You’ve made it to the cushion,
and you’ve found a nice patch of wall. Now what?
One of the most challenging
aspects of maintaining a meditation practice is overcoming the wealth of
information coming at us from conditioned mind about what meditation should be
and all the ways that we are doing it wrong. This is an example of a
conditioned process I like to think of as “the expert.” When we try to do
something new, we are met by an authoritative voice that seems to know everything
there is to know about it and is eager to provide “helpful” information about
the myriad ways we are failing to measure up. The expert strives to set our
expectations so high that they cannot possibly be met. If we are unable to turn
away from this barrage of false information, we can’t help but come away
feeling like a failure.
A handy way to turn away from
“the expert” and its kin is to choose what I like to call a “talisman.” A
talisman is just a simple bit of experience that we practice returning to again
and again. It is like a base camp from which we set out on our adventures in
the exploration of awareness. As we continue to practice coming back to the
talisman again and again, it becomes increasingly familiar. As we persist in
its use, deviations of attention away from the talisman become more and more
obvious.
Most introspective disciplines
employ talismans of some sort or another. Many Zen practitioners count cycles
of ten breaths; Taoists and Buddhists of all sorts employ a wide variety of
chants; Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Christian contemplatives focus their
attention on the names or attributes of God. All of the above make use of a
variety of icons, statues, and other images to anchor their attention.
What sort of talisman should you
chose? The Christian theologian Francois Fenelon advised choosing a short word,
such as “God” or “Love.” I’ve had success with both (you needn’t believe in any
particular notion of “God” for the word to serve as an effective talisman), but
my personal favorite of late has been “Thanks.”
Most of the power of the talisman
emerges from its use rather than anything intrinsic to the particular word or
image.* So long as you have a simple, familiar and - hopefully! - pleasant
place to return again and again, the talisman will serve its purpose. Have fun
with it, and choose some experience you like. With luck you will be spending a
lot of time there.
As with any tool, it’s essential
to recognize the time and place for its application. At first it may be all you
can do to hang on desperately to your talisman as you are buffeted by wave
after wave of conditioned processes trying to wrest control of your attention
away from you. As you develop the skills of keeping track of your attention and
directing it where you choose, opportunities will arise to let go of your
talisman without immediately ending up in the grip of conditioned mind. At
times like these we can set out from our base camp and explore the surrounding
country, secure in the knowledge that we have a safe place to return should we
get into trouble.
Eventually, when we have become
well established in tracking and directing our attention, the act of sitting
down for meditation will be enough to turn attention away from conditioned
mind. As our efforts on the cushion are met with less and less resistance, we
can spend more time exploring the deeper reaches of awareness. When conditioned
mind is on the offensive, we can fall back on our talisman; otherwise we can
dispense with it and go further in our explorations.
As the Buddha pointed out time
and again, every teaching is a tool to get us beyond the obstacle in our way in
this moment. When you’ve crossed a given river, it’s time to put down the raft.
Gassho
Bee
*There are some differences to be
noted between a chant, image, word, etc. - or even from word to word, image to
image, chant to chant - but it has been my experience that these differences
are dwarfed by the overall effect of having a familiar piece of ground on which to make a stand against the
conditioned processes which rally to divert our attention when we try to get a
bit of clarity. Pick something you like and stick with it. It isn’t much use to
have a whole belt full of tools that all do roughly the same job!
