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How important is sitting meditation as a part of Buddhist practice?
DairyLama
Veteran Veteran
in Philosophy
This question came up in another thread, and I thought it would be interesting to address it directly. How important is sitting meditation as a part of Buddhist practice?
Is it essential? Desirable? Not important? Not necessary?
My initial view is that it's important as a foundation for other aspects of practice like mindfulness.
Is it essential? Desirable? Not important? Not necessary?
My initial view is that it's important as a foundation for other aspects of practice like mindfulness.
3
Comments
I find it a useful levelling but there are other way to be a Buddhist and practice. For example sutra study and implementation, devotional puja, following other aspects of the 8 fold path, chanting, being mindful, picnicking with Bodhisatvas, karma yoga - volunteering at your local dharma centre, being kind.
In fact if I could be kind without meditating, I would choose 'being kind' as my practice.
:wave:
I think that formal sitting practice is absolutely essential it is what makes the actualisation of Buddhdharma a viable option. The cultivation of positive thoughts and doing things with care are meritorious, but will only take us so far.
I laugh at myself when I first started sitting, crazy thoughts and ideas reeled through my mind. My mind's activity was worse than Kings Cross station at rush hour. But when the stillness started to come so did the insight.
I would say it is a very useful place to start, but it doesn't suit everyone. I now prefer other forms of meditation but still sit. Some times more than others.
There have also been those who awakened being hit on the forehead with a sandal (Naropa).
I think that meditation is what's essential - not just sitting, walking, Samatha, Vipassana, Tonglen or being hit on the forehead with a sandal.
What is sometimes dubbed "spiritual life" by practitioners is just another way of saying your life or mine. From soaring to floundering, it's just your life or mine and when the unsatisfactories come calling, it's nice to have a tool that doesn't just drizzle into the sweet talk of a belief system or philosophy.
Your life and mine might roughly be described as thought, word and deed or body, mouth and thought. Coping with just one or two of these aspects never quite pans out. They all need to be addressed and seated meditation has that capacity. (Other ways may have the same capacity, but I am more familiar with seated meditation). When the going gets tough -- as it invariably does for anyone who is serious about practice -- seated meditation has what it takes to weather the storm without copping out. On the cushion, thought, word and deed are all in focus ... even when they're not.
I like seated meditation not so much as something that excludes all other possibilities, but rather as something that is serious about something everyone takes seriously -- "my life." One-night stands, tons of money, club-house camaraderie, philosophical refinements and other worldly gadgets don't cut it when it comes to getting our feet on the ground.
Seated meditation does not exclude. Seated meditation does not include. Seated meditation -- from my point of view -- just works.
Just some verbal confetti.
Seriously I think sitting meditation can give us confidence in the Dharma right away at the beginning. A big part of practicing is to have confidence.
Finally, sitting is a very powerful mind training technique in its own right. Rather than slam Buddhists who don't sit I will instead point out the benefits of sitting meditation. These benefits include: getting over an upsetting problem, dedication to the dharma, prajna/wisdom mind including wisdom of emptiness, seeing your own mind, and attaining peaceful abiding.
Sitting meditation for me provides the platform by which all my sense gate data can be observed, unmolested by my own identity conditioning. From this platform, a myriad other meditional forms can be utilized throughout my daily life.
What is actually important though is that a meditation platform is developed, not that any specific posture or form needs to limit it.
I smell an invitation to target certain members for argument's sake
Gassho
we (our family) went to planetarium last week and i went because of other family members
that is just it for me
but yesterday i had a discussion with my son, actually he started it
he asked me 'what do you think/feel after you have been to planetarium'
i told him 'it is just another experience, that's all'
then he said " i felt how insignificant 'I am' after we have been to planetarium last week'
what is the point of doing all these things that we thinks very important?
luckily i had an answer
i told him, you are still young (26 years) and you need food, shelter, clothes and medicine and no one here to give them to you so you have to do your job to get them
he is in front of the computer playing computer games, watching movies after he comes back from work
he did sitting meditation for one year or two when he was 9 years or so
what do you have to say?
that also not just meditation but 'bojjjanga or the seven factors of enlightenment'
samma Samadhi in 8fp comes after samma dhitti
to get samma dhitti one should practice sathara satipattana
to practice satara satipattana it is 'much' helpful to get concentrated mind by doing 'whatever meditation -using any one of 40 methods'
because we do not know or can not see how long one has been doing meditation in their previous lives
we can not say meditation is not necessary
meditation is not just concentration the mind
but
analysing Dhamma (events we face) with clear and open mind
it can be sitting or walking or on the bed until we fall on to sleep
how we do sitting Insight meditation?
Sit and close eyes
take any experience comes into ear or nose or body
try to put them into 'thinnan sangathi passo' (internal sense base+external sense base+relevant consciousness)
for example:
if you hear a sound try to see that "'you' hear the sound" because there was the ear, a sound came from outside and to knew it ear consciousness should ab arised
at the beginning this process is slow
when you are analyzing one experience, there are lots of experiences pass without your notice
that doesn't matter
by the time being you will be able grasp the experience and analyse it within short time
this time difference with two different experiences will get shorter and shorter
and
one day, at one moment you will be able to grasp the experience and analyse it simultaneously
that will be the turning point of 'your' life
do this, experience it and try to explain the experience to others using the words you know
'I' bet 'you' can not
What ever helps you stop clinging to or pushing away the phenomena around you, is a potential meditation platform. It's usability however is best measured by it's portability and application to all representations of daily life .
