I have been interested in Buddhism since I was a teenager, but it is only recently that I feel I understand what it is all about. Buddhism is best understood in the context of meditation. Meditation is usually understood as focusing your attention on one thing. In many forms of meditation that would be a mantra, a word that is repeated mentally. When you notice that you have become distracted, you return your attention to the mantra. It's a gentle process, it's not about effort.
This form of meditation is found in Buddhism also, although usually Buddhists meditate on the breath rather than a mantra. It is called samatha meditation in Buddhism. There is another form of meditation in Buddhism called vipassana. With vipassana, instead of meditating on one thing (a mantra or the breath), you allow yourself to be aware of anything coming into your awareness, whether it is physical sensations, emotions or thoughts. You are aware of them in a different way from what is usual, you witness them but you don't participate in them.
When we become aware of a physical sensation (for example) there is the sensation itself, and there is our response to it. The mind decides if the sensation is pleasant (in which case we want it to continue) or unpleasant (in which case we want it to stop). Or it may be neither pleasant nor unpleasant, in which case we want to ignore it.
By being aware of the sensation, we can refrain from this interpretation of sensations (or emotions or thoughts). We no longer chase after pleasant sensations or run away from unpleasant ones. We have less and less 'clinging', we experience things differently, and we don't suffer in the same way.
We can notice the 'three characteristics'. We can watch sensations etc come and go, seeing their impermanence. We can see they don't bring satisfaction. We can see that they're not really part of us and aren't contributing to our sense of self.
We have a sense of self which we need to generate continuously. When we practice vipassana we are not continuing to generate that sense of self. It's as if there's a fire and we are no longer putting more wood on it. It starts to falter. It's then that 'stream entry' might happen.
The first time this happens it is for a short time in deep meditation. You realize the truth of the Buddhist theory, that there is no self. This is accompanied by a feeling of relief and joy. It is like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel. You know for sure that you're going in the right direction.
In time this will happen again and again, until it is your permanent state. Then you are enlightened. There are four stages in this process. The first stage is stream entry. The fourth stage is enlightenment.
Samatha meditation can be used to still the mind before vipassana begins. The vipassana meditation is the more important of the two. It is vipassana which liberates, not samatha. Some Buddhists take samatha meditation very seriously though.
If you practice samatha meditation you get better at it. You might shift into an altered state of consciousness called 'first jhana'. You can learn how to stay in this altered state for longer and longer periods of time. When you have done that, you might shift into 'second jhana'. There is also third and fourth jhana, each one attainable when you have experience of the previous one. Bliss is something experienced but by the time you get to fourth jhana bliss has been replaced by tranquility.
Most Buddhists don't meditate to find bliss, but the bliss of jhana helps you to see that sensual pleasures are not so important. It is better to experience jhanas without 'clinging'. It is possible to 'investigate' most jhanas, which means that you can be aware of their true nature and the 'three characteristics'.
Some may wish to take it further, and there are four higher jhanas. When you have stabilized all eight jhanas, and you have practiced lots of vipassana, then there is a ninth jhana, called Nirodha Samapatti. If you have both enlightenment and Nirodha Samapatti then it is said you are 'doubly enlightened'.
There are some Buddhists who don't believe in the value of these attainments (eg Stephen Batchelor). They may not believe they even exists. Some practice vipassana, but aren't interested in samatha (eg Goenka). They may believe that jhanas are dangerous. Jhanas can be dangerous when not used sensibly. For them samatha meditation would be meditating on the breath in preparation for vipassana, but not the cultivation of jhana.
There are a few different methods of vipassana. It is not true that there's one technique that was handed down from teacher to pupil since the time of Buddha. It was lost, but beginning a couple of hundred years ago people in Burma and Thailand started reading the ancient texts and experimenting. From this emerged two main vipassana movements in Burma, and another one in Thailand. Neither of the Burmese movements practiced jhana.
