The Path and the Buddha

2021 ◽  
pp. 11-22
Author(s):  
Dale S. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
Skillful Means

This chapter examines fundamental Buddhist themes addressed at the beginning of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. After discussing the setting and the primary characters in the story, it describes the metaphor of Buddhism as a path through life that can be pursued through the various disciplines of Buddhist practice and describes the importance attributed to a motivating concept of the goal of Buddhist practice, bodhicitta, the “thought of enlightenment.” The chapter addresses the question of who the Buddha is understood to be and how Buddhists in the sutra understand the miracles performed by the Buddha as “skillful means” of providing motivation for meditative practice.

Buddhist Meditation and Contemplation: An Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Belief Systems ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
Central Elements ◽  
Devotional Practices ◽  
Practice Meditation ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Buddha

Perhaps the most significant contribution of Buddhism to the international stage in recent years has been the promotion and cultural acceptance of meditation. Historically central to many Buddhist traditions and once considered an activity for a dedicated few, meditation has become mainstream. Within Buddhism itself, it has now become more widely acknowledged as a lay as well as a monastic practice. Meditation has been reinstated in religious orthopraxy in many spiritual traditions, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, where its practice had previously fallen into abeyance. Meditation is now also normalized and often recommended in secular and clinical contexts: the modern mindfulness movements and various psychologically related disciplines, by adopting various forms of meditative practice as highly effective therapeutic techniques, have made meditations, often derived from Buddhist practice, internationally acceptable. It would be fair to say that the figure of the Buddha seated in deep calm has become an internationally recognized image for the tranquility and alertness thought possible for the human mind. But what exactly is meditation? The term applies to a range of activities that go beyond, but include, the simple seated activity suggested by images of the Buddha. Walking, sitting, and eating may include exercises regarded as central elements in meditative practice. Buddhist traditions throughout all regions have often been richly varied in their attitude to the praxis and the theory of the eightfold path; all path factors are considered interrelated. The isolation of any one activity from others that may support and enhance it does not present an authentic, or what would be regarded as an effective, picture of what is known as bhāvanā, literally “making to become,” the cultivation of the eightfold path and, specifically, meditation itself. The term bhāvanā is certainly applied to seated meditation. But it also includes exercises in other postures, devotional practices, offerings, prostrations, listening to teaching, debate about the teaching, and chanting. Some of these, in some traditions, assume a central role whereby they become the core meditation practice. Meditations and other activities are often considered interdependent: from early times, the absorption and investigation of theory, sitting meditation, walking practice, chanting, and rituals aimed at stilling and clearing the mind were designed to support and complement one another. Meditation and its associated exercises are often selected and taught with careful consideration of individual needs. Many require continued guidance by more experienced practitioners: mixes of practices are often suggested to individuals according to their temperament and stage of practice. Forms of Buddhism are quite distinct; but practices are usually seen as graduated, requiring patient training before the next stage of teaching is reached, and mutually supportive. Historically, Buddhism has also often tended to adapt in a creative and flexible manner according to local customs, variations, and belief systems. These features can be seen in the great diversity of Buddhist meditative practice.

scholarly journals Buddhist-Taoist Syncretism in the School of the “Twofold Mystery” and the Meditation of “Purity and Quietness”

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Alexey A. Maslov
Keyword(s):  
Binary Opposition ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Traditional Structure ◽  
The World ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
Main Ideas ◽  
Dao De Jing

The papers are dedicated to the concepts, main ideas, texts, and forms of practice of the syncretic Taoist movement Chongxuan-pai – “Twofold mystery”, which was developed in the 7–10th centuries. This school borrowed a number of logical constructions of Madhyamika Buddhism, including the system of four-level dialectical negation, as well as the idea of absolute “emptying of consciousness” for overcoming attachments both to mundane life and to any mental concepts. In part, these ideas are reflected in the Taoist-Buddhist practice of attaining “purity and quietness, a specific tradition of meditation, with its most important text “Canon of Purity and Quietness” (Qingjing jing) (given in this article in the author’s translation). Despite its traditional structure, thematic allusions with “Dao De Jing” and precepts attributed to Lao-jun, this Canon pays special attention to the technique of “inner contemplation” (nei guan), which also gravitates to the Buddhist practice of vipasyana and is called to eliminate binary opposition (pure-polluted, movement-rest) in the practitioner’s consciousness. The “Canon of purity and Quietness” is still highly revered in central China’s Taoist schools today. The basis of the meditative practice according to this Canon is the gradual ascending from “looking inward”, “looking outward” and “looking away” to “contemplation of emptiness”. The highest stage of “emptying the emptiness” leads to the complete deactualization of the ego and the breaking of all ties with the world. In this way, the exegetical idea of the “Twofold mystery” is realized as a form of Taoist practice influenced by Buddhist ideas.

