1. Training in Meditation (B 58; B 88-92; WBT 67-69). What is the second of the three trainings? Which of the eightfold path does it include (B 58)?  What are the proper purposes of Buddhist meditation (B 90-91; WBT 67-68)?  Did the Buddha invent meditation?  What type of meditation was practiced before the Buddha (WBT 68; B 90 and 92)? 

2. Right Effort (WBT 48, B 58). Note that the Buddha included right effort in the training in meditation rather than in the training in ethics.  Obviously, it requires effort to practice good ethics.  Yet meditation also requires substantial effort; it is not easy or spontaneous.  Just as cultivating a field requires substantial effort, to weed out the weeds and nurture the crops, the cultivation of the mind also requires substantial effort.  In the Buddhist view, our minds are now wild and scattered; meditation is a systematic form of mental training and discipline. 

In brief, right effort is balanced, sustained effort.  The Buddha used the example of tuning a stringed instrument.  The strings must be tightened, but not pulled too tight.  Sometimes we have great enthusiasm when we start a task, and we make a very intense effort at the beginning.  But when this does not bring results, we quickly give up.

What appears to be great effort can actually be a kind of laziness.  When I was young I would often try to carry too many bags of groceries in from the car on each trip.  My mother called this "the lazy man's load".  I was too lazy to make multiple trips to the car, so I would try to do too much all at once, even at the risk of dropping the bags. 

Applying this to meditation, Buddhists teachers tell us not to expect immediate, and radical transformation from meditation any more than we would expect such results from a program of weight-lifting or aerobic training.  Would it be "right effort" at weight-lifting to strain at lifting several hundred pound on our first day of work? The mind, like the body, has certain accumulated patterns and habits, and it takes a sustained effort to change them.  Therefore, right effort is sustainable effort; "straining" effort is something we cannot sustain. 

3. Right Concentration (WBT 48-49, B 92-96 and 98). Rahula (WBT 68) states that there are two forms of meditation:  (1) concentration (meditation that calms and focuses the mind) and (2) insight (meditation that produces penetrating and critical wisdom). Many other sources (B 98) agree that Buddhists include all types of meditation within these two.  Which of these did the Buddha learn from his non-Buddhist teachers, and which is claimed as unique to Buddhism (B 90 and 98; WBT 68-69)?

Just as good ethics is helpful on the path to nirvana, but does not in itself liberate one from cyclic existence, concentration also is a valuable tool on the path but does not give one liberation.  Concentrating the mind makes it more powerful, but there is still the question of what one will use that power to accomplish. 

Other words that are used to talk about concentrated states of mind include: serenity, mental calm, trance, absorption, one-pointedness.  Everyone understands that when the mind is not distracted, it is easy to get a great deal accomplished.  People who have short attention spans, and are easily distracted, have minds that are relatively weak tools.  On the other hand, most of us have had the experience of becoming so completely absorbed in a task—taking a test, performing a dance, or recital, playing a sport—that we were able to perform at a high level without distraction or self-consciousness.  Sometimes we can "lose ourselves" and become so absorbed in something that the work just happens and everything else, including our sense of time and or sense of self, temporarily recedes or vanishes. 

In effect, concentration meditation is an attempt to extrapolate from this common experience.  If narrowing the scope of mind's focus, and keeping it undistracted, seems to make it very efficient and spontaneously powerful, then what if we could narrow the focus of the mind down to a single point of attention?  How powerful could the mind become then?

Concentration meditation is the practice of cultivating a perfectly calm and stable, one-pointed state of mind by training the mind to remain undistracted.  One chooses, usually under the guidance of a qualified teacher, an object or point upon which to focus the mind.  When, after a few seconds, one finds that the mind has drifted away for the point of focus, one simply brings the mind back to the object.  One tries to catch the mind drifting as quickly as possible, and to re-set it, gently but firmly, upon the object.  The meditator is encouraged not to get tangled up in judgments or emotional reactions to occasional successes or inevitable and repeated failures. Whatever happens, just bring the mind gently back. Gradually, with persistence, the mind drifts less and less frequently.

