Buddhist meditation

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Buddhist meditation is the practice of meditation in Buddhism and Buddhist philosophy. It includes a variety of types of meditation.

Core meditation techniques have been preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through teacher-student transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward Enlightenment and Nirvana. The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bh?van? and jh?na/dhy?na. Buddhist meditation techniques have become increasingly popular in the wider world, with many non-Buddhists taking them up for a variety of reasons.

Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of meditation techniques that aim to develop sati (mindfulness), samadhi (concentration), abhijñ? (supramundane powers), samatha (tranquility), and vipassan? (insight). Specific Buddhist meditation techniques have also been used to remove unwholesome qualities thought to be impediments to spiritual liberation, such loving kindness to remove ill-will, hate, and anger, equanimity to remove mental clinging, and patikulamanasikara (meditations on the parts of the body) and mara?asati (meditation on death and corpses) to remove sensual lust for the body and cultivate impermanence (anicca). Given the large number and diversity of traditional Buddhist meditation practices, this article primarily identifies authoritative contextual frameworks--both contemporary and canonical--for the variety of practices. For those seeking school-specific meditation information, it may be more appropriate to simply view the articles listed in the "See also" section below.

While there are some similar meditative practices - such as breath meditation and various recollections (anussati) - that are used across Buddhist schools, there is also significant diversity. In the Theravada tradition alone, there are over fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty for developing concentration, while in Tibetan Buddhism, there are thousands of visualization meditations. Most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school specific. Only a few teachers attempt to synthesize, crystallize and categorize practices from multiple Buddhist traditions.

Video Buddhist meditation

Pre-Buddhist India

The two major traditions of meditative practice in pre-Buddhist India were the Jain ascetic practices and the various Vedic Brahmanical practices. There is still much debate in Buddhist studies regarding how much influence these two traditions had on the development of early Buddhist meditation. The early Buddhist texts mention that the Gautama trained under two teachers known as ???ra K?l?ma and Uddaka R?maputta, both of them taught formless jhanas or mental absorptions, a key practice of proper Buddhist meditation. Alexander Wynne considers these figures historical persons associated with the doctrines of the early Upanishads. Other practices which the Buddha undertook have been associated with the Jain ascetic tradition by the Indologist Johannes Bronkhorst including extreme fasting and a forceful "meditation without breathing". According to the early texts, the Buddha rejected the more extreme Jain ascetic practices in favor of the middle way.

Maps Buddhist meditation

Early Buddhism

The earliest tradition of Buddhist practice is preserved in the nik?ya/?gamas, and is adhered to by the Theravada lineage. It was also the focus of the other now-extinct early Buddhist schools, and has been incorporated to greater and lesser degrees into the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and many East Asian Mahayana traditions.

Types of meditation

In terms of early traditions as found in the vast P?li Canon and the ?gamas, meditation can be contextualized as part of the Noble Eightfold Path, explicitly in regard to:

Right Mindfulness (samma sati) - exemplified by the Buddha's Four Foundations of Mindfulness (see Satipatthana Sutta).
Right Concentration (samma samadhi) - culminating in jhanic absorptions through the meditative development of samatha.

And implicitly in regard to :

Right View (samma ditthi) - embodying wisdom traditionally attained through the meditative development of vipassana founded on samatha.

Classic texts in the Pali literature enumerating meditative subjects include the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) and the Visuddhimagga's Part II, "Concentration" (Samadhi).

Four foundations for mindfulness

In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha identifies four foundations for mindfulness: the body, feelings, mind states and mental objects. He further enumerates the following objects as bases for the meditative development of mindfulness:

Body (k?y?): Breathing (see ?n?p?nasati Sutta), Postures, Clear Comprehending, Reflections on Repulsiveness of the Body, Reflections on Material Elements, Cemetery Contemplations
Feelings (vedan?), whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral
Mind/consciousness (citt?)
Mental Contents (dhamm?): Hindrances, Aggregates, Sense-Bases, Factors of Enlightenment, and the Four Noble Truths.

Meditation on these subjects develops insight.

