The Blooming of a Lotus
Guided Meditation for Achieving
the Miracle of Mindfulness
Revised
Thich Nhat Hanh
Translated by Annabel Laity
Beacon Press • Boston
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Guided Meditation Exercises
Chapter I. Mindfulness of the Body
Chapter II. Images
Chapter III. Mindful Consumption
Chapter IV. Feelings and Mind
Chapter V. Objects of Mind
Chapter VI. Representing the Buddha
Chapter VII. My Parents, Myself
Appendix: Reciting the Five Mindfulness Trainings
Preface
The function of meditation practice is to heal and transform. Meditation, as understood in my tradition of Buddhism, helps us to be whole and to look deeply into ourselves and around us in order to realize what is really there. The energy that is used in meditation is mindfulness; to look deeply is to use mindfulness to light up the recesses of our mind, or to look into the heart of things in order to see their true nature. When mindfulness is present, meditation is present. Mindfulness helps us to understand the true essence of the object of meditation (whether it is a perception, an emotion, an action, a reaction, the presence of a person or object).
By looking deeply, the meditation practitioner gains insight, prajñā, or wisdom. This insight has the power to liberate us from our own suffering and bondage. In the meditation process, fetters are undone; internal blocks of suffering such as fear, anger, despair, and hatred are transformed; relationships with humans and nature become easier; freedom and joy penetrate. We become aware of what is inside us and around us; we are fresher, more alive in our daily existence. As we become freer and happier, we cease to act in ways that make others suffer, and we are able to bring about change around us and to help others become free.
The energy of mindfulness is constantly produced, nurtured, and strengthened during meditation. The meditation practitioner is like a lotus flower in the process of blooming. Buddhas are fully bloomed human flowers, beautiful and refreshing. All of us are buddhas to be. That is why in practice centers when people meet each other, they form a lotus with their palms and greet each other while bowing, saying: “A lotus for you, a buddha to be.” As they inhale while saying “a lotus for you” and exhale, smiling, while saying “a buddha to be,” they have the appearance of a blooming flower.
It may be possible for you to meditate on your own, without a teacher or a Sangha, namely, a Buddhist community of practice. But it goes without saying that to practice with a teacher and a Sangha is more advisable and much easier than to practice without them. A teacher is someone who has had experience of the practice and has succeeded in it. A Sangha is a meditation community where everyone follows more or less the same kind of practice. Since everyone is doing the same practice, it becomes easier for you to practice, too, because the group energy emitted by the Sangha is strong and very supportive. You can also learn a great deal from individual members of the Sangha, especially those who have realized some degree of peace and transformation. There are many things you may find difficult to do when alone, but in the presence of the Sangha you can do them easily. All of us who have practiced with a Sangha can testify to this fact.
If you have no teacher or friends on the path, though, this book may help you in the beginning. The subjects chosen for the meditation exercises in this book have been taken from the basic dhyana sutras of Source Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. The meditation taught in this book is the practice as perfected and taught by the Buddha. All of this book’s exercises have been put into practice before being shared with the wider community of meditation students. Relying on the exercises of a practice that has been perfected, you may feel secure throughout the period of meditation. You need have no fear of beginning your practice right now, even if you have not yet had a chance to meet a teacher or find a Sangha.
In the Buddhist tradition, we consider Sangha one of the three gems. (The three gems are Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.) As we see it, the three gems are already in your heart. The Sangha in yourself may guide you to the Sangha that is somewhere near you. Maybe the teacher and the Sangha are right there, very close to you, but you have not yet noticed. From practice of the exercises in this book, you will generate the energy of mindfulness, which may lead you toward a teacher and a community. This book can be a mediator between you and a teacher, between you and a Sangha. Allow it to play its role.
Introduction
Meditation can be practiced almost anywhere—while sitting, walking, lying down, standing, even while working, drinking, and eating. Sitting is only the most familiar form of meditation, and the one we feel most privileged to enjoy, but there are many other forms that can be learned. During the past twenty-five years, many thousands of people have come to Plum Village to practice meditation. From time to time, they have been offered guided exercises during sitting meditation sessions. At first, those who are used to sitting silently to meditate do not feel at ease during the exercises, but with practice they are able to experience the many benefits of guided meditation and consequently to experience transformation at a very fundamental level. Over the years, meditation students from many parts of the world have asked me to make these exercises more widely available.
