The Foundations of Buddhism

The Buddhist Path

moss and leaves, ruffled by the wind, muddied and in a dark place.

If someone should look down into a bowl of water contaminated

in any one of these five ways, then he would not be able to see

a clear and true reflection of himself. On the other hand, if one

were to look down into a bowl of water that is free of such con-

taminations, one would see a clear and true reflection. Likewise;

the mind that is disturbed by the hindrances will never succeed

in coming to know its true nature.

This then is the basic theory of Buddhist meditation stated in

the terms of the oldest texts. While later schools and traditions

may change and adapt the terminology used, while they may elab-

orate the stages and techniques in a number of different ways,

while they may give distinctive technical accounts of the content

of the knowledge gained in insight meditation, the basic prin-

ciple for the most part holds good: one stills and clears the mind

and then turns it towards investigation and insight.

Stilling the mind

The techniques of calm meditation involve counteracting the.

tendency of the mind to restlessly seek out new and different

objects of the senses. This is accomplished by developing a basic

capacity of the mind to rest undisturbed on an object of per-

ception. This capacity, termed 'concentration' (samiidhi), is in

fact understood as a prerequisite of all thought, .but in normal

consciousness it functions only minimally. When this capacity is
developed in meditation practice, however, it brings the mind to

a condition of stillness in which it finds complete contentment

with just one object of contemplation. In this condition the

mind enters into quite different states of consciousness from its

habitual, ordinary states. These states of consciousness may

themselves be.termed samiidhi, or alternatively they are known

as the dhyiinas (Palijhiina), a term which means something like

'deep thought' or 'meditation'. In Buddhist technical terms, the

mind has temporarily escaped from 'the sphere of the senses~
(kiimiivacara)-its normal preoccupation with thoughts that are

in some way bound up with the objects o£ the five senses-to the

subtle 'sphere of pure form' (rupiivacara )-a refined world of