Buddhist Topics
How to Meditate
Formal Meditation
Other Types of
Mediation
The Four Noble Truths
The Four Immeasurables
The Eightfold Noble Path
The Six Perfections
The Eight Verses of Mind Training
The Foundation of All Good Qualities
BUDDHISM AND DEVOTIONAL PRACTICES
PREPARATION:
Choose a quiet spot where you can be undisturbed for regular meditation. If you
are from the Buddhist tradition set out 7 bowls of water as offerings, along
with incense and light. Often, in other traditions, a candle, flowers and
sometimes incense are excellent offerings to set the mood. The room should be
thoroughly cleaned prior to sitting to avoid distraction, and to create a sacred
space.
PROSTRATION:
In the Buddhist tradition, we prostrate 3 times to represent purified
body speech and mind and to create an attitude of humility to our highest self,
and to our spiritual teachers, wisdom of the Buddha (dharma) and colleagues on
the path (sangha). Catholics genuflect, or complete the sign of the cross.
Christians and Jews put their palms together in front of them and bow their
heads, sometimes kneeling. Muslims bow before Allah. Create a way to physically
connect with the idea that you are creating sacred space, and have entered a
place of respect for yourself, your God/Universal Symbol and others.
SITTING:
Sit comfortably in the vajra posture with legs crossed and soles of the
opposite foot on the opposite thigh, OR in the half-lotus with the left leg
underneath the right leg with the sole on the opposite thigh, OR in the easy
posture with crossed legs and both feet on the floor, OR in a chair with your
feet on the floor. Hands should resting in your lap, right hand on top of the
left hand, 2 inches below your navel with palms upward, slightly cupped and
thumbs touching gently, with arms held loosely at your sides. Your back should
be erect without being painful. Your jaw should be relaxed, with your tongue
pressed to the roof of your mouth just behind your upper teeth. Your head should
be bent forward a little so that you naturally gaze at the floor in front of
you, and your eyes should be kept slightly open, looking towards the tip of your
nose. You may close your eyes if you find this more helpful in the beginning.
MOTIVATION:
The best motivation is to sit for the sake of enlightenment in order that
you may benefit all sentient beings. The next best is to sit for the sake of
your own knowledge of the ultimate reality. If neither of these are of interest
to you, then set a firm intention/goal for that day’s practice along with a goal
to achieve quietude.
PRAYER:
As Buddhists, we take refuge 3 times, recite the four immeasureables, the
prayer of the seven limbs and perhaps the Foundation of All Good Qualities or
the Eight Verses of Mind Training in the Gelug Tibetan Tradition. Pray in your
own tradition at this point in your practice. Often prayer involves purifying
yourself by confessing any wrongdoing, celebrating something wonderful you and
others have done and requesting what you need openheartedly to the deity while
offering yourself as a means to accomplish the goals you request.
Breathe in and out through the nostrils and watch your breaths, counting 1 through 10. Gently reorient yourself when distracted, beginning to count again. See if you can feel the breath traveling all the way down to your navel and back up again as you do this. You might notice that the breath becomes quieter as you continue. This is a good sign.
- Should you find yourself
following joyful thoughts, becoming excited, or anxiously following your
day, simply notice this and choose not to follow the paths your thoughts are
creating. Bring your attention back to the flow of your breath.
- Should you find yourself getting
sleepy, pay attention to the posture of your back, head and eyes (open them
slightly, if you had closed them). You might wish to visualize a tiny seed
at a central spot a few inches above your navel and place your mind there
for a time while you breathe. If neither of these works, It is likely that a
rest or a walk would be better for you now than meditation!
- If you are in physical
discomfort, gently adjust yourself. If you find that you continue to want
adjustment, observe this and offer this up as your connection to all of the
suffering that all beings experience, returning to your breath.
