Two Ancient #Meditation Systems Reemerged In The Post-Modern Twentieth Century, Marketed In The #Secular Target, Rode The IT Disrupting Trend Into #Online Driving The Growth

Two Ancient #Meditation Systems Reemerged In The Post-Modern Twentieth Century, Marketed In The #Secular Target, Rode The IT Disrupting Trend Into #Online Driving The Growth

Author:  Minimal Modernist  & Virtual-world Indy  

Date: 1st March 2021 

Keywords: #Dhamma, #mindfulness, #Sayadaw, #Theravada, #mind, #trend, #teaching, #practice, #controversial, #calm, #Insight

Length: 1477 words

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Buddhist Teachings In Digital Age

          The two #meditation techniques to discuss in this article are #Vipassana Practice or Insight #Meditation and #Dhammakaya Technique or Concentration-vehicle #Meditation.  Generally speaking, the two #meditation systems share many similarities for example they are theoretically based on #Satipatthana Sutta or the Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Theravada Pali Cannon to explain the principles of practice, and relied on Visuddhimagga or The Path of Purification as their #meditation manual.  Both techniques are believed had lost about 500 years after the Buddha’s passing into Nibbana in India.  And both are equally controversial in their systems of teaching. 

Seven Bases Of The Mind
In Dhammakaya Meditation

       

          #Dhammakaya #Meditation Technique is labeled novel and unique, while some scholars see it is similar to Tantric systems and influenced by Mahayana belief.  This #meditation system, therefore, represents a departure from more traditional Tharavada #Meditation techniques as the founder Venerable Candasaro emphasizes on the specific idea of ‘bodies within the bodies’ which has never been suggested by any #meditation teacher in the country. 

          Moreover, in Theravada scriptures, traditional Theravada #Meditation is divided into two types namely calm or #Samatha and Insight or #Vipassana; meanwhile #Dhammakaya #Meditation is described as both #Samatha and #Vipassana incorporating both types of #meditation in one compact and complete mediation technique.  These cause #Dhammakaya #Meditation received some scholarly attention.  Having said so, #Dhammakaya #Meditation has been founded appealing by its adherents worldwide.

Sitting Vipassana Practice

           

          Meanwhile, Insight #Meditation or the better known as the Mahasi #Vipassana practice is discovered and taught by Venerable Maha Si, whose concept deals with ‘the Seven Stages of Purification & Sixteen Insight Knowledges or ñana’.  This #meditation system is branded as ‘transplanted Burmese-origin’ which integrates ‘walking’ and ‘sitting’ into its meditative process, and incorporates the abdominal rising and falling awareness as a way to help develop concentration.  The method was alleged in the homeland as unorthodox Buddhist practice and seen as an innovation of the Sayadaw; hence subjected to severe criticism as contrary to the Buddha’s teaching.

          In term of the dissemination of the practice, by the beginning of the twentieth century, the British occupied Burma; subsequently, the monarchy was deposed.  The Burmese no longer had a king to promote Buddhist values.  There was a real fear that Buddhism in Burma would die out.  The religion needed to be protected.  Ledi Sayadaw, a prominent Burmese scholar monk at the time, believed the way to survive the crisis was to put Buddhism in the hands of each Buddhist.

          This led him to promote #Vipassana or Insight #Meditation as a daily practice for monastics and laypeople alike.  According to this Tradition, practitioners can have only a basic understanding of Buddhist doctrine and still benefit from #meditation.  Nor is it necessary to master calming or Samatha and Jhana-absorption #meditations before practicing #Vipassana.  Neither is it necessary to master the scriptures before learning to meditate.  All these are seen as going against tradition.   

Walking Vipassana Practice

          Venerable Ledi said #meditation did not need to be practiced in a monastery.  Awareness of breath and bodily sensations could be practiced while doing household chores or going to the movies. In other words, he brought what was once considered the esoteric to the #secular world.  And now this form of #meditation is so prevalent worldwide especially in the West.

          Records said that the #Vipassana taught by the Thai Forest monks and Sri Lankan traditions also came from Myanmar.  Even Mahayana Tradition has incorporated the mindfulness of #Vipassana into their teachings.  It means that anyone who practices any form of mindfulness, be it at a monastery, a #secular #meditation center, or through a #meditation app, should feel an affinity for Myanmar today.  Or it can be said Myanmar is the birthplace of #Vipassana.

