Q & A
Q: To what extent does our sense of the breath need to be synchronized with the physical in-and-out frequency? Just recently I had the notion of an in-out movement that wasn’t aligned with the actual breathing. And also a sense of energy running quickly in a circle, down the arms, up the legs and spine, and then down again. Is all this fine if it is pleasant? Can I forget about what the coarse breath is doing?
A: As long as the different energies in the body seem not to be working at cross-purposes, this is fine. You have to remember here that the movement of the blood is going through the body all the time. And there will be different parts of the body independently breathing in and out. There are also breath energies that propagate at different speeds: There’s one, for instance, that courses through the entire nervous system as soon as the in-breath starts. So the sensations of the breath can follow a variety of rhythms. As long as they’re not interfering with one another, that’s fine.
Q: Thank you for your advice on dealing with head/throat tension. I’ve been experimenting with what you said, and it feels like when I try to direct some of the built-up energy out of my eyes, there’s a slight shift. The issue I’m running into now is that it feels like it no longer works or even builds up more pressure. Is there anything else I could try?
A: There are many other things you can try. One is to think of the tightness going down the throat, down through the chest, and then disappearing out the heart. Another is to allow the tension to stay there, and then, as you’re breathing in, think of the breath energy entering the tension from every direction, going deep into the tension, instead of being pulled someplace else. See if that loosens things up. If those approaches don’t work, then come back again.
Q: When in pain and chasing it with the breath while also trying to dis-identify with it, I find it hard to also maintain a point of stillness in addition to that. Is that okay and should I just accept it? Sometimes, rarely, it does then settle down to a stillness, but not often.
A: It’s best to try to maintain your sense of being centered with that center of calm, even when there’s pain. Then think of the good energy spreading from the calm center out through the pain. The basis of this skill has to come from a sense of the a center and a comfortable energy at least someplace in the body. If you lose that sense of the still center, then you don’t have the proper tools for dealing with the pain.
With both of the questions we had just now, you have to realize that we have a tendency to grab onto pain and store it up. That causes it to build up. Ajaan Lee’s image is of trying to plow a field, and as the dirt falls off the plow as you go along, you put it in a bag. Of course, you’re going to get weighed down. Let the dirt fall where it’s going to go and leave it behind while you just keep going forward. In other words, let the pain fall off to the side, but you keep going forward with your concentration.
Q: Dear Ajaan, having entered jhāna number one a few months ago, I’ve been wondering how to think about it in a way that’s skillful. I feel like, with jhāna meditation, it’s probably best not to bring it to mind in order to not create desire. What’s your advice?
A: The question is how much can you remember of what you did in order to get into jhāna that one time? If you can remember the steps you followed, try them again. If you can’t remember, just put the whole memory aside. Of course, you’re going to have a desire to get into jhāna. That’s what we talked about last night. So remember, where should you focus the desire? Try to focus it back on the causes and not in your memories that don’t give you any information. And don’t make jhāna the focus of your concentration. Focus on the breath.
Q: Is there any difference between pīti that comes “naturally” or of its own and pīti that is “triggered,” like pushing a button? Are the effects on the body, etc., the same?
A: There’s no difference. If you can turn it on and turn it off at will, then learn to be skilled at when to turn it on and, when it gets too much, turn it off.
Q: Ajaan, thank you for coming all the way from SoCal. Like many retreats I have done, I get to lots of pīti, pleasant physical sensations, but rarely do I go beyond. Sometimes the pīti is so intense I can barely stand it. I have tried spreading it out through the body, but usually the intensity just burns out. Is there any way to work with this intense pīti to go into the first jhāna, or better, the second one?
A: Why not go for the third? The best way to deal with these feelings when they become too intense is to try to focus your awareness on a level of energy that’s more refined. It’s like tuning a radio. There are the different frequencies of the radio stations around you coming through this room all at once, all at the same time. You try to focus just on the frequency that you want. Tell yourself that these intense sensations that you have are one frequency, but there are other energies in the body at the present moment whose frequencies are actually calm. Focus on one of those. With these intense energies, think of Ajaan Lee’s image of the plow. Don’t stuff them in the bag as your one kind of meditation. Let them fall to the side. Then pick them up only when you need them.
Q: When we’re working with these mettā wishes, are they a process of self-conditioning, or are they real vows? In the second hypothesis, I suppose that to be efficient, they have to be sincere. How to be sincere with regard to beings we don’t know? And even worse, how to be sincere when we don’t even know that such beings exist, i.e., in the lower realms or the devas?
