The Foundations of Buddhism

r82 The Buddhist Path

TABLE 5· Ascending stages of calm meditation

meditational powers/higher knowledge/insight/formless attainments

4thjhana

3rd jhiina

2ndjhiina

Ist jhiina dhyiina

suffusing joy access

transporting joy

descending joy

momentary joy

slight joy

5 stages of joy

concentration

Buddhaghosa's

stages of calm

counterpart sign

acquired sign

preparatory sign

3 'signs'

concentrating

unifying

complete calming

calming

settling

complete stilling

thorough stilling

continued stilling

stilling the mind

Asai:tga's stages

of calm

and Vasubandhu, the fathers of the Yogacara tradition of

Mahayana thought, detail nine stages of the settling of the mind

( citta-sthiti), although they too make reference to the mental images

(pratibimba) seen in meditation. I will not go .into the details of

the latter account here, but it has come to have great authority

for Tibetan manuals of meditation.^24

The concept of the nimitta is most easily explained with ref-

erence to meditation on the coloured disks. To undertake this

kind of meditation the meditator should first prepare a disk of

the appropriate colour. He should then set it up in front of him

and, sitting down, begin to try to place his attention on the disk.

The 'initial' or 'preparatory sign' (parikamma-nimitta) is the

gross physical object. After some practice, the meditator will no
longer need the actual physical object to contemplate, but will
be able to visualize the object in his mind directly; the object of
meditation is now the 'acquired sign' (uggaha-nimitta). As the