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Guided Meditation: Tranquility

So welcome to this meditation session. And to evoke a theme for this meditation, some of you may have seen that it's fairly common for statues of the Buddha to have a small smile on his face. It's not dramatic, just a little upturn of the lips. While he's sitting in a posture that represents both alertness and tranquility, I think of this smile of the Buddha to be a tranquil smile, representing tranquil joy or a joyful tranquility.

And so to sit with tranquility, to sit calmly, is often associated with meditation. One of the ways of supporting tranquility in meditation is to recognize the tranquility that's here. The Buddha said that the nourishment for tranquility is tranquility. That might seem impossible. If you don't feel any tranquility at all, how can you benefit from tranquility which is absent? But I suspect that if you take your meditation posture, that you will, if you search around, find something within you that feels like it's calm or tranquil. It could just be a hint, and that can be the basis for the growth of more tranquility.

So assuming a meditation posture, one that maybe will support the body to be tranquil and calm, certainly not with the agitation of running around. And to gently close your eyes and to feel as you sit here, is there within you any physical tranquility? Anything that qualifies as physical calmness, maybe already a bit of relaxation. Where in your body do you feel that calmness or tranquility the most? Even if much of you is agitated, where is it least agitated?

Take a few moments to breathe with the place of calmness, of tranquility. Breathe through it. Breathe with it, just so you can feel the calmness more fully. And is there some simple way to allow that calmness to expand outwards into more of your body? Maybe there's relaxing around the calmness. Maybe even a small adjustment in your posture allows the calmness to spread a bit.

And is there some way that whatever calmness or tranquility you have, however small, that it could also be found or expressed in your breathing? Is there any part of your cycle of breathing that has some quality of relaxation, relaxing, tranquility, peace, calm? Is there any part of the cycle of breathing that qualifies as being the most calm, the most at ease? The end of the exhale maybe? The end of the inhale? If there's a pause between the exhale and inhale, there's something about that pause that feels tranquil and calm. Or is there something about the tempo of breathing that feels easy and calm, even if there's only a little hint of it?

And as you exhale now to relax your body, soften. Tranquility of the body is associated with a softness of body, and a lightness. A body feels light. And as you exhale, relaxing the body to soften the edges of it, to ease up on the heaviness of the body, to feel a lightness. Relaxing, releasing the muscles of the face. Relaxing, releasing tension in your shoulders. Softening the belly.

And similarly, can you find any hints of tranquility in your mind? Even if the mind is agitated, underneath the agitation, behind it, to the side of the mind, or at the heart, the center of the mind, is there any feeling of calm? Ease. The tranquility of the mind is also associated with a softness, a soft mind, and a lightness of mind. And if you recognize any tranquility of mind, can you allow that to expand as you breathe? Relaxing the mind, quieting it, quieting the thinking. As you exhale, relaxing any tension or pressure associated with thinking so that the calmness of mind can spread.

I associate calmness with a very still lake at dawn, with hardly any wind. A very peaceful surface of the lake. The air is clear and still, quiet before the activities of the day have begun. And for the body and mind to be tranquil like that, and the breathing to be maybe a very gentle breeze that touches down across the surface of that lake. Like a light feather, it brushes the surface of the lake. That breeze doesn't disturb the lake. The movements of breathing, soft and light like a feather.

Breathing with whatever tranquility of body and mind that's here, not worrying about the agitation that there might be, making room to feel and experience whatever peacefulness that's here. Breathing with it, letting it have its time to expand, to grow, to nourish you. The nourishment of tranquility and peace.

If there is any tranquility for you, let there also be a willingness to feel the tranquility, an openness to it, receptivity. As you breathe with the tranquility of mind and body.

If the mind is starting to get activated and thinking a lot, calmly recognize that's the case. Let your mindfulness be calm and tranquil about what it knows. There's no hurry in mindfulness. Calmly bring what's happening into focus, and then recognize whatever tranquility and calmness that's present, and return to breathing. Breathing together with whatever calmness is here, with whatever nourishment there is in being peaceful and tranquil.

