Practicing Meditation
Living Skillfully January 11, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197587355.003.0005
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractIn the early Mahayana Buddhist text Vimalakīrti Sūtra, meditation is presented as a practice of mindfulness integrated into everyday life, rather than requiring withdrawal from passions or emotional sensitivity. Bodhisattvas are encouraged to cultivate emotion as essential to life, while using calming and concentration practices to prevent it from becoming extreme suffering. Vimalakirti himself exemplifies and teaches insight meditation throughout the sutra as a means of self-transformation and a method for coping with life's inevitable suffering.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 1 |
| Key finding | The Vimalakīrti Sūtra presents meditation as mindfulness cultivated in ordinary life, encouraging bodhisattvas to retain emotional sensitivity while using calming practices to prevent suffering. |
Abstract
Abstract This chapter describes the Buddhist practice of meditation as it appears in the early Mahayana context of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra. It stresses mindfulness as a state of mind cultivated in the midst of ordinary life activity. Rather than demanding the abandonment of the passions and emotional sensitivity, it encourages bodhisattvas to cultivate emotion as one essential element of life. That sensitivity is prevented from being an extreme source of suffering by calming and concentration meditation practices. Vimalakirti is described as practicing and teaching insight meditation throughout the sutra as a means of self-transformation and as a method to deal with the inevitable suffering in human life.