Buddhist Meditation:

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Buddhist Meditation Without the wings of
thought and meditation, the bird of Buddhism
cannot fly
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• A Buddha is a being who has awakened from the
  sleep of ignorance in which others live, who has
  broken through the cognitive barriers that impede
  understanding and become omniscient through a
  long process of mental training.

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Meditation or cognitive restructuring.

• Bhavana 2 types
• Samatha - Pacifying the mind and quieting the
  mental confusion, strife.
• Vipasyana - Developing clear understanding of
  Buddhist tenets, the four noble truths
  impermanence selfless or cultivating direct
  perception of the true nature of reality (the
  dharma eye).

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Prescriptive Aspect

• A teacher of meditation or guru will often
  prescribe the specific type of meditation that
  suits the needs of the individual.
• An angry person may be prescribed a meditation
  that cultivates feelings of love, or patience.
  Love and compassion are incompatible with anger,
  and so the more one cultivates these two, anger
  dissipates.
• A person strongly arrogant may be instructed to
  meditate on impermanence and no-self. No amount
  of money or fame can forestall death, hence
  meditation on bones, on the world as filled with
  skeletons walking around

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Meditation and Sexual Desire

• A person strongly attached to sexual desire may
  be instructed to meditate on the hideous features
  of a dancing girl concentrating on her snot,
  poop, pee sweat, bile. A Buddhist seeks a proper
  state of detachment from this life.

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End Result of Meditation

• Buddhist Literature has extensive literature
  about specific mental states attained through
  specific practices. The end result of meditation
  is to reduce the force of desire and cultivate an
  attitude whereby all living beings are equal, and
  that feelings of attraction and revulsion are
  transient results of afflicted mental states.

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Dhyanas the Meditative Realms

• Shared by most Indian traditions. The four
  concentrations correspond to levels within the
  realm of form, the second of three levels of
  cyclic existence.
• First Dhyana overcoming the subtlest levels of
  attachment to the Desire Realm, the lowest level
  of cyclic existence. One in mediation first
  views this desire realm as gross and the first
  dhyana as subtle and endeavors to attain to this
  level of concentration. The next three are
  similarly viewed as increasingly subtle mental
  levels, or dimensions of consciousness.
• In the first two, joy and bliss are there
• In the third, joy is gone but bliss is still
  present. One attains to meditative equanimity in
  the third concentration, which is strengthened in
  the fourth concentration to the point where bliss
  also disappears and is replaced with a pervasive
  equanimity. The reason joy and bliss are
  eliminated is that they interfere with mental
  stability Samatha

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Three Worlds

• 1. The Desire Realm (where you are now)
• 2. The Form Realms dhyanas meditative states
  but real places for existence
• 3. The Formless Realms Higher states with no
  imagery or conception

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Four Formless Absorptions

• Arupya samapatti these correspond to four yet
  more subtle realms or dimensions within sa?sara.
  
• These are said to be the highest levels of
  existence and still be in cyclic existence. One
  is said to be born into these exceptionally
  complex levels of being dependent upon the
  ability of the individual to cultivate the
  corresponding mental level within contemplation.
  
• These are

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Four Formless Absorptions

• Absorption of limitless space
• Absorption of limitless consciousness
• Absorption of nothingness
• Peak of cyclic existence

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Samatha

• Calming the cessation of anxiety-ridden
  thoughts
• To generate these higher mental states, one needs
  physical and mental pliancy. One has achieved a
  serviceability of mind and body such that the
  mind can be set on a virtuous object of
  observation as long as one wishes.

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Vipasyana and Samatha

• Vipasyana analytical insight, The latter is
  an analytical task in which one considers the
  emptiness or lack of self of the meditative
  object. This involves philosophical
  introspection.
• The combination of Samatha or Calming the mind
  is a necessary prerequisite for attainment of
  analytical insight or Vipasyana. The two are
  combined like two wings of one bird, enable the
  meditator to achieve high, subtle levels of
  consciousness.

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Paths to Nirva?a

• Path of Accumulation collection of merit and
  wisdom, one enters this path with an intention
  merely to awaken all sentient beings
• Path of Preparation reaching the union of
  calming and higher insight with no-self as the
  object of observation or the meditative object
• Stages
• 1. Heat fire of non-conceptual understanding
  on the path of seeing will soon arise
• 2. Peak good karma accumulated at this point
  will no longer be lost
• 3. Patience overcoming fear with regard to
  selflessness
• 4. Supreme mundane qualities

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The final paths of the bodhisattva

• The Path of "Seeing" (Darsana Marga) reality as
  "zero" or sunya with the consciousness of a minor
  bodhisattva
• The Path of "Meditation (Bhavanamarga) further
  cultivation of the consciousness towards
  omniscience in the Buddhist sense of knowing
  reality in a qualitative rather than quantitative
  sense
• The Path of "No More Learning," Aksaiksamarga
  one has attained complete, perfect Enlightenment
  as a fully-fledged Buddha.