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| .: Samatha Meditation :. .: Vipassana Meditation :. |
| .: Welcome to Metta Sangha -- Online Sangha for Teen Buddhists! :. |
| "The mind is fickle and flighty. It flies after fancies wherever it likes. It is difficult indeed to restrain. But it is a great good to control the mind. A mind self-controlled is a source of great joy." --The Dhammapada Samatha Meditation, or Calming Meditation, is an effective way of calming the mind. Practicing Samatha Meditation daily has a way of calming and clearning a messy, disorganized mind. First, we want to develop a one-pointed mind. Start by focusing on a visual or mental object. You should choose an "ugly" object for a lustful nature, a "beautiful" object for an angry nature, a "small" object for a volatile nature, and a "large" object for a dull nature. If you are new to meditation, or have poor concentration, it is wise to choose something palpable enough for you to "hold". It is best to choose one object, and practice with this object for a long time. There are many objects that you may choose from, but the breath is perhaps the most common and practical. This is called Anapanasati Meditation, or Mindfulness of the Breath, and you can learn exactly how to practice it here. Traditaitonally, there are 40 objects to choose from: Ten recollections: 1. Buddhanussati: recollection of the virtues of the Buddha. 2. Dhammanussati: recollection of the virtues of the Dhamma. 3. Sanghanussati: recollection of the virtues of the Sangha. 4. Silanussati: recollection of one's own moral virtue. 5. Caganussati: recollection of one's generosity. 6. Devatanussati: recollection of the qualities that lead to rebirth as a heavenly being. 7. Kayagatasati: mindfulness immersed in the body. 8. Maranassati: mindfulness of death. 9. Anapanassati: mindfulness of breathing. 10. Upasamanussati: recollection of the virtues of nibbana -- ultimate pleasure; unexcelled ease, free from birth, aging, illness and death. Ten foul objects: 1. Uddhumataka: a rotten, bloated corpse, its body all swollen and its features distended out of shape. 2. Vinilaka: a livid corpse, with patchy discoloration -- greenish, reddish, yellowish -- from the decomposition of the blood. 3. Vipubbaka: a festering corpse, oozing lymph and pus from its various orifices. 4. Vichiddaka: a corpse falling apart, the pieces scattered about, radiating their stench. 5. Vikkhayittaka: a corpse that various animals, such as dogs, are gnawing, or that vultures are picking at, or that crows are fighting over, pulling it apart in different directions. 6. Vikkhittaka: corpses scattered about, i.e., unclaimed bodies that have been thrown together in a pile -- face up, face down, old bones and new scattered all over the place. 7. Hatavikkhittaka: the corpse of a person violently murdered, slashed and stabbed with various weapons, covered with wounds -- short, long, shallow, deep -- some parts hacked so that they're almost detached. 8. Lohitaka: a corpse covered with blood, like the hands of a butcher, all red and raw-smelling. 9. Puluvaka: a corpse infested with worms: long worms, short worms, black, green, and yellow worms, squeezed into the ears, eyes, and mouth; squirming and squiggling about, filling the various parts of the body like a net full of fish that has fallen open. 10. Atthika: a skeleton, some of the joints already separated, others not yet, the bones -- whitish, yellowish, discolored -- scattered near and far all over the place. Ten kasinas: 1. Pathavi kasina: staring at earth. 2. Apo kasina: staring at water. 3. Tejo kasina: staring at fire. 4. Vayo kasina: staring at wind. 5. Odata kasina: staring at white. 6. Pita kasina: staring at yellow. 7. Lohita kasina: staring at red. 8. Nila kasina: staring at blue (or green). 9. Akasa kasina: staring at the space in a hole or an opening. 10. Aloka kasina: staring at bright light. Four divine abidings: 1. Metta: Loving-kindness; benevolence, friendliness, good will, love in the true sense. 2. Karuna: compassion, sympathy, pity, aspiring to find a way to be truly helpful. 3. Mudita: appreciation for the goodness of other people and for our own when we are able to help them. 4. Upekkha: equanimity. When our efforts to be of help don't succeed, we should make the mind neutral -- neither pleased nor upset by whatever it focuses on -- so that it enters the emptiness of jhana, centered and tranquil to the point where it can disregard acts of thinking and evaluating as well as feelings of rapture and ease, leaving only oneness and equanimity with regard to all objects and preoccupations. Four formless absorptions: 1. Akasanancayatana: being absorbed in a sense of boundless emptiness and space as one's preoccupation. 2. Viññanancayatana: being absorbed in boundless consciousness as one's preoccupation, with no form or figure acting as the sign or focal point of one's concentration. 3. Akiñcaññayatana: focusing exclusively on a fainter sense of cognizance that has no limit and in which nothing appears or disappears, to the point where one almost understands it to be nibbana. 4. Nevasañña-nasaññayatana: being absorbed in a feeling that occurs in the mind, that isn't awareness exactly, but neither is it non-awareness; i.e., there is awareness, but with no thinking, no focusing of awareness on what it knows. These four formless absorptions are merely resting places for the mind, because they are states that the mind enters, stays in, and leaves. They are by nature unstable and inconstant, so we shouldn't rest content simply at this level. We have to go back and forth through the various levels many times so as to realize that they're only stages of enforced tranquility. Now... Free your mind of hindrances, such as greed and laziness. If your mind wanders, it is important not to get frustrated. The mind will wander often when you are beginning. Be mindful of this, and simply redirect your mind back to the object you were focusing on. Do not fight feelings and distractions; acknowledge them, then redirect your attention. Fighting them only causes more frustration and distractions. Do this as many times as you need to. Lifting weights strengthens the body. The more repetitions you do, the more strength you gain. So too with meditation; as you continue to do this, your concentration will strengthen, as will your mind, and you will become tranquil. The more you practice, the easier it will become. Vipassana literally means "clear sight," but is more commonly translated as "insight." So Viapassana Mediation is Insight Meditation. The goal is to see things as they really are, unclouded by averseness and prejudice. You want to look into your mind to see what it's doing and understand why it's doing it. This is the first stage of Vipassana Meditation. Next to this mindfulness is insight into the three marks of existence: suffering (dukkha), not-self (anatta), and impermanence (anicca). As with Samatha, breathing meditation is often practice. However, it is not necessarilly to calm the mind; instead, we should be aware of the air entering our nostrils, and the sensation it creates, and the feelings of it entering our lungs etc ~Luthien Rogue -Administrator |
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