Bhavana
(Meditation or Mental Culture)Like themorning sun, radiate sweet Metta to all beings.We are not, and never were, a fixed,
unchanging personality. Within each of us lies
the vast potential to grow, to expand, to fulfil
ourselves. This process of change is not the
result of chanting the right prayers, reading the
right books or believing in some magic or
religious formula.
Real change goes deeper. To develop oneself, a
person has to come to know himself, to
experience all the hidden partsgood and bad of
his own mind. Until he becomes aware of the
desires, fears and anxieties that motivate him
and make him do what he does, he ·does not
know what 'he 1s working with. This self-know-
ledge and realization, the basis for further self
development, comes especially from the
practiceof meditation or mental culture.
- Why Meditate?
Meditation is central, indispensable, to
Buddhism, to our own spiritual growth and
evolution. This spiritual evolution consists of
developing higher and higher levels of
consciousness. These higher levels of
consciousness are characterized by the
presence of 'skillful mental states' and the
absence of 'unskillfulstates'. Skillfulstates of
mind are those based on charity,
loving-kindness and compassion; unskillful
states are rooted in their opposites: greed,
hatred and delusion.Before we can change and grow, our heart not
just our head must be involved. Only if 'our
heart is in it', will we have the necessary
motivation to evolve. For this reason, self-
improvement books and New Year resolutions
which usually affect us at the superficial
intellectual level contribute little to a
fundamental change. But this is not so with
meditation which is a tool for self-
transformation by integrating our intellectual
and emotional energies to serve as the
foundation for spiritual growth and well-being.2.The Process of Transformation
The experiences of different individuals differ in
meditation, yet there are common features of
this process which may be found in anyone who
meditates consistently. The process falls into
three stages, which we call the stages of
concentration, absorption and insight.
a) Concentration: When people begin to
practice meditation, they soon become
aware of difficulties in concentrating on the
object of meditation. It is as if they are not
one unified individual but more like a
'bundle of selves'. One 'self' has decided to
meditate, another may want to reply a
letter, another may want to replay the
conversation it just had, and so on. Often, it
seems, there is an endless parade of
different 'selves', all pulling the mind in
different directions.Is it not so that we are too easily distracted?
Our attention is not firmly placed on what
we are doing. We live in the past or the
future our mind is elsewhere. As a result,
our energy is scattered and wasted among
the conflicting demands of these competing
'selves'.14