Modernization of mediation has relied largely in part on its characterization as not strictly part of

any one religion or culture

Meditation was not expected of laypeople in Buddhism, restricted to specific classes of monks
and nuns
Eventually, in debate over whether mediation or knowledge of doctrine was more important,
knowledge was decided to be more so
What kind of meditation did the Buddha practice the night before he achieved enlightenment?
What exactly is the Sanskrit word for mediation? There actually is no one term in Buddhism
One of the many terms is bhavana, connoting becoming, cultivating, imagining, producing,
reflecting, etc.
Meditation includes mental absorption, sutra memorization, doctrine studying, verse chanting
Another term is dhyana, meaning absorption or concentration
Another is samadhi, meaning joining together
Some offshoots of meditation include trying to have visions of hearing the teaching of buddhas
firsthand, summoning deities with mantras in order to ask for blessings, repenting
Traditional division: what was practiced in monasteries, what was recounted in Buddhist texts:
division between attaining serenity and achieving insight
Initial premise is that mind is polluted and thus prone to suffering, but can be cleansed by
meditation, second is that ordinary minds cannot be purified because they are always distracted
and focus-less
Serenity meditation aims to focus this distracted mind on one object, perhaps the breath, Buddhaqualities, foulness of the body
Nine levels of concentration: equivalent to nine places of rebirth in three categories: desire, form,
and formlessness
Individual needs a level of concentration called access concentration in order to escape Realm
of Desire and gain the potential for enlightenment
Realm of Form/Formless Realm are the heavens where individuals are reborn as gods, and
Infinite space where individuals are reborn as mere minds living for millennia, though the former
show up more often in discussions of the path to liberation because Formlessness is still in the
cycle of birth/death
Concentration cannot permanently remove contaminants, merely suppress them, wisdom is
needed to remove them, giving way to other form of meditation that cultivates insight
Insight is into nature of reality, must know that everything is impermanent, suffering, and selfless
Strangely, it is an understanding of absence that signifies highest wisdom
Concentration and insight: you cannot be enlightened with only one of the two
Five stages of purification: accumulation in which individual develops morality, merit, skill,
preparation in which he gains conceptual insight into no-self, vision in which he starts to
destroy/abandon the contaminants through a 16-stage process involving abandonment and
knowledge of abandonment, meditation in which there are 81 defilements to be destroyed in a
162-stage process
Mahayana Buddhism added the notion of Samadhi, meditative states that the bodhisattva enters
Some schools called for wrestling with ridiculous statements called koans, also practicing
visualizing impossible images

Not accurate to say Buddhist meditation involves mindfulness, coming from smirti, actually
meaning memory usually, included under training of meditation in the three trainings crucial to
enlightenment: ethics, meditation, wisdom
Mindfullness prevents distraction; Buddha calls for mindfulness of the body, of feelings, of the
mind, and of dharmas