Categories: Other Meditation Teachings
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
Today, through our spiritual teachings, I hope to clarify a concept I often mention in my talks: Dṛṣṭi rāmu sīmāval. What do these words mean? What are these ‘view-framework-limits’ or, more simply, these limiting views in meditation?
For some, the term is clear, but for many, it can be confusing. My goal is to explain this simply, because understanding it is crucial for your spiritual journey.
What kind of harm do these limiting views cause? What kind of obstacle do they create for us?
These frameworks can prevent someone from even starting meditation. A person may have the desire to begin a spiritual life, but these views become the very reason they don’t start. For those who do begin, these views become a barrier that stops them from continuing their practice consistently. If we don’t mindfully identify these mental roadblocks, they will follow us to the very end of our spiritual path.
They cause us to stagnate, to get stuck in the same mud, in the same place. My hope in explaining this is that you will learn to recognize these barriers within yourselves, overcome them, and move forward in your spiritual development.
What Are These ‘Limiting Views’?
So, what exactly are these limiting views in meditation?
I have touched on this before but let me offer a simple analysis. Think of it as a roadblock or a ‘barrier’ on a highway. Imagine you are traveling on a straight, clear road at a good speed, moving freely. Suddenly, you come across a roadblock. What happens? Your speed is immediately cut. If you don’t see it in time and can’t control your speed, you might even have an accident. This is the kind of damage these mental views can cause.
My purpose is to help you see these obstacles clearly so you can avoid this harm. That is why it is so important to engage with this teaching fully. I use different words (roadblock, barrier, limiting views) but they all point to the same thing. They are different names for the same fundamental problem that can hinder our spiritual journey.
The First Barrier: The Perfectionist Trap of the Five Precepts
How do these limiting views in meditation affect us when we first try to start a spiritual life? Let’s consider an example. Imagine two people who both want to meditate. One person is diligent in observing the Five Precepts (Pancasila), the basic Buddhist ethical guidelines of refraining from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants. The other person struggles with this and often breaks them. Both want to meditate.
Now, let’s focus on the person who finds it difficult to keep the precepts. They know they break them, but they still have a genuine desire to meditate. What happens if someone, perhaps a friend, a teacher, or something they read imposes a strict rule on them? They are told, ‘If you want to meditate, you absolutely must keep the Five Precepts perfectly. Only then can you meditate.’
This person knows they cannot maintain the precepts perfectly right now. So, what conclusion do they draw? ‘I can’t meditate. Because I can’t keep the precepts, I can never start a spiritual life or walk the path to liberation (Nibbana).’ This external person has placed a law, a view, a limit (a roadblock) in their mind. The desire to meditate was there, but this rigid view has trapped them before they even began.
Who put it there? An external person, often someone who lacks deep understanding themselves and is just repeating something they heard or misunderstood from a book. The result is tragic: the person who wanted to meditate now feels they can’t, and their spiritual journey is over before it starts. They fall back into their old habits, potentially leading to a lower rebirth, all because of this harmful, limiting view.
The Path of Gentle Progress
In my previous teachings, I have addressed this very issue. It is okay if you cannot keep the Five Precepts perfectly at the beginning. My advice is to start the meditation anyway. Begin practicing mindfulness (what we call Sati). When you prioritize the cultivation of mindfulness and continue on this path, something remarkable happens. You naturally start to see your own faults and feel the need to correct them. I cannot give a timeline for this, it could take weeks, months, or years but I can say with certainty that eventually, that person will change for the better.
Look at the damage this one rigid view can cause to society. It prevents people from growing. This is what I mean by limiting views in meditation. I repeat these words view, framework, limit, so that it becomes clear to everyone listening, no matter their mindset, because this is the harm they do.
How This Barrier Damages Your Mind in Practice
Let’s explore how this same limiting view affects the mind of someone who decides to meditate despite the ‘rule.’ Imagine the person who struggles with the precepts hears the rule, ‘You must keep the precepts to meditate,‘ but decides to try anyway. They begin their practice.
As I have explained in other articles, when you start to meditate, a torrent of thoughts seems to arise. The mind feels scattered. This is a common complaint. It’s not that new thoughts are being created; it’s that you are finally seeing the thoughts that were always there, with greater clarity.
Now, if this person lacks a correct understanding of this process, perhaps from teachings like these or their own insight what happens? The external person’s limiting view comes flooding back.
They sit, thoughts arise, and their mind immediately concludes: ‘I’m having so many thoughts because I don’t keep the precepts. It’s because I’m not pure enough that my mind is like this.‘ They adopt this view, this framework, this self-criticism. This is the damage done to the mind. It’s an attack on oneself, prompted by that external rule. This damage can make it impossible to move forward. This is the roadblock, the barrier, that I have been pointing to.
When Spiritual Progress Becomes a Source of Fear
Let’s take this a step further. Imagine the same person, who struggles with precepts but starts meditating anyway. Sometimes, due to practice in past lives, a person’s spiritual faculties can awaken very quickly in this life, regardless of their current lifestyle. Suddenly, this person might experience a breakthrough.
