Awhile back I was caught by a quote attributed to the Sixth Ancestor, Hui Neng. It has to do with regulating how awareness works.
One day in a dharma talk, Hui Neng used the metaphor of a king:
“When we choose to engage in an independent activity such as sitting meditation, that means the king is in. If we are jumping from one thing to another based on whatever enters our stream of consciousness, that means the king is out.”
We walk around all day tethered by our thoughts, unable to see clearly, hear clearly and act clearly, in other words confused. When the King is in, a strong not easily swayed “center” is continuously present. Our daily actions emanate from a place visibly defined through our physical deportment and our ability to stay focused on the project at hand.
When the Buddha taught the Eightfold Noble Path his intent was precisely the same.
As a brief review the eight are: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. As an aid to those reading these weekly posts (hopefully finding some positive use derived from the information presented), I formulated a simple daily “planning guide” exercise to firmly root your personal King or Queen as you proceed thorough the day.
Sitting on a meditation cushion is ineffective if we cannot keep the still point in place when off the cushion.
It might appear overly simple at first, but bear with me. Clarity and focus are the aspirations. Begin by making a list of the activities that comprise your typical day. This includes the very mundane habits of showering, brushing your teeth, preparing meals, eating meals, paying bills, running errands, and of course time spent at your source of employment and the subset of functions that you are responsible for on any given day.
List them chronologically, aware that invariably these “independent activities” as Hui Neng stated might change or trade places chronologically here and there. As an example, in order to prepare and eat meals, a trip to the grocery store is necessary. When you are comfortable with your list, make it a point to approach each one as a meditation. In other words, quiet your thoughts and focus solely on what is in front of you.
Thoughts will intrude for sure telling you to speed up what you are doing under the guise of getting on to the next thing, the next agenda item, or an uneasy worrisome presence about some upcoming event etc.
Treat all of this including the inevitable thought intrusions as an opportunity to practice. By doing everything deliberately and slowly you can dismiss time as a controlling factor. Are you often pressured by the clock? Many 21st century pressure points have evolved and now dictate our daily life tempo. This universal acceptance of multi tasking will surface later in life when we review how much of our life was missed by stomping over the precision and intelligence present in each moment if only we were awake enough to see it.
The five doors of perception – seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling are gifts from the universe. When we are truly present any one of those skhandas as they are called in sanskrit will aid us every step of the way in the above exercise. Human beings on average spend less than one percent of their life in the present moment. Lost in their mental movie of events both past and future, the aforementioned precision and intelligence found in the now is simply non occurring.
When the Buddha saw the morning star as he sat under the Bodhi tree he exclaimed “How wondrous, how wondrous. All beings are endowed with this pure nature! The ten thousand things, flowers, trees, rocks, all things everywhere shine
brilliantly.” This “shining brilliantly” manifests when we practice staying present as described above. Often referred to as samadhi mind, it establishes deep roots in each activity of our day.