The Practice of Calm Abiding

The practice of calm abiding has both a preliminary and an actual phase. The preliminary phase has two subdivisions: abandoning what is unsuitable and relying on what is a suitable support.

1. Abandoning What Is Unsuitable
To cultivate correct meditative stabilization, it is unsuitable to stay in the homes of worldly people, to have impure companions who only pursue worldly aims, or to care excessively about food, wealth, possessions, and so forth. These three are significant obstacles on the path of experience, and it is necessary to abandon them. If they are not abandoned, they hinder the cultivation of meditative stabilization.

2. Suitable Support
To rest the mind in single-pointed, profound meditative stabilization, reliance on suitable conditions—such as the environment—is essential. Suitable places include the residence of a pure being, a remote forest, a solitary valley, or a cave. To work with these conditions requires fortitude, faith, good health, and not concealing any aspect of one’s vows. A yogi who can clear both human and non-human obstacles can remain alone. For those who stay alone, even having two companions is considered unsuitable.

However, those who are unable to be alone may stay with their lama or with friends whose view and behavior are harmonious. Regarding necessities, one should rely on the “four preferences of the noble ones”: simple food, simple clothing, simple dwelling-place, and simple possessions. Be satisfied with just the bare necessities. In short, one should abandon inappropriate companions, luxurious vehicles, indulgent food and clothing, and abide in a way that withstands hardship. These are the good conditions that support meditative stabilization.

The Four Parts of the Actual Practice of Calm Abiding

1. The essential point of the body
   
   

2. The essential point of the mind
   
   

3. The way experience develops
   
   

4. The union of calm abiding and special insight meditation to pass beyond suffering
   
   

1. The Essential Point of the Body
To be comfortable, one must sit on a good cushion—not too hard—and cross the legs, placing the hands in the equipoise position. The back is straight like an arrow, the shoulders spread like a vulture’s wings, and the neck slightly bent forward like a hook. The teeth and lips are left naturally as they are. The eyes are half-open, gazing down at the tip of the nose. This is the mudrā of the Buddha Kunnang Khyabpa, or the posture of abiding in the manner of the Bönku Kuntuzangpo.

2. The Essential Point of the Mind
If the body is comfortable, then the mind is comfortable and stable. When both body and mind become supple, one can practice virtue as one wishes. This suppleness is essential—when body and mind are flexible, nothing else is necessary.

The second point concerns the support the mind observes and how to focus on it. When the object of focus is a syllable such as an Ah ཨ, one recalls the Speech of the Buddhas. When focusing on thigle (sphere of light), one remembers the Mind of the Buddhas. Especially, when the mind is held on an image of the Buddha, the Body, Speech, and Mind are all remembered. This generates great merit. Such an image—if distinct and clear—can serve as the support for paying homage, making offerings, aspiration prayers, confessing faults, restoring vows, and purifying obscurations. At the time of death, remembering the Buddha can lead to liberation. In deity yoga meditation on the Mantra Path, this is particularly important.

To focus the mind correctly: take the posture described above, and place before you an image of any Buddha—painted or cast—well made, to serve as your single object of meditation. If you don't have an image of any Buddha, you can use a small pebble or the white syllable Ah ཨ in the center of a thigle (sphere of light). Focus the mind single-pointedly on this object. Alternate tightening and loosening your focus to maintain pure clarity of the object, without following the six consciousnesses of the mind. Remain quiet and relaxed.

Practice with many short, repeated sessions, so that the non-conceptual view of meditative stabilization can gradually arise in your mindstream. Strong, continuous focus is like walking across a narrow beam. Relaxation is like abiding under the law of the king. Balance these two—when focus is strong, dullness will not arise; when relaxation is present, agitation will not arise. This balance brings flawless meditative stabilization.

3. Recognizing and Remedying Flaws
Flaws in meditative stabilization fall into two categories: dullness and agitation. Both arise when the balance of tension and relaxation is disturbed. Dullness occurs when mental tension weakens; agitation arises when relaxation is lost. If the mind is not wandering from the object of meditation but the object is unclear, that’s dullness. If the mind cannot remain on the object and wanders, that’s agitation.

