The theme of this meditation is “transformation.” We might use meditation for many reasons, sometimes to calm the mind or to relax, sometimes to solve a problem in our lives, etc., we are aiming at transforming something, some tension, suffering, dissatisfaction… We come to meditation so as to transform ourselves and create an open, spacious, soft, pliable mind.
The purpose of this these exercises is to investigate how we might increase the “efficiency” of this transformation. These are all questions to contemplate (Koans, if you like), with no clear, final answers, but offer us a process of inquiry.
- What is my motivation/aspiration.
At the start of meditation it is good to set out the direction I am wanting to go in. First I need to actually commit myself to sitting, this is one part of setting one’s motivation. Another is to actually ask myself what am I doing this for. Traditionally the answer is “to achieve liberation so as to liberate all beings,” so in some meditation centres there may be a chant or recitation of that aspiration before meditation.
In fairness, this aspiration may not be the one we have that particular session. We might have something more “mundane” that is occupying us, and we set our motivation on transforming that. But it is nice to keep the larger aspiration (the directions towards a longer distance) also.
By having some clarity as to what my destination is, the road can become a bit easier: by having the motivation I can concentrate the mind better and it helps me overcome distraction.
Having contemplated and set my motivation (direction/destination) I move on to the second exercise - I can be/become anything.
The state of meditation is sometimes defined as the state in which subject (the meditator) and object (that which they meditate on) loose their separation. In other words I become one with the object of my meditation. The open, spacious mind is not locked into my personality and limitations, it is can be all things: it is in direct contact with the Alaya Vijnaya – the store consciousness, where all possibilities exists as seeds. It has the freedom to chose what seeds to water and manifest.
In this exercise I contemplate this state of being, the ability to be open, spacious, and unlimited: I can be anything, I can be all things… - What do I want to transform?
In this exercise we take a particular aspect we want to transform (likely, the same one we set our motivation on, or something that is part of that). Here two questions are held:
1. What am I wanting to create?
2. What am I willing to release?
Again, this is not necessarily to find concrete answers, but rather to hold these as open questions, as an open process. - Striking my mental habits – Am I willing to be upside down?
Transformation is expressed as Bian Hua (變化). Both mean to change or to transform, as does the combined expression. Bian is written as words (言) surrounded by threads (of silk – 糸) on each side. This represents words entangled like threads, i.e., our mental formations (the character that is formed is Luan (䜌 chaos, distraction). Underneath this is the character 攵, to strike or to hit. Transformation (Bian) is to hit/strike the threads/entanglements of our words/thinking.
Hua (化) is also transformation. The left side is a person (人) and the right side (匕) represents a person upside down. Transformation is allowing things to be upside down. (Bear in mind that Hua, spelled 花, is a flower, it has the grass radical above transformation, meaning a flower is the transformation of plants, suggesting that meditation, our transformation, produces the flower equivalent in us).
This is a bit “intellectual” but the point is that transformation requires losing your “usual ground” to become “groundless” (you “beat out” your mental formations, your chaotic mind, which feels like our familiar ground), so that all ground will feel easeful and solid.
So the contemplation here is about letting go of my habits, my “ground,” am I willing to be upside down.