There are actually two other terms that might be better translated as meditation, jhana ("absorption") and kammatthāna ("field of endeavor, domain of effort, ground of cultivation, or field of karma"). One distinguishes two kinds of development or mental cultivation.
- development of tranquility (samatha-bhāvanā), that is, stillness, coherence, concentration (samma-samādhi = first four jhanas)
- development of insight (vipassanā-bhāvanā), that is, the cultivation of wisdom (paññā).
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| Can anyone "meditate" or only Buddhists? |
Tranquility (samatha) is the concentrated, unshaken, peaceful, and therefore undefiled state of mind.
Insight (vipassanā) is the direct perception and penetration (insight) into the three inherent characteristics of all things: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonal nature (anicca, dukkha, anattā, known collectively as ti-lakkhana or Three Marks of All Conditioned Existence) of all bodily and mental phenomena of existence.
This includes the Five Aggregates (or groups of existence) clung to as self, namely, form (body, corporeality, rupa, kaya), feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. (See khandha).
Tranquility -- or stillness (purification, concentration, quietude) of mind, according to Sankhepavannana (the Commentary to the Abhidhammattha-sangaha) -- bestows a threefold blessing:
- favorable rebirth,
- present happy life, and
- purity of mind, which is the foundation and necessary condition for insight to arise.
Insight (vipassanā) produces the four supramundane stages of enlightenment and liberation of mind/heart.
The Buddha therefore says, "May you develop mental stillness, O meditators, for who is mentally still sees things as they actually are (in accordance with reality)" (S.XXII.5).
And in Mil. it is said: "Just as when a lamp is brought into a dark room, light destroys the darkness and produces and spreads light, just so insight, once arisen, destroys the darkness of ignorance and produces the light of wisdom."
The Path of Purification (Vis.M. III-XI) gives full directions on how to attain full stillness and the meditative absorptions (jhāna) by means of practicing 40 meditation subjects (kammatthāna):
- 10 kasina-exercises. These produce the first four absorptions
- 10 repulsive subjects (asubha). These produce the first absorption.
- 10 recollections (anussati):
- of the Buddha (buddhānussati),
- the Dhamma (dhammānussati),
- the Sangha of Noble Ones (sanghānussati),
- virtue (sila),
- liberality (cāga),
- heavenly beings (devas),
- death (maranasati),
- the body (kāyagatāsati),
- in-and-out breathing (ānā-pāna-sati)
- peace (upasamānussati).
Among these, the recollection (mindfulness) of in-and-out breathing is able to produce the first four absorptions, the body the first absorption, the rest only neighborhood-stillness (upacāra-samādhi, see samādhi).
The Four Divine Abidings (Sublime Abodes) (brahma-vihāra):
- loving-kindness (mettā)
- compassion (karunā)
- altruistic joy (muditā)
- equanimity (upekkhā).
Of these, the first three exercises are able to produce the first three absorptions, the last one only the fourth absorption.
The Four Immaterial Spheres (arūpāyatana, the fifth through eighth jhānas):
- sphere of unbounded space,
- sphere of unbounded consciousness,
- sphere of nothingness,
- sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
These are based on the fourth absorption.
One perception of the repulsiveness of food (āhāre patikkūla-saññā), which is able to produce neighborhood-stillness.
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| Four Elements Meditation |
One analysis of the Four Elements (catudhātu-vavatthāna, see dhātu-vavatthāna), which is able to produce neighborhood-stillness.
Mental development forms one of the three kinds of meritorious action (puñña-kiriya-vatthu).
"Delight in meditation" (bhāvanā-rāmatā) is one of the noble usages (ariya-vamsa).
- Ven. Nyanatiloka (German Theravada monk, formerly Anton Walther Florus Gueth), Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, bhavana; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
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