Dullness can occur when the earth element is predominant, leading to the affliction of ignorance. It can also arise from too much meat or alcohol, overexertion, or meditating at midday or midnight with excessive fixation.

Agitation can result from a predominance of the fire and wind elements, leading to desire and pride. It may also stem from an unstable and distracted mind preoccupied with samsaric activity. Practicing insincerely—merely to appear diligent—can also lead to agitation.

There are also subtle and coarse distinctions. Coarse dullness is the absence of clarity and awareness of the object—only a dim brightness remains. Subtle dullness is when there is clarity and brightness, but the mind’s ascertainment of the object is slightly weakened. Torpor arises when the mind is not distracted from the object but lacks clarity. Dullness is when brightness exists without clarity.

Coarse agitation is when the mind follows attractive objects and is caught in desire or attachment. Subtle agitation is when the mind is barely drawn toward other objects, creating difficulty in maintaining focus.

Remedies:
For dullness, sit in a high, bright place like a mountain. Wear light clothing, eat cool, light food, and raise your gaze slightly upward.
For agitation, sit in a low, shaded place. Wear warm clothing, eat warm, organic food, and bring your gaze downward.

If these flaws arise and are not corrected, the meditative stabilization becomes flawed. Thus, one must recognize and remedy these flaws. Remembering the object of meditation is called drenpa (“mindfulness”), and observing whether dullness or agitation arises is shézhin (“watchfulness”).

4. How Meditative Experience Develops
There are three stages of meditative experience, explained by example, meaning, and application.

• First Stage: Like water rushing down a steep mountain, thoughts are many and rough. For beginners, conceptual thoughts are coarse and frequent—this is the first experience.
  
  

• Second Stage: Like water in a canyon, sometimes smooth and sometimes turbulent, conceptual thoughts begin to settle—this is the second experience.
  
  

• Third Stage: Like a calm ocean untouched by wind, the meditation is perfected. Without adverse conditions, the mind remains in equanimity for as long as desired. This is the third experience.
  
  

These three stages arise sequentially. If progress stalls after the third experience, the meditation resembles the calm abiding of the desire realm—still beneficial, but not yet the real calm abiding.

True Calm Abiding:
Real calm abiding arises when the body and mind become truly supple—negative tendencies that prevented virtue are reversed, and one is effortlessly inclined toward virtue. Suppleness and single-pointedness support enhance each other, growing together. At this point, even a brief moment can be used completely for virtue.

As soon as suppleness arises, the mind becomes separated from its afflictive tendencies, and previously applied antidotes arise naturally. The body's subtle winds begin to circulate, separating it from coarse negativities. This produces physical and mental bliss, enhancing joy and deepening meditation.

After the first experience of suppleness, it gradually becomes subtler. As coarse tendencies fall away, a deeper, smoother meditative stabilization arises. The mind turns inward, becomes immovable, and attains the feeling of profound peace—this marks calm abiding as the preparatory stage of the first level of meditative absorption (dhyāna), abiding in the meditative equipoise of the desire and form realms.

The Universality of Calm Abiding
This practice is not exclusive to Bön. Sages of many world religions have practiced it—even to the third level of formless absorption—becoming free from attachment to form and desire realms. Achievements such as clairvoyance and miraculous powers also depend on this practice.

For Bön practitioners, calm abiding is the foundation for renunciation of samsara and the generation of bodhicitta. When this is embraced with meditation on selflessness, it becomes the path to liberation from samsara and eventually omniscience. Thus, calm abiding is common to both Bön and other spiritual traditions.

Calm Abiding and Special Insight
Once one has actualized the extraordinary bliss of bodily and mental suppleness, one can cultivate the primordial wisdom of special insight. Through the union of calm abiding and special insight, the illusion of subject-object duality dissolves, and one reaches the level of liberation from samsara (though not yet full Buddhahood). This level corresponds to the direct perception of emptiness and is followed by the path of meditation and further realization.

Through actualizing the special insight of the nature of reality—both of phenomena and of mind—one attains complete liberation from samsara.