138-461: Samādhi ( Pali and Sanskrit : समाधि ), in Hinduism , Buddhism , Jainism , Sikhism and yogic schools, is a state of meditative consciousness. In many Indian religious traditions, the cultivation of Samādhi through various meditation methods is essential for the attainment of spiritual liberation (known variously as nirvana , moksha ). In Buddhism, it is the last of the eight elements of
276-415: A Middle Indo-Aryan language , is different from Classical Sanskrit more with regard to its dialectal base than the time of its origin. A number of its morphological and lexical features show that it is not a direct continuation of Ṛgvedic Sanskrit. Instead it descends from one or more dialects that were, despite many similarities, different from Ṛgvedic . The Theravada commentaries refer to
414-515: A before doubled consonants: The vowels ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are lengthened in the flexional endings including: -īhi, -ūhi and -īsu A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: niggahīta ), represented by the letter ṁ (ISO 15919) or ṃ (ALA-LC) in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṁ , iṁ and uṁ represented [ã] , [ĩ] and [ũ] . In many traditional pronunciations, however,
552-531: A lingua franca or common language of culture among people who used differing dialects in North India, used at the time of the Buddha and employed by him. Another scholar states that at that time it was "a refined and elegant vernacular of all Aryan-speaking people". Modern scholarship has not arrived at a consensus on the issue; there are a variety of conflicting theories with supporters and detractors. After
690-672: A central place in early Mahāyāna, also because they "may have given access to fresh revelations and inspiration". Indian Mahāyāna traditions refer to numerous forms of samādhi , for example, Section 21 of the Mahavyutpatti records 118 distinct forms of samādhi and the Samadhiraja Sutra has as its main theme a samādhi called 'the samādhi that is manifested as the sameness of the essential nature of all dharma s' ( sarva-dharma-svabhavā-samatā-vipañcita-samādhi ). Buddhist Pali texts describe three kinds of samādhi which
828-664: A continuation of a language spoken in the area of Magadha in the time of the Buddha. Nearly every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the Prakrits . The relationship to Vedic Sanskrit is less direct and more complicated; the Prakrits were descended from Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars . Historically, influence between Pali and Sanskrit has been felt in both directions. The Pali language's resemblance to Sanskrit
966-545: A core meditative practice which can be found in almost all schools of Buddhism. The Suttapiṭaka and the Agama s describe four stages of rūpa jhāna . Rūpa refers to the material realm, in a neutral stance, as different from the kāma -realm (lust, desire) and the arūpa -realm (non-material realm). While interpreted in the Theravada-tradition as describing a deepening concentration and one-pointedness, originally
1104-495: A decrease in habitual responding in a 20-minute Stroop test , which, as suggested by Richard Davidson and colleagues, may illustrate a lessening of emotionally reactive and automatic responding behavior. It has been scientifically demonstrated that ānāpānasati enhances connectivity in the brain. The Abhidhamma literature discerns sixteen stages – or contemplations – of ānāpānasati. These are divided into four tetrads (i.e., four groups of four). The first four steps involve focusing
1242-552: A degraded form of Pali, But Masefield states that further examination of a very considerable corpus of texts will probably show that this is an internally consistent Pali dialect. The reason for the changes is that some combinations of characters are difficult to write in those scripts. Masefield further states that upon the third re-introduction of Theravada Buddhism into Sri Lanka (The Siyamese Sect), records in Thailand state that large number of texts were also taken. It seems that when
1380-575: A few loan-words from local languages where Pali was used (e.g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhala words to Pali). These usages differentiate the Pali found in the Suttapiṭaka from later compositions such as the Pali commentaries on the canon and folklore (e.g., commentaries on the Jataka tales ), and comparative study (and dating) of texts on the basis of such loan-words is now a specialized field unto itself. Pali
1518-417: A gross level the breath is equal in both nostrils, and on the subtle level pranic flow in ida and pingala nadis is balanced. This is called the sushumna breath because the residual prana of the sushuma, the kundalini , flows in sushumna nadi, causing sattva guna to dominate. "It creates a feeling of peace. That peace is ānanda". In sānanda samādhi the experience of that ānanda, that sattvic flow,
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#17327911862111656-665: A high degree of mutual intelligibility. Theravada tradition, as recorded in chronicles like the Mahavamsa , states that the Tipitaka was first committed to writing during the first century BCE. This move away from the previous tradition of oral preservation is described as being motivated by threats to the Sangha from famine, war, and the growing influence of the rival tradition of the Abhayagiri Vihara . This account
1794-546: A meditative tradition consisting of analysis based on observation—inductive reasoning within meditation—was not transmitted to Tibet; what Gelukpa writers call analytical meditation is syllogistic reasoning within meditation. Thus, Jamyang Shaypa fails to recognize the possibility of an 'analytical meditation' based on observation, even when he cites passages on breath meditation from Vasubandhu's Treasury of Manifest Knowledge and, especially, Asaṅga's Grounds of Hearers that appear to describe it. Stephen Batchelor , who for years
1932-572: A more nuanced understanding sees samadhi as a state of intensified awareness and investigation of bodily and mental objects or experiences: In Hinduism, samadhi is also interpreted as the identification with the Absolute: Various interpretations for the term's etymology are possible, either with the root sam ("to bring together") or sama ( "the same, equalized, the convergence of two distinct things"). According to Dan Lusthaus , samadhi refers to either bringing to consciousness
2070-415: A number of similarities between surviving fragments and Pali morphology. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit thought to have been spoken in modern-day Bihar & Eastern Uttar Pradesh and used in some early Buddhist and Jain drama. It was originally thought to be a predecessor of the vernacular Magadhi Prakrit, hence the name (literally "half-Magadhi"). Ardhamāgadhī
2208-510: A practice tradition because of the great difference between this type of inductive meditative reasoning based on observation and the types of meditative reasoning using consequences ( thal 'gyur, prasaanga ) or syllogisms ( sbyor ba, prayoga ) with which Gelukpas were familiar. Thus, although Gelukpa scholars give detailed interpretations of the systems of breath meditation set forth in Vasubandu's and Asaṅga's texts, they may not fully account for
2346-560: A single object [...] the state in virtue of which consciousness and its concomitants remain evenly and rightly on a single object, undistracted and unscattered". According to Buddhaghosa, the Theravada Pali texts mention four attainments of samādhi : According to Buddhaghosa, in his influential standard-work Visuddhimagga , samādhi is the "proximate cause" to the obtainment of wisdom . The Visuddhimagga describes 40 different objects for meditation, which are mentioned throughout
