The Noble Eight fold Path

(The Fourth Noble Truth :  Magga : The Path)

6. Right Concentration

All religious systems teach some kind of meditation or mental exercise for man’s inner development. It may take the form of silent prayer, reading individually or collectively from some ‘Holy scripture’  or concentrating on some sacred object, person or idea. And it is believed that these mental exercises, at times , result in seeing visions or some similar mysterious occurrences. Whether they are illusions, imaginations, hallucinations, mere projections of the sub-conscious mind, or real phenomena, one cannot say with certainty. Mind is an invisible force and is quite capable of producing all these phenomena.

The Meditation taught in Buddhism is neither for gaining union with any supreme being nor for manifesting any mystical experiences nor is it for any self-hypnosis, but to bring calm and insight for the sole purpose of attaining unshakable deliverance of mind and supreme security from bondage through the total extirpation of all mental defilements.

Meditation as practiced and experienced by the Buddha , before and after his enlightenement, is divided into two forms or systems:

 Concentration of the mind or Samadhi(samatha) that is unification of the mind ’ and ‘insight(vippasana)’. 

Of these two forms, Samadhi or concentration has the function of calming the mind. Calming of the Mind implies unification or ‘one pointedness’ of the Mind. Unification is brought about by focusing the mind on one salutary object to the exclusion of the others. The development of concentrative calm , however, is never an end in itself. It is only a means to something more sublime which is of vital importance, namely Insight , (vipassana) . Vipassana means seeing beyond what is ordinary,  clear vision, i.e., seeing things as they really are, which means seeing the three characteristics of all phenomenal existence (Impermanence, Unsatisfactoriness & No-Self) . It is this insight, with calm concentration of mind as its basis, that enables one to purge his mind of all defilements and see Reality – Nirvana.

The Buddha , identified five hindrances that obstruct Right Concentration. They are : Sense Desire, Ill-Will, Sloth & torpor, restlessness and worry & Sceptical doubt. 

extracts from The Buddha's Ancient Path by Thera Piyadasi