Asian Traditions of Meditation

by Halvor Eifring

  21. W. H. McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 83. See also Bawa, Biography and Writings.

  22. T. Singh, Turban and the Sword of the Sikhs, 170. See also the translation in W. H. McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 280. The threefold rule of nām, dān, and ishnān is mentioned a century earlier by Bhai Gurdas in Vār 26:4; see J. Singh, Vārān Bhāī Gurdās, 2:11.

  23. W. H. McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa.

  24. Sikh Rahit Maryādā, 9.

  25. See, for example, references in W. H. McLeod, Chaupa Singh Rahit-Nama, 33; W. H. McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 88, 115; and W. H. McLeod, Prem Sumārag.

  26. W. H. McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 124. See also the translation in T. Singh, Turban and the Sword of the Sikhs 169.

  27. J. Singh, Vārān Bhāī Gurdās, 1:79.

  28. That the formula designates a singular divine power is further emphasized by the way contemporary Sikhs let the word satnām, or “the true name,” precede the compound in recitations.

  29. To mention one among many of these groups, the Nānaksar movement has developed more disciplined routines of hour-long recitations of vāhigurū. For a description of nām simran according to Sant Nand Singh, the founder of the Nānaksar movement, see B. Singh, Anand Sarovar, 165–169.

  30. For detailed descriptions of the daily ceremonies and practices in the gurdwārā, see Myrvold, Inside the Guru’s Gate.

  31. See Mansukhani, Indian Classical Music; Manuel, Cassette Culture.

  32. See the website of Brahm Bunga Trust at www.brahmbungadodra.org (accessed January 20, 2010).

  33. See the discussion at www.sikhnet.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2332 (accessed February 21, 2010).

  34. Individual and collective continuous repetitions of the gurmantra and verses of the Gurū Granth Sāhib were, for instance, organized for the victims of the tsunami in 2004. Some Sikh organizations let people register their individual recitations on the Internet to have them mentioned in a collective prayer for the victims. For examples of akhaṇḍ jāp programs organized in the Sikh diaspora, see Myrvold, “Osjälvisk tjänst av sikherna,” and the websites http://akhandjaap.com (accessed February 21, 2010) and http://akhandjaapforworldpeace.com (accessed February 21, 2010).

  35. See, for example, G. J. Singh, Understanding Naamsimran, 40.

  36. M. Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 263.

  37. See, for example, M. Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, 840, 1291.

  38. Kang, “‘Staged’ Rituals and ‘Veiled’ Spells”; Rumsey, “Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic Ideology.”

  39. Dusenbery, “Word as Guru,” 389.

  40. Similar to what Tambiah purports, words are cosubstantiated with the things they denote, and thus to name a thing is to make it manifest. See Tambiah, “Magical Power of Words.”

  Bibliography

  Bawa, Ujagar Singh. Biography and Writings of Bhai Nand Lal Ji. English translation. New Delhi: Hemkunt Publishers, 2006.

  Dusenbery, Verne A. “The Word as Guru: Sikh Scripture and the Translation Controversy.” History of Religion 31, no. 4 (1992): 385–402.

  Gill, Mukhtiar Singh, and Joshi S. S. Punjabi English Dictionary. Patiala, India: Punjabi University, 1999.

  Jacobsen, Knut A., and Kristina Myrvold, eds. Sikhs across Borders: Transnational Practices of European Sikhs. New York: Continuum, 2012.

  ———. Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011.

  Joshi, L. M., ed. Sikhism. Patiala, India: Publication Bureau Punjabi University, 2000.

  Kang, Yoonhee. “‘Staged’ Rituals and ‘Veiled’ Spells: Multiple Language Ideologies and Transformations in Petalangan Verbal Magic.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 16, no. 1 (2006): 1–22.

  Lawrence, Bruce B. “The Sant Movement and North Indian Sufis.” In The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, edited by Karin Schomer and W. H. McLeod, 259–373. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.

  Luis, Francisco Jose. “The Khanda and the Dhulfiqar: Sikh-Shi’a Parallelisms and Crossings in History and Text, Concept of the Divine Guide and Sacred Chivalry.” Sikh Formations 2, no. 2 (2006): 153–179.

