The Buddhist way of Meditation

“Meditation” is the most used word now and then. Meditation is advised in every case like when someone isn’t well; students don’t score good marks or when someone suffers from anxiety issues. For every situation, the simple solution given is “meditation”. How do you meditate in Buddhism? Let’s see the deep meaning behind ” Buddhist meditation” in detail.

What is meditation?

Why does everyone advise meditation? What does this term mean? In simple words, we can say that meditation is a mental as well as physical action used by a person to isolate from their feelings as well as thoughts.

Meditation is practised in all religions as it is known to be the best method to soothe one’s mind. Many people use different words for meditation, but its meanings and practices are most probably the same.

Religiously many people are taught how to meditate, but one should understand that every time meditation does not have a religious component. It is something that every person should experience as it keeps their mind and soul active. Also, it’s the best remedy to any problem as it brings a lot of positivity to our minds as well as meditation helps to boost our immunity which keeps us fit and healthy.

Meditation makes one calm and gives inner peace to a person; it is as peaceful or relaxing as seeing a beautiful painting. Meditation gives a break to our mind and helps us to find the inner self by sharpening one’s consciousness.

The right form of mediation is important because many times, people try to meditate, but their thoughts refrain them to concentrate. Meditation can only be successful if it lets you be simply you where you don’t judge anything nor think about different situations. It’s just giving yourself time and being in a peaceful mode where you live your moment of life. Let’s understand Buddhism and meditation.

Buddhist Meditation

Here is an introduction to Buddhist meditation. Buddhism has a different concept of meditation. The Buddha meditation includes not trying to go into a mesmerising state or any miraculous entity.

Buddhist monk meditation involves both mind and body. One should practice daily Buddhist meditation as the buddha meditation involves duality, which considers body and mind as a single entity.

Buddhist mindful meditation takes mind control to make it more focused. This helps one to concentrate in a better way. The Buddha way of meditation helps one to centralise the mind and make the meditator more aware.

The human mind is said to have a stream of thoughts. It may be positive thoughts or negative thoughts; a person’s mind tends to think a lot of things at the same time. If one follows the right meditation Buddhism, the purpose of making the mind free of thoughts becomes successful.

Various types of Buddhist meditation are practised for a long time, and it works effectively. Different types of Buddhist meditation also involve a meditation on its own or in groups. When one meditates like a Buddhist in a group, it reminds one that he/she is part of the larger association of beings as well as a larger Buddhist association.

Meditation Gautam Buddha, means working with the mind. What we are today, we are because of what we think, or we can say because of our thoughts. Our mind is the foundation of our thoughts and is made up of our thoughts. One when meditates like a Buddha works with the mind and controls the mind from all sorts of thoughts.

The Buddha way of meditation helps the mind to relax and take one’s thoughts away from worldly views. The right meditation Buddhism engross our mind and helps us focus on inner feelings as well as consciousness.

One practising Buddhist compassion meditation gets into a calm state mentally. Buddhist meditation helps to increase concentration and focus on one aspect at a particular period. Gautam Buddha meditation comprises six forces that are mindfulness, alertness, attempt, hearing, evaluation and understanding. The realm of Buddhist meditation depends on the above six forces. If one needs to experience the above states, one needs to keep Buddhist meditation posture in mind as well as certain techniques should be considered.

Meditation Practices

Many meditation practices involve Buddhist breathing meditation that involves the meditator’s breathing. In this method, one just needs to concentrate on one’s breath. It shouldn’t alter the breadth; one should neither think about breathing nor worry about the wrong as well as the right way of doing it. One should just follow the “way to breath” and focus on the same thing.

Many times it happens that when one focuses on his/her breadth, one thinks a lot about breathing. The most important aspect here is not to think, “I am breathing”. As per the Buddhist meditation concept, one shouldn’t think much about oneself. Thus, when one starts thinking too much about breathing, he/she thinks about himself/herself, which isn’t the right form of meditating. The aim is just to be aware of breadth, not focus on thoughts of oneself. One should follow the right meditation Buddhism practice to meditate like a Buddha.

