Theravada Buddhism

In the Pali language of the early Buddhist texts, vipassana means insight. It is often used to describe one of the two main categories of Buddhist meditation (the other being samatha or tranquillity).

The southern form of Buddhism now found mainly in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. It is the oldest living tradition and its core teachings are based on the word of the Buddha as found in the earliest texts.

Through the concentration states the Theravadans reach in their meditation, they can analyze their state of mind. Whatever disturbing emotions arise such as anger, attachment, jealousy, or envy, based on their ability to concentrate, they are able to analyze the nature of their emotions in subtle detail. This can be compared to a dream where after you wake up, you find that your dream was not real; it was not actually happening.

This school of Buddhism believes that it has remained closest to the original teachings of the Buddha. However, it does not over-emphasise the status of these teachings in a fundamentalist way – they are seen as tools to help people understand the truth, and not as having merit of their own
Theravada Buddhism emphasises attaining self-liberation through one’s own efforts. Meditation and concentration are vital elements of the way to enlightenment. The ideal road is to dedicate oneself to full-time monastic life.

Four noble truths

Buddhism’s famed four truths are called noble because they liberate us from suffering. They are the Buddha’s basic teaching, encapsulating the entire Buddhist path.

Suffering

Life always involves suffering, in obvious and subtle forms. Even when things seem good, we always feel an undercurrent of anxiety and uncertainty inside.

The word dukkha has been variously translated as ‘suffering’, ‘anguish’, ‘pain’, or ‘unsatisfactorily’. The Buddha’s insight was that our lives are a struggle, and we do not find ultimate happiness or satisfaction in anything we experience. This is the problem of existence.

The Cause of Suffering

The cause of suffering is craving and fundamental ignorance. We suffer because of our mistaken belief that we are a separate, independent, solid “I.” The painful and futile struggle to maintain this delusion of ego is known as samsara, or cyclic existence.

The natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves. But the Buddha says that their actual root is to be found in the mind itself. In particular our tendency to grasp at things (or alternatively to push them away) places us fundamentally at odds with the way life really is.

The End of Suffering

The good news is that our obscurations are temporary. They are like passing clouds that obscure the sun of our enlightened nature, which is always present. Therefore, suffering can end because our obscurations can be purified and awakened mind is always available to us.

As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses.

 The Path

By living ethically, practicing meditation, and developing wisdom, we can take exactly the same journey to enlightenment and freedom from suffering that the buddhas do. We too can wake up.

Buddhism is spiritual not religious

Buddhism is unique among the world’s major world religions, for one big reason. Buddhism is the one world religion that has no God. It is the nontheistic religion.

That changes everything. Yes, like other religions Buddhism describes a nonmaterial, spiritual reality (perhaps the realer reality), and addresses what happens after we die. But at the same time, it is down-to-earth and practical: it is about us, our minds, and our suffering.

It’s about being fully and deeply human, and it has something to offer everyone. Because who doesn’t know the value of being present and aware. Of having an open mind and loving heart. And a proven path to get there.
The difference is that meditation is the very essence of Buddhism, not just the practice of a rarified elite of mystics. It’s fair to say that Buddhism is the most contemplative of the world’s major religions, which is a reflection of its basic nontheism.

Buddhism is not about salvation or original sin. It’s not about becoming somebody different or going somewhere else.

Buddhism is about realization and experience, not institutions or divine authority. This makes it ideal to those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious.

Karma!

Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this.

In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

We are born with hereditary characteristics. At the same time we possess certain innate abilities that science cannot adequately account for. To our parents we are indebted for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being.

They remain dormant within each parent until this potential germinal compound is vitalised by the karmic energy needed for the production of the foetus. Karma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of this being.

Buddha, for instance, inherited, like every other person, the reproductive cells and genes from his parents. But physically, morally and intellectually there was none comparable to him in his long line of Royal ancestors. In the Buddha’s own words, he belonged not to the Royal lineage, but to that of the Aryan Buddhas. He was certainly a superman, an extraordinary creation of his own Karma.

