Chapter 12 - Achievement Of Meditation Practice

1. Achievement of Concentration Practice:

Being free from disturbance of unintentional scattered thoughts, and free from emotional preferences and complacency, one"s mind is naturally pure and clear, abides in equanimity, and is able to concentrate effortlessly at will; the body naturally and continuously feels light and at ease.

2. Achievement of Observation Practice:

Pure, clear and direct experience of all phenomena as they are. If the practice involves visualization, the object visualized, and only that, will appear vividly.

When we are free from conceptual and emotional preconditioning that we have become subject to, we immediately sense the phenomena as a totality, open and boundless. Instead of making distinctions based on personal preferences one realizes that all experiences, good or bad, are parts of an integrated whole; hence one becomes free from trifles and enjoys a life of openness and tolerance. When one is able to appreciate all experiences as a whole, any activity that harms others amounts to self destruction, and hence one will spontaneously do only good.

3. Although there are systems of stages of meditation achievement described in Buddhism we should not become attached to those names, understanding that they are simply theoretical models to guide the practitioners along the path, leading toward deeper and deeper meditative states. In the Diamond Sutra it is clearly emphasized that people who have achieved Buddhist realizations are free from attachment to holy titles. May all practitioners be free from attachment to holy titles and be free from misleading others using holy titles.