Sitting Meditation

By Category: Meditation & PracticeTags:

Though sitting meditation was given to us from the ancient past it is a way for modern people to lead happy lives. Sitting meditation allows us to dispel the pressures of daily life that come from the mind’s confusion and a mistaken understanding of phenomena.

Practicing sitting meditation quiets the mind and stills our thoughts so that we can recover our intrinsic nature.

Sitting meditation makes us healthier.

The sutras say, “When the mind arises, all phenomena arise.” Modern medical science has proven that much of our sickness comes from our emotions, such as worry, greed, and anger. Meditation can give us a peaceful temperament, allows us to breathe calmly, and makes us feel refreshed. Sitting meditation also enhances circulation and boosts metabolism, thereby staving off the degeneration of bodily functions.

Sitting meditation enhances our morality.

In today’s society with its technological advances and material abundance, most people spend their days restlessly seeking after material pleasures, fame, position, and power, such that they cloud their minds with desire and lose sense of who they are. But, if these people can befriend sitting meditation they will become their own masters and will no longer be slaves to material things. They will be able to elevate their morality and transform their disposition.

Sitting meditation allows us to enjoy the bliss of meditative concentration.

The Buddha once said, “One who sits in meditation gains Dharma joy.” The Dharma joy mentioned by the Buddha is the bliss of meditative concentration. This bliss is created by a tranquil mind and cannot be compared to the happiness of the five desires. Those who diligently practice sitting meditation can obtain this bliss.

Sitting meditation develops our wisdom.

The Suramgama Sutra says, “Take focusing the mind as your precepts. Meditative concentration arises from the precepts; wisdom arises from meditative concentration.” Sitting meditation calms the body and spirit and purifies the mind. This not only makes us wiser, but it will win us everyone’s love and respect and make things easier to accomplish.

Sitting meditation is the path to cultivating merit and wisdom.

The practice of sitting meditation allows us to become Buddhas by seeing our intrinsic nature. Sitting meditation eliminates affliction and deluded thoughts, allowing us to be quiet both within and without. When the mind reaches nirvana, it expands into enlightenment. This is why a meditation hall is also called the Buddha’s court. As long as we put in the effort, we will be able to see our nature and become Buddhas.

The final goal of sitting meditation is to free the body and mind.

We must free ourselves from all forms of delusion and all discriminating thoughts, such that even the world of the Buddha and enlightenment is washed away without a trace. Amid the silence of ancient temples, Chan masters sat in meditation, burning stick after stick of incense. They dedicated their lives to the practice of sitting meditation, with their goal being to put an end to this world of delusion. They hoped that by constantly meditating they could purify their original mind and merge into time and space, reaching a liberated state of total freedom beyond enlightenment or delusion.

From For All Living Beings, written by Venerable Master Hsing Yun.

Image from Pixabay.

More Featured Articles

Walking, Standing, Sitting, and Resting
"Walk like the wind, stand like a pine, sit like a bell, and rest like a bow."This basic etiquette not only applies to Buddhists; everyone should practice it as well in daily living.When we first meet a person, we can tell the level of his/her education and cultivation by his/her manners. We know how refined a person is by the way he/she speaks and conducts Read more
Music and Buddhism
Music gives us the capacity to express deep emotions. Whether through holy hymns or chants of praise, music is capable of uplifting the mind to an almost sublime state. As such, it has a significant role in the promotion of religion.All Buddhas and bodhisattvas are very skilled in utilizing music to teach the Dharma and guide sentient beings to enlightenment.Music has a very important function Read more
Speaking with Kind Words
If we want to understand what the Dharma teaches us about building affinity and living in harmony with others, we must first understand the four great all-embracing virtues. The Buddha teaches that for us to realize our true capacity of connecting with and serving our fellow citizens, we have to first build a good rapport, and the four virtues are tools to that end. The four Read more
Make Buddha Images in This Very Mind
Why should people create Buddha images? Did the Buddha really want everyone to make images of him and worship his body?In truth, the purpose of creating the Buddha images is not to create symbols for worship. Buddha images are reminders that “the mind is the Buddha,” and that everyone has Buddha nature. Buddha images also remind us to frequently recollect the virtues of the Buddha Read more
The Strength of Commitment
To "commit" is to give assurance to others and to make a conscientious effort to deliver a promise. To instill credibility and trustworthiness, we must honor our words. Confucius once said, "One without credibility is like a large vehicle without a brake pedal, or a small carriage without axles. How can one go anywhere?"Living up to one's word is a basic courtesy. In past agricultural Read more
Healthy Emotions, Healthy Love
Our emotions are a very important part of our everyday life, and they star in a leading role on the stage of relationships. The ability to feel and our freedom to act upon these feelings give us both joy and sorrow, and it is imperative that we maintain our emotional well-being to minimize the potential for suffering within relationships. Emotions are the glue that bind Read more
I Am Not a Monk “Sponging Off” Buddhism (I)
At the many places I engaged in practice and study—at places such as Qixia in Nanjing, Jinshan and Jiaoshan in Zhenjiang, and Tianning in Changzhou, where I was brought up experiencing spring breezes, summer rains, autumn frosts, and winter snows—I studied silently and grew up quietly. I was always thinking as to how I could repay Buddhism’s kindness. I could not make a living by depending on Buddhism over Read more
To Forbear a Moment’s Anger
"To bear disgrace and insult" is the most important virtue a person can possibly cultivate, because the ability to forbear is enormously powerful, since a moment of anger can destroy an entire lifetime of merits. By restraining our emotions, we have a better chance of avoiding confrontation and gaining control of the situation at hand. Otherwise, our minds will be clouded and our judgment impaired. Read more
Live Well Through Observing the Precepts
Observing the precepts is the concrete manifestation of compassion and the bodhisattva path. Read more
The Cure for Anger
Anger is distinguished from greed in that anger is a form of revulsion created by something we do not like while greed is a form of attraction brought on by something we do like. In this limited sense, and in this sense only, greed can be said to be “better than” anger. Greed at least has some positive components while anger generally has none at Read more
Transformed by the Precepts
The Buddhist precepts are here to protect us from wrongdoing, lead us away from what is bad, and towards what is good. Vinaya Master Daoxuan of the Tang dynasty composed the Simplified and Amended Handbook of the Four-Part Vinaya [Sifenlü Shanfan Buque Xingshi Chao], in which he analyzed the precepts in terms of their “rules,” “essence,” “practice,” and “characteristics.” When one puts the actual rules Read more
Greed: The Cause of Suffering
Though the worlds that we see are fundamentally a product of our own minds, they usually do not appear this way to us. Like images in an intense dream, our perceptions appear to be wholly real to us, and not to have been generated by our own mental activity. For this reason, the Buddha taught many ways to help us comprehend the true nature of Read more