Buddhism 101

by Arnie Kozak

  Keep your spine as straight as possible and the top of your head pointed toward the ceiling. Rest your hands in your lap, palms up, with one hand cradling the other. Touch your thumbs gently together. You can also rest your hands palms up or palms down on your thighs. Your lips touch lightly and your tongue can gently touch the roof of your mouth. Make sure you are not holding tension in your shoulders or anywhere else. Your eyes can be open or closed. If open, try to relax them and loosen their focus.

  Set a time limit for your meditation and use a bell, timer, or incense to indicate when time is up. You can start with very short periods, such as ten minutes, building up to longer periods of sitting as you continue practicing.

  When your timer goes off or your sitting time is over, be careful that you do not jump to stand up. Often your legs can go to sleep, and if you stand up quickly you might fall over. Take your time, shake out your legs, and then stand slowly. You may want to bow to honor the practice you just completed.

  It may help to do light stretching before getting into your meditation position. If you go to a practice center you will get further instructions.

  THE BREATH

  Awareness of breathing is fundamental to Buddhist-style meditation. The breath is your constant companion. If you’re not aware of your breathing, then becoming enlightened is not going to be your top priority. Breathing is also happening now, and it will help to bring you into the present moment and into your body as it is now. You will taste the sense of being a living, breathing human being (rather than human “doing,” which you are most of the time). Every breath you take is colored by your emotional experience, and so familiarizing yourself with the process of breathing helps you to monitor your emotional state and to intervene early if anxiety or other distressing emotions arise. When you breathe, allow the process to be natural. Don’t try to breathe a “meditative” breath. You will probably find that your breathing will slow on its own, and that is fine. If it doesn’t that is also fine. Just notice the breathing that is happening now.

  SHAMATHA AND VIPASSANA

  Forms of Meditation

  There are different techniques for meditation. Zazen, or Zen meditation, was covered in a previous chapter. Two other types of meditation are shamatha meditation and vipassana meditation. Shamatha means “calm abiding” or “dwelling in tranquility” and vipassana means “insight.” Vipassana is also called “insight meditation.” Most Buddhist traditions employ these as central practices (that is, Theravada) or as component practices (for example, Tibetan).

  Ways of Breathing

  * * *

  The Sathipathana Sutta provides very detailed instructions on breathing meditation with sixteen different ways to attend to breathing. These myriad ways of attending to breathing are outlined in Larry Rosenberg’s book, Breath by Breath: The Liberating Practice of Insight Meditation.

  * * *

  SHAMATHA MEDITATION

  Shamatha meditation techniques involve concentration on one thing, whether it is your breath or the sound of rain. “Calm abiding” means sitting with one’s breath, or other point of concentration, gently coming back to this point whenever attention wanders. Concentration is the foundation for later insight practices and is not the final goal.

  The benefits of one-pointed concentration are many. You can make great progress in any undertaking you choose if you can focus diligently on the task at hand. Shamatha meditation invites you to focus on one point calmly and quietly without undue exertion. The quality of this concentration is firm but not forced. Think of holding a bird in your hand. If you hold it too loosely, it will fly away. If you hold it too tight, you will crush it. Pursue concentration along the Middle Way, with effort, zeal, and interest.

  VIPASSANA MEDITATION

  As compared to one-pointed concentration, vipassana meditation—insight meditation—is a more open awareness. Attention is directed to whatever arises in the field of experience. In the Burmese tradition the field of awareness is limited to the body; and in the Thai tradition, for example, the field of awareness is open to any mental content including thoughts, images, feelings, sights, and sounds, in addition to bodily sensations. Attention to the arising and fading away of bodily sensations or other experiences will show you impermanence in action. It will show you how these experiences are “empty” of any underlying substantial reality. You will experience yourself in a dramatic new way.

  Shamatha is the foundation for vipassana meditation. Once your mind is still and calm, you will have the ability to watch whatever arises in your mind. Once the mind is quiet, you can notice when it wanders off. If your mind is perfectly still, you can abide with your breath. If your mind wanders off, just observe where it goes. When you catch your mind wandering away, you can do one of two things. The instructions will vary according to your teacher’s tradition.

  One approach is simply to come back to whatever is happening in the body and move away from the story of the thoughts to the recognition that thoughts are happening. Another approach is to give the mental content a label. This practice is called mental noting. So if thoughts arise, note “thoughts” or “thinking.” You just stick a label on it and move on to the next moment. Mental noting helps you to be objective with your experience and avoid self-judgment. If you notice judgment is active, such as when you are criticizing yourself for attention wandering, note this “judgment” and move your attention from the judgment to the next breath.

  OTHER FORMS OF MEDITATION

  Shamatha and vipassana are the basic Buddhist meditation practices. Vipassana can also be taken “on the road” in the form of walking meditation. There are also other practices based on the Four Immeasurables, such as lovingkindness and compassion, and other meditative techniques such as visualization, mantras, and chanting.

