MEDITATION

In common usage, the word meditation approaches the meanings of the Indian Buddhist term dhy?na (trance state): a shift in awareness typically carried out intentionally, in silence, and while holding the body in a static position (most characteristically sitting with legs crossed). Various practices of dhy?na are associated with notions of sainthood, wisdom, serenity, and extraordinary mental powers, such as the abhijn? (higher knowledges). Additionally, the term suggests mental and bodily discipline, and is associated with systematic methods of self-cultivation, and with monastic or eremitical lifestyles.

Generally, Buddhist theories of meditation propose that the core of these practices consists in achieving a state of deep calm and concentration, called sam?dhi, which in turn can give rise to, or serve as the foundation for, a clear and accurate view (vipa?yan?) that discerns the real from the unreal. Furthermore, perfect calm and concentration can give rise as well to extraordinary visions and marvelous powers.

Wondrous powers arise when the mind is "concentrated, pure, translucent, spotless, free of trouble and confusion, supple." For instance, "from [one's] own body arises another body that has the constituents and shape of a material body but is made of mind. [And one] applies and directs this mind to the acquisition of wondrous powers…. Although [this person is] one, he becomes many, or having become many becomes one again; he becomes invisible, and then visible again" (D?ghanik?ya 1, 77–78).

And, the perfect calm of a concentrated mind leads to extraordinary levels of knowing—especially an insight into reality that liberates the meditator from the bonds of du?kha (suffering). "He applies and directs this mind to that insight that comes from knowledge. He discerns clearly: 'my body is made of matter, … produced by a father and a mother, and continually renewed by boiled rice and juicy foods, … it is subject to decay, wear, dissolution, and disintegration. This consciousness of mine too depends on that body, is bound up in that body'" (D?ghanik?ya 1, 76). With this, the meditator knows the reality of the four noble truths: This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; and this is the path leading to the cessation of suffering (D?ghanik?ya 1, 83).

The literate elites generally regard as more estimable this second fruit of meditation: insight into the nature of reality and liberation from the bonds of suffering and rebirth. Nonetheless, meditation remains a practice for embodied beings, and is also valued for its putative transformative power on the world of embodiment.

The body

Insofar as the meditator assumes bodily postures that are considered to be those of the Buddha himself, in particular sitting cross-legged in the traditional lotus posture, the act of meditation is, in a manner of speaking, the actualization of the goal of meditation: to become like the Buddha. One is advised to "sit on a soft, comfortable seat," and to assume "the cross-legged posture," appropriately called "the posture of the Buddha Vairocana," or the half-lotus posture. Then, other aspects of body and mind need to conform to the ideal icon of a Buddha: (1) eyes neither open nor closed, and aimed at the tip of the nose; (2) body erect, without slouching or becoming too stiff; (3) mindfulness turned inward; (4) shoulders level; (5) head [erect] without bending [the neck] forward, backward, [or wavering] to either side, the nose in line with the navel; (6) teeth and lips [only] lightly closed, the tongue resting on the gums of the upper teeth; (7) breath inaudible, neither heavy nor too rapid, breathing in and out slowly and effortlessly (Kamala??la, First Bh?van?krama). These instructions, written in the eighth century c.e. for a Tibetan audience, would not differ substantially from the instructions given to beginners in other Buddhist traditions.

Other postures may acquire a similar significance, whether they are explicitly linked to the technique of meditation or not. Thus, walking meditation reflects the gait and demeanor of the awakened, and monks are sometimes asked to sleep in the recumbent position of the Buddha in nirv??a, while they remain mindful of death and liberation.

Some traditions expressed the connection between body and meditation more concretely by locating certain religious experiences or stages of meditation in different parts of the body. Such conceptions were central to the so-called Tantric tradition, especially in India, although the idea also has East Asian manifestations. In this meditation theory, several "spiritual nerve centers" (cakras) map out the interface between body and meditative experience. As many as eight and as few as five cakras are located along the spinal column, on what traditional anatomy regarded as two veins or pathways for spiritual energy. In the process of meditation this energy (conceived sometimes as a kind of fluid) was forced up or down these veins, concentrating alternatively in each one of the cakras: from the lowest in the area of the genitals or the sphincter, through the area of the solar plexus, the heart, the larynx, the eyes, and the crown of the head. Generally, the concentration of energy on the top cakra was regarded as the culmination of the meditation process, although each cakra had a distinct spiritual value.

