What is "wise reflection" (yoniso manasikara) and why encourage readers to use their own thought processes for the growth of wisdom in meditation practice?
The majority of experienced Buddhist meditators Steven Weissman met during 30 years of meditation and 18 years of teaching were unfamiliar with formal reflective meditation. I hope to correct this lack of understanding.
The Buddha stressed the importance of wise reflection. In an important sutra on the topic (MN 2), he says:
What is yoniso manasikara (wise reflection)? One might call it systematic attention, careful attention, reasoned attention, having thorough method in one’s thought, proper consideration, wise consideration, critical reflection, analytical reflection, or thinking in terms of causal relations or by way of problem solving. It is a significant factor leading to the arising of insight or wisdom.“I say that the getting rid of anxieties and troubles [1] is possible for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and see. What must one know and see in order to get rid of anxieties and troubles? Wise reflection and unwise reflection. For one who reflects unwisely, there arise anxieties and troubles that have not yet arisen. And those that have already arisen increase. But for one who reflects wisely, anxieties and troubles that have not yet arisen do not arise. And those already arisen disappear.”
What causes our mental suffering? Simply stated, wrong thinking produces mental suffering (dukkha).[2] Right thinking ends suffering. So it is important to use formal reflective meditation in order to develop right thinking. More
CONTENTS
Part 1. Meditation and Concentration
Does concentration automatically lead to wisdom?
Is wise reflection a requisite for enlightenment?
Thinking can be meditating
Wise reflection in the Satipatthana Sutta
How can we end dukkha?
It is all right to think in meditation
Does experience automatically lead to wisdom?
Four types of thoroughbred horses
Moral shame and moral dread
Yoniso manasikara—wise reflection
Part 2. Wise Reflection Meditations
Eating and our relationship to food
Compassion and loving-kindness
D/D (defusing and diffusing)
Waking up in the morning
How fortunate we are
Generosity
Dukkha
Impermanence
Death
Actions and their results
Balancing compassion and equanimity
The five daily recollections
The Four Noble Truths
The eight worldly dhammas
Conclusion
1 comment:
I am not pretty sure yoniso manisikara is a thought reflection. In my experience of meditation, when you give attention to phenomena within and experience the clinging of phenomena through that attention , you can see that it leads to sufferring. By seeing that, you know that by releasing that clinging at that fraction of a second, you release dukkha. That is yoniso manasikara....attention that saw the root of sufferring, rather than thought about it. 'manasikaara'....is a directed attention. Not thought. Although I dont deny contemplation is important, i relate to yoniso maniskara with this kind of directed attention that sees rather than thinks.
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