2484-418: A single practice: keeping the breath in mind. When the mind is with the breath, all four frames of reference are right there. The difference lies simply in the subtlety of one's focus.... [A]s a meditator get more skilled in staying with the breath, the practice of satipatthana gives greater sensitivity in peeling away ever more subtle layers of participation in the present moment until nothing is left standing in
2622-499: A single process that leads to awakening. She concludes that "the fourth jhāna is the optimal experiential event for the utter de-conditioning of unwholesome tendencies of mind and for the transformation of deep epistemological structures. This is because one embodies and actualizes an awakened awareness of experience." The earliest extant Indian Mahāyāna texts emphasize ascetic practices, forest-dwelling, and states of meditative oneness, i.e. samādhi . These practices seem to have occupied
2760-484: A six-stage model, explicitly rejecting Vacaspati Misra's model. Vijnana Bikshu regards joy ( ānanda ) as a state that arises when the mind passes beyond the vicara stage. Whicher agrees that ānanda is not a separate stage of samādhi . According to Whicher, Patanjali's own view seems to be that nirvicara-samādhi is the highest form of cognitive ecstasy. According to Sarasvati Buhrman, " Babaji once explained that when people feel blissful sensations during sādhanā , on
2898-594: Is equanimous and mindful. In the yogic traditions and the Buddhist commentarial tradition, on which the Burmese Vipassana movement and the Thai Forest tradition rely, it is interpreted as a meditative absorption or trance attained by the practice of dhyāna . Samadhi may refer to a broad range of states. A common understanding regards samadhi as meditative absorption: In a Buddhist context,
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#17327911862113036-512: Is called "purification" (parisuddhi) and it marks entering the stage of "realization of the Way", which in Abhidharma literature denotes the stage of "the stream entry" ( Sotāpanna ) that will inevitably lead the adept to Nirvana in no more than seven lives. Traditional anāpānasati teaches to observe inhalation and exhalation by focusing on the air coming in and out the nostrils, but followers of
3174-416: Is controversial, but it seems to me that the third and fourth jhanas are thus quite unlike the second." Alexander Wynne states that the dhyana -scheme is poorly understood. According to Wynne, words expressing the inculcation of awareness, such as sati , sampajāno , and upekkhā , are mistranslated or understood as particular factors of meditative states, whereas they refer to a particular way of perceiving
3312-577: Is currently relatively little known, particularly in the Thai tradition, with many manuscripts never catalogued or published. Paiśācī is a largely unattested literary language of classical India that is mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is found grouped with the Prakrit languages, with which it shares some linguistic similarities, but was not considered a spoken language by
3450-550: Is entitled, "The Great Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra" (Ch. 大安般守意經) ( Taishō Tripiṭaka 602). At a later date, Buddhacinga, more commonly known as Fotudeng (佛圖澄) (231–349 CE), came from Central Asia to China in 310 and propagated Buddhism widely. He is said to have demonstrated many spiritual powers , and was able to convert the warlords in this region of China over to Buddhism. He is well known for teaching methods of meditation, and especially ānāpānasmṛti. Fotudeng widely taught ānāpānasmṛti through methods of counting breaths, so as to temper to
3588-536: Is frequently chanted in a ritual context. The secular literature of Pali historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions is also of great historical importance. The great centres of Pali learning remain in Sri Lanka and other Theravada nations of Southeast Asia: Myanmar , Thailand , Laos and Cambodia . Since the 19th century, various societies for the revival of Pali studies in India have promoted awareness of
3726-502: Is generally accepted by scholars, though there are indications that Pali had already begun to be recorded in writing by this date. By this point in its history, scholars consider it likely that Pali had already undergone some initial assimilation with Sanskrit , such as the conversion of the Middle-Indic bahmana to the more familiar Sanskrit brāhmana that contemporary brahmans used to identify themselves. In Sri Lanka, Pali
3864-467: Is in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha as conserved in the scriptures. It is the straight path to Nibbana." Anapanasati can also be practised with other traditional meditation subjects including the four frames of reference and mettā bhāvanā , as is done in modern Theravadan Buddhism. In the second century, the Buddhist monk An Shigao came from Northwest India to China and became one of
4002-535: Is likely the most widely used Buddhist method for contemplating bodily phenomena. The mindfulness practice described in the Ānāpānasati Sutra is to go into the forest and sit beneath a tree and then to simply watch the breath: Breathing in long, he discerns, 'I am breathing in long'; or breathing out long, he discerns, 'I am breathing out long.' Or breathing in short, he discerns, 'I am breathing in short'; or breathing out short, he discerns, 'I am breathing out short.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in sensitive to
4140-445: Is no single, standard spelling of the term, and all four possible spellings can be found in textbooks. R. C. Childers translates the word as "series" and states that the language "bears the epithet in consequence of the perfection of its grammatical structure". There is persistent confusion as to the relation of Pāḷi to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha , which was located in modern-day Bihar . Beginning in
4278-677: Is often exaggerated by comparing it to later Sanskrit compositions—which were written centuries after Sanskrit ceased to be a living language, and are influenced by developments in Middle Indic , including the direct borrowing of a portion of the Middle Indic lexicon; whereas, a good deal of later Pali technical terminology has been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with certain phonological adaptations. Post-canonical Pali also possesses
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4416-936: Is that literature in Paiśācī is fragmentary and extremely rare but may once have been common. The 13th-century Tibetan historian Buton Rinchen Drub wrote that the early Buddhist schools were separated by choice of sacred language : the Mahāsāṃghikas used Prakrit, the Sarvāstivādins used Sanskrit, the Sthaviravādins used Paiśācī, and the Saṃmitīya used Apabhraṃśa . This observation has led some scholars to theorize connections between Pali and Paiśācī; Sten Konow concluded that it may have been an Indo-Aryan language spoken by Dravidian people in South India, and Alfred Master noted
4554-474: Is the act of paying attention to the breath. It is the quintessential form of Buddhist meditation , attributed to Gautama Buddha , and described in several suttas , most notably the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118). Derivations of anāpānasati are common to Tibetan , Zen , Tiantai , and Theravada Buddhism as well as Western-based mindfulness programs. The Ānāpānasati Sutta prescribes mindfulness of inhalation and exhalation as an element of mindfulness of
4692-542: Is the reason that Buddhism began to develop so vigorously in China with Fotudeng." As more monks such as Kumārajīva , Dharmanandi, Gautama Saṃghadeva, and Buddhabhadra came to the East, translations of meditation texts did as well, which often taught various methods of ānāpānasmṛti that were being used in India. These became integrated in various Buddhist traditions, as well as into non-Buddhist traditions such as Daoism . In
