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Continuous, Present, Pleasant: The Three Pillars of Joyful Meditation
The practice of Buddhist meditation is characterized by three things.
- Miên mật: This can be translated as unbroken, uninterrupted, or continuous. The practice is not only for the time of sitting meditation, but continues twenty-four hours a day. There is no discrimination between retreat and non-retreat time; the practice continues as if our retreat lasts forever. Even during a Lazy Day, the practice of mindfulness continues very deeply.
- Hiện pháp: This means being centered in the present moment. The practice has to do with the here and the now—namely with the joy and the sorrow that can be touched in the present moment. The Dharma is not a promise for the future; it brings you back to confront directly the here and the now. As soon as you embrace the practice, the situation begins to change.
- Pleasant: The practice should be pleasant, described as dwelling happily in the present moment, sukhavihārī. It should not be a hard labor, but nourishing, healing, and giving you pleasure. If you practice with joy and happiness, you have confidence in the Dharma.
The function of meditation is to give you joy, hỷ, and happiness, lạc. Joy is the awareness that you have conditions of happiness, and it is obtained by the art of leaving behind. Happiness is not to get more things like fame, position, power, or money, but to be able to release the things that are not necessary. The more we release, the greater our joy will be. This is illustrated by the story of the monk Bāhiya, who as a governor lived in constant fear, but as a monk felt so light and free, exclaiming, “Oh, my happiness! Oh, my happiness!” The joy and the happiness are born from the capacity of letting go. If your practice brings you joy and happiness as a source of nourishment, you will bloom like a flower.