The Subject Matter of the Guided Meditation
The guided meditations in this book have different purposes. Some exercises encourage joy within us; others enable us to discover our true nature, help us heal, shine the light of awareness in us, or release us from hurtful emotions. Some exercises have several purposes. The exercises that nourish and refresh our bodies and our minds should be done frequently. These exercises can be called the food of joy. (In the dhyana school, there is the expression “meditation as the food of joy,” which means that the feeling of joy arising from the practice of meditation nourishes and sustains us. During the ceremony for offering rice at midday, we say, “Receiving this food, we pray that everyone will be nourished by the enjoyment of the meditation practice and the enjoyment of the Dharma that will bring them to the realization of the full truth.”) Exercises one through four are especially suitable for this purpose. Such exercises connect us to elements that are refreshing and healthy, both in ourselves and in the world around us. They help us put an end to distracted thoughts, bringing us back to the present moment, to where we can recognize the oneness of body and mind. Although they are called nourishment exercises, they also restore internal balance, allowing the body as well as the mind to begin the work of healing. Other exercises help us renew contact not only with the self, the body, and the mind but also with the world at large, with family, and with society. We thus learn to overcome feelings of separation, loneliness, and isolation and begin to see a new way of being in, being part of, the world. Some of the exercises make us whole, and in others we learn to let go. Practitioners can judge from experience which exercises are most suitable for their needs and the circumstances in which they find themselves.
The Person Guiding the Meditation
Those who are chosen to guide sitting meditation exercises should be experienced in the practice of meditation; that is, they themselves should have realized an inner transformation. They should know how to invite
[1] the bell during the meditation in a firm and unhurried way, so that the sound of the bell expresses and gives rise to a stable and calm state of mind. The voice of the guide should be neither too loud nor too soft. It should inspire and at the same time soothe. The guide must be sensitive to the needs of the participants. Just as the doctor must choose the medicine best suited to the pat
ient, the guide must determine the most appropriate exercises for the community of participants. The subject matter of the guided meditation and the length of time allotted to it will be based on this understanding. If the participants experience delight and ease after each session of guided meditation, then the guide can be said to have succeeded in the task.
The Best Way to Practice
Before practicing any of the exercises, it is important to understand its purpose. Usually, the person leading a meditation will take five to seven minutes at the beginning of a session to explain the exercise. In this book you will find basic guidelines before each exercise. A single exercise can be practiced over several periods of meditation. After any session of guided practice, the person leading the meditation should be ready to hear the reactions of the participants, so that in the succeeding sessions, the meditation can better fit their needs. Practitioners must be given enough time to grasp each stage of the meditation. For example, the in-breath is always accompanied by an image, and the out-breath often has another image, based on the preceding one. Using an image to meditate is much easier and more useful than using an abstract idea. The guide should allow as many as ten to twelve breaths, or even more, for the meditation participants to focus themselves. Indeed, every session should begin with a few minutes of mindful breathing so that participants can calm their minds and open themselves to the joy of meditation. The bell should not be invited with a full sound, lest it take the practitioners by surprise. The guide should simply wake the bell
[2] before continuing on to the next stage of the exercise. The voice of the guide should be expressive of the spirit and the image upon which the participants are concentrating. This requires a little practice, and all participants should practice the role of guide so that at some time in the future they may be able to help others.
Breathing and Looking Deeply
Breathing and knowing that we are breathing is a basic practice. No one can be truly successful in the art of meditating without going through the door of breathing. To practice conscious breathing is to open the door to stopping and looking deeply in order to enter the domain of concentration and insight. The meditation master Tang Hoi, the first patriarch of the dhyana school in Vietnam (third century C.E.), said that “Anapananusmriti (being aware of the breathing) is the great vehicle offered by the Buddhas to living beings” (from the preface to the Anapananusmriti sutra). Conscious breathing is the way into any sort of meditative concentration. Conscious breathing also leads us to the basic realizations of the impermanence, emptiness, interdependent origination, selflessness, and nonduality of all that is. It is true that we can practice stopping and looking deeply without using conscious breathing, but conscious breathing is the safest and surest path we can follow. Thus all the exercises presented here employ the vehicle of conscious breathing. The breathing carries the image, and the image throws open the doors closed by our wrong perceptions.
“You only need to sit.”
While practicing sitting meditation, you need to feel completely at ease. Every muscle in your body should be relaxed, including the muscles in your face. The best way to relax the muscles in your body is to smile gently as you breathe. You should keep your spinal column quite straight, but the body should not be rigid. This position will relax you, and you can enjoy the feeling of ease. Do not make a great effort, do not struggle, do not fight. Let go of everything as you sit. This prevents backache, shoulder-ache, or headache. If you are able to find a cushion that fits your body well, you can sit for a long time without feeling tired.
Some people say they do not know what to do when they are sitting. They have been taught a correct meditation posture but do not know how to make their breathing light and even. The exercises found here will help them realize the oneness of body and mind. At the very least, they will learn that it is possible to do “something” while sitting.