  Mansukhani, Gobind Singh. Indian Classical Music and Sikh Kirtan. New Delhi: Oxford and IBH Publishing, 1982.

  Manuel, Peter. Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

  McLeod, Hew. Sikhism. London: Penguin Books, 1997.

  McLeod, W. H. The Chaupa Singh Rahit-Nama. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press, 1987.

  ———. Early Sikh Tradition: A Study of the Janam-sakhis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.

  ———. Gurū Nānak and the Sikh Religion. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996 (1968).

  ———. Prem Sumārag: The Testimony of a Sanatan Sikh. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.

  ———. Sikhs and Sikhism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

  ———. Sikhs of the Khalsa: A History of the Khalsa Rahit. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003.

  Myrvold, Kristina. “I guruns fotspår: Pilgrimsresor och platser i samtida sikhism.” In Heliga platser, pilgrimsfärder och andliga resor i vår samtid, edited by Bodil Liljefors Persson and Emma Hall, 31–41. Malmö, Sweden: Föreningen lärare i religionskunskap, 2009.

  ———. Inside the Guru’s Gate: Ritual Uses of Texts among the Sikhs in Varanasi. Lund, Sweden: Media-Tryck, 2007.

  ———. “Osjälvisk tjänst av sikherna.” Chakra—tidskrift för indiska religioner, no. 3 (2005): 42–48.

  Rahi, Hakim S. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Discovered: A Reference Book of Quotations. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1998.

  Rumsey, Alan. “Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic Ideology.” American Anthropologist 92 (1990): 346–361.

  Schomer, Karin, and W. H. McLeod, eds. The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.

  Sethi, Amarjit Singh. “Ethical and Spiritual Aspects of Nam-Simaran.” In Sikh History and Religion in the Twentieth Century, edited by Joseph T. O’Connell et al., 44–51. New Delhi: Manohar Publications, 1990.

  ———. “Mystical Consciousness in Sikhism.”Journal of Sikh Studies 10, no.1 (1983): 13–19.

  Shackle, Christopher, and Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, eds. Teachings of the Sikh Gurus: Selections from the Sikh Scripture. London: Routledge, 2005.

  Sikh Rahit Maryādā. Amritsar, India: Golden Offset Press, 1997.

  Singh, Bhagat. Anand Sarovar / The Holy Pond of Blissful Joy: Biography of Sant Baba Nand Singh Ji. Vol 3. Hardwar, India: Nanak Dar, Sant Baba Nand Singh-Sant Baba Ishar Singh, Spiritual Mission, 2000.

  Singh, Bhai Vir. Purātan Janam Sākhī Srī Gurū Nānak Dev Jī. 1926; repr., New Delhi: Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, 1999.

  Singh, Daljeet. “The Doctrine of Naam in Sikhism.” Journal of Sikh Studies 2, no. 2 (1975): 27–65.

  Singh, Dewan. “Guru Nanak and the Mystic Concept of Nām.” Journal of Sikh Studies 7, nos. 1–2 (1980): 43–48.

  Singh, Gulshan Jeet. Understanding Naamsimran (The Practicing of the Divine Word: Being an Anthology of Sikh Naamology). New Delhi: Young Brothers, 2004.

  Singh, Gurbax. NaamSimran Bhakti in Sikhism. New Delhi: Hemkunt Press, 1998.

  Singh, Jodh, ed. and trans. Vārān Bhāī Gurdās: Text, Transliteration and Translation. Patiala, India: Vision and Venture, 1998.

  Singh, Manmohan, trans. Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Amritsar, India: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, 1996.

  Singh, Nikky Guninder Kaur. “The Myth of the Founder: The Janamsakhis and the Sikh Tradition.” History of Religions 31, no. 4 (1992): 329–343.

  Singh, Nirbhai. Philosophy of Sikhism. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1990.

  Singh, Sher. Philosophy of Sikhism. Amritsar, India: Golden Offset Press, 1998.

  Singh, Trilochan. The Turban and the Sword of the Sikhs: Essence of Sikhism (History and Exposition of Sikh Baptism, Sikh Symbols and Moral Code of the Sikhs: R
ehitnāmās). Amritsar, India: B. Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh, 2001.

