Introduction
Shamata is sometimes called either Mindfulness Meditation or Calming Meditation. It is called Mindfulness Meditation because mindfulness is the main part of the technique. It is called Calming Meditation because calmness is one of the main results. SHAMATA actually means complete concentration. The obstacles to complete concentration are also the same things that prevent us from being calm or from seeing ourselves and the world around us clearly.
We generally tend to look at meditation as a kind of mental vacation; as if we take a break from reality, put it aside and relax, or hide in a cave and escape the world. If we have this approach to meditation practice, then our relaxation and our reality will always be separate. Because we've separated them already in our minds, we then create a dichotomy between the chaos of real life, and the calmness of meditation.
So Shamata meditation is not about blissing out and taking a mental vacation. You actually can't escape the world because you take it into the cave with you within your own body and mind. So shamata meditation is more about becoming comfortable in our own skin and learning to understand and become skillful in working with our mind and our reactions to the world around us and learning to recognize the calmness, focus, and clarity that is always available to us wherever we are.
The 9 Stages of Shamata
Shamata meditation is first about training the mind to focus on a single task without getting distracted, and then we learn how to use that focus to observe and understand our own mind. It eliminates the shotgun reaction or the tendency to react completely automatically to what we're experiencing.
There are 9 Stages leading to the full attainment of Shamata where we have complete concentration with no effort and the physical and mental bliss from having a better understanding and more control of our body and minds. The stages are traversed upwards & downwards based on:
1) The length of time between meditation sessions. We are trying to develop focus, awareness, and peacefulness. We are not used to experiencing these things and so we are like someone trying to learn to play tennis for the first time. Therefore we need to imitate a professional player and practice playing until we get good at it. In the same way, we are not really meditating at first, but are imitating real meditators. That's why it's called meditation practice. We need to practice doing it over and over again until we get good at it. Just like practicing the piano, the larger the gaps of time between practice sessions, the longer we will have to work through the lower levels to get to the higher stages of meditation.
2) Our energy level or health during meditation sessions. If our energy level is low or we are sick or fighting sickness, then achieving our usual meditation levels and staying there may be more difficult.
3) Our level & strength of agitation or dullness currently present in daily life. If our life is particularly stressful or if we are going through a particularly intense period, our agitation may be stronger, or dullness may be strong from being tired or from focusing very hard on our problems and their feelings. This will make meditation more difficult and less effective (especially in the beginning). This high agitation or extreme dullness will make our advances slower. At this point it is better to have many small meditation sessions than to try to meditate for long periods of time. Extra rest, a change of scenery, physical exercise, and good nutrition will help alleviate these difficulties.
4) Our ability at each time to catch agitation & dullness. How careful we are during meditation to catch agitation or dullness while they are happening, will vary the speed and intensity of our advancing through the stages. Progress will be slower if we are more lax or are too intense, and will be faster if we are watching more diligently but calmly. We may not have much say in the matter, especially until our awareness of how our mind works increases. However, if we wish to advance quickly to the higher stages, we must be diligent in catching agitation and dullness and maintaining a balanced level of alertness and relaxation.
The stage that is considered our current level is the stage that we spend most of our time in during our meditation session. If we practice regularly, we will go through the stages back to this current level quickly. After that, we will have moments of going one or two levels past our current one (maybe even more) and that becomes the incentive for continuing practice. However, we must not grasp at these attainments, trying to re-create them. The stages must be experienced freshly and naturally. Attempts to regenerate stages only strengthens the separation between our "normal" state and our new meditative state. Experiencing the stages must occur naturally, organically and unforced (& they will).
We can try to practice this meditation for 10 minutes once a day.
Some people may not be able to meditate for even 10 minutes. There are some people who can't even sit still for 1 minute, let alone 10. This is not very good. These people are wound up like a tight spring, which is not healthy. Eventually the spring could snap and completely unravel. If you look at a wind-up toy or an old clock, you can see how this works. If there is the right amount of tension then the clock works. Too little tension and it doesn't work; too much tension and its completely broken and will not work properly again. If you start by putting in too much tension, the clock will not work properly right from the beginning.
For these type of people, it would help to just sit and count out-breaths until they reach 21. If they can do that regularly for a period of time, then they should try counting their outbreaths from 1 to 10 for 3 cycles. They can then gradually work from 1 minute of meditation to 5 minutes and then gradually get to 10 minutes. They may also try going for a relaxing walk first and then meditate - or try to meditate by a lake or out in nature or in a place that they find particularly calming.
Once we practice this way regularly, we try increasing each time to 15 minutes, returning to 10 minutes when we are short on time or energy. The effects are cumulative, so it is important to try to meditate regularly. Short regular sessions are far more valuable than long sessions followed by long gaps between meditation sessions. It is important not to strain too much in meditation. We should always ensure that we create an atmosphere where we feel meditation is helpful and that we make it enjoyable enough to increase our desire to return to it.
We should always return to a lower time when busy or too agitated or tired. We can eventually increase the length of time for our meditations or increase the frequency to twice each day. The best period of time for meditating is during transition periods between one activity and the next. (Between showering and breakfast, or between finishing work and starting supper, or just before bedtime, or at lunchbreak). For myself, my best times turn out to be just after breakfast and before I start the rest of my day, and at about 2:30 in the morning when I wake up in the middle of the night.
It can be amazing how difficult it can become to find even 10 minutes to do meditation and it can be amazing how many excuses we can find not to meditate. It is important for each of us to find, usually by trial and error, our own best transition time to use for practice. Then we need to try hard to stick to that time, but we shouldn't beat ourselves up too badly when we have problems. When we DO have problems we merely need to look at what happened and see if it was really avoidable or not and then try again.
Meditation takes more effort than people realize but it should be a practice that we look forward to and so we need to make sure that we don't force ourselves too much or practice too hard or for too long a time.
Once we have begun a regular practice, it can help to get a good feel for the possible results and benefits of meditation by doing a meditation retreat in which we designate a day or several days where we meditate many times over the course of each day. Again, it helps to start slowly and not take on too much too soon. Meditation retreats can involve 4 to 6 sessions per day of 1/2 or 1 hour each (with a 5 or 10 minute break at the ½ hour) involving meditations interspersed with lectures, prayers, contemplations, or studies.
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