  Lovingkindness (Metta) Meditation

  Compassion, generosity, open-heartedness, and lovingkindness are all wonderful qualities to acquire. They are what the Buddha called the Four Immeasurables or the Limitless Abodes. What is lovingkindness, or as it is sometimes translated, loving friendliness? Metta practice is a curious hybrid of Buddhist and yoga practices. Instead of just working with whatever arises as you would in vipassana, you intentionally direct your attention to the generation of loving feelings. To do this you may recall someone who is very dear to you, someone whom you can readily access loving feelings. You can feel how this suffuses your heart with love and a sense of openness. Depending on the specific teacher you will direct that loving feeling in various ways. There are some commonalities. You direct that loving feeling to others and yourself, and you do so with four specific intentions:

  • May you be free from danger; May you be safe.

  • May you have happiness; May you have peace.

  • May you have physical well-being and health; May you be free from illness.

  • May you have ease of well-being; May you be free from unnecessary struggle and pain.

  The secret is that this is really good for you. Staying in a state of unforgiveness toward people and situations leads to elevated stress levels and can damage your health. You can expand the circle of metta further to your sangha, your community, your country, the world, and all sentient beings.

  Fighting the Trance of Unworthiness

  * * *

  Tara Brach teaches a form of metta meditation that speaks to the “trance of unworthiness” that afflicts so many in the West. This lack of self-acceptance is humorously and compassionately explored in her bestselling book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha. She is the founder and senior teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington.

  * * *

  Another meditation that focuses on compassion is called tonglen—sending and receiving. Pema Chödrön writes about tonglen in When Things Fall Apart. Tonglen, she says, is “designed to awaken bodhicitta, to put us in touch with genuine noble heart. It is the practice of taking in pain and sending out pleasure and therefore completely turns a
round our well-established habit of doing just the opposite.” The way to practice tonglen is to breathe in suffering—your own suffering, the suffering of others, those with disease, with heartache, with pain—and breathe out wellness and kindness and direct it toward others, toward yourself. Breathe in pain, breathe out healing. Breathe in hatred, breathe out love. In this manner you cultivate bodhicitta and awaken a compassionate spirit inside yourself.

  MANTRA MEDITATION

  Mantras are often used as meditation devices by Buddhists. A mantra is basically a sound vibration. A constant repetition of a mantra (whether silent or aloud) can help to clear the mind of debris. Distractions fall away as the mind focuses on the repetitive sound. You can use a specific mantra for a specific spiritual purpose or you can use the mantra in a general way for focusing the attention and clearing the mind.

  Different vehicles of Buddhism tend to use different mantras.

  MANTRAS

  Pure Land

  Tibetan

  Nichiren

  Namo Amito

  Om mani padme hum

  Namu myoho renge kyo

  Glory to Amitabha

  Hail to the jewel in the lotus

  Glory to the Lotus Sutra

  For example, according to Gen Rinpoche, the venerated Buddhist teacher, Om mani padme hum is associated with Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. This mantra has six syllables. Each of the six syllables is said to aid you in the perfection of the six paramitas of the bodhisattvas. The six paramitas are generosity, ethics, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom. Chanting the mantra Om mani padme hum will help you master these six perfections, and mastering these six perfections will help you to become a bodhisattva.

  Mind Deliverance

  * * *

  The word mantra is actually Sanskrit for two words: “man” and “tra.” Man can be translated as “mind” and tra can be translated as “deliverance.”

  * * *

  CHANTING, VISUALIZATION, AND WALKING

  Supportive Practices

  The Buddha discouraged attachment to rites and rituals. Nevertheless, all the Buddhist traditions engage chanting of liturgical texts. To chant the texts is to concentrate the mind and to send a powerful vibration into the atmosphere surrounding you. Chanting in a group can be a very powerful experience. In Tibetan Vajrayana practices, chanting rituals can last for hours. Traditional Buddhists will chant mantras and sutras for the accumulation of merit.

  The Triple Refuge chant is popular in many traditions. You recite the phrase, “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the dharma, I take refuge in the sangha” three times.

  Buddham saranam gacchami

  Dhammam saranam gacchami

  Sangham saranam gacchami

  Dutiyampi Buddham saranam gacchami

  Dutiyampi Dhammam saranam gacchami

  Dutiyampi Sangham saranam gacchami

  Tatiyampi Buddham saranam gacchami

  Tatiyampi Dhammam saranam gacchami

  Tatiyampi Sangham saranam gacchami

  Many believe that chanting sacred texts can help to secure a favorable rebirth, and families with this belief will enjoin a Buddhist monk to recite sutras at the time of death. These texts will be heard by the deceased in the bardo state. The monk will chant from the classic text the Bardo Thodol (the Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State and popularly known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead). The bardo is an intermediate state, a way station of sorts, which will determine the place of the dead person’s rebirth. What happens during this forty-nine-day period is believed to be crucial for the next rebirth. So, too, the moment of death is crucial for what comes next, so the Tibetans undergo a great deal of preparation for this moment, and they use the Bardo Thodol and practices such as powa (transference of consciousnddess) to aid them.