  Tambiah, Stanley J. “The Magical Power of Words.” Man 3, no. 2 (1968): 175–208.

  Vaudeville, Charlotte. “Sant Mat: Santism as the Universal Path to Sanctity.” In The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, edited by Karin Schomer and W. H. McLeod, 21–40. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987.

  7 SARAH SHAW

  Meditation Objects in Pāli Buddhist Texts

  The Dhammapada commentary, whose series of pleasingly intricate stories are associated with the verses of that famous collection, describes a young man struggling unsuccessfully with meditation. He has been asked to recollect “the foul” by visually considering the sight of a decomposing corpse, a practice that from the earliest times seems to have been peculiar to Buddhism.1 He cannot progress. The Buddha, seeing him with his divine eye, a faculty associated with many awakened beings in these stories, realizes the boy will not succeed, and that his object is unsuitable. He divines that he is now, and was in many past lives, a hereditary goldsmith, and needs a different meditation. So he visits him and conjures a magical vision of a golden-red flower. The young man takes this object, and murmuring the words “red, red” soon enters jhāna, a meditation described in Buddhist texts as characterized by initial thinking, discursive examination, joy, happiness, and one-pointedness: a peaceful bodily, emotional, and mental unification. He attains three further jhānas: the second, where thinking is dropped and “internal silence” is present; the third, where joy is discarded, and happiness, mindfulness, or alertness and equanimity become strong; and finally the fourth, a state where feeling has been purified. The mind, untroubled by painful feelings or even excessively pleasant feelings, becomes fluid and flexible: the meditator is free to turn to insight, other meditations, or psychic powers. The Buddha sees that the man is now ready for insight. He causes the flower, the basis of his meditative attainments, to wither and blacken. The boy, established in calm (samatha), gains insight (vipassanā) too: he sees what are known in Buddhism as the three signs—impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), and the lack of a solid and enduring self (anattā)—understood through the decomposition of this visual object. The Buddha leaves the boy, but now the young man’s mind is attuned. He passes a bank of flowers, some lustrous and fresh, others putrefying. He reaches further insight into these three “signs.” Finally the teacher returns: he sees the young man is ready for the last stage of insight. Making a magical image of himself, he brushes the boy’s cheek. Through the combination of surprise and the aptness of this external event, the boy is filled with devotion, the last necessary step in his own path, and attains arahatship—in Buddhist terms, the last vestiges of greed, hatred, and delusion drop away, and the boy is free.

  Individual Paths

  Through such tales most Southern Buddhists, monks, and laity have historically been taught about meditation, its objects, and its practice: children hear Dhammapada stories as their first contact with Buddhist teaching.2 So it is a good starting point for this chapter, as it epitomizes a creative and adaptable attitude to meditation objects that is found in the canon and commentarial stories as well as in the varieties of technique in modern Southern Buddhism.3 As so often in early Buddhist discourse, the detail of sustained narrative communicates much that theory cannot. Specificity of object to individual, appropriateness of different objects at various stages of development, and variety of method in a graduated path are all characteristic of the texts and of much Southern Buddhist meditation teaching today. The meditator has been given an object that does not suit; he is given another, dovetailing with his predisposition and past experience. When he has achieved results in calm, he is asked to observe it differently: he sees the defects of his object, in a way that produces insight, rather than frustration, and, through a mixture of his own creative observation, of the bank of dead and live flowers, and the surprise of an odd and apposite step by his teacher inspiring a moment of faith (saddhā), achieves awakening. Modern interpretations might vary on features such as “magical” flowers, visits from a teacher who projects himself to the meditator to give guidance, or the occurrence of “past lives” that have active influence on present disposition. But whether these features are taken as metaphors, imaginative ways of describing idiosyncracies of temperament, or literal “truths” (and the story is rich on all of these levels), the incidents stress, as many texts do, that the individual is in part the product of past experience, that this affects what will work, that there is a right time to offer advice and intervene, that some objects are suitable at different times, and that the practice of meditation, as it is described in Buddhism, requires some spontaneous creativity on the part of the practitioner. In Dhammapada stories meditation objects are sometimes carefully chosen and prescribed, and sometimes, where there is also a graduated path that might be different for different people, they arise fortuitously. The underlying assumption is that it is up to the meditator to use advice skillfully and to exercise intuition in observing events in the world that can help his or her practice.

