Meditation and Buddhism

Disclaimer: This is an essay I wrote for my world religion class. It has been graded by my teacher and is now being posted purely for your entertainment.

           Meditation in all forms has been known to be very peaceful. Meditation, in many religions, can be used to center a person and relax their senses, as well as bring someone closer to their believe form of god. In a religion such as Buddhism there is a discord in what a person should be achieving when meditating. True Buddhist meditation should not be done in an attempt to escape from daily activities of life, nor should it be done to gain some sort of mystical or spiritual power. In Buddhism, meditation is used to achieve three main things, Shamatha, Vipashyana, and perfect mental health.

            In Buddhist culture, Shamatha literally means “calm abiding”. When trying to achieve this, it is best to achieve the proper body position. A small, but firm cushion should be put under the buttocks. The legs should then be crossed in a Full Lotus position with one leg crossed over the other and both of the feet should be positioned such that the sole of each foot is faced upward. If this is uncomfortable, the Half Lotus position can be taken. The Half Lotus position, similar to the Full Lotus position, has only one sole on top of the other leg. However, in both positions the knees should be touching the floor, creating a tripod with the buttocks. A person’s back should be straight, but not too stiff such that the back as a slight natural curve. Shoulders should be loosely dropped from the neck and neck should be straight with the head balanced easily on top of it. The meditator’s eyes should be slightly closed, restricting vision. Face should be altogether soft and relaxed. Hands and arms can be set in multiple different ways. The most common ways are all with the palms of the hands facing upwards. The purpose of this positioning is to create a position conductive to relaxed alertness. From this, a person may then practice breath observation. In Buddhist meditation, unlike Hindu or Taoist meditation, the breath is to be just observed. It should not be judged or try to be controlled. This is very difficult to do at first because people would rather be doing something more fun than observing their breath. From this a person may then move into Vipashyana.

          The second thing wished to achieve in Buddhist meditation is Vipashyana, or insight. With insight a person wants to open their awareness to everything in general and not judge or select. Two of the more popular insight trainings are Zen and Tibetan. In Zen insight training, a meditator just sits. In Zen meditation, it is not even necessary to observe breathing. If thoughts come into the meditator’s mind, the meditator should just let them disappear. Though this sounds much like making the mind blank it is nothing like that. In Zen meditation, it is not possible to blank one’s mind because if they were to do this they would destroy consciousness. Tibetan meditation is the opposite of Zen. In Tibetan meditation visualization is the key. An entity of purified mind in the Buddhist culture is visualized and the meditator interacts with this entity. People that might be visualized as this entity of purified mind could be Buddha (pictured on the left) or Bodhisattva (pictured on the right). When a meditator is finished with their visualization, they dismiss it my dissolving it into light and then into space. When westerners protest asking if the being visualized was really there the answer is that nothing has inherent existence. This is why the visualization is dissolved into space.

        Perfect mental health is the last thing to be achieved in Buddhist meditation. Meditation aims to cleanse the mind of disturbances and impurities. These disturbances include lustful desires, hatred, and ill-will. It is used to cultivate qualities such as concentration, awareness, energy, joy, and tranquility. It is in hope that this will lead to the final attainment of the highest wisdom to see the nature of seeing things as they are and realizing the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana.

        Buddhist meditation, contrary to popular belief, is used to achieve three things, Shamatha, Vipashyana, and perfect mental health. This is different from the popular believe of obtaining spiritual powers or mental escape from everyday life. This kind of thought is known as spiritual perversion in Buddhism.

Work Cited 

Corless, Roger. "Meditation: The Centered Mind." The Vision of Buddhism: The Space Under the Tree.
          New York: Paragon House, 1989. 144-52. Print.
Rahula, Walpola. "'Meditation' or Mental Culture: Bhavana." What the Buddha Taught. New York: Grove,
         1959. 67-75. Print.
Snelling, John. "Meditation (Samadhi)." The Buddhist Handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools,
         Teaching, Practice, and History. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1991. 51-53. Print.