specific instructions. In most cases meditation sessions
are planned, prepared, and adorned, and thus tagged,
in predictable fashion, as “proper meditation,” or
“meditation like that of the Buddha.” Meditation ses-
sions are usually seen as an integral part, if not the cul-
mination, of a religious life that includes moral
preparation and doctrinal definitions of what one
should expect. Apart from the expectations of doc-
trine, ethical values, and cultural habits, Buddhist
meditations are also usually announced and framed by
ritual activities.
A long tradition of preliminaries associated with
meditation rituals survives in various forms in East
Asian and Tibetan practice. Custom, as well as ritual
manuals, helped consecrate ritual practices as diverse
as cleaning and adorning the place of meditation, set-
ting up an altar or image, offering flowers and per-
fumed water, and framing the period of meditation
with ancillary rituals, such as the sevenfold act of wor-
ship or the invocation of protective deities. In fact,
meditation and ritual often form a web of activities
that includes not only ostensible silent meditations and
publicly performed ceremonies, but also activities such
as chanting, recitation, and circumambulation that
hold an ambiguous status between ritual and medita-
tion, mechanical reading and deep reflection.
Special meditations are also sometimes regarded as
preliminary or preparatory exercises. For instance, the
Tibetan tradition often recommends the practice of the
sngon’gro(ngöndro,preliminaries), which are divided
into two types. The first is that of the four “outer pre-
liminaries,” which often serve as a standard or com-
mon meditation for the nonspecialist. This set of four
consists of meditations of the “recollection” type, with
reflection on the following four topics: the value of hu-
man rebirth, impermanence, the vicissitudes of KARMA
(ACTION), and the suffering of living beings. The sec-
ond type is formed by the five “inner preliminaries,”
which are construed as purificatory activities, each
neutralizing or counteracting the effects of one of the
major passions. Thus, pride is countered by taking
refuge and performing ten thousand prostrations, jeal-
ousy by cultivating the aspiration to awaken for the
sake of all living beings (the BODHICITTA), hatred by
reciting the hundred-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva,
craving by a MANDALAoffering, and delusion by visu-MEDITATION
A monk meditates at a small stone altar on the grounds of the ruins at Sarnath, India. © Chris Lisle/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.