Serenity and insight

The Buddha is said to have identified two paramount mental qualities that arise from wholesome meditative practice:

"serenity" or "tranquillity" (Pali: samatha) which steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind;
"insight" (Pali: vipassan?) which enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five aggregates).

Through the meditative development of serenity, one is able to suppress obscuring hindrances; and, with the suppression of the hindrances, it is through the meditative development of insight that one gains liberating wisdom. Moreover, the Buddha is said to have extolled serenity and insight as conduits for attaining Nibbana (Pali; Skt.: Nirvana), the unconditioned state as in the "Kimsuka Tree Sutta" (SN 35.245), where the Buddha provides an elaborate metaphor in which serenity and insight are "the swift pair of messengers" who deliver the message of Nibbana via the Noble Eightfold Path.

In the "Four Ways to Arahantship Sutta" (AN 4.170), Ven. Ananda reports that people attain arahantship using serenity and insight in one of three ways:

they develop serenity and then insight (Pali: samatha-pubbangamam vipassanam)
they develop insight and then serenity (Pali: vipassana-pubbangamam samatham){{While the Nikayas identify that the pursuit of vipassana can precede the pursuit of samatha, a fruitful vipassana-oriented practice must still be based upon the achievement of stabilizing "access concentration" (Pali: upacara samadhi).}}
they develop serenity and insight in tandem (Pali: samatha-vipassanam yuganaddham) as in, for instance, obtaining the first jhana, and then seeing in the associated aggregates the three marks of existence, before proceeding to the second jhana.

In the Pali canon, the Buddha never mentions independent samatha and vipassana meditation practices; instead, samatha and vipassana are two qualities of mind to be developed through meditation. Nonetheless, some meditation practices (such as contemplation of a kasina object) favor the development of samatha, others are conducive to the development of vipassana (such as contemplation of the aggregates), while others (such as mindfulness of breathing) are classically used for developing both mental qualities.

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Theravada tradition

The oldest material of the Theravada tradition on meditation can be found in the Pali Nikayas and in texts such as the Patisambhidamagga which provide commentary to meditation suttas like the Anapanasati sutta. An early Theravada meditation manual is the Vimuttimagga ('Path of Freedom', 1st or 2nd century). The most influential presentation though, is that of the 5th Century Visuddhimagga ('Path of Purification') of Buddhagho?a, which describes forty meditation subjects. Almost all of these are described in the early texts. Buddhagho?a also seems to have been influenced by the earlier Vimuttimagga in his presentation.

Buddhagho?a advises that, for the purpose of developing concentration and consciousness, a person should "apprehend from among the forty meditation subjects one that suits his own temperament" with the advice of a "good friend" (kaly??a-mittat?) who is knowledgeable in the different meditation subjects (Ch. III, § 28). Buddhagho?a subsequently elaborates on the forty meditation subjects as follows (Ch. III, §104; Chs. IV-XI):

ten kasinas: earth, water, fire, air, blue, yellow, red, white, light, and "limited-space".
ten kinds of foulness: "the bloated, the livid, the festering, the cut-up, the gnawed, the scattered, the hacked and scattered, the bleeding, the worm-infested, and a skeleton".
ten recollections: Buddh?nussati, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, the virtues of deities, death (see the Upajjhatthana Sutta), the body, the breath (see anapanasati), and peace (see Nibbana).
four divine abodes: mett?, karu??, mudita, and upekkha.
four immaterial states: boundless space, boundless perception, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception.
one perception (of "repulsiveness in nutriment")
one "defining" (that is, the four elements)

When one overlays Buddhaghosa's 40 meditative subjects for the development of concentration with the Buddha's foundations of mindfulness, three practices are found to be in common: breath meditation, foulness meditation (which is similar to the Sattipatthana Sutta's cemetery contemplations, and to contemplation of bodily repulsiveness), and contemplation of the four elements. According to Pali commentaries, breath meditation can lead one to the equanimous fourth jhanic absorption. Contemplation of foulness can lead to the attainment of the first jhana, and contemplation of the four elements culminates in pre-jhana access concentration.

