A Study of early buddhist meditation: a comaparative study based on the pali nikayasa and Chinese agamas
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Date
2005
Authors
Herng, Toong
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Publisher
University of Peradeniya
Abstract
This dissertation attempts an examination of forms of meditation prevalent during the time of the Buddha and the newly discovered forms of meditation in Buddhism resulting in immediate attainment of nibbana here and now. Modern scholarship shows a difference in the understanding of the meditations that were known in the Buddhist tradition, the Theravada tradition in particular. Some maintain that the meditations are of wholly Buddhist origin; others who are opposed to that view maintain that they were borrowed from Brahmanism; some suggest that they were a combination of the Buddhist and the non-Buddhist methods. Some even radically deny the function of meditation in the path of liberation by contending that the merit of insight alone is sufficient for the attainment of final liberation. The present study seeks to show that some of the meditations were re-examined by the Buddha and some others were originally taught by the Buddha. These meditations, either re-evaluated or newly discovered were meant to lead the adept effectively to the attainment of final liberation. The inquiry of this dissertation has been mostly limited to the Pali Nikayas and the Chinese Agamas considering that these canonical traditions, for the most part, preserve authentic sayings of the Buddha connected with the topic under investigation. I demonstrate in three fundamental ways the contribution of Gotama Buddha towards the enduring achievement of ending suffering by means of meditation. First, I have examined the attitude of the Buddha towards the then known nine samapattis thereby showing the attainment of nibbana can be achieved by using any of the nine samapattis as a base. Second, I have examined the threefold samadhi as methods of overcoming the limitations of the methods of meditation of the ascetics and as leading to the attainment of nibbana giving the opportunity for a person to abide in nibbanic life. Third, I have shown that andapanasati is a practice leading anyone to nibbana regardless of whether he had experienced any form of meditation.
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Buddhism