Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!agate!eos!data.nas.nasa.gov!news
From: pingali@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu (Sridhar Pingali)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: Meditation
Message-ID: <1990Nov1.013705.3713@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 31 Oct 90 14:53:11 GMT
References: <1990Oct31.063824.13640@nas.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Lines: 53
Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov


In article <1990Oct31.063824.13640@nas.nasa.gov> hugh@chook.ua.oz.au (Hugh Garsden) writes:
>
>I have read that there are two kinds of Buddhist meditation, one where
>you focus the mind on the breath, the other where you don't concentrate
>on anything, but empty the mind (that right?).
>

All meditation is one of two types - Awareness
meditation or Concentration meditation.  The
distinction between them can be very subtle at times.
In awareness meditation, close attention is given to
whatever is present in the moment in an open and
spacious way. In concentration meditation, *exclusive*
attention is paid to a primary object of meditation.
But awareness requires concentration and concentration
requires attention. The mind being what it is, most
people require a primary object of attention to return
to- even while practising awareness meditation.

The breath can be used in *both* ways. It can be used
as a tether to the present moment in awareness meditation.
It then becomes an object to *return* to as we acknowledge 
the presence of other sensations as well. Else, it can
be used as an exclusive object to enter into various 
states of jhanic concentration.

Any number of other objects of attention exist in Buddhism - 
particularly in the Vajrayana (Tibetan) tradition.

>So, to put it bluntly: which is better?
>Does one provide faster progress than the other?
>Are there even any criteria that can be used to claim that one is
>"better" than the other? So do they have a different function?

The traditional Theravada view is that, while both
types are extremely useful, it is awareness (mindfulness)
that leads to seeing things as they really are. The 
seeing of truth is what sets us free. The central work
of the Pali Canon is the "Maha Satipatthana Sutta" 
(Smriti Upasthana Sutra in Sanskrit). This is a part
of the long discourses of the Buddha (Digha Nikaya) and
is the "Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness".
In this Sutta, the Buddha teaches *how* meditation is
to be done.

Both Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration are
part of the Eightfold Path.



-- 
Sridhar Pingali