Even though k failed in meditation, Meditation works. For who want to compare the 'Technique' with K's 'No technique', I would explain the method I have understood and followed. It may even help some, who want to do it.

The Method of Meditation.(click to go to the site)

Meditation practice seems to be same in Buddhism as well as in Hinduism, Yoga and others.

In Buddhist meditation, meditation is divided onto two as Samatha (Concentration Or Jhana) and Vi-Passana Meditation.

Though Samatha (Concentration Or Jhana) is similar to Raja Yoga meditation in Yoga, there is a difference, which one need to understand, to fully utilize the potential of the Meditation put forward by Lord Buddha. If one understand the method and object and objective it is the easiest way of coming to Jhana (Concentration).

Lord Buddha before enlightenment was known as Gauthama Siddhartha. After leaving the householder's life as a prince, in search of the Truth, leading to deathless state and release from sufferings, he followed spiritual practices and meditations under different teachers.

Gautama Siddhartha as an ascetic followed Concentration (Jhana) Meditation under the teachers known as Álára Káláma and Uddaka Rámaputta, and attained to highest Samadis (4th Jhana and the parallels of it).

Then he followed vigorous practice of 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga' of self-mortification and fasting for about 6 years. But failing to achieve the enlightenment through this practice of 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga', he again reverts back to Samadi meditation.

But this time he again starts the Samadi (Jhana /Concentration) meditation with a different emphasis. Though he learned Samadi (Jhana /Concentration) meditation under Álára Káláma and Uddaka Rámaputta, he remembers of his attainment to 1st Jhana (Concentration), when he was a child. When there was a ploughing festival, he was seated under a rose-apple tree and concentrates on the breath to come to First Jhana (Ecstasy). Then he decides this is the way to follow and names it as a Middle path without extremes.

Why did he gave an emphasis to this childhood experience, where he only attained to First Jhana, instead of mentioning Álára Káláma and Uddaka Rámaputta, where he was able to get at 4th Jhana?

And why did he called that his new approach as Middle path or Middle way? Is not the practice under Álára Káláma and Uddaka Rámaputta, Middle path?

Answer: Practicing Samadi meditation under Yoga involves strenuous exercises of breathing practice. When one comes to Samadi (Jhana), therefore he would conclude that he came to Samadi due to this practice. This may be the assumption Gauthama Siddhartha made. But when he remembered his childhood experience of Samadi (Jhana), he realized that Samadi (Jhana) is a natural state of mind for who is bodily healthy and the mind is uncorrupted.

We can see this clearly in the instructions to Anapana Sati (Meditation on mindfulness on breathing) meditation. Lord Buddha says one must exert effort in meditation, but not too much effort, which may make the mind restless. Hence, making enough effort without going into extreme, one can easily come to Samadi (Jhana), if he is healthy. This is Middle way in the meditation itself.

Therefore, practices under Álára Káláma and Uddaka Rámaputta, are not Middle path.

Some say the Lord Buddha's explanation of Middle path refers to a path between the extreme vigorous practice of 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga' of self-mortification and 'enjoying the comfort of life as a prince'. This latter part I cannot agree, that is, 'enjoying the comfort of life as a prince' is not the other end of self mortification or 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga'. It is a normal life of a king, even which may be healthy, leading to realization. There are many instances in Sutta, where Lord Buddha mentions Kings attaining to higher realizations as kings.

But at that time in India, there was another practice, "involving in sex and pleasure to the extremes", known as "Kamasukalikanu Yoga", to arrive at Enlightenment. The idea is, by involving in sex and pleasure to the extremes, one will be free from it. This is the other extreme to self mortification or 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga'. Though, due to past Karmic effect, Gauthama Siddhartha under took the practice of self mortification or 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga', he did not involve himself in the other extreme of "involving in sex and pleasure to the extreme", to get at the Truth.

Is "Kamasukalikanu Yoga", the present "Tantra Yoga"?