In Contemporary Theravada

Particularly influential from the twentieth century onward has been the "New Burmese Method" or "Vipassan? School" approach to samatha and vipassan? developed by Mingun Sayadaw and U N?rada and popularized by Mahasi Sayadaw. Here samatha is considered an optional but not necessary component of the practice--vipassan? is possible without it. Another Burmese method, derived from Ledi Sayadaw via Ba Khin and S. N. Goenka, takes a similar approach. Other Burmese traditions popularized in the west, notably that of Pa Auk Sayadaw, uphold the emphasis on samatha explicit in the commentarial tradition of the Visuddhimagga. These Burmese traditions have been particularly influential on the Western Vipassana movement (also called "Insight meditation"), which includes American Buddhist teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield.

There are also other less well known Burmese meditation methods, such as the system developed by U Vimala, which focuses on knowledge of dependent origination and cittanupassana (mindfulness of the mind). Likewise, Sayadaw U Tejaniya's method also focuses on mindfulness of the mind.

Also influential is the Thai Forest Tradition deriving from Mun Bhuridatta and popularized by Ajahn Chah, which, in contrast, stresses the inseparability of the two practices, and the essential necessity of both practices. Other noted practitioners in this tradition include Ajahn Thate and Ajahn Maha Bua, among others. There are other forms of Thai Buddhist meditation associated with particular teachers, including Buddhadasa Bhikkhu's presentation of anapanasati, Ajahn Lee's breath meditation method (which influenced his American student Thanissaro) and the "dynamic meditation" of Luangpor Teean Cittasubho.

There are other less mainstream forms of Theravada meditation practiced in Thailand which include the vijja dhammakaya meditation developed by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro and the meditation of former supreme patriarch Suk Kai Thuean (1733-1822). Newell notes that these two forms of modern Thai meditation share certain features in common with tantric practices such as the use of visualizations and centrality of maps of the body.

A less common type of meditation is practiced in Cambodia and Laos by followers of Bor?n kamma??h?na ('ancient practices') tradition. This form of meditation includes the use of mantras and visualizations.

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In Mah?y?na Buddhism

Mah?y?na Buddhism includes numerous schools of practice, which each draw upon various Buddhist s?tras, philosophical treatises, and commentaries. Accordingly, each school has its own meditation methods for the purpose of developing sam?dhi and prajñ?, with the goal of ultimately attaining enlightenment. Nevertheless, each has its own emphasis, mode of expression, and philosophical outlook. In his classic book on meditation of the various Chinese Buddhist traditions, Charles Luk writes, "The Buddha Dharma is useless if it is not put into actual practice, because if we do not have personal experience of it, it will be alien to us and we will never awaken to it in spite of our book learning." Nan Huaijin echoed similar sentiments about the importance of meditation by remarking, "Intellectual reasoning is just another spinning of the sixth consciousness, whereas the practice of meditation is the true entry into the Dharma."

Meditation in the Pure Land school

Mindfulness of Amit?bha Buddha

In Pure Land Buddhism, repeating the name of Amit?bha is traditionally a form of mindfulness of the Buddha (Skt. buddh?nusm?ti). This term was translated into Chinese as nianfo (Chinese: ??), by which it is popularly known in English. The practice is described as calling the buddha to mind by repeating his name, to enable the practitioner to bring all his or her attention upon that buddha (sam?dhi). This may be done vocally or mentally, and with or without the use of Buddhist prayer beads. Those who practice this method often commit to a fixed set of repetitions per day, often from 50,000 to over 500,000. According to tradition, the second patriarch of the Pure Land school, Shandao, is said to have practiced this day and night without interruption, each time emitting light from his mouth. Therefore, he was bestowed with the title "Great Master of Light" (????) by Emperor Gaozong of Tang (??).

In addition, in Chinese Buddhism there is a related practice called the "dual path of Chán and Pure Land cultivation", which is also called the "dual path of emptiness and existence." As taught by Venerable Nan Huaijin, the name of Amit?bha Buddha is recited slowly, and the mind is emptied out after each repetition. When idle thoughts arise, the phrase is repeated again to clear them. With constant practice, the mind is able to remain peacefully in emptiness, culminating in the attainment of sam?dhi.

Pure Land Rebirth Dh?ra??

