The Very Venerable Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

The Seven Points Of Mind Training

Birmingham Karma Ling, December 2002

Shinay With Characteristics

Now I am going to explain the Shinay with characteristics, connected with oneself.

We have the five perception which are like doors, doorways, what do we mean by the door? They're doors by which arise the mind poisons the anger jealousy and so on. Also the suffering, one example of looking at an object then because of that perceiving the object the mind poison can arise and one will have suffering with that, if one perceives a beautiful object and you think ooh that’s really nice and desire arises and you think I want that, I need that, then one will have suffering from that because you have engendered the desire.

If one is looking out and then one sees a person and you’re smiling happily to them and they give you a really dirty look back immediately you will feel angry with them and that is also through the doorway perception. The door of the eyes along with that anger one will have suffering. All of the other doors of perception are like that and also the mind poisons are the same, if you hear with your ear that some one is saying oh! You're so beautiful you’ve got a wonderful body you’re nice and thin, you'll really like it. You’ve got a very nice mind you’re a very good person you’ll like that won’t you?

If the opposite of that happens, if you are hearing the words someone saying you’re rubbish you’re really bad you’ve got a terrible mind and you’ve got no qualities then if you heard that then you’d be quite saddened wouldn’t you? Because of the perceptions you can have suffering associated with that, with the senses of the smell, taste and touch one can also experience suffering with them. The time when ones mediating then one's five perceptions which give rise to the five objects, you use these objects as a support for one's practice they become like your friends in the practice, if one understands the point of the meditation practice then one can utilise the objects like that.

First of all I am going to explain how to use looking at something as a meditation support. The main point of the Shinay is the mindfulness, and also non-distractiveness, awareness, so generally speaking when we when we say mindfulness we are also including within that the one pointedness and the non-distractiveness within that awareness. We are looking at a form or object we are going to use that as a support we are going to use the object as a support for the mindfulness. How do we approach this? If one is using an object as a meditation support, if one perceives a nice object or a bad object that doesn’t make any difference at all in one's mind, one realises that you are seeing a form. You don’t have to think whether it is good or bad just the object itself, with that perception of looking at the object there arises at the same time the awareness of "I am looking at an object". So you look at both of them the object and the awareness of object.

When one is a beginner it's best to look at a small object, that would be more beneficial. So we are going to meditate like that, you can look at anything you want, you can look at this nice container on the table if you want, or whatever colours or form one likes. Also the people who are sitting behind people you can look at the back of the person's head in front of you, that’s ok, this ones got long hair this ones bald, you don’t have to think like that, long hair or bald. You just perceive it as the back of someone's neck, an object. We will do a little meditation like that, first please just sit with a relaxed mind. ... so look at the object now ... and again rest naturally…that's the end.

This kind of remaining aware won’t last for a very long time, just a short time, one may experience four or five, six seconds then one will become distracted and then one will come back and then again a few seconds later become distracted again.

The way to practise is to have short moments repeated often, sometimes when one is practising this looking at the form, the form itself can seem to rotate and move around, sometimes it will look like it's two forms instead of one. Sometimes one's vision will fade and one won’t be able to perceive the object, sometimes you can’t see very well and you become dizzy, its like seeing the objects very close to ones eyes, whatever kind of experience like that happens if they arise then it doesn’t matter its not a problem.

If the object one is looking at turns into two, then you can meditate on both of them.

If the object seems to have the appearance of smoke that’s ok you just rest with that.

If one is practising for sometime with the object and one finds you have unpleasant feeling arise then just leave it, rest and use the meditation of Shinay without characteristics, just rest naturally.

I have explained that we were just looking at one particular object. But then you can also do it a different way you can just look, so I am just looking out, I am aware of the Lama on my right side, and of the translator on my left side. I'm also aware of everybody here. Just looking just perceiving one can also use that as a technique, all of the things that one perceives with one's eye you are aware of that. The mind recognises all of the things that are there it's aware of that it knows what it sees, so one just thinks I am seeing. We will sit like that for a short while, just be relaxed at the beginning ... now just look ... now relax again ... finished, anyone have any questions?

Q. Sometimes the breathing becomes quite slow, at other times I'm panting. What is the reason for that?

A. The variations in one's breathing whether one's going slowly or whether one's panting this is naturally arising from the bodies movement of the wind and the blood. You don’t have to think I am breathing slowly that is not very good I’m breathing too quickly that’s not very good. Don’t worry about it its just naturally the body itself working.

Q. What happens if you are aware of things around with one's other senses? I was aware of people behind me but I wasn't looking with my eyes.