Perhaps their ‘third eye‘ opens, or they attain what is called the divine eye (dibba-cakkhu). They might enter a deep meditative state (a jhāna) where thoughts cease and sounds disappear. Or they may experience the emergence of other psychic abilities (abhiññā), with strange physical and mental sensations.
This is a sign of progress, a fruit of past efforts reawakening. But what does the person do? Frightened, their mind immediately jumps to the old limiting view: ‘Oh no! This is happening because I didn’t keep the precepts! I wasn’t supposed to meditate, and something weird is happening because I broke the rule!‘ The moment they think this, the profound state they were in collapses. The taste of that deep peace, that clarity, vanishes. They fall right back down.
Later, if they encounter a correct teaching and realize, ‘Oh, that was my own past spiritual progress awakening!‘ they will be filled with regret. ‘I became afraid because of that person’s ignorant view, and I lost it.‘ They may try to get it back, but now they are meditating with expectation, which makes it much harder. They have to start again from the beginning, letting go of the desire to reclaim what they lost. This shows how a single limiting view, a single rule imposed on us, can cause such profound damage to our spiritual journey.
The Second Barrier: The Vegetarianism Rule
There is another common limiting view many people hold: that one absolutely must be a vegetarian to meditate. They believe you cannot eat meat or fish at the beginning or during the practice, and that doing so will prevent spiritual development. This is another framework, another barrier people construct.
The reasoning follows the exact same pattern as the precept example. A person who wants to start a spiritual life but is not ready or able to give up meat will think, ‘I can’t stop eating meat; therefore, I cannot start a spiritual life.‘ That misguided person’s rigid idea becomes the reason another’s journey is blocked. The spiritual life of this aspiring meditator is crushed at the very beginning.
I have given entire teachings on this topic, explaining how eating meat is not a direct barrier to spiritual development, even showing references from the Tripitaka (the Buddhist scriptures). The Buddha himself laid out this path for us. But some people, who I can only describe as foolishly stubborn, refuse to understand and leave angry comments.
The Tripitaka is the source of the Buddha’s teaching; without it, we would know nothing. For those who are interested, I encourage you to find and reflect on that teaching for a deeper understanding. The point here is that this ‘rule’ about diet is one of the most powerful limiting views in meditation that can stop a person from ever starting.
The Most Common Barrier: The Rules We Make for Ourselves
Now, let’s talk about the limiting views we impose on ourselves. This is a barrier that almost everyone who starts meditation creates, regardless of race, religion, or background. A person starts meditating, and thoughts arise. They may not have the external rules about precepts or diet, but they create a new one: ‘Thoughts shouldn’t be coming to my mind. Oh no, I have so many thoughts! I can’t meditate. This is too hard.‘
They create a rule, a framework, a law for themselves: ‘My mind must be concentrated. Thoughts are bad.’ This is the very first barrier for a new meditator. I’ve given talks on why you shouldn’t rush to force concentration. What should you do when you catch yourself making these rules?
You must do the same thing I advised with external rules: let them be whatever they are and set them aside. Recognize the self-imposed law, release it, and simply continue with the practice of mindfulness. That is how your meditation will develop.
The Path Forward: Recognizing Barriers with Wisdom
These limiting views in meditation don’t just appear at the beginning. As you develop spiritually, your own mind will create more subtle barriers, all the way until the completion of the path. How do we see them? The key is mindfulness (Sati) and wisdom (Paññā).
Wisdom isn’t something we can force. It arises together with mindfulness. When you are mindful, you start to catch these things. I have provided teachings on how to practice mindfulness in daily life and during formal sitting meditation, whether cross-legged, half-lotus, or full lotus. As you practice, you will begin to identify these barriers for yourself. Even before I teach you about a specific one, you will start to see it in your own mind. Try to become proficient at catching these limiting views yourself.
I believe this teaching, though it may have been long, is now clear. You should now understand what I mean by ‘view-framework-limits’ and how these terms, roadblock, barrier, extreme all points to the same harmful tendency. You can see the damage they cause, how they prevent you from starting meditation, how they interrupt you in the middle, and how they hinder you near the end. This is a vital teaching for anyone new to meditation.
Understanding all this, I will now conclude this talk on these rigid views. I offer you, my blessings. By the power of the Triple Gem may you develop the mindfulness and wisdom to identify the limiting views, rules, and barriers within yourself. May you have the strength to break them. And if external people try to impose their ignorant views on you, may you recognize them, set those fools aside, and walk your own path independently. May you receive the blessings of the Triple Gem to achieve this.
We invite you to walk this path with us. Read our teachings, and most importantly, apply them practically in your own life. as you practice, questions will naturally arise. Please feel free to share your experiences and questions in the comments below, via email or contact form. I will do my best to offer guidance in future talks based on your progress. For now, begin this practice with an open heart and a mind free from expectation. Cultivate it correctly, and may you find the clarity and peace you seek.
Thank you for joining us. We hope this blog will be of great benefit to your spiritual journey.
May you all be well and happy.
May the blessings of the Triple Gem be with you all!
