The concept of meditation

1. The meaning of the word "Thiền"

Thiền is a Chinese word, pronounced in full as Thiền na, which comes from the Pali word Jhāna and means to gather the mind, to collect the mind. However, the root Jhā is also related to the meaning of burning.

Jhāpeti: to burn

Jhāpana: the lighting of a fire

Jhāyana: burning; meditation

Jhāyī: one who meditates

Jhāyaka: one who meditates

Perhaps in ancient times people who sat in meditation often lit a fire nearby, or felt their bodies warm up as if a fire had been lit, and so the two words came to be used close together. Later, on the Chinese side, other words were added after it, such as Thiền quán (meditative contemplation), Thiền định (meditative concentration), Thiền tọa (sitting meditation), Thiền tông (the Chan school), Thiền khách (meditation visitor), Thiền đường (meditation hall), Thiền sư (meditation master), and so on. Few people use both syllables Thiền na as in the past.

Nevertheless, the main meaning of Thiền remains a practice that leads to a mind that is calm and still, in which no thoughts arise and no emotions stir, yet which stays clear and bright.

People still associate meditation with sitting motionless in the full lotus posture, because from the Buddha to the saints, all sat in meditation in that posture. As the practice developed more widely, people were allowed to practise meditation while walking slowly, in the proper way. As for those who can keep and control the mind constantly, they are called people who know how to meditate in the four postures of standing, walking, lying and sitting.

2. Meditation existed before the Buddha

According to the Buddha's life story, when he first left the royal palace to become an ascetic (samana), he went to study with two famous ascetics of the time, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta. These two are said to have attained the concentration of the sphere of nothingness and the concentration of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception. These were already two extremely high levels of concentration, with supernatural powers, and close to the edge of liberation.

The Buddha quickly attained exactly what his teachers had attained, and they esteemed him and invited him to cooperate in guiding the remaining students. The Buddha raised a question about the self, and since it was not answered satisfactorily, he left to resolve the rest by himself. Later the Buddha resolved that crucial problem by himself and founded a new religion for the world.

The ascetics of that time were influenced by the Vedic scriptures (the Veda, four books) and the Upanishads. Veda means wisdom; Upanishad means sitting together. The Vedas came very early, about 1000 years before the Common Era; the Upanishads about 200 years before the Common Era. The teachings of these scriptures often emphasise Brahman and Atman (the self). Meditation was regarded as the method by which Atman merges with Brahman. A great self, a divine self, a holy self was also regarded as the goal of practice. But the Buddha discovered that all these states still leave room for the self to exist, so they cannot bring liberation. The Buddha found his own way to escape the self after 49 days of meditative absorption under the Bodhi tree, and attained enlightenment. This is the key point of difference between Buddhist meditation and the meditation of the non-Buddhist traditions of India.

3. After the Buddha, many more schools of meditation continued to arise

Hinduism borrowed many ideas from Buddhism to perfect itself, and the path known today as Yoga appeared. Yoga trains the body, trains concentration and trains morality all at once. The Consciousness-Only school (Duy thức học) in Buddhism developed further, going deeply into the analysis of the mind in the hope of finding liberation. Then the Esoteric school (Mật tông) appeared and developed strongly in Tibet, adding mantras, mudras and mandalas to ritual and practice, creating a Buddhism with mysterious powers. The Tiantai school of the master Zhiyi also had a very great influence on the practice of meditative contemplation.

Finally came the Chan (Zen) school, with its countless legends and meditation masters, which held an almost absolute dominance for many centuries in China, Vietnam, Japan and Korea.

Although these later schools of meditation still belong to Buddhism, their inner paths of practice differ in places from the Buddhism of the very beginning. Some approaches to meditation also tend towards extremes and are quick to reject other things, even the teachings themselves.

4. Meditation and the world today

Today meditation is being studied all over the world as a kind of mental hygiene and exercise for the brain. Many countries have boldly introduced meditation practice into schools and prisons. Many followers and clergy of other religions also quietly study and practise meditation. Alongside the growth of Buddhist meditation, Chinese Qigong and the Yoga of Hinduism are also competing to spread. It must be said that in this twenty-first century the world will witness many spectacular developments in spiritual practice across the planet. Any country that is slow to step forward will immediately fall behind.

5. Meditation and Vietnamese Buddhism

Meditation practice in Vietnam has only revived over the past thirty years or so, and is becoming the focus of Buddhism, although the tendencies of reciting the Buddha's name and chanting sutras still hold the stronger position. This is because Vietnamese Buddhism is tending to follow the development of world Buddhism, which favours meditation. However, the number of Vietnamese monastics who practise meditation regularly and steadily every day is not high; many practise meditation on a whim, as the mood takes them, and do not yet regard meditation as an indispensable discipline of Buddhist practice. We must understand that meditation gives Buddhism the strength to keep striving in practice.

6. Meditation within a whole

Although meditation is a method of gathering the mind into purity and stillness, it cannot be separated from the whole of a person. That whole consists of the following: health, ethics (đạo đức), precepts and conduct, merit (công đức), doctrine, and technique. That is, a meditator must live a healthy life, do many meritorious deeds, have good health, understand the teachings thoroughly, and master the method of gathering the mind while sitting in meditation. If even one of these is missing, meditation cannot succeed.

7. Practice is what matters

To understand meditation, one must practise it with complete determination. To understand Buddhism deeply, one must also practise meditation with all one's will. We cannot study meditation by pondering theory. Meditation practice is very arduous; without will and good roots (thiện căn), people will give up.

Question: What is the point of difference between Buddhist meditation and the meditation of non-Buddhist traditions?