Answers to Questions on the Contemplative Practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 33

Question: When I sit in meditation, my mind usually rests on a single point. If I add another object of attention, is the mind resting on two points simultaneously?

Answer: What this means is that, at the beginning, when your meditative concentration (samādhi) is not yet strong enough, it is sufficient to simply observe the flow of breath at the nostrils. Once your concentration has strengthened, you can then observe how the breath moves after passing through the nostrils; you may also observe what it is like when the breath enters the chest cavity. As concentration grows stronger, you can contemplate the conditions along each of the channels through which the breath travels, taking a few more points of observation and a bit more time. If your concentration grows stronger still, you can follow the breath in contemplation—observing wherever the breath goes, with the mind following the breath, and the same when the breath goes out. If your concentration is insufficient, it is enough to simply observe the flow of breath within the nasal cavity and the nostrils, and gradually expand the objects of your contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) as your concentration increases.

Question: How should one face the afflictions and suffering encountered in cultivation?

Answer: When you feel suffering, observe that suffering carefully; after observing it for a long time, the suffering will be gone. Every event that arises in our lives seems very special to us, but once we have observed these things for a long while, we come to feel that they are nothing much—no event is really anything at all. It is the same with contemplating the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) and the eighteen realms: after contemplating them for a long time, you will know that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are nothing at all—they are all empty and not-self. However you pursue them, it all comes to nothing; joy is empty, and suffering is also empty. Better to just let them go, neither grasping nor taking, and thereby eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), lighten the afflictions of self-grasping, and suffer no more.