A: Actually, with mettā, you’re trying to establish your intention that whoever you meet, you will treat them with goodwill, because you know that if you have ill will, you’ll probably do something unskillful, and that will become your bad kamma. As you go through the world, you’re going to meet many people you haven’t met before, so you have to be prepared to have goodwill for them, too. As for the beings whose existence you doubt, just be prepared that someday you might meet up with them, and you should be prepared to have goodwill for them.
We’ve had a couple of people talking about beings who come to them in their meditation, and in cases like that, your response should be goodwill for whoever they may be. Then basically ask them, “Please go away,” because you have work to do. They can’t awaken you for you. So wish them well, thank them for whatever goodwill they have for you, and then let them depart.
Q: Talking about this guided meditation this morning, it was a surprise for me, because when you talked about the beings in the lower realms, you put the animals in the same category with the hungry ghosts and other species that are manifested as evil. That really did hurt me on several levels. First, in my understanding of Buddhism, this is paradoxical. And second, I think that this is so demeaning, this hierarchy of views. This is what creates so much strife in our societies. And third, classing animals with ghosts—does that mean friendly ghosts? Could you explain?
A: They actually do have a hierarchy in Buddhism, not so much as to whether beings are good or bad, but as to how much they suffer, and animals do suffer a lot more than human beings. If you try to explain the Dhamma to them, they don’t understand. There are a lot of things that they’re confused about that you cannot explain to them. In the Buddhist hierarchy, you can actually explain things to hungry ghosts. And again, the texts talk about the ghosts not so much as being evil or scary, but simply as pitiful. So, recognize that there are different levels of suffering in this world, and we have goodwill for them all.
Q: We’re practicing mindfulness throughout the day, and it works really well. However, on my one-hour lunch walk, I noticed that my mind really wants to think through some issues to find new solutions from a Dhamma perspective. How can I know whether I should give it this last piece of freedom to do what it wants, or keep prioritizing the focus on the breath?
A: You might decide that you have a particular problem that you want to think through, say, during the last 15 minutes of your one-hour lunch walk. So first give yourself 45 minutes of mindfulness in the present moment, and then the last 15 minutes to think through whatever problem you plan to think through. The 45 minutes of mindfulness and concentration should help you think more clearly about the issue in the last 15 minutes. Now, if you find that you cannot stop after the 15 minutes, that’s a sign you shouldn’t be doing this yet. You can save that issue for the very end of the retreat.
Q: You said that Ajaan Lee sometimes said to himself, “I’m going to meditate on this” when he wanted to understand something. Do you know how he did this? In this case, did he concentrate only on his breath, or only on the topic that he was trying to understand, or something else?
A: He would pose the question in his mind, then he would put it to the side, and he would focus his mind entirely on his breath. When he came out of meditation, sometimes the answer would be there. Sometimes he would have to think it through. But he would be very strict with himself while he was in concentration to stay iwith the breath. Even if he had to think the problem through, the fact that he had just come out of concentration meant that his mind was clearer than it would have been otherwise.
Q: In Method Two, Ajaan Lee says, “Learn to know the points of focus of the mind that are also the resting spots of the breath, i.e., first the tip of the nose, the middle of the head (by the way, where is the middle of the head?), or the palate, etc.” Would you explain what this means and what we have to do with it?
A: These are spots from which there’s a sensation that the breath is emanating. For different people, they will be slightly different, and they don’t have to be too precise. When Ajaan Lee talks about the middle of the head, imagine a line going through the head from side to side, connecting points just in front of your ears. Imagine another line that goes from the spot between your eyes to the back of the skull. Where those two lines intersect, that’s the middle of the head. Another important spot is at the tip of the breastbone, and another is just above the navel. But wherever you feel that the breath emanates, that’s where you should focus your attention.
Q: Dear Ajaan, how to explain that the quality of my sleep will vary greatly during retreats? I sleep less soundly, I wake up several times, and yet I’m not tired in the morning. What does the Buddha say about sleep? Did he sleep, or was he like the yogis and didn’t have to sleep at all? What about you, dear Ajaan, how is your sleep?
The second question is: If, during my meditation, I manage to concentrate, and there’s joy, and my body is leaning, particularly towards the left, and my head, too, should I redress, straighten it up, or let it do its thing?
A: I’ll answer the second question first. Let it lean for a while, and then think of the tension in the left side of your body loosening up, to allow the body to get straighter. In other words, you don’t have to force it to straighten up, but just think, “There must be some tension that’s pulling me to the left.” As you release that tension, the body should straighten out without your increasing any sense of tension on the right side.