A. If you can see a person behind you with your eyes that's very good! Actually the technique we are using at the moment is just associated with the vision of what one perceives with one's eyes. We're not meditating on hearing or smell, taste or feeling. We haven’t said anything about that yet, but that will happen, it is coming. If one's looking at an object as support then if one is hearing something then one can also use that as a support, one or the other. If you want to do it like that you can.

The second thing we are going to look at is the sound, using the sound as a support. One hears sound with one's ears doesn’t one, when one hears a sound in your mind you think I am hearing sound and you look at that. You think what is the sound I am hearing with my ear? Whatever one is hearing that's fine one's just hearing.

Can you hear a sound at the moment? What kind of sound? Are you hearing anything at the back? We are going to use sounds we are perceiving with our ears as a support for the meditation for a while, first thing is to relax ... now just hear ... again relax ... that’s finished.

As we used the sight and the hearing as a support then in the same way we can apply that to smell, taste, and touch. With one's smell one just smells whatever is there. When one's making food that's a very good thing to do isn't it?

Something’s are boiling, some things are frying maybe we are making a big steak, and as the nice smells are coming up you can smell them, so you can meditate on that.

One can rest one's mind with the experience of the taste, if it is bitter, salty or sweet, whatever, if its tasty, or hot, when you are meditating you put out some food and go mmmmmmmmmm hot, later on when all of you go into some short retreat or something then you can buy very lovely food the most tastiest food you can get and sit in your meditation and just eat it and if some one says to you after you spent all the time in your retreat just eating food you can say I was practising the awareness of the taste, that would be very good wouldn’t it. That’s a joke!

Also with one's perception of touch or feeling, you can meditate on that. When one is meditating one's leg might hurt, back could hurt, and we have headache. If one experiences pain anywhere in the body at the moment one is totally aware of that pain one puts one's awareness onto that.

Generally speaking the pain in one's body is a very good support for one's awareness and meditation. If you’ve got a sore tooth for example, without any control one's mind just naturally, immediately goes there and kind of looks at that pain, you’ve time to think oh! I’ve got pain! Maybe half the actual pain from the illness is what’s naturally there the other half is what you make with your mind, thinking, I’m poorly I’m sick I’m in pain.

Buddha said that the main cause of having illness is the thinking that I’m ill, that thought, this is not very good I don’t want to have the pain or the illness, its going to hurt me, it's harmful to me, I definitely have to have a remedy for this.

If one has a very strong feeling of this then it can make the illness increase, if we have mindfulness of the pain, when we are experiencing the pain and one rests with that then slowly over time the feeling of I have pain, I am sick, will diminish, if one has mindfulness associated with feeling or experience of the pain then normally what would happen is the pain itself would become less it wouldn’t increase. You don’t have to think I must pacify this illness I must remove this illness all this pain. It's not beneficial to think like that. You don’t have to think now for the reason of getting rid of my illness and pain I am going to meditate now, one does.

Not have a strong feeling of that. Whatever experience one has of pain, if it's in the back or legs whatever it's in one's mind then one experiences that, you look at that feeling directly. If you get your hand and squeeze a big lump of cheek, if you squeeze your cheek like that its painful isn’t it? Normally you think oh that hurt I don’t like it. It’s not very good if you think like that the pain will increase. But that's the feeling of the body isn’t it? If you look at that feeling, then as much as you squeeze its not going to get worse its not going to hurt you more.

If you cause yourself pain and look directly at the pain normally what will happen it won’t become stronger it won’t get worse. So that’s the practice with the touch or feeling. Whatever arises associated with these five doors or perceptions then one can use them as a friend in meditation as help.

Some people say I am trying to meditate and there’s this guy going up and down, it ruined my meditation completely, if you’ve got mindfulness and you are aware that the persons moving up and down and you have mindfulness with that then you are meditating you don’t have to feel that your meditation has been ruined.

It becomes a friend to your meditation, it’s a kind of friend on the path, and support to your meditation, that person can’t destroy your meditation.

Also another thing that can happen somebody will be sitting in the house meditating and will hear some people arguing outside shouting at each other cars going up and down the road your think oh! I’ve lost my meditation completely its gone. But if one's totally aware of the sound and uses the sound as a support for meditation then it will be better, you have not lost your meditation at all its been helped actually by having a support. If you have lots of sound you have lots of support for you meditation, you are very lucky then if you have lots of sound lots of noise around you.

All of the objects of perception whether it’s the sight, sound or taste any of these can be a support for your meditation.