Breathing Mindfulness Meditation for Abandoning Mental Distraction

Monks, there are these three things.

What three?

Being difficult to correct, unwholesome friendship, and mental distraction.

These are three things.

Three (other) things are to be developed for abandoning these three things.

What three?

(1) Being easy to correct is to be developed for abandoning being difficult to correct.

(2) Wholesome friendship is to be developed for abandoning unwholesome friendship.

(3) Mindfulness of Breathing (Breathing Mindfulness Meditation) is to be developed for abandoning mental distraction.

These three things are to be developed for abandoning the former three things.

(Reference: AN 6.115)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares “three things” to develop in order to eliminate “three (other) things”.

(1) The Buddha is guiding Students to develop being easy to correct to eliminate being difficult to correct. In order to progress on The Path to Enlightenment, a Practitioner will need to choose to receive guidance from a Teacher. It will not be possible for you to attain Enlightenment without a Teacher to seek personal guidance.

Developing a relationship where you are open and honest with your Teacher, while trusting them 100%, is highly important. Through establishing a healthy relationship with your Teacher while having 100% trust and confidence in them, you can then develop the ability to easily accept corrections to your wisdom, moral conduct, and mental discipline.

A Teacher should have no craving or “wants” from their Students. A Teacher should only be interested to support, encourage, and motivate their Students on The Path to Enlightenment. A Teacher should not have any craving/desire, or even seeking, any kind of benefit from their Students whatsoever. The decision to share these Teachings should be from a place of loving-kindness and compassion for all beings.

In doing so, a Teacher will have no attachment to their Students. The Teacher can feel confidence in providing the true guidance needed to attain Enlightenment without reservation and be able to offer guidance or corrections to their Students - as needed.

If a Student is difficult to correct, then the Teacher may decide that it is unbeneficial to continue to share Teachings with that Student. A Student who is difficult to correct is just making it more challenging for their Teacher to provide them the guidance they need to improve their life and progress to Enlightenment.

Remember, a Teacher should not be seeking any benefit in the relationship with the Student. The Teacher and Student relationship exists to benefit the Student. Therefore, if a Student is difficult to correct, they are just making it difficult for the Teacher to help them progress on The Path to Enlightenment. It is not wise for a Teacher to attempt to be forceful and push through a “brick wall” to share corrections.

Instead, a Student who has developed a healthy relationship with their Teacher and is 100% trusting of them, should have an open heart and an open mind to receiving corrections through polite, kind, friendly, and respectful guidance. Otherwise, how would the Student improve their life practice to progress on The Path to Enlightenment?

A Student will oftentimes make offerings of support to their Teacher as a way to practice generosity and to create merit. These offerings should be made based on the Students independent decisions and not influenced or forced by the Teacher. These offerings are to help the Teacher to share their Teachings with the Student and many others in the world. Without offerings of support a Teacher would be unable to continue to share their Teachings and Students would be unable to attain Enlightenment. While these offerings do help the Teacher, a Teacher should not have craving/desire/attachment to receiving offerings or to the Student for making the offerings. If there is craving/desire/attachment in the relationship between the Teacher and the Student, there will be discontentedness potentially resulting in the relationship coming to an end.

A Teacher should not have a craving/desire/attachment for personal benefits from Students or the offerings they make.

To ensure the most success, the Teacher should have already attained Enlightenment and no longer have craving/desire/attachment for anything or anyone whatsoever. The Student should apply attention and effort to actively ensure they do not allow an attachment to develop to their Teacher and if an attachment is observed, discuss with the Teacher how to eliminate it. This will ensure that one is not inhibited to attain Enlightenment based on an attachment to their Teacher and that the relationship is able to remain polite, kind, friendly, and respectful at all times.

A Student should always be polite, kind, friendly, and respectful to their Teacher and a Teacher should always be polite, kind, friendly, and respectful to their Students.

(2) The Buddha shares in multiple places in his Teachings that developing wholesome friends and associates is a highly important aspect of developing one’s life practice. It is those people you choose to be around and have around you that directly influence the mind. Through choosing to have wholesome friends and associates, you will find that the mind will be influenced to make wholesome decisions leading to wholesome results (i.e. wholesome Kamma).

Conversely, through choosing to have unwholesome friends and associates, you will find that the mind will be influenced to make unwholesome decisions leading to unwholesome results (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).

A wise Practitioner would select wholesome friends to ensure one has eliminated any unwholesome influences in their life practice.

(3) The Buddha guides Students to practice Breathing Mindfulness Meditation to eliminate “mental distraction”. Breathing Mindfulness Meditation develops and cultivates concentration, among many other wholesome mental qualities.

Through training the mind in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation, the mind becomes focused and concentrated with clarity of mind eliminating all mental distraction.

To make wise decisions in life improving the wholesome results experienced, one would need to ensure the mind has concentration. Without concentration, a Practitioner would be unable to access their wisdom to make wise decisions.

To access wisdom, the mind needs to follow the following sequence.

Calmness —> Mindfulness —> Concentration —> Wisdom

If the mind is calm, it will then have mindfulness (awareness of mind).

If the mind has mindfulness, it can be concentrated (clarity of mind).

If the mind has concentration, it can access its wisdom.

When the mind is allowed to become uncalm, then it will not have mindfulness or concentration inhibiting it from being able to access its wisdom for wise decision making. In this situation, with an uncalm mind, it can be predicted that unwholesome decisions will be made experiencing unwholesome results (i.e. unwholesome Kamma).

It is wise wholesome decisions that lead to wholesome results (i.e. wholesome Kamma).

Breathing Mindfulness Meditation trains the mind to have calmness, mindfulness, and concentration leading to being able to access one’s wisdom.

The primary hindrance that an unEnlightened mind is experiencing creating an obstacle to Enlightenment is ignorance (unknowing of true reality). It is ignorance (unknowing of true reality) that keeps the mind trapped in the unEnlightened state. Wisdom is the antidote or remedy to this primary hindrance experienced by all unEnlightened minds.

It is Breathing Mindfulness Meditation that unlocks a Practitioner’s ability to remain calm with mindfulness and concentration leading to being able to access one’s wisdom leading to an Enlightened mind.

During a difficult situation where the mind might be otherwise distracted, instead practice equanimity.

Equanimity (Pāli: upekkhā) is mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation; treating everyone impartially.

Through remaining calm, composed, and with evenness of temper especially in a difficult situation, a Practitioner will be able to practice mindfulness and concentration leading to being able to make wise wholesome decisions based on wisdom. This is the key to making consistent wise decisions that lead to wholesome outcomes (i.e. wholesome Kamma).

Through training the mind in Breathing Mindfulness Meditation to eliminate mental distractions, a Practitioner is laying a foundation for a greatly improved life practice that produces calmness, mindfulness, concentration, and wise decision making.