Expert: Justin Choo - 7/27/2011

Question
Hello again mr choo, it is me Seth again. I don't know if you remember but you answered a question for me a while ago and your help was extremely valuable and again I thank you for your time and knowledge. My question this time is a silly one as I imagine most buddhists already know or were taught of which I am neither. You see after exhaustive research I kept finding different answers to my question and even fewer (close to none actually) specified which school they were relative to so I decided to seek your knowledge once more. My question is how do Theravada buddhists meditate? I think I've got the basic idea down and after looking everywhere i sure hope so, but I'm still hazy on the details. Please answer with utmost haste and again thank you for your time and knowledge.

Answer
Hi Seth,

I searched through my answer archives, and yes now I remember you, the young lady with "my cup is empty" comment. (LOL)

Aha!  Buddhist meditation!  You are wrong in assuming that Buddhists already know meditation.  Many Buddhists are as confused as you.  Worse still, some may have wrong views on this subject.  To add insult to injury, many will claim that their methods are the best!  Such is the problem in life.  Buddhist meditation is as controversial as "fashion"!

Allow me to copy&paste two of my earlier answers on this subject:

"Let's take the example of training a dog.  Most ignorant dog-owners while taking their dogs for a walk end up letting their dogs taking them for a walk.  The untrained dog will pull the leash and the poor owner will try to pull back, but the dog will always be the leader in front taking its owner for a walk!  The main reason for this comedy of error is that the dog has not been properly trained to obey the owner.

We are not very different from the owner of the untrained dogs, sorry to say that.  Our minds take us for a walk because they are not trained to obey us.  Each time, we succumb to external stimuli through our 5 external senses, and we react intuitively to satisfy our minds' desires.  We are not taking charge of our lives.  An untrained mind is an unrestrained mind.  It leads us to react foolishly to external stimuli without regards to any moral responsibility.  

When we train a dog, we start with taming it with a chocker chain, that is, each time it pulls, we will jerk the chocker to send a painful message to the dog that it is not good manners to pull.  After a while the dog will get the message, and will not be pulling.  Same with the mind.  It wanders continuously, seeking gratifications from external stimuli.  If not restraint, it will be like a spoilt child getting everything it wants regardless of consequences.  When we sit in meditation, we are actually in a training session where we try to tame the mind from wandering.  It is a very difficult process because our mind likes to wander.  It is its very nature to wander continuously.  So we require patience and perseverance in our sessions to repeatedly bring back our wandering mind to focus on an object or to be aware of this wandering.  Over time we will be successful to tame this mind to be more quiet and calm.  Once this is achieved, then we can train this mind to obey us.  Just like, once the dog is tamed, we can proceed to train it to obey and to perform tricks!  It is common practice to focus our mind by directing our breath to note either at the tip of our nose or to focus on the rising and falling of the abdomen. Or simply be aware of the breathing and focus on the “third eye”.  Each time a wandering thought occurs (and there will be many) simply note and bring back the mind to the focal point.  Over time, the mind will stay at the point for longer period.  The mind is now pliable and to a certain extent, tamed, and the person will experience a state of calmness and inner peace. Once the mind is tamed, the meditator is at a higher state of mind and he will be able to proceed to train the mind to follow his instructions.  He is now in control over his mind.  He is no longer a slave of his mind.  He will enjoy calm and inner peace with full control of his life."


"Meditation takes many forms. Here we are talking about the meditation which the Buddha practised. This in itself has many variations. In order to understand Buddhist meditation, you need to have at least a basic knowledge of Buddhism, especially on the subject of the mind and consciousness.

An untrained mind leads the person to whatever it fancies. The person succumbs to temptations of the senses very easily, because he has no control over the dictates of the mind. We use the term "mindfulness" to differentiate between reaction and response. Take an example; a person comes and criticize you. The natural reaction is to retaliate. A mindful response is to remain calm. When a person is alert to external stimuli, he is said to be mindful. Animals react by natural instincts. Humans too react likewise. If the person is not trained to control his mind, he will react by instinct most of the time. I am sure you would have experienced some moments of clear mindfulness in certain things you do, but most of the time allowed your mind to take charge. Most people are like that, including me. Buddhist meditation is to train ourselves to be more mindful for longer period and also under different conditions. In normal calm situation, we have no problem to maintain mindfulness. However, in times of adversity, it is a very different matter. Even with a bit of agitation, we will tend to lose our mindfulness, and just react to the situation.

You would come across those well trained in human relations being able to keep their cool and be in control of the situation. Buddhist meditation is something like that. When a person goes deeper in the meditation practice, he would be able to direct his mind to do his bidding, instead of being a slave of his mind. Then his mind becomes clear, and he will be able to see the true nature of existence, which is "self-awareness".

One of the Buddhist meditation method is called insight meditation. First you need to calm your mind by "fixing" it to an object, like be aware of the breathing in and breathing out. When the mind is calm, you can then direct it to observe the natural phenomena of existence. Over time you will realize certain characteristics of life. In this process it is called "insight"; insight into viewing things as they actually are; and not as they seem to be."

I hope the above explanation helps.

Please go to the two links below for further information.  The first link explains very briefly the three types of Buddhist meditation.  The second from wikipedia, gives a more comprehensive explanation according to Buddhist texts.


1. http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2008/11/meditation.html


2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_meditation

Take care.

Justin Choo