scholarly journals Is Mindfulness Buddhist? (And Why It Matters)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Sharf
Keyword(s):  
Mindfulness Meditation ◽  
Buddhist Philosophy ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Meditative Practice ◽  
The Moment

Modern exponents of mindfulness meditation promote the therapeutic effects of “bare attention”—a sort of non-judgmental, non-discursive attending to the moment-to-moment flow of consciousness. This approach is arguably at odds with more traditional Theravāda Buddhist doctrine and meditative practice, but the cultivation of present-centered awareness is not without precedent in Buddhist history; similar innovations arose in medieval Chinese Zen (Chan) and Tibetan Dzogchen. These movements have several things in common. In each case the reforms were, in part, attempts to render Buddhist practice and insight accessible to laypeople unfamiliar with Buddhist philosophy and/or unwilling to adopt a renunciatory lifestyle. They also promised quick results. And finally, the innovations were met with suspicion and criticism from traditional Buddhist quarters. Those interested in the therapeutic effects of mindfulness and bare attention are often not aware of the existence, much less the content, of the controversies surrounding these practices in Asian Buddhist history.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Mark Siderits
Keyword(s):  
Theory Construction ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
General Introduction ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
The Buddha

This chapter provides a general introduction to the work’s investigation of Indian Buddhist metaphysics. It places Buddhist philosophical theory construction within the larger Buddhist soteriological project, explaining why metaphysical theorizing might have so important a place in Buddhist practice. It provides summary accounts of the metaphysics of two important non-Buddhist systems, Sāṃkhya and Nyāya, that served as important sources of objections to the key Buddhist thesis of non-self. It also contains brief sketches of the major Buddhist schools in India and some of the major figures in its history, from Gautama (the Buddha) through Nāgārjuna, Vasubandhu, and Dharmakīrti, to Ratnakīrti. There is also some discussion of the motivation for examining philosophical traditions other than one’s own.

The Nembutsu: Prayer As Enlightenment in Shin Buddhism

Horizons ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-290
Author(s):  
Thaddeus J. Gurdak
Keyword(s):  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Shin Buddhism ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Buddha

AbstractThe recitation of the nembutsu, a plea for salvation in the form of the ejaculatory prayer, “I call on Amida Buddha,” far from being an aberration of Buddhist practice, is an organic development of doctrine and practice based on early Mahāyana thought. With its roots in the work of Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu, the practice grew from a perception of the Buddha's compassion being such that it would create a provisional paradise within which searchers for enlightenment could dwell, so that, free from the cycle of karma-defilement-suffering in this world, they could more readily attain ultimate enlightenment. The nembutsu is the response of an individual to the compassion of the Buddha, a selfless acceptance of that compassion which allows the individual to be drawn into it, thus being ushered into enlightenment itself. The prayer of the nembutsu is itself a participation in the reality of enlightenment.

Barth and Universal Salvation

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-104
Author(s):  
Pan-chiu Lai
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Method ◽  
Chinese Buddhism ◽  
Universal Salvation ◽  
Buddhist Practice ◽  
Doctrine Of Election ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Skillful Means

Pan-chiu Lai takes up the question of universal salvation in Barth, in conversation particularly with Chinese Buddhism, which recognizes a variety of entrances or “dharma-gates” to salvation. After describing several aspects of the universalism of this Mahayana tradition, Lai turns to Barth and notes parallels in his own theology, including the provocative suggestion that what some scholars deem an inconsistency or change in Barth’s position over time may actually be an example of the Buddhist practice of “skillful means,” a change in teaching method in order to address a different concern. Finally, in considering Barth’s doctrine of election, Lai suggests that “Barth’s universalism is more fundamental to his own position, while his denial of universalism is merely his own skillful means which is made for the benefit of his audience.” Even so, from a Mahayana perspective Lai offers specific critiques of Barth’s “implicit universalism.”

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