Editing Meditation (section)

====Buddhism====
[[File:BodhidharmaYoshitoshi1887.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Bodhidharma]] practicing [[zazen]]]]
{{Main|Buddhist meditation}}

[[Buddhism|Buddhists]] pursue meditation as part of the path toward [[Bodhi|awakening]] and [[nirvana]].{{refn|group=note|For instance, {{harvtxt|Kamalashila|2003|p=4}}, states that Buddhist meditation "includes any method of meditation that has [[Bodhi|Enlightenment]] as its ''ultimate'' aim." Likewise, {{harvtxt|Bodhi|1999}} writes: "To arrive at the experiential realization of the truths it is necessary to take up the practice of meditation.... At the climax of such contemplation the mental eye ... shifts its focus to the unconditioned state, [[Nirvana|Nibbana]]...." A similar although in some ways slightly broader definition is provided by:{{sfn|Fischer-Schreiber|Ehrhard|Diener|1991|p=142}} "'''Meditation'''&nbsp;– general term for a multitude of religious practices, often quite different in method, but all having the same goal: to bring the consciousness of the practitioner to a state in which he can come to an experience of 'awakening,' 'liberation,' 'enlightenment.'" {{harvtxt|Kamalashila|2003}} further allows that some Buddhist meditations are "of a more preparatory nature" (p. 4).}} The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of [[Buddhism]] are ''[[Bhavana|bhāvanā]]'' ("development"), and the core practices of body contemplations ([[Patikulamanasikara|repulsiveness]] and [[Maraṇasati|cemetery contemplations]]) and ''[[anapanasati]]'' ([[mindfulness]] of in-and-out breathing){{refn|group=note|The [[Pāli]] and [[Sanskrit]] word ''bhāvanā'' literally means "development" as in "mental development." For the association of this term with "meditation," see {{harvtxt|Epstein|1995|p=105}}; and {{harvtxt|Fischer-Schreiber|Ehrhard|Diener|1991|p=20}}. As an example from a well-known discourse of the [[Pali Canon]], in "The Greater Exhortation to Rahula" (''Maha-Rahulovada Sutta'', [[Majjhima Nikaya|MN]] 62), Ven. [[Sariputta]] tells Ven. [[Rahula]] (in Pali, based on [http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/s0202m.mul1.xml VRI, n.d.)]: ''{{IAST|ānāpānassatiṃ, rāhula, bhāvanaṃ bhāvehi.}}'' {{cite web |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.062.than.html |title=Maha-Rahulovada Sutta: The Greater Exhortation to Rahula (MN 62) |author=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |author-link=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |year=2006 |access-date=16 February 2011 |archive-date=1 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201104736/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.062.than.html |url-status=live }} translates this as: "Rahula, develop the meditation [''{{IAST|bhāvana}}''] of [[anapanasati|mindfulness of in-&-out breathing]]." (Square-bracketed Pali word included based on Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, 2006, end note}} culminating in ''jhāna''/''[[Dhyāna in Buddhism|dhyāna]]'' or ''[[samādhi]]''.{{refn|group=note|See, for example, {{cite web |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html |title=One Tool Among Many: The Place of Vipassana in Buddhist Practice |author=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |author-link=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |year=1997 |access-date=16 February 2011 |archive-date=12 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412055344/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html |url-status=live }}; as well as {{harvtxt|Kapleau|1989|p=385}} for the derivation of the word "zen" from [[Sanskrit]] "dhyāna". [[Pāli Text Society]] Secretary Rupert Gethin, in describing the activities of [[śramaṇa|wandering ascetics]] contemporaneous with the Buddha, wrote:
: There is the cultivation of meditative and contemplative techniques aimed at producing what might, for the lack of a suitable technical term in English, be referred to as "altered states of consciousness". In the technical vocabulary of Indian religious texts such states come to be termed "meditations" ([Skt.:] ''dhyāna'' / [Pali:] ''jhāna'') or "concentrations" (''[[samādhi]]''); the attainment of such states of consciousness was generally regarded as bringing the practitioner to deeper knowledge and experience of the nature of the world. ({{harvnb|Gethin|1998|p=10}}) }}