“You only need to sit” is an exhortation of Tao Dong (Soto) meditation. It means that you should sit without waiting for a miracle—and that includes the miracle of enlightenment. If you sit always in expectation, you cannot be in contact with or enjoy the present moment, which always contains the whole of life. Sit in this context means to sit in an awakened way, in a relaxed way, with your mind awake, calm, and clear. Only this can be called sitting, and it takes training and practice.
Unfavorable Reactions to Guided Meditation
Some people find the sound of the bell and the spoken voice during the sitting meditation session disturbing. Accustomed to silence while meditating, they feel that their peace and joy is taken away from them in guided meditation. This is not difficult to understand. In silent meditation, you are able to calm your body and your mind. You do not want anyone to disturb that state of lightness, peace, and joy. But, if you are content only with this, you will not be able to go far in the work of transforming the depths of your consciousness. There are people who meditate only to forget the complications and problems of life, like rabbits crouching under a hedge to escape a hunter or people taking shelter in a cellar to avoid bombs. The feeling of security and protection arises naturally when we sit in meditation, but we cannot continue in this state forever. We need the vigor and strength to come out of the meditation hall into life because that is the only way we can hope to change our world. In the practice of guided meditation, we have the opportunity to look deeply into the mind, to sow wholesome seeds there, to strengthen and cultivate those seeds so that they may become the means for transforming the suffering in us. Finally, we can also be guided in meditation to come face to face with that suffering in order to understand its root causes and be free of its bondage.
Guided meditation is not some new invention. It was used by practitioners in the time of the Buddha. This is clear if you read the Sutra for the Sick and the Dying (Ekottara Agama, chapter 51, sutra 8; Madhyama Agama, sutra 26; or Majjhima Nikaya, sutta 143). This sutra records the guided meditation that Sariputra used to help the layman Anathapindika when he was lying on his sick bed. The Venerable Sariputra guided Anathapindika step by step until he was able to transform his fear of death. The Anapanasati sutta is also a guided meditation teaching. In short, guided meditation has been part of the Buddhist tradition right from the beginning.
The guided meditation exercises in this book can help many practitioners by making their sitting meditation more concrete. Because of the systematic nature of the exercises, they could open a new era for the practice of sitting meditation.
The Breath, the Bell, the Guiding Sentences, and the Key Words
The leader of the guided meditation exercise first makes a “waking-up” sound on the rim of the bell to draw the attention of the community. She should allow five or six seconds to pass before reading the two guiding sentences. For example (from exercise four):
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out, I feel fresh.
After that, she pronounces the key words (the condensed version of the guiding sentences):
flower/fresh
A full sound of the bell signals the practice stage. After five, ten, fifteen, or more in/out breaths, the leader of the meditation invites another waking-up sound, allows five or six seconds to pass, and then reads the next two guiding sentences.
There are exercises where the in/out breathing is the sole object of mindfulness and concentration. For example (from exercise two):
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
In other exercises, the breathing carries in itself an image, and this image is visualized and kept alive during the whole in-breath or out-breath. The image is associated closely with the breathing. For example (from exercise four):
Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain.
Breathing out, I feel solid.
Breathing and Singing
In this book you will see some practice songs printed. It is beneficial to sing as part of our meditation practice. First of all,
the music helps us remember the words of the guided meditation that have been incorporated into the song. Once a meditation is memorized it is much easier to put it into practice in a natural way, whether we are sitting or engaged in any activity.
Before beginning a Dharma talk or a Dharma discussion, singing a song can help create a calm and joyful atmosphere. While singing we practice the words that we are singing. If we sing the word “flower” we feel the freshness of the flower as we sing. We can also use the singing or music of the song as an accompaniment to our breathing. One half of the group can sing as the other half listens and breathes, and then the two halves change roles.
[
1 ] We never say “strike” the bell because for us the bell is a friend who can wake us up to full understanding. We say “invite” the bell, meaning invite the bell to sound.
[
2 ] To wake the bell means to touch it firmly with the inviter and not move the inviter away. This muffles the sound. A “wake-up” is always followed by an in-breath and an out-breath and then the full sound can be made. Making this full sound is called inviting the bell.
Guided Meditation Exercises
Chapter I. Mindfulness of the Body
In the Anapanasati Sutta, the Buddha teaches mindfulness of breathing as a guided meditation. There are sixteen exercises divided into four parts. The first part is using the breath to be mindful of the body. The second is using the breath to be mindful of the feelings. The third is breathing to be mindful of the mind. The fourth is breathing to be mindful of the objects of the mind. In this book all four of these areas or fields of mindfulness are covered. The exercises on mindfulness of the body are the most basic practice and can be used at any time as an introduction to exercises for looking deeply and transforming. They help us become accustomed to breathing consciously and to use the breathing to unite body and mind.