| A GOAL-LESS GOAL: AN INTERVIEW WITH ACHARYA, MOH HARDIN | |
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When you receive meditation instruction from the lineage, you are given an object of mediation. In the Buddhist tradition, quite universally, the object of meditation that you're given is the breath. |
Michalik:
So, you took his words to heart and started a regular sitting practice. And you've been teaching sitting meditation for a long time now. You've been teaching shamatha, for how long?
Hardin: Since 1975. So I suppose that's 25 years. Michalik: That's a long time. Can you describe for our readers how shamatha works, the nuts and bolts of it? Hardin: The interesting thing is that shamatha works. It's very scientific. It works, rather than being based on faith, as we normally think of it in spiritual or religious terms. It's actually much more scientific. It works; it simply works. How does it work? One receives instruction from the lineage. By lineage I mean the generations of practitioners who practice meditation and have applied it in their lives. That kind of living teaching has been passed down from generation to generation. When you receive meditation instruction from the lineage, you are given an object of mediation. In the Buddhist tradition, quite universally, the object of meditation that you're given is the breath. You work with the breathing process, which is always present. It's an expression of being alive. You're told to place your mind on the breath. Quite simply speaking that's the instruction. So you sit down to do this, and you find that even though it sounds pretty simple, it's not. Your mind constantly wanders away. It constantly goes into dreams and fantasies and memories. So by being given an object of meditation, on which you focus your mind, you begin to experience or see the nature of your mind, that there are thoughts in it all the time, and that these thoughts are all over the place. These thoughts include fantasies with energy and color, and emotions. Your mind is constantly moving and jumping all over the place. |