Settle and rest: neither scattered nor concentrated

Let body and mind settle into an easy, uncontrived rest — the ground Patrul Rinpoche says has to be calm before anything can be introduced.

なぜ効果があるのか

Patrul Rinpoche’s commentary explains why the first of the Three Statements begins with relaxing: amid the churning of thoughts that chase after objects, the mind’s nature would not be recognised even if it were pointed out, so the gross thinking has to settle first. The instruction is to rest neither scattered nor concentrated — not forcing focus, not drifting — because a contrived effort only reproduces “mind-made” meditation. He also warns that a beginner resting this way will tend to fix on experiences of bliss, clarity or thought-free stillness, and that quiescence alone is not the point. Josipovic’s research on nondual awareness in Tibetan Buddhist meditators describes a background awareness that precedes conceptualisation, which is one modern way of naming what the settling makes room for — though the research cannot show what a beginner’s settling does.

やり方

1. Sit comfortably and upright, in a posture you can keep without strain.
2. Let the breath be natural. Let the body loosen, especially the face, shoulders and belly.
3. Do not hold attention on an object, and do not let it wander off after thoughts — rest somewhere in between, at ease.
4. When a thought pulls you away, notice it and relax back without scolding yourself.
5. If the sitting becomes pleasant, calm or blissful, notice the wish to hold on to that and let it go too — the calm is a support, not the goal.
6. Keep sessions short, and end before it becomes effortful.

エビデンス

The instruction to relax and release the mind, neither scattered nor concentrated, is the opening of the first statement in Patrul Rinpoche’s root text; his own commentary explains that gross thoughts must settle before the nature of mind can be introduced, and warns against getting caught on bliss, clarity and non-thought. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s verse instruction likewise says to meditate by settling naturally in unaltered experience. Josipovic reviews his group’s studies of nondual awareness in Tibetan Buddhist meditation, including findings on the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic brain networks and preliminary data pointing to a precuneus network. (mechanistic)

In the tradition this settling is preparation, not Dzogchen meditation proper, which begins only after rigpa has been recognised. Josipovic studied experienced Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, not beginners, and the abstract describes some of the data as preliminary; it does not test this instruction.

出典

• Patrul Rinpoche. The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King — Root Text (Garab Dorje’s Three Statements That Strike the Vital Point), trans. Rigpa Translations, 2008. Lotsawa House.
• Patrul Rinpoche. The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King — Commentary (Patrul’s own commentary on the Three Statements), trans. Rigpa Translations, 2008. Lotsawa House.
• Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. An Instruction on the Great Perfection (prerequisites, view, meditation and action), trans. Adam Pearcey, 2017. Lotsawa House.
• Josipovic, Z. (2014). Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1307, 9–18.

よくある間違い

Treating a calm, spacious or blissful sit as “being in rigpa.” Patrul Rinpoche warns that meditation which is only resting in the stillness of mind ends in what he calls the samādhi of the gods — pleasant, and no help against anger or attachment.