A less technical location of meditation in the body occurs in the practice of mindfulness meditation, where the main exercise consists in cultivating a clear awareness of one's body, its breathing, its movements, its functions and feelings. In the Chan tradition, likewise, there is a common rhetoric of the body not only in an emphasis on proper posture, but also in the notion that nonconceptual thought is located in the belly (Japanese, hara), not in the head.

The body as object of meditation

The human body itself can become the object of meditation. Classical Indian texts describe various ways to think about or mentally analyze the body into its parts and processes. Some advise the meditator to sit next to a corpse and reflect on the meditator's own mortality, on the fragility and corruption of the body, and on the impossibility of discovering a permanent self in one's own material frame. This meditation is known as "cultivating the impure" (a?ubhabh?van?) because a greater part of the practice consists in understanding that the living body shares the foul nature of the rotting corpse. The practice continues in isolated pockets in Therav?da countries, where monks now may have to visit a public hospital and sit in the morgue with the bodies of the unidentified and the indigent. The more common practice is to keep a skeleton or a skull in the monastery as a prop to aid in what may be termed "a reflection on one's self," vicariously using someone else's body to imagine one's own as the object of meditation.

In Tibet this tradition resonated with a number of local practices. In areas where the dead are disposed by exposure, a traditional meditation on the corpse was possible and occasionally practiced. But more characteristic of Tibetan Buddhism is the practice of gcod (chöd), a complex sequence of both performative and meditative actions meant to provoke various experiences of bodily dissolution. The meditator, instructed by an experienced master who knows the proper invocations and protective prayers, imagines himself being devoured by demons in a variety of settings called "feasts." In a "red feast," for instance, the body is visualized as being dismembered and cut up into bloody fragments, which are then offered to flesh-eating demons. A "white feast" transforms each part of the body into an idealized, pure part of a universe that will delight the gods. The new sanctified body becomes ambrosia and feeds benevolent deities.

Transforming the body into a spiritual body by ritual or meditation is a central notion in the Tantras. For instance, the ritual use of symbolic hand gestures, called mudr?, sacred "seals," serve as a unifying principle for the transformation of the person through artistic representation, ritual performance, and meditation. Although many of these are even today common Indian hand gestures, they are regarded as the gestures of the Buddha himself, their association with the Buddha being confirmed by their appearance in Buddhist icons, and by the attribution of "secret" or mystical meanings the gestures.

Ritual acts, ritual frames

The theme of embodiment can also be used as a heuristic in understanding the connection of meditation to ritual. Most meditation practices occur within some sort of ritual or symbolic frame, and follow very

specific instructions. In most cases meditation sessions are planned, prepared, and adorned, and thus tagged, in predictable fashion, as "proper meditation," or "meditation like that of the Buddha." Meditation sessions are usually seen as an integral part, if not the culmination, of a religious life that includes moral preparation and doctrinal definitions of what one should expect. Apart from the expectations of doctrine, ethical values, and cultural habits, Buddhist meditations are also usually announced and framed by ritual activities.

A long tradition of preliminaries associated with meditation rituals survives in various forms in East Asian and Tibetan practice. Custom, as well as ritual manuals, helped consecrate ritual practices as diverse as cleaning and adorning the place of meditation, setting up an altar or image, offering flowers and perfumed water, and framing the period of meditation with ancillary rituals, such as the sevenfold act of worship or the invocation of protective deities. In fact, meditation and ritual often form a web of activities that includes not only ostensible silent meditations and publicly performed ceremonies, but also activities such as chanting, recitation, and circumambulation that hold an ambiguous status between ritual and meditation, mechanical reading and deep reflection.

Special meditations are also sometimes regarded as preliminary or preparatory exercises. For instance, the Tibetan tradition often recommends the practice of the sngon'gro (ngöndro, preliminaries), which are divided into two types. The first is that of the four "outer preliminaries," which often serve as a standard or common meditation for the nonspecialist. This set of four consists of meditations of the "recollection" type, with reflection on the following four topics: the value of human rebirth, impermanence, the vicissitudes of karma (action), and the suffering of living beings. The second type is formed by the five "inner preliminaries," which are construed as purificatory activities, each neutralizing or counteracting the effects of one of the major passions. Thus, pride is countered by taking refuge and performing ten thousand prostrations, jealousy by cultivating the aspiration to awaken for the sake of all living beings (the bodhicitta), hatred by reciting the hundred-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva, craving by a ma??ala offering, and delusion by visualizing one's teacher as identical with one's protective deity (a practice called guru-yoga).