Another popular Buddist meditation to count the breaths. At times meditators count up to ten breaths and start over again without any distraction. This practice of meditation helps to focus on the breathing process. Whenever there is any kind of distraction noticed by the meditator, they immediately start the counting procedure all over again.

The above meditation practices are the most popular ones. Another kind of meditation practice involves Buddhist chanting meditation, Focus meditation (in this kind of meditation, one focuses on any particular thing like a flower or a candle just to increase the power of concentration), being still, walking meditation (followed by Zen Buddhists), monotonous bead movement meditation etc.

In the west, medicine Buddha meditation is popular where people consider the meditation process like medicine. It not only helps to bring spirituality into our soul but also helps us to remain healthy. One can explore spiritual paths through guided Buddhist meditation. Buddhist healing meditation involves threefold methods to explore spiritual paths.

Here are threefold guided Buddhist meditation paths to attain spirituality:
The first training in the Buddha meditation is Ethics which is also known as Shila forms the essential base of divine development. Though the Buddha meditation does not involve any laws of the ethical Buddhist daily meditation should be practised under guided Buddhist meditation. This involves some ethical guidelines to lead a life to avoid any kind of harm to any other being.

The second training in Buddist monk meditation is “Samadhi”. Ethics leads to right meditation Buddhism practice which gives rise to a simple life. “Samadhi” simply means “Meditation” that clarifies one’s mind and prepares one for the third type of training,”Prajna”.

The third training of Gautama Buddha meditation involves ” Prajna” which means “to develop intelligence”. What is the need to meditate? What does Buddha say about meditation? Meditation has the sole purpose of understanding the true nature of one’s life.

Different types of Buddhist meditation:

In Buddhism, different meditation practices play a very important role to relax the mind as well as our soul. Thus, in Buddhism, the concept of meditation is emphasised to a great extent. Meditation, according to Buddha, should calm the mind, and thus, there are no hard and fast rules for meditation, but one needs to follow some basic guidelines for effective meditation procedure. The prime motive is Buddhist mindfulness meditation which helps to aware meditators of important aspects of their life. There are four types of Buddhist meditation. Let’s study about different meditation types Buddhism:

Ponderative Meditation

Ponderative Meditation is a form of early Buddhist meditation in which one focuses or concentrates on a particular object to make it serene. This refers to any kind of object. It may be any visual image or a candle flame.

Monk meditation in Tibet involves the visualisation of compound images of certain Buddhist forms. Also, the most common form is the Buddhist chanting meditation form in which sacred mantras are recited as well as has importance beyond just being an object of focus.

Another form of Ponderative meditation is to focus on breath and is the essential kind of Buddhist monk meditation. This process of meditation is also termed “mindfulness of breathing” as one focuses on the breathing process, which is the best way to regulate the mind. This form of meditation helps to concentrate on the breathing process and leads one to a deeper state of absorption, which can also be termed as “Dhyana” in Buddhism.

Benevolent Meditation

Benevolent meditation is also termed “Bhavna” in Sanskrit that means “to spread affection or kindness”. When one follows this kind of meditation, one develops the attitude of generosity using thoughtfulness. In the first stage, one feels the golden light for oneself, which includes all the optimistic visualisations like being happy or more progressive in life. In the second stage of benevolent meditation, simply feel love or use an image to have a kind feeling. The third stage directs one towards someone whom you don’t know, and the fourth stage directs you towards the person whom you dislike. After the fourth stage, one reaches the last stage of benevolent meditation, where your mind feels for yourself, a friend, a neutral being and an enemy.

