Now we enter into perhaps the most important topic for of all meditations, the pre-preparation.
If we examine all animal behaviour, we find that the most frequent state is when they are in repose. In this state, they are doing precisely what you are doing in the initial part of the meditation we have been introducing, that is, "be conscious of the totality of the experience (for example in this case, touch) and thus be prepared to react to any irritation (stimulus) that is important for survival." The survival factors are:
Natural Comfort: natural bodily comfort, food and correct temperature
Natural Security: safety from natural dangers and predators
Natural Belonging: association with others of the species
To which we must add, in the natural human creature, threats to our survival environment.
Now have this very clear in your head... The rest of the many chains of thoughts which we believe are needs are not in this category.
Now assuming a state of rest in the animal, it is prepared for any eventuality.
The program of preparation is given at birth and develops as the animal grows and develops.
We too have that capacity to prepare for any eventuality, but it has been completely destroyed by identity, which replaces these natural requirements with identity craving and clinging.
Now what we must do is, in our pre-programming, develop precisely the attention that we need for the specific meditation we are undertaking. So we must add to:
Natural Comfort: natural bodily comfort, food and correct temperature
Natural Security: safety from natural dangers and predators
Natural Belonging: association with others of the species
Natural Unity: with survival environment.
Natural Meditation
Now this cannot be set in place by simply desiring it. That is how we usually try to remember to do something. The pre-conditioning of this must be much deeper.
In this pre-programming of Natural Meditation, the human creature has evolved a capacity to direct that meditation through CONCENTRATION OR CONTEMPLATION DEVICES and furthermore organize specific Meditation Programs. He has also developed the capacity to DISCERN what is unconscious and this too must be organized in each Meditation.
THE PRE-CONDITIONING KNOWN BY THE BUDDHA AS "ORGANIZING THE MEDITATION."
This pre-conditioning will only work if you really and truly profoundly believe that this task to be set in place is critical for your survival as a true human creature. If you cannot believe that, then you will be unable to pre-condition the requirements.
It is essential then to really believe that you have a true nature common to all human creatures and that you can indeed liberate it and further, that it is the most important thing in your life at the moment, apart from the survival components we mentioned above.
What is pre-programming in the sense that it is used here?
It is the generation in one's imagination, as frequently as possible, on occasions which present themselves, the experiences of actually sitting in the meditation and concluding it perfectly.
The area of conscious establishment of breathing and defensive Qi and the unconscious part of the contemplation which we call the Becoming of Consciousness and the introduction of the contempaltion "TASK" must be pre-programmed with finesse and efficiency. It is the quality of this pre-preparation and the frequency of its development that will make the contemplation effective. The success of the Contemplation depends upon the strength of this pre-programming.
It is not a visualization, but a situation in which one with imagination experiences oneself actually performing the meditation.
Everyone at some time or another has imagined themselves in a situation which is, for the Identity, perfect. It may be a romantic situation or some other flight of fancy, but what is common to all these flights of imagination is that everything flows perfectly without the slightest error.
During this imagined meditation one includes the sitting in meditation, the in and out breathing, the establishment of the defensive Qi, the introduction of the TASK and the discernment and eventual conscious recollection.
However, it is important that the TASK is not elaborated in detail and simply inserted like one might select a compact disc to be inserted in a player. The only thing one refers to is the label, which might in this case be Vacuity, Unity, Impermanence, Clear Comprehension or the Life Force.
The series then becomes a gradual imaginative flowing of the contemplation as:
Consciously imagine "sitting ready for the contemplation of VACUITY" and gently allowing the breathing in and breathing out perfectly.
Here arises the first difficulty of the pre-preparation. The natural rate of breathing during the pre-preparation is not linked to the pre-preparation... When one imagines the correct breathing there is a tendency to actually be breathing in and breathing out in the same rhythm as that imagined.
These must be divorced and the breathing in and out of imagination must occur as an independent event.
Imagine yourself with the usual tactile experiences, the pressure on the buttocks, the pressure of the hands on knees, the movement of the eyelids, all coming together to form one whole body experience with the breathing in and out continuing within the background.
Here you must imagine that you continue in this state in which there is no consciousness.
Now imagine that automatically the VACUITY TASK enters without any conscious presence.
It is important here not to imagine any of the details of the TASK which has already been developed in consciousness by the teachings.
