On meditation

Hello dear friends,
Today let us understand meditation. There are different kinds of meditation. Now I am going to tell you about Buddhist meditation.

Buddhists have breathing techniques and repetition of some words as tools of meditation. There are three schools of Buddhism, namely, Hinayana(Theravada), Mahayana and Vajrayana and their methods of meditation meditation.vary accordingly. First of all , let us take up Vajrayana meditation. It is being predominantly practiced in Tibet and Mangolia. Vajrayana is also called as Tibetan Buddhism. But scholars claim that it was a part of Mahayana school and widely popular in India before 8th century AD. However further research is needed. In Vajrayana and Mahayana schools they repeat certain sacred words which they call as mantras. In Mahayana, they meditate by repeating certain words like- "Om mani padme hum". It means: Be a drop of water on lotus. (Be unattached to worldly affairs as the world is impermanent). In Vajrayana, they meditate by repeating certain words like, "Om taare tu taare ture soha". These mantras are repeated one hundred and eight times or one thousand and eight times.  All the three schools advocate breathing exercises as pre-condition or an instrument of preparing the mind towards meditation. This breathing exercise is based on breathing in and breathing out with the conscious mind concentrated on the warm air coming out and cool air getting in through the nostrils. They call this technique as "Ana pana sati". 

Many experienced Buddhist meditators have claimed that they could reach the state of perfect concentration. They say that any meditators can reach that state of perfect concentration but only for about a few seconds and at most not more than a minute, that too by those who practiced concentration for many years. The state of perfect concentration is when the mind's activity is completely suspended and thoughts cease and the mind is stilled, where it thinks on nothing. In a stretch of one hour's meditation such still state happens for a few seconds only. In Buddha's time, it was called as state of Samadhi. 

In addition to samadhi, Buddha introduced another method of meditation, which he called as Samma Samadhi. Samma samadhi is an improvement over Samadhi. He said that the human thoughts are a continuous stream of good and bad thoughts. They can be successfully stilled in the state of Samadhi, no doubt, but all those suspended thoughts come back as soon as the state of Samadhi ends. Hence the thoughts that fill a mind after samadhi are same as those bad thoughts that existed in that very mind before the state of Samadhi. So, Buddha suggested that during meditation some good and wholesome thoughts should be deliberately meditated on so that they fill the mind after coming out of meditation, thereby our mind starts dwelling on wholesome thoughts. Good or wholesome thoughts purify the mind where as bad or unwholesome thoughts corrupt the mind. Buddha called this meditation as "Samma Samadhi". Today all the three schools of Buddhism practice this as "Metta meditation". "Metta" means giving compassion to all the fellow beings. Buddha in his meditations, thoughts and actions extended compassion not only to fellow human beings but also to all the living beings in this universe and it is called "Maithri". Buddha exuded motherly compassion not only to all living beings but also to all non living things in this universe. That is why he is called as Maha Karunika or Thayi. In Pali language 'Thayi' means a perfectly compassionate person or one who establishes everything. How can anyone establish anything without love and compassion for all.  

In my opinion, Metta meditation is the gist or summum bonum of Buddha's teaching. He wants his followers to love everything. You live happily only if you love everything such as people, animals, birds, plants, trees, flowers, fruits everything. Please note how Buddha placed his Dhamma within an ecological perspective. Can there be a better environmentalist than Buddha? You cannot live happily if you hate your fellow beings or animals or nature. Can you? Certainly not. He wants you to love your enemies also. So, I consider "Samma Samadhi" or "Metta" meditation as the best method of meditation. 

Thank you for giving me your time.

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