4830-461: Is thought to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th century (as Sanskrit rose in prominence, and simultaneously, as Buddhism's adherents became a smaller portion of the subcontinent), but ultimately survived. The work of Buddhaghosa was largely responsible for its reemergence as an important scholarly language in Buddhist thought. The Visuddhimagga , and the other commentaries that Buddhaghosa compiled, codified and condensed
4968-406: Is traditionally interpreted as one-pointed concentration. Yet, in the stock formula of dhyāna samādhi is only mentioned in the second dhyana , to give way to a state of equanimity and mindfulness , in which one keeps access to the senses in a mindful way, avoiding primary responses to the sense-impressions. The origins of the practice of dhyāna are a matter of dispute. According to Crangle,
5106-402: Is untainted by any other vrittis , or thoughts, save the awareness of the pleasure of receiving that bliss". According to Maehle, asamprajñata samādhi (also called nirvikalpa samādhi and nirbija samādhi ) leads to knowledge of purusha or consciousness, the subtlest element. Heinrich Zimmer distinguishes nirvikalpa samādhi from other states as follows: Nirvikalpa samādhi , on
5244-785: Is usually divided into canonical and non-canonical or extra-canonical texts. Canonical texts include the whole of the Pali Canon or Tipitaka . With the exception of three books placed in the Khuddaka Nikaya by only the Burmese tradition, these texts (consisting of the five Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka , the Vinaya Pitaka , and the books of the Abhidhamma Pitaka ) are traditionally accepted as containing
5382-404: Is very popular in traditional and modern forms of Yoga. The practice of focusing one's attention changes the brain in ways to improve that ability over time; the brain grows in response to meditation. Meditation can be thought of as mental training, similar to learning to ride a bike or play a piano. Meditators experienced in focused attention meditation (of which ānāpānasati is one type) showed
5520-707: The Burmese Vipassana movement instead recommend focusing on the abdomen's movement during the act of breathing. Other Buddhist schools also teach that as an alternative point of focus. According to John Dunne, for the practice to be successful, one should dedicate to the practice, and set out the goal of the meditation session. According to Philip Kapleau , in Zen practice one may decide to either practice anāpānasati while seated or standing or lying down or walking , or while alternating seated, standing, lying down, and walking meditation. Then one may concentrate on
5658-579: The Government of India . The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the Pāli (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of
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5796-660: The Institute of Noetic Sciences , has compared the experience of seeing the earth from space, also known as the overview effect , to savikalpa samādhi . According to Ian Whicher, the status of ānanda and āsmitā in Patanjali's system is a matter of dispute. According to Maehle, the first two constituents, deliberation and reflection, form the basis of the various types of samāpatti . According to Feuerstein: "Joy" and "I-am-ness" [...] must be regarded as accompanying phenomena of every cognitive [ecstasy]. The explanations of
5934-732: The Mahāsāṃghika branch became influential in Central and East India . Akira Hirakawa and Paul Groner also associate Pali with Western India and the Sthavira nikāya, citing the Saurashtran inscriptions, which are linguistically closest to the Pali language. Although Sanskrit was said in the Brahmanical tradition to be the unchanging language spoken by the gods in which each word had an inherent significance, such views for any language
6072-783: The Milindapanha ) may have been composed in India before being transmitted to Sri Lanka, but the surviving versions of the texts are those preserved by the Mahavihara in Ceylon and shared with monasteries in Theravada Southeast Asia. The earliest inscriptions in Pali found in mainland Southeast Asia are from the first millennium CE, some possibly dating to as early as the 4th century. Inscriptions are found in what are now Burma, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia and may have spread from southern India rather than Sri Lanka. By
6210-617: The Noble Eightfold Path . In the Ashtanga Yoga tradition, it is the eighth and final limb identified in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali . In Jain meditation , samadhi is considered one of the last stages of the practice just prior to liberation. In the oldest Buddhist sutras , on which several contemporary western Theravada teachers rely, it refers to the development of an investigative and luminous mind that
6348-625: The Pali Canon and non-canonical texts, and include several examples of the Ye dhamma hetu verse. The oldest surviving Pali manuscript was discovered in Nepal dating to the 9th century. It is in the form of four palm-leaf folios, using a transitional script deriving from the Gupta script to scribe a fragment of the Cullavagga . The oldest known manuscripts from Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia date to
6486-633: The Rinzai school of Zen stress sudden insight, while the Sōtō school of Zen lays more emphasis on shikantaza , training awareness of the stream of thoughts, allowing them to arise and pass away without interference. Historically, many traditional Japanese arts were developed or refined to attain samādhi , including incense appreciation (香道, kodō ), flower arranging (華道, kadō ), the tea ceremony (茶道, sadō ), calligraphy (書道, shodō ), and martial arts such as archery (弓道, kyūdō ). The Japanese character 道 means
6624-481: The jhānas and the contemporary criticisms of the commentarial interpretation. Based on this research, and her own experience as a senior meditation-teacher, she gives a reconstructed account of the original meaning of the dhyanas . She argues that the four jhānas are the outcome of both calming the mind and developing insight into the nature of experience and cannot not be seen in the suttas as two distinct and separated meditation techniques, but as integral dimensions of
6762-487: The jhānas seem to describe a development from investigating body and mind and abandoning unwholesome states , to perfected equanimity and watchfulness, an understanding which is retained in Zen and Dzogchen. The stock description of the jhānas , with traditional and alternative interpretations, is as follows: Appended to the jhana -scheme are four meditative states, referred to in the early texts as arupas or as āyatana . They are sometimes mentioned in sequence after
6900-430: The samskaras ("buried latencies"), or meditative concentration on a meditation object: Etymologies for sam - ā - dhā include: Particular Hindu/yoga interpretations include: Common Chinese terms for samādhi include the transliterations sanmei (三昧) and sanmodi (三摩地 or 三摩提), as well as the translation of the term literally as ding (定 "stability"). Kumarajiva 's translations typically use sanmei (三昧), while
7038-438: The "Dimension of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception" are included in the list of nine jhanas attributed to the Buddha, they are not included in the Noble Eightfold Path . Noble Path number eight is "Samma Samadhi" (Right Concentration), and only the first four Jhanas are considered "Right Concentration". When all the jhanas are mentioned, the emphasis is on the "Cessation of Feelings and Perceptions" rather than stopping short at
