Mindfulness

Insight Meditation:
Insight meditation or vipassana takes quite a different approach to that of calm or samatha meditation. Whereas calm meditation is about concentrating the mind, insight meditation is about awareness of the present moment. A key word used for this type of meditation is mindfulness'. One of the most important discourses of the Buddha was the one he gave on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The Buddha put a great deal of confidence in this meditation approach: this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realisation of Nibbana. Unlike calm meditation, insight meditation is a method that takes the individual all the way to full enlightenment.

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness:
This very important discourse of the Buddha is divided into four sections with further subsections within two of those.

1. The Contemplation of the Body:
Mindfulness of Breathing:
This practice entails becoming aware of the breath, without any conscious effort to control it. The scriptures describe the procedure as follows:

"Here a monk, gone to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty hut, sits down; having folded his legs crosswise, set his body erect, and establishes mindfulness in front of him, ever mindful he breathes in, mindful he breathes out. Breathing in long, he understands, I breathe in long'; or breathing out long, he understands: I breathe out long'."

This basic procedure is followed and the mind becomes tranquil. At this stage the process is more or less the same as the breathing meditation of the calm meditation approach. The difference occurs when in observing the breath, there is an understanding of its impermanent nature, what the scripture refers to its 'arising and vanishing factors'. This is where insight takes place as the meditator comes to a profound, experiential understanding of the impermanence that underlies all things. Such bare awareness also leaves no room for clinging' which is about becoming attached to that which is pleasant and wishing to avoid that which is unpleasant. The mindfulness approach is about learning to see things as they really are without our subjective desires intruding.

The Four Postures:
Another meditation technique to do with the body is to bring bare awareness to the four postures identified

• 1
• 2
• 3
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about The Buddhist concept of mindfulness?
We want to hear your view. Write now!