Eventually, it is said, one can learn to keep the mind perfect clear and perfectly focused for whatever period of meditation one has decided to upon.  During a meditation session, no distraction intervenes and the mind stays perfectly focused on its object.  EEG tests on Hindu yogis practicing this type of meditation have shown that even though the sensory areas of the brain register the sound of a loud noise during a session, the higher centers of the mind do not seem to react to it.

In general, one can practice concentration meditation with regard to any object, any point of attention.  In terms of the individual's personal situation and inclinations, there may be some advantage in one object over another.  There is a traditional list of forty objects of meditation (WBT 75, B 95-96), which are quite various in nature. 

An example for the cultivation of concentration is the training of a wild elephant.  According to tradition, in order to make an elephant into a usefully trained animal, one chains it to a single spot.  Like our minds, the animal is accustomed to running this way and that, and is resistant to being used for work.  But once chained, it is always pulled back towards one spot.  Eventually, disciplined in this way, it becomes a very powerful tool, a took which can be unchained and used to accomplish things which would otherwise have been impossible. 

4. Some Results of Concentration.  One effect of the practice of concentration is to make the mind and body supple, pliant, and healthy (B 90). 

There are eight states of deep concentration that can be attained (B 93-94).  You should be aware of these, but do not have to learn their specific names.  In general, how do these eight states correspond to the upper two of the three spheres (B 97)?

As Rahula (WBT 67) points out, some people cultivate concentration in order to attain supernormal powers.  Although this may not be the ideal motivation, it is widely believe by both Hindus and Buddhists that this is where "feats" or "miracles" come from—individuals who, whether wise or not, whether for good or for evil, have attained supernormal powers through cultivating high states of yogic concentration.  What are some such powers (B 94-95)?  How much significance did the Buddha attach to them (B 95)?

If awareness is compared to light (revealing what it touches), our minds are now scattering beams in all directions, flickering across the surface of many things.  Concentration focuses the beam, like a laser, making it powerful tool. This does not imply that we will use this power to attain insight, or even that we will use it for good purposes at all.  We might not.

All traditional sources agree that, without the power of concentration, liberating insights will not be achieved (WBT 71); almost all modern Buddhism meditation teachers have their students do at least some practices aimed at strengthening concentration. 

4. Right Mindfulness (WBT 69-75; RM 133-136 and 144-145). Rahula (WBT 69) says that the Buddha's sermon on establishing mindfulness is the most important teaching he ever gave; Thich Nhat Hanh (RM 144) calls mindfulness "necessary awareness".  He says that, "In Buddhism, mindfulness is the key."

When Allen Ginsberg (a famous poet and American Buddhist) visited CMU, he taught that mindfulness means "noticing what you notice".  Mindfulness means paying attention to our own experience, moment by moment, and therefore being fully present in our own lives.  Thich Nhat Hanh (RM 144) emphasizes that only when we are mindful are we truly alive; when we not paying attention, we are not really living.  Mindfulness means being present, being aware.  As we practice being aware, we see many things that we used to miss, and we wake up from the sleep of ignorance.  As noted above, it is only wisdom or insight that is the actual antidote to our suffering in cyclic existence; and mindfulness is indispensable to wisdom. 

In one famous story, a Zen master was asked what he taught his students.  He said, "Attention."  "Nothing else?" asked the visitor?  "Attention, attention," answered the master.  The visitor persisted, "Is that all there is to it?"  "Attention, attention, attention."  "Well, what does attention mean?"  Finally, the master explained, "Attention means attention."

Read WBT 69-73 carefully.  In what physical postures can we practice mindfulness, in general (WBT 71)?  In what position is mindfulness of the breath usually practiced (69)?

Does the practice of mindfulness mean that we should never think about the past or future at all (WBT 71)?  Might it involve trying to spend less time loss in worry and daydreams (WBT 71-72)?   How did Buddha explain why his followers, who ate only one meal a day and who were homeless, seemed so radiant (WBT 72)?

Does mindfulness necessarily imply a state of self-consciousness in which you describe to yourself what you are experiencing in each moment (WBT 72)? 