Even though, he did not practice both the extremes, one meaning of Middle way or path means avoiding "involving in sex and pleasure to the extreme" and avoiding "extreme vigorous practice of 'Anthakilamathanu Yoga' of self-mortification", as a means to Enlightenment.

The other meaning I would like to stress is that the Middle way or path means avoiding too much effort or lax in effort, in the Samadi (Jhana) meditation itself, and avoiding vigorous practice of Raja Yoga. Though Raja Yoga practice can bring about Samadi (Jhana), it is unnecessary waste of time and energy.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering

This post was last updated by Nilambe Yogi Anurada (account deleted) Fri, 15 Jul 2011.

Nilambe Yogi Anurada wrote:
Even though k failed in meditation,

Non sense.
gb

We are watching, not waiting, not expecting anything to happen but watching without end. JK

Technique or Method of Meditation Practice.

Learned meditation practice reading many Buddhist books, which describes the method put forwarded by Lord Buddha, in his sermons, known as Suttas found in books of various Nikayas (Volumes). Later I used to read the Suttas themselves.

Having a glimpse of an idea of Raja Yoga, I have not come across any books really describing the method. Hence, had no chance of trying that method. Instead of explaining the method, those books about Raja Yoga, insisted that it has to be learned under a Guru.

Though one can learns the meditation from books, as I did, or from a teacher, as some may do, a lot things one has to learn by oneself by practicing the basic method, to suit and adopt the meditation technique to oneself.

The Requirements.

In order to be successful in the Practice of meditation and to come to Meditation (Jh?na) the following basic requirements should be there.

1. Young (less than 30 years)




2. Very good health and Very good fitness in body similar to a good athlete.




3. Good intelligence, education and observation power, problem solving, searching
   and researching ability.




4. Clear grasp of the meaning of Meditation Object and the technique.




5. Clear understanding of the Meditation Objective.




6. Motivation and determination.




7. Good behavior (including non-smoking and drinking).




8. Total abstaining from sex in thoughts,words and body, by observing Brahmacharya.




9. Regular practice in the morning and in the evening.




10. A suitable place.

The last and difficult obstacle to meditation is "doubt" out of 5 hindrances. Opinions and ideas of who could not achieve 'Samadi', would be a greatest hindrance. Hence, one should not discuss meditation with, who could not come to 'Samadi'.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering

Now I will discuss the above points one by one, but starting from point number 4. The reason why the point number 4 is taken first is:-

A. One can start the meditation practice right away, while going through the other points, in order to find out the relevance of them.

B. Other points would be discussed while explaining the point 4.

1. Clear grasp of the meaning of Meditation Object and the technique.

The technique here is to keep the one's attention on one item, that is on one Object. There are many meditation Objects, where the attention is focused. But I would be discussing only one object, on which I practiced. That is to focus the attention on Breathing. There are several advantage of using this Object, that is using Breathing, as the meditation Object.

a. It is always available, therefore, when a meditation practitioner becomes adapt to meditation, he can practice any where, even while traveling in a bus or a train.

b. When one focuses the attention on breathing, attention is focused inward. He detects the mind (i.e. thoughts, emotions, etc). The main idea of meditation is to detect the mind, and to purify it. The proof of purification is, that one will be able to pay attention on breathing uninterrupted. Because, distracting thoughts, emotions, etc are removed, and mind is without defilements.

c. When the meditation improves, Breathing becomes subtle, difficult to detect, therefore, the meditation practitioner has to increase his attention to track the Breathing, thereby going deeper into meditation, detecting subtle attributes and forces deeper in the mind,

So from the above, it should be clear, that the object of the meditation is Breathing. That is we try to maintain our attention on the breathing. The Objective of doing this exercise also should be clear. That is we are to get our mind on one pointed attention, without wandering after thoughts. That is we are developing a skill, where we can keep our mind focused, where we want.