Mental culture

The above reflections are not meant to minimize the significance of meditation as a technology of self-cultivation meant to affect mental states and traits, as well as the content of mind. India scholastics canonized an early schema (perhaps pre-Buddhistic) that saw meditation as combining two kinds of mental exercise. One exercise, dhy?na proper, involved techniques for the cultivation of calm (?amatha) and concentration (sam?dhi), and was the main ground for extraordinary powers, yet, by itself, it could not lead to liberation. The other, the exercise of the cognitive faculty (jñ?na) in an act of accurate perception (dar?ana), involved the practice of calm, clear-minded observation (vipa?yan?) and the cultivation of discernment (prajñ?).

Most Buddhist meditation theories consider both aspects of meditation necessary in the pursuit of liberation, but argue that correct insight is the uniquely Buddhist component in this joint practice. Nonetheless, techniques of calm and techniques of discernment often overlap. The abhidharma, for instance, tended to group together certain techniques and objects of meditation that were seen as primarily means toward the development of concentration, but could be used as props for discernment. Many of these lists are in fact mixed groupings of objects, styles, and states of meditation. One such inventory, explained by Buddhaghosa in his Visuddhimagga (Path of Purity), lists forty "fields" of cultivation of meditation (each is a kamma??h?na, working ground). The list includes heterogeneous categories, such as a hierarchy of meditative states (the four dhy?nas), object-states (e.g., the boundless states or brahmavih?ra), general objects (e.g., material or corporeal objects), and particular object-tools of meditation (that is, objects designed specially as aids to meditation).

Buddhaghosa's summary is thus a heterogeneous list describing various technical dimensions of meditation. For instance, among the "object-tools" of meditation are the all-inclusive or total objects, usually identified by their P?li name kasi?a. This device is a simple visual object that can become the single, neutral object of attention. For instance, a red kasi?a is a circle of red sand or clay that is spread out on the ground before the meditator, who then focuses on it until he is able to displace all thoughts from the mind except the image of the red circle. The meditator continues the practice until he is able to keep in his mind the red circle even when he is away from the actual external kasi?a. The outcome is regarded as a state of perfect calm and concentration that can serve as a foundation for special psychic powers or as a preliminary to insight meditation.

The mind: practices of recollection. Like meditation techniques and objects, meditative states cannot be easily classified as objects or states, processes or supports for sustained attention, nor can they be easily distinguished into states of serenity, processes of observation, or moments of insight. For example, the practice of mindfulness (sm?ti) can be used emblematically for concepts that encompass concentrated mental calm, as well as insightful observation, and that likewise straddle the distinction between object, process, and goal.

Broadly understood, mindful recollection includes a spectrum of mental states and exercises that the tradition conceives as "memory" or "bringing to mind" (the literal meaning of sm?ti) and that overlap with practices of watchful recollection (anusm?ti). As a superordinate term sm?ti refers broadly to three related practices: (1) vigilance with regard to one's own demeanor and behavior, (2) bringing to mind (recalling) and keeping in the mind (retaining) a prescribed object of meditation, and (3) constantly directing one's attention toward, and keeping in awareness, a prescribed object, especially the processes of one's body and mind.

The first usage, watching one's own behavior, arguably fits better in a discussion of the rules of monastic conduct and consists primarily of an effort to remain constantly aware of one's own demeanor, bodily posture, tone of voice, gaze, and so on, with a view to keeping mind and body (thoughts and senses) calm and restrained. This dimension of practice is totally ignored in Western accounts of Buddhist meditation but is amply described in classical literature under the rubrics of sa?vara (self-restraint) and ?ik?? (training practices). Although often found as an integral part of monastic practice, its importance is suggested by both its pervasiveness on the ground and by influential classical treatments in works like ??ntideva's Bodhicary?vat?ra or the Xiaozhiguan attributed to Zhiyi, the systematizer of the Chinese Tiantai school.

Recollection practices of the second type (recalling and retaining prescribed objects of meditation) may be divided heuristically into the recollection of ideas, the recollection of sensory images, and the evocation of affective states. In the classical Indian practice ofanusm?ti (recollection), the meditator is required to bring to mind one of six different ideal subjects: the Buddha, his teachings (dharma), the community of his noble disciples (sa?gha), good moral habits, generous giving, and heavenly beings (deva). The meditator first brings to mind the traditional description of the chosen topic, then reviews discursively the good qualities associated with the subject of meditation.