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#17327911862117176-583: The "Dimension of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception". According to Gunaratana , the term ' samādhi ' derives from the roots ' sam-ā-dhā ', which means 'to collect' or 'bring together', and thus it is generally translated as "concentration." In the early Buddhist texts, samādhi is also associated with the term samatha (calm abiding). In the commentarial tradition, samādhi is defined as ekaggata , one-pointedness of mind ( Cittass'ekaggatā ). Buddhagosa defines samādhi as "the centering of consciousness and consciousness concomitants evenly and rightly on
7314-490: The 11th century, a so-called "Pali renaissance" began in the vicinity of Pagan , gradually spreading to the rest of mainland Southeast Asia as royal dynasties sponsored monastic lineages derived from the Mahavihara of Anuradhapura . This era was also characterized by the adoption of Sanskrit conventions and poetic forms (such as kavya ) that had not been features of earlier Pali literature. This process began as early as
7452-804: The 13th–15th century, with few surviving examples. Very few manuscripts older than 400 years have survived, and complete manuscripts of the four Nikayas are only available in examples from the 17th century and later. Pali was first mentioned in Western literature in Simon de la Loubère 's descriptions of his travels in the kingdom of Siam. An early grammar and dictionary was published by Methodist missionary Benjamin Clough in 1824, and an initial study published by Eugène Burnouf and Christian Lassen in 1826 ( Essai sur le Pali, ou Langue sacrée de la presqu'île au-delà du Gange ). The first modern Pali-English dictionary
7590-627: The 5th century, but intensified early in the second millennium as Pali texts on poetics and composition modeled on Sanskrit forms began to grow in popularity. One milestone of this period was the publication of the Subodhalankara during the 14th century, a work attributed to Sangharakkhita Mahāsāmi and modeled on the Sanskrit Kavyadarsa . Peter Masefield devoted considerable research to a form of Pali known as Indochinese Pali or 'Kham Pali'. Up until now, this has been considered
7728-511: The Kagyupa, in the context of mahāmudrā, ānāpānasmṛti is thought to be the ideal way for the meditator to transition into taking the mind itself as the object of meditation and generating vipaśyanā on that basis. The prominent contemporary Kagyu/Nyingma master Chogyam Trungpa , echoing the Kagyu Mahāmudrā view, wrote, "your breathing is the closest you can come to a picture of your mind. It is
7866-853: The Nyingma Great Completeness [Dzogchen] and Kagyu Great Seal [mahāmudrā] meditations." In the Pañcakrama tantric tradition ascribed to (the Vajrayana) Nagarjuna , ānāpānasmṛti counting breaths is said to be sufficient to provoke an experience of vipaśyanā (although it occurs in the context of "formal tantric practice of the completion stage in highest yogatantra"). At first glance, the four frames of reference for satipatthana practice sound like four different meditation exercises, but MN 118 [the Anapanasati Sutta ] makes clear that they can all center on
8004-468: The Pali canon, but explicitly enumerated in the Visuddhimagga, such as mindfulness of breathing ( ānāpānasati ) and loving kindness ( mettā ). While the Theravada-tradition interprets dhyana as one-pointed concentration, this interpretation has become a matter of debate. According to Richard Gombrich, the sequence of the four rupa-jhanas describes two different cognitive states: "I know this
8142-512: The Pali language as " Magadhan " or the "language of Magadha". This identification first appears in the commentaries, and may have been an attempt by Buddhists to associate themselves more closely with the Maurya Empire . However, only some of the Buddha's teachings were delivered in the historical territory of Magadha kingdom . Scholars consider it likely that he taught in several closely related dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan, which had
8280-445: The Prakrits." According to K. R. Norman , differences between different texts within the canon suggest that it contains material from more than a single dialect. He also suggests it is likely that the viharas in North India had separate collections of material, preserved in the local dialect. In the early period it is likely that no degree of translation was necessary in communicating this material to other areas. Around
8418-658: The Sinhala commentarial tradition that had been preserved and expanded in Sri Lanka since the 3rd century BCE. With only a few possible exceptions, the entire corpus of Pali texts known today is believed to derive from the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya in Sri Lanka. While literary evidence exists of Theravadins in mainland India surviving into the 13th century, no Pali texts specifically attributable to this tradition have been recovered. Some texts (such as
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#17327911862118556-546: The Spirit as the object of meditation all become one. The separate wave of the soul meditating in the ocean of Spirit becomes merged with the Spirit. The soul does not lose its identity, but only expands into Spirit. In savikalpa samādhi the mind is conscious only of the Spirit within; it is not conscious of the exterior world. The body is in a trancelike state, but the consciousness is fully perceptive of its blissful experience within. Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell , founder of
8694-458: The Sri Lankan tradition and then spread to other Theravada regions, some texts may have other origins. The Milinda Panha may have originated in northern India before being translated from Sanskrit or Gandhari Prakrit . There are also a number of texts that are believed to have been composed in Pali in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma but were not widely circulated. This regional Pali literature
8832-526: The Theravada commentaries, Pali was identified with ' Magadhi ', the language of the kingdom of Magadha, and this was taken to also be the language that the Buddha used during his life. In the 19th century, the British Orientalist Robert Caesar Childers argued that the true or geographical name of the Pali language was Magadhi Prakrit , and that because pāḷi means "line, row, series", the early Buddhists extended
8970-541: The UK; incongruously, the citizens of the UK were not nearly so robust in Sanskrit and Prakrit language studies as Germany, Russia, and even Denmark . Even without the inspiration of colonial holdings such as the former British occupation of Sri Lanka and Burma, institutions such as the Danish Royal Library have built up major collections of Pali manuscripts, and major traditions of Pali studies. Pali literature
9108-644: The anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal [ŋ] , so that these sounds are pronounced instead [ãŋ] , [ĩŋ] and [ũŋ] . However pronounced, ṁ never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short vowels when ṁ is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e.g. kathā + ṁ becomes kathaṁ , not *kathāṁ , devī + ṁ becomes deviṁ , not * devīṁ . Anapanasati Ānāpānasati ( Pali ; Sanskrit : ānāpānasmṛti ), meaning " mindfulness of breathing " ( sati means mindfulness; ānāpāna refers to inhalation and exhalation ),
9246-473: The bite of snakes. Many people in Theravada cultures still believe that taking a vow in Pali has a special significance, and, as one example of the supernatural power assigned to chanting in the language, the recitation of the vows of Aṅgulimāla are believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth in Sri Lanka. In Thailand, the chanting of a portion of the Abhidhammapiṭaka is believed to be beneficial to