5. Insight Meditation  (RM 151-157 and B 98-101).  Vipassana is the term for insight, a liberating perception of things as they are.  The term also refers to the main tradition of meditation in Theravada Buddhism, in which techniques of concentration and mindfulness are combined in order to achieve such insight. In many parts of the world, including the U.S.A., there are "Insight" meditation teachers who hold meditation retreats and give teachings on these techniques to many lay people.  One such teacher is H. Gunaratna. (Other well-known Vipassana teachers quoted in RM include Sharon Salzburg, Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield).  How does Gunaratna distinguish insight meditation from concentration meditation (RM 151-152)?  What is the objective, or aim, of insight practice (RM 153)? 

Why does insight meditation use a focal point for attention (154-155)?  Note that by using a specific focal point for mindfulness, one is in effect developing concentration.  Gunaratna's use of the wild elephant example makes this clear.  Attempting to practice mindfulness without any focal point of concentration is usually called "bare insight;" Gunaratna refers to it as "unstructured meditation".   In such practice, one simply tries to notice whatever one is noticing, without training the mind to focus on a specific point.  Although this can be useful as an exercise, it is very difficult to keep the practice of mindfulness going without any focal point or prior training in concentration.  Gunaratna (RM 155) describes aptly what almost always happens:  one gets "sucked in" to a particularly interesting thought-chain, and loses mindfulness.

For this reason, traditional meditation instruction for monks began with long training in concentration.  Only when one had mastered this did one begin to open up the field of awareness, relaxing the "lock" on one specific object, in order to "notice what one notices". 

However, these days there are many lay people who practice insight meditation, and they do not have the right kind of lifestyle or situation for developing full-blown concentration.  As a result, many teachers have reached a pragmatic compromise.  They begin by teaching their students to stay focused on "the touch of the breath" (RM 156) until they have developed the ability to remain on the breath without distraction for perhaps a full minute. (Even this is quite difficult for a beginner, but it is far from a fully developed and stable state of concentration).  At that point, students can "open up" the field of awareness, and notice whatever sensation, thought, or feeling brings itself to their attention, focusing on it with sharpened power of the now somewhat concentrated mind.  Notice Keown's comment (B 98) that "in practice" the two techniques of calming and insight are normally used back to back within the same session of meditation. 

6. Results of insight meditation. Read B 99-100 carefully.  Using the laser-like attention of a concentrated mind, the meditator observes with detachment whatever comes to mind, whatever brings itself to attention.  How can insight meditation help the practitioner to break out of bad habits, or cyclic patterns of self-defeating behavior (B 99)? 

My experience at Vipassana meditation centers suggests that Westerners who visit these centers only infrequently aspire to attain nirvana, and many are not Buddhists.   Most come seeking some liberating insight into the ways in which they cyclically defeat themselves in their own lives.  By paying extremely close attention the stream of thoughts and feelings, they gain helpful and healing insights into their own psychological problems. 

Traditionally, insight meditation is intended to lead the meditator toward insight into the three marks: unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), impermanence, and no-self.  Such insights will, in turn, lead to realization of nirvana.

For example, ordinarily, while walking, we might day-dream about what will happen later that day, while occasionally having a general awareness that thinks, "I am walking."  However, in walking meditation, one learns to notice the details—instant by instant—of thousands of flickering sensations, in each step.  Ordinarily, a person who feels an itch will reflexively scratch it, perhaps with the thought, "I have an itch," or "That is bothering me."  An insight meditator might instead notice an itch, and then observe exactly what "the itch" is.  Rather than a unitary irritant that remains stable until scratched, an itch is a complex of flickering micro-experiences.  How do the sensations change instant by instant?  What are the discernible parts, or sections, within the itch?   In this way, insight meditation is really like using a microscope on our own experience.  Insight meditation uses the power of concentration to "zero in" and stay focused, so that we can really see what we are experiencing instant by instant.

Those who do this find that what they thought of as solid and concrete turns out to be a composite of many flickering parts, no one of which is stable even for an instant.  Impermanence, in Buddhism, refers mainly to this continuous flux, or flow, of disintegrating factors. It is NOT simply that things will change sooner or later; we will all die someday.  Rather, it is that everything is changing all the time, instant by instant.  There is nothing solid to grasp, nothing to hold on to.  The mind, and all of its conditioned experience, is in constant flux.  There is no "core" self, no permanent and unchanging reality, beneath or behind this constant change.  We speak of a person who "has" certain experiences, but finally the person is only what we call the stream of experience itself (B 100).