  The interplay of character, environments, and distinct, precisely delineated individual paths, in this and other Pāli collections, indicate that in Buddhist practice and theory, no technique stands alone. The young monk would also be living his daily life, with recommendations for bodily mindfulness and attentiveness to others, and often discussing and hearing talks to loosen views that, according to the Buddhist Abhidhamma, are associated with rigidity and lack of healthiness in body and mind.4 These would all be considered important to support the body and mind for meditation, ensuring the practitioner’s well-being for the return to “normal” life. The practice of awareness during daily life and the various kinds of chanting, often the recollections (anussatis) listed below, are comparable supports for the laity too.

  The golden flower, “real” or “not real,” conjured, or perhaps visualized, is classified among the category of the first ten objects, the visually “beautiful” (which will be discussed later), the kasiṇa, but it should also be noted that as an external visual object, it does not quite match the contained carefully arranged kasiṇa disc Buddhaghosa prefers.5 And when it has been mastered, the object itself changes, “magically,” as a flower would in “real” life, so the boy can observe decay and putrefaction, features he could not grasp at the outset of the tale. Commentarial lists and advice in working with different techniques need to be read alongside such stories. They show the interchange of teacher, person, and object. In the texts and in much modern practice, “objects” are devised, crafted, and changed for particular situations and people. As so often in early Buddhist texts, the flower, perhaps imaginary, is a spontaneous creation for the moment, for the person concerned, “created” by both teacher and meditator.

  This chapter considers briefly a large number of objects—the basic forty described by the commentaries—with the intention of identifying key features that contribute to what is called a “place of work,” a meditation object (kammaṭṭhāna). The objects will be discussed in the seven groups described under “enumeration” in the Visuddhimagga (Visuddhimagga III 104), and some broad indication given of modern variations. While each category is frequent in early texts, no such extended list exists in the canon.6 The groupings are the ten kasiṇas; the ten “unlovely” (asubha); the ten recollections; the four divine abidings; the four formless spheres; and, finally, two objects that, like the recollections, are intended to change views and understanding about the relationship between the practitioner and his or her bodily environment. The very range of categories and variations in teaching them are indicative of the diverse ways “objects” are regarded in canon, commentary, and modern practice.

  These objects, like medicines or nutriments, are described in texts as assigned in combinations to encourage particular features and to eliminate those that are unhelpful or destructive. Within the space available, only a thumbnail sketch can be offered, but it is hoped that the
adaptive nature of early Buddhist meditative practice manifest in such stories, and the modern adjustments and variations within some Southern Buddhist schools, will be demonstrated. Wherever possible, specific narrative instances will be given, as more true to the sense of individual applicability that animates meditation teaching as it is described within early Buddhist texts. The purpose of considering a wide range is to ascertain whether more general conclusions can be made about the nature of meditation objects and how they are used in Southern Buddhism. Texts cited will include the often overlooked Dhammapada-aṭṭhakathā (translated as Buddhist Legends), the manuals of Buddhaghosa (Visuddhimagga) and Upatissa (Vimuttimagga), and the Pāli canon.

  The Beautiful Object: Kasiṇa 1–10

  So how would the boy consider the golden flower and address it as a meditation object? The object, a kasiṇa, is here “created” outside, found internally, and, later in the story, found again by the pupil externally and in “real” multiple form in the world around him. In early and modern Southern Buddhist practice there is a greater emphasis on the external, “real-life” starting object. Internally derived visualization practices do exist, however, and skill in such fields as a preparation for meditation are suggested by the Mahāsudassana-Sutta, the Piṅgiya-Sutta and the Mahāsamaya-Sutta, in which the listener is encouraged to create in the mind’s eye the contents of what in later Buddhist texts becomes the more frequent, formally constructed mandalas and visualized figures organized on predetermined lines.7