Meditation is mind’s nutrition, like a food diet. It’s also one of the pillars of Buddha’s eightfold noble path, especially right mindfulness which eventually coexists with right view, right concentration and also enables holistic development of body and behaviour, too.
Meditation is as essential as a reason to live, survive or exist. It can be done differently at different occasions for different reasons in different ways but in the end, the road to Rome is one. This can be Anapana, Mettabhavana, Qigong, etc.
As known or experienced, meditation can emerge to help one achieve mindful state of mind or gaining insight into the nature of reality or developing awareness, when practiced regularly or as Thich Naht Hanh suggests “mindful eating/walking” etc.
Meditation is ratiocinated to be one of the cathartic elements to heal oneself from the rebirth of suffering. It has merely nothing to do with a panacea for mental health issues only, but also acts as a cognitive facilitator to undo the affliction and attachments towards permanence, ignorance and narcissism, etc.
What is the case of Meditation?
Vipassanā meditation uses sati ( mindfulness) and samatha (calm), developed through practices such as anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing), combined with the contemplation of impermanence as observed in the bodily and mental changes, to gain insight into the true nature of this reality. Vipassanā is a Pali word derived from the older prefix “vi-” meaning “special”, and the verbal root “-passanā” meaning “seeing”. It is often translated as “insight” or “clear-seeing”. The “vi” in vipassanā has many possible meanings, it could mean to ‘[see] into’, ‘[see] through’ or to ‘[see] in a special way.
A synonym for vipassanā is paccakkha “perceptible to the senses” (Pāli: pratyakṣa), literally “before the eyes,” which refers to direct experiential perception. Thus, the type of seeing denoted by vipassanā is that of direct perception, as opposed to knowledge derived from reasoning or argument.
“What should be done for his disciples out of compassion by a teacher who seeks their welfare and has compassion for them, that I have done for you, Ānanda. There are these roots of trees, these empty huts. Meditate, Ānānda, do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is my instruction to you.” — Buddha
The Middle Length Discourses seems to have a greater focus on meditation than any of the other four primary nikāyas (collections of suttas). The collection contains some of the most important and complete meditation instructions in the Pāli canon. Among the best known and most influential are the “Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness” and the “Discourse on Mindfulness of Breathing”.
In the Middle Length Discourses the concept of sati is used in two broads, overlapping ways: the mental faculty of sati, and the practice of sati. The distinct role in the course of meditation of these two aspects of sati is often obscured because it is easy to conflate them.
“[sati] should be understood as what allows awareness of the full range and extent of dhammas; sati is an awareness of things in relation to things, and hence an awareness of their relative value. Applied to the satipațțhānas, presumably what this means is that sati is what causes the practitioner of yoga to “remember” that any feeling he may experience exists in relation to a whole variety or world of feelings that may be skillful or unskillful, with faults or faultless, relatively inferior or refined, dark or pure.” — Rupert Gethin
The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta is an early text dealing with mindfulness. The Theravada Nikayas prescribe that one should establish mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna) in one’s day-to-day life, maintaining as much as possible a calm awareness of the four upassanā: one’s body, feelings, mind, and dharmas. Rupert Gethin notes that the contemporary Vipassana movement interprets the Satipatthana Sutta as “describing a pure form of insight (vipassanā) meditation” for which samatha (calm) and jhāna are not necessary.
Buddhadasa also argued that mindfulness provides the means to prevent the arising of disturbing thought and emotions, which cause the further chain of reactions leading to rebirth of the ego and selfish thought and behaviour.
The Meditative Practice
If we look at the teachings of the Buddha, we see that the practice of sati involves more than the particular faculty of sati; it includes a combination of practices and faculties. The distinction between the faculty of sati and practice of sati can be illustrated with an analogy.
Someone who has the ability to walk may walk in many different ways. One way might be to train to go for a long hike, in which case the person’s practice of walking develops his or her faculty of walking: one’s ability to walk improves. The person’s walking practice may vary in frequency and intensity; it may involve walking fast and far enough to build stamina and strength. It may involve choosing to alternate between walking in hills and walking on flat land. In a similar way we have the ability to be aware. Particular forms of practice that involve more than simply being aware can strengthen this ability. This can include frequent and ardent attentional exercises, actively letting go of thoughts that obscure present moment awareness, and choosing helpful areas of life to focus attention.
“What, friends, is right mindfulness? Here a monk abides contemplating the body as body, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind states as mind states, ardent fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, fully aware and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world.” — Buddha
Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward liberation from defilements (kleshas) and clinging and craving (upādāna), also called awakening, which results in the attainment of Nirvana, and includes a variety of meditation techniques, most notably asubha bhavana (“reflections on repulsiveness”); reflection on pratityasamutpada (dependent origination); sati (mindfulness) and anussati (recollections), including anapanasati (breath meditation); dhyana (developing an alert and luminous mind); and the Brahma-viharas (loving-kindness and compassion).
From the best-selling book “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari:
“People are liberated from suffering not when they experience this or that fleeting pleasure, but rather when they understand the impermanent nature of all their feelings and stop craving them. This is the aim of Buddhist meditation practices. In meditation, you are supposed to closely observe your mind and body, witness the ceaseless arising and passing of all your feelings, and realize how pointless it is to pursue them. When the pursuit stops, the mind becomes very relaxed, clear and satisfied. All kinds of feelings go on arising and passing-joy, anger, boredom, lust-but once you stop craving particular feelings, you can just accept them for what they are. You live in the present moment instead of fantasizing about what might have been. The resulting serenity is so profound that those who spend their lives in the frenzied pursuit of pleasant feelings can hardly imagine it. It is like a man standing for decades on the seashore, embracing certain ‘good’ waves and trying to prevent them from disintegrating while simultaneously pushing back ‘bad’ waves to prevent them from getting near him. Day in, day out, the man stands on the beach, driving himself crazy with this fruitless exercise. Eventually, he sits down on the sand and just allows the waves to come and go as they please. How peaceful!”
Vipassana meditation is the intersection of the two above points: a sharpening of the conscious mind to sense the subtlest possible sensations, and equanimous observation-without reaction-to all sensations. Through this method, one can fully accept what is, and thus, be completely at peace.