When we see that there is nothing to hold on to, we have but one alternative: to let go.  Letting go, giving up clinging and grasping, is liberation.  Now we are trapped in samsara by our own grasping.  When we let go, we are free.  The traditional example is a "monkey trap".  A small hole is put in the side of coconut shell, and the shell is secured to the ground.  Bait is put inside.  A monkey can reach in and grab the bait, but it cannot pull its balled fist back out through the hole.  It is trapped until it can learn to let go.   Like this, when we "see" that there is nothing solid, permanent, or graspable in the flux of our experience, we let go of attachment and realize nirvana. 

7. Right Understanding (WBT 49; B 58).  Of the three trainings, what is the third?  Which of the eightfold path are included here?  What is right understanding?  Are there different levels, or types, of right understanding?  How is meditation related to right understanding?  Note that for Rahula, highest wisdom sees ultimate reality, and ultimate reality is identified with nirvana and no-self (WBT 39-40).

Anyone who realizes nirvana is called a "noble" (arya).  Realization of nirvana eradicates all or some portion of one's karma.  In the Theravada tradition, this means that one will be free from samsara in, at most, seven lifetimes.  One who has eradicated all karma, and is in the last lifetime, is called an arhat. 

8. No-self (WBT 51-66).  To what, according to Rahula, can all the evil in the world be traced (WBT 51)?  How are the ideas of God and Self related in Rahula's understanding (WBT 51)? How did the Buddha expect people to react to his teachings on these matters (WBT 52)?  How does no-self relate to dependent arising (WBT 52-54)?  If there is ultimately no findable self, can we still speak of persons, and use words like "I" in daily life without lying (WBT 55)? 

The idea of no-self is a critical and distinctive concept in Buddhism.  Traditional examples used to explain this idea include a chariot and a forest.  We can correctly speak of a chariot (conventional truth) even though when we search among the parts of the chariot, we find only nails, axles, wheels, and other miscellaneous bits.  None of these bits is a chariot.  Nor are they a chariot collectively when we dump all the parts in a heap.  Nor can there be a chariot that exists apart from its component parts.  If it is not any one of its parts, nor the heap of its parts, nor something else  apart from its parts, then what is it? 

If you say that it is all its parts when they arranged in the right way, then the question remains:  Are all of these parts necessary for a chariot to be there?  If certain part IS necessary, then is that part a chariot or not?  Is the arrangement of the parts into a certain shape what counts?  What if you had something that was that exact shape but was made out of paper?

"Chariot" is simply a name; it is what we have conventionally agreed to call a certain kind of collection.  It has no essential nature, or distinctive essence of its own which we can find under analysis.  So it is with the person, or the "self".  The person is a convenient designation.  If we understand it as only  that, we are fine.  But we do not.  Innately, from beginningless habituation in samsara, we reify the self—we exaggerate it into something that is more substantial than this.

Forests exist.  But when we look closely, analytically, what is a forest?  No one of the trees is a forest, nor is the space between them a forest.  What else is there?  We could say that a forest is what we agree to call a collection of trees, but even then we have to remember that only certain kinds of collections are included in this convention.  Do the trees have to be standing and living?  Do ten thousand trees make a forest if they are spread out over ten thousand miles?  Exactly how many trees is the minimum for there to be a forest?  When we reflect on this, it becomes clear that "forest" is just a word; it has no essence that we can get at.  It means only what the speakers of a certain language can agree to use that word for. 

Likewise, a person is just what we call the collection of changing factors of the mind and body.  A person does  exist—just as a forest exists.  It has no essential reality, but it is a useful convention. 

9. Right Thought (WBT 49; B 96-97). This refers to having the right kinds attitudes, motivations, intentions and feelings.  These "right thoughts" are, in effect, the opposites of desire and hatred.  In the place of desirous attachment and harmful intentions, someone following the eightfold paths cultivates attitudes of selfless renunciation and loving non-violence, and extends that consideration to all beings.  Note Rahula's point: true wisdom involves kindly disposition toward others.

Theravada Buddhist meditators frequently cultivate such attitudes in meditation.  What are the four "measureless states" (B 96)?  How does one meditate on loving kindness?  Why does the practice of loving kindness begin with wishing well for oneself (B 96)?