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Is meditation essential?
I do try to meditate if I have time. But I rarely find the time with my studying/working and karate training to have the time to sit and meditate. I do breathing exercises when Im waiting for things, or walking places.
I just find it easier to stick to the 5 precepts and be a generally nice person. I do believe in karma as much as "what goes around comes around" so I try to go out of my way to be nice to people or do favours, but I think really Im living at the lowest level of Buddhism if anything at all. I am friends with a group of Nepalese nationals who all suffer from the same problem, so I guess its not really a rare problem.
What are peoples thoughts on this? :rolleyes:
I just find it easier to stick to the 5 precepts and be a generally nice person. I do believe in karma as much as "what goes around comes around" so I try to go out of my way to be nice to people or do favours, but I think really Im living at the lowest level of Buddhism if anything at all. I am friends with a group of Nepalese nationals who all suffer from the same problem, so I guess its not really a rare problem.
What are peoples thoughts on this? :rolleyes:
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Comments
It's up to you.
Namaste
I just cant seem to find the time right now to spend a lot of time meditating.
There are different meditation techniques depending on tradition. In Zen, there is both sitting meditation and walking meditation for instance. A little research on these if you have the time could be of great benefit.
(BTW if you're just talking about 'calming' meditation, rather than meditation that leads to awakening or mind-sight of reality as it stands.....we're talking about different things. Buddhist meditation is not the same meditation as people who are just stressed out and need to center themselves do. It's easy to get the two confused.)
Namaste
It doesn't matter what people associate Buddhism with. People also associate that fat guy with the Buddha, which is incorrect.
I'm sure many people think Buddhism is just meditation, but honestly I was only drawn to Buddhism for its philosophy, psychology, and commentary on existence.
I try to meditate, but I'm not good at it and I don't do it often.
.
in other words you were drawn to its exterior.
Being good at it doesn't matter at first. No one is good at it. It is worth persevering
Yup. I'm 58 and I have been reading and studying about Buddhism and trying to live the bodhisattva way since I was about 14, but I really just got around to serious sitting this past year when I was having ferocious panic attacks.
So don't worry about it, Shotokan-W. You'll get around to it, or it will get around to you.
Be well.
The Buddha described his teaching as suffering and the end of suffering. Meditation aids in achieving this freedom from suffering because it helps us notice and disengage from the three poisonous mental habits (kilesas): craving (wanting reality to give us what it can't), aversion (raging against what reality presents to us) and ignorance (automatically giving into our conditioned habits, without knowing or questioning what we are doing).
If you want to know whether it's necessary or not, first I would start by finding out the purpose of meditation in Buddhism (it's not relaxation meditation), and learning a proper technique from a Buddhist teacher. Whether it's necessary or not also depends on your purpose in practicing... which Javelin touched on in his post.
In Jodo Shinshu there is no formal meditation at all. In fact some frown on it as a "self power" practice. However in jodo shinshu we recite the Nembutsu, "Namu Amida Butsu".
Now Nembutsu actually means meditation on Buddha, however instead of formal periods of meditation, you might recite it to yourself at any time.
The important thing about Nembutsu to remember though,(at least from a Jodo Shinshu perspective) is that it is not something we do in order to attain anything. It is purely an expression of gratitude to Amida Buddha.
I am going to be repeating myself here from other threads I"ve posted in, but there seems to be a fairly prevalent view of Pure Land Buddhism as being basically a Buddhist form of Christianity.
Amida Buddha, translated literally means "Perfectly Awakened Infinite Light and Life"
Namu means to take refuge in....I rather like a more poetic translation of "being embraced by" myself.
So Namu Amida Butsu is "embraced by perfectly awakened Infinite Light and Life"
Now the question may be asked....why symbolize suchness as Amida Buddha?.
In the Contemplation Sutra Shakyamuni explains something to the effect of our minds being sort of like water....taking on the shape of the vessel it is poured into. So in a sense our minds become that which we think about, so it is important to think about wholesome things.
Thinking about a perfect, infinite Buddha is therefore a way for the mind to take the shape of Buddha.
Another important aspect of Jodo Shinshu is it's rejection of "Self Power" and its reliance on "Other Power". Many people will feel compelled to point out that Buddha said we should rely on ourselves for enlightenment, and this business of "other power" and relying on Amida seems to fly in the face of that.
The thing is, Shinran (founder of Jodo Shinshu) was rather weary of ego contrived efforts to attain enlightenment. Indeed we can see people who feel they have become quite adept at meditation who become very proud and full of themselves and their self perceived holiness. So the "self power" we are opposing in Jodo Shinshu is ego, and ego contrived ways of "attaining" enlightenment. The "other power" we are advocating is suchness.
I would explain it like this...If we are waves on the ocean of suchness..waves don't really need to do anything to be suchness...they already are embraced by the ocean, and cannot actually be other than ocean. If a wave doesn't realize this it will suffer, and the more it tries to do something about it...the more it is being a wave and not realising it's true ocean nature.
We have a teaching that is saying "hey the ocean is already embracing you. Gravity is naturally going to unite you with the ocean, just trust in that and you will be fine"
I am using gravity here as a metaphor of Amida's vow.(itself a metaphor IMHO).
For myself I am reciting the nembutsu many times every day, but not necesarrily in a formal meditative way. Most times it just comes out. I could be making my morning tea, or going for a stroll, or in line at the grocery store, or whatever. One of the beautiful things about it is it is so portable! In a sense I can meditate anywhere anytime...and I do!
I do also sit at my shrine each morning and most nights, chant a sutra and recite the nembutsu more formally (although still with an attitude of gratitude, not one of gaining something).
I certainly consider myself Buddhist...deeply so. And it is based on practice, not just philosophy. So my answer to the question is certainly one can be deeply Buddhist and not practice formal meditation, at least in the Jodo Shinshu Tradition.
in theory, it is possible to practice during your daily activities, in other words, you should be watching your thoughts, raising your awareness, and trying to relax the mind.
whatever you do, wherever you go, you should be practising
I too as I'm sure most people do have a busy lifestyle but I'm lucky enough to be able to find 20 minutes a day to meditate and I do so not because I feel I have to but because I want to.
I also practice martial arts, at the beginning of the class we meditate on our school's principles which are just out of interest; Humility, Honesty, Gentleness, Perseverance, Self Control, and Unbreakable Spirit.
Maybe you could incorperate a few minutes meditation into your warm up or cool down. Have fun.