How to Swiftly Enter Samadhi Through Preliminary Guidance

Blue Sky Meditation Observation Diary

Day Thirty-One of Breath Observation

Before sitting down to meditate, I gave myself a mental suggestion: during today’s meditation, I will cease thinking, reduce mental activity, and set aside all matters unrelated to the practice. My mind will focus solely on the breath.

After sitting down, I began with deliberate abdominal deep breathing. Today, I directed my awareness to the lower abdomen. Slowly, the abdomen grew somewhat warm. After about five minutes, subtle energy sensations gradually arose, and deep breathing became effortless. The muscles in the lower abdomen twitched, signaling the stirring of the vital energy. After approximately ten minutes, I stopped the deliberate abdominal deep breathing.

I then shifted to observing the breath at the nostrils. Unlike previous days, I did not transition to natural breathing but consciously guided the breath into abdominal respiration. After a few breaths, the vital energy in the lower abdomen activated, directly leading me into deep abdominal breathing. At this point, my awareness rested solely on the breath while simultaneously perceiving sensations throughout the body, minimizing analytical thought. Due to concentrated focus, the breath became natural, deep, and subtle, with a greater amplitude than during the deliberate deep breathing. The flow of air passed through the chest, upper abdomen, and mid-abdomen, reaching the base of the abdomen, and continued this way until the end of the session.

Throughout the breath observation, mental focus was concentrated, the object of focus was clear, and the breath was even, deep, and subtle. During the middle phase of the session, I suddenly felt a distinct cooling sensation on the outer side of my right hip. Shortly before ending the session, a continuous coolness arose in my right ear (which had previously been inflamed, hot, and swollen for two months due to excessive internal heat).

Commentary:

To cultivate concentration, one can engage in preliminary practices to actively adjust the body and mind, guiding them into a state conducive to entering meditative absorption. Once guided, the mind quiets down and enters absorption. During active guidance, the mind’s volition concentrates on a single object, becoming interested only in that object while shielding out other distractions. This itself is wisdom, as well as concentration. In the process of cultivating concentration, one must fully utilize wisdom to guide concentration, combining concentration and wisdom. When integrated, entering absorption becomes very swift.

Some practitioners force concentration without utilizing wisdom, making entry into absorption difficult. Others rely solely on the analytical wisdom of the conscious mind but never enter absorption. Both approaches are biased, deviating from the Middle Way, and thus cannot give rise to samadhi.