Gongyo

Gongyo is to recite the Lotus Sutra and chant Daimoku in front of the Gohonzon. The practitioners of Nichiren Shoshu have been carrying out the practice of Gongyo since the time of Nichiren Daishonin and Nikko Shonin. We recite the first part of the Hoben (“Expedient Means”-2nd) Chapter and the entire Juryo (“Life Span”-16th) Chapter of the sutra and chant the Daimoku – Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo – to the Gohonzon.

The most basic practice in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism is gongyo, which consists of reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo (daimoku) to the Gohonzon. Doing this daily, morning and evening, serves to praise the power and greatness of the Gohonzon and to unite our life with the Gohonzon.

Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is called the primary practice, and enables us to fuse our life with the Gohonzon. Reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra is called the supplementary practice, and helps fulfill the primary goal of fusing one’s life with the Gohonzon.

The most basic practice in Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism is gongyo, which consists of reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo (daimoku) to the Gohonzon. Doing this daily, morning and evening, serves to praise the power and greatness of the Gohonzon and to unite our life with the Gohonzon.

Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is called the primary practice, and enables us to fuse our life with the Gohonzon. Reciting portions of the Lotus Sutra is called the supplementary practice, and helps fulfill the primary goal of fusing one’s life with the Gohonzon.

The true entity of all phenomena can only be understood and shared between Buddhas. This reality consists of the appearance, nature, entity, power, influence, inherent cause, relation, latent effect, manifest effect, and their consistency from beginning to end.

Types of Buddhist Meditation

Samatha Meditation or Calm Abiding Meditation

This practice usually involves watching our breath as our object of meditation. This meditation is specifically designed to calm and focus our mind so we can develop our powers of concentration. We can also add a technique of counting our breaths to help increase our concentration and reduce the general distractibility of our mind.

Walking Meditation

Not all of us are great at sitting for long periods of time. Fortunately, we can break up our sessions with walking meditation. At full day retreats, it is common to interchange sitting and walking meditations so that one hour of sitting meditation is followed by 30 minutes of walking meditation. Generally, walking meditation is designed to complement our sitting meditations so that we maintain our concentration between our seated sessions.

Focused attention meditation

Focusing the attention on a single object during the whole meditation session. This object may be the breath, a mantra, visualization, part of the body, external object, etc. As the practitioner advances, his ability to keep the flow of attention in the chosen object gets stronger, and distractions become less common and short-lived. Both the depth and steadiness of his attention are developed.

Zen Buddhist practice.

Concerned with living in the here and now, from moment to moment, Zen is an austere practice with Japanese roots. Zen meditation, or Zazen, meaning sitting, is performed with minimal distractions, often at a community center called a Zendo.

Tibetan Buddhist practice.
Happiness lies in understanding your own mind and its true nature, says Tibetan Lama Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the revered Buddhist text The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In this worldview, we suffer from thoughts and negative emotionswhen our minds are untamed.

Benefits of Buddhist meditation

Meditation lightens our experience because as we open our minds and create space, the challenges and difficulties that seemed so threatening no longer seem as dire and creative solutions naturally arise. We feel more centered and grounded or balanced; there is a sense of inner stability.

When we feel balanced, we feel as if we are “in the flow,” we are focused, and the everyday activities take on a sense of joy. And being in this state of heightened focus and clarity, we experience enhanced perception and expression.

The main benefit is that when our mind is peaceful happiness naturally develops in our hearts. However, there are many other benefits to be experienced along the way.

Studies have shown meditation to reduce stress, normalize blood pressure and help people to feel more relaxed. With our mind at peace we are more understanding of others and our relationships improve.

Redistribution of blood flow (certain types of emotion, such as empathy, is related to the flushing of particular body parts, such as the face and chest).

The purpose of Buddhist meditation is for the meditator to become irreversibly free of unhelpful repetitive problematic behaviour and to become fully capable of helping others attain that way of being.

Buddhist meditation

To start a meditation, we first calm and focus the mind. To do this we usually concentrate on the breath or on an object. We then use this focussed attention to develop insight. The ultimate aim of Buddhist meditation is insight into the nature of mind – enlightenment.

