The Mahamudra teachings say that when the division between stillness and thought occurrence falls away, this is the recognition of one-pointedness. This one-pointedness is actually shamatha. At the beginning, there was a very strong division in one’s mind between being quiet and thinking. However, when this alertness, in Tibetan called shezhin, becomes a sense of wakefulness that grows stronger and stronger, then at a certain point there is no longer any wall between stillness and thinking—the boundary falls apart. Everything is just one continuity of being alert and awake. And this alertness or awake quality is completely settled, without your having to try to settle it.
Please understand that Buddhist meditation training from A to Z, from beginning to end, has one central quality: this sense of knowing, this sense of being awake. It comes and goes again and again, but it is always identical in essence. This quality is given many names—alertness, wakefulness, shunyata, insight, omniscient wisdom—but it is the same basic quality that goes all the way through. And if, at any point during Buddhist meditation training, this quality goes missing, then that is definitely not the path to complete enlightenment. Please understand this point very clearly. Even at the very beginning, in shamatha practice, this sense of knowing is that which keeps alert to the existence of subject and object, that which stays aware, although in a dualistic sense. As it becomes the vipashyana quality, it is aware of nonduality, the absence of subject and object. The knowing quality that extends all the way through these various practices is identical in essence, though the subject of its knowing may change. There are different levels of practice, but you always need this basic knowing, this sense of awareness.
Actually, stupidity training does have some purpose. It is useful when you are very agitated, when you cannot sleep, and if you want to get a stupid rebirth. Otherwise, it’s not much use. Though one could mistake stupidity training for shamatha practice, most people don’t. Instead, they go astray when introduced to Mahamudra and Dzogchen. In Mahamudra and Dzogchen it is said, “Do not concentrate, do not fixate, do not meditate, do not hold anything in mind, don’t do anything at all.” Some people might think, “All right, I don’t need to do anything, so I’ll just relax,” and then they go into that state of stupidity. It does happen. This is why many meditators go to sleep as soon as they meditate, especially Tibetans and other Asians. Westerners are a little different.
It’s also very important to have open eyes during meditation, even though many people say it’s hard to sit with open eyes. It may be difficult at the beginning, but the real difficulty lies in the way of looking—in knowing how to place the eyes, how to gaze. We have the habit, whenever our eyes are open, of spearing one object after the other with the eye consciousness. Therefore, when we try to just leave the gaze free it feels funny; it feels like we can’t stay that way. Many people ask, “Where do I need to look? In which direction am I supposed to look?” You don’t have to focus, but that doesn’t mean looking in an unfocused way. Wherever you look, just look in that way. You do not have to look at a particular spot.
I think you know the difference between these two styles of meditation, between stupidity training and shamatha with support. One is to withdraw the knowing quality, and the other is to focus outwardly. The real meditation state is not withdrawn, nor is it focused outwardly, nor is it the maintenance of a certain state in between these two. It does not dwell on anything at all, but rather is totally free and pervasive. Do you understand this? The real meditation state is like space. Space does not dwell on anything, but at the same time it is all-pervasive. This is how shamatha without support should be.
Shamatha with support focuses the attention on an object like the breath and uses this focus as a way of abiding. Shamatha without support doesn’t focus on any particular object but simply abides in nowness. Either way, however, shamatha is still a way of confining your mind. Among the possibilities of arising, dwelling, and ceasing, shamatha is a way of ceasing, of confining yourself to nowness. Did you get that? In shamatha practice you are occupying yourself. In addition, it contains hope and fear.
Shamatha has an object held in mind, and the object is nowness. It’s a way of occupying oneself with nowness. Instead of being occupied with attachment, anger, stupidity, jealousy, and pride, one is occupied with nowness. Unfortunately, at the same time, there is also no devotion, no compassion, and no omniscient wakefulness. None of these is present, only a sense of nowness.
It’s like when you’re in the toilet on an airplane, the OCCUPIED sign is lit up. For as long as you’re occupying that space, you are unable to meet the people on the other side of the door. Even if the Buddha comes onto the plane, you won’t meet him. The Buddha comes and sees the sign: “Oh, occupied, I’m not going to enter.” So you do not have a chance to meet the Buddha. Next, an obstacle demon comes and says, “Oh, it’s occupied, I won’t go in.” Inside the cubicle, you still have hope and fear—especially when you are returning from Kathmandu to your own country, because your stomach is not feeling so good. You have the sincere hope to stay in there and rest and make sure everything is fine, but you also have fear because people are waiting outside, maybe knocking on the door. Shamatha is a little bit like that. You are occupied with the present moment, and thus unavailable to whatever may happen to pass by. Anger comes and you are occupied; a positive emotion comes and you are occupied. You are present, practicing correctly, having a nice time in the toilet. Shamatha with support is something like that.
Shamatha is indeed a skillful method. Without it, your attention is so wild, all over the place, like a whirlwind. If you submit to whatever this movement is and go wherever it takes you, there is the risk of going nuts. It’s better to shut yourself up inside the toilet for a while and take a little rest.
Next is unsupported shamatha, in which your attention makes use of no support. Unsupported shamatha keeps no real object in mind. We’re simply allowing the aware quality of mind to be as it is, without doing anything to it. It seems as if there is no support. This is true, but only relatively speaking, within the context of shamatha itself. When viewed from higher levels of practice, some support is still apparent. This support, this object that is held in mind, is the feeling of being present: “This nowness, all of this is right now, moment by moment; it is vividly present.” Nowness is the object, and the subject is the knowing of that, acknowledging the nowness. Unsupported shamatha is simply remaining undistracted from nowness. Generally speaking, for a beginner there is the danger of mistaking stupidity training for shamatha. But for a practitioner, the real danger lies in mistaking unsupported shamatha for vipashyana. Please understand this point.
To get a taste of this teaching, let’s first do a short session of shamatha with support. Right now, you should not close your eyes. Just use any support in front of you—but not the neck of the guy in front of you, because when he moves you get distracted. Just relax and remain very quietly, with your attention simply resting on something, without being distracted by anything else. At the same time, allow everything else to be present as well. Nothing is blocked out, but your attention is directed only at your support.
Don’t close your eyes, because if you close your eyes now you risk falling back into stupidity training. While it is perfectly all right to use the movement of breath as the support, in our tradition we still do not close our eyes. As a matter of fact, do not close any of your sense organs. Do not close any doors. Simply pay attention. When exhaling, notice that your breathing is moving out. When inhaling, notice that your breath is coming into you; just that, nothing else.
Or, as an alternative to using the breath as the support, pay attention to the picture of the Buddha on the wall or a flower on the shrine or the crown on the Karmapa’s statue. Pick something ten or fifteen feet in front of you. Anything will do. You can just let your breathing flow freely, without being concerned with it at all.
Together with that focused attention, there should be a certain feeling of being unblocked. You are not concentrating, not trying to grab hold of something tightly. That’s not what is meant by focused. Rather, you’re just staying with the object of your attention.
Don’t do anything weird with your eyes; just leave them as they are. Look