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How does one meditate on Buddha's teachings?
msac123
Explorer
in Meditation
I've read somewhere that you should listen, reflect, and meditate on the Buddha's teachings. How does one meditate on them? Do you just focus on the teachings during that meditation time?
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That, as well as take what he teaches and put into practice, analyzing your experience through certain lenses or perspectives, etc. For example, putting into practice his teachings on breath meditation or the four foundations of mindfulness. Seeing your experience in terms of the four noble truths or the three characteristics, etc. In essence, to meditate on them is to continually reflect and contemplate them, and when possible, develop them.
I think that to meditate and reflect on them is to try to use them and put them into practice in everyday situations, when one arises. I think that's pretty much what @Jason is saying. Imo it presupposes learning and knowing a little something of what he taught, but a simplistic version, imo, is "WWBD?", What Would the Buddha Do?
Lol, true though. What would the Buddha do?
The Buddha's teachings are on how to stop feeding our ego's dream.
To meditate on the Buddha's teachings is simply our practice of trying to do this.
In the Tibetan tradition, particularly the Gelug school, they use what is called analytical meditation. Essentially you choose a particular topic to meditate on like death or the kindness of others, you then ponder those points from different angles and when you gain a certain feeling of conviction about them or an 'aha' moment you sit and concentrate on that feeling, letting it soak in until it fades (generally a few seconds to a few minutes), then you return to your contemplation. Rinse and repeat.
I think contemplation is not meditation. You should contemplate, but not during sitting meditation.
I think there is a thin line between meditation and religious contemplation @Jeffrey.
However, i must admit that I do like to contemplate, and then reflect and meditate on what was being contemplated. My understanding of meditation is changing to one where meditation is 'what one is being aware of', and contemplation is' mindfully watching the thoughts arising about what one is being aware of'
I would say meditation is mindfully watching thoughts come and go. Contemplation is investigating lightly without trying to make an airtight theory. Contemplation is seeing if your current understanding is making sense or not.
So that which you call contemplation is meditation in my view.
It is an awfully thin line @jeffrey. I believe both can occur simultaneously, providing wisdom is at the helm...
@anataman, I am just talking about my practice. In meditation I of course contemplate things. But when I notice that I return to the present. Breathing in and out and letting go. Then when things come up again I am less convinced in them, because I know they are just empty arisings and I don't need to figure them out.
In contemplation I lightly let ideas coming to my head. The purpose of contemplations are to notice right and wrong thinking. But it is done lightly and that lightness is extended from the meditation.
I cannot argue with that @jeffrey
@anataman
The difference between my contemplation and meditation are as wide as the differences between directing my sense gate data and not directing them.
Could you put that in plain English @how, for the uneducated people reading this of course, as they probably do not comprehend what you mean by sense gate data, and directiveness of said data that is sense gated.
Sorry bout that.@anataman
The sense gates are just Buddhist descriptions of the portals through which information via seeing/ hearing/ smelling/ tasting/ feeling/ and mind, is received.
Meditation (in my little world) is allowing all that information to arise, exist and fade away without resorting to our usual ego habituated inclinations of directing it.
Contemplation is the directing of this data as an inquiry to be followed.
Buddhist Meditation is usually a letting go of our habituated fiddlings with phenomena.
Buddhist Contemplation is a deliberate exploration of phenomena.
Thanks @how for that explanation.
Out of interest, does anyone see contemplation can be used as an object of meditation?
You mean contemplation itself?
Yes definitively if contemplation is in the present I would say "thinking" and return to the breath. Thus contemplation is observed as contemplation. It is happening right in the present. But inside the contemplation it could be something from the past or future.
So contemplation itself can be viewed as it is in the present. How is it known? It just is I guess hehe. Not sure. I guess it is because in the present there is a faculty of knowing.
You could have kept that.
There might be educated people who needed the break down as well.
Just sayin' .....
I was the uneducated one in that instance @Vastmind, asking for an explanation and trying not to lose face as someone who was not comprehending something... I could have kept that as well. lol
Point taken. My own insecurities about my lack of education can sometimes make me defensive.
Hi to all of you,
I was wondering about your comments. Did someone of you ever read Pali-Kanon?
You can meditate two ways:
1. The Four Pillars of Insight
2. The Eightfold Path
3. The Four Pillars of Insight are integreted in the Eightfold path.
anando
Regarding the contemplation issue, here you can listen what Ajahn Chah thinks what contemplation is:
Anything can be an object of 'meditation', or more correctly a point of focus. I was on an intro to meditation retreat and we examined different objects of meditation:
Visual, auditory, breath, body feeling, theme etc . . .
However 'meditation rapping on a theme' is often just ego reflecting on its own facets. Self pandering.
Meditation is in essence turning to awareness of awareness, light on light, emptiness of such ness, abstraction of self, however you are taught it . . . Most of us require guidance on turning to this meditative awareness.
Hello Lobster, I am a newbie,but want to learn. How or where did you find guidance about meditation. While I have grasped the concept that of impermanence, and mindfulness, and the Four Noble Truths etc.. and find that they will fulfill my needs, I have a hard time learning to meditate. Is is just me, a matter of being receptive in a mental capacity to the idea of meditation? Any thoughts? Respectfully Yours.
@Namada...thank you. Probably no post on this forum is more significant.
Luang Por Chah on what the Tibetans call rigpa, ( and what he thinks we should not name at all...: ) ).
Everywhere.
Courses, retreats, books, personal instruction and so on. The earliest meditation I did was concentration based. This is really preparation and does not suit everyone.
You could do the aro course, as it covers posture and varied techniques. The course is good but the group are, how can I put this politely, a little weird (this from someone who talks to his cushion)
http://aromeditation.org/
or vipassana
http://www.vipassana.com/course/
or find tuition on youtube these days.
You might find walking meditation or tai chi suits you.
how about these talks:
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1835/
This is how someone once summed up all she had learned about meditation:
Sit, hello thought, goodbye thought . . .
I don't think that the Aro are that weird, but that might say more about me than them.
sit, hello thought, goodbye thought... is genius.
when meditating I only focus my mind to breath..
when working or doing stuff in and around the house I like to think about the buddha's teaching..
meditating and thinking dont go so well together