9384-417: The body, and recommends the practice of mindfulness of breathing as a means of cultivating the seven factors of awakening , which is an alternative formulation or description of the process of dhyana : sati (mindfulness), dhamma vicaya (analysis), viriya (persistence), pīti (rapture), passaddhi (serenity), samadhi (unification of mind), and upekkhā (equanimity). According to this and other sutras,
9522-474: The breath going through one's nose: the pressure in the nostrils on each inhalation, and the feeling of the breath moving along the upper lip on each exhalation. Other times practitioners are advised to attend to the breath at the tanden , a point slightly below the navel and beneath the surface of the body. Practitioners may choose to count each inhalation, "1, 2, 3,..." and so on, up to 10, and then begin from 1 again. Alternatively people sometimes also count
9660-526: The breath, and forms the basis of Zen practices. In the dhyana sutras his is organized into a teaching called "the six aspects" or "the six means" in which, according to Florin Deleanu: The practice starts with "counting" ( ganana ), which consists in counting breathing from one to ten. When this is accomplished without any counting failure ( dosha ), the practitioner advances to the second step, i.e., "pursuing" (anugama), which means intently following
9798-430: The breath, which happens to both beginning and adept practitioners, either by a thought or something else, then one simply returns one’s attention back to the breath. Philippe Goldin has said that important "learning" occurs at the moment when practitioners turn their attention back to the object of focus, the breath. Ānāpānasati is most commonly practiced with attention centered on the breath, without any effort to change
9936-419: The breathing, simultaneously focusing the mind into a state of peaceful meditative concentration. By teaching meditation methods as well as doctrine, Fotudeng popularized Buddhism quickly. According to Nan Huaijin , "Besides all its theoretical accounts of emptiness and existence, Buddhism also offered methods for genuine realization of spiritual powers and meditative concentration that could be relied upon. This
10074-406: The breathing. In the throat singing prevalent amongst the Buddhist monks of Tibet and Mongolia , the long and slow outbreath during chanting is the core of the practice. The sound of the chant also serves to focus the mind in one-pointed concentration ( samadhi ), while the sense of self dissolves as awareness becomes absorbed into a realm of pure sound. In some Japanese Zen meditation,
10212-565: The classical commentators on this point appear to be foreign to Patanjali's hierarchy of [ecstatic] states, and it seems unlikely that ānanda and asmita should constitute independent levels of samādhi . Ian Whicher disagrees with Feuerstein, seeing ānanda and asmitā as later stages of nirvicara-samāpatti . Whicher refers to Vācaspati Miśra (900–980 CE), the founder of the Bhāmatī Advaita Vedanta who proposes eight types of samāpatti : Vijnana Bikshu (c. 1550–1600) proposes
10350-478: The commentarial tradition identify as the 'gates of liberation ' ( vimokṣamukha ): According to Polak, these are alternative descriptions of the four dhyanas, describing the cognitive aspects instead of the bodily aspects. According to Polak, in the final stages of dhyana no ideation of experience takes place, and no signs are grasped ( animitta samādhi ), which means that the concentrated attention cannot be directed ( appaṇihita samādhi ) towards those signs, and only
10488-435: The compound pāli-bhāsa , with pāli being interpreted as the name of a particular language. The name Pali does not appear in the canonical literature, and in commentary literature is sometimes substituted with tanti , meaning a string or lineage. This name seems to have emerged in Sri Lanka early in the second millennium CE during a resurgence in the use of Pali as a courtly and literary language. As such,
10626-435: The count, to begin to pay attention to the breath without counting. There are practitioners who count the breath all their lives as well. Beginning students are often advised to keep a brief daily practice of around 10 or 15 minutes a day. Also, a teacher or guide of some sort is often considered to be essential in Buddhist practice, as well as the sangha, or community of Buddhists, for support. When one becomes distracted from
10764-501: The culmination of its development. A popular post- canonical method still used today, follows four stages: Counting the breath is attributed by the Theravada tradition to Buddhaghosa 's commentary the Visuddhimagga , but Vasubandhu 's Abhidharmakośakārikā also teaches the counting of breaths to ten. The dhyāna sutras , based on Sarvastivada practices and translated into Chinese by An Shigao , also recommends counting
10902-423: The death of the Buddha, Pali may have evolved among Buddhists out of the language of the Buddha as a new artificial language. R. C. Childers, who held to the theory that Pali was Old Magadhi, wrote: "Had Gautama never preached, it is unlikely that Magadhese would have been distinguished from the many other vernaculars of Hindustan, except perhaps by an inherent grace and strength which make it a sort of Tuscan among
11040-492: The development of meditative practices in ancient India was a complex interplay between Vedic and non-Vedic traditions. According to Bronkhorst, the four rūpa jhāna may be an original contribution of the Buddha to the religious landscape of India, which formed an alternative to the painful ascetic practices of the Jains, while the arūpa jhāna were incorporated from non-Buddhist ascetic traditions. Alexander Wynne argues that dhyāna
11178-464: The development of these factors leads to release (Pali: vimutti ; Sanskrit: mokṣa ) from dukkha (suffering) and the attainment of nirvana . Derivations of anāpānasati are a core meditation practice in Theravada , Tiantai, and Chan traditions of Buddhism as well as a part of Western-based mindfulness programs. According to Anālayo, in both ancient and modern times anāpānasati by itself
11316-405: The dichotomy of being and non-being. 'Aimlessness', also translated as 'uncommittedness' or 'wishlessness' ( Chinese wúyuàn 無願 , lit. ' non-wishing ' , or wúzuò 無作 , lit. ' non-arising ' ), literally means 'placing nothing in front'. According to Dan Lusthaus, aimlessness-samadhi is characterised by a lack of aims or plans for the future and no desire for
11454-441: The early grammarians because it was understood to have been purely a literary language. In works of Sanskrit poetics such as Daṇḍin 's Kavyadarsha , it is also known by the name of Bhūtabhāṣā , an epithet which can be interpreted as 'dead language' (i.e., with no surviving speakers), or bhūta means past and bhāṣā means language i.e. 'a language spoken in the past'. Evidence which lends support to this interpretation
11592-440: The emphasis is upon maintaining "strength in the abdominal area" (Chinese: dantian ; Japanese: tanden ) and slow deep breathing during the long outbreath, again to assist the attainment of a mental state of one-pointed concentration. There is also a "bamboo method", during which time one inhales and exhales in punctuated bits, as if running one's hand along the stalk of a bamboo tree. Pranayama , or Yogic breath control,
11730-426: The entire body.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe in calming bodily fabrication.' He trains himself, 'I will breathe out calming bodily fabrication.' While inhaling and exhaling, the meditator practises: If this practice is pursued and well developed, it is said by the Buddha to bring great benefit, aiding the development of mindfulness as one of
11868-468: The exhalation: "1, 2, 3,...", on both the inhalation and exhalation. If the count is lost then one should start again from the beginning. The type of practice recommended in The Three Pillars of Zen is for one to count "1, 2, 3,..." on the inhalation for a while, then to eventually switch to counting on the exhalation, then eventually, once one has more consistent success in keeping track of
