Meditative Stabilization

There is both a reason and a purpose for cultivating the meditative stabilization observing exhalation and inhalation of the breath. The reason is mainly to purify impure motivations. What exactly is to be purified? The main of these are the three poisons--desire, hatred, and obscuration. Even though we have these at all times and even though the meditator will still retain them, she or he is seeking to suppress their manifest functioning at that time. The specific purpose for cleansing impure motivations before meditation is to dispel bad motivations connected with this lifetime, such as having hatred toward enemies, attachment to friends, and so forth.

In terms of the practice I am explaining here, even the thought of a religious practitioner of small capacity is included within impure motivations; such a person engages in practice mainly for the sake of a good future lifetime. Similarly, if on this occasion one has the motivation of a religious practitioner of middling capacity--that of only oneself escaping from cyclic existence, this is also impure.

What is a pure motivation? To take as one's aim the welfare of all sentient beings. This is the motivation of a religious practitioner of great capacity. Meditators should imagine or manifest their own impure motivation in the form of smoke, and with the exhalation of breath should expel all bad motivation. When inhaling, they should imagine that all the blessings and good qualities of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, in the form of bright light, are inhaled into them. This practice is called purification by way of the descent of ambrosia. There are many forms of this purification, but the essence of the practice is as just indicated.

--from Calm Abiding and Special Insight: Achieving Spiritual Transformation Through Meditation by Geshe Gedun Lodro
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