Passage Meditation in Buddhist Practice

ArtMacAilein

I've practiced Eknath Easwaran's Eight Point Program for about a year near. The program is based on passage meditation. Now that I'm learning about Buddhist practice, I'm wondering how well passage meditation would fit into it, particularly in the practice of Zen.

Obviously, one person's idea of meditation is not necessarily the same as another's. My definition of meditation is greatly influenced by Easwaran's, as his technique is the only one I've worked with. Easwaran is very specific; when he says "meditation," he means a technique intent on stilling the mind and stripping away the ego in order to eventually achieve enlightenment. Though he uses the teachings of various religions, including Buddhism, to get his point across, his methods are grounded in Hindu yoga.

What is your experience with practicing multiple forms of meditation -- say passage meditation in the morning and zazen in the evening, for example? Is zazen a necessity for full Zen practice -- not just sprinkling a little Zen into your existing practice -- or would any form of meditation suffice? Any other thoughts on this subject?

Thank you.

fivebells

This seems antithetical to the intent of Buddhist practice:

The secret of meditation is simple: you become what you meditate on. When you use an inspirational passage every day in meditation, you are driving the words deep into your consciousness. Eventually they become an integral part of your personality, which means they will find constant expression in what you do, what you say, and what you think.

– Eknath Easwaran

Buddhist practice is about the end of becoming.

Tikal2012

I feel like I'm not the kind of practitioner who practices more than one kind of meditation. Though I'm only a beginner at practicing the meditation, it is a practice which I'm supposed to practice all the time, and all day long, however, since I'm not the best Buddhist in the world, I can get a little carried away sometimes. But basically the meditation that I practice is based purely on training the mind away from it's bad habits, and bringing it back to it's good habits. Bad habits are basically any of the five hindrances (Anger, lust, restlessness, laziness, or disbelief), and by applying the four aspects of right effort recognize that my mind is hindered, abandon that hindrance, bring my mind back to my virtuous object of meditation (breathing in and relaxing, breathing out and relaxing), and then maintaining that relaxation. When my mind is calm and relaxed and not hindered in any way like this, then from what I've experienced I gain insight into reality which over powers my deluded views of reality. And basically like this, you develop serenity, and insight and the same time, which when cultivated in this way, lead you into the Jhanic states, which eventually lead to the full realization of Nibbana through seeing dependent origination clearly and without any hindrances, BUT that's a long way off!! Haha, so yeah basically I only practice one kind of meditation, and that's the whole training of the mind thing, and I do it at work and on the bus, and all the time, and when I'm doing my sitting meditation I can devote all of my attention to it, but out side of sitting I try to devote as much attention as possible to it, but sometimes find that a little bit difficult. There is also loving kindness meditation, and from what I have heard it is a really good one, but I've not had very good experiences with it, and mindfulness of the breath has been really good for me and and plugs into my meditation and makes everything click and shines light on the whole practice. So that's just my little two cents on the way I practice meditation.