Essential Instructions for Meditators

A Teaching by Drupon Khen Rinpoche on Verse 3 of Patrul Rinpoche's Vault of Riches

“The three that should be present:

The mind within the body. The body on the cushion. Ease within the mind.”

These three are taught for practitioners.

The mind within the body:

Our mind wanders here there and everywhere; it is always on the go, thinking about this and that. So here we are being told that the mind should be within the body and not scattered. Those who have good mindfulness and meditation have settled minds, but that does not apply to most of us does it. For example you say things like, ‘My mind just never settles. It’s always thinking random thoughts. It won’t settle even for a little while.’

If that’s the way you are thinking, you’re not doing too badly. The worst thing is to have endless streams of thought that you are totally unaware of. So recognising the busyness of your mind is already a good start.

In the course of a two hour meditation session, the amount of time you are thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not meditating well. I’m not being mindful,’ is very short, perhaps not more than a few minutes? Which probably means that you feel your meditation for the rest of the two hours is mainly fine. But in all likelihood there is a complete absence of awareness, we are oblivious to what we have been thinking. That is the most dangerous thing for an aspiring meditator.

When people approach lamas with questions about how to improve their meditation because they are struggling to deal with distraction and cultivate any settledness, if the lama is someone who has given some time and thought to meditation and has some understanding, they will not think that the person is on the wrong track and their prospects are poor.

But if someone were to approach them and say they can meditate for 2 hours, they would most likely think, ‘Oh dear, things don’t seem to be going very well in this person’s practice.’ It would be read as a sign that the person is only considering meditation in terms of what the body is doing. That is what many of us do isn’t it: if we sit on the cushion for 30 minutes we say that we meditated for 30 minutes.

So here it says that it is very important for a practitioner or meditator to have their mind present within the body. These words are so sweet, please memorise them and recall them often.

The body on the cushion:

Someone who practises the dharma should not always be going out and about. The ‘Cushion’ means the place where we sit. Our body should be on its seat. A few days ago I repeated that old adage for practitioners didn’t I:

“Better to wear out your cushion than your shoes.”

This mindset is very different from that of worldly people, who think that you must get up off your backside and do something, go somewhere, make something etc. Those who stay at home are wasters etc. The mentality of practitioners is, ‘I must exert myself in meditation. I must study, learn and tame my mind.'

So for a beginner the mind should be within the body, and the body should be upon the cushion.

Ease within the mind:

This is about the way our mind is placed or left. You should understand that these words are extremely profound. The word ‘ease’ here is synonymous with the high words that we often come across in the dharma such as naturally rested, uncontrived, ordinary mind and so forth. It points to the fact that our minds shouldn’t be held too tightly or narrowly.

Without such ease our minds become tight and the meditation doesn’t go very well. When the mind is concentrating too intently, it is more prone to thinking. But if the mind becomes too relaxed then many of the adverse factors for meditation such as dullness arise. So these words tell us to be neither too tight nor too loose, to find that balance.

For example, let’s say that a group of people are doing the practice of Vajra Being (Vajrasattva). In their practice everyone will be bringing Vajra Being to mind, but although they are bringing the same thing to mind, the way they do that, and the way they relate to what is coming to mind will be vastly different, and it’s here where the difference lies between those who understand meditation and those who don’t. The difference is not determines by the form of the practice.

If we now relate the example to the point here about being at ease, loose and relaxed, how do we do that while concentrating on Vajra Being? This is where we become unstuck. If I were to say, ‘Now let’s meditate for a few minutes. Concentrate intently on Vajra Being with ease in the mind.’

Take a moment as see whether that is something simple or not: to be relaxed and focused…

What is to be practised is Vajra Being. How do you do that? Do you know?

We tend to think that we can identify the individual qualities of the practice: that we have a good idea what it is to be at ease, and what it is to be concentrated, but what about maintaining them both at once? That is the exclusive domain of advanced meditators.

If you look for yourself, you will probably find that even if you try to do them individually, you will only have concentration, or exerted focus. You may tell yourself, ‘Ok, I’ll rest at ease,’ and but then you ‘try’ your best to relax. This falls to the side of being tightly focused; most of us have no idea how to be at ease. This is assuming we know what it is to be concentrated, whether we do in fact is probably another matter, but what is certain for almost all of us is that when we try to relax we feel we must apply ourselves to it, it becomes a mental activity.

Here, when it talks of being ‘at ease’ it is not a matter of doing something – nothing needs to be done. If right now we are not going to do anything, but be at ease, how would we do it? We can look at what we do with our body, as we prepare to do nothing. If I were to say, ‘Now let’s meditate,’ most of you would start shuffling around on your seat, readying yourselves to relax.

Conclusion:

Whatever the case, all three points here are important. It would be excellent if you could memorise them. Really. “The mind within the body. The body on the cushion. Ease within the mind.”

These words are sacred for meditators. If we consider ourselves to be a dharma practitioner, a meditator, a yogi or anyone who is serious about the dharma, we must possess these lines.

18th June 2020, Thrangu Sekhar Retreat Centre, Nepal