Evolution of Buddhist Meditation
BSTC2022
Lesson 8
1. According to the ‘Path of Purification’, during the
practice of concentration, what is concentrating?
• a) The focusing of the six senses on the object
of meditation.
• b) The elimination of all thoughts and mental
activity.
• c) The unification of awareness and the object
of meditation.
• d) The centering of mind and mental factors.
2. Which of the following is not a reason why ‘attention’ is
considered the most crucial among the 5 universal factors?
• a) Attention directs the mind to the object.
• b) Attention would help the mind meet the
object and develop the correspondence
feeling.
• c) Attention influences one’s perception.
• d) Attention would enable the associated
mental factors to behave naturally and
appropriately.
3. Before practicing the earth kasina meditation,
which of the following practices should a person avoid?
• a. Contemplate the dangers of sense pleasure
and longing for renunciation.
• b. Recollect the qualities of the Buddha, the
Dharma, and the Sangha
• c. Finishes the meal and immediately sits
down comfortably in a secluded place to
apprehend the sign in the earth.
• d. Ensuring that the sign is well apprehended,
well attended to, and well defined.
4. According to the Mahanama Sutta, which of the following is
not a reason why the recollection of the Buddha would help a
person gain concentration?
• a. One’s mind would become one with the
Buddha.
• b. Greed, hatred, and delusion would not
arise.
• c. One would gain a sense of goal.
• d. One’s body would be calmed and
experience ease.
Timeline of Major Buddhist Events
Date Major Buddhist Events World Events Important Buddhist Meditation
texts
6th Century BC Life of Buddha (566-486) Confucius 孔子 (551-479) Dvedhavitakka Sutta:Two
Sorts of Thinking
Nagara Sutta:The City
Satipatthana Sutta
4th Century BC The Mahasanghika school （大眾 Aristotle (383-322)
部） parts ways with Theravadins
（上座部）
3th Century BC King Asoka’s son established Qin Shi Huang built the Great
Buddhism in Sri Lanka (247 BC) Wall 秦皇築長城 (250)
Alexander the Great
invaded India (327)
2nd Century BC Pali Canon written down. Han Dynasty 漢朝 (BC206-
Beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism AD220)
and the appearance of Early Julius Caesar (100-44)
Mahayana sutras.
Buddhist missionaries arrived China
and translated the 'Sutra of Forty-two
Sections' into Chinese
1st Century AD Composition of Lotus Sutra and other Jesus Christ (0-33AD). Sandhinirmochana Sutra or
Mahayana Buddhist texts. Under the influence of "Sūtra of the Explanation of the
Buddhism enters Central Asia and Gandhara Culture, the Buddha Profound Secrets," 解深密經
China. is now represented in human
form.
2nd Century AD Nargarjuna, founder the school of The height of the Roman Vimuttimagga ("Path of
Madhyamika Empire Freedom" 解脫道論 ) by
Arahant Upatissa
4th Century Asanga and his brother Eastern Jin Dynasty 東晉
Vasubandhu popularized the Tao YuanMing 陶淵明 ,
teaching of the Yogacara school (365-427 )
Vajrayana developed in India.
5th Centurty Buddhaghosa composes the Southern and Northern Visuddhimagga, the path
Visuddhimagga and major Dynasties 南北朝（ 420- of Purification 《清淨道
commentaries in Sri Lanka 581 ） 論》 by Buddhagosa
雲崗石窟
6th Century Bodhidharma founder of Ch'an Emperor Wu of Liang 梁 The Treatise on the Two
(Zen) arrives in China from 武帝 (464-579). Entrances and Four
India. (526) Practices 《菩提達磨略辨
大乘入道四行》
7th Century Hsuan-Tsang (602-664) Tang Dynasty began on The Sixth Patriarch Platform
Princess Wen-ch'eng enter Tibet 618AD Sutra 《六祖壇經》
(641)
The Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng
六祖惠能（ 638-713 ）
8th Century Padmasambhava entered Tibet Li Bai 李白（ 701-762 ）
(786), and founded the Nyingma Moslem invasion of
order Central Asia (760)
9th Century Wu Chang persecution of End of Tang Dynasty 唐滅 Tsig-sum nèdék, The Three
Buddhism （ 907 ） Statements that Strike the
武昌滅佛 (845) Essential
Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
– Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra is one of the most important
texts in the Yogācāra tradition (Harvey, 2012, p.104;
Keenan, 2000, p.1) and is also one of the most influential
texts in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist literature (Powers,
1995, p.xv).
– This sūtra offers an extraordinarily comprehensive course
in the philosophical and pragmatic bases of Buddhist
Yoga (Cleary, p.vii).
– In ancient times, this sūtra was translated into Chinese four
times (T16, no.675; T16, no.676; T16, no.677; T16, no.678
& no.679) and Tibetan one time (D.106, mdo sde, ca 1b1–
55b7).
– In modern times, it has been translated into English six
times (Anderson, 2016; Cleary, 1995; Keenan, 2000; Lin,
1991; Powers, 1995; Tillemans, 1997), French (Cornu,
2005; Lamotte, 1935) and (partially) German (Frauwallner, 8
1969).
The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
– Yogācāra philosophy offers a systematic analysis of the
Mahāyāna spiritual path with an emphasis on the study of
cognition, perception, and consciousness. The origins of its
important doctrines of mere consciousness (vijñapti-mātratā;
唯識 ) and store consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna; 阿頼耶識 ) can
both be traced back to the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra.