And as the body feels tranquil and peaceful, might there be hints of some happiness, or some sense of contentment or ease? Happiness or contentment in the body. And if there are hints of that, let that expand. Let that open. Breathe with the contentment, the happiness, the ease that might be there with the tranquility. A happiness, contentment that makes it easier to quiet the mind more. A still, quiet, tranquil mind might itself have a mental contentment and happiness.

And then as we come to the end of this sitting, may it be that this meditation is a support for the world. That the benefits of sitting and meditating will spread out from us individually and us collectively. Among those who are agitated, may we spread tranquility. Among those who are in conflict, may we provide peace. Among those who are tense, may we provide relaxation. Among those who are discontented, may we provide contentment. And for those who need reassurance, may we be reassuring that it's good to be at rest and at peace in one's own heart.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free. And in this way, may all beings feel deeply at home in this world of ours, and in their own hearts. May all beings be happy.

Mindfulness of Breathing (47) Tranquility Factor of Awakening

So continuing to discuss the seven factors of awakening, following the joy factor of awakening comes the tranquility factor of awakening. In the teachings of the Buddha, that pattern repeats itself many times: that first there's joy and then there's tranquility. And one of the common phrases in the suttas is that when the mind is joyful, the body becomes tranquil, and when the body is tranquil, there arises happiness.

Exactly how this works, I can't tell you. It depends a little bit on what we think joy is, but I think it's in part something that's very reassuring. That somehow to begin experiencing some feeling of delight, joy, happiness, goodness in meditation, then it's reassuring. Something can release and relax. "Oh, this is good. I'm here, I'm starting to be home. This is a good place to be. It's okay not to be running around searching, wanting, fighting, resisting, hoping." It's okay to kind of be reassuring just to be here and settled and relaxed.

And the function of this tranquility in the Buddhist path of meditation is not tranquility for its own sake, but tranquility for the sake of happiness. That joy precedes tranquility, and then that opens up the possibility for a deeper happiness. Exactly what we mean by happiness, maybe each of us will have a different idea, but it's something that opens up throughout the body. It's often considered to be an embodied feeling of contentment or happiness, warmth, goodness, that the tranquility enables. Because tranquility is something that's meant to spread through your body, open your body so the tensions of your body are not holding things in check. And so as the body opens up more and more, and we feel and open to the body, then there's more room for a well-being. An embodied sense of well-being that doesn't really depend on what's happening in the world. It doesn't really depend on having our desires met or having an evaluation. It doesn't depend on someone praising us or having worldly success, but comes from the state of mind and body that we've kind of settled into in a meditative way.

It's not easy to experience this. So this is in terms of the factors of awakening, you know, this tranquility is now step five. I think that just as with anapanasati^[1], whether we consciously know it or not, we're all kind of moving through these factors. Different days and different ones are salient. But I think percentage-wise, the average meditator spends much more time on the first one, mindfulness. A little bit less time with investigation, somewhat less time with maybe—I don't know if I left effort out of it—but less time with feeling joy, and less time with feeling tranquility and happiness. And then samadhi^[2] (concentration), and then equanimity. So I'm saying this so we don't set ourselves up and think that it has to be linear, it has to be like more and more of the good stuff. Meditation has a lot to do with starting over and working with what we have and what's going on, and then slowly we might find ourselves developing and moving in the direction that these seven factors of awakening are pointing to.

But tranquility. In the mid-1970s, when the first American vipassana^[3] teachers in our lineage were kind of establishing vipassana in the United States, they were looking for a retreat center to have their first retreat. They came across, I guess it was a closed monastery kind of place in a town called Barre, Massachusetts, a small little town. And as they were driving through town to see the place, in the middle of town there was a little statue commemorating colonial times or the Revolutionary War or something like that. But anyway, the motto of the town is "Tranquil and Alert." And they said, "Oh, this is our place. This is the place for a meditation center: tranquil and alert."

So certainly the tranquility comes along with alertness. Not bright energetic alertness, but the kind of clarity and simplicity of alertness that's really here and present. Not a tranquility where we get lethargic or dull or start falling asleep, which is a little bit the danger with tranquility. It's easy to linger in it, rest in it. It's easy to indulge in it in such a way that it actually becomes soporific, it puts us to sleep. The art of meditation is to be able to stay alert and clear while being in this deep tranquility. And that's why I like this lake metaphor, this image for tranquility. That early in the morning when the air is completely still and quiet and very clear at dawn, the surface of the lake is so still and quiet and peaceful, but completely clear. So this clarity that comes with tranquility.

