The Foundations of Buddhist Meditation (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Inception and Development of Buddhist Meditation: From Pre-Canonical to Mahāyāna Buddhism
This paper examines the advent of meditation practice in the Buddhist soteriological tradition. The Buddhist tradition's theoretical and practical creations are adaptations, responses, and replications of other traditions it is historically conversant with. These other traditions include Brahminic and Jain as well as developmental stages within the Buddhist tradition itself. From the perspective of meditation practice, a chronological, developmental progression is suggested between pre-Canonical to Mahāyāna Buddhism, which questions such divergent labels. This progression is expressed by the internal functions and culminating states of the meditations discussed.
Developments in Buddhist Meditation Traditions: The Interplay between Theory and Practice
2022
This book examines four developments in Buddhist meditation traditions from the viewpoint of an apparently ongoing interaction between theory and practice: A gradual reduction of the sixteen steps of mindfulness of breathing to just focusing on the breath; an apparent fascination with light and fire imagery leading to investing the mind with intrinsic luminosity and purity; a tendency to grant increasing importance to absorption as indispensable for the progress of insight or even as intrinsically liberating, and a change of compassion meditation from a boundless radiation to directing this quality toward specific individuals and eventually just aiming it at oneself.
Buddhist Meditation Theory and Practice.pdf
A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, ed. Stephen M. Emmanuel
This chapter offers theoretical reflections about the ways in which meditation practices may be able to lead to beneficial results, and critically examines the question of whether, and in what sense, Buddhist meditation leads to knowledge. It includes detailed instructions for three basic Buddhist practices: breathing mindfulness meditation, walking meditation, and the meditation on lovingkindness.
Meditation Revisited (co-authored by Andreas Doctor)
Wading into the Stream of Wisdom. Essays in Honor of Leslie Kawamura. Ed. Sarah F. Haynes and Michelle J. Sorensen. Contemporary Issues in Buddhist Studies. Berkeley: BDK America., 2013
T he term bhāvanā/sgom is usually translated as "meditation," but from a philological standpoint it is more rigorously rendered as "cultivation" or "familiarization." It may indeed be that rendering the term bhāvanā as "meditation" is only an approximation and may even be in some ways misleading. That said, we'll stay with this rendering as it is more or less conventionally adopted in Buddhist circles. We'll discuss some of the translational issues below in more detail. The principal question taken up in this paper is what modern non-Asian Buddhists understand meditation to be. Two types of answers interest us here: (1) Many non-Asian Buddhists will maintain that "meditation" refers to a practical activity of sitting calmly, with concentrated nonconceptual, non-analytic awareness. They will also hold that this activity is what most Tibetan monks and other Buddhists do as their fundamental spiritual practice. Being a readily identifiable practical skill, its nature is not considered to be an important subject of philosophical speculation. (2) Others at some point will treat "meditation" as a normative term. Thus for them not everything called "meditation" is equal, as some practices are more effective, faster, more beneficial, deeper, etc., and some are potentially quite antithetical to what meditation should be. What meditation should be and what it achieves thus become a philosophical issue of some urgency. The resolution of these issues may even be seen as necessary precondition for the success of the practice. In the first half of this paper, Andreas Doctor examines some aspects of the first type of response. Based on his experience with Westerners and Tibetans in Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling (bka' rnying shes grub gling) monastery in Nepal, he contrasts how the term "meditation" is in fact used very differently by these two groups, and how in Tibetan usage
2010
Wherever he goes, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard is asked to explain what meditation is, how it is done and what it can achieve. In this authoritative and inspiring book, he sets out to answer these questions. Matthieu Ricard shows that practising meditation can change our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. He talks us through its theory, spirituality and practical aspects of deep contemplation and illustrates each stage of his teaching with examples. Through his experience as a monk, his close reading of sacred texts and his deep knowledge of the Buddhist masters, Matthieu Ricard reveals the significant benefits that meditation - based on selfless love and compassion - can bring to each of us.
Meditation and Knowledge in Indian Buddhist Epistemology (2023)
In: Hiroko Matsuoka, Shinya Moriyama, and Tyler Neill (eds.), To the Heart of Truth: Felicitation Volume for Eli Franco on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday. Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien Universität Wien, 2023, pp. 667-684, 2023