12006-760: The existing sources specifically document pre-Ashokan Magadhi, the available sources suggest that Pali is not equatable with that language. Modern scholars generally regard Pali to have originated from a western dialect, rather than an eastern one. Pali has some commonalities with both the western Ashokan Edicts at Girnar in Saurashtra , and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern Hathigumpha inscription . These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India. Nonetheless, Pali does retain some eastern features that have been referred to as Māgadhisms . Pāḷi, as
12144-455: The external breathing reaches a state of stillness in correct meditation: A practitioner with sufficient skill does not breathe externally. That external breathing has stopped, but the internal breathing functions. With internal breathing there is no exhalation through the nose or mouth, but all pores on the body are breathing. A person who is breathing internally appears to be dead, but actually he has not died. He does not breathe externally, but
12282-416: The factors of awakening: On whatever occasion the monk remains focused on the body in & of itself — ardent, alert, & mindful — putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world, on that occasion his mindfulness is steady & without lapse. When his mindfulness is steady & without lapse, then mindfulness as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to
12420-420: The first four jhānas and thus came to be treated by later exegetes as jhānas. The immaterial are related to, or derived from, yogic meditation, and aim more specific at concentration, while the jhanas proper are related to the cultivation of the mind. The state of complete dwelling in emptiness is reached when the eighth jhāna is transcended. The four arupas are: Although the "Dimension of Nothingness" and
12558-465: The first translators of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. He translated a version of the Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra between 148 and 170 CE. Though once believed to have been lost, the original translation was rediscovered at Amanosan Kongō-ji , Osaka, Japan, by Professor Ochiai Toshinori in 1999. Its commentary, on the other hand, is a significantly longer text than what appears in the Ekottara Āgama , and
12696-460: The five aggregates; as a result of such inductive reasoning, the meditator progresses through the Hearer paths of preparation, seeing, and meditation. It seems at least possible that both Vasubandhu and Asaṅga presented their respective versions of such a method, analogous to but different from modern Theravāda insight meditation, and that Gelukpa scholars were unable to reconstruct it in the absence of
12834-514: The full use of the human faculties. Pali Pāli ( / ˈ p ɑː l i / ), also known as Pali-Magadhi , is a classical Middle Indo-Aryan language on the Indian subcontinent . It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist Pāli Canon or Tipiṭaka as well as the sacred language of Theravāda Buddhism . Pali is designated as a classical language by
12972-536: The higher stages of breath meditation set forth in those texts. . . it appears that neither the Gelukpa textbook writers nor modern scholars such as Lati Rinpoche and Gendun Lodro were in a position to conclude that the first moment of the fifth stage of Vasubandhu's system of breath meditation coincides with the attainment of special insight and that, therefore, the first four stages must be a method for cultivating special insight. Zahler continues, [I]t appears . .that
13110-401: The inhalation as it enters the body and moves from the throat, through the heart, the navel, the kidneys, the thighs to the toes and then the reverse movement of the exhalation until it leaves the body. Next comes "concentration" (sthapana) which denotes focusing one's attention on some part of the body from the tip of the nose to the big toe. In the fourth step, called" observation" (upalaksana),
13248-637: The internal breathing has come alive. In the Tibetan Buddhist lineage, ānāpānasmṛti is done to calm the mind in order to prepare one for various other practices. Two of the most important Mahāyāna philosophers, Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, in the Śrāvakabhūmi chapters of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the Abhidharma-kośa , respectively, make it clear that they consider ānāpānasmṛti a profound practice leading to vipaśyanā (in accordance with
13386-607: The language and its literature, including the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagarika Dhammapala . In Europe, the Pali Text Society has been a major force in promoting the study of Pali by Western scholars since its founding in 1881. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pali editions, along with many English translations of these sources. In 1869, the first Pali Dictionary
13524-454: The language underwent a small degree of Sanskritisation (i.e., MIA bamhana > brahmana, tta > tva in some cases). Bhikkhu Bodhi , summarizing the current state of scholarship, states that the language is "closely related to the language (or, more likely, the various regional dialects) that the Buddha himself spoke". He goes on to write: Scholars regard this language as a hybrid showing features of several Prakrit dialects used around
13662-582: The meaning of the term to mean "a series of books", so pāḷibhāsā means "language of the texts". However, modern scholarship has regarded Pali as a mix of several Prakrit languages from around the 3rd century BCE, combined and partially Sanskritized. There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali. In the modern era, it has been possible to compare Pali with inscriptions known to be in Magadhi Prakrit, as well as other texts and grammars of that language. While none of
13800-439: The mind on breathing, which is the 'body-conditioner' ( Pali : kāya-sankhāra ). The second tetrad involves focusing on the feelings ( vedanā ), which are the 'mind-conditioner' ( citta-sankhāra ). The third tetrad involves focusing on the mind itself ( citta ), and the fourth on 'mental qualities' ( dhamma ). (Compare right mindfulness and satipatthana .) Any anapanasati meditation session should progress through
13938-666: The monastic ordination died out in Sri Lanka, many texts were lost also. Therefore the Sri Lankan Pali canon had been translated first into Indo-Chinese Pali, and then back again into Pali. Despite an expansion of the number and influence of Mahavihara-derived monastics, this resurgence of Pali study resulted in no production of any new surviving literary works in Pali. During this era, correspondences between royal courts in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia were conducted in Pali, and grammars aimed at speakers of Sinhala, Burmese, and other languages were produced. The emergence of
14076-462: The most widely read in China. Zhiyi classifies breathing into four main categories: panting ( 喘 ; chuǎn ), unhurried breathing ( 風 ; fēng ), deep and quiet breathing ( 氣 ; qì ), and stillness or rest ( 息 ; xi ). Zhiyi holds that the first three kinds of breathing are incorrect, while the fourth is correct, and that the breathing should reach stillness and rest. Venerable Hsuan Hua , who taught Chan and Pure Land Buddhism , also taught that
14214-452: The name of the language has caused some debate among scholars of all ages; the spelling of the name also varies, being found with both long "ā" [ɑː] and short "a" [a] , and also with either a voiced retroflex lateral approximant [ɭ] or non-retroflex [l] "l" sound. Both the long ā and retroflex ḷ are seen in the ISO 15919 / ALA-LC rendering, Pāḷi ; however, to this day there
