Concentration and Visualization Techniques in Buddhist Meditation
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation January 13, 2021 Nobuyoshi Yamabe 5 citations
Buddhist meditation developed from early practices focused on mindfulness of the body, including mindful breathing and contemplation of a corpse's decomposition. Mindfulness of breathing, transmitted to East Asia, remains central in Japanese Sōtō practice. A more reflective and visual approach involved observing a dead body in stages of decomposition, as found in early scriptures; later texts taught a method of grasping images of a corpse, including enigmatic ones. Another development was Buddha visualization, appearing in undeveloped form in early Mahayana sutras and fully developed by the fifth century using statues as aids. This visualization was inherited by Esoteric Buddhism and continues today.