Meditating on the Buddha, or on the Buddha-like qualities of one’s liberated or enlightened Buddhist teacher, accomplishes both of these. The outer form attracts and holds our attention. And with the insight that our own nature is enlightened like the Buddha’s, we can make fast progress.

 

Buddhist meditation is a meditative practice based on the principles and teachings of Buddhism.

 

This meditation technique encourages you to develop concentration, clarity, and calmness and keep away from confusion.

The ancient Buddhist texts preserved it, and it was spread and diversified by various masters and monks. Mind training is the core of this technique, and transforming it into higher realms is the goal.

Benefits of Chanting

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo literally means: To honour and devote oneself to the Law of the Lotus Sutra.

The practice of chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo was started by Nichiren Daishonin, so as to help all living beings attain enlightenment.

It is a practice whereby one holds oneself responsible for one’s fate – not just the destiny waiting for us but the one that we can create for ourselves. Thus, do you unlock your highest potential.

The only power you have that is stronger than your own karma is your own Buddha nature or Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the ultimate law of the universe and is within you and all life in the universal environment. “Karma” may be translated as “action.” Karma is created by the “action” of your words, thoughts and deeds since time without beginning. As such, your karma (and everyone’s karma) is very strong. Nichiren Buddhists perform Gongyo twice a day.

Gongyo consists of sitting before the Gohonzon (or just sitting if you are on a road trip and don’t have an Omamori Gohonzon), reciting parts of two chapters of the Lotus Sutra, and chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo while contemplating your desires, problems, people and dreams.
Chanting also allows the practitioner to view the contents of his mind. These habitual thoughts are one’s karma, the mind’s normal reactions to everyday situations.

The aim while chanting is to focus the mind. While doing this it’s easy to see what kind of thoughts the mind usually contains. Before chanting the mind is like a wild horse. Through chanting, you grab the reigns and steer it towards a definite course.

The most crucial benefit is that it gives you peace of mind which makes you a positive person.

Benefits of prayer wheel

Turning the prayer wheel has the power to quickly bless; it has the vastness of great skill
in means; its actions are quick; the power of turning the wheel brings freedom from demons/obstacles, anti-Buddhists, vow-breakers, ghosts, evil spirits, untimely deaths, averts all obstacles; and will guard you. All enemies will be overcome.

• The prayer wheel is like a precious jewel: whatever you wish for, it will accomplish all the supreme and ordinary attainments.

• Turning this wheel with great remorse and confession will eliminate the five actions of immediate retribution, the four heavy (bad deeds), the eight wrong views, and the ten non-virtues.

• Turning the wheel is more powerful than 100 monks doing long life prayers and mantras,and more powerful than 108 meditators visualizing the vajra protective circle.

• Any man or woman who turns the wheel will obtain whatever they wish for that is in harmony with the Dharma.

• Whoever turns the prayer wheel will not be born as a householder with wrong views, as a cripple, blind, deaf, mute, or as a pauper.

• You will get an impartial enlightened mind acting for the benefit of beings.

• The benefits of the Tibetan prayer wheel is that it embodies all the actions of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the 10 directions.

• To benefit sentient beings, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifest in the Tibetan prayer wheel to purify all our negative karma and obscurations, and to cause us to actualize the realizations of the path to enlightenment.

• All the beings (not only the people but also the insects), in the area where theTibetan prayer wheel is built are saved from rebirth in the lower realms they receive a deva or human body, or are born in a pure land of Buddha .

• Simply thinking of a prayer wheel helps a dying person to shoot the consciousness up the central channel and out through the crown to reincarnate in the pure land of Amithaba or the Compassion Buddha.

• In Simply touching a prayer wheel brings great purification of negative karmas and obscurations. Turning a Tibetan prayer wheel containing 100 million om mani padme hung mantras accumulates the same merit as having recited 100 million om mani padme hungs.

• The Tibetan prayer wheel here at Land of Medicine Buddha contains 11.8 billion mantras, so turning it one time is the same as having recited that many mantras. In that few seconds, you perform so much powerful purification and accumulate; so much merit. Turning the Tibetan prayer wheel once is the same as having done many years of retreat.