The point of my post was to promote the development of whatever meditation platform works best for you, over the endless mental mastication promoting the worth of one form over another.
It is easy to think that what worked best for one person works best for others and such evangelical views only made a practitioner on the other thread feel dissed.
My platform is a meditative one as Soto Zen Shikantaza but various forms of faith/devotion or scriptural immersion are credited with being the traditional alternatives for folks who don't relate to formal sitting meditation..
That is however a very narrow Buddhadharma.
Formulaic and ultimately empty of real essence.
If the cultivation of positive thoughts and doing things with care are sufficiently meritorious you will awaken. That is far enough to know form and emptiness and what is required.
However 'far' is a relative point from where I sit.
:buck:
obviously sitting is essential to practice
but people will do anything to avoid it, especially if there is not the delightful habit energy from past "lives"
one lama i heard speak mentioned he had a student in germany whom he instructed to do sitting meditation
and like a month later when he came back, the student was like lama-la pleeeeease teach me some sort of ritual, some sort of prayer, i will do anything except for seated meditation
it's funny, anything to avoid sitting down and looking directly at your own mind
love meditation.
there are lots of other things you can do but really the sublime states of concentration or whatever need a total body awareness and the external world has to lose focus. "a mind turned inwards finds contentment true"
so in short i would say
in the beginning seated meditation is incredibly important
in the middle it is incredibly important
and in the end it is incredibly important
you are sitting right now! but drop the distractions. theoretically shouldn't it be easier to drop such tasks like reading and typing and just sit there? biochemically it is less calories burned, less wandering
so it is not that it is easy or hard, it is that we have habits, and to change those habits (deep ones about fundamental aspects of reality) you gotta sit and let your mind relax. you will not know what you're missing until you get into it regularly.
meditation means familiarization
sit and visualize all wandering beings finally settling their bodies and minds to penetrate into deepest insight. that which binds and that which liberates is within!
"in"sight
For those who can not meditate, take heart.
The last few retreats I have been on I very quickly go into a meditative awareness. Must be the conducive environment or sincerely lost Buddhists.
. . . anyway the only chance for a break of 'normal monkey mind arisings' is during formal meditation - where I know I will not be disturbed.
So I just sit or walk in the proscribed manner and pretend I am meditating . . .
The funny thing is everyone else is doing the exact same . . . but they are just so up tight, sincerely trying, practicing, entering advanced yawning etc . . .
Fake it Baby, one day you will fake it for real . . . which I believe is also Dr Ruth's advice . . .
:wave:
When the time had come for Gampopa to part from his teacher Milarepa, Milarepa placed the soles of his feet on the top of Gampopa's head, symbolizing that their work together was done. As Gampopa was about to depart, however, Milarepa added: "There is one particularly profound teaching I have yet to impart to anyone, but it is too precious to give away just like that, so you may go." After this, the two embraced and Gampopa went on his way.
Gampopa had barely passed out of earshot when he heard Milarepa calling out to him. Hurrying back, he knelt once more before his teacher, whereupon Milarepa turned his back on him and, lifting up his robe, exposed his bare buttocks, entirely covered with calluses from years of meditating on a rock.
"This is my final teaching to you, my beloved heart-son," said Milarepa. "Now just do it."
And thus do we pass on the lineage of the sacred moon, by this blessed pudding. One Holy Twerk to another . . .
That is the story that was passed on to me . . .
that is another concept, dear
at the end of the day 'tradition' is individual's perception
'Nothing' else
No Thing
why talk that much? Buddho said, find a silent place, sit down with a straight spine.....
It´s Gotamo Buddhos own instruction.
anando
anando
But I personally think (based on just my experience and in talking with my teacher) that you cannot properly hope to have true mindfulness without first having tamed the mind with meditation. It is just a practice of frustration eventually because you cannot kee to the point of mindfulness without first having calmed your mind. Just my opinion though, at this point in my practice.
It seems that the people in the article who experience "boredom" in meditation especially need to keep going with it and break past that boredom rather than giving up. The problem, it seems, is in an expectation of meditation to do something certain for you and disappointment when it does not. They are still stuck in the same cycle that brought them to meditation to begin with-expectation of a particular outcome and clinging to it. Anyhow, here is the article:
http://theenergyproject.com/blog/more-mindfulness-less-meditation
I like the definition:
'Meditation is learning to do one thing at a time'.
Cool.
Meditation is allowing each moment to be itself.
Okay...
Also, the idea that meditation doesn't bring anything to "real life" is really dependent on the individual. Sure, it can be used to suppress or escape stuff, but it can also be a great source of insight into reality.
I agree with @karasti that it's important to have the context of the faith tradition when pursuing a spiritual practice. It provides the checks and balances that make the practice effective. If I just started to pray to God without believing in God's existence, what benefit would I get from that?