Types of of Buddhist
Buddhist Meditation
Meditation
Types
Meditation on the Faults of Samsara
Samatha Meditation or Calm Abid-
ing Meditation – This practice usually in-
– This meditation looks at the multitude of
sufferings that sentient beings can experi-
ence in the world. Most importantly, it focuses
the various sufferings that human beings can
experience. Although this meditation helps to
develop compassion for others, its primarily
aim is to highlight that external worldly aims
(like having money, fame and nice posses-
sions) do not bring ever-lasting happiness.
It reminds us that happiness is to be found
within, not from external phenomena. This
meditation is particularly helpful to strengthen
our renunciation and to help us stay com-
mitted to our meditation practice, lest we get
lost in pursing the ephemeral, unsatisfactory
pleasures of the world.
volves watching our breath as our object of
meditation. This meditation is specifically de-
signed to calm and focus our mind so we can
develop our powers of concentration. We can
also add a technique of counting our breaths
to help increase our concentration and re-
Vipassana Meditation - “Vipassana” is
duce the general distractibility of our mind.
a Pali word thaTypes of meditation - Vipas-
sanat means “insight” or “clear seeing”. It is
a traditional Buddhist practice, dating back
to 6th century BC. Vipassana-meditation, as
taught in the last few decades, comes from
the Theravada Buddhist tradition, and was
popu l arized by S. N. Goenka and the Vipas-
sana movement.
Walking Meditation – Not all of us are
great at sitting for long periods of time. For-
tunately, we can break up our sessions with
walking meditation. At full day retreats, it is
common to interchange sitting and walking
meditations so that one hour of sitting medi-
tation is followed by 30 minutes of walking
meditation. Generally, walking meditation is
designed to complement our sitting medita-
tions so that we maintain our concentration
between our seated sessions. This medita-
tion pays close attention to the movement
of our feet as we walk slowly, back and
forth, in a small, defined area.
Due to the popularity of Vipassanā-
meditation, the “mindfulness of breathing”
has gained further popularity in the West as
“mindfulness”.