Samatha

Cycle of Samatha

By Tarchin Hearn

Sometimes the wonderful simplicity of smiling and breathing slips away without our even noticing. This can especially happen to “meditators”. Our smile fades as we intently focus. Our critical faculties may subtly turn to judgement. Instead of enjoying our breathing, enjoying the immediacy of being alive, we step out from our bodies and once again become distant observers, uninvolved bystanders, spectators at some kind of meditation sporting event. Once we are no longer directly involved, our minds begin to wander all over the lot. Old stories surface. Reviewing the past and planning the future. The easeful pleasure of presence disappears and we are left with wild hive of buzzing thoughts. Does this ever happen to you?

Like an early morning mist rolling up the valley, this subtle dulling can obscure the arising moment. We are settling nicely into our meditation, when, without really noting it, we find ourselves drifting in a vague aimless way. Any sense of active exploration has disappeared in the mist. Some people associate this drifty state with a sense of turning “inward” but it can also mask a subtle turning off from, or a turning away from what people often think of as the outer world”. This is not awakening. A better name might be asleepening!

Click here to download the 23 page pdf in English
Click here to download the 20 page pdf in German. Translated by Peter Gerdes.