Contemplation: Its Cultivation and Culmination Through the Buddhist Glasses.

Buddhist meditation aims to transform the individual's personality from a self-centered "I" to a collective "we," achieving peace of mind and global peace. The practice of vipassanā (insight) leads to supreme enlightenment by breaking internal fetters through seven types of purity: morals, mind, views, and insight. Meditation involves not solitary mindfulness but also cultivating higher qualities like compassion and friendliness. The ideal practitioner, the Bodhisattva, must perfect wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) and skill in means (upāyas), which do not create new bondage. Attaining this broad outlook is the highest contemplation and ultimate goal of Buddhist meditation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Buddhist account of consciousness provides a new way of looking into contemplation, where absorption into meditation does not only bring in changes in the neural level but in the very personality of the individual, turning him into a good human being. The Buddhists recommend the practice of vipassanā, literally meaning insight but actually standing for the realization of the supreme enlightenment breaking off all the internal fetters through the practice of seven different types of purity, such as purity of morals, mind, views, and insight, etc. In early and later Buddhist literature, it has been categorically emphasized that one should not practice solitary mindfulness but should practice enriching the higher qualities of the mind such as compassion, friendliness, etc. The point is that the contemplated individual, the Bodhisattva, should possess the perfection of wisdom (prajñā-pāramitā) and be equipped with the skill of upāyas. The practice of these upāyas, however, will not create any new bondage for the contemplative mind. When the individual is able to attain this broad outlook, he will be said to achieve the highest contemplation - this is the ultimate objective of Buddhist meditation. Meditation is needed for this change of outlook - transition from "I" to "we". This is the only way to bring peace of mind and peace to the whole world.