Meditation is Zen (Japanese), Chan (Chinese), Thiền (Vietnamese), Dhyàna (Sankrit), Jhàna (Pali). It refers to the process of concentration in silence. It means letting go all thoughts or focusing the mind on only one subject of the Dharma. It also implies purifying your worldly mind of all evils, aggregates (greed, anger, torpor, restlessness, and doubt). With rigorous meditation practice, one may develop many virtues and spiritual merits, wisdom, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. The subjects to focus on in meditation practice could be something in daily life: one's breath, walking steps.... In Theravada Buddhism, the Vipassana Meditation focuses on the body, the feelings/sensation, the mind (thought), and the Dharma (impermanence, suffering, nothingness, and no self).
Sometimes the term meditation is used instead of dhyàna-samàdhi or meditation-concentration to refer to a state in which the mind is not wandering, but focusing on one subject in profound contemplation. Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch, said, “Not being attached to all forms of the external world is meditation. Not being disturbed by any arsing thoughts from within is concentration.” Thus, meditation is letting go (free from) all transient conditions, dwelling in the pure and undisturbed mind, not chasing after and not driven away by any forms or sounds... from the outside. This is the most important and the essential method that leads the practitioner to liberation and enlightenment. It is the core of Buddhist practice. In the Dhammapada, Stanza 110, the Buddha said,
It is worthless to live 100 years,
Dầu sống một trăm năm,
in the realm of the evils, without meditation practice
Ác giới, không Thiền định,
It is better to live one day
Tốt hơn sống một ngày,
follow precepts, and practice meditation
Trì giới, tu Thiền định.
Meditation practice brings you back to the present, to be in touch with the miracle of every second in life. It is to be free from all thoughts, and not being driven by the external ever-changing phenomena. It is the method to purify your life, your inner world, from all greed, anger, and ignorance. With meditation you can live the here and now, fully awake and not dreaming. You can return to your true nature, be your master, and thus bring happiness to yourself and others. Meditation is an experimental and intuitive process, not through analytical discourse, or intellectual argument. Hence, many meditation masters have emphasized that meditation is "beyond scriptures and language." King Trần Nhân Tông, Founder of Vietnamese Thiền, once said, "A mind with no attachment to the external world is actually Thiền."
(To be continued)
Sources:
On Theravada (Original) Meditation and Mahayana (Developed)Meditation (Bàn về Thiền Nguyên Thủy và Thiền Phát Triển)
11/11/2009 07:54:00 Prof.Minh Chi
http://www.daophatngaynay.com/vn/phap-mon/thien-dinh/nt-dt/3358-Ban-ve-Thien-Nguyen-Thuy-va-Thien-Phat-Trien.html
Also available in print at Thiền viện Vạn Hạnh, Sài gòn (published in 1994).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_buddhism#Scripture
Samatha and Vipassana (Thiền chỉ, thiền quán)
24/10/2006 20:17 The Dept. of Dharma Dissemination of the Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam (Ban Hoằng pháp GHPGVN)
http://www.phattuvietnam.net/nghiencuu/46/1112.html
