as the seed of the lotus, once rooted and provided with the conditions required for growth, need not "learn" how to become a lotus blossom, and will continue to unfold to completion over time.
By stilling our minds, and realising that nothing we perceive is as it seems, we dissolve the delusion in which we perceive there being a division between the "self" and the vastness around us. Our "hold" on this imaginary "self" softens, and as the palms open, so too does the heart... and with the heart, the eyes are freed of the dust of the kalpas, which has so long obscured our vision.
-- from the Discourse on Meditation, given by Gurudas Sunyatananda at the General Assembly of the Monastic Order of Compassion (October 2008)
Internationally respected, life coach and teacher, Lama Gurudas Sunyatananda (Dr. F. Gianmichael Salvato, O.C., M.Sc.) is a Buddhist and Franciscan contemplative, and author of the popular book, "The Dharma of Compassion - One Monk's Reflections on the Teachings of the Enlightened and Anointed Ones". He is best known for his on-going contributions to helping people unlock the power of their own minds -- teaching them how to apply that power to create strong, loving relationships, make more money, and live more meaningful, prosperous, health and satisfying lives.
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