Americans like Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldestein and Sharon Salzberg took Mahasi style vipassana (one of the two Burmese types) and combined it with cultivation of the jhanas (which seems to have come from Thailand). In Mahasi vipassana, something called 'noting' (or 'naming' or 'labeling') is important.
John Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction (MBSR) from vipassana, and then there is 'mindfulness' which has become very popular.
Vipassana can be different things. It can be very open, where you allow yourself to be aware of anything coming into your consciousness, whether they are thoughts, emotions or physical sensations. Being in the moment. Then it can be like Krishnamurti's 'choiceless awareness' or 'passive awareness'. There is a group in Indonesia (Meditasi Mengenal Diri) who are using Krishnamurti meditation as their form of vipassana.
Vipassana can be more restricted, where you only allow yourself to be aware of physical sensations, and only then as part of a 'body scan'. This is how Goenka taught. Goenka learned from U Ba Khin, who in turn derived his method from Ledi Sayadaw. This tradition is one of the two Burmese traditions, the other one deriving from Mahasi Sayadaw.
Goenka meditation has become popular because it is free. However, the lack of individual attention that can be offered by teachers on these free courses adds to the problems of mental instability that are often encountered.
There are actually four different things that can be the subject of vipassana meditation according to tradition, but it's not clear what they all are. Sensations, emotions and thoughts seem to be three of the four. Some say that it's easier to work with physical sensations, which might be why Goenka meditation can produce such dramatic effects.
So perhaps the best thing is to practice an 'open' form of vipassana sometimes, and sometimes be more restricted to the awareness of physical sensations (called vedanupassana). Noting may be valuable. Samatha is important too, not just in the awareness of breath (anapana) but also the cultivation of jhanas. Another form of samatha, called metta or loving-kindness, is valued by many.
There is the Theravada Buddhist tradition, found in countries such as Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka. They kept the ancient texts, the Pali Canon, including the satipatthana-sutta, the anapanasati-sutta, and the Bahiya-sutta. Added to that is the more recent tradition formed within the last two hundred years which has given us the two main forms of vipassana (the Mahasi and the U Ba Khin/Goenka methods). Added to that is an even more recent tradition formed by Americans like Jack Kornfield and developed by people like Daniel M Ingram and Culadasa.
It's a confusing picture, but I hope I have helped sort it out in people's minds. Two other groups of Buddhists practice meditation, the Zen Buddhists and some of the Tibetan Buddhists. Zen Buddhists don't talk openly about their teachings, but some of the Tibetan Buddhists seem to have something to offer (eg Dzogchen). Then there are Buddhists who don't value meditation, instead they chant to mythological beings such as Amida.
When it comes to enlightenment, some people will say there's only one kind of enlightenment. I think there is a difference between what you might call Hindu or Mystical enlightenment and Buddhist enlightenment. Tibetan Buddhist enlightenment seems to be like Hindu enlightenment, where you have Advaita Vedanta and the teachings of Ramana Maharshi (sometimes called nondualist teachings). So by 'Buddhist enlightenment' I mean Theravada Buddhist enlightenment.
Some people will say they are the same but I have come to a different conclusion. When you meditate a lot then the usual Subject/Object boundary starts to go. It can go in one of two ways. Either you start to experience everything as all Subject. You perceive everything to be part of you. When you look at a mountain you feel it is part of you, or you are part of it, or you and it are one.
From this it is easy to start believing that you have attained unity with God, or that you have merged with Brahman, or that you have always been Brahman but only now do you realize your true identity. This is an illusion though.
The other way is to experience everything as Object with no Subject. You are aware of sensations, or rather there is no you to be aware of them. It’s like they are aware of themselves. Someone called them self-knowing knowns. What’s happening is that part of your brain is processing visual information and another part of your brain is processing auditory information but they are not contributing to the creation of a Self or Subject.
This is not an illusion. However, it doesn’t free you from reincarnation because there is no life after death in any form. It doesn’t make you a better person, either more contented or compassionate. Can it free you from suffering? I don’t know about that but I do know there’s a lot of suffering along the way.