             Whereas, #Dhammakaya #Meditation Tradition contains a similar story as that Venerable Candasaro thought the real essence of Buddhism is the stopping of the mind; according to him, from the the starting point at the seventh base of the mind, the whole enlightened knowledge or Vijjas are step-by-step unfold.  It is essential for all Buddhists to realize this and practice for the benefit of themselves and be able to uphold the religion; therefore he devoted himself giving training or #meditation instruction to monks, novices and laypeople.  He saw that the oral tradition of #meditation teaching was falling into desuetude in Thailand at that time.  He was always looking for better ways to increase the degree of understanding of #Dhamma of his followers.  His aim was to make the training he gave continuous.

          Having mentioned above, it was obvious that both #meditation traditions shared the vision of the necessity to pass on the Buddhist teachings and practice through the Four Buddhist Communities, not to limit among the monastics, but returning the sense of inclusivity once again.  It is important to remember that the Buddha taught His knowledge to all Buddhists, as Buddhist scriptures recorded a large number of lay men and lay women of that times attained different levels of noblehood and became Ariya-puggala.

Dhammakaya Meditation
Guideline

          From consumeristic perspective, for averting the extinction, both #meditation traditions decided to shift to launch its product in the #secular market.  It has proven the new target is right as #secular world is fresh and much larger so is the demand.

          With the present IT disrupting trend, meditation teachings go #online to make the practice widely viewed and reviewed; most importantly look hip and cool.  Even viewers are not really into mind searching, they are still tempted to join for fear of missing out.  It helps driving the growth and creates a huge phenomenon.

          Ideologically, Buddhist wisdom ought to be accessible to people of all kinds.  It ought not to depend on their background, religion, age or anything like that.  People ought to feel that meditation practice is about mental training, not fitting into someone else’s idea of who they need to be to enter the practice.

          Through primary search online to obtain the preliminary understanding, people are getting to realize #Dhamma is not an esoteric philosophy that has nothing to do with their lives.  So, they feel confident and inspired to explore deeper.  More and more new practitioners have enrolled into the different meditation courses and retreats to allow themselves gain real experience and feel more connected to the teachings.

          At Dhammakaya Temple, the monastics and lay officers are so heartened when seeing young people who apparently want to dedicate their lives to meditation and to spread the practice in so many diverse ways.  Their very presence in such large numbers on each religious gathering with so much energy is exhilarating, and is itself a catalyst for development.

          Looking into the present in-monastic community, the so-called pioneers, had matured in some very inspiring ways with the depth of experience, of thought, and of sincerity among their peers.  The similar sincerity and lively, vital energy in the Temple’s younger generation participants and volunteers are detected too.  It is so impressing.

          It inspired in senior generation a sense of responsibility and an urge to look carefully at how to pass on the legacy while also learning from the young.  They think a lot to include young people more and empower them.  They also look for ways to put their effort to balance in the work of conserving and innovating.  They know when they include the young to work together they can bring their best thinking to the development, and make breakthroughs more quickly than if they remain working individually because when they get together, it becomes a catalyst for change.  At the same time the senior work with the younger generations, they get out of a particular age trap.

          It is also obvious that the future of Buddhism is more and more being taught in many different circumstances and a lot more none-traditional settings.  One critical thing to take the core of the teachings into a secular context is to use the vernacular language of each generation in order to make #Dhamma really accessible to them.

          Developing good models for financially supporting meditation teachers, meditation centers and Buddhist studies courses are also of prime importance involved in the mission of disseminating Buddhist teachings and meditation practice.

          Buddhist temples have to appreciate that as productivity increases of the tradition, the actual cost of practice, not to mention the cost of running and supporting their organizations, increases in exactly the same way that medical costs keep increasing.  They need to discover ways of working with this issue rather than relying on old models alone, perhaps it is time to think about block-chain to make the administration system more efficient and transparent, and opting for cashless mode of donation and welcoming the alternative currencies such as Bitcoin, ETH, IOST, etc., to reduce current exchange charge.

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