While most classical and contemporary Buddhist meditation guides are school-specific,{{refn|group=note|Examples of contemporary school-specific classics include:
* from the Theravada tradition, {{harvtxt|Thera|1996}}.
* from the Zen tradition, {{harvtxt|Kapleau|1989}}.}} the root meditative practices of various body recollections and [[Anapanasati|breath meditation]] have been preserved and transmitted in almost all [[schools of Buddhism|Buddhist traditions]], through [[Buddhist texts]] like the ''[[Satipatthana Sutta]]'' and the [[Dhyana sutras]], and through oral teacher-student transmissions. These ancient practices are supplemented with various distinct interpretations of, and developments in, these practices.

The [[Theravāda]] tradition stresses the development of ''[[Samatha-vipassana|samatha]]'' and ''vipassana'', postulating over fifty methods for developing mindfulness based on the ''Satipatthana Sutta'',{{refn|group=note|{{harvtxt|Goldstein|2003}} writes that, in regard to the [[Satipatthana Sutta]], "there are more than fifty different practices outlined in this Sutta. The meditations that derive from these foundations of mindfulness are called ''vipassana''..., and in one form or another&nbsp;– and by whatever name&nbsp;– are found in all the major Buddhist traditions" (p. 92).}} and forty for developing concentration based on the [[Visuddhimagga]].

The [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan tradition]] incorporated [[Sarvastivada]] and Tantric practices, wedded with [[Madhyamaka]] philosophy, and developed thousands of visualization meditations.{{refn|group=note|Regarding Tibetan visualizations, {{harvtxt|Kamalashila|2003}}, writes: "The Tara meditation ... is one example out of thousands of subjects for visualization meditation, each one arising out of some meditator's visionary experience of enlightened qualities, seen in the form of [[Buddhahood|Buddhas]] and [[Bodhisattva]]s" (p. 227).}}

{{anchor|No thought}}The [[Zen]] tradition incorporated mindfulness and breath-meditation via the Dhyana sutras, which are based on the Sarvastivada-tradition. Sitting meditation, known as [[zazen]], is a central part of Zen practice. Downplaying the "petty complexities" of satipatthana and the body-recollections{{sfn|Sharf|2015|p=475}}{{sfn|McRae|1986|p=116}} (but maintaining the awareness of immanent death), the early Chan-tradition developed the notions or practices of ''wu nian'' ("no thought, no fixation on thought, such as one's own views, experiences, and knowledge"){{sfn|Yu|2021|p=157}}{{sfn|Lai|Cheng|2008|p=351}} and ''fēi sīliàng'' (非思量, Japanese: ''hishiryō'', "nonthinking");{{sfn|Suzuki|2014|p=112}} and ''kanxin'' ("observing the mind"){{sfn|Schaik|2018|p=70, 93}} and ''shou-i pu i'' (守一不移, "maintaining the one without wavering,"{{sfn|McRae|1986|p=143}} turning the attention from the objects of experience, to the nature of mind, the perceiving subject itself, which is equated with [[Buddha-nature]].{{sfn|Sharf|2014|p=939}}

The [[Silk Road transmission of Buddhism]] introduced Buddhist meditation to other Asian countries, reaching China in the 2nd century CE,<ref>{{cite book |author=Heinrich Dumoulin |year=2005 |title=Zen Buddhism: A History. Vol. 1: India and China |page=64}}</ref> and Japan in the 6th century CE.<ref>{{cite book |title=Zen Buddhism: A History, Vol. 2: Japan |author=Heinrich Dumoulin |translator1=James W. Heisig |translator2=Paul F. Knitter |year=2005 |isbn=0-941532-90-9 |page=5|publisher=World Wisdom }}</ref> In the modern era, Buddhist meditation techniques have become popular in the wider world, due to the influence of [[Buddhist modernism]] on Asian Buddhism, and [[Buddhism in the West|western lay interest]] in [[Zen]] and the [[Vipassana movement]], with many non-Buddhists taking-up meditative practices. The modernized concept of mindfulness (based on the Buddhist term ''[[Sati (Buddhism)|sati]]'') and related meditative practices have in turn led to [[Mindfulness#Therapy programs|mindfulness based therapies]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=March 5, 2021|title=How to Use Guided Meditation for Calm and Mindfulness|url=https://www.unitedwecare.com/guided-meditation-for-calm-mindfulness/|website=United We Care|access-date=May 26, 2021|archive-date=May 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526194508/https://www.unitedwecare.com/guided-meditation-for-calm-mindfulness/|url-status=live}}</ref>