You need to know how to end the Subject/Object dichotomy in the right way. You need to know how to avoid the suffering that comes during the 'dark night'. You need to know how to stop elements of your unconcious mind from taking over your personality.
This form of meditation is found in Buddhism also, although usually Buddhists meditate on the breath rather than a mantra. It is called samatha meditation in Buddhism. There is another form of meditation in Buddhism called vipassana. With vipassana, instead of meditating on one thing (a mantra or the breath), you allow yourself to be aware of anything coming into your awareness, whether it is physical sensations, emotions or thoughts. You are aware of them in a different way from what is usual, you witness them but you don't participate in them.
When we become aware of a physical sensation (for example) there is the sensation itself, and there is our response to it. The mind decides if the sensation is pleasant (in which case we want it to continue) or unpleasant (in which case we want it to stop). Or it may be neither pleasant nor unpleasant, in which case we want to ignore it.
By being aware of the sensation, we can refrain from this interpretation of sensations (or emotions or thoughts). We no longer chase after pleasant sensations or run away from unpleasant ones. We have less and less 'clinging', we experience things differently, and we don't suffer in the same way.
We can notice the 'three characteristics'. We can watch sensations etc come and go, seeing their impermanence. We can see they don't bring satisfaction. We can see that they're not really part of us and aren't contributing to our sense of self.
We have a sense of self which we need to generate continuously. When we practice vipassana we are not continuing to generate that sense of self. It's as if there's a fire and we are no longer putting more wood on it. It starts to falter. It's then that 'stream entry' might happen.
The first time this happens it is for a short time in deep meditation. You realize the truth of the Buddhist theory, that there is no self. This is accompanied by a feeling of relief and joy. It is like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel. You know for sure that you're going in the right direction.
In time this will happen again and again, until it is your permanent state. Then you are enlightened. There are four stages in this process. The first stage is stream entry. The fourth stage is enlightenment.
Samatha meditation can be used to still the mind before vipassana begins. The vipassana meditation is the more important of the two. It is vipassana which liberates, not samatha. Some Buddhists take samatha meditation very seriously though.
If you practice samatha meditation you get better at it. You might shift into an altered state of consciousness called 'first jhana'. You can learn how to stay in this altered state for longer and longer periods of time. When you have done that, you might shift into 'second jhana'. There is also third and fourth jhana, each one attainable when you have experience of the previous one. Bliss is something experienced but by the time you get to fourth jhana bliss has been replaced by tranquility.
Most Buddhists don't meditate to find bliss, but the bliss of jhana helps you to see that sensual pleasures are not so important. It is better to experience jhanas without 'clinging'. It is possible to 'investigate' most jhanas, which means that you can be aware of their true nature and the 'three characteristics'.
Some may wish to take it further, and there are four higher jhanas. When you have stabilized all eight jhanas, and you have practiced lots of vipassana, then there is a ninth jhana, called Nirodha Samapatti. If you have both enlightenment and Nirodha Samapatti then it is said you are 'doubly enlightened'.
There are some Buddhists who don't believe in the value of these attainments (eg Stephen Batchelor). They may not believe they even exists. Some practice vipassana, but aren't interested in samatha (eg Goenka). They may believe that jhanas are dangerous. Jhanas can be dangerous when not used sensibly. For them samatha meditation would be meditating on the breath in preparation for vipassana, but not the cultivation of jhana.
There are a few different methods of vipassana. It is not true that there's one technique that was handed down from teacher to pupil since the time of Buddha. It was lost, but beginning a couple of hundred years ago people in Burma and Thailand started reading the ancient texts and experimenting. From this emerged two main vipassana movements in Burma, and another one in Thailand. Neither of the Burmese movements practiced jhana.
Americans like Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldestein and Sharon Salzberg took Mahasi style vipassana (one of the two Burmese types) and combined it with cultivation of the jhanas (which seems to have come from Thailand). In Mahasi vipassana, something called 'noting' (or 'naming' or 'labeling') is important.
John Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction (MBSR) from vipassana, and then there is 'mindfulness' which has become very popular.
Vipassana can be different things. It can be very open, where you allow yourself to be aware of anything coming into your consciousness, whether they are thoughts, emotions or physical sensations. Being in the moment. Then it can be like Krishnamurti's 'choiceless awareness' or 'passive awareness'. There is a group in Indonesia (Meditasi Mengenal Diri) who are using Krishnamurti meditation as their form of vipassana.
Vipassana can be more restricted, where you only allow yourself to be aware of physical sensations, and only then as part of a 'body scan'. This is how Goenka taught. Goenka learned from U Ba Khin, who in turn derived his method from Ledi Sayadaw. This tradition is one of the two Burmese traditions, the other one deriving from Mahasi Sayadaw.
Goenka meditation has become popular because it is free. However, the lack of individual attention that can be offered by teachers on these free courses adds to the problems of mental instability that are often encountered.
There are actually four different things that can be the subject of vipassana meditation according to tradition, but it's not clear what they all are. Sensations, emotions and thoughts seem to be three of the four. Some say that it's easier to work with physical sensations, which might be why Goenka meditation can produce such dramatic effects.
So perhaps the best thing is to practice an 'open' form of vipassana sometimes, and sometimes be more restricted to the awareness of physical sensations (called vedanupassana). Noting may be valuable. Samatha is important too, not just in the awareness of breath (anapana) but also the cultivation of jhanas. Another form of samatha, called metta or loving-kindness, is valued by many.
There is the Theravada Buddhist tradition, found in countries such as Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka. They kept the ancient texts, the Pali Canon, including the satipatthana-sutta, the anapanasati-sutta, and the Bahiya-sutta. Added to that is the more recent tradition formed within the last two hundred years which has given us the two main forms of vipassana (the Mahasi and the U Ba Khin/Goenka methods). Added to that is an even more recent tradition formed by Americans like Jack Kornfield and developed by people like Daniel M Ingram and Culadasa.
It's a confusing picture, but I hope I have helped sort it out in people's minds. Two other groups of Buddhists practice meditation, the Zen Buddhists and some of the Tibetan Buddhists. Zen Buddhists don't talk openly about their teachings, but some of the Tibetan Buddhists seem to have something to offer (eg Dzogchen). Then there are Buddhists who don't value meditation, instead they chant to mythological beings such as Amida.
When it comes to enlightenment, some people will say there's only one kind of enlightenment. I think there is a difference between what you might call Hindu or Mystical enlightenment and Buddhist enlightenment. Tibetan Buddhist enlightenment seems to be like Hindu enlightenment, where you have Advaita Vedanta and the teachings of Ramana Maharshi (sometimes called nondualist teachings). So by 'Buddhist enlightenment' I mean Theravada Buddhist enlightenment.
Some people will say they are the same but I have come to a different conclusion. When you meditate a lot then the usual Subject/Object boundary starts to go. It can go in one of two ways. Either you start to experience everything as all Subject. You perceive everything to be part of you. When you look at a mountain you feel it is part of you, or you are part of it, or you and it are one.
From this it is easy to start believing that you have attained unity with God, or that you have merged with Brahman, or that you have always been Brahman but only now do you realize your true identity. This is an illusion though.
The other way is to experience everything as Object with no Subject. You are aware of sensations, or rather there is no you to be aware of them. It’s like they are aware of themselves. Someone called them self-knowing knowns. What’s happening is that part of your brain is processing visual information and another part of your brain is processing auditory information but they are not contributing to the creation of a Self or Subject.
This is not an illusion. However, it doesn’t free you from reincarnation because there is no life after death in any form. It doesn’t make you a better person, either more contented or compassionate. Can it free you from suffering? I don’t know about that but I do know there’s a lot of suffering along the way.
You need to know how to end the Subject/Object dichotomy in the right way. You need to know how to avoid the suffering that comes during the 'dark night'. You need to know how to stop elements of your unconcious mind from taking over your personality.
