Starting and Ending with Respect
Quite naturally, most meditation practitioners focus on the sitting period itself as the main domain of training. In this piece, we’ll consider the way we begin and end the sit as equally deserving of attention. Some suggestions on this topic are quite standard, so we’ll focus on an area that I think is often neglected, and yet underlies the whole enterprise of starting and ending well: Respect. (And we’ll unpack below what that word means in this context).
First, why consider the pre- and post-sitting? Just as we would warm up before exercise and stretch or cool down afterward to enhance the benefit, we can support our sitting practice by properly attuning the body and mind before and afterward. The foundation of this attunement is what I am calling respect.
Meditation is quite an undertaking. We put hours of our life into it every week, which adds up to months or years of time. We do practices that substantially affect the mind and body, transforming our views, opportunities, and circumstances. This is behavior indicative of deep motivation and care. Whether one calls it religious, spiritual, carrying on a lineage, or not, it is a non-trivial dedication.
It is worth bringing a mindset of respect to this undertaking. There are two levels of respect in approaching our practice: Proximal respect and Great respect.
Proximal respect is about acknowledging our own engagement, dedication to practice, and whatever knowledge we have obtained. Whether it is Day 1 or Day 15,000, what we are doing matters. Tuning into proximal respect provides an easy motivation to maintain a clean, beautiful altar and sitting area; take care to align our body into a dignified posture; and make an effort to seclude ourselves from inner and outer distraction before we meditate. Such preliminary actions are often recommended by teachers with only the motivation of supporting this particular sit. I would say they are a larger expression of care that goes well beyond a single session.
Great respect is the feeling that comes when we consider the depth, profundity, and vastness of the Dharma, the path, and the Buddha’s knowledge. And also our gratitude for the long lineage of awakened beings that has preserved the teachings for millennia, and our aspiration to touch what they have touched, something far beyond the normal dimensions and measures of life.
Proximal respect is about clear knowing, and great respect is about not knowing. They come together in an attitude of sincerity, which I invoke once I am seated for meditation. With sincerity, we know that our own dedication will bring results in due course, and we humbly and joyfully open to whatever measure of that is possible right now in this sitting. (Some people like to touch into their intention at the beginning of a sit. This is fine, but I feel more juice from bringing up sincerity).
Of course, various unawakened attitudes can creep into and poison anything, so we need to guard our respect from drifting into grandiosity of our spirituality, self-aggrandizement, or blind worship. When respect is balanced and sincerity is genuine, the mind is confident, glad, and receptive. These are simple, wholesome, inward states.
At the end of the sit, we carry our simple respect forth from the cushion into the rest of life. As you shift into more everyday consciousness, breathe through the whole body and mind, grateful that you had the opportunity to sit, regardless of what occurred during the sit. Some people like to dedicate the merit of the practice period; I do this at the end of the day, so I don’t at the end of the sit. As you get up, it’s good to neaten the meditation space and leave it in a respectful state.
It is interesting that in the Tibetan tradition, one is now simply entering a new phase of practice called “post-meditation.” The idea is to carry the mind of meditation into this new phase. Observe what shifts occur as you begin to think, speak, walk, etc, and also how the mind fresh from meditation shapes these everyday activities.
There is a sutta (AN 4.21) where the Buddha says directly, “It is painful to dwell without reverence and deference.” The word translated as reverence is gāravo, which most closely resembles our idea of respect. In the sutta, the Buddha is speaking of a time after his Awakening, when he still wished to offer respect. Finding no being his superior in ethics, meditation, wisdom, or liberation, he still found an object of devotion in the Dharma.
Most translations of this sutta say that “Dharma” (a word with many shades of meaning) refers here to the teachings, but I would suggest that it might in addition refer to the laws of nature. Even an awakened Buddha feels awe and respect for the lawful functioning of the Universe and the mind.
I find it quite touching that the Buddha still wished to “dwell in reverence and deference.” Surely it is appropriate for us also.
