Bhikkhu Bodhi, America's most prominent Buddhist scholar, discusses meditation as it corresponds to Buddhist cosmology. His explanation comes from a lecture series on the Middle Length Discourses he gave at BAUS in upstate New York. This discourse (MN 4, the Bhayabherava Sutra) focuses on the realization of the Three Knowledges. The Buddha's goal was nirvana (Pali, nibbana) rather than exalted states of concentration (the jhanas or meditative absorptions). But the fact is that the way to nirvana is through the jhanas. Therefore the Buddha defined "Right Concentration" in the Noble Eightfold Path as mastery of the first four jhanas. With that foundation in serenity and concentration, insight becomes possible.
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