Repeating the Pure Land Rebirth dh?ra?? is another method in Pure Land Buddhism. Similar to the mindfulness practice of repeating the name of Amit?bha Buddha, this dh?ra?? is another method of meditation and recitation in Pure Land Buddhism. The repetition of this dh?ra?? is said to be very popular among traditional Chinese Buddhists. It is traditionally preserved in Sanskrit, and it is said that when a devotee succeeds in realizing singleness of mind by repeating a mantra, its true and profound meaning will be clearly revealed.

namo amit?bh?ya tath?gat?ya tadyath?

am?tabhave am?tasa?bhave

am?tavikr?nte am?tavikr?ntag?mini

gagana k?rt?chare sv?h?

Visualization methods

Another practice found in Pure Land Buddhism is meditative contemplation and visualization of Amit?bha, his attendant bodhisattvas, and the Pure Land. The basis of this is found in the Amit?yurdhy?na S?tra ("Amit?bha Meditation S?tra"), in which the Buddha describes to Queen Vaidehi the practices of thirteen progressive visualization methods, corresponding to the attainment of various levels of rebirth in the Pure Land. Visualization practises for Amit?bha are popular among esoteric Buddhist sects, such as Japanese Shingon Buddhism.

Meditation in the Chán/Zen school

Pointing to the nature of the mind

In the earliest traditions of Zen, it is said that there was no formal method of meditation. Instead, the teacher would use various didactic methods to point to the true nature of the mind, also known as Buddha-nature. This method is referred to as the "Mind Dharma", and exemplified in the story of ??kyamuni Buddha holding up a flower silently, and Mah?k??yapa smiling as he understood. A traditional formula of this is, "Chán points directly to the human mind, to enable people to see their true nature and become buddhas." In the early era of the Chán school, there was no fixed method or ple formula for teaching meditation, and all instructions were simply heuristic methods; therefore the Chán school was called the "Gateless Gate."

Contemplating meditation cases

It is said traditionally that when the minds of people in society became more complicated and when they could not make progress so easily, the masters of the Chán school were forced to change their methods. These involved particular words and phrases, shouts, roars of laughter, sighs, gestures, or blows from a staff. These were all meant to awaken the student to the essential truth of the mind, and were later called g?ng'àn (??), or k?an in Japanese. These didactic phrases and methods were to be contemplated, and example of such a device is a phrase that turns around the practice of mindfulness: "Who is being mindful of the Buddha?" The teachers all instructed their students to give rise to a gentle feeling of doubt at all times while practicing, so as to strip the mind of seeing, hearing, feeling, and knowing, and ensure its constant rest and undisturbed condition. Charles Luk explains the essential function of contemplating such a meditation case with doubt:

Since the student cannot stop all his thoughts at one stroke, he is taught to use this poison-against-poison device to realize singleness of thought, which is fundamentally wrong but will disappear when it falls into disuse, and gives way to singleness of mind, which is a precondition of the realization of the self-mind for the perception of self-nature and attainment of Bodhi.

Meditation in the Tiantai school

Tiantai ?amatha-vipa?yan?

In China it has been traditionally held that the meditation methods used by the Tiantai school are the most systematic and comprehensive of all. In addition to its doctrinal basis in Indian Buddhist texts, the Tiantai school also emphasizes use of its own meditation texts which emphasize the principles of ?amatha and vipa?yan?. Of these texts, Zhiyi's Concise ?amathavipa?yan? (???), Mohe Zhiguan (????, Sanskrit Mah??amathavipa?yan?), and Six Subtle Dharma Gates (????) are the most widely read in China. Rujun Wu identifies the work Mah?-?amatha-vipa?yan? of Zhiyi as the seminal meditation text of the Tiantai school. Regarding the functions of ?amatha and vipa?yan? in meditation, Zhiyi writes in his work Concise ?amatha-vipa?yan?:

The attainment of Nirv??a is realizable by many methods whose essentials do not go beyond the practice of ?amatha and vipa?yan?. ?amatha is the first step to untie all bonds and vipa?yan? is essential to root out delusion. ?amatha provides nourishment for the preservation of the knowing mind, and vipa?yan? is the skillful art of promoting spiritual understanding. ?amatha is the unsurpassed cause of sam?dhi, while vipa?yan? begets wisdom.

