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Expert: - 7/22/2010


Question
QUESTION: Why are there different kinds of Buddhist meditation?

ANSWER: Hi Chris,
Firstly because there are different kinds of people.
Secondly, because over the millennia Buddhism has developed in some very different cultures.
Hope that helps.
AW

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your answer, which is ver helpful, but would it be possible to provide some examples of differences in different Buddhist schools of thought or practices?

Thank you

Answer
Hi again Chris,
Well the most obvious example that comes to mind is the way in which Theravada Buddhism, for instance, although it does include devotion to the Buddha, makes little use of the "deities" that are very important in Tibetan Buddhism. It is a branch of Tibetan Buddhism that I myself follow, so I must add that the "deities" are not the same as the kind of deities that might be thought to, for instance, control good or bad luck, or the weather, or be behind diseases, health, rain and so on. They are much more of an internal thing, representing what we might call spiritual states. But anyway, they are important, and they are not really found in Theravada Buddhism at all.
Does that help?

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Alex Wilding

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I have practiced and studied Tibetan Buddhism in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions since the early 1970s, and have a good knowledge of theory, history and of the struggles of trying to practice the teachings, including meditation, while leading a normal, modern life. I am also available to provide background information for journalists.

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I have been a practitioner since the early 1970s; have run a small Buddhist centre in the English Midlands and was vice-president of Kagyu Benchen Ling e.V. in Germany, for whom I managed three large Buddhist summer-camps. More importantly, I maintain a habit of personal practice. I am the "owner" of the Kagyu list at Yahoo.

Education/Credentials
My first degree was an M.A. from Oxford. I later obtained a Master of Philosophy degree for a research thesis in "Initiation in Tibetan Buddhism" from Leicester University. I also have engineering and educational qualifications.

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