The Fourth Tetrad

When you look at the Buddha’s sixteen steps for breath meditation and compare them with other passages where he talks about meditation, you realize that the sixteen steps have some gaps.

Now, that may be because the Buddha chose sixteen as an easy-to-remember number: four sets of four. He may have expected the people who memorized them to fill in the gaps for themselves.

For instance, with the first four, you discern long breathing; you discern short breathing; you train yourself to breathe in and out sensitive to bodily fabrication; and then you train yourself to breathe in and out calming bodily fabrication.

Now, there are other passages where the Buddha talks about how, before you calm things down, first you have to energize them.

Just think of those steps in the middle there. When you’re sensitive to the whole body, you begin to realize how the breath has an effect on your sense of how the body feels. And you want to energize it first. Otherwise, if you’re sitting here calming yourself down from the very beginning, you fall asleep.

That’s one case.

Another case is in the last tetrad: Breathe in and out, focused on inconstancy. Breathe in and out, focused on dispassion. Breathe in and out, focused on cessation. Breathe in and out, focused on relinquishment.

Someone once asked about the first of those steps, “Just inconstancy?” Well, no. Those first two steps, inconstancy and dispassion, are basically a shorthand notice for the five-step program that the Buddha has for dealing with any defilement.

To focus on inconstancy, first you have to see that something is fabricated. You watch for its origination. You watch for its passing away. Those are the first two steps in the five-step program.

Then you focus on the allure. What is it about this thing that you like? Focusing on inconstancy is one way of looking at the drawbacks, but looking at the drawbacks is not really effective unless you have a clear idea of what the allure is. You want to see why you go over a particular case of lust or a particular case of anger. If you don’t see why, then you can focus on drawbacks all day long, and they don’t really hit home.

You have to know, “Why is it that I like this? Why do I like my lust? Why do I like my anger?”

“Does my lust make me attractive?” A lot of people think that, you know. “The fact that I desire something, does that reflect well on me?”

“Or the fact that I’m angry about something, does that reflect well on me? Do I have a sense of power through the anger? Do I have a sense of being released from restrictions?” Look into it.

That’s implied when trying to get to dispassion. You have to see the fact that whatever you like has its origination in the mind. Maybe there are defilements you don’t like—or you tell yourself you don’t like them—but they have their origination in the mind. You can’t go around blaming other people or other things outside. You have to see that the origination is in here, and that it’s not solid. It comes and it goes and then it comes back again.

Seeing the coming and the going, then, focuses you on inconstancy. You ask yourself, “Is that the problem? Is this something you thought you could rely on? Or is it something you thought you could just have a quick hit and benefit from it?” In which case, focusing on inconstancy is not the issue. Focusing on it is not solving the problem.

The real problem is in the pleasure you get out of it. You have to see that if it’s inconstant, then it’s going to be stressful. Then you can finally see that the allure is lying to you. There’s a passage in the Canon where the Buddha talks about the allure actually hiding the drawbacks. The drawbacks are actually in the allure. Look for them there—because the allure is inconstant, stressful, and not-self.

When you finally see something that tells you, “No, that’s it. I’m done with that defilement. It’s lost its appeal,” that’s when you escape. That’s the dispassion.

But in escaping, it’s not like you’re escaping a prison that continues to exist after you’ve gone. It ceases. You begin to realize that you were the one who created this prison. When you no longer have the passion to keep it going, it stops.

That’s an important insight. Learn how to appreciate your insights. Of course, there will come a point where you have to let even the insights go, and even your appreciation of the insights goes. But in the very beginning, though, it’s good to have that moment of saying, “Yes, okay, I did this. My mind is in better shape because of that.” It gives you encouragement.

But later on in the path, it can get in the way. As you’re dealing with deeper and deeper problems, that passage on dispassion begins to change its meaning. The word dispassion—virāgā—also means “fading.” In the really important insights, when you finally have no more passion for everything, the six senses all fade. They fade into light. But then you can get attached to that if you’re not careful.

This is why it’s good to practice relinquishment from the very beginning. You’ve seen yourself get past a particular defilement. It feels good to say, “Okay, I can say No to that now. The part of my mind that was telling me that my lust was good, my anger was good, I’ve seen through it. It’s lost its appeal.” Allow yourself to feel a little bit good about that, but then put it aside, because there are more problems coming up.

Conceit can be a problem. When you’re dealing with very subtle things in the mind, the attachment to the deathless, the attachment to your perception of the deathless, can actually get in the way. There will come points where you have to use the teachings that all phenomena are not self, all phenomena are unworthy of adherence, and then you have to let those insights go, too. Otherwise, you’re still stuck.

So you want to make it a habit after a while: Once you get used to dealing with your defilements, you have to get more and more matter-of-fact about it. Something comes up, it looks pretty good—as a result of getting rid of a defilement—well, just watch it. Don’t get excited. See where it, too, may have its drawbacks.

If you can learn how to take this matter-of-fact attitude, that gets you past a lot of subtle things in the mind.

There’s a passage in the Canon where the Buddha says that when people are saying, “I’m unbound, I’m freed,” the fact that they still claim to be “I am this, I am that”: That’s still part of where they’re attached. It’s because they haven’t learned how to take a matter-of-fact attitude toward success in the practice.

So make it a habit. Once you’ve gained an insight—you’ve learned how to let go of something that has been bothering you—take a little bit of joy in that fact to encourage you to do it again, but then just put it down so that you’re ready for the next whatever comes up. That develops a good habit in the mind, one that’ll see you all the way through.