A practice that is not explicitly called sm?ti, yet involves a systematic bringing to mind or an evocation of affect is "abiding in sublime abodes" (brahmavih?ra, also called "boundless states"). Four such states are prescribed: benevolence, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In one of the most common forms (recommended and practiced in Therav?da circles) the meditator begins by developing thoughts of benevolence toward a person to whom the meditator is indifferent, then toward a friend, then an enemy, and finally all sentient beings, infusing the whole universe with feelings of benevolence. The meditator then proceeds to develop the other three feelings in the same manner.

A third type of sm?ti, commonly known as "mindfulness practice" or "attention to mindfulness" (sm?tyupasth?na; P?li, satipa??h?na), may be called "mindfulness proper." It is the "recollection" or bringing to mind of bodily and mental states, and of the conditions to which these states are subject. Once "recollected" they are held in attention and observed with clear awareness.

Tradition prescribes four objects of mindfulness: body, sensations (bodily feelings), mind (thought and stream of consciousness), and dharmas (doctrinal truths and doctrinal ideas). However, tradition has it that all four are encompassed by the sole practice of "mindfulness of breathing" (?n?panasm?ti), which can be undertaken in preparation for, or in conjunction with, the practice of the other four. One may argue that mindfulness proper is a type of insight practice (vipa?yan?), insofar as calm awareness is a requisite for keen observation. Observation is usually formulated as follows: "What is my body doing?" or "What is my mind doing at this moment?"

At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century, several Buddhist monks from Myanmar (Burma) set out to reform the practice of Buddhist meditation. Leading figures like Ledi Sayadaw (1856–1923) and Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1889–1971) objected to what they perceived as an excessive emphasis on meditation as sam?dhi, that is, technically, as mental withdrawal and spiritual power. They proposed a putatively more direct meditation in which mindfulness was the primary technique and insight the ultimate goal. This, they felt, had been the teaching of the Buddha himself.

Presented in a variety of forms, this basic approach came to be known as "mindfulness" or "insight" (or by the original P?li terms, satipa??hana and vipassan?). The prototypical practice was mindfulness of breathing, but other forms of mindful awareness and recollection were emphasized. Insight meditation lent itself to lay practice, and soon came to satisfy the aspirations of the new secular, middle-class audience that appeared in modern Southeast Asia, and of young Western disciples who came to Asia in search of the dharma.

The mind: calm and insight. Contemporary advocates of mindfulness/insight methods regard such practices as distinctive or self-contained practices, as suggested in canonical texts like the Satipa??h?na-sutta (Majjhimanik?ya 1, 55–63). However, the most common scholastic position in classical times was to suppose that one needed techniques for making body and mind supple and malleable, serene and focused, as a basis for mental culture.

In this context, the word sam?dhi denotes a family of techniques shared by other religious systems of India, but normative Buddhist literature generally regards these techniques as preparatory or foundational, and not as aims in themselves. Although, in practice, many even today pursue states of sam?dhi for their own sake, the higher, normative goal is insight, which is believed to lead to liberation from suffering and from the cycle of rebirth.

Insight is not a simple "looking" or "seeing," but rather a review of reality or truth. Insight is therefore not easily separated from doctrine and doctrinal reflection. The classical Indian tradition sometimes accepts the possibility that there can be insight without the cultivation of serenity. An integration of both is not a given, and it is neither simple nor necessary, yet most traditions acknowledge the need for both, even when one is emphasized more than the other. Generally, the theoretical integration is based on two assumptions: that a preparatory calming of the mind will allow for clear insight, and that the objects used as the foundation for calm can also be used as objects of investigation by means of insight. The goal of insight is discernment or clear understanding (prajñ?), and this discernment would never arise without the cultivation (bh?van?) of insight accompanied by the cultivation of perfect calm and concentration.

Meditation in Mah?y?na

Most Buddhist currents and religious groups in India—whether they were identified as nik?ya (so-called mainstream Buddhist schools) or Mah?y?na communities—tended to model meditation on elements found in a common pool of practices. These corresponded in their rough outlines to the techniques summarized in the formula of the forty kamma??h?na, and they are also found in practice manuals (so-called yog?c?ra or yog?vac?ra manuals). Sometimes these recommendations were incorporated into larger treatises on doctrine and practice, like the encyclopedic Yog?c?rabh?mi attributed to Asa?ga.