Alternatively, breathe more deeply and slowly, allowing yourself to relax
more deeply and release tension with each breath. Or, choose to sweep the
body from head to toe, consciously relaxing any tensions that you observe
(this method is an effective meditation on its own and will sometimes be
your assignment)
- Weird/unusual experiences? Let
them come and go, no matter how annoying or blissful. The point is to find
balance, not to attach to the unusual. Just observe whatever happens and
learn from it as you do the other actions of the mind. We can discuss them
in greater depth in session if you are struggling in this way.
- Discouraged? You might feel as if your mind is more cluttered meditating than it was before you began. This is actually a common phenomenon when we are unaccustomed to observing our own chattering. Eventually, all minds settle. Sometimes, it takes more time than we might like, however, being gentle with yourself is its own meditation.
ANALYTICAL
MEDITATION
Sometimes the reading and analysis of a sacred text following a centering
breathing meditation can be very helpful. Read passages slowly and turn them
over in your mind until you feel a sense of having digested them fully. If you
can memorize a brief text or prayer, this is often the best, but study of sacred
wisdom is appropriate meditation, even if this is not possible.
Another form of analytical meditation is to focus on loving kindness, emptiness, or another of the positive emotional states and attempt to allow the mind to rest in that state more and more deeply.
VISUALIZATION
Visualization practices can be discussed in session that resonate with
your own spiritual tradition. Many Tibetan Buddhists, and others who feel no
contradiction to their faith, practice visualizing the Buddha of Compassion or
The Medicine Buddha.
CHANTING/MANTRA
Most spiritual traditions have a repetitive phrase that allows the mind
to focus, relax and experience release into devotion. Consider this as another
form of meditation practice.
DEDICATION
Whenever you meditate, even for a moment, always dedicate the positive
potential to the enlightenment (or happiness, or spiritual release, for example)
of all sentient beings.
The Four
Noble Truths
The truth of suffering : Suffering of pain, mental and
physical illness; suffering of things continually changing and degenerating;
and the all pervasive suffering of the human condition.
The truth of the cause of suffering: Our own ignorance, attachment, craving and grasping after things, people and experiences; as well as having an aversion for those things we don’t like.
The truth of freedom from suffering: Being mindful of the laws of cause and effect (karma). Finding a balance between going towards and moving away from pain and pleasure to achieve equanimity.
Nirvana is peace:
- If you can be free of thinking that things are permanent, unchanging and only as YOU see them in any particular moment and relax into things as they are, you will be at peace and find enlightenment.
- How wonderful it would be if all
beings were to abide in equanimity, free of bias, attachment and anger;
feeling close to some and distant from others. They shall abide in this
way. I myself shall cause them to abide in this way. Guru-deity, please
inspire me to be able to do so.
- How wonderful it would be if all
beings were to have happiness and its causes. They shall have happiness and
its causes. I myself shall cause them to have happiness and its causes.
Guru-deity, please inspire me to be able to do so.
- How wonderful it would be if all
beings were to be free of suffering and its causes. They shall be free. I
myself shall cause them to be free. Guru-deity, please inspire me to be
able to do so.
- How wonderful it would be if all beings were never separated from perfect spiritual teachers and the freedom and joy of enlightenment. They shall be never be separated. I myself shall cause them never to be separated. Guru-deity, please inspire me to be able to do so.
- Right views (or thinking clearly without emotion)
- Right aims (or motivation that is free of harming self or others)
- Right speech (that is kind, open and honest)
- Right action (ethics, following our conscience)
- Right livelihood (not harming others in our workplace and environment)
- Right perseverance in the path (sticking to your practices through thick and thin)
- Right mindfulness (keeping your mind on what you are doing, undistracted mind)
- Right contemplation (taking time to think deeply about important matters in our life, also known as meditation)
- Generosity
- Ethics
- Patience
- Joyful Perseverance
- Concentration (shamatha or one pointed awareness)
- Wisdom or Discriminating Awareness (vipassana, or understanding/insight into emptiness)
Texts emphasizing Tantra add the following four:
- Skill in means (compassionate activity)
- Aspiration (towards enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings)
- Strength (of mind)
- Deep awareness (of Mahamudra or the great seal of the union of 2 truths of conventional and ultimate reality)
Eight Verses of Mind Training by Langri Thangpa Dorje Senge
For the sake of all sentient beings who are more precious than a wish fulfilling jewel, I will constantly practice holding them dear.
