Boat drifting on a sunny day: A new meditation technique for spiritual purification.

Through meditation, you can learn how to cultivate the proper conditions that rid you of disturbing emotions and mistaken cognitions.

The journey of spiritual purification is not swift. It requires patience, dedication, and a deep understanding of the destination. Practitioners, regardless of the varying difficulties, remain steadfast. As they progress, they discern the gradual but definite erosion of disturbing emotions, the cognitive errors that have deceived them their entire life, and the mental and sensory addictions that have forced them to harm others and themselves.

The practitioners don’t care how long it takes, whether they finish the work in this life, whether others praise or criticize them, or whether they fail or succeed. The practitioners only practice because they realize ​​returning to their old ways is impossible.

And what are they purified from? Two obscurations: the emotional and the cognitive. These obscurations are like clouds that obscure the clear sky of our minds, preventing us from seeing things as they truly are.

As their name indicates, emotional obscurations refer to emotions that disturb and to grasping sensations or thoughts.

Cognitive obscurations refer to those based on the selfish perspective, the one that says things like “I am here,” “There are others like me,” and “There are external and internal things.”

And what do these obscurations obscure? Mental clarity.

When there are obscurations, there is ignorance, unconsciousness, or blindness.

The Buddha provided several methods for purifying ourselves from obscurations. He taught about cultivating right discernment, which is the ability to see things as they truly are, and right action, which is the ethical conduct that leads to spiritual growth and meditation.

In another post, I will talk about right discernment and right action.

Buddhist meditation as method of purification of body, speech, and mind

Buddhist meditation has evolved quite a bit since the Buddha left this world. It went from being a training of detailed contemplation of the body and mind to diversifying into numerous techniques, such as walking meditation, meditation with mantra, visualizations, concentration, without concentration, with goals, without goals, and focused on stillness or introspection only.

Despite countless people claiming that their technique is better than others, none is superior. Each one reveals and cultivates an aspect that is valuable, authentic, and in sync with the Buddhadharma.

Each of these techniques aims to purify us from cognitive and emotional obscurations. 

Learning each technique takes time. Throughout these years, I have practiced all the abovementioned techniques and designed other techniques that seek to unify them.

It sounds ambitious, but sometimes, we need a comprehensive strategy. Below, I present a technique I call “boat drifting on a sunny day.” I designed this technique to help us purify our minds of obscurations and thus understand our existence's impermanent and interconnected nature, which is a crucial aspect of Buddhist philosophy and contributes to our spiritual purification.

Step 1

Consider your breath like the waves of the sea.

When you inhale, the waves rise. When you exhale, the waves go down. The waves have their rhythm and movement—they come and go. Sometimes, the waves are rough, and sometimes, they’re calm. Your breathing is like this. Just as you don't control the waves of the sea, you don't control your breathing.

Step 2

Consider your consciousness as the light of the sun.

It falls on the ocean. It illuminates every wave, every rise and fall, every inhalation and exhalation. It illuminates every internal and external sensation.

Step 3

Consider yourself, your sense of Self, as a wooden boat floating on the sea, that is, on the breath.

Imagine that your sense of Self slightly rises and falls as you inhale and exhale. 

Act like you were an empty ship with no one on board. Imagine that your Self has no crew. Feel like you're drifting. Allow your inhalation and exhalation to take you out to sea.

Step 4

Imagine that days, months, and years pass. Imagine that, over time, you begin to disassemble yourself with the movement of the waves. Imagine how, little by little, the boat pieces start to move away from each other.

Step 5

Consider your thoughts as the documents inside the ship now floating on the sea.

And the sun is witness to all the dismantling. Just as it illuminates each wave of the breath, it also illuminates each sensation of Self, and each thought that floats on the breath.

Step 6

Imagine that centuries pass. The sensations of the Self dissolve over time just as parts of the boat dissolve in the sea. The same thing happens to thoughts. The only thing that remains is the ocean without beginning and end under a sun that illuminates everything.

Step 7

The final step of the technique brings a sense of unity and harmony. The sea, the waves, the light, and the sun merge into a single being and event, symbolizing access to meditative absorptions.

And that’s it. That's the whole technique.

The seven steps are based on the guided practices from the purification module of my Self-Mastery Meditation course (available for the moment only in Spanish). In the course practices, I used images such as moving water, rain, sunlight, mirrors, and other inert objects to convey some of the main aspects of Buddhist meditation.

In this technique, I used three elements that can be visualized simultaneously in a single image: the movement of seawater, an inert object—in this case, the boat that floats on the sea—and sunlight that illuminates everything.

The technique is not so much about imagining the visualization I describe as it is about acting out the elements of the image. If the breath were like the sea, how would it behave? If my consciousness were like the sunlight that effortlessly illuminates everything, what would it be like? How would I act if my sense of Self were an empty vessel?

When the breath moves with rhythm, like the sea, we allow it to happen naturally. If our consciousness illuminates like sunlight, then consciousness illuminates everything it touches naturally. If the self behaves like an empty wooden boat floating on the sea, then the self keeps moving serenely, without resistance.

The awareness of serene and natural movement eventually purifies our mind of our compulsion to think, distract ourselves, or seek entertainment in sensory pleasures or dramas. Emptying the mind of such disturbances makes it more open and clear. We access meditative absorptions, and we feel the subtle ecstasy and contentment typical of the practice of deep meditation.

The movement of waves represents not only the movement of breathing but also any other natural movement, such as the beating of our heart, the movement of our internal organs, the trees that move with the air, or the movement of our imagination.

The sunlight that touches each wave not only refers to the consciousness that rests on the breath but also the consciousness of everything to which our senses are exposed. That is, consciousness illuminates breathing, body sensations, sounds, colors, shapes, spatial dimensions, and all the mental activity that arises in our mind. It is a consciousness that illuminates all that effortlessly, just as sunlight illuminates everything it touches effortlessly.

The empty boat does not only refer to how we should see the sensation of the Self. It also refers to how we should view physical phenomena we use to create our identities, such as our voice, internal dialogue, individual will, and any sense of control over our body and mind or desire to control other people or external events. In meditation, all of the above is considered an empty ship floating on the waves.

What results should you expect with this meditation technique?

The goal of step one is to allow your breathing to happen naturally, just as your heartbeat happens.

The goal of step two is for you to become effortlessly aware of your breathing, your body, and everything around you.

The objective of step three is to abide in natural stillness, just like a boat floating in the open sea.

The goal of step four is to learn to let go of the Self, which doesn’t mean you deny or destroy it. You just let it go like you would let a paper boat go on water. This will allow the Self to change naturally.

The goal of step five is to allow natural awareness to permeate your entire body, sensations, thoughts, and sense of Self.

The goal of step six is ​​to allow the Self to dissolve completely.

The objective of step seven is to access meditative absorptions (jhanas), which are characterized by serenity, fading of identity, subtle ecstasy, finding contentment in nothing, unification with everything, and equanimity.

The more time you spend in meditative absorption, the purer your body, speech, and mind will be from emotional and cognitive obscurations.

Practice, and let me know how it goes.