=====Dhyana=====
[[Dhyāna in Buddhism|Dhyana]], while often presented as a form of focused attention or concentration, as in Buddhagosa's Theravada classic the ''[[Visuddhimagga]]'' ("Path of purification", 5th c. CE), according to a number of contemporary scholars and scholar-practitioners, it is actually a description of the development of perfected equanimity and mindfulness, apparently induced by satipatthana, an open monitoring of the breath, without trying to regulate it. The same description, in a different formula, can be found in the [[bojjhanga]], the "seven factors of awakening," and may therefore refer to the core program of early Buddhist ''bhavana''.<ref>Gethin, ''The Buddhist Path to Awakening''</ref> According to Vetter, dhyana seems to be a natural development from the sense-restraint and moral constrictions prescribed by the Buddhist tradition.<ref>Vetter, ''The meditative practices of early Buddhism''</ref>{{sfn|Polak|2011}}

=====Samatha and vipassana=====
The Buddha identified two paramount mental qualities that arise from wholesome meditative practice or ''bhavana'', namely ''[[samatha]]'' ("calm," "serenity"  "tranquility") and ''[[vipassana]]'' (insight). As the developing tradition started to emphasize the value of liberating insight, and ''dhyana'' came to be understood as concentration,{{sfn|Bronkhorst|1993|p=131}}{{sfn|Vetter|1988|pp=xxi–xxxvii}} ''[[Samatha-vipassana|samatha]]'' and ''[[vipassana]]'' were understood as two distinct meditative techniques. In this understanding, ''[[Samatha-vipassana|samatha]]'' steadies, composes, unifies and concentrates the mind, while ''[[Samatha-vipassana|vipassana]]'' enables one to see, explore and discern "formations" (conditioned phenomena based on the five [[Skandha|aggregates]]).{{refn|group=note|These definitions of ''samatha'' and ''vipassana'' are based on the "Four Kinds of Persons Sutta" ([[Anguttara Nikaya|AN]] 4.94). This article's text is primarily based on {{harvtxt|Bodhi|2005|loc=pp. 269–70, 440 ''n''. 13}}. See also {{cite web |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.094.than.html |title=Samadhi Sutta: Concentration (Tranquillity and Insight) (AN 4.94) |author=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |author-link=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |year=1998d |access-date=16 February 2011 |archive-date=13 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181013172229/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an04/an04.094.than.html |url-status=live }}.}}

According to this understanding, which is central to Theravada orthodoxy but also plays a role in [[Tibetan Buddhism]], through the meditative development of serenity, one is able to weaken the obscuring [[Five Hindrances|hindrances]] and bring the mind to a collected, pliant, and still state (''[[samadhi]]''). This quality of mind then supports the development of insight and wisdom ([[prajñā (Buddhism)|Prajñā]]) which is the quality of mind that can "clearly see" (''vi-passana'') the nature of phenomena. What exactly is to be seen varies within the Buddhist traditions. In Theravada, all phenomena are to be seen as [[anicca|impermanent]], [[dukkha|suffering]], [[anatta|not-self]] and [[shunyata|empty]]. When this happens, one develops [[Nonattachment (philosophy)|dispassion]] (''viraga'') for all phenomena, including all negative qualities and hindrances and lets them go. It is through the release of the hindrances and ending of craving through the meditative development of insight that one gains liberation.<ref>See, for instance, AN 2.30 in {{harvtxt|Bodhi|2005|pp=267–68}}, and {{cite web |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an02/an02.030.than.html |title=Vijja-bhagiya Sutta: A Share in Clear Knowing (AN 2.30) |author=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |author-link=Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu |year=1998e |access-date=2011-02-16 |archive-date=2013-06-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619063012/http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an02/an02.030.than.html |url-status=live }}</ref>