As found in Theravada teachings, there are 5 specific ways for the removal of distracting thoughts, which I state below, briefly, in the same order they appear in the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, the 20th Sutta in the MN (Middle Length Discourse) which can be practiced by us, one or all of the five, and in no particular order.
They should be practiced only when the distractions become destructive and persistent, when owing to some sign there arises in us an unwholesome thought connected with desire, hate or delusion, one should give attention to some "other sign" – whence the former thoughts abandon us and subside. Then our mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness and concentrated.
1. By giving our attention to a different sign of a wholesome nature -
When thoughts of sensual desire arise directed towards other living beings - meditate on the "other sign", by meditating on foulness of bodily parts (See below).
When thoughts of sensual desire arise directed towards inanimate things - directing ones attention to the "other sign" of impermanence.
When thoughts of hate arise directed towards living beings - directing ones attention to the "other sign" of meditating on loving kindness.
When thoughts of hate arise directed towards inanimate things - directing ones attention to the "other sign" of the elements.
When thoughts of delusion arise - by living under a teacher, studying the Dhamma, inquiring into its meaning, listening to the Dhamma, and inquiring in to causes. (Personal Tip below)
....just as skilled carpenter or his apprentice might knock out, remove or extract a coarse peg by means of a fine one...
2. By reflecting on the danger of those unwholesome thoughts thus: These thoughts are unwholesome, reprehensible and result in suffering -
...just as a man or a woman, young, youthful, and fond of ornaments, would be horrified, humiliated and disgusted if a carcass of a snake or a dog or a human being were hung around his or her neck...
3. By trying not to give any attention to those unwholesome thoughts or forgetting them -
...just as a good man with good eyes who did not want to see forms that had come within range of sight would either shut his eyes or look away, so too...4. By giving attention to the sources of those unwholesome thoughts, that being the thought formations of those thoughts -
By inquiring when an unwholesome thought has arisen, what is the cause, what is the cause of its cause, etc. Such an inquiry brings about slackening, and eventually the cessation, of the flow of unwholesome thought.
...just as a man walking fast might consider: Why am I walking fast? What if I walk slowly? and he would walk slowly and , then he may consider: Why am I walking slowly/ What if I stand? and he would stand and might consider: Why am I standing? What if I sit? and he would sit and consider: Why am I sitting? what if I lie down? and he would lie down. By doing so he would substitute for each grosser posture one that was subtler, so too....
5. By suppressing the mind with mind – done by pressing the tongue against the palate, clenching the teeth as necessary to achieve this, so as to restrain, subdue and suppress, beat down the mind with mind, an unwholesome state of mind with a wholesome one.
...just as a stronger man may seize a weaker man by his head or shoulders and beat him down, constrain him, and crush him, so too...
A person who practices such will be called a master of the course of thought. He will think whatever thought he wishes to think, and he will not think any thought that he does not wish to think. He has severed craving, flung off the fetters, and with the complete penetration of conceit he has made an end of suffering. This shows the attainment of arahanthship.
Which nostril do you breathe from? Usually at such moments it would be the right nostril, which signifies the subjective mind is at play.
Sign
What is a sign? A sign (nimitta) is an object, an image, a mark, a target, a cause or a condition.
A sign in the context of a distracting mind would be a mental object that arises from the mind door.There are, as we know, six objects that arise through the six sense doors. Every sign that arises from the five sense doors end up in the mind door and becomes a mental object unless we let go at the point of contact, such as for example by just seeing or just hearing.
A pleasant or beautiful object is condition for the arising of hindrance (nivarana) of sensual desire whereas an repulsive object and contemplating on its impurity, its foulness (asubha nimitta) is an antidote to sensual desire.
An object of aversion, that acts against us, that is a repellent to us (patigaha nimitta), is a condition of ill will whereas contemplating on its source of origin – whether a thing, or person or the fallibility of the action of a person, its impurities, its impermanence, its selfless nature, is its antidote.
In meditation there are three kinds of signs. One is the preliminary sign (parikamma nimitta), the sense object. The second grasping sign is the mental image (uggaha nimitta), the one that we mentally perceive exactly as it appears to the eye, one that we usually see when we close our eyes, and the third is the after-sign (image) (patibhaga nimitta) which is a conceptualized image, without the apparent flaws or faults of the original object, where if it is a disc with spots and flaws it could be a disc that is smooth and shiny.
Each of these signs become the object of concentration in each stage of mental development, namely preliminary development, access development and absorption development (attainment of jhanas). Preliminary development occurs up to the time the five hindrances are suppressed. Access development occurs when the five hindrances are suppressed and after-sign emerges and up to the next stage of absorption. The five hindrances are sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, and doubt, that hinder attainment of absorption. The sixth hindrance ignorance is an obstacle to wisdom.
Of the three signs the preliminary sign and mental sign can be found in relation to every object. But the after-image can only be found in the meditation symbols (kasina) (a symbol, a mechanical device to aid absorption, taken as the entire representation of the quality appropriate to its corresponding element, example a naturally or artificially molded 30cm disc of earth taken as an emblamatic representation of the earth element), foulness, parts of the body, and mindfulness of breathing. By means of the after-image access and absorption concentration occur.
