Buddhism and Meditation Study Guide Exam 1

Enlightenment machine

Meditation as a tool for enlightenment

Constructionist

We construct our understanding

Standard Version of Meditation

Modern meditation for calm/focus

Interpreted awareness

Awareness shaped by interpretation

Mysticism

Direct spiritual experience

Caste

Social class

Asceticism

Giving up comforts for spirituality

Being

Existing

Transcendental Meditation

Meditation using a mantra

Fearlessness

Not being controlled by fear

Obstacle

Something that gets in the way

Sin

Religious/moral wrong doing

Love

Care and affection

Relaxation Response

Body’s calm state

Body scan

Paying attention to the body

Social Imaginary

Shared idea

Vedanta - “The end of the Vedas”

The philosophy of the Vedas, the most ancient scriptions of India. Its basic teaching is that your real nature is divine. That divine manifestation is the underlying reality, present in every being.

Dharma - Duty, teaching, law

‘Right way of living’ (Hinduism)

‘Cosmic law and order’ (Buddhism)

‘Path of righteousness’ (Sikhism)

The word comes from the ancient Sanskrit root dhr, which means "to hold" or "to support," meaning dharma is that which upholds the harmony of the universe and sustains life.

Brahman - Truest truth behind our world (ULTIMATE REALITY)

Reflects the idea of expanding nothingness into the vast universe.

The creator god in Hinduism and the divine force of cosmic expansion.

Atman - Self

The true inner self, spirit, or soul of an individual.

Moksha - Liberation

Freedom from the cycle of suffering/rebirth

Prana

Life principle or vital force

Karma

Action and consequences

Discourse (sutra or sutta) - Like a thread that strings beads together, a sutra acts as a guiding line that weaves thoughts, concise maxims, or memory aids into a cohesive teaching.

A scriptural discourse recording the oral teachings of Gautama Buddha or his close disciples. While Hindu sutras are very short, Buddhist suttas are detailed sermons or dialogues, often starting with the phrase "Thus have I heard".

Dukkha

Suffering or difficulties in human existence.

Anatman - No self

Core philosophical teaching that humans possess no permanent, unchanging soul, essence, or independent core. 

Smrti or sati - Mindfulness

Remembered traditions or historical funerary customs.

Jhana = Chan = Zen - Absorption

Meditation or meditative absorption.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). His definition of mindfulness. ("paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally")

Satya Goenka

Founder of Vipassana meditation centers worldwide. Believes the Buddha as a "super-scientist" doing systematic work, and describes Buddhism in scientific/empirical terms rather than religious ones.

David Lynch

Founder and Transcendental Meditation practitioner whose personal experience shows what TM can feel like from the inside and featured in the documentary David Wants to Fly.

William James

American philosopher/psychologist who argued that normal waking consciousness is only one of many forms of consciousness.

Gautama

Teacher who accepts Satyakam because of his honesty rather than his caste or family background.

Satyakama

The student whose mother doesn’t know his father’s identity; his honest answer to his teacher becomes the Upanishads’ example of truth over social status.

Nachiketa

A boy who seeks the truth about death and the Self (Atman) instead of wealth or pleasure.

Death (Yama)

God of Death who teaches Nachiketa about the difference between the good confronting old age, sickness, and death.

The Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama)

Founder of Buddhism who sought enlightenment after confronting old age, and the disciplined mind.

Jim Forest

American peace activist and student of Thich Nhat Hanh, known as the person Hanh addresses in the “washing dished” story.

God (Christian)

The focus of contemplation in The Cloud of Unknowing, who is to be “loved but not thought.”

Rabbi Abulafia

Medieval Kabbalist who used breath-focused meditation resembling yogic techniques.

Zhuangzi (“Chang Tzu”)

Daoist philosopher known for the “sitting and forgetting” meditation practice, where the self and ordinary thinking are let go.

Confucius

A dialogue partner in Zhuangzi who sometimes expresses Daoist ideas through ironic stories.

Charles Taylor

Philosopher who developed the concept of the “social imaginary,” meaning the shared ideas and beliefs that shape a society.

David McMahan

Rethinking Meditation

J. Bronkhorst

Can Religion Be Explained?

Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester

The Upanishads

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Science of Being and Art of Living

David Sieveking

David Wants to Fly

Bhikkhu Analayo

Meditator’s Life of the Buddha Sutra on Breath to Maintain Mindfulness

Thich Nhat Hanh

Miracle of Mindfulness

Marc Francis and Max Pugh

Walk with Me

Hertbert Benson

The Relaxation Response

SHORT RESPONSE: Benson prescribes “four essential elements” of the Relaxation Response. Please identify one of these elements, and discuss how it compares to the meditation instructions provided by Thich Nhat Hanh in both the Miracle of Mindfulness and Walk with Me. How do these similarities and differences reflect the religious, social, and/or cultural contexts of these authors?

One of Benson’s four elements is a mental device, which focus on a repeated word, sound, or phrase. In The Relaxation Response, Benson gives the example of breathing in and out while silently repeating the word “ONE” (Benson, pg. 19). This is similar to Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness, where he teaches people to focus on their breathing and count their breaths from one to ten (pg. 21–22). Hanh also connects this practice to everyday activities, such as washing dishes. Both authors use the breath as an anchor for attention, but they use it for somewhat different purposes.

In "Walk with Me”, the monks and nuns also practice staying in the present moment, including the idea of being in the “here and now” (49:50). Benson’s approach reflects his background as a doctor because he presents meditation as a secular technique that can help reduce stress and improve physical health. Hanh’s approach comes from Buddhist practice, so mindfulness is connected to how people live their everyday lives, not only to relaxation. These differences show how the same basic practice of focusing attention can be adapted to different religious, social, and cultural contexts.

"When you first begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of unknowing... Reconcile yourself to wait in this darkness as long as is necessary, but still go on longing after him whom you love."

The Cloud of Unknowing (anonymous, 14th c.), pp. 61–62.

"Therefore I will leave on one side everything I can think, and choose for my love that thing which I cannot think! Why? Because he may well be loved, but not thought. By love he can be caught and held, but by thinking never."

The Cloud of Unknowing, p. 68. The apophatic method: God is reached by love, not thought.

The method of fixing a short word like "God" or "Love" to your heart "so that it is always there come what may... With this word you will suppress all thought under the cloud of forgetting."

The Cloud of Unknowing, pp. 69–70. Compare directly to Benson's "mental device" and TM's mantra — a strong candidate for a short-answer comparison.

"When not used appropriately, which is most of the time, the fight-or-flight response repeatedly elicited may ultimately lead to the dire diseases of heart attack and stroke."

Herbert Benson, The Relaxation Response, p. 18.

The four essential elements of the Relaxation Response, found "across different times and traditions":

1. Quiet environment

2. A mental device (word or phrase)

3. Passive attitude

4. Comfortable position

Herbert Benson, p. 19. (This is the exact list your professor's example essay question is built around — know it cold.)

A "Judaized version of that ancient spiritual technique which has found its classical expression in the practices of the Indian mystics who follow... Yoga," noting the importance of breathing technique.

Gershom Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1946), p. 88, describing Rabbi Abulafia's (ca. 1240–1291) Kabbalistic practice.

"I have forgotten humanity and righteousness... I forgot everything while sitting down... I cast aside my limbs... discard my intelligence, detach from both body and mind, and become one with the Great Universal. This is called sitting and forgetting everything."

Zhuangzi ("Chuang Tzu"), describing his student Yen Hui's practice of "sitting and forgetting" (Daoist meditation).

Anonymous

The Clouds of Unknowing