Don't believe the hype Aro meditation 9 Greetings.

. I would like to start this week by saying a few words about me. Thinking Thoughts are always about some situation remembered, elsewhere, or imagined. Yet most thoughts are directly or indirectly really about 'me'. They are based on an underlying attitude of 'I like this I want to grab onto it'; 'I don't like that I want to make it go away'; or 'I don't care about this. I will not waste my time on it because it does not matter to me'. These three may be called avidity, repulsion, and disregard. When we use thoughts to trick ourselves into imagining we are in a distant situation, we fall prey to avidity, repulsion, or disregard. We imagine we must act out in this imaginary world. We think about what to say or do there. The imaginary effects good or bad of our imaginary actions prompt another round of imagination. Without avidity, repulsion, or disregard, thoughts lose much of their power to distract us. Thoughts are just thoughts. However compelling they seem at the time, they are completely insubstantial. They evaporate without leaving a trace. Thoughts are like clouds. From a distance they can appear solid and imposing but close-up they are nothing but thin swirling fog. Meditation allows us to see thoughts closeup and with practice, we find less and less there.

This week's meditation technique As with last week, follow your out-breath. If you find you are often lost in thoughts, pay attention to both the inbreath and out-breath. If thoughts are particularly distracting, return temporarily to counting. When you find that you are thinking notice with bare attention whether the thought involves avidity, repulsion, or disregard. Allow the thought to drop, and resume your out-breath as its time comes. The purpose of this technique is to see how many thoughts are about 'me' and 'my' relationship with other people and circumstances. Often we relate with avidity, repulsion, and disregard to thoughts themselves as well as to what these thoughts are about. 'Bare attention' means: do not go beyond simply noticing. Particularly, do not judge thoughts as good or bad according to whether they fit these patterns. Do not judge yourself according to how successful you are at noticing. Such judgments are themselves simply repulsion and avidity. Do not analyze thoughts with other thoughts. That may be a strategy for disregarding your actual present situation. Posture: practical tips It is not natural for humans to maintain a fixed sitting position for long periods. It makes our bodies tired and sore. Though it grows easier with time, it is useful to be able to meditate for a longer period than you can manage comfortably in a single position. By switching among several positions during a long session, you can sit for longer. Sitting on the floor is 2

usually harder on the knees and sitting in a chair is harder on the back. If you alternate between the two as your knees or back become uncomfortable you may be able to sit two or three times as long. In the next two emails in this series, I will introduce several additional meditation postures. It is useful to learn as many as possible so you can rotate them, easing different parts of your body with each. Each position also has particular advantages that make it useful in particular circumstances. The siddha position and some others are asymmetrical. With these it is important to alternate which leg is in front. Otherwise in time you will become asymmetrical. Alternating your legs during a session is another way to relieve physical pressure. When you change position, do so mindfully. Do not stop meditating, change position, and resume meditation. Make your movements slow and deliberate. Be aware of your bodily sensations as you rearrange. The process is part of your meditation not an interruption of it.

During a long session if your legs need a rest you can adopt the rest position for a couple of minutes. This 3

position allows your legs to stretch and relax while you remain on your cushion with an elongated spine, helping maintain meditative awareness. Draw your legs up, knees together, clasp your knees with your wrists, and interlace your fingers. Don't believe the hype See if you can notice sometimes when you are not meditating the ways in which thoughts are based on avidity, repulsion, or disregard. The three patterns often collapse of their own accord once you have noticed them. Without avidity, repulsion, and disregard, we may see the world as it is, rather than as it relates to our projects . Thinking is not 'bad'. It is often indispensable in practical understanding producing brilliant creative works and profound abstractions. Yet it is odd how often people have strong opinions concerning situations about which they know little, which they have not experienced, and which do not affect them. Knee-jerk responses of avidity, repulsion, and disregard blur our vision. We cannot see the world clearly when we filter it through 'what's in it for me?'. When we cannot see clearly, we cannot act effectively and we cannot appreciate things as they actually are. During meditation, we regard thoughts as meaningless gabble, like radio advertisements in unknown foreign languages. Experiencing thoughts as insubstantial in meditation opens up a possibility in the rest of your life: you do not have to believe your own thoughts. Adopting this attitude provides the possibility of freedom from enslavement to thoughts and from compulsively acting on what they tell you.

It is not helpful to question all thoughts intellectually. That could lead to paranoia. It is preferable to regard thoughts as we would regard advertisements. When we hear 'Galacto Toothpaste makes your smile seven times brighter' argument is as unnecessary as making the purchase. Obstacles and antidotes Opinions negative or positive about oneself are a common obstacle. The antidote: don't believe the hype. Most meditators sometimes feel 'I can't do this, because I am not smart enough / not spiritual enough / not disciplined enough / too emotional / too intellectual / too old / whatever'. Untrue. Anyone can meditate because meditation is non-doing. It requires no particular skill and therefore has no prerequisites. All it requires is persistence. When discouraged or doubtful concerning meditation recall the experience of recognizing wandering mind and returning to awareness of breath. That is the essence of meditation. If you have experienced 'returning' even once you can trust that meditation is possible for you. If meditation goes smoothly for a while you may also feel 'This is great I am great I'm far ahead of those other people soon I will achieve great things and everyone will notice how special I am and will be impressed and respectful'. The antidote is to realize that the path to enlightenment is both lengthy and well-worn. Countless people have gone before us, beaten a track, and left sign-posts. Sometimes they may be seen ahead in the distance waving encouragingly. Progress along the path is great, but it

does not make anyone special because anyone can do it, and a great many have. Preview It is no coincidence that thoughts distract us. It is no coincidence that they sound like advertisements when we listen carefully. It is almost conspiratorial. What are we trying to mask with these thoughts? Recommended resources The Aro Membership program provides personal guidance from an experienced meditation mentor. The role of a mentor is rather like that of a piano teacher or ski instructor. You can learn to play piano, ski, or meditate working alone from books and recordings. However, you will make more rapid progress with a tutor who: answers your practical questions as they arise; helps diagnose problems and suggests solutions; helps you decide when you have enough experience with a particular meditation technique to move forward, and can suggest possible next steps; provides encouragement when you feel stuck; and may occasionally suggest that you go just slightly deeper into practice than you had been expecting. Membership can be arranged on a month-by-month basis and entails no commitment. Our web site provides a detailed description of the program; or you may contact membership@arobuddhism.org.