Thus, Mah?y?na meditation in India followed some variants of the common background of practices found in non-Mah?y?na traditions. Mah?y?na texts recommend, for example, the practice of the boundless states, the meditation on the corpse (a?ubhabh?van?), and mindfulness practices. Many of these practices were transported to Mah?y?na regions outside India in versions that seldom differed significantly from the accounts found in the Indian texts we possess.

Nevertheless, a number of innovations occurred in Mah?y?na, in India and beyond. Emphasis on ??nyat? (emptiness) led some Mah?y?na authors to criticize the notion that the corpse was impure or foul (a?ubha), arguing that it was better to conceive of it as empty of both substance and characteristics. In the same vein, the classical meditation on mental states (citta), which had earlier focused on a clear distinction between mental states that are good or healthy (ku?ala) and those that are noxious or unhealthy (aku?ala), shifted according to Mah?y?na dialectic, and the meditator asked himself whether his own thoughts, good or bad, could be located anywhere: "Where did they come from, where will they go, where are they located, inside of me, outside, or somewhere in between?"

??ntideva describes in his Bodhicary?vat?ra a psychologically complex meditation on no-self and compassion that became a classic in Tibet and has been admired in the West for almost a century. The meditation has two parts: identification of self with others, and reversing roles between self and others. In the first part, the meditator explores the boundaries of the self and the preconceptions that make us set such boundaries. For instance, one is to reflect on the fact that suffering is the same in all beings, so that our natural impulse to avoid suffering makes more sense as a desire to protect all living things from suffering than in any selfish desire to protect ourselves at the expense of others.

In the second part of the meditation, ??ntideva imagines another person, one who is less fortunate than he is. Then he assumes the role of this other person and imagines this person looking back at ??ntideva first with envy, then reproaching him for his pride and for his insensitivity in regarding the less fortunate as inferiors, instead of as the only reason for his existence, for only those in pain justify one's existence since service to others is the only meaning of the Buddhist's life.

A group of texts written approximately a century later, Kamala??la's three Bh?van?kramas, also describe uniquely Mah?y?na practices. These three essays borrow extensively from the Yog?c?ra tradition. The second essay establishes clearly a uniquely Mah?y?na use of the boundless states (?pram??ya) as a way to generate the great compassion that will motivate the meditator to seek the awakening of a buddha. The same texts also summarize meditations on emptiness that progress from an abhidharmic analysis of matter, through a yog?c?ra analysis of mind and its contents, and culminate in a state of sam?dhi that is devoid of any conceptual contents (?nimittasam?dhi). The latter state is the gateway to the liberating knowledge that is nondual (advayajñ?na).

Tantric practices

The Buddhist textual and ritual traditions that are usually called Tantric expanded on some of the practices outlined above and adopted practices that may have been autochthonous to the localities where Tantra grew roots. The typical Tantric meditation session is a pastiche or a stratified event, in which elements from different periods and currents of the tradition intermingle. Such a session, called a s?dhana (realization, empowerment) is typically a mixture of evocation and visualization overlaying a classical Mah?y?na liturgy.

Three characteristics of Tantric meditation stand out in a s?dhana; two of them are evident to an outside observer, one is apparent only to the practitioner. First, meditation exercises can take the form of complex liturgies. These are ritual events that may or may not include meditation proper, since often the representation or performance of the liturgical process is considered as effective as, equivalent to, or inducive of events internal to the practitioner. Yet, silent, private meditation may incorporate these ritual elements as inner, or mental, rituals. The dividing line between a meditation embedded in a ritual and a liturgy meant to display publicly the structure and power of the meditation is often blurred.

Second, one cannot escape the obvious emphasis on the senses that pervades Tantric practice. Sight is both stimulated and used by a number of multicolored props, offerings, and ritual implements, and by the ma??ala (a graphic representation that in part maps out the ritual and any internal processes of meditation). The sense of smell is stimulated by the frequent use of incense and flowers. The ear is involved through recitation and through the focusing of the ritual and the meditation on specific ritual formulas and "mystical" formulas (mantras) and syllables (b?jas).

The third characteristic is less palpable. Tantric liturgical-meditative events are often presumed to depend on or to induce an inner sensory process in the practitioner. This process is sometimes called "visualization," since instructions often ask the meditator to "see" something in his or her heart or mind. This object is to be retained in the mind for a prescribed time, to the exclusion of everything else, and serves some of the functions of the kasi?a.