Quite naturally, most meditation practitioners focus on the sitting period itself as the main domain of training. In this piece, we’ll consider the way we begin and end the sit as equally deserving of attention. Some suggestions on this topic are quite standard, so we’ll focus on an area that I think is often neglected, and yet underlies the whole enterprise of starting and ending well: Respect. (And we’ll unpack below what that word means in this context).
First, why consider the pre- and post-sitting? Just as we would warm up before exercise and stretch or cool down afterward to enhance the benefit, we can support our sitting practice by properly attuning the body and mind before and afterward. The foundation of this attunement is what I am calling respect.
Meditation is quite an undertaking. We put hours of our life into it every week, which adds up to months or years of time. We do practices that substantially affect the mind and body, transforming our views, opportunities, and circumstances. This is behavior indicative of deep motivation and care. Whether one calls it religious, spiritual, carrying on a lineage, or not, it is a non-trivial dedication.
It is worth bringing a mindset of respect to this undertaking. There are two levels of respect in approaching our practice: Proximal respect and Great respect.
Proximal respect is about acknowledging our own engagement, dedication to practice, and whatever knowledge we have obtained. Whether it is Day 1 or Day 15,000, what we are doing matters. Tuning into proximal respect provides an easy motivation to maintain a clean, beautiful altar and sitting area; take care to align our body into a dignified posture; and make an effort to seclude ourselves from inner and outer distraction before we meditate. Such preliminary actions are often recommended by teachers with only the motivation of supporting this particular sit. I would say they are a larger expression of care that goes well beyond a single session.
Great respect is the feeling that comes when we consider the depth, profundity, and vastness of the Dharma, the path, and the Buddha’s knowledge. And also our gratitude for the long lineage of awakened beings that has preserved the teachings for millennia, and our aspiration to touch what they have touched, something far beyond the normal dimensions and measures of life.
Proximal respect is about clear knowing, and great respect is about not knowing. They come together in an attitude of sincerity, which I invoke once I am seated for meditation. With sincerity, we know that our own dedication will bring results in due course, and we humbly and joyfully open to whatever measure of that is possible right now in this sitting. (Some people like to touch into their intention at the beginning of a sit. This is fine, but I feel more juice from bringing up sincerity).
Of course, various unawakened attitudes can creep into and poison anything, so we need to guard our respect from drifting into grandiosity of our spirituality, self-aggrandizement, or blind worship. When respect is balanced and sincerity is genuine, the mind is confident, glad, and receptive. These are simple, wholesome, inward states.
At the end of the sit, we carry our simple respect forth from the cushion into the rest of life. As you shift into more everyday consciousness, breathe through the whole body and mind, grateful that you had the opportunity to sit, regardless of what occurred during the sit. Some people like to dedicate the merit of the practice period; I do this at the end of the day, so I don’t at the end of the sit. As you get up, it’s good to neaten the meditation space and leave it in a respectful state.
It is interesting that in the Tibetan tradition, one is now simply entering a new phase of practice called “post-meditation.” The idea is to carry the mind of meditation into this new phase. Observe what shifts occur as you begin to think, speak, walk, etc, and also how the mind fresh from meditation shapes these everyday activities.
There is a sutta (AN 4.21) where the Buddha says directly, “It is painful to dwell without reverence and deference.” The word translated as reverence is gāravo, which most closely resembles our idea of respect. In the sutta, the Buddha is speaking of a time after his Awakening, when he still wished to offer respect. Finding no being his superior in ethics, meditation, wisdom, or liberation, he still found an object of devotion in the Dharma.
Most translations of this sutta say that “Dharma” (a word with many shades of meaning) refers here to the teachings, but I would suggest that it might in addition refer to the laws of nature. Even an awakened Buddha feels awe and respect for the lawful functioning of the Universe and the mind.
I find it quite touching that the Buddha still wished to “dwell in reverence and deference.” Surely it is appropriate for us also.
