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So, to respond to some questions youve submitted. |
Is it, consider killing No, because you didnt kill. |
In my wasting time, some teachers have spoken about not wasting ones time. |
If quote, youre only sitting but your mind is wandering. |
Meditation is not how long you can sit. |
When sit down to meditate with my eyes closed, always fall into dream state. |
When meditate with my eyes open, cannot concentrate and a lot of disturbing thought. |
What should do when these kind of sensations arises Should observe it or ignore it and go to other part of the body which has no sensation Please explain the steps or experience a meditator goes through towards first jhana. |
Well, think these are the kind of things you go through. |
The idea is to go through it rather than sticking it. |
And essentially there are certain factors that have to be brought up. |
Remember, all of Buddhas presentations are on factors we already have. |
He just defined and made things clear, stuff, things we already have. |
So the first factors, first jhana is, well, first of all, the vivaika, which is a sense of being able to step back and get things in perspective, just not be into just continual action, reaction to ones mind. |
Its the first vichara, second piti, third sukkha is, and often whats a penjata is ekaggata, all together together at one place. |
Now vitakka, because these are Pali words, it may sound like something very odd or strange, but its actually just, remember these are just words. |
vitakka is the ability to point the mind, to bring something to mind, to conceive something. |
So if somebody says, whats your mothers name You bring it to mind, dont you Somebody says, what time is You bring it to mind. |
So what happens Say, somebody asks, whats your mothers name Why dont she happens there Theres a kind of action that his name pops up, doesnt it Where did that happen Now that particular action is called vitakka. |
And this is essential because, well, think its one to consider. |
These are the factors you need. |
dont think the Buddha would have told us if we didnt need it. |
So what do you bring to mind Because what you bring to mind for a moment places your attention there. |
It acts, so your mind isnt just swinging around, dreaming. |
You act, or the mind acts, and it brings something up. |
Its an action we do every day. |
Because it happens so instinctively, you never really notice it. |
Its obvious, till you cant remember somebodys name. |
What was that name of that person that woman met three years ago You can feel its kind of... |
Thats vitakka, trying to point to something, but he cant find the object. |
So you can see it with that. |
Oh, whats that If it stays like that, it gets very frustrating. |
You can deliberately bring to mind death. |
You can bring to mind the memory of someone you are grateful to. |
You can pops up, and you keep feeding it. |
remember her smiling and doing this down the other one. |
And it stays there, doesnt it |
You can bring to mind image of a skeleton, you know, you want. |
Or you can bring to mind these are recollections, the Buddha. |
These are things, particular things you think about. |
And as you bring to the mind, youre conscious that your mind is not wandering because its got something to pin itself to recollection. |
That may help to just push your attention away from this drifting, passive state where youre either sleeping or youre wandering. |
The dreaming and then your eyes are really dreaming with your eyes open. |
Both of those are passive states because youre not deliberately decisively doing anything. |
And that may sometimes you want to relax. |
Its not relaxing getting past that level of habit to deeper levels of ease. |
So we try to point directly, point the attention to something. |
You know, this is where you choose your meditation object. |
And for example, just the sensation of your body sitting. |
How do you know you have a body This very simple course, you know, pressure of your legs on the seat, pressure of your backside on the cushion. |
You know, thats not that subtle. |
You keep pointing the mind there, pointing the mind there. |
Vichara is more like the question, how is it Tell me all about it. |
Whats it feel like For example, is it hard or soft Is it steady or wavering Is it painful or pleasant What does it remind you of Anything like that. |
And so then you can come into your body, you feel the upright structure of the body. |
Okay, this is the back, spine, shoulders, elbows, hands, knees, hips, feet, and point. |
And every time you point, you go there and tell me about it. |
What does it feel like What does the hand feel like Warm Is it warm |
Can you tell the difference between the palm of your hand and your fingers Point to your fingers and one finger and the next finger. |
So, you know, if youre going to pick something up, which fingers would you use So this is another just example of deliberately pointing and vichara, sampling, tasting, feeling it. |
So these are essential factors because then the mind is engaged. |
Its engaged with something that doesnt stir up passion or ill will. |
Its not engaged with something thats kind of some far-fetched notion that you think about. |
