2003 Retreat BSWA


It is a law of nature that without effort one does not make progress. Whether one is a layperson or a monk, without effort one gets nowhere, in meditation or anything else. Effort alone, though, is not sufficient. The effort needs to be  skillful.  This means directing your energy just at the right places and sustaining it there until its task is completed. Skillful effort neither hinders nor disturbs you; instead it produces the peace of deep meditation. In order to know where your effort should be directed, you must have a clear understanding of the goal of meditation. The goal is the silence, stillness and clarity of mind. If you can understand that goal, then the place to apply your effort and the means to achieve the goal become very clear. Skillful effort is directed at letting go, at developing a mind that inclines to abandoning. One of the many simple but profound statements of the Lord Buddha is that “a meditator whose mind inclines to abandoning easily achieves samàdhi.” Such a meditator gains these states of inner bliss almost automatically. What the Lord Buddha was saying was that the major cause for attaining deep meditation, for reaching these powerful states, is the willingness to abandon, to let go, and to renounce. (To Read Complete Article CLICK HERE )