Although some Western observers have questioned the meaning of these instructions, it seems clear that the practitioner is being asked to view something in the mind. Whether this is at all possible is not as critical as understanding that many people think it is possible. Once the picture is in the mind one can look at it, view it, and contemplate it; or one can become one with the object.

The inner process is also called s?dhana, and it may be construed as a "realization" because it implies that the vision is, or should be made to become, something that is real or that can be appropriated or incorporated into one's person. The meditator, for instance, is asked to perceive mentally, in his own heart, the first vowel, A, which gradually turns into the orb of the moon. In the middle of this moon he should see a lovely blue lotus. On the filaments of this lotus he will see the spotless orb of a second moon, upon which appears the yellow seed-syllable (b?ja) T??. Thereupon, the meditator sees rays of light issuing from this yellow seed-syllable, and this mass of rays destroys the darkness of the world's delusions, illuminates all the endless worlds that exist in the ten directions, and gathers the numberless, measureless families of buddhas and bodhisattvas from the whole universe, bringing them before the meditator.

Such visualizations often lead to meditations of the insight type that we have seen before: The mental picture of a buddha, for instance, is examined by asking questions regarding the substantiality of the image, and of the buddha it represents.

The evocation of deities in contexts that shade off from simple invocation to visualization, and from apotropaic and propitiatory prayer to meditations of identity, was especially popular among Tibetan Buddhists. It is sometimes called deity yoga in the West, in accordance with a free English translation of the Tibetan term lha'i mgnong rtogs ("realization" or "actualization" of the deity). In a deity-yoga s?dhana, the meditator invokes and visualizes the physical appearance (including shape, sound, and smell) of his or her own meditation deity (the chosen or assigned object of meditation), which is also the person's main protective deity, the "chosen" tutelary deity (yi dam; Sanskrit, i??adevat?). As a step into higher meditations the practice is indistinguishable from a basic s?dhana, but as a devotional practice it is perhaps the most popular of all meditations in circles that follow Tibetan traditions of meditation. A meditation of this type is the nyungne (bsnyung gnas), which is especially popular among the laity and is devoted to the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokite?vara. This ritual meditation is usually carried out during the days celebrating the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. The nyungne is a twoday fasting retreat for laypersons, led by a monk. Although the primary objective appears to be strengthening the vows and precepts of the bodhisattva and the invocation of Avalokite?vara's compassionate assistance, the model for the liturgy is still that of a deity-yoga s?dhana inviting the bodhisattva to make himself present before and inside the meditator.

Another form of Tantric practice, a syllable or a full phrase (of the mantra genre), recited aloud or mumbled, becomes the focus for the development of concentration and insight. These Sanskrit syllables often represent sacred presences, and by extension embody and therefore invoke and appropriate them (that is, fuse or exchange the identities of meditator and deity).

In Japanese Tantric practice, as modeled, for instance, in the Shingon tradition, the syllable hr? is taken to represent the name, person, and presence of Amit?bha. When the syllable is drawn or recited, the believer presumes that the Buddha Amit?bha has been invoked or, better yet, that he is present. The set of all syllables, and therefore of all buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities, is contained in the primary vowel sound A. This syllable is regarded as the origin and essence of all syllables, and hence of all language and everything

constructed and generated by language. Its invocation therefore brings forth not an individual buddha, but the totality or essence of what is real (dharmadh?tu).

Tantric meditation blends the themes and instruments of ritual, sound, and language, combining them with the ideas of serenity and insight, all in a process rooted in a conviction that deities can be made manifest before or assimilated into the meditator. This is then not only meditation of speech, but also meditation of visual imagery; yet it is also a technique for inviting holy, ideal beings to come, as guests, before the meditator, and then gradually share their identity with that of the meditator. Additionally, this identity is usually reduced to the emptiness of all things, which is, paradoxically, what is ultimately real, stable, and foundational.

Other uses of the word

Belief in the transformative power of word and syllable is not limited to Tantra. A different sort of invocation is found in the practice of calling on or calling out the name of the Buddha Amit?bha. Indian notions of the sacred name found fertile ground in East Asia, where they tended to cluster around the cult of this buddha in particular, whose invocation has become synonymous with Buddhist devotionalism.

