• Vipassana meditation.

    22 Sep 2008 /  Uncategorized

    Sunset on the Adriatic Sea; Personal Photo

    So, I still struggle with understanding what meditation is, what it should be.  I think that I have expected to find a static understanding of meditation.  A common definition from which anyone who spoke of meditation would be working.

    Silly me.

    Actually,  different traditions have used the word meditation to mean different things.  Admittedly, when translating from one language to another, it is difficult to know just what is the intention of the translation.

    As a novice nun, when  I was taught to meditate it meant to have a scripture passage, a particular conscience examen or some sort of thought or image in my mind and to hold my concentration on that particular “object”.  Meditation was about discursive thought that would, hopefully, lead to contemplation, or, a sense of “resting” in God that was empty of thought and became what I would now describe as pure awareness.

    In my reading about Buddhist meditation, this “resting in God”, or what I had been taught as being “Contemplation”, now became “Meditation”.  Most of what I read about Buddhist meditation seems to align exactly with my Western Christian understanding of contemplation. Or, perhaps a combination of both.

    So, here is what I found at Wikipedia, admittedly not an authoritative source but a reasonable place to start:

    The words contemplation and meditation sometimes have almost opposite meanings in Western and Eastern traditions. In the West, contemplation may refer to a content-free direction of the mind to God (Christianity) or to the Good (Platonism), whereas meditation may involve a specific, directed mental exercise, such as visualization of a religious scene or consideration of a scriptural passage. In the East, however, these two terms’ definitions may be reversed.[8] Retrieved September 22, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemplation

    I recently found a website on Vipassana meditation (http://www.vipassana.com ) that had a link to an online book entitled Mindfulness in Plain English ( http://www.vipassana.com/meditation/mindfulness_in_plain_english.php )  I have found this very helpful.  As often happens when reading Buddhists’  interpretation of Western Christianity, I find that the author does not quite “get” the Western Christian concept of prayer,  meditation and contemplation just as I am sure the reverse is true when Western Christian’s attempt to define Buddhist meditation.

    Here is what I think I know so far:  In all traditions, there are public and communal prayers.  I am not going to spend time on these as they are not the focus of my current journey.  In all traditions there are private, or personal forms of prayer.  In Western Christianity, these can be broken down in to meditation (which can be broken down further, however, all include some sort of discursive thought) and contemplation (”resting in God”, simple awareness) .  In Eastern traditions, Buddhism in particular, meditation is broken into differing paths toward the same goal of awareness or enlightenment through the use of concentration.  The paths I have become aware of are Vipassana, Samatha, Zen, and Tantric.  I am not sure on how they all fit together, as I have not read any author that speaks of each.  I do know that there are “stages” within each of these paths.

    Bottom line: I think one needs to gain an understanding of which of these paths one is travelling.  Then, when choosing what to read or what teacher to listen to, do so with an awareness of on which path they are focussing.  For me, it seems as if it is the Vipassana path is the one I have chosen (or been chosen by!).  This does not mean that I do not learn about the other paths, for each has it’s benefits.  But I think I am aware now, that when I sit down to a daily practice, I need to focus on one path in my practice.  I also find that each time I sit, I realize that I am most probably going to be at the beginning stages for the rest of my life!!!!  I also realize that this is OK, for I am not focussed on an end result, but simply on the moment as it presents itself.

    Stumble it!

    Posted by Deb @ 11:48 am

    Tags: ,

6 Responses

WP_Blue_Mist