The difference between resting and observing in meditation


Student: Is there a difference between rest and observe? The reason I have the question, I’ve been taught to observe, watch my breath, for instance.

Ken: Yes

Student: And in my mind, the way I think, I watch it, I observe it, and I don’t deal with it or experience it. I just watch it.

Ken: Yeah.

Student: It’s when you say rest, which is the first time I’ve heard that expression in this context, that to me says immediately that I’m going to experience it. I’m going to involve myself in it in some way. So, I guess my question is: what is the difference between the two, so that I can get some understanding of what either means. Maybe it’s the same. Am I making any sense?

Ken: You’re making a great deal of sense. And I think it’s a very important question. [Pause] A great deal of meditation instruction is given in terms of “Watch the breath. Put your attention on this object,” etc. Some of this may be a translation problem. I’m not sure.

In my own practice, I found that the distancing that occurs with that instruction very problematic for all kinds of reasons. Other people, they don’t have any problem with it, but for me it was a problem. And, when I started to just rest in my experience of breathing, as opposed to trying to watch the breath, there was a lot less struggle. I could actually start resting, and as I rested quality of attention developed in a way that it didn’t in the other approach. [Pause] So yes, there’s a difference, I think. And I found that this notion of resting in our experience very helpful, because it’s something I can easily take into my life. Whatever’s happening, I can just be in that, if you follow.

And for me also, it gets rid of the tension that I found was created—as we were discussing in several of the questions already—when I was trying to observe the breath and I kept having to push this other stuff away. And that made a lot of struggle. When I rested in the experience, I didn’t have to push any of that stuff away because that was all part of the experience, which is basically what I’ve been trying to say today. But as I rested more and more deeply, I don’t know whether any of that stuff goes away, but it ceases to distract and that makes a difference. Does this help?

Student: Yes.

Two aspects of shamatha


Ken: Okay. So the question up here, I think we’ll have to make this the last one.

Student: According to what I’ve learned, it sounds like, for her question, isn’t it that the one-pointed meditation of watching the breath is shamatha, and the all-inclusive resting is vipashyana, which are two different levels of meditation? That the first is the calm abiding that the shamatha is given as an instruction to calm the mind, so that the resting and the vipashyana can begin to happen.

Ken: That’s very interesting. I think there’s a difference in the way the same terminology is used in Theravadan and the Mahayana, from your question. What you’re describing would, in my own training, be described as two different aspects of shamatha.

Student: [Unclear]

Ken: Yes. The first aspect is what is usually translated as mindfulness, which I don’t like as a word anymore. And I know this is how it’s defined in the Theravadan and the Mahayana tradition. It’s defined as the mind joining with the object of attention, not focused on, but joining with. And that to me comes about through resting. So the resting quality is very much there. As that resting quality develops, another aspect of attention starts, and we call that awareness, which is defined as, roughly, knowing what is going on.

And it’s the difference between meditating in the closet and meditating in an open field. That’s the subjective feeling. And when that quality arises, then there’s much less struggle because you know, what’s going on and there’s a deeper level of resting, and you’re still resting in the experience of the object. You also know everything that’s going on. Those two, together form shamatha.

Rest in the looking and look in the resting


Ken: What is called insight in Mahayana, in my own training, is another quality yet, which basically grows out of the awareness that I just mentioned—that expansion—that takes it a step further, because it’s possible to rest. But then you learn to look in the resting, and we do this in various ways. I’m doing with some of the questions today. [Pause] But you’re looking basically at, “What is this experience?” Not trying to answer the question, but to look at it or more precisely into it. So there’s a resting and a looking.

Now in the beginning, when people start to look, their attention destabilizes very, very quickly, which is why that resting quality is very important. As practice matures, then it becomes possible to rest in the looking and look in the resting. Now there’s quite a different quality to practice. Does this fit with your experience?

Student: It does.

Ken: Okay. We need to close here, and thank you for your attention. I’d like, whatever good you feel has come out of this for you. That’s highly questionable right there, but we won’t dwell on that. Whatever good may have come out of our time together, just feel that. We’re just going to sit for a minute or two, andwith the sentiment thatyou dedicate or give this good that you’ve experienced and dedicate it to the good of the world.