- Is Meditation Dangerous?
Is meditation dangerous? We'll consider one recent journalistic investigation into the Goenka meditation retreat system, as well as some of the work of Brown University psychologist Willoughby Britton. Then we'll turn to the early texts…
- Have We Overlooked Several Hindrances to Buddhist Meditation?
According to one early sutta, there are many more than the traditional five hindrances to meditation. We'll look at that sutta, where the Buddha recounts his own difficulties with achieving deep meditative states and describes his…
- How Many Jhanas Were There in Early Buddhist Meditation?
Ordinarily it's said that there were four states of jhāna in early Buddhist meditation. But not always! Apart from considering some later understandings of the term that include eight, nine, or even more jhānas, we'll look at one early…
- How Deep Should Buddhist Meditation Get? The Question of Jhana
There has been a recent disagreement over how deep meditative concentration practice should go, and over how deep the early Buddhist texts claim it was. We will look at that disagreement and help illuminate it by looking at some…