The Reasons for Failure in Cultivating Meditative Concentration

There are many reasons why meditation (dhyāna) is not cultivated well. Search carefully within yourself, and remove and correct all the greedy habits that should not be there. If you want to cultivate meditation well and keep your mind pure every day, you should eat less and not be greedy for food. The nutrition in your diet should not be excessive, and the flavors should not be too rich; the plainer your food, the purer your mind will be. In human life—clothing, food, housing, and daily activities, eating, drinking, and bodily functions—try not to be attached to any of them; moderation is best. In this way, it becomes easier to transcend the human way of living and accord with the life of the heavenly realms, and meditation will more easily arise.

Emotional attachment is the hardest to relinquish; relinquish desire first, for desire is the easiest to let go of. Heavenly beings have feelings but no desire; the desire of desire-realm heavenly beings is very faint. We should start relinquishing from what is easiest to let go of, and only then can the quality of our life be elevated.

Beings in the first dhyāna heaven do not eat food, nor do they smell fragrances or savor tastes, and there is no sexual activity. If we wish to attain first-dhyāna meditation, we should not be greedy for food and drink, not crave the color, fragrance, and taste of food, and not crave its nutrition. At the same time, do not be concerned with the odors of your surrounding living environment: do not pursue pleasant smells, do not detest unpleasant ones, do not be picky about or preoccupied with smells—accord with conditions in everything and be indifferent. As for male and female forms, do not crave them; treat them normally. Gender is merely an illusory false appearance, a combination of the four great elements—just like pork, there is nothing worth craving. Maintain such a mind, and you need not worry about lacking meditation; then subdue sleep and the scattered mind, and first-dhyāna meditation will easily arise.

In the Āgama sūtras, the Buddha told the bhikṣus to be diligent during the first watch of the night, not craving sleep; diligent during the middle watch of the night, not craving sleep; and diligent during the last watch of the night, not craving sleep. Eat and drink less, be free from drowsiness and few wandering thoughts, and sleep will naturally decrease.

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