To practice we need a "10. A suitable place." The most suitable place is one's own room. Suitability means the secludedness. If one were to get disturbed by others intrusions, one cannot go in the sitting for hours as meditation improves. There should not be disturbing sounds and any annoying noises. If the room is sound proof with good ventilation it is better. Other suitability of one's own room is, one is having everything one needs at his disposal, because it is his house. If one were to be at a meditation centre, his needs will be constrained by the availability of the centers resources, and other meditation practitioners presence, time table, etc. One's privacy is also compromised.

One should have a "9. Regular practice in the morning and in the evening.", and no more. At the beginning a session should not last more than 15 minutes. Until one comes to the Meditation (i.e. at least to 1st Jhana-Samadi) he must not try to have more meditation practice sessions, other than in the morning and in the evening.

The practice itself is not difficult.

One sits in a chair or on a mattress comfortably, keeping the body erect and relaxed. This is to enable a smooth flow of breathing as well as it will let the breathing to become subtle as one progresses in meditation.

Then, he should make some initial resolutions or determination of what he want to achieve, according to his present progress. This resolutions or determination he should make 3 to 7 times. It should be worded in a more meaningful way using the language which is more meaningful. Some of the initial resolutions or determination I would like to suggest are;

• I would meditate 15 minutes, undisturbed.




• Sounds would not be annoying.




• Body and mind would relax quickly.




• there would be less disturbing thoughts.




• mind and attention would always be on the breathing.




• mind won't go astray. etc.

Then, one must start meditating, keeping the awareness and attention on in and out breathing, totally forgetting the resolutions or determination, without thinking or expecting them to happen. When one does not expect, then only, these resolutions or determination would take place.

One must not purposefully breathe. He must let the breathing to take place naturally on it own.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering

Nilambe Yogi Anurada,

You are a completely deluded idiot.

"See thought arising; watch it. Without that, all else is illusion and becoming."

The attention on the breathing will get disturbed by outside activities and inside activities. If one has chosen a better place, there would not be much outside disturbances, and if one must find ways and means to avoid them without creating conflicts.

Inner mind activities are the greatest disturbances, which needs more attention and ways and means to deal with them. But these disturbances themselves are the things one want to study deeper, and the main purpose of meditation as well. Buddhist meditation is not meant to achieve just 'Samadi', because it is very joyous and happy state. But because, Samadi (Jhana) apart from being a joyous and happy state, it is without defilements of anger, desire and ego. And it leads to wisdom and deeper intelligence and penetration.

So when one has achieved this Samadi (Jhana), he is ready for next meditation in Buddhism, that is Vipassana known as Insight Meditation. For Vipassana(Insight Meditation) one needs 'wisdom and deeper intelligence and penetration' gained by Samadi (Jhana) meditation.

When mind is distracted away from the attention to the breathing, after identifying each and every disturbances taking place, one must revert back the attention to the breathing. This maintaining the attention is a skill similar to balancing oneself on a horizontal bar. The more one practices, the skill will get developed. Once, the skill is developed then it is effortless.

The way to study the inner disturbances and to put them away in a meaningful way would be dealt separately.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering

Applying a thought.

In order to maintain the attention on the breathing one can apply a thought which is meaningful, showing the process of the breathing.

He can say in his mind, when he takes an in breathing, "breathing in" and in out breathing, as "breathing out". These inner utterances of the process of breathing will help to maintain the attention in a meaningful way. It must not become a mere repetition of the sentence. Each time one says the sentence, he must pay attention to the meaning of the sentence in relation to the process of the breathing. Then one would find, if he were to say it without meaning it would become a repetition and that the process of the breathing would be mixed up with the sentence. That is when the mind says "Breathing in" he would be actually 'breathing out'.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering

At a certain point a meditator would find that his mind is repeating the thought applied. That is, it would continue to say, "Breathing in" and "Breathing out". At this point the thought applied is sustained without conscious effort.

Now, the meditator has to relate the inner repeating or the sustained thoughts, to their relevant process of In breathing and out breathing, meaningfully.

Attaining Samadi makes Awareness Powerful. And by Powerful Awareness can guards the Senses, i.e. one guard the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. If Senses are not guarded by Awareness, thoughts of anger, desire and ego would arise, causing suffering