– Yogācāra practitioners are experts in meditation. The term
“Yogācāra” refers to the practice of meditation. Keenan (2000)
also states that the focus of the Yogācāra texts is on “the
practice of meditative centering (yoga)” instead of “conceptual
apprehension” (p.1).
– According to Powers (1995), the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
serves as a foundation for meditative practice and a guide
for bodhisattvas on the path to enlightenment (p.xxii).
Cleary (1995) considers the meditation method of the
Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra to be “the classical way” and notes
that “many of the shortcomings and aberrations of modern
Western meditation cults can be traced to abandonment of this
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tradition” (p. vii).
Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
Chapter Six Analyzing Yoga
– The Yogācārabhūmi-Śāstra （瑜伽師地論） , which explains in detail
both the meditation methods of the Śrāvaka in Śrāvakabhūmi and the
bodhisattva meditation method in the Bodhisattvabhūmi.
– However, to introduce the bodhisattva meditation method, the Śāstra
simply quotes the entire chapter six, titled “Analyzing Yoga”, of the
Saṃdhinirmocana. indicating the significance and authority of the
meditation method presented in Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra.
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The Main Teachings of
Sandhinirmochana Sūtra
• The source of human suffering is the result of the
attachment to an illusory concept of “self” arising
from a delusive understanding of the world.
• The Sandhinirmochana Sūtra states that the cause of
this delusion and attachment is that “people add a
conceptualized nature on top of the dependent nature
and the real nature” (Cleary, 1995, p. 30).
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The Main Teachings of Sandhinirmochana Sūtra
• To help people overcome this delusion and attachment,
• the Sandhinirmochana Sutra taught that all our
phenomenological experiences can be explained and qualified
by one of three types of concept （三自相）
– (1) Concept of Grasped and Considered-as-a-whole （遍計所執相）
– (2) Concept of Dependently Arisen （依他起相） , and
– (3) Concept of Perfection and Reality （圓成實相）
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The Main Teachings
of Sandhinirmochana Sūtra
• These three types of characteristics, when examined closely, will
reveal the three types of emptiness or no-self nature （三種無自
性）
– (1) Concept-has-no-intrinsic-nature Nature （相無自性性） ,
– (2) Arising-has-no-intrinsic-nature Nature （生無自性性） , and
– (3) Supreme-understanding-has-no-intrinsic-nature Nature （勝義無自性
性） .
• Therefore, by understanding the three types of essencelessness
characteristics or their intrinsic emptiness natures, a person can
gain wisdom and insight to help him/her to forgo the attachment
to all phenomenological experiences that would fall within the
three types of characteristics and to therefore develop the wisdom
of nonattachment.
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Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra
Chapter Six Analyzing Yoga
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Twelve Types of Buddhist Text
1. Sutta, or sūtra (“discourse”), 契經 sermons or discourses of the
Buddha in prose. This category was said to include the vinaya
(monastic discipline) material.
2. Geyya,, 應誦 sutta that incorporates gāthā (“verse”).
3. Veyyākaraṇa (“explanation,” or “prophecy”), 記別 . It means
“Answer” or “Explanation” and refers to discourses elaborated
by way of question and answer.
4. Gāthā (“verse”), 諷誦 works in poetic form.
5. Udāna (“inspired utterance”), 自說 special sayings of the
Buddha in prose or verse.
6. Itivuttaka (“thus it is said”), 本事 sayings of the Buddha
introduced by these words; many of them comprise a
Khuddaka Nikāya work with this title.
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Twelve Types of Buddhist Text
7. Jātaka (“birth”; see Jātaka), 本生 tales of former lives of the Buddha.
8. Abbhutadhamma, (“wondrous phenomena”), 希法 stories of miracles and
supernatural events.
9. Vaipulya 方廣 . The Sanskrit tradition places here, as, a number of
important Mahāyāna works, including the Lotus Sūtra, Aṣṭasāhasrikā-
prajñāpāramitā, and Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra.
10. Nidāna (“cause”) 因緣 . The nidānas set out the circumstances (nidāna)
that are at the origin of the Buddha’s teachings.
11. Avadāna (“Noble Deeds”),, 譬喻 Buddha’s stories of the good deeds in
people’s former lives and their present results (see Apadāna).
12. Upadeśa (“instruction”), 論議 discussions of doctrine—sometimes
esoteric doctrine—often in question-and-answer form. The term has also
been used for Abhidhamma (scholastic section of the canon), for
philosophical treatises, for Tantric works, and for commentaries.
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The four kinds of objects that the practice
of samatha and vipassana focus on
• One is mental objects of images with differentiation.
• The second is mental objects of images without
differentiation.
• The third is mental objects of the totality of all
phenomena.
• The fourth is mental objects of tasks accomplished.
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Om Mani Padme Hum
唵嘛呢叭咪吽
Om : Arising, awakening from emptiness
Mani : The jewel that symbolizes
compassion, love and wealth
Padme : The lotus flower the symbolizes
purity, wisdom and peace of
mind
Hum : The wish to attain Buddha hood
so that all will be free from 18
Meditation Method of the ATP
The pearl of compassion is entirely
auspicious;
The wisdom-lotus cannot be tainted;
All phenomena arise interdependently and,
hence, intrinsically non-arising,
May all beings be able to realize these
truths.
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慈心明珠遍吉祥
智慧蓮花不染塵
因緣而生生不生
普願我等速成就
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Om Mani Padme Hum
唵嘛呢叭咪吽
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Om Mani Padme Hum
唵嘛呢叭咪吽
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