The Tiantai school also places a great emphasis on ?n?p?nasm?ti, or mindfulness of breathing, in accordance with the principles of ?amatha and vipa?yan?. Zhiyi classifies breathing into four main categories: panting (?), unhurried breathing (?), deep and quiet breathing (?), and stillness or rest (?). Zhiyi holds that the first three kinds of breathing are incorrect, while the fourth is correct, and that the breathing should reach stillness and rest. Zhiyi also outlines four kinds of samadhi in his Mohe Zhiguan, and ten modes of practicing vipa?yan?.

Esoteric practices in Japan

One of the adaptations by the Japanese Tendai school was the introduction of Mikky? (esoteric practices) into Buddhism, which was later named Taimitsu by Ennin. Eventually, according to Tendai Taimitsu doctrine, the esoteric rituals came to be considered of equal importance with the exoteric teachings of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, by chanting mantras, maintaining mudras, or performing certain meditations, one is able to see that the sense experiences are the teachings of Buddha, have faith that one is inherently an enlightened being, and one can attain enlightenment within this very body. The origins of Taimitsu are found in China, similar to the lineage that K?kai encountered in his visit to Tang China and Saich?'s disciples were encouraged to study under K?kai.

Meditation in Vajrayana Buddhism

Vajrayana Buddhism includes all of the traditional forms of Mahayana meditation and also several unique forms. The central defining form of Vajrayana meditation is Deity Yoga (devatayoga). This involves the recitation of mantras, prayers and visualization of the yidam or deity along with the associated mandala of the deity's Pure Land. Advanced Deity Yoga involves imagining yourself as the deity.

Other forms of meditation in Vajrayana include the Mahamudra and Dzogchen teachings, each taught by the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism respectively. The goal of these is to familiarize oneself with the ultimate nature of mind which underlies all existence, the Dharmak?ya. There are also other practices such as Dream Yoga, Tummo, the yoga of the intermediate state (at death) or Bardo, sexual yoga and Chöd.

The shared preliminary practices of Tibetan Buddhism are called ngöndro, which involves visualization, mantra recitation, and many prostrations.

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Therapeutic uses of meditation

For a long time people have practiced meditation, based on Buddhist meditation principles, in order to effect mundane and worldly benefit. As such, mindfulness and other Buddhist meditation techniques are being advocated in the West by innovative psychologists and expert Buddhist meditation teachers such as Thích Nh?t H?nh, Pema Chödrön, Clive Sherlock, Mya Thwin, S. N. Goenka, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Alan Clements, and Sharon Salzberg, who have been widely attributed with playing a significant role in integrating the healing aspects of Buddhist meditation practices with the concept of psychological awareness, healing, and well-being. Although mindfulness meditation has received the most research attention, loving kindness (metta) and equanimity (upekkha) meditation are beginning to be used in a wide array of research in the fields of psychology and neuroscience.

The accounts of meditative states in the Buddhist texts are in some regards free of dogma, so much so that the Buddhist scheme has been adopted by Western psychologists attempting to describe the phenomenon of meditation in general. However, it is exceedingly common to encounter the Buddha describing meditative states involving the attainment of such magical powers (Sanskrit ?ddhi, Pali iddhi) as the ability to multiply one's body into many and into one again, appear and vanish at will, pass through solid objects as if space, rise and sink in the ground as if in water, walking on water as if land, fly through the skies, touching anything at any distance (even the moon or sun), and travel to other worlds (like the world of Brahma) with or without the body, among other things, and for this reason the whole of the Buddhist tradition may not be adaptable to a secular context, unless these magical powers are seen as metaphorical representations of powerful internal states that conceptual descriptions could not do justice to.

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Key Terms

Buddhist Meditation Music Relax Mind Body: meditation music ...

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Notes

Meditation Music | Buddhist Zen Meditation | Zither Music - YouTube

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References

What is Meditation? | The Buddhist Centre

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External links

Media related to Buddhist meditation at Wikimedia Commons
Guided Meditations on the Lamrim - The Gradual Path to Enlightenment by Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron (PDF file)

Source of article : Wikipedia

Wednesday, July 25, 2018