Taking it Home – The Six Wonderful Doors
The Buddha went into some detail about using the breath in meditation, which is a basic technique the children worked with this Sunday in class. Although most children would not care for a lot of detail about the “Six Wonderful Doors”, and most would not be reached until a practitioner had spent considerable time with a meditation practice, I thought you might be interested in knowing more. If you wanted to start a meditation practice at home with your child, a practice centered around breathing would be a very simple and easy way to start.
The first door is counting when the practitioner counts each breath. This helps the mind focus on the breathing, and the very act of counting tends to prevent distracting thoughts from arising, or from dominating the mind if they do arise.
Following is the next wonderful door, when you can cease to count and just follow the sensation of the breath as it flows past the nostrils, cool on the in-breath, and warm on the outbreath. Following does not mean that you “follow” the flow of the breath through the body, because that would dissipate your point of concentration. Instead, you just follow the sensation at the nose.
As concentration develops through following, the next wonderful door is stopping. Stopping refers to stopping distracting thoughts, and it will naturally happen as a result of following. It is not something to be striven for directly.
Next, the fourth door is observing. When thoughts have stopped, or at least subsided, the meditator can look objectively at things – that is, to observe without the intrusion of concepts. Anything can be observed, but it is most frequently your own body. Comfort and discomfort can be observed without judgment.
The fifth door is returning. This is part of a quite advanced practice, and is harder to explain. It refers to the ability to “return” to the source of the mind, or to look at your mind when thoughts are not capturing its attention. We are not our thoughts, and returning helps the meditator become aware of this fact.
The sixth door of meditation is calming. When the meditator has established awareness of body and mind, there comes a feeling of deep peace, born of a sense of unity and harmony within oneself. Instead of a separate, fragmented existence, there is a sense of wholeness and completeness. The distinction between the meditator and the object of meditation finally disappears, and there is only a peaceful and joyous sense of existence.
