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What Is Contemplation?

At the October Sanghapala First Tuesday Gathering in Berkeley, Ajahn Pasanno opened the evening with chanting. To the usual Dedication of Offerings and Preliminary Homage, he added the Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection:

I am of the nature to age, I have not gone beyond ageing.
I am of the nature to sicken, I have not gone beyond sickness.
I am of the nature to die, I have not gone beyond dying.
All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise, will become separated from me.
I am the owner of my kamma, heir to my kamma, born of my kamma, related to my kamma, abide supported by my kamma. Whatever kamma I shall do, for good or for ill, of that I will be the heir.
Thus we should frequently recollect.

“Recollection? That sounds like thinking. I thought in meditation I should stop thinking.” To combat this common misperception, Ajahn devoted his Dhamma talk to the nature and benefits of recollection, which he explained is not discursive thinking but doesn’t involve an empty mind either. Two other frequently used terms, contemplation and wise attention, cover much of the same territory. Ajahn Pasanno was accompanied on this visit by Caganando Bhikkhu.

Ajahn Pasanno’s starting point (and the reason he chose to chant the Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection) was a question posed during the informal tea at 5 PM in the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery’s dining room, which precedes the more formal proceedings in the meditation hall that begin at 7:30 PM. In response to an earlier question, Ajahn had spoken of contemplating impermanence, which he called a tangible doorway into recognition of non-self. So not surprisingly the next question was: What is contemplation? To which he answered that contemplation was the process of bringing the elements of an experience (e.g., biases, habits, alternatives) into consciousness so that they can be “seen.” Seeing does not mean examining discursively; it is not an intellectual understanding. On the other hand, while the seeing process requires a still, stable mind that is not wandering willy-nilly to and fro as thoughts arise, capture the attention, and pass away to be replaced by other thoughts, it nonetheless does actively engage the mind. At tea time, Ajahn Pasanno used the term “felt sense.”

As usual, Ajahn Pasanno’s approach was not to dwell on intellectual distinctions but to move ahead by exploring how to engage in contemplation, recollection, and wise attention and to consider the benefits of the practice. He began by noting that there are different ways to use the mind and that recollection is a skillful way to do so. In contrast, actively trying not to think is not so skillful because it often results in tension and knots in the stomach, to which I would add self-judgment when thinking continues anyway and aversion arises in the face of this “failure.”

Wise attention has a sense of skillfully directing one’s attention, an activity with many nuances that the Buddha compared to the changing color of the sky as the day begins. Unlike thought proliferation, bringing up to mind themes for reflection can be a skillful way of setting the tone for the mind. The Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection provide an excellent example. The themes in this chant bring up a sense of urgency, a useful antidote for anyone mired in boredom, complacency, sloth and torpor, all of which make it easy to just go through the motions of living a life, whether one is a layperson or a monastic. Directing one’s attention to the five subjects helps to energize us so we can break free from the mire that pulls down our practice.

Other themes for skillful reflection mentioned by Ajahn Pasanno include faith in and devotion to the Three Treasures, both the historical aspects and the underlying principles involved. For example, the Buddha was a human who was able to become fully realized and then forge a path for all motivated to do so to follow and thereby achieve the same realization for themselves. Reflecting on these magnificent achievements of a “mere” human can inspire a sense of deep devotion and appreciation that, once again, can motivate our practice. Reflection on the Sangha can have a similar effect. Every member of the Sangha started from the same place we started: a state of delusion. While it is true that the Pali Canon has stories of enlightenment following immediately upon hearing the Buddha’s words, the existence of the Vinaya (book of monastic discipline) testifies to the fact that these people were indeed just like we are—they quarreled, they “messed up,” they struggled with living a consistently holy life.

As a case in point, Ajahn Pasanno pointed toAjahn Chah, considered by many to have been a fully awakened being, who consented to be interviewed by a student for a book. The interview uncovered graphic descriptions of how Ajahn Chah struggled mightily with sexual desire. When the student offered to leave that material out of the book, Ajahn Chah protested and insisted that it be included or else he would withdraw permission to use the interview material in the book. It was important, he said, that readers know how hard everyone, monks included, had to work in order to understand and overcome the forces at work in the habitual mind. By working with skillful means, it is possible to succeed, a source of inspiration to the rest of us.

Generosity provides yet another example of a subject for recollection. The bottom line is that generosity brings happiness, and a happy mind is far better suited for concentration practices than a mind that is morose, resentful, and unhappy. In a turnabout of the usual way of thinking, happiness leads to successful concentration, whereas attempts to concentrate do not necessarily lead to happiness.

Sometimes choosing the right term for the subject of contemplation enhances the practice. For example, aniccā (usually translated as impermanent or changing) is a frequently recommended subject for recollection. Yet Ajahn Chah preferred a different translation: “unsure” or “uncertain” because it was to him more subjective, more reflective of how we experience than “change,” which can easily become solidified into an object. The line in the Homage to the Dhamma, opanayiko (leading inward), suggests feeling not objectification. We are perhaps more willing to allow uncertainty to arise and to forego our tendency to want to know for sure, as in this imagined exchange between monks: “How many people are coming to the Kathina ceremony (held at Abhayagiri Monastery on October 11)?” “I don’t know, we’ll just prepare as best we can and see who comes.”

The final subject brought up during the Gathering for recollection was dukkha (suffering, unsatisfactoriness). Already one can feel one’s body tighten: “Am I practicing right; I’ve got to get it right so I can awaken and end suffering.” By comtemplating dukkha in our lives rather than figuring it out, one can move to just allowing it be present when we notice it, watching it, and then letting it drop away when it is ready to leave. When by observation we see how burdensome our habits are, it is easier to drop them. In the end, said Ajahn Pasanno, Buddhist practice is not about getting insight and wisdom (as objects) but the ability to let things go, to put things down. Contemplation, reflection, and wise attention are part of the practitioner’s toolkit for being able to do this.

All in all, the evening was a rich one with a wide-ranging array of questions asked, both during tea and after the Dhamma talk, to which Ajahn Pasanno ably responded by cutting to the heart of the matter with a crisply worded, to-the-point replies.