Meditation: A Spiritual Discipline
Reproduced with permission from "Transforming the mind", His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., London 2003, pp 6-9 and Office of Tibet, Tibet House, London.
What do we understand by meditation? … meditation is a spiritual discipline, and one that allows you to have some degree of control over your thoughts and emotions.
Why is it that we don't succeed in enjoying the lasting happiness that we are seeking? And why are we so often faced with suffering and misery instead? Buddhism explains that our normal state of mind is such that our thoughts and emotions are wild and unruly, and since we lack-the mental discipline needed to tame them, we are powerless to control them. As a result, they control us. And thoughts and emotions, in their turn, tend to be con-trolled by our negative impulses rather than our positive ones. We need to reverse this cycle, so that our thoughts and emotions are freed from their subservience to negative impulses, and so we ourselves, as individuals, gain control of our own minds.
The idea of bringing about such a fundamental change in our-selves may at first sight seem impossible, yet it is actually possible to do this through a process of discipline such as meditation. We choose a particular object, and then we train our minds by developing our ability to remain focused on the object. Normally, if we just take a moment to reflect, we will see that our mind is not focused at all. We may be thinking about something and, all of a sudden, we find that we have been distracted because something else came into our head. Our thoughts are constantly chasing after this and that because we don't have the discipline of having a focus. So, through meditation, what we can achieve is the ability to place our minds and to focus our attention at will on any given object.
Now of course, we could choose to focus on a negative object in our meditation. If, for example, you are infatuated with someone, and if you focus your mind single-pointedly on that person, and then dwell on their desirable qualities, this will have the effect of increasing your sexual desire for that person. But this is not what meditation is for. From a Buddhist point of view, meditation has to be practised in relation to a positive object, by which we mean an object that will enhance your ability to focus. Through that familiarity you become closer and closer to the object and feel a sense of intimacy with it. … this type of meditation is described as … tranquil abiding - which is a single-pointed meditation.
Tranquil abiding alone is not sufficient. In Buddhism, we combine single-pointed meditation with the practice of analytic meditation, which is known as vipasyana, penetrative insight. In this practice we apply reasoning. By recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of different types of emotions and thoughts, together with their advantages and disadvantages, we are able to enhance our positive states of mind which contribute towards a sense of serenity, tranquillity, and contentment, and to reduce those attitudes and emotions that lead to suffering and dissatisfaction. Reasoning thus plays a helpful part in this process.
I should point out that the two types of meditative approach I have outlined, the single-pointed and the analytic, are not distinguished on the grounds that they each rely on a different type of object. The difference between them lies in the way each is applied, not in the objects chosen.
To clarify this point I will use the example of meditation on impermanence. If a meditator remains single-pointedly focused on the thought that everything changes from moment to moment, that is single-pointed meditation, whereas if someone meditates on impermanence by constantly applying, to everything he or she encounters, the various reasonings concerning the impermanent nature of things, reinforcing his conviction in the fact of impermanence through this analytic process, then he is practicing analytic meditation on impermanence. Both share a common object, impermanence, but the way in which each meditation is applied is different.
I feel that both types of meditation are actually practiced in almost all major religious traditions. In the case of ancient India for instance, the practice of single-pointed meditation and the application of analytic meditation are common to all the major religious traditions, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. During a conversation with a Christian friend of mine some years ago, I was told that in Christianity, and particularly in the Greek Orthodox tradition, there is a strong and long history of contemplative meditation. And similarly, a number of Jewish Rabbis have spoken to me about certain mystic practices in Judaism which involve a form of single-pointed meditation.
It is therefore possible to integrate both types of meditation into a theistic religion. A Christian, for instance, might engage in contemplation by reflecting upon the mysteries of the world, or the power of God's grace, or on various reasons that he or she finds deeply inspiring and that enhance his belief in the divine Creator. Through such a process the individual might arrive at a deep-felt faith in God, and then could rest his mind in that state and remain single-pointedly focused. In this way, the practitioner arrives at a single-pointed meditation on God through an analytic process, so both aspects of meditation are present.