I previously noted a few years ago that Tibetan Buddhism has a very similar approach to discursive meditation called "analytical meditation", where the practitioner meditates on a verse, a text in an analytical way.
Through my studies I have come to realise that the broader Buddhist meditation framework actually covers this under the rubrics of shamatha and vipashyana meditation. I use the Sanskrit instead of Pali as I think the Pali terms have become a bit loaded and the Sanskrit is more inclusive of the Mahayana schools anyway.
The main confusion that people have is that shamatha often takes the fore, or some modern approaches to vipashyana, such as Goenka's method, have come to dominate the meaning of the term while being very idiosyncratic.
Shamatha practice brings about a focused and concentrated mind, and the focus produced from entering and exiting very deep states of meditation is very strong. These are the dhyānas. They are not strictly necessary according to Buddhism but they are just very helpful for the deep focus which they bring about.
With the focus produced by these strong states of meditation, one then analyses the component's of one's consciousness in vipashyana.
Discursive meditation as taught by JMG also has a short period of breathing, with the same effect as shamatha, but without the explicit goal of deep meditative states.
Then the discursive meditation itself is analogous to vipashyana, just the themes differ.
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branchandroot
Buddhist meditation and discursive meditation
Date: 2024-11-11 10:59 am (UTC)Through my studies I have come to realise that the broader Buddhist meditation framework actually covers this under the rubrics of shamatha and vipashyana meditation. I use the Sanskrit instead of Pali as I think the Pali terms have become a bit loaded and the Sanskrit is more inclusive of the Mahayana schools anyway.
The main confusion that people have is that shamatha often takes the fore, or some modern approaches to vipashyana, such as Goenka's method, have come to dominate the meaning of the term while being very idiosyncratic.
Shamatha practice brings about a focused and concentrated mind, and the focus produced from entering and exiting very deep states of meditation is very strong. These are the dhyānas. They are not strictly necessary according to Buddhism but they are just very helpful for the deep focus which they bring about.
With the focus produced by these strong states of meditation, one then analyses the component's of one's consciousness in vipashyana.
Discursive meditation as taught by JMG also has a short period of breathing, with the same effect as shamatha, but without the explicit goal of deep meditative states.
Then the discursive meditation itself is analogous to vipashyana, just the themes differ.
Anyway just putting this out there to share.