14352-516: The natural language, the root language of all beings. Comparable to Ancient Egyptian , Latin or Hebrew in the mystic traditions of the West , Pali recitations were often thought to have a supernatural power (which could be attributed to their meaning, the character of the reciter, or the qualities of the language itself), and in the early strata of Buddhist literature we can already see Pali dhāraṇī s used as charms, as, for example, against
14490-403: The object of meditation. Samādhi is of two kinds, with and without support of an object of meditation: According to Paramahansa Yogananda , in this state one lets go of the ego and becomes aware of Spirit beyond creation. The soul is then able to absorb the fire of Spirit-Wisdom that "roasts" or destroys the seeds of body-bound inclinations. The soul as the meditator, its state of meditation, and
14628-432: The objects of perception. According to Nagarjuna, aimlessness-samadhi is the samādhi in which one does not search for any kind of existence ( bhāva ), letting go of aims or wishes ( praṇidhāna ) regarding conditioned phenomena and not producing the three poisons (namely, passion, aggression, and ignorance) towards them in the future. According to Nagarjuna, emptiness-samadhi is the samādhi in which one recognises that
14766-504: The other hand, absorption without self-consciousness, is a mergence of the mental activity ( cittavṛtti ) in the Self, to such a degree, or in such a way, that the distinction ( vikalpa ) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved — as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes into the sea. Swami Sivananda describes nirbija samādhi (lit. "samādhi" without seeds) as follows: "Without seeds or Samskaras [...] All
14904-541: The perception of the six senses remains, without a notion of "self" ( suññata samādhi ). In the Chinese Buddhist tradition these are called the 'three doors of liberation' ( sān jiětuō mén , 三解脫門 ): These three are not always cited in the same order. Nagarjuna , a Madhyamaka Buddhist scholar, in his Maha-prajnaparamita-sastra , listed apraṇihita before ānimitta in his first explanation on these "three samādhi ", but in later listings and explanations in
15042-533: The point was lost on later Tibetan commentators. As a result, the largest Tibetan lineage, the Gelug , came to view ānāpānasmṛti as a mere preparatory practice useful for settling the mind but nothing more. Zahler writes: The practice tradition suggested by the Treasury itself--and also by Asaṅga's Grounds of Hearers--is one in which mindfulness of breathing becomes a basis for inductive reasoning on such topics as
15180-470: The portrait of your mind in some sense... The traditional recommendation in the lineage of meditators that developed in the Kagyu-Nyingma tradition is based on the idea of mixing mind and breath." The Gelukpa allow that it is possible to take the mind itself as the object of meditation, however, Zahler reports, the Gelukpa discourage it with "what seems to be thinly disguised sectarian polemics against
15318-456: The practitioner discerns that the air breathed in and out as well as form (rupa), mind (citta), and mental functions (caitta) ultimately consists of the four great elements. He thus analyzes all the five aggregates . Next follows "the turning away" (vivarta) which consists of changing the object of observation from the air breathed in and out to "the wholesome roots" of purity (kusalamula) and ultimately to "the highest mundane dharma". The last step
15456-564: The principles of śamatha and vipaśyanā . In China, the Tiantai understanding of meditation has had the reputation of being the most systematic and comprehensive of all. The founder of the Tiantai school, Zhiyi , wrote many commentaries and treatises on meditation. Of these texts, Zhiyi's Concise Śamatha-vipaśyanā ( Chinese : 小止観 ; pinyin : Xiǎo Zhǐguān ), his Mahāśamatha Vipaśyanā ( 摩訶止観 ; Móhē Zhǐguān ), and his Six Subtle Dharma Gates ( 六妙法門 ; Liù Miào Fǎmén ) are
15594-401: The recently departed, and this ceremony routinely occupies as much as seven working days. There is nothing in the latter text that relates to this subject, and the origins of the custom are unclear. Pali died out as a literary language in mainland India in the fourteenth century but survived elsewhere until the eighteenth. Today Pali is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and
15732-539: The same work reverted to the more common order. Others, such as Thích Nhất Hạnh , a Thien Buddhist teacher, list apraṇihita as the third after śūnyatā and ānimitta . Nagarjuna lists these three kinds of samādhi among the qualities of the bodhisattva . According to Nagarjuna, signlessness-samadhi is the samādhi in which one recognises all dharmas are free of signs ( ānimitta ). According to Thích Nhất Hạnh, "signs" refer to appearances or form, likening signlessness samadhi to not being fooled by appearances, such as
15870-509: The seeds or impressions are burnt by the fire of knowledge [...] all the Samskaras and Vasanas which bring on rebirths are totally freed up. All Vrittis or mental modifications that arise from the mind-lake come under restraint. The five afflictions, viz., Avidya (ignorance), Asmita (egoism), Raga-dvesha (love and hatred) and Abhinivesha (clinging to life) are destroyed and the bonds of Karma are annihilated [...] It gives Moksha (deliverance from
16008-557: The sense objects. Several western teachers (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Leigh Brazington, Richard Shankman) make a distinction between 'sutta-oriented' jhana and ' Visuddhimagga -oriented' jhāna . Thanissaro Bhikkhu has repeatedly argued that the Pali Canon and the Visuddhimagga give different descriptions of the jhanas, regarding the Visuddhimagga -description to be incorrect. Keren Arbel has conducted extensive research on
16146-466: The short variants occur only in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes. e and o are long in an open syllable: at the end of a syllable as in [ne-tum̩] เนตุํ 'to lead' or [so-tum̩] โสตุํ 'to hear'. They are short in a closed syllable: when followed by a consonant with which they make a syllable as in [upek-khā] 'indifference' or [sot-thi] 'safety'. e appears for
16284-528: The sixth century, the Tiantai school was formed, teaching the One Vehicle (Sanskrit: Ekayāna ), the vehicle of attaining Buddhahood , as the main principle, and three forms of śamatha-vipaśyanā correlated with the meditative perspectives of emptiness, provisional existence, and the mean, as the method of cultivating realization. The Tiantai school places emphasis on ānāpānasmṛti in accordance with
16422-572: The stages in order, beginning at the first, whether the practitioner has performed all stages in a previous session or not. According to several teachers in Theravada Buddhism, anapanasati alone will lead to the removal of all one's defilements ( kilesa ) and eventually to enlightenment . According to Roger Bischof, the Ven. Webu Sayadaw said of anapanasati: "This is a shortcut to Nibbana, anyone can use it. It stands up to investigation and
16560-514: The subtle nuances of that thought-world. According to A. K. Warder , the Pali language is a Prakrit language used in a region of Western India . Warder associates Pali with the Indian realm ( janapada ) of Avanti , where the Sthavira nikāya was centered. Following the initial split in the Buddhist community , the Sthavira nikāya became influential in Western and South India while
16698-473: The teachings of the Buddha in the Sutta Piṭaka ). However, as scholar Leah Zahler has demonstrated, "the practice traditions related to Vasubandhu's or Asaṅga's presentations of breath meditation were probably not transmitted to Tibet." Asaṅga correlates the sixteen stages of ānāpānasmṛti with the four smṛtyupasthānas in the same way that the Ānāpānasmṛti Sutra does, but because he does not make this explicit