Its just using the thinking mind to point and pick up some quality sensation. |
And you can do this with breathing in and breathing out. |
Anything that tells you breathing in or breathing out. |
How is it How is the end of the out-breath How is the beginning of the in-breath Whats the flow Can you point to that Can you tell me about it Can you know the difference between breathing in and breathing out What does it feel like in your belly What does it feel like in your chest What does it feel like in your nose Anywhere. |
So it doesnt matter what it feels like, so much as youre engaging with it. |
Your mind is active, picking it up and getting it. |
Then you dont drift and dream. |
Now, if thats something you cant, its too subtle, you cant. |
Focus on it, its your mind cant get it. |
You walk up and down and you feel the sensations in your feet, back, your legs, anything that tells you youre moving. |
This is the movement, gives a little more for the mind to hold onto. |
Generally, movement is something that we can easily track. |
Still things your mind cant pick it up. |
Its moving, particularly the sensations are changing, obvious sensations, pressures, then its a bit easier to pick up. |
Still, you have to engage because like a lot of these processes in meditation, they are involuntary, well, partly involuntary. |
Obviously walking, you decide to walk. |
Once you get it going, you can more or less walk, go and drift and dream. |
You know, the body kind of does it for you. |
Its a little more engaged because if youve got to have some attention, so you dont fall off the end of a platform or hit the wall, but you dont have to be that awake to walk up and down. |
So you have to get quite active again. |
You know, what is walking, whats different, one step and another. |
It doesnt matter, you dont have to have answers, but you have to keep the mind pointing there, otherwise it will drift off. |
And looking to what, when you pick it up, and what will you be able to settle with. |
So it does begin to get some sense of engagement, some sense of actually bedding into, landing on and meeting that experience. |
So, you know, this is quite essential. |
So we do that as our primary thing. |
And then the second aspect of itaka vichara, you could say, is how do you deal with all the rest of the stuff that happens, the science, the sounds, the memories, the dreams, the irritations, how do you deal with all that stuff Because, yeah, you know, youve got your meditation object, but as we all know, theres plenty of other stuff going on that you dont want, but there it is. |
So one theme is to, as soon as you notice that, you notice here am thinking about dinner or yesterday or New Year or work or my son or something or other, stop, pause. |
As soon as you notice it, pause, even say the word, stop. |
And then where is your breathing now Where is your body now Where is your walking now Just whatever your meditation is, you return to that. |
And you try to return with a quality of complete patience. |
This is a sort of basic thing that we do. |
Now, you know, because this topic is so crucial, then of course, teachers have their own skills with that. |
And some people do this noting system, whereby you just keep noting, making a mental note, thinking. |
So youre drifting along, dreaming, dreaming, dreaming, thinking. |
And by naming it, as soon as you name it, youre not in the dream. |
As soon as you name thinking, then youre outside it, right Because youre out now looking at it. |
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Dataset Card for "Jhana Sentences"
Dataset Description
Dataset Summary
This dataset, named "Jhana Sentences," contains sentences and passages focused on Jhana meditation practices, teachings, and insights. It is intended for use in training language models for applications related to meditation guidance, spiritual advice, and related conversational agents.
Supported Tasks
text-generation: The dataset can be used to train models for generating meditation-related content.language-modeling: Suitable for training models to understand context and semantics in meditation and mindfulness contexts.
Languages
The text in the dataset is primarily in English and Pali.
Dataset Structure
Data Instances
A data instance in "Jhana Sentences" dataset might look as follows:
It's how quickly can I generate access concentration?
Once I've got access concentration, then, yeah, the first jhana is mine as soon as I want it.
Data Splits
This dataset is provided as a single file without explicit training/validation/test splits. Users are encouraged to create splits as needed for their specific tasks.
Usage
This dataset is suitable for training language models that require an understanding of meditation-related discourse. Example applications include conversational agents providing meditation guidance and systems generating content on meditation topics.
Citation
Please cite this dataset as:
@misc{jhana_sentences_dataset,
author = {carecodeconnect},
title = {Jhana Sentences: A Dataset for Meditation-Focused Language Models},
year = {2024},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
journal = {Hugging Face Dataset Hub},
}
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