  VISUALIZATION

  Visualization is a key practice in Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism). In visualization practice you would select an object to visualize such as the Buddha, bodhisattva, mandala, or other sacred object, and then you would concentrate on that object in the image space of your mind (that is the mental screen that appears around your forehead). Rather than letting the imagination run wild into future and past scenarios, it is recruited to aid practice. Visualization can help you to achieve mindfulness and spiritual empowerment by taking on the qualities of the imagined deities, changing habit patterns of mind, and so forth.

  Visualization was practiced in China in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Here practitioners would meditate on images such as the “Medicine King.” Visual contemplation of Amitabha Buddha became a central component of Pure Land Buddhism in sixth-century Chinese Buddhism. These practices had many forms. To visualize the Buddha in your mind is to make your mind Buddha.

  WALKING MEDITATION

  Walking meditation is a wonderful complement to seated meditation, mindfulness, or mantra practice. Walking meditation is a way to practice mindfulness while moving around the world you inhabit. If you leave your meditation on the floor with your zafu, you won’t make as much progress as you will if you take it with you into your day.

  Because walking meditation proved so beneficial, the Buddha and his disciples used it in their practice. In Thailand walking meditation is such a fundamental part of practice that a walk is built into each meditation center for the monks’ use. There are obvious physical benefits to walking meditation as well. Even slow walking provides stretching and a respite from the strenuousness of prolonged seated practice. Walking meditation can rejuvenate the mind and the body. Walking aids concentration, digestion, promotes physical fitness, and rejuvenates the body—and it can be done while practicing mindfulness.

  PILGRIMAGE

  Traveling to Sacred Sites

  On his deathbed, the Buddha instructed his followers to visit the important sites from his life—the places of his birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death—because these would inspire powerful emotions and propel their practice.

  The dissemination of the Buddha’s remains and other relics expanded this “sacred geography.” Subsequently, mountains became sacred pilgrimage sites. These sites include Mount Kailash in Tibet, Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Wutai in China, and Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka. Tibetan pilgrims may circumambulate long distances making full-body prostrations. Some of these journeys may be hundreds of miles long and take years to complete, one prostration at a time. To protect themselves, the pilgrims wear leather aprons and hand and knee protectors. Pilgrimage is a special form of practice, away from daily routines; the pilgrim brings the intention of devotion to the journey.

  * * *

  “These, Ananda, are the places that a devout person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. And truly there will come to these places, Ananda, devoted monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, reflecting: ‘Here the Tathagata was born! Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme Enlightenment!’ ”

  —The Buddha

  * * *

  Certainly, the Buddha spent a lot of time walking around northern India with his retinue of followers. Walking meditation is an important practice for mindfulness. You can embody this spirit each time you walk in a deliberate manner. As a lay practitioner you may not have the time to walk the equivalent of a marathon, but as the Vietnamese Buddhist spiritual leader Thich Nhat Hanh said, peace can be in every step.

  A pilgrimage is much more than a holiday with a spiritual destination. A pilgrimage is a journey to a shrine or sacred place that can change the traveler in an irrevocable way. The Buddha made pilgrimages all over India, traveling from place to place, spreading his teachings. Today you can walk in the Buddha’s footsteps and follow his path. If you are interested in experiencing some of the sacred places in the history of Buddhism, you will have many to choose from.

  The four holy sites of Buddhism are: Lumbini, the Buddha’s birthplace; Bodh Gaya, the site of enlightenment; Sarnath, the site of the First Sermon; and Kushinag
ara, where Buddha reached paranirvana. This list is not comprehensive. You can also visit Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, China, Taiwan, Tibet, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and more. The Buddha himself may not have left footsteps in these countries, but Buddhist culture and history is rich and there are many wonderful places to experience.

  NEPAL

  The Buddha was born in Lumbini in what is now Nepal. Places of interest to visit in Lumbini include Lumbini Garden, which contains the Ashokan Pillar and the image of Queen Maya (Maya Devi); Puskarni, the sacred pool; Sanctum-Sanctorum of the Birthplace; and the Buddhist Temple. The Ashokan Pillar was erected by King Ashoka in homage to the Buddha and contains an inscription dedicating the site to the Shakyamuni. The image of Maya Devi is inscribed into a pagoda-like structure. The image itself is in bas-relief and pictures Maya holding on to the baby Buddha who is standing on a lotus petal. Puskarni is the sacred pool in which it is said that Maya bathed the baby Siddhartha soon after he was born. Sanctum-Sanctorum is the holiest of places in the garden—within the Sanctum-Sanctorum is a stone slab that marks the exact spot the Buddha was born. Also of interest is the nearby Buddhist Temple. And not too far from Lumbini is Kapilavastu, where Siddhartha’s father, Suddhodhana had his palace.