What we need to realize is that a sign is also "a cause", a cause for conditioning the mind and the resulting mental state. If we take up an evil, non-beneficial sign in our mind of lust, hatred or ignorance we will end up having unwholesome minds and states of mind. So the sign precedes the mind. If we train ourselves to mindfully abandon and let go off the sign then it is indeed a mind of wisdom, of wise consideration (yoniso manasikara).
What we refer to as the sign may sound esoteric jargon, but should not be inferred as such. It is what we always, all of us do, all the time, i.e. of taking up signs. A sign means an image, a mental image. The meaning of the image is the meaning of the sign. A sign, it is said, is like a thought, that is of a man who sees the reflection of his own face on the mirror has - the after-image.
,
Sign of Foulness of Bodily Parts
There are ten such foulness signs according to the abhidhamma, that are particularly useful for ridding oneself of sensual lust. They are corpses taken in different stages of decay :
- Bloated corpse,
- Livid (dark blue grayish) corpse,
- Festering corpse,
- Dismembered corpse,
- Eaten corpse,
- Scattered–in-pieces corpse,
- Mutilated and scattered-in-pieces corpse,
- Bloody corpse,
- Worm infested corpse; and
- Skeleton.
The Mahasathipatthana Sutta (meditation) has 9 cemetery contemplatives with 9 corpses in slightly different stages of decay of a corpse thrown in the charnel ground:
- Livid corpse,
- Corpse eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, worms,
- Corpse reduced to a skeleton together with some flesh and blood held in by the tendons,
- Corpse reduced to a blood-smeared skeleton without flesh but held by tendons,
- Corpse reduced to a skeleton held I by the tendons but without flesh and not smeared by blood,
- Corpse reduced to bones gone lose, scattered in all directions – a bone of hand, foot, shin, thigh, pelvis, spine and skull,
- Corpse reduced to bone, white in color like a conch,
- Corpse reduced to bone more than a year old, heaped together,
- Corpse reduced to bones gone rotten and become dust.
Of course we will not find charnel grounds today. Unless we have experienced some of these stages in the course of our work, or in relation to a relative or friend, we would only be able to experience this through pictures and our imagination. If we are able to work as a volunteer at a hospice or hospital it is very easy to come across many that will be useful as signs of foulness, of repulsiveness, of repulsiveness of the body, which would enable us to see the body for body and not an image in our minds. Many TV channels showed bloated corpses after the recent Tsunami in Asia (2004).
Personal Tip
for
Mind Distracted by Delusion
Observe the Mind:
Observe the mind, see what mind you have, is it one of lust, or of anger, of delusion or its opposites, or a mind that is contracted or distracted? These are really eight states of ordinary mind for us. Try to recognize the mind you have. It maybe one at a particular moment, it maybe several. It is not essential but it brings greater awareness.
Lust is like a fever, a fire within. It burns, it is difficult to control. Anger is like being consumed by a forceful opponent of great physical tension, and delusion is like being caught in a net and hopelessly confused (by what? we just don't know, maybe several small things that nag us, they nag us as we do not know much about the consequences that may arise from them).
Observe these minds, have they led to a contracted mind or a distracted mind?
What is a contracted mind?
A contracted mind is one, such as, that you have when you are lazy, when you just want to lie down on your couch and enjoy that moment, pursuing those wonderfully pleasant feelings, and when your mind seems to be so shut out to everything else. I am sure you have seen this for yourself.
What is a distracted mind?
A distracted mind is one that you have, such as when you are confronted with some problem, or a few problems, when your mind runs from one to another, and tries to find, continuously, solutions to the problem. The mind flees unpleasant feelings that arise when it speculates. The mind is closed to the outside. The mind is hindered, covered - “nivarana” or hindrance in the true sense of the word (for better understanding of the workings you may read Delusion of Restlessness). You can be indoors and not notice anything in your room or outdoors but notice nothing. Your periphery is confined to the problem.
Observe your breadth at this time.
Which nostril do you breathe from? Usually at such moments it would be the right nostril, which signifies the subjective mind is at play.
Now, start the exercise of looking at a distant object, concentrate on it, and focus on it outside of you, outwards. You will find it is difficult. The tendency would be to take the image back in to your mind and focus closer, inwards. Be aware of this when it happens and continue to look outwards - eye-sensory rather than mind-sensory.
When you have gained sufficient control and stability you can move to a closer object, inside your room, but outward focused and not inward focused. Now try to achieve 360-degree vision. See the object and yourself. You could start by being aware of 180-degree vision and gradually extending it to 360. Concentrate and achieve stability.
Now you shift to limitless vision, by imagining that the object is coordinated from the North, South, East, West, Top and Bottom. You then encompass the whole in the whole. You have now shifted from a single plane of 360 vision to a limitless plane. Remain so until you gain stability.
You will now begin to notice that the object that was outside of you is neither outside of you nor inside of you. Unbeknownst to you you are now having metal perception rather than eye-sensory perception, where the two seem to have merged in to one, the subject and object. You have bare awareness. If you are disturbed by bodily pains, or the talking mind or thoughts listen to them and let go, try to achieve stillness in body, silence in speech and spaciousness in mind.
And, soon your mind will be free and open, and lucid, and calm, and tranquil. The distraction is gone, the discursiveness is gone, the closed-ness is gone.
Now you are in a position to start any other form of meditation, samatha or vipassana.
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