Buddhist Meditation
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The training in wise attention.
A small group of New Yorkers meditate together in Madison Square Park on a sunny Tuesday in June, 2010. (Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Table of Contents
- Articles (17)
- Audio/Video (39)
- Booklets (15)
- Canonical Works (43)
- Essays (24)
- Excerpts (4)
- Monographs (9)
- Papers (1)
- Reference Shelf (1)
- Subtopics (3)
Articles (17)
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there is a place for “bare awareness” or “bare attention” within the early Buddhist scheme of meditation
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Combining academic and experiential study of the Satipaṭṭhānas, Bhikkhu Analayo sugests a new understanding of the four bases that he claims allows for more continuous practice and a unified understanding.
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This study found that expert meditators show dramatically different connections in their Default Mode Network. Buddhist practice is not meant to smother (or enlarge) any one part of the brain (e.g. the amygdala), but rather to create the kinds of enduring, structural changes as these researchers found.
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the common interpretation of the jhānas as absorption-concentration attainments [is] incompatible with the teachings of the Pāli Nikāyas. […] one attains the jhānas, not by one-pointed concentration and absorption into a meditation object, but by releasing and letting go of the foothold of the unwholesome mind […] the entrance into the first jhāna is the actualization and embodiment of insight practice.
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This article explores to what degree meditation on the breath in early Buddhist thought involved focused attention. Closer inspection of instructions on this mode of meditation in the form of sixteen steps shows focused attention to be only a secondary aspect of the practice, which for the most part rather involves cultivating breadth of mind.
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hypnotic response and meditation involve opposite processes
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When I first heard her story, I found myself wondering how on earth I could help a mother to overcome the grief of the loss of a son. Nothing gave Laila hope
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Handicapped and at-risk Vietnamese youths share their appreciation of and enthusiasm for a mindfulness meditation course.
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There’s a way we want to spend our time, but we don’t do that because we don’t have the sense that time is short, time is precious. And the way to systematically raise the sense of urgency—Buddhism calls it samvega, spiritual urgency—is to bring the scarcity of time front and center in one’s consciousness: I am going to die. This show is not going to go on forever.
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Just one
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⭐ Recommended
Doing any one Buddhist practice in isolation can cause an unbalanced effect, but doing the path together shows more balance. This interesting paper shows that mindfulness meditation decrease amygdala responses even when not meditating, while compassion meditation has the opposite effect. Far from canceling each other out, of course, these practices combine to not alter our neurochemistry, but rather to radically rewire the brain.
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I knew I might be late for the morning talk if I didn’t hurry. Yet I didn’t
Audio/Video (39)
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Some introductory words on Buddhism and basic instructions for meditators.
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A solid introduction to meditation in the Early Buddhist Texts.
4h 14m -
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A blur in the periphery,
like the mind if the mind
were airborne, a buzz…5 min -
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An engaging lecture at Spirit Rock on using text critical methods and personal practice to narrow in on an understanding of early Buddhist meditation practices.
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Bhikkhu Analayo briefly introduces his research and practice of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, including his own gradual way of practicing the four establishments based on he feels are their essential qualities.
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A psychologist sits down with an Australian wellness reporter to talk about the nascent field of compassion research.
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Here I am, holding one more
mirror. This time smoke…5 min -
The mind becomes clearer and clearer and you will be delighted.
1h 15m -
⭐ Recommended
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What is it like when the mind is at rest? Did that happen today? How does it come about?
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The life enriched by meditation is three dimensional: it’s not a completely different realm, it’s providing a new and clearer perspective.
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There are two kinds of meditation, samatha and vipassana. Samatha (or “tranquility” meditation) offers a break from life. Vipassana (or “insight” meditation) is our chance to learn from life.
24 min -
Meditation is not a pill.
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A heartfelt and spellbinding talk on meditation practice and expectations.
Booklets (15)
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one gains firsthand understanding of the way things are, without reliance on opinions or theories, a direct experience, which has its own vitality. It also gives rise to the sense of deep calm that comes from knowing something for oneself
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In, out
Flower, fresh
Mountain, solid
Water, reflecting
Space, free
Canonical Works (43)
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⭐ Recommended
‘I’ve developed the heart’s release by love… Yet somehow ill will still occupies my mind.’
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O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food!
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he should put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, relentlessness, mindfulness, & alertness for the abandoning of those very same evil, unskillful qualities. Just as when a person whose turban or head is on fire
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What six? Firstly, a noble disciple recollects…
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Mendicants, there are eight grounds for laziness.
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Bhikkhus, these three kinds of unwholesome thoughts produce blindness, lack of vision, and absence of knowledge; they obstruct wisdom, lead to vexation, and are not conducive to Nibbāna.
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Here the Buddha details the seventh factor of the noble eightfold path—right mindfulness. This collects many of the meditation teachings found throughout the canon, especially the practices focusing on the body, and is regarded as one of the most important discourses in the contemporary Theravada tradition.
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The Buddha explains how he trains his disciples and why some succeed while others fail.
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The Buddha gives a sixteen-step guided meditation on the breath and then explains how this meditation fulfills the four foundations of mindfulness and the seven factors of enlightenment.
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The Buddha explains how mindfulness of the body should be cultivated and to what benefits it leads.
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Bhikkhus, develop concentration. A bhikkhu who is concentrated understands things as they really are.
Essays (24)
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We, moderns but especially Americans, have a fundamental misunderstanding of cognitive development: we assume that higher-level functioning is always desired and so disparage and neglect fundamental cognitive skills.
2 pages -
Here in Dzogpachenpo, we settle, without contriving, in what we call the essence of mind
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The root of all of these
Is not taking your own mind to be paramount -
A short paper listing the forty meditation objects of the Vissuddhimagga along with the kinds of people for whom it is said to be suitable.
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It’s interesting to walk through the graveyards of towns, and see that for the first few years after a person dies there may be a head stone, maybe someone remembers, but after twenty, thirty, or forty years, they could bulldoze the graves because the land is so valuable and plant somebody else in there. So even your head stone just crumbles to dust. All record of you living here is gone, because no one remembers who you were or what you did. Isn’t that beautiful? So why not do that right now? Bulldoze this idea of who you are
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While they won’t end racism, mindfulness and other contemplative practices do support ways of being in the world that reflect less of the biases that each of us holds
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Even as I work on eliminating the amplification of suffering, I can also turn to looking to ways I might start to amplify more life-serving experiences. Do I sense, anywhere in my body, a bit of well-being? Or even a bit of pleasure, or joy, appreciation, or love? Am I willing to let my attention rest there?
Excerpts (4)
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A quick word on the two main types of meditation.
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How the early Buddhist texts talk about “happiness.”
Monographs (9)
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⭐ Recommended
Papers (1)
Reference Shelf (1)
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A digital, guided meditation exploring the parts of the body.
Subtopics (3)
- Samatha
- Vipassanā
- Tranquility and Insight (Course)