Now imagine that in this state in which there is no consciousness the DISCERNMENT of the EXPERIENCE OF VACUITY, in and of itself, has taken place and then slowly awakening from the contemplation observe CONSCIOUS experience of that UNCONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE that was previously generated by the contemplation.
Here in the pre-preparation it is important to generate no preconceived ideas of the nature of either the unconscious or the final conscious experience which is naturally a word-related experience.
Make sure that you understand the subtleties here, for a simple error will derail the contemplation and result in cognitive experiences which are of no value.
Now finally one word about survival.
What you are doing in your life at the moment is not behaving for survival. You are behaving for the survival of your identity, consistent with what the society believes it should be. This is not natural human survival.
Remember too that this natural survival for the human creature is not simply the survival of the basic Life Force, but also the growth and development of natural sensitivity, natural discrimination, natural unity with all things and the potential to give prognosis for the future… all without identity.
IN CONSTRUCTION
All right, try the pre-meditation. It will take a long time so don't expect to get it right away. The more you practice this and the meditation the better you will be.
You obtain this pre-programming not by driving the tasks into consciousness the way you unfortunately try to study, but by reflecting constantly on the importance of the task in your life and the details of the Meditation.
You can succeed eventually, just like the other wiser animals in this world, and believe me, the worm and cockroach are fundamentally at the moment wiser. Then you will, in the meditation state in the "becoming of consciousness" in the state of experiencing all without particulars, you will suddenly experience the pre-programmed absorption with the subject or subjects of meditation.
Remember that the pre-programming at this moment is to allow in the becoming the appearance of "single unassociated thought moments,” not chains of thoughts within the eventual absorption.
Now this preparation for the practice is not easy and is overlooked in most meditation centers. As a result, the people sit there forever and the best they can get is relaxation, which does not help any more than the thousands of other relaxation patches available.
This sitting with consciousness of the totality of touch includes all the receptors of pure tactile experiences like pressure, but also includes temperature experiences and movement. However, it is clear that we are not concerned here with the tactile sense-experiences at all, but with their absence. So that a body sense of tact we are talking about is in fact the absence of tactile sensations of pressure, heat and movement, and the preparation to receive those experiences. So the situation we are talking about is the readiness to receive the experiences without any of these experiences present. Now that is not always easy to understand.
We think of tact as being touching... but that touching is really only that something has come into the foreground... What is in the background is really the absence of that touching, but the experience of READINESS to be touched or touch. That readiness then is the absence of touching. It is a total readiness to be touched or hear or whatever.
But there is an exception to this state that we wish to induce; it is the natural state of breathing.
In the Skandha meditations we wish you to concentrate one-pointedly on the tactile sense of breathing at the nostrils or the movement of the diaphragm (Burmese method). But here the breathing information acceptable is the simple experience of breathing in and breathing out or the space where the breath is momentarily stilled.
Now for many people this attention, but not concentration, is a great help in stilling the flow of thoughts that interrupt the task. However, this in no way means that you must force or control breathing in and breathing out nor the refractory period of no response. Correct and complete breathing is an asset, but that must be learned apart from the Vipassana absorption. The more that you practice, the easier the task will become until it is quite stable. BUT DO NOT CONCENTRATE UPON THE BREATHING. Just let the awareness of the potential for tact of the full body. Some may find it easier to keep the eyes half open, while for others being completely shut is the best option.
Remember that the more you practice, the closer you will be to better absorption when we begin. A good attitude and motivation are essential.
Now all creatures are able to easily perform this readiness, as it is essential to their existence. Only the human creature allows the rebel thoughts and bad habits to intrude upon this natural state. Why is that so? It is because the human creature has the capacity to think (observable in consciousness as information passed from cognition to that process).
Thinking is quite a natural state, so we should not worry at all if thinking seems to be happening. The problem is when thinking turns into chains of related thoughts. It is then that the sensations, emotions, passions and fixations of Identity enter.
So the sensation of thinking is natural and all right, but the presence of the thoughts themselves are not.
Do you see the connection there?
Thinking is just another experience. Do remember that. Just as we say, be experiencing the tactile without particularity, we say it is perfectly okay to be experiencing the thinking without particular thoughts. Really try and understand that and proceed this week with the same practice. Just experience the totality of the body preparedness and the thinking, if it is present without thoughts.