"Although any meditation subject, no matter what, is successful only in one who is mindful and fully aware, yet any meditation subject other than this one gets more evident as he goes on giving it his attention. But this mindfulness of breathing is difficult, difficult to develop, a field in which only the minds of Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas and Buddhas sons are at home. It is no trivial matter, nor can it be cultivated by trivial persons. In proportion as continued attention is given to it, it becomes more peaceful and more subtle. So strong mindfulness and understanding are necessary here."
VISM VIII. 211. (First BPS edition, 1999. p.276)
"Although any meditation subject, no matter what, is successful only in one who is mindful and fully aware”
The first line of this verse tells us we need to be fully aware no matter what the Subject or the Object of meditation may be! This is simple and easily understood, as well as being expounded my all Meditation Teachers, and the Buddhist Suttas which talk about Meditation all have Sati which is mindfulness in the title, and this line echoes this no more no less!
“Yet any meditation subject other than this one gets more evident as he goes on giving it his attention.”
Within the Visuddhimagga there are 40 Objects for Meditation, but the Pali word for Meditation “Bhavana” means cultivation, but more precisely mental cultivation so I think it should be called the 40 Objects of Mental Cultivation, they are (a list I cut and copied from a web site some time ago)
- Ten kasinas: earth, water, fire, air, blue, yellow, red, white, light, and "limited-space".
- Ten kinds of foulness: "the bloated, the livid, the festering, the cut-up, the gnawed, the scattered, the hacked and scattered, the bleeding, the worm-infested, and a skeleton".
- ten recollections: the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, the virtues of deities, death (see Upajjhatthana Sutta), the body, the breath (see anapanasati), and peace (see Nibbana).
- Four divine abodes: Metta, karuna, mudita, and upekkha.
- Four immaterial states: boundless space, boundless perception, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception.
- One perception (of "repulsiveness in nutriment")
- One "defining" (that is, the four elements)
If you look through the list, and then look at a corresponding meditation technique they all appear to be easily followed, the purpose understood, and so forth, I have found the more contemplative, reclusive, or thought based Cultivations which all these are easy I have not found myself straying from the object, they are clear precise, and are more philosophic at times, if we look at the Satipatthana Sutta there is
- Body (kaya)
- Breathing (see Anapanasati Sutta)
- Postures
- Clear Comprehending (purpose (Pali: satthaka) suitability (sappaya) domain (gocara) non-delusion (asammoha)
- Reflections on Repulsiveness of the Body
- Reflections on Material Elements
- Cemetery Contemplation's
- Feelings (vedana)
- Mind States (citta)
- Mental Contents (dhamma)
- The Hindrances
- The Aggregates
- The Sense-Bases
- The Factors of Enlightenment
- The Four Noble Truths
Within each of these Objects of cultivation there are aspects of Contemplation, thinking involved also, except one the breath (Anapanasati), but as we are dealing with Buddhaghosa and his view of what the Objects are in the Visuddhimagga here.
“But this mindfulness of breathing is difficult, difficult to develop, a field in which only the minds of Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas and Buddhas sons are at home.”
Why would Buddhaghosa say the objects of meditation are easy to develop except the object of Breath? In personal experience I have found that the breath meditation can at times be difficult as there are so many thoughts, my mood changes so often during a sit, I am agitated, I can not easily focus on the breath, there is no thought to develop a stream to which can push aside the other thoughts, there is nothing but watching the natural flow of the breath, I have not seen or heard a teacher when talking about the breath Meditation say “follow your thoughts!”, I have heard them say “just bring your attention back to the breath!” from my time in Mental Hospital I know some of the patients never went to relaxation classes because it made the voices in their head louder, the bad thoughts more up front, it was for them too difficult! And I think this is why Mindfulness of Breath as an object is said by Buddhaghosa to be difficult, difficult to develop! And he is just quoting the Buddha when he says “A field in which only the minds of Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas and Buddhas’ sons are at home.” there are two interesting words here which bring more clarity to who Buddhaghosa is talking about, these words are “Buddhas sons,” these words are both in plural more than one Buddha, and more than one son, so any possibility this would be referring to Rahula has gone, so who does that mean then? If we look at the View of a Bodhisatta and the use of the word in the Pali Cannon we can see they are beings who are not enlightened but orientated towards enlightenment, at any level on the path, but I would also submit that this path is Buddhist so to be called a Bodhisatta you would need to be on the Buddhist path, and also that the Mahayana version is different, although the various levels of a bodhisattva can be said to correspond to the levels of enlightenment within Theravada. So to say a being on the path to liberation who came to the path of the Buddha’s so it could be said that the Buddha is the Spiritual farther of the sect, therefore the Buddhas Sons are those who are inclined towards the practice set out by the Buddha, so dwell in meditation on the Breath, as it says in the Dipa Sutta SN 54.8 "I myself, monks, before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened bodhisatta, often dwelt in this [meditative] dwelling. So no matter which tradition you belong if you are on the path to enlightenment on one of the levels to enlightenment you can be called a Buddhas Son.
“It is no trivial matter, nor can it be cultivated by trivial persons.”
Trivial? What is a trivial Matter, or Person? Well a trivial matter is something that lacks Importance, Value or Seriousness, and in the context of the Visuddhimagga being by a Buddhist on the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment, A trivial Matter would be a matter not concerned with attaining Nibbana, Enlightenment, and the fruition of the path! So a person who engages in such matters not conductive to the path or relevant to the path which could lead to the fruition of the path could be called a trivial person in this context
“In proportion as continued attention is given to it, it becomes more peaceful and more subtle. So strong mindfulness and understanding are necessary here."
Buddhaghosa here is saying as long as we put the effort into being mindful that our attention is on the breath, and understanding that it is easy to be distracted from the breath it gets easier, the practice of Anapanasati calms the mind, makes it peaceful, and the practice of mindfulness on other objects such as mentioned in the Satipatthana Sutta understanding will arise as that is the necessary result to reach the end of the path.
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