“Meditation” or Mental Cultivation (Bhāvanā)

 

The Buddha said:

“O bhikkhus, there are two kinds of illness. What are these two? Physical illness and mental illness. There are people who enjoy good physical health for one or two years… even for a hundred years or more. But, O bhikkhus, rare in this world are those who remain free from mental illness even for a single moment, except for those who are free from mental defilements.”

The teaching of the Buddha, and especially his method of “meditation,” aims at the creation of a state of perfect mental health, balance, and equanimity. It is unfortunate that almost no other aspect of the Buddha’s teaching has been so deeply misunderstood as “meditation,” both by Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

As soon as the word “meditation” is mentioned, one immediately imagines an escape from the activities of daily life: adopting a particular posture, like a statue in some cave, or in a monastic cell, or in some place cut off from society, daydreaming, or sinking into some kind of mystical or mysterious contemplation or ecstasy. True Buddhist “meditation” does not mean any such form of escape.

The Buddha’s teaching on this subject has been so poorly understood or so wrongly interpreted that in recent times the method of “meditation” has been degraded and reduced to a kind of formalism or ritual, almost mechanical in its routine.

The word “meditation” is a very poor substitute for the original term bhāvanā, which means “cultivation” or “development,” that is, mental cultivation or mental development. Literally speaking, Buddhist bhāvanā is mental cultivation in the fullest sense of the term.

It aims at cleansing the mind of defilements and disturbances such as passion, hatred, ill will, sloth, worries, restlessness, and doubt, and at cultivating qualities such as concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy, analytical ability, confidence, joy, and equanimity. These qualities ultimately lead to the attainment of the highest wisdom, which sees the nature of things as they truly are and realizes the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana.

This, essentially, is Buddhist “meditation” (vipassanā), Buddhist mental cultivation. It is an analytical method based on reflection, awareness, vigilance, and observation.

 Excerpt from “What the Buddha Taught” by Walpola Sri Rahula.