In China, where the East Asian tradition has its roots, one may chant either the name of the Buddha Amit?bha or the equivalent of the Sanskrit expression "homage to the Buddha Amit?bha" (namo 'mit?bh?ya buddh?ya; Chinese, namo Amito-fo), which has been turned into a sacred name or "the Name." The recitation is conceived as devotion or devotional surrender, but can also be conceived as meditation embedded in traditions of mental culture and moral-ascetic cultivation. In the latter function, the recitation may be part of a visualization exercise in which the meditator imagines or images the paradise of Amit?bha, the Pure Land.

Traditional understandings of meditation on the name include conceiving of it as concentrated wish or devotion, as meditation on the true name or essence of the Buddha, or as an aid to visualizing Amit?bha's Western Paradise. Additionally, the recitation of the sacred name has been used as part of Chan meditation practice.

The Chan use of language in meditation is less explicit that it is in Tantric tradition, as the Chan tradition claims to have access to an experience that is nonconceptual and free from the boundaries of language. Yet important strands of the tradition claim that this nonconceptual mode of being is achieved through a peculiar use of words. Although ostensibly the ultimate meaning of Chan is "an independent transmission that is outside doctrinal teaching, and does not rely on words," Chan has had much to do with words, and has developed a specialized language of the unspoken and the ineffable.

The Chan traditions (chanzong, or Zen in contemporary Western parlance) began to develop an approach that was described as a method of no-method, but which was in fact a radical method, using a rhetoric of iconoclasm and paradox. The tradition conceives enlightenment as already present in the mind, or, rather, as the mind itself being already enlightened and therefore requiring no cultivation, no meditation. Some strands of the tradition argue accordingly that method and meditation are superfluous; truth must be grasped directly, without mediation; delusion and suffering are nothing but a mistake, and if one abandons the mistake, the true mind manifests itself. Such extreme statements perhaps were put into practice among a limited circle of disciples and for a short time during the Tang dynasty (618–907 c.e.), but, in theory, this rhetoric remained in the tradition as an ideal description of Chan.

Be that as it may, the most characteristic Chan use of language developed in the Song dynasty (960–1279 c.e.) and is known in the West as the k?an—borrowing the Japanese pronunciation (k?an) of the Chinese gong'an. The term refers today to a key word or phrase used as the pivot or focus for meditation and believed to be derived directly from the words of ancient masters. The key phrase is usually found in an anecdotal or legendary exchange between disciple and master. These dialogues are known as "question and answer" (Japanese, mond?; Chinese, wenda) and are for the most part presented as vignettes of incidents or anecdotes of dialogues from the lives of great Chan masters. The incident or exchange was regarded as a "public case" (the meaning of gong'an), hence a "court precedent" embodying the wisdom of the greatest judges of what is true enlightenment, that is, the great meditation masters of the past. The master's "verdict" or judgment was the key phrase (huatou) in the anecdote.

In the Japanese Rinzai tradition, the meditator memorizes the anecdote with its key phrase (both called k?an in common parlance) and uses the phrase as the focus of concentrated attention. In China, Korea, and Vietnam, it is common to reserve the cases for study, reflection, commentary, or debate, and make the focus of meditation a more general or all-encompassing question, such as: "What is it?" "Who is it?" "Who is reciting the s?tras?" In this phrasing, the it and the who are the focus of concentrated attention.

Whatever the assigned question might be, the meditator is expected to cultivate undistracted awareness of the k?an during sitting meditation and then "take it with him wherever he goes." This is reminiscent of the kasi?a exercise, in the sense that the person is expected to become one with, and think of nothing but, the object of meditation.

But the exercise also develops insight because the phrase becomes an object of inquiry as part of the question formulated in the k?an (e.g., "What is this?") The answer has to be nondiscursive: a gesture or a sound, or perhaps even the right unquestioned and unreflective word. A common reply is an interjection. Among the interjections, some have become classical answers on the same plane with other sayings of the great masters. One such word is ho! (Japanese, katsu!), a Chinese monosyllabic expression indicating a sharp scolding or sarcastic surprise. The Chan master Can of Boyun Wuliangsi states,

Throughout the twenty-four hours of the day, walk with your key phrase (huatou), stand with your key phrase, sit with your key phrase, lie down with your key phrase. Your mind should feel just like a thorn bush, so you cannot swallow such notions as "person," "self," "delusion," etc. Whether you are walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, turn your entire body into a ball of doubt…. Then, upon hearing some sound or seeing some shape or color, most certainly you will shout, "Ho!" This single sound takes you to the end. (Taish? 2024, vol. 48, 1100a2–7)

The system remained permeable to various influences from the literature and philosophy of the countries in which k?an were used. For instance, beginning with the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Pure Land recitation was often used as a k?anlike topic. Master Zhiji advised,