It's important when there's a lot of tranquility to kind of bring into balance these factors of awakening. It might be a little more energy is needed to keep that clarity, or maybe that's part of the function of the joy, is to keep a little bit of brightness there so the mind can be soft, light, and bright at the same time. So we're kind of tracking ourselves. And it's very important in any kind of meditation state when there are some nourishing qualities that are present, not to indulge in it or rest in it in a certain kind of way or savor it, but also allowing ourselves to be nourished by it. Allowing ourselves to feel the goodness of it without leaning into it or holding onto it or becoming complacent. I think as people get calmer in meditation, and a lot of their tensions and anxieties and different things settle down, it's very easy to fall into complacency. And just kind of be content to feel calm and relaxed, and the mind wanders off and they fall asleep, because there's not really the little brightness of practice, of engagement. So this bright tranquility, this bright serenity or peace that comes along. Right, tranquil and alert.

And then, as I've maybe said already, for the Buddha each of these factors of awakening have something that nourishes them. In the case of tranquility, tranquility nourishes tranquility. So if you want to be tranquil, go find tranquility. Because that tranquility feeds us or influences us. It could mean going to some places. Some people have tranquil places they go to. There are places, believe it or not, buildings that are tranquil buildings. I used to go sometimes into some of the churches in Europe when I lived there, and just sit quietly. Some of them were quite tranquil and peaceful, and it was wonderful to go from the hustle and bustle of town, come across this wonderful little church, and go in and be so peaceful, and just sit there for a while and take it in. It felt nourishing to take it in.

Many people associate tranquility with places in nature, even if it's a very small little park. That can be a tranquil place. Yesterday I was in a park, and there was a piece of the park, just a few trees, that I thought, "This is a peaceful place." It was nice just to be there and take it in. Or maybe tranquility can be found with a cup of tea. Just to contentedly drink the tea. To drink the tea as if this is meant to be a place to drink tranquility. It's a little footnote that the word piti^[4]—that's the word for joy—also in Pali means to drink. So nourishment, drinking in something.

And then when you sit and meditate, can you support yourself with tranquility as you meditate? Do you just leave it to chance, do you just gamble that today I'm going to sit down and maybe there will be some tranquility? Or do you sit down in a place that's tranquil? Sometimes people find that just straightening out their room before they meditate just seems to support a little more tranquility rather than a messy room and an unclean place. And then to take some time to value tranquility, to value calmness. And so to sit down and see if there's any of it here.

So tranquility nourishes tranquility. The ability to recognize it and allow ourselves to feel it when it is there, to avail ourselves of that. And I love the term nourishment, to be nourished by this. It goes along with translating kusala^[5], the word for skillful or wholesome, translating it as wholesome. Because one of the things wholesome means in English is something which is healthy for us. It's nourishing for us, like wholesome bread or something. And so this idea that what we're doing in this Buddhist path is we're nourishing ourselves with what's wholesome. And that's a very different paradigm for meditation practice and Buddhist practice than the acquisitive paradigm: "I gotta do it, and I gotta work at it, and you know, get concentrated and make something happen, and get something to happen to me." There can be a lot of unhealthy, unnourishing attitudes that we bring to meditation.

So is there a nourishing attitude? Is there an attitude to kind of touch and do this practice, engage in our life, live our life so the very way that we live our life feels nourishing, feels wholesome, feels supportive? That is onward leading. Each of these factors of awakening is onward leading. Tranquility, when you practice, is not a dead end. When you're practicing mindfulness sincerely, tranquility itself is onward leading. It supports us to go to happiness and contentment, which then becomes a support for samadhi, for concentration. And if we take samadhi to be a unification of mind where we have a feeling of becoming whole, then this tranquility allows us to kind of be at ease in our whole body and mind, which supports us to be really centered here in a deep way without the tensions and the conflicts and the divisions that prevent us from feeling wholeness. Then we understand how this tranquility, being tranquil, is a support for the feeling of wholeness or unification that comes with samadhi, which will be the topic for the early morning tomorrow.

And so for now, you're left with tranquility. Can't be that bad. Thank you.