4.1: Practical Purpose of the Dhyāna (meditation)

Meditation is essentially an experiential activity, not a scholastic subject to be understood through books or secondhand information. It is not an escape from life or evasion from responsibility. Even if the formal meditation practice may appear to the uninformed to be disconnected from real life, its inherent purpose deeply concerns our day-to-day existence and experience. Meditation means mindfulness and wisdom in what we do, speak, and think; it means greater awareness and higher ability in selfcontrol. It is not, therefore, an irrelevant other-worldly practice meant only for monks and ascetics, but is one of the most valuable practical skills meant for enhancing fulfilment in everyday life.

The goal of this meditation is the beautiful silence, stillness and clarity of mind. Meditation is the way to achieve letting go i.e. detachment. In meditation one lets go of the complex world outside in order to reach the serene world inside. In all types of mysticism, in many traditions, this is known as the path to the pure and powerful mind. The experience of this pure mind, released from the world, is very wonderful and blissful.

The mental development mentioned will be reinforced and the source of creativeness of mind will be awakened by the practice of meditation which is the main task of the Buddhist Way (Māgga) to liberation.

Meditation is understood as calming individual’s desire and immediate troubles. It transforms the five hindrances like restlessness, torpor and sloth, sensuous desire, ill-will, sceptical doubt into the five meditative mental factors like thought-conception, discursive thinking, rapture; joy, equanimity–happiness-one pointedness. And all evil thoughts arising from the five hindrances also are calmed or destroyed.

In the “fourth meditation,” the Vipassanā is developed fast and comfortably.

So, meditation responds to the following purposes of life:

-Calming down immediate troubles of a person practising it.

-Opening a source of creativeness which is a very important factor contributing to the construction of human culture and civilization.

-Developing the wisdom regard (Vipassanā) for ceasing the cause of suffering.

-Seeing the truth of the existence of men and things.

This is why Lord Buddha taught His disciples:

The Bhikkhu whose body and tongue and minds are quieted, who is collected, and has rejected the baits of the world, he is called quiet.^[1]

And:

The bhikkhu, full of delight, who is happy in the doctrine of Buddha will reach the quiet place (Nibbāna), happiness consisting the cessation of natural inclinations. ^[2]

So, during the period of time of practising meditation for wisdom regard, an individual lives in the fresh air of mind with happy feelings and gets rid of all troubles, worries withering the flowers of young generations

In addition to the above things, the practice of following breathing in–and breathing out may help worldly men improve their capacity of memory and observation which is very interesting to students in schools; the practice of following and observing their mind will help them see their mental problems as the result of a task of self–therapy.

The Buddhist Way (māgga) of releasing the bondage of Kamma means releasing the bondage of the craving and suffering. This suggests that the cultivation of meditation is the task for liberation which has two things to do:

-Controlling a person’s habits of things as having a permanent self from which desire for things arises.

-Developing his regard to things as non–self from which desireless thought arises.

This task is therefore for the cessation of his troubles and a suffering, which is the cherished dream of a man, and is the root purpose, the branch of modern educational psychology aims at. All teachings of Lord Buddha recorded in Pāli Suttapitaka are centered on this great point.

Doubts about this meditation betray a typical misunderstanding concerning Buddhist meditation, prevalent not only among non-Buddhists but also among certain sectors of Buddhists as well. Some people believe that meditation serves no practical purpose and is an escape from the reality of everyday life. Those who embrace this wrong view fail to distinguish between an active training attuned to a state of perfect mental health, tranquility, and equilibrium, which is Buddhist meditation, and a passive engagement in nothing but mystic musings or recitation of mantras, which has nothing to do with Buddhist meditation. They also fail to understand that sitting with closed eyes or repeating unintelligible phrases does not in itself constitute Buddhist meditation. Buddhist meditation by no means implies an escape from life. Its practice is largely based on life activities and its effects are meant to improve the quality of life. To develop a high level of concentration a certain degree of seclusion or a carefully-structured environment may be more favourable, but Buddhist meditation means much more than just concentration practice. In fact, the Buddha pointed out that concentration for its own sake is an obstacle to the higher realization of the Dhamma. Nevertheless, the image of a meditating monk sitting cross-legged, still as a rock, and deeply absorbed in meditation, may have created a general wrong impression that it is the only way to practice meditation.

In short, the way of Buddhist meditation, including Calm (samatha) and Insight (vipassanā) is the way of seeing, developing and cultivating one’s mind. Without it, a person cannot understand what he really is, and cannot resolve his psychological problems for peace and happiness in the here–and–now, as Lord Buddha affirmed:

This is the Path, no other’s there for purity of insight, enter then upon this path bemusing Mara utterly.^[3]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Dhammapada 378. Santakāyo santavāco santavā susamāhito,Vantalokāmiso bhikkhu upasantoti vuccati.

[2]:

Dhammapada 381. Pāmojjabahulo bhikkhuâ pasanno buddha-sāsane, Adhigacche padam santam sankhāruūpa samam sukham.

[3]:

Dhammapada 274.