The Redding Meditation Society
Frequently Asked Questions
Answered by Master Achan Dha Sammakato & Achan Nipen Amaro
1) Why is it important to practice meditation?
Meditation is training our mind to use Awareness-Attention-Wisdom in every moment so we can eventually use them to our advantage in our daily lives. Our lives will be stable, calm, and happy regardless of external circumstances.
2) What is the benefit and goal of practicing meditation?
The benefit and goal is the purifying of the mind, transcending all sorrow and suffering, and seeing things as they really are. This will bring us the happiness that human beings are always seeking.
3) What is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment is seeing things as they really are, for instance, seeing hatred, conceit, ego, attachment, and arguing as suffering. Seeing birth, aging, death, being apart from loved ones or belongings and what happens when we don’t get what we want or expect, as suffering. This is the truth.
One who sees suffering tries to get out of it; one who doesn’t see it, runs after it and carries it until the day he dies. One who knows the truth lives a simple, happy life with very little or no suffering. He is humble, has no ego, and no doubt about this life or the hereafter. He always finds the right way to solve problems. A person who becomes enlightened has a marked change in their views and habits. His action, thought, speech and feelings are much altered and improved.
4) What is “Awareness”?
“Sati” or Awareness/ Mindfulness is being alert, awake, sharp and coming back to ourselves or our mind. Awareness and unintentional thought are antagonists: when we don’t have awareness, we are inside the strong current of thought and become a slave to it;. when we have awareness, unintentional thought is decreased or eliminated.
“Sampajanna” is the feeling of the body movements, awareness of actions, speech, thought, walking, standing, sitting, lying down in the present moment.
Developing awareness can lead us to see things inside ourselves usually latent and hidden from those without sufficient awareness, for instance, seeing thought and feelings as they arise and disappear.
5) Who is Luangpor Teean ?
Luangpor Teean was a Thai, Buddhist monk who learned and meditated until he saw the Truth and became enlightened by developing awareness using the Mahasati technique of being aware of bodily movements. He taught this truth or Dhamma in Thailand and abroad. Many people have benefited from his teachings. He was a dedicated, sincere and rare person. He died in 1988. Redding Meditation Society teachers, Achan Dha and Achan Nipen, were his close students.
6) What is an effective way to practice to make progress on the path?
To use awareness in daily life as much as possible. To be mindful of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking. To live simply, logically, calmly, responsibly. Allowing oneself to forgive, let go, be humble and compassionate and to help others. And most importantly, to practice formal meditation regularly.
7) How can we keep from getting discouraged? What she we do if our practice is not progressing?
Practicing Dhamma requires an attentive mind. A person who enjoys working, effort, commitment and solving problems can make progress. Sleepiness, restlessness, boredom and being skeptical are all obstacles to be dealt with at the beginning. Changing posture more often can help these disappear and make us confident that we can get through all obstacles. We will gain more knowledge and stamina. We practice to liberate ourselves from suffering, not to aggravate it.
8) Why do we use the bodily movements to develop awareness? The Buddha used the breath and walking meditation.
Please see our handout “Mahasati Meditation: Using Movement of the Body to Generate Self-Awareness”including the Satipatthana Sutra.
9) Is there a reason we move our hands in this particular pattern and stop between each movement?
It has been used for thousands of years in Asia. It is used to develop awareness to ground us in the present moment. There is no real significance to touching the heart or any chakras and we do not try to feel any particular energy. Its purpose is to bring us back to the present moment using the very real and concrete entity of our body.
The Buddha said that there are 3 Characteristics of Insight: Impermanence, unbearability, and not-self. These characteristics are normally obscured in our daily lives in the following manner: 1) moving our body without awareness obscures impermanence, 2) changing posture without awareness obscures the unbearability of the body and of remaining still, and 3) the whole body obscures the ability to see not-self. Therefore, when we move our body with awareness and pause between movements, we break the cycle and allow our minds to realize impermanence of body, mind and the world. Pausing between movements is an opportunity to build a fresh unit of awareness every moment. When we change posture with awareness it helps us realize the unbearable characteristic of the body because we usually don’t realize that we move because the body is suffering while remaining still. The whole body obscures our ability to understand not-self because we see our body as a whole person instead of a conglomeration of many dependent parts or elements. Our practice will help us see our body and mind in action or understand “dependent co-arising.”
10) In the scriptures, the Buddha said we must have “right concentration” but according to Luangpor Teean and Mahasati meditation “mindfulness and awareness” are stressed more and we are advised not to concentrate. How can we have meditation without concentration?
The words “samatha and samadhi” are commonly translated from Pali to mean concentration. A common misunderstanding amongst practitioners is that concentration means sitting still, refusing all thought and phenomena, controlling thought, closing our eyes, focusing on one object and seeking quiet with the goal being calmness and peace. However, the Buddha also stated that the 3 qualities of samadhi are stability of mind, purity of mind, and a mind fit to do its job.
Luangpor Teaan further elaborated that samadhi means setting up our mind to be active and aware in order to see and understand all phenomena that arise.
Therefore, awareness, samadhi and wisdom work together to form the Buddha’s Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right livelihood, and right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. Practitioners will develop self-awareness by using bodily movements as a tool to see thoughts and feelings.
We don’t refuse or control anything that arises but simply observe it without suppression. The goal is to observe our mind and body in action until we have the knowledge to free ourselves from suffering.
The peace and calmness that results is from the extinguishing of the fire of anger, delusion, greed, desire and all suffering. It is not something we can hold and try to be. Calmness will arise by itself as the fruit of knowing.
Luangpor Teean used to play Zen tricks on people who practiced concentration. As they closed their eyes and sat still for long periods, tuning out the outside world, he took their eyeglasses and bags. When they opened their eyes, they wondered where their belongings had gone.
Luangpor Teean used this demonstration to show them that if they block the 5 sense doors: eyes, ears, nose, touch, tongue, and don’t know what’s happening inside and outside, it is ignorance. A state that doesn’t bring real insight or wisdom, just temporary sensory pleasure. It can’t be used in daily life and is impermanent, like all suffering. In fact, attachment to deep concentration and calmness are obstacles to the practice that must be overcome in order to make higher progress.
Therefore, the act of “meditating” may not be what most people traditionally have come to expect. Luangpor Teean used to say, “the more you think, the more you know,” or “the more thought, the better.” We do not try to make ourselves anything other than what is happening now in the present moment. But instead, we are always manipulating our minds and trying to make them how we want them to be. We refuse to see things that we don’t like and try to push them away. We try to hold the things we love and keep them. Amazingly, dhamma or nature already has a systematic path laid out for us that we need to learn to listen to and stop interfering by inflicting the way we think our mind should be instead of how it really is in the present moment. Luangpor Teean said the end of suffering is like when we stop kicking a ball, it comes to rest naturally.
