Expert: Justin Choo - 8/18/2006

Question
How can I meditate to become enlightened? I am a Christian and want to start right away.  I simply need instructions to start so I don't do it wrong.

Answer
Hi Randall,

Thank you for asking me.

First we have to qualify what we mean by "enlightenment".  In the Buddhist context it means complete eradication of greed, hatred and delusion.  "Delusion"  meaning ignorance of the 4 Noble Truths and the Nobel 8thfold Path which the Buddha discovered.  So to become enlightened we must first fully understand the Buddha's teachings and put them into practice.  I have not met anyone yet who has completely eradicated greed, hatred and delusion....I mean not even a trace of desire or aversion.  To be realistic, Buddhists strive to work TOWARDS final liberation, that is, enlightenment.  It most probably may not be during this life, but in future life-time.  

If it is so easy to be enlightened, then the Buddha would not have to spend aeons of lifetimes cultivating his mind to achieve perfection.  His teachings would not be worth a cent, if it is so easy.

Perhaps a little bit of what Buddhist meditation is all about, will help you get started.  
The initial exercise is to train to calm this mind which is in the habit of wandering everywhere. It cannot stay still. A wandering mind is an untrained mind, and is therefore untamed or wild. It is like a monkey, jumping here and there, and up and down. It is also like a fish out of water, fluttering and flapping feverishly.

Once we can calm our mind, it will begin to come to know itself, and will be ready to be trained and developed. The ultimate purpose is to develop the mind to become very stable and pure. Purity means the absence (or at least, reduction) of negative mental activities such as thoughts of greed, hatred and anger. Through constant practice, we can develop our mind to be in this stable and pure state for a longer period of time. When this is achieved, the mind is able to develop certain ability (or power) to experience supramundane insight into the "unknown" both of the past and the future. Of course very few people (if any) have this ability. However, Buddhist meditation is not for developing this type of ability. The ultimate mission of a Buddhist meditator is to achieve release from this unsatisfactory existence, and to attain perfect peace.

The technique is to introduce an object for the mind to focus on, so that it doesn't wander around.  The Buddha introduced the contemplation of focusing our mind on the movements of our breath.  Breathing is a natural process.  When one breathes in, one focuses on the movement of air going through the tip of one's nose.  Likewise one focuses on the out-breath at the tip of the nose when breathing out.  This method is called mindfulness of breathing in and breathing out.   By constantly and patiently cultivating this mindfulness, one will gradually be able to bring the wandering mind to concentrate on the breathing.  Whenever one's mind wanders, one will bring it back to this process of mindfulness of breathing.

For a lay Buddhist, meditation is more of a "training session" to tame and calm the mind, so that when he gets out of the training session, he is still able to maintain the calmness and alertness during his daily activities.

You need to study Buddhism before getting started. One needs to keep certain moral precepts before embarking into Buddhist meditation.  May I recommend that you surf through the following Buddhist sites to study the teachings of the Buddha:

http://www.geocities.com/wave_books
You can obtain excellent publications from them.

http://www.buddhanet.net  (The “mother” of all Buddhist web sites)
http://www.dharmanet.org
http://www.buddhism.about.com
http://www.parami.org/buddhistanswers/index.htm
http://www.nibbana.com
http://www.triplegem.net
http://www.buddhistchannel.tv
http://www.bswa.org/modules/news/
http://dharmaavenue.com/home.htm  
http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org
www.fundamental-buddhism.com
http://www.maithri.com/index.asp
http://www.parami.org/buddhistanswers/
http://www.abhayagiri.org/


If you need further clarification please come back.

Smile from justinchoo :-)