A definition and purpose for meditation, how to sit, how to set
up a meditation session, different meditation techniques, and how to
deal with obstacles. Follow this course FREE at the FPMT Online Learning Center and learn more about Discovering Buddhism.
Time, which contracts and expands at will, is short -- whereas "life" (samsara) is long, endless on its own, except that it's always ending. But it renews again the next moment.
Each moment divides into three sub-moments, an arising phasing, turning, and falling. This is the incessant "rise and fall" the breath mimics at a much slower speed. Moments pass too quickly to discern -- as showers of particles and mind-moments rise, turn, and fall -- just on the inhale, to say nothing of the retention phase and exhalation.
This becomes much clearer as consciousness sharpens and intensifies and the invisible becomes visible. Mind is superior to phenomena, which can be discerned directly IF only the mind were purified and serene, lucid, and made wieldy by mindful application.
Western Theravada monk explains Thai forest approach (VY)
We are here. How will we get there? Every journey begins with a footstep, every meditation with an inhalation.
Another name for nirvana is "the beyond" or more literally the beyond-beyond, the "farther shore." We are here on this shore with all its dangers and fearful states. And we look beyond the flood, the body of water, the deluge. And we see on that side a farther shore, safe, free of fear, without danger. How to go from here to there, how to "cross over"?
Partially-enlightened former monk current lay teacher Jack Kornfield
A strong person, the metaphor continues, might flex a stretched arm or
stretch a flexed arm and be there in the twinkling of an eye. We must
sit, settle, remain attentive, and thereby be transported by effort to
see things just as they are.
The major Buddhist schools -- Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana (a large Mahayana subschool) -- have their methods. Here a Western lama in the banned New Kadampa Tradition (Tibetan Vajrayana not affiliated with the current Dalai Lama) offers advice on how to meditate.
The major Buddhist schools -- Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana (a large Mahayana subschool) -- have their methods. Here a Western lama in the banned New Kadampa Tradition (Tibetan Vajrayana not affiliated with the current Dalai Lama) offers advice on how to meditate.
The 14th Dalai Lama on developing mind (2010)
- Why is FPMT not affiliated with the Dalai Lama?
- The Shugden controversy divides Tibetan schools
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