Whenever I am with others, I will practice seeing myself as the lowest of all and respectfully hold others as supreme.
Whenever a disturbing attitude arises, endangering myself and others, I will firmly confront and avert it.
Whenever I meet a person of bad nature, overwhelmed with negative energy and intense suffering, I will practice seeing that person as if they were a precious treasure, rare to find.
When others, out of jealousy, mistreat me with slander and abuse, I will practice accepting defeat and offering the victory to them.
When someone in whom I have placed great trust and whom I have helped, hurts me very badly, I will practice seeing that person as if they were my precious teacher.
In short, I shall offer all benefits and happiness to all beings, my kind mothers. I shall practice in secret, taking upon myself all of their negative harms and sufferings.
Without these practices being defiled by the eight worldly concerns,* and by understanding the true nature of reality, I will practice without grasping to release all sentient beings from the negative unsubdued mind and karma.
*The 8 worldly concerns are: separation from what we want and getting what we don't want (gain and loss), pleasure and pain, praise and blame; and finally fame and notoriety. Notice that it is difficult to separate one from the other.
Foundation of All Good Qualities by Lama Je Tsong Khapa
The foundation of all good qualities is the kind and venerable spiritual master. Understanding that dependence upon him or her is the root of the path, may I rely on him or her with great respect and continuous effort. Inspire me thus.
A human life with leisure is obtained this once, understanding that it is of great value and is hard to find, may I practice without laziness and realize what the holy beings have taught. Inspire me thus.
The fluctuation of our body and life is like a bubble in water. Remember death, for we perish so quickly. After death, the effects of black and white karma pursue us as a shadow follows a body. Knowing this, may I be careful to abandon even the slightest negative effort and instead to accumulate virtue. Inspire me thus.
There is no pleasure in samsaric perfections, they are the door to all misery. Understanding that the fault of samsaric perfections is that they cannot be trusted, may I be instead intent on the bliss of liberation. Inspire me thus.
That pure thought, to obtain liberation, produces great conscientiousness, mindfulness and awareness. May I train in the supreme root of the doctrine, the Pratimoksha vows.** Inspire me thus.
Seeing that all beings, my kind mothers, have fallen like myself into the ocean of samsaric existence, may I train in the supreme heart, dedicated to enlightenment, in order that I may free all sentient beings from their sufferings. Inspire me thus.
Generating the altruistic intention without the three moral practices does not lead to enlightenment. Therefore, may I train in the vows of the spiritual conquerors and their children. Inspire me thus.
By quieting distraction to false objects and understanding the true nature of reality, may I quickly generate within my mindstream, the path uniting calm abiding and special insight. Inspire me thus.
When trained in the common path, I am a suitable vessel, let me enter with ease the great gateway of the fortunate ones, the Vajrayana, the highest of all vehicles. Inspire me thus.
The basis of all attainments are the pure vows and commitments which I have pledged, therefore, let me keep them, even at the cost of my life. Inspire me thus.
By understanding the significance of the 2 stages of the tantric path, may I practice without laziness the 4 sessions of yoga and realize what the holy beings have taught. Inspire me thus.
May all sacred teachers who walk the path and all of those who walk it with me have long lives, May I quickly and completely pacify all outer and inner hindrances, grant such inspiration I pray.
In all of my rebirths may I never be separated from perfect spiritual masters. Attaining all qualities of the stages and paths, may I quickly achieve the state of Vajardhara.
**No killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying (wearing of perfumes, sitting on high seats of honor, singing and dancing other than in reverence are additional vows taken for a day in order to purify oneself, the other vows are taken either individually or as a group in front of a master for life, or for a stated period of time.)