Buddhist meditation in South Asia

Abstract

The study attempts an overview of the Indian Buddhist meditation from a philologico-historical perspective. I avoid as much as possible meta-textual statements, focusing instead on a number of canonical sources representative of the main Buddhist traditions. I first look into the semantics of such key terms as bhāvanā ‘meditative cultivation’, samādhi ‘meditative concentration’, dhyāna ‘absorption’, yoga ‘spiritual praxis’, etc. This is followed by a brief introduction to the forty subjects of meditation in Theravāda Buddhism and the set of five meditative objects found in the Northern Buddhist traditions, i.e. impurity, friendliness, dependent origination, analysis of the elements and mindfulness of breathing. The bulk of the study examines the descriptions and doctrinal background of the central meditative techniques and systems throughout Buddhist history: 1) samatha (usually identified as absorption meditation) and vipassanā (= the four applications of mindfulness) in Early Buddhism and the five-step path of spiritual cultivation in the Northern Mainstream school of Sarvāstivāda; 2) the three contemplations (trayaḥ samādhayaḥ) and compassion meditation in Mahāyāna Buddhism and the five-stage model of spiritual progression in the idealistic school of Yogācāra-Vijnānavāda; and 3) visualisations, control of inner energy, mantra meditation in Tantric Buddhism and the six-step spiritual path in the Noble Lineage of the Guhyasamājatantra.