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Analysis of Various Methods of Mediation in Buddhist Schools

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Analysis of Various Methods of Mediation in Buddhist Schools Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in Analysis of Various Methods of Mediation In Buddhist Schools Ha Thi Kim Chi Ph.D Research Scholar, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India I. INTRODUCTION develop mindfulness, concentration, supramundane Buddhist meditation refers to the powers, tranquility, and insight. Given the large meditative practices associated with the religion number and diversity of traditional Buddhist and philosophy of Buddhism. meditation practices, this article primarily identifies Core meditation techniques have been authoritative contextual frameworks — both preserved in ancient Buddhist texts and have contemporary and canonical — for the variety of proliferated and diversified through teacher-student practices. transmissions. Buddhists pursue meditation as part While there are some similar meditative of the path toward Enlightenment and Nirvana1. practices — such as breath meditation and various The closest words for meditation in the classical recollections (anussati) — that are used across languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā and jhāna.2 Buddhist schools, there is also significant diversity. Buddhist meditation techniques have become In the Theravāda tradition alone, there are over increasingly popular in the wider world, with many fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty non-Buddhists taking them up for a variety of for developing concentration, while in the Tibetan reasons. tradition there are thousands of visualization Buddhist meditation encompasses a meditations.3 Most classical and contemporary variety of meditation techniques that aim to Buddhist meditation guides are school specific.4 Only a few teachers attempt to synthesize, crystallize and categorize practices from multiple 1 For instance, Kamalashila (2003), p. 4, states that Buddhist traditions. Buddhist meditation “includes any method of II. CONTENT meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate 1. Meditation in early Buddhism aim.” Likewise, Bodhi (1999) writes: “To arrive at The earliest tradition of Buddhist practice the experiential realization of the truths it is is preserved in the nikāya, and is adhered to by the necessary to take up the practice of meditation.... Theravāda lineage. It was also the focus of the At the climax of such contemplation the mental eye other now-extinct early Buddhist schools, and has ... shifts its focus to the unconditioned state, been incorporated to greater and lesser degrees into Nibbana....” A similar although in some ways the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and many East Asian slightly broader definition is provided by Fischer- Mahāyāna traditions. Schreiber et al. (1991), p. 142: “Meditation – 1.1. Types of meditation general term for a multitude of religious practices, often quite different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to an 3 While there are some similar meditative practices experience of 'awakening,' 'liberation,' — such as breath meditation and various 'enlightenment.'“ Kamalashila (2003) further recollections (anussati) — that are used across allows that some Buddhist meditations are “of a Buddhist schools, there is also significant diversity. more preparatory nature” (p. 4). In the Theravāda tradition alone, there are over 2 There is the cultivation of meditative and fifty methods for developing mindfulness and forty contemplative techniques aimed at producing what for developing concentration, while in the Tibetan might, for the lack of a suitable technical term in tradition there are thousands of visualization English, be referred to as 'altered states of meditations. Most classical and contemporary consciousness'. In the technical vocabulary of Buddhist meditation guides are school specific. Indian religious texts such states come to be termed Only a few teachers attempt to synthesize, 'meditations' ([Skt.:] dhyāna / [Pali:] jhāna) or crystallize and categorize practices from multiple 'concentrations' (samādhi); the attainment of such Buddhist traditions. states of consciousness was generally regarded as 4 Examples of contemporary school-specific bringing the practitioner to deeper knowledge and “classics” include, from the Theravada tradition, experience of the nature of the world.” (Gethin, Nyanaponika (1996) and, from the Zen tradition, 1998, p. 10. Kapleau (1989). Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 570 Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in In terms of early traditions as found in the vast (SN 35.245), where the Buddha provides an Pali canon and the Āgamas, meditation can be elaborate metaphor in which serenity and insight contextualized as part of the Noble Eightfold Path, are “the swift pair of messengers” who deliver the explicitly in regard to: message of Nibbana via the Noble Eightfold Path.7 Right Mindfulness (samma sati): exemplified In the “Four Ways to Arahantship Sutta” (AN by the Buddha's Four Foundations of Mindfulness 4.170), Ven. Ananda reports that people attain (see Satipatthana Sutta). arahantship using serenity and insight in one of Right Concentration (samma samadhi): three ways: “they develop serenity and then insight. culminating in jhanic absorptions through the They develop insight and then serenity. While the meditative development of samatha. Nikayas identify that the pursuit of vipassana can Right View (samma ditthi): embodying precede the pursuit of samatha, a fruitful wisdom traditionally attained through the vipassana-oriented practice must still be based meditative development of vipassana founded on upon the achievement of stabilizing “access samatha. concentration”. They develop serenity and insight 1.2. Four foundations for mindfulness in tandem (Pali: samatha-vipassanam In the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha identifies yuganaddham) as in, for instance, obtaining the four foundations for mindfulness: the body, first jhana, and then seeing in the associated feelings, mind states and mental objects. He further aggregates the three marks of existence, before enumerates the following objects as bases for the proceeding to the second jhana”.8 meditative development of mindfulness: In the Pali canon, the Buddha never mentions Body (kāyā): Breathing (see Anapanasati independent samatha and vipassana meditation Sutta), Postures, Clear Comprehending, Reflections practices; instead, samatha and vipassana are two on Repulsiveness of the Body, Reflections on qualities of mind to be developed through Material Elements, Cemetery Contemplations meditation.9 Nonetheless, some meditation Feelings (vedanā), whether pleasant, practices (such as contemplation of a kasina object) unpleasant, or neutral. favor the development of samatha, others are Mind (cittā): conducive to the development of vipassana (such as Mental Contents (dhammā): Hindrances, contemplation of the aggregates), while others Aggregates, Sense-Bases, Factors of (such as mindfulness of breathing) are classically Enlightenment, and the Four Noble Truths.5 used for developing both mental qualities. 1.3. Serenity and insight 1.4. Kammatthana The Buddha is said to have identified two Buddhaghosa's forty meditation subjects are paramount mental qualities that arise from described in the Visuddhimagga. Almost all of wholesome meditative practice: - “serenity” or “tranquillity” (Pali: samatha) which steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind; - “insight” (Pali: vipassana) which enables one to see, explore and discern 7 Bodhi (2000), pp. 1251-53. See also Thanissaro “formations” (conditioned phenomena (1998c) (where this sutta is identified as SN 6 based on the five aggregates) . 35.204). See also, for instance, a discourse (Pali: Through the meditative development of sutta) entitled, “Serenity and Insight” (SN 43.2), serenity, one is able to suppress obscuring where the Buddha states: “And what, bhikkhus, is hindrances; and, with the suppression of the the path leading to the unconditioned? Serenity and hindrances, it is through the meditative insight....” (Bodhi, 2000, pp. 1372-73). development of insight that one gains liberating 8 Bodhi (2005), pp. 268, 439 nn. 7, 9, 10. See also wisdom. Moreover, the Buddha is said to have Thanissaro (1998f). extolled serenity and insight as conduits for 9 See Thanissaro (1997) where for instance he attaining Nibbana (Pali; Skt.: Nirvana), the underlines: When [the Pali discourses] depict the unconditioned state as in the “Kimsuka Tree Sutta” Buddha telling his disciples to go meditate, they never quote him as saying 'go do vipassana,' but always 'go do jhana.' And they never equate the 5 For instance, see Solé-Leris (1986), p. 75; and, word vipassana with any mindfulness techniques. Goldstein (2003), p. 92. In the few instances where they do mention 6 These definitions of samatha and vipassana are vipassana, they almost always pair it with samatha based on the “Four Kinds of Persons Sutta” (AN — not as two alternative methods, but as two 4.94). This article's text is primarily based on qualities of mind that a person may 'gain' or 'be Bodhi (2005), pp. 269-70, 440 n. 13. See also endowed with,' and that should be developed Thanissaro (1998d). together. Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Page 571 Imperial Journal of Interdisciplinary Research (IJIR) Vol-2, Issue-7, 2016 ISSN: 2454-1362, http://www.onlinejournal.in these are described in the early
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