Obstacles of Meditation

The Lamp That Illuminates the Path to Liberation from the

Obstacles of Meditation 

It is wonderful to dedicate serious time to meditation practice. Experiencing periods where the practice does not feel stable or aligned is a very common and natural stage of the journey. To address the question on how to find genuine stability and strike the vital point of practice, it is crucial for beginners to clearly understand how to meditate before sitting down on the cushion. 

When we lack this foundational understanding, we easily fall into two core errors based on our varying capacities. Below is a guide on how to recognize these errors and how to cultivate the correct remedies.

Part I: The Two Common Errors of Beginners

1. The First Error: Wandering into Delusion due to Losing the Intensity of Natural Mindfulness

This error occurs when certain beginner practitioners, completely failing to understand the vital point of the unaltered natural state, develop a mistaken view regarding the practice. They believe that if they intentionally maintain or tighten mindfulness during meditation, it will inevitably turn into a fabricated and effortful conceptual thought. Consequently, they come to believe that mindfulness is entirely unnecessary. They then leave the mind in an excessively loose, careless state of total indifference (ci mi snyam pa), attempting to think of nothing at all.

• The Pitfall: By leaving the mind in this manner, the inherent intensity of natural mindfulness—the very clarity of awareness—is lost. As a result, the mind helplessly falls under the sway of dullness, sluggishness, and delusion. Ultimately, your meditation dissolves completely, yet you remain entirely unaware of its disappearance, left wandering blindly in a state of confusion.

2. The Second Error: Obscuring the State by Forcefully Holding Mindfulness, Turning It into Conceptual Thought

Conversely, other beginner practitioners overemphasize or narrowly interpret specific scriptural statements, such as: "If a beginner lacks the retention of mindfulness, it turns into a dumb, strayed meditation." Fearing intensely that their mind will slip into ordinary, chaotic thoughts, they approach their practice with extreme caution and anxiety. Consequently, they intentionally, forcefully, and rigidly grip onto mindfulness during meditation.

• The Pitfall: Because mindfulness is held so tightly, that very mindfulness itself mutters back into yet another layer of conceptual thought. Instead of revealing reality, this rigid effort actually obscures the unmanipulated, natural state. This approach ultimately leads to a complete waste of your spiritual continuum and time, because the fabricated effort itself acts as a barrier, blocking the realization of the mind's true, unaltered nature.

Part II: The Three Direct Remedies for Correct Practice

To free yourself from these two errors and properly sustain your practice, you must keep the following three core points as the heart of your meditation:

1. Maintaining the Balanced "Middle Way" of Relaxation and Tension

When cultivating meditation, the structural hold of the mind should neither be overly tight and rigid, nor excessively loose and slack; rather, you must maintain a balanced "middle way." This is precisely like tuning the strings of a lute—it must be perfectly adjusted, free from the faults of being either too taut or too loose.

• To remedy looseness: Ensure that a faculty of "alertness" (introspection)— acting much like a vigilant watchman—is actively present. Instead of sinking into a state of total blankness, akin to sleeping while thinking of nothing, the essential nature of the mind must remain vividly clear and present.

• To remedy tightness: Do not forcefully grip onto awareness. Allow both body and mind to completely relax. Instead of fighting to block conceptual thoughts at all costs, even if thoughts arise and stir within the mind, simply refrain from chasing after them. Leave them to settle naturally in their own place.

2. Relying on Unaltered Natural Mindfulness

To prevent mindfulness from degenerating into an effortful, conceptual thought, you must rely on unaltered, natural mindfulness rather than fabricated effort.

• Fabricated mindfulness refers to the anxiety of thinking, "I am meditating right now; I must block all conceptual thoughts." Because this state of mind is bound up with gripping and expectation, it becomes an obstacle.

• Natural mindfulness is simply letting the mind look at its own inherent nature, without producing any new fabrications or modifications from the outside. For instance, just like maintaining a gentle, simple awareness of the natural inhalation and exhalation of your breath, you should rest in equipoise through the mere factor of "knowing"—maintaining its natural clarity without any anxiety or forced effort.

3. Uniting Clarity and Stability

To truly strike the vital point of practice, you must cultivate the union of two essential factors:

• Stability (gnas pa): This means the mind does not chase after external conceptual thoughts and sensory objects, but rests unmovingly in an unaltered state. This stability remedies the error of becoming too tight.

• Clarity (gsal ba): This means the essential nature of the mind is not obscured by the darkness of dullness and sluggishness, but remains vividly clear, open, and pristine. This clarity conquers the error of becoming too loose.

During meditation, remaining unmoving in terms of stability, while remaining unobscured in terms of clarity—and uniting these two seamlessly—is the extraordinary, key method for liberating yourself from the bottlenecks of practice.

Conclusion

Do not be discouraged by the time it takes. True stability comes from gently adjusting your mind day by day, finding that perfect balance between letting go and staying awake. Keep your sessions short but frequent, and bring these core points into your daily practice.

May this be beneficial for all!