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Different goals of meditation.

edited October 2010 in Meditation
I've come to realize that there are different types of meditation with different competing goals:

For example one type is the kind we see in kung fu movies, where you sit on a mountain top for hours with your legs crossed and then you have super fast reflexes. While this does indeed work, it has nothing to do with Bhudism. It's entirely goal oriented. Desire oriented work...

Another type of medition, is when we do a meditation. For example "I'm going to do a meditation on "why cat has 4 legs and not 5""... This is also goal oriented, but I understand it is often used by Bhudists, and the teachers give their students things to meditate about...

Then there is the whole stress relief thing, which is a lot like the first one. It's mainly goal oriented, on: Health, Superpowers, Higher levels of sensory ability ect...

EDIT: By the way. I am not trying to make fun of Bhudism with my comments about "Superpowers".... I come from a town on the West Coast of the United States, where there where a lot of white men who played video games and where "going east" to find super powers. I'm kind of satirizing them...


Then there is meditating in seeking enlightenment. This is goal based. Which is highly ironic.

Do these different forms of meditation have different names? I think that they are unrelated...

Comments

  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    edited October 2010
    I don't think you'll find a lot of Buddhists who meditate with any kind of goal. That defeats the purpose of meditation. I know I don't meditate "seeking enlightenment". Seeking enlightenment is a huge subject, and meditation is one part of what I do toward that goal. But I do meditation for its own sake. If it also happens to reduce my stress level, that's wonderful, but again, that's not *why* I do it.
  • edited October 2010
    Yes, but meditating on one of these riddles is fundimentally different from that. As you DO have a goal. I also had a room mate here from Cambodia, who used to meditate after meals to "aid his digestion" definately goal based. Anyways, not trying to argue... Just wondered if there are different names for the different acts...
  • edited October 2010
    Hi Samostatny,

    Maybe this article will clarify some of your points. Or, at least, you could use it as a starting point....

    With kind regards,
    S
  • edited October 2010
    Mountains wrote: »
    I don't think you'll find a lot of Buddhists who meditate with any kind of goal.
    my teacher, Anam Thubten Rinpoche, a Tibetan of [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Nyingma[/FONT] lineage, speaks of the necessity of having "divine fire" (passion/desire for enlightenment) and proper intention, and how without these one's practice can easily stall out.

    now divine fire and proper intention are not goals in the same way that wanting to be king of the world is a goal. but they are definitely goal-ish in that they direct/frame one's thoughts and actions.

    as i see it, goals are a starting point, a way in. without them, most of us unenlightened ones would just keep treading samsaric water.
  • edited October 2010
    Meditation can be thought of as a routine that allows you to experience a deep settling in your mind.

    With practice you may even come to an intuitive understanding (different than knowledge) that separation from universal life or being itself is an illusion.
    That your true nature is not the story of yourself.

    The overall purpose is the same for everyone however.
    You are learning to relate to awareness itself, the purest level of experience.
  • edited October 2010
    Hi Samostatny,
    Meditation techniques has been spread over since before Buddhism was born. They have different goals and ways of doing. As you mentioned, many of them are desire-oriented. However, the very core purpose of Buddhism is to gain 'enlightenment'. For enlightenment, Buddha taught one and only one path: Vipassana. If you are looking into enlightenment, go for Vipassana.
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