As for the fact that your sleep is changing from normal during the meditation retreat, it’s normal. You have less information coming in from outside, fewer duties that you have to worry about, so you have less need for sleep. Some people, though, will find that as they come here, this is a chance for them to catch up on a sleep debt, so they will tend to sleep a lot more at the beginning of the retreat. This will vary from person to person.
As for the Buddha, he did sleep. He said that he would sleep about four hours a night. And as for me, how’s my sleep? I’ve been having lots of strange dreams since coming here.
Q: When the nose is blocked and you have to breathe through the mouth, what’s a good place to focus on?
A: Focus on the area inside the nose. Remind yourself that even though the air cannot enter, the breath energy can enter there. Think of the breath energy and that the breath channels are opening up as much as possible. I’ve found that often this actually does unblock the nose.
It’s not a good idea to breathe through the mouth very long, though. There have been experiments with people who close off the nostrils and breathe only through the mouth for days at a time. These people get sick very quickly. The nasal channels warm the breath and have chemicals that can kill some germs.
Q: Dear Ajaan, I often find myself in comparison mode. This happens sometimes in regards to material things. “This person has A and I do not.” Sometimes it also happens on the intellectual level, i.e., I notice someone with better knowledge or skill. Feelings then arise and they’re usually telling me that I’m not “worth it.” This hinders me, and I wonder what a skillful antidote is, maybe mettā?
A: First ask yourself, “What are you competing for?” We’re not in competition. Second, spread thoughts of empathetic joy. Their good fortune does not diminish yours. The Buddha would have you remember that in some previous lifetime, you were probably in a position of superiority, too. That thought should give rise to a sense of saṁvega. Saṁvega is basically the feeling that “I’ve got to get out of saṁsāra.” Things go up, things go down, then they go up again, down again. Nothing really goes anywhere.
Q: Dear Ajaan, I notice that I still get pleasure from my work in my professional life. I’m wondering if this pleasure is a sign that there is an attachment there that is persistent, insistent, or an attachment to this identity that I have in my worldly life. I think it is possible to feel joy in practicing the noble eightfold path and in doing good around me, for the people around me. Would that be considered a “delight at work”? Could this be an obstacle to getting to stream-entry?
A: This is a question that could occur only in a Buddhist retreat. “Delight at work”—as in the passage in the readings—means, basically, taking on a job so that you can avoid practicing. The fact that you’re finding joy in your work is a good thing. You’re very fortunate that you can. This is certainly not an obstruction to the stream-entry. Some people think that you have to get rid of your sense of self in order to enter the stream, but that’s not the case. You enter the stream first. You have an experience of the deathless, and that will cut through any tendency to create a sense of self around the five aggregates. So as long as you enjoy practicing on the path, you’re fine. The fact that you’re able to help people through your occupation is also an aspect of Dhamma practice. You’re developing the perfections of generosity, goodwill, and endurance.
Q: I don’t understand. I don’t really understand. Why do you place so much emphasis on the notion of sensuality? What does it entail? What does it mean? What realms does it cover? Why do we talk about it so often? Could you please enlighten me?
A: We talk about sensuality so often because people think about it so often. Sensuality basically means the pleasure that you get out of planning sensual pleasures—the fascination with imagining, “How about making this kind of pizza, as opposed to that kind of pizza? Or this kind of sex, that kind of sex?” The reason we talk about it so much is because it eats at so many people’s minds and gets in the way of their settling down in concentration. You need strong medicine against it, because otherwise you don’t have time to get the mind into concentration.
They did a study one time with people listening to talks, as at a business conference. They found that most people spent the first five minutes listening to the talk, and the remainder of the hour engaging in sensual fantasies. So if you have to give a talk to businessmen, get all your points into those first five minutes.
Q: Ajaan Lee and Ajaan Chah, two great ajaans, had only a very elementary education. Ajaan Chah pointed out that it was harder to teach Westerners because their minds were so cluttered with thoughts. Therefore, I wondered if and how education could hinder our progress on the path. Would it be a profusion of mental fabrication, or an increased difficulty to come back to the body and to direct experience?
A: We tend not to notice the extent to which Ajaan Lee and Ajaan Chah educated themselves. They had only a few years in government school, but there was also an ecclesiastical education system, and they both took part in that. And they did a lot of independent study on their own.
As for Westerners, Ajaan Fuang once said that Westerners were very difficult to teach because they have a lot of pride and are very stubborn. I asked myself, “How many Westerners has Ajaan Fuang ever met?” There was me, and me, and me.
But as for our tendency to think too much, the problem is basically that it gets us out of touch with our bodies, so we have to spend a lot of time getting reconnected with our bodies. This is why I teach the Ajaan Lee method, because it really gets you grounded in the body very fast.
