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Mindfulness of Breathing (57) Meditative Seclusion

So related to the topic of absorption, what I talked about in the guided meditation just now, a concept that the Buddha refers to often in terms of meditation practice and this path of liberation is the idea of what is often translated into English as seclusion. The word for seclusion, viveka^[1], more literally means to separate, something apart, becomes separate. In this context, seclusion is probably one of the better English words. No English words really work perfectly, but it is probably a better English word if we associate seclusion with being sheltered, protected, cozy, and nice. Being secluded in the best possible kind of associations of that word—cozy, warm, and contented. A deep feeling of satisfaction just being here, secluded. Or maybe after a long, invigorating walk in the cold, maybe even stormy weather, coming inside, wrapping in a nice blanket, having a warm drink, and just being all cozy and alone, feeling secluded from all the difficulties of life around us. Maybe something like that.

The word seclusion is used in the Buddhist teachings for a variety of different forms of seclusion. The first gives us a sense of what's to come, and it is used to refer to going on retreat. They didn't have the word 'retreat' in the ancient language, but they say 'going to be secluded'. To be secluded is to go someplace where you're separate from others. Some people might say that it's a process of escaping the world, and that we have to face the real world. But what's more real in terms of our minds and hearts is becoming integrated, not being fragmented and pulled in all kinds of directions with thoughts and feelings.

So the process of meditation—going in physically, becoming secluded from many of the aspects of the world—is so we can find this inner health, inner wholesomeness, and integration process, so we bring that back into the world. It isn't pushing the world away or abandoning it, any more than going alone and being secluded in your bathroom to take a shower is pushing away and rejecting the world. You take a shower, become clean, and you become more of a pleasant person to be with in the world if you're clean and taken care of that way.

This is meditative seclusion: going off on retreat. In the old days, it was going into the forest, perhaps to some place where people could be alone. For some people, it might just be in your own room by yourself in the early morning. Maybe you get up before everyone else, and you have this wonderful benefit of seclusion. Nothing else to think about or be involved in, just here practicing. Then it's easier to get absorbed, easier to reach an integration, that wholeness, and just the satisfaction and contentment of being this way for real. You settle in, and we become more and more secluded.

Meditative seclusion happens when we stop being so concerned with the past and the future, and thoughts don't take us spinning out to other places and other times. We're secluded from those external thoughts that kind of spin us away. If we are thinking, it's thoughts that keep us here and connected and involved. As we get more absorbed in meditation, more connected and involved in it, we really sink into it.

Then there's sensory seclusion that happens. Sometimes we aren't really involved in hearing so much, or smelling, or seeing, or even sensing the body. Sometimes the body becomes very transparent or light, or seems to have no edges, or the whole body seems to disappear because we're not really giving attention to the five senses of hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, tasting. We still have the capacity to hear and taste and do all these things, but they recede from where our attention is. We're absorbed in what we're involved in, just like reading a really good book—you don't hear people talking anymore, you don't notice the sounds outside the house because you're so absorbed in the book. There's a sensory seclusion, and because there's absorption going on, it feels really good. It's like we're being pulled in, delighted, enjoying. Our attention is getting centered in here because it's starting to get concentrated and very present.

As it does so, and the mind becomes quieter and stiller, one of the functions of this is for us to become more sensitive to clinging, to grasping, to how the mind gets attached, how the mind contracts. The more still, more absorbed, more peaceful we become, the more sensitive we become to the slightest movements of contraction, of clinging, of resistance that goes on in the mind and heart. Then we have the opportunity to let go of that, or bring our attention to that and have it let go of itself. Over time, there becomes a seclusion from the things we cling to.

One of the important steps for this process of seclusion is to be secluded from—to be separated from, not involved in anymore—the five hindrances^[2]: sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt. Because we're so absorbed, so connected, so involved with what we're doing with meditation—really dipping deep into the ocean of breathing—we don't get pulled into those. Part of this contentment and satisfaction of meditation is not being involved anymore with the hindrances. So we're secluded from them, separated from them, in the ancient language. That's temporary. In deep meditation, those can fall away, but then they come back when we come out of meditation. The mind is no longer concentrated, and maybe they come back a little bit weaker than they were before, but sooner or later they'll come back.

The ultimate seclusion, this separation, is when we become more permanently separated from some of our clinging and attachment. That more permanent separation from attachment is called liberation.

So this samadhi^[3] practice is meant to support that process of liberation. It's not just getting absorbed and feeling the healthiness, the goodness, the wholesomeness, the satisfaction, the deep contentment of just being absorbed in the breathing and flowing with the breath. It's preparing the mind so the mind is softer, more workable, more able to let go, more malleable in a sense, so that the ways it's contracted has room to breathe, room to let go and open up. We start feeling some of these seclusions which partake of, or have qualities of liberation in them, for example, being temporarily liberated from the hindrances.

That brings us to the twelfth step of these 16 steps of breathing. The eleventh one is: breathing in, one concentrates the mind, unifies the mind, steadies the mind; breathing out, one unifies the mind, steadies the mind, composes the mind, concentrates the mind—whatever that word is translated as, the samadhi word. And then the twelfth step is: breathing in, one liberates the mind; breathing out, one liberates the mind. Now we're starting to get into the territory of the real purpose of Buddhist meditation, this area of liberation, and we'll pick up and continue with that tomorrow.

Reflections

In the meantime, you might look for how you can lovingly, delightfully be absorbed in what you do during the day. Wash dishes, be absorbed, and just do that in a way where you turn yourself over fully to the enjoyment of that without letting the mind take you away. Maybe there are a lot of activities throughout the day that you can do. If you eat alone, for example, be absorbed in just the eating, and learn to appreciate or develop that capacity to give ourselves over fully to what we're doing when we're doing it, so that there are qualities of absorption. Like being involved in playing music in a nice way, this supports us to learn how to do that meditation. So you might want to play around with that during the day today, the next 24 hours.

Thank you very much, and I look forward to our time tomorrow. Thank you.