Recite the name of the Buddha Amit?bha once, or three, or five, or seven times. Then turn back silently and ask yourself, "Where does this recitation of the name of the Buddha arise?" Or ask yourself, "Who is this reciting the name of the Buddha?" If you have doubts, simply have doubts …. Investigate it carefully, inquire into it thoroughly. (Taish? 2024, vol. 48, 1102b18–23)

The practice of Zen meditation, although idealized sometimes as a path of lonely self-discovery, requires constant coaching, prodding, and questioning by a qualified Zen master. In the Japanese Rinzai Zen tradition, interactions between the disciple and the meditation instructor take place in private interviews known as sanzen (Zen practiced by visiting) or dokusan (private visit). The interview can be frightening to the novice because the master traditionally sits on a cushion with his teaching rod lying at his feet, in a dark room, with a single candle illuminating the room from behind the master's back. The disciple must bow before the master and immediately give or demonstrate his understanding of the meditation exercise. Any exchange taking place in dokusan is considered secret because it is believed to embody transmission from mind to mind.

Although tradition sometimes suggests that all k?ans ultimately have the same meaning, it is not uncommon to organize k?ans in graded or step-wise presentations, or to prescribe them for different purposes (including the healing of specific diseases). Collections composed mostly during the Song dynasty also generated much debate as to the meaning of k?ans and the proper explanation or "answer" to the riddle implicit in the fact that a k?an cannot have a "discursive" meaning.

In Japan, approximately after the seventeenth century, k?ans were systematized into a curriculum of Zen training that included, for instance, traditional correct answers to the k?ans. The plan also incorporated some k?ans of Japanese origin, such as the famous, "What is the sound of one hand," attributed to Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1768). The disciple is expected to come up with the correct answer to a given k?an, which will then be accepted or rejected by the master. Once the answer is accepted, the master assigns a different k?an. The rigidity of the system and a number of abuses were often criticized, the most thorough and devastating criticism coming at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The contexts of meditation

What we conceive as "Buddhist meditation" may involve a spectrum of beliefs and practices embedded in both the private and the public lives of Buddhists. Moreover, as outlined above, meditation practice and doctrine, inner meditation processes, and external ritual overlap significantly and reinforce each other.

Unlike ritual, meditation is, in practice, open-ended and subject to missing its ultimate goal, even when technically correct. To express it differently, meditation is supposed to have a transformative effect, but in actual practice, the effect may come about gradually, imperfectly, or not at all. Both the experience of the struggle, the failures and frustrations, and the pragmatic quest for the right technique, time, and intensity of practice are topics worth exploring.

The full range of meditation includes many experiences. We have noted already some of the more abstract: notions of truth, polemical and philosophical insights, and the experience of preparation, retreat, or ritual frames. But, as a personal journey, meditation meets many obstacles: a person's frustration with meditation; sleepiness or overexcitability during meditation; physical pain, fatigue, or discomfort; and the disappointment of making no progress. For people who practice meditation these obstacles are equally important experiences. Sometimes they are either commented upon in meditation instruction, or used for meditation itself.

Needless to say, meditation, like other aspects of the religious life, also has its social contexts and its interpersonal correlates. In its social contexts, meditation can have many meanings and functions. Similarly, the goals of meditation can vary considerably even in the lifetime of one individual. Such goals may be associated with traditions of hygiene, health, and healing, or with those of wonder-working. Meditation is also often closely associated with the visionary quest, the quest for visions of hidden or distant worlds, heavens and hells. It is also associated with ascetic practices, withdrawal, or escape. In all of these functions the tendency is to see meditation as essentially the concentration of spiritual power.

Buddhists can, and often do, appeal to the experience of meditation as a justification or a foundation for their beliefs, values, and practices, regardless of their willingness or capacity to actually practice meditation. But it is also true that many Buddhists see meditation as a value in itself, as an ideal that may be difficult to achieve, too difficult for most of us, but nevertheless as a spiritual discipline that represents the highest accomplishment that a human being is capable of achieving. A Buddhist expressing this second view of meditation can also consider meditation as essentially a practice, something to be done or accomplished, and therefore, as something that is not merely a belief or an ideal.

See also:Bodhi (Awakening); Chan School; Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Y?mbul); Psychology; Vipassan? (Sanskrit, Vipa?yan?); Yog?c?ra School

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Luis O. GÓmez