Benevolent meditation is more about being kind and generous to everyone. It’s to spread joy to everyone whether it’s you, your friend, your enemy or someone you don’t know. Your heart should extend the feeling of love towards everyone in the world and everywhere else. One should have goodwill for the entire nature’s creation as this is the only way to propagate a boundless heart.

Another benevolent meditation Tibetan practice involves breathing in all the miseries of others and breathing out all the happiness, encouraging Buddhist compassion meditation.

Receptive Meditation

The receptive type of Buddhist meditation practice involves the mindfulness of breathing, and one needs to balance between intentionally guiding scrutiny and being receptive to the rising experiences. Receptive meditation emphasizes the attitude of open, receptive attention. It just involves being mindful.

In Japanese Zen Buddhist meditation practice, “zazen” is widely common, which means to just sit calmly, though the meditator is aware of all the experiences happening around just sits calmly without judging or changing things according to himself/herself. There is a similar practice in Tibetan tradition, which is also known as “Dzogchen”. In receptive meditation, the meditator sits calmly with his/her eyes opened.

Contemplative Meditation

This kind of Buddhist meditation includes meditation on uncertainty and interrelationships. Contemplative meditation repeatedly turns one’s attention to a point, and at the same time, one should be open to the situations that arise from the experiences.

Buddhist meditation posture

One of the well known Buddhist meditation postures is “the Lotus position”. This posture involves sitting with your legs crossed with your left foot on the top of your right thigh and vice-versa. If one is unable to attain this accurate posture, one should just sit straight with cross-legged supporting both the knees on the floor.

One can also sit in any posture that keeps the spine straight. One can also meditate in a chair and sit quietly while meditating. Meditation, according to Buddha helps the body to be alert and relaxes it. A right Buddhist meditation posture is all about the mind and helps to enhance the inner experience.

One should take their time before as well as after one meditates. One should give time to himself/herself so that the instant thoughts at that moment die and the mind relaxes as well as get ready for the meditation.

Benefits of Buddhist meditation

How do you meditate in Buddhism? Buddhism has become the most popular practice in the West because of which Buddhist meditation has become the most common form of meditation. Many people across the world practice Buddhist meditation without being a Buddhist as it helps a lot to establish insight, helps to increase the concentration power and is the best remedy for stress.

Buddhist meditation helps to cope up with persistent pain, depression and helps to awaken incorporeality. There are many Buddhist centres, meditation classes as well as courses that help one meditate like a Buddhist. Not only this, many websites, as well as books, help people guide to Buddhist meditation.

The reason behind Buddhist meditation

Every person has his/her point of view about the concept of meditation. One of the most popular Buddhist teachers, ” 17th Karmapa” said the Buddhist meditation helps to revive the trust within ourselves. It enhances our knowledge as well as benevolence. Buddhist meditation is the best way to relax one’s mind. It helps to soothe the mind and make it quiet like a still pool where many animals will come to the pool and extinguish their thirst, but the pool remains still. This is the reason behind Buddhist meditation. It gives happiness and satisfaction.

Buddhist meditation helps one to build a relationship with oneself. It helps to propagate optimistic characteristics in one’s personality. Buddhist meditation helps to enhance certain traits like constancy, endurance, consideration, as well as clear perspective. Buddhist healing meditation helps to improve thinking, flexibility, kindness, and relationships. Meditation, according to Buddha, is the best tool to accomplish emancipation from suffering.

Challenges of Buddhist meditation

One of the biggest challenges that one faces in Buddhist meditation are the misinterpretation of being a perfect meditator. Many people get so concerned about the way they meditate that they forget the reason for meditating and are unable to relax their mind thinking about the perfect way to meditate. One should remember the simple concept that if one can breathe, one can meditate.

Another challenge is the time limit one has for meditation. Many people have questions regarding the time limit for meditation. One should remember that one meditates to relax the mind and not to burden the mind about meditation. One can take any time slot to meditate no matter how short it is, but your focus should remain the same whatever time you choose. One should figure out what can be managed and make it a habit.

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