16836-479: The term 'Pali' as the name of the language of the Theravada canon also occurred during this era. While Pali is generally recognized as an ancient language, no epigraphical or manuscript evidence has survived from the earliest eras. The earliest samples of Pali discovered are inscriptions believed to date from 5th to 8th century located in mainland Southeast Asia, specifically central Siam and lower Burma . These inscriptions typically consist of short excerpts from
16974-429: The third century BCE, subjected to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the same broad language family as those he might have used and originates from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture into which he was born, so that its words capture
17112-425: The time of Ashoka there had been more linguistic divergence, and an attempt was made to assemble all the material. It is possible that a language quite close to the Pali of the canon emerged as a result of this process as a compromise of the various dialects in which the earliest material had been preserved, and this language functioned as a lingua franca among Eastern Buddhists from then on. Following this period,
17250-400: The translations of Xuanzang tend to use ding (定 "stability"). The Chinese Buddhist canon includes these, as well as other translations and transliterations of the term. Samma-samadhi , "right samadhi ," is the last of the eight elements of the Noble Eightfold Path . When samadhi is developed, things are understood as they really are. Samma-samadhi is explicated as dhyana , which
17388-692: The true natures of all dharmas are absolutely empty ( atyantaśūnya ), and that the five aggregates are not the self ( anātman ), do not belong to the self ( anātmya ), and are empty ( śūnya ) without self-nature . Indian dhyāna was translated as chán in Chinese, and zen in Japanese. Ideologically the Zen-tradition emphasizes prajñā and sudden insight , but in the actual practice prajñā and samādhi, or sudden insight and gradual cultivation, are paired to each other. Especially some lineages in
17526-532: The very term 'mindfulness' ( sati in Pali, rendered in Tibetan by dran pa ) has come to be understood almost exclusively as 'memory' or 'recollection'." As Batchelor noted, however, in other traditions, particularly the Kagyu and Nyingma , mindfulness based on ānāpānasmṛti practice is considered to be quite profound means of calming the mind to prepare it for the higher practices of Dzogchen and Mahamudra . For
17664-486: The way or the path and indicates that disciplined practice in the art is a path to samādhi . Traditional Samādhi is the eighth limb of the Yoga Sūtras, following the sixth and seventh limbs of dhāraṇā and dhyāna respectively. According to Taimni, dhāraṇā , dhyāna , and samādhi form a graded series: Samādhi is oneness with the object of meditation. There is no distinction between act of meditation and
17802-412: The wheel of births and deaths). With the advent of the knowledge of the Self, ignorance vanishes. With the disappearance of the root-cause, viz., ignorance, egoism, etc., also disappear". Ramana Maharshi distinguished between kevala nirvikalpa samadhi and sahaja nirvikalpa samādhi : Sahaja samadhi is a state in which a silent level within the subject is maintained along with (simultaneously with)
17940-446: The words of the Buddha and his immediate disciples by the Theravada tradition. Extra-canonical texts can be divided into several categories: Other types of texts present in Pali literature include works on grammar and poetics, medical texts, astrological and divination texts, cosmologies, and anthologies or collections of material from the canonical literature. While the majority of works in Pali are believed to have originated with
18078-455: Was a monk in the Gelukpa lineage, experienced this firsthand. He writes, "such systematic practice of mindfulness was not preserved in the Tibetan traditions. The Gelugpa lamas know about such methods and can point to long descriptions of mindfulness in their Abhidharma works, but the living application of the practice has largely been lost. (Only in dzog-chen , with the idea of 'awareness' [ rig pa ] do we find something similar.) For many Tibetans
18216-586: Was incorporated from Brahmanical practices, in the Nikayas ascribed to Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. These practices were paired to mindfulness and insight , and given a new interpretation. Kalupahana also argues that the Buddha "reverted to the meditational practices" he had learned from Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. In the sutras, jhāna is entered when one 'sits down cross-legged and establishes mindfulness'. According to Buddhist tradition, it may be supported by ānāpānasati , mindfulness of breathing,
18354-600: Was not exclusively used to convey the teachings of the Buddha, as can be deduced from the existence of a number of secular texts, such as books of medical science/instruction, in Pali. However, scholarly interest in the language has been focused upon religious and philosophical literature, because of the unique window it opens on one phase in the development of Buddhism . Vowels may be divided in two different ways: Long and short vowels are only contrastive in open syllables; in closed syllables, all vowels are always short. Short and long e and o are in complementary distribution:
18492-421: Was not shared in the early Buddhist traditions, in which words were only conventional and mutable signs. This view of language naturally extended to Pali and may have contributed to its usage (as an approximation or standardization of local Middle Indic dialects) in place of Sanskrit. However, by the time of the compilation of the Pali commentaries (4th or 5th century), Pali was described by the anonymous authors as
18630-576: Was prominently used by Jain scholars and is preserved in the Jain Agamas. Ardhamagadhi Prakrit differs from later Magadhi Prakrit in similar ways to Pali, and was often believed to be connected with Pali on the basis of the belief that Pali recorded the speech of the Buddha in an early Magadhi dialect. Magadhi Prakrit was a Middle Indic language spoken in present-day Bihar, and eastern Uttar Pradesh. Its use later expanded southeast to include some regions of modern-day Bengal, Odisha, and Assam, and it
18768-506: Was published by Robert Childers in 1872 and 1875. Following the foundation of the Pali Text Society , English Pali studies grew rapidly and Childer's dictionary became outdated. Planning for a new dictionary began in the early 1900s, but delays (including the outbreak of World War I) meant that work was not completed until 1925. T. W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India , and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pāli Literature and Language , suggested that Pali may have originated as
18906-593: Was published using the research of Robert Caesar Childers, one of the founding members of the Pali Text Society. It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Childers' dictionary later received the Volney Prize in 1876. The Pali Text Society was founded in part to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th-century England and the rest of
19044-431: Was used in some Prakrit dramas to represent vernacular dialogue. Preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit are from several centuries after the theorized lifetime of the Buddha, and include inscriptions attributed to Asoka Maurya . Differences observed between preserved examples of Magadhi Prakrit and Pali lead scholars to conclude that Pali represented a development of a northwestern dialect of Middle Indic, rather than being
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