5th adjustment- MIND(Consentration Meditation Practice)

For the very beginner of Samadhi training there are 3 aspects to the adjustment of mind; 1- go into concentration, 2- stay in concentration, 3- come out of concentration.
Going into concentration
Entering concentration has 2 parts; 1- Make adjustments in order to stop unnecessary bad thoughts and illusions, turn your back on the endless stream of ideas zooming around your head and softly walk away. 2- Adjust the mind from falling and rising and also avoid being too loose and too tight.
Falling refers to when you are sitting in concentration and you start to lose mind, a feeling of sleepiness starts to overcome you and you let your head drop down. To overcome this make a focus down your nose, pay close attention to the single present moment and don’t move.
Rising refers to when you are sitting in meditation and the mind starts to float, the body becomes unstable and thoughts begin to grasp things outside. To overcome this, the trainee should make a focus a few inches under the belly button so to stop illusions from arising and the let the mind calm down.
Tight refers to when you are struggling to control the mind, struggling with ways to go into concentration, trying to control the speed and technique and trying hard to make sure that you are doing everything correct, that you are executing the teachings perfectly. This results in the up-flow of energy which causes the body to ache and feel uncomfortable. To overcome this problem the trainee should sit without care and meditate the energy flowing down and away from the body, let all the problems of mind and body quietly leave.
Loose refers to the dim and dark feeling of the mind. Concentration is distributed and the body is soft and forceless. Sometimes saliva starts to dribble from the corner of the mouth, this is a definite sign of being too loose, to overcome this we must control the body and use the mind to make a single pointed concentration, the body will thus become fixed.
These various problems of the mind illustrate the smooth against the rough, the unbalanced against the harmonious. With adjustment, the trainee can learn and understand his own situation.
Go into concentration from big to tiny, from the crashing waves of the pacific to the bobbling ripples of the local pond. We start big with the adjustment of body, in the middle is the adjustment of breath, then comes the fine adjustment of the mind. The trainee will follow the way from big to small in order to find calm. This is a convenient path for the beginner. The 2 keys are rising and falling, and being tight and loose.
Staying in concentration
For the Zen concentration trainee, time can seem very long or very short. When he uses his mind to concentrate he should make a fine observation of himself to check that his body, breath and mind are adjusted correctly.
1-body: When beginning training one should adjust his body well, and after that when he is in sitting meditation should continue observing and correct any mistakes. Mistakes include; leaning to the side, slouching, training too fast, training too loose or too tight and being too high or too low. Sometimes the correct position slowly becomes lost. When the trainee realizes that there is a mistake he should slowly and softly make the necessary corrections in order to regain correct position and in doing so regain the feeling of peace and comfort.
2-breath: During sitting meditation, sometimes the posture is in harmony and well adjusted but the breath is not. These problems of breath were mentioned earlier, i.e. breathing with sound, block, not slow, soft and fine. To correct these mistakes use the method mentioned earlier so that you find yourself in a situation where the breath is soft, so soft that it actually feels like you’re not breathing, just let everything go.
3-mind: Sometimes during sitting meditation the body and breath are good but the mind is unstable e.g. wide mind, quick zooming mind, falling mind, floating mind. The cure these problems please re-read the earlier section on mind and follow the method mentioned before.
These 3 adjustments do not have any specific order in which to be followed, where there is a problem it should be corrected. When sitting let the 3 things be harmoniously adjusted without mistake. However, this does not mean you are to fight them, do not be against them, harmony means completed as one whole. To rid yourself of the long lasting ill effects caused by blocks you must be strong and just let them go. Prevent the blocks from rising or awakening from within you. Blocks arise because of incorrect training in the past, if you follow the path of correct training now they will leave away from you. Samadhi will easily manifest as a truth.
Coming out of concentration
When coming out of concentration the first step is to let focus go. Move your attention to the breath and then breathe out of the mouth, meditate the energy flowing out from internal to external throughout the body. After a while, start moving the body, from torso to shoulders to head to feet, then massage all of the body. After that rub your hands together quickly until they are hot and then place them on your eyes before slowly opening them. Stay seated and wait until the body no longer feels hot (internal heat kind of hot) before moving around freely and especially before going outside or somewhere cold. If you fail to follow the above mentioned method (for example coming out of your meditative state by jumping up and darting to get the phone) the fine internal energy harnessed in zazen will not be evenly distributed, it will be focused in one place making a block which could result in physical ailments like headache, bone ache, cold or flu. This blocked energy may also cause problems for you when meditating in the future giving a feeling of unease, worry and roughness. For this reason it is important that the trainee come out of concentration carefully.
It is written in scripture that the great Bodhisattvas of the past, through countless billions of lives for the pure reason of Dharma gained the experience of going in, staying in and coming out of countless billions of Samadhi, and by doing so gained great magical power. By training on the Dharma path for so long they could perfect every step along the path in the correct and true way and perfect every practice down to the minutest detail.

4th Adjustment – breath(Consentration Meditation Practice)

When beginning adjustment of breath, there are 4 kinds of concentration; 3 are wrong, 1 is right.
1, Sitting in concentration, breathing with a sound like a rough wind, this sound is unharmonious and incorrect.
2, Sitting in concentration, breathing without making a sound but with a block inside which makes it difficult to breathe in and out.
3, Sitting in concentration, breathing without sound, without block, but the breath is not fine, is not soft.
4, The right kind of breath is that which makes no sound, without a block, which is soft, harmonious and peaceful. The breath should be light and faint so it seems that you are not actually breathing. When this breath is achieved it will naturally comfort the mind and refine the emotions.
The result of these adjustments
1, Breathing with a sound makes people lose energy
2, Breathing with a block refers to the block of blood and qi inside the body
3, Breathing which isn’t fine and soft makes people lose mind energy and also inhibits the feeling of spirituality from arising.
When sitting with an incorrect adjustment of breath it has a negative effect on all other aspects of practice. The direct link between the breath and the mind soon becomes apparent. When sitting with correct adjustment the mind will quickly become calm like all the dust settling in a large room.
Correcting wrong adjustments
1, Just let it be- let the mind calm down on its own, don’t try to hard, don’t try to force it or control it, with time it will come down to its natural state.
2, Relax- don’t be tense, don’t struggle
3, Meditate the energy flow out away from the body so to dissolve any blocks inside
Then…… when the mind is soft and lucid, finely observe awareness, this in turn will then make the breath soft and slow which will in turn make the mind soft and lucid. Whenever the mind is adjusted, the breath will naturally follow and be adjusted. They are connected and cannot be separated; there can be no distinguishing between the two as they are the same thing, one thing.
By concentrating on breath training like this, the trainee avoids mistakes, blocks and illness which occur through incorrect training. With correct adjustment the trainee will easily find the situation of Zen Samadhi. The key is being not too rough (tightness, over-concentration, too much control) and not too smooth (being too loose, lack of concentration, lack of control).