Sri Subodha Retreat Centre

What isMeditation?

 

WHAT IS MEDITATION

The meaning of Meditation or bhawana is focusing your attention mindfully to a wholesome object over a period of time. Meditation is concentrated awareness or collectiveness gained by controlling the mind and training it to bring inner peace to the individual who practices it. Meditation or bhawana is mental cultivation.

 

The Buddha explained that our mind is always influenced by the three defilements or the three roots of evil, called, greed, anger (ill will or hatered) and delusion (ignorance of reality). When any of these roots are present in us, our mind can be influenced by imaginations rooted by these defilements that can give us a false view of reality. Meditation helps us to realise the true nature of this wild mind and aims at purifying the mind with the negative thoughts and disturbances that arise in our mind, such as: greed, hatred, laziness, worry and doubt.

 

There are two kinds of meditation techniques taught by the Buddha.  Tranquillity or Samatha refers to the calmness we experience by controlling and reducing the rising of mental impurities. Samatha, calm or tranquillity meditation leads to Janas (absorptions) and Abhinna (physic supernormal powers).

 

Samatha mediation is concerned with producing a one-pointed mind. One pointedness is gained through a concentrated state in which all the faculties and mental power are directed towards one object.

 

A calm mind is necessary to have a deep look into ourselves and to have a deep understanding of ourselves and the world. If we train our mind in this manner, we will gain calmness and tranquillity and will also be able to concentrate our mind to one point. This helps to stop the mind from frittering away and wasting its useful energy.

 

Once our mind is calmed and concentrated, then through Insight knowledge, we can analyse almost every component thing and will be able to understand it's true nature. Vipasana bhawana leads to insight wisdom and Nibbana. Vipasana is an insight to the true nature of things, and seeing things as they are. Insight meditation is mental training for penetrative understanding of the “Three Characteristics of Existence” (Ti Lakkhana) namely Impermanence, misery and non-substantiality (anicca, dukka and anatta).

 

Vipassna-bhavana is purely the Buddha’s teaching. It teaches about the mental culture discovered and taught by him. It is an analytical method, based on mindfulness, awareness, vigilance, close observation. It is designed to produce insight into nature of things through rightly understanding mental and physical processes and attain the cessation of dukka.

 

In the Satipatthana Sutra, (No 22 of the Digha Nikaya & No10 of the Majjima Nikaya), the Buddha offers the most simple and effective method of training the mind. The ways of 'Meditation' given in this discourse are not to cut off from life, nor they avoid life. They are all connected with our life, our daily activities, our sorrows and joys, our words and thoughts, our moral and intellectual occupations. The discourse is divided into four main sections : dealing with our body (kaya), Our feelings and sensations (vedana), with mind (citta) and the various moral and intellectual subjects (dhamma).

 

This can be useful in assisting to meet daily tasks and also to achieve high aims and liberation. You can use this method anywhere and anytime, whether it be in a busy office, noisy school or even in a quiet place.

 

One should keep in mind that with what ever the form of meditation one does, the essential thing is mindfulness or awareness (sati), attention or observation (anupassana).

 

There are two modes of practicing Vipassana meditation.

 

  1.Samata yana, the vehicle of calm or samata- vipassana-    yuganaddha.

  2 .Vipassana yana, the vehicle of insight  or sukkaha  

       Vipassana yanika.