On one occasion, during a hiking meditation organized at the center, a practitioner walked alongside me and we chatted about his meditation experience. He said that he actually had quite a lot of experience with meditation and had tried many different methods. At the beginning, he practiced counting the breath or following the breath. After using these methods for a while, he found that his meditation state or level didn’t show any apparent progress. He felt as if things had hit a plateau, so he switched to other methods, such as silent illumination, and even tried hua-tou practice.
Regarding this situation, I believe there are some perspectives worth sharing with everyone.
During a seven-day meditation retreat for beginners, the method usually taught is counting the breath. The intermediate-level retreat, called the Samatha–Vipassanā (Calming and Contemplation) Retreat, does not specify any particular method. When it comes to the advanced-level retreat, two approaches are introduced: hua-tou and silent illumination.
Just from the names alone, one might feel that silent illumination and hua-tou sound more advanced or powerful. After all, they are taught at the advanced level, whereas counting the breath is considered basic and for beginners. Some people might think, “If my progress has stalled, maybe it’s time to switch from a beginner method to a more advanced one. Perhaps using a higher-level approach will help me break through.”
It’s actually quite normal for the average person to think this way.
The idea that “counting the breath is for beginners, while silent illumination and hua-tou are for seasoned practitioners or for those seeking a breakthrough” is actually a misunderstanding! In meditation practice, it should be the opposite! Regardless of which method we use, when our practice reaches a plateau, we should actually step back.
What does “stepping back” mean? It means examining whether we have properly completed the preparatory steps before applying the method itself. We often say that meditation includes “main practice” and “preparatory practices.” The purpose of these preparatory practices (or expedient means) is to help us adjust our condition so that we can begin the main practice effectively. Some people think that preparatory practices sound optional, and that the true essence lies in the main practice. Therefore, they simply skip them and immediately start counting the breath the moment they sit down.
In reality, although “preparatory practices” is named for its convenience and sound casual, it is not something we can skip.
For example, in my own case, I know how much sleep I need. If I go to bed a little after 10 p.m. and get up at 5 a.m. to prepare for meditation, that amount of sleep is actually a bit insufficient for me. So what do I do? I might find a time during the day to rest my head on the desk and take a short nap for about half an hour. This way, when I sit to meditate, I have more energy and feel more awake. If I don’t make this kind of adjustment during the day, my meditation will likely contain more “resting states.” Why is that? Because I haven’t done my preparatory work well, specifically, I haven’t taken care of the “adjusting sleep” part.
There are many kinds of preparatory practices: adjusting one’s diet, adjusting one’s sleep, adjusting the body, adjusting the breath, and adjusting the mind. These are the five most common adjustments, often called the “Five Adjustments.”
Beyond these five, there are many other factors such as sound, lighting, temperature, and so on in our environment. All of these can affect our meditation.
If we look at even more fundamental factors, there is also the “right view”:
Why are we meditating?
With what aspiration or motivation are we practicing?
What is the purpose of meditation?
“Right view” is what points out the direction for us. Once the direction is clear, we walk along that path. Even without the “right view”, one can still practice meditation. After all, before the Buddha attained enlightenment, he had already learned meditation from non-Buddhist teachers. Meditation is not exclusive to Buddhism. However, where meditation leads us after we learn it can be very different. Why do those non-Buddhist practitioners remain non-Buddhist practitioners, even when they attain the highest levels of meditative absorption such as the attainment of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, and yet still do not reach liberation?
The difference lies in the absence of the right view. So the right view is also one of our essential preparatory practices.
When we find that our meditation method doesn’t seem effective, or that our progress remains stagnant, we need to examine ourselves. We need to take a step back and investigate:
Am I relaxed? Am I relaxed enough?
Am I getting enough sleep?
Is my posture correct?
Did I eat too much? Or too little?
Is my breathing too hurried?
Carefully examine which part of these preparatory practices I haven’t done properly, rather than thinking, “I should switch methods. I should switch to a more advanced method, change to hua-tou or silent illumination.” Doing that actually doesn’t help. If our foundation is not well established and the preparatory practices are not in place, then no matter how hard we try, we still won’t achieve the desired results.
So the conclusion is: the preparatory practices are extremely important. When our practice seems to have stalled, we shouldn’t rush forward. Instead, we should step back and examine whether we have truly implemented the preparatory practices.
