auctionbin.com Information about Buddhist Meditation
Part of a series on Buddhism Portal of Buddhism History of Buddhism Timeline - Buddhist councils Major Figures Gautama Buddha Disciples · Later Buddhists Dharma or Concepts Four Noble Truths Noble Eightfold Path Three marks of existence Dependent Origination Saṃsāra · Nirvāṇa Skandha · Cosmology Karma · Rebirth Practices and Attainment Buddhahood · Bodhisattva 4 Stages of Enlightenment Wisdom · Meditation · Precepts Pāramitās · Three Jewels Monastics · Laity Countries and Regions Schools Theravāda · Mahāyāna Vajrayāna Texts Pali Canon · Tibetan Canon Chinese Canon Related topics Criticism Comparative Studies Cultural elements Buddhist meditation encompasses a variety of meditation techniques that develop mindfulness, concentration, tranquility and insight. Core meditation techniques are preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have proliferated and diversified through the millennia of teacher-student transmissions. Non-Buddhists use these techniques for the pursuit of physical and mental health as well as for non-Buddhist spiritual aims.[1] Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward Enlightenment and Nirvana.[2] The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā[3] and jhāna (Pāli; Skt.: dhyāna).[4] The accounts of meditative states in the Buddhist texts are largely 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.[5] 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 instruction, 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. For example, in the Theravada tradition alone, there are over fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty for developing concentration, while the Tibetan tradition has thousands of visualization meditations.[6] Most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school specific.[7] Only a few teachers attempt to synthesize, crystallize and categorize practices from multiple Buddhist traditions. Western Buddhist Order meditation teacher Kamalashila identifies "Five Basic Methods" as "a traditional set of meditations, each one an antidote to one of the five principal obstructions to Enlightenment."[8] Kamalashila's Five Basic Methods are:[9] In addition, he discusses three other meditations as "among the most important" not identified above:[11] An important (although not universally accepted) theme throughout Kamalashila's guide is that the various methods of meditation can be divided into samatha meditation (tranquillity meditation) and vipassana meditation (insight meditation).[13] In such a schema, Kamalashila identifies anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing) and mettā bhāvanā (development of loving kindness) as samatha meditations. The vipassana meditations include contemplation on impermanence, the six element practice, and contemplation on conditionality. Some meditations (such as Tibetan visualizations) have elements of both samatha and vipassana. Samatha meditations usually precede and prepare for vipassana meditations.[14] The following table summarizes Kamalashila's Five Basic Methods (with metta bhavana expanded to include all four brahma-viharas).[15] Limitations of Kamalashila's systemization of Buddhist meditation include: Nonetheless, it should be noted that Kamalashila's explicit aim is not to create an exhaustive systemization of pan-Buddhist meditation practices but to create a useful meditation guide. In the early ninth century, Kuei-feng (Chinese; also, Guifeng, Tsung-mi, Zongmi; Jap., Kei-ho) grouped Zen practices into five categories. While this typology is best known to Zen practitioners, it is applicable to all Buddhist meditation practices and is thus used here.[18] According to this typology, the outward appearance of all meditation practitioners is the same, but their substance and purpose differ.[19] Thus, for instance, most who practice mindfulness of breath would have a similar posture, meditative subject and level of concentration. But while some use the practice for mental quietude others use it to transcend all suffering. More specifically, Kuei-feng's five categories of meditative practices are: While the relative merits of the last three categories is open for discussion among various branches of Buddhism,[20] it is useful to see that the same Buddhist meditation practices have been used for many centuries by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, for different ends. Contemporary Western examples of bonpu meditation include the psychotherapeutic use of Buddhist mindfulness techniques in Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)[21] and Linehan's Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)[22] (see also Buddhism and psychology). Most Buddhist traditions recognize that the path to Enlightenment entails three types of training: virtue (sīla); meditation (samadhi); and, wisdom (paññā).[23] Thus, meditative prowess alone is not sufficient; it is but one part of the path. In other words, in Buddhism, in tandem with mental cultivation, ethical development and wise understanding are also necessary for the attainment of the highest goal.[24] In terms of the vast Pali canon, meditation can be contextualized as part of the Noble Eightfold Path, explicitly in regard to : And implicitly in regard to : Classic texts in the Pali literature enumerating meditative subjects include the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10) and the Visuddhimagga's Part II, "Concentration" (Samadhi). 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: Meditation on these subjects develops insight.[27] In the Visuddhimagga, for the purpose of developing concentration and "consciousness," Buddhaghosa advises that a person should "apprehend from among the forty meditation subjects one that suits his own temperament" with the advice of a "good friend" (kalyana mitta) who is knowledgeable in the different meditation subjects (Ch. III, § 28).[28] Buddhaghosa subsequently elaborates on the forty meditation subjects as follows (Ch. III, §104; Chs. IV - XI):[29] 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 related to reflections of bodily repulsiveness), and contemplation of the four elements. Of these, according to Pali commentaries, only breath meditation can lead one to the equanimous fourth jhanic absorption. Foulness meditation can lead to the attainment of the first jhana, and contemplation of the four elements culminates in pre-jhana access concentration.[30] The Buddha is said to have identified two paramount mental qualities that arise from wholesome meditative practice: 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.[32] Moreover, the Buddha is said to have extolled serenity and insight as conduits for attaining Nibbana (Pali; Skt.: Nirvana), the unconditioned state. For example, in the "Kimsuka Tree Sutta" (SN 35.245), 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.[33] 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: 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.[36] 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.[37] Theravada Buddhist meditation practices: Zen Buddhist meditation practices: Vajrayana Buddhist meditation practices: Related Buddhist practices: Proper floor-sitting postures & supports while meditating: Traditional Buddhist texts on meditation: Traditional preliminary practices to Buddhist meditation:

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