Buddhist Meditation Box

The mental exercise is popularly known as meditation is found in all religious systems. Prayer is a kind of discursive meditation, and in Hindu religion the reciting of slokas and mantras is employed to tranquilize the mind to a state of receptivity. In most of these pious systems the goal is identified with the particular psychic results that ensue, sometimes very quickly; and the visions that come in the semi-trance state, or the sounds that are heard, are considered to be the end-result of the exercise. But the process is not same in the forms of meditation practiced in Buddhism.

The practiced hypnotic subject in Buddhism becomes more and more readily able to surrender himself to the suggestions made to him by the hypnotiser, and anyone who has studied this subject is bound to see a connection between the mental state of compliance he has reached and the facility with which the medium can induce whatever kind of experiences he wills himself to undergo. There is still another option latent in the practice of meditation; the development of mediumistic faculties by which the subject can actually see and hear beings on different planes of existence, the Devalokas and the realm of the unhappy ghosts, for example. These spiritual worlds being nearest to our own are the more readily accessible, and this is the true explanation of the psychic phenomena of Western Spiritualism.

However, the object of Buddhist meditation is none of these things. They begin as side-products, but not only are they not its goal, but they are hindrances which have to be overcome. The Christian people who has seen Jesus, or the Hindu who has conversed with his Bhagavan Krishna may be quite satisfied that he has fulfilled the purpose of his religious life, but the Buddhist people who sees an apparition of the Buddha knows by that very fact that he has only succeeded in objectifying a concept in his own mind, for the Buddha after his Parinibbana is, in his own words, no longer visible to gods or men. There is an important difference between Buddhist meditation and concentration and that practiced in different systems. The Buddhist embarking on a course of meditation practice does well to recognize this difference and to establish in his own conscious mind a clear idea of what it is he is trying to do.

The reason behind rebirth and suffering is avijja conjoined with and reacting upon tanha. These two reasons form a vicious circle; on the one hand, concepts, the result of ignorance, and on the other hand, desire arising from concepts. The world of incidents has no meaning beyond the meaning given to it by our own interpretation. The purpose of Buddhist meditation practice, therefore, is to gain more than an intellectual understanding of this truth, to liberate ourselves from the delusion and thereby put an end to both ignorance and craving. If the meditation process does not produce results tending to this consummation; results which are observable in the character and the whole attitude to life, it is clear that there is something wrong either with the system or with the method of employing it. It is not enough to see a light, to have visions or to experience ecstasy. These phenomena are too ordinary to be impressive to the Buddhist who really understands the purpose of Buddhist meditation. There are actual risks in them which are apparent to one who is also a student of psychopathology.

• Cassandra Bagley
• 31/12/2008, 4:59 PM
• 0 Comments