It is said that there are “84,000 dharmas,” or that the Buddha taught 84,000 different methods for achieving liberation from suffering. Just like there are many different Buddhist traditions and ways of interpreting the teachings, there are also many different varieties of Buddhist practices used to aid in the cultivation of wisdom, clarity, and compassion, and to support the practitioner on the path to awakening. Some practices focus on the body and the breath; others on focus and concentration; and others yet on cultivating the qualities of the heart. 

Beyond mindfulness meditation, dive into more Buddhist practices here.

Discover Level 2, Deck 10: 

Meditating with the breath: Breath meditation, or “mindfulness of breathing,” is one of the oldest forms of Buddhist meditation. 

Meditation for working with emotions: Difficult emotions are often what brings us to practice, and Buddhism offers specific techniques for befriending our feelings. 

Walking meditation: Popular in the Zen tradition, walking meditation takes mindfulness off the cushion and into motion. 

Metta, or meditating on goodwill: Metta, or lovingkindness, meditation is a popular practice championed by the Buddha as an antidote to fear and hostility. 

Visualization meditation: In certain Buddhist schools, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, the mind’s natural creativity is channeled to support practitioners on the path to awakening. 

Meditating with your voice: chanting: Like most spiritual traditions, Buddhism uses the voice as a tool for meditation. In many Buddhist traditions, chanting is utilized in some way or another. 

Tonglen: Sending out happiness and taking in suffering: A form of practice from the mind training (lojong) teachings, tonglen is used to overcome self-cherishing. 

Bowing as practice: In Buddhist traditions, it’s common to bow to depictions of the Buddha, images of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings), and to teachers of the past and present. 

Meditating on death: The practice of contemplating our own death can help us to live more fully in this moment. 

What is a mantra? Used across different traditions, a mantra is a sacred word, syllable, or phrase used as an invocation or as object of contemplation. 

What is a koan? In Zen, a koan is a riddle or paradoxical phrase given by a teacher and designed to help students break free from habitual thinking or reasoning. 

What is merit? Outside the Western world, the primary practice of Buddhists around the globe is not meditation but the cultivation of merit. 

Why do Buddhists go on pilgrimage? Buddhists have long visited sacred sites to generate merit, experience powerful spiritual energies, and deepen their practice. 

Why do Buddhists walk in circles around (circumambulate) sacred objects? Buddhists circumambulate stupas, shrines, temples, mountains, and other devotional objects as a way to purify negative karma and pay tribute. 

Recommended Reading: 

• One-Breath Meditation, by Ken McLeod 
• Meditating with Emotions, by Pema Chödrön 
• Mantra: Tool for Thinking, by Tricycle 
• Tonglen on the Spot, by Pema Chödrön
• A Pilgrimage Among Friends, by Gail Gutradt

The post What Are the Different Kinds of Buddhist Practice?  appeared first on Buddhism for Beginners.

At its most basic, mindfulness of breathing is simply “keeping the breath in mind,” or being continuously aware of the sensations of the in- and out-breath. With practice, the mind can develop the ability to stay absorbed in the breath in a way that leads to blissful states of clarity and focus. Following the Buddha’s instructions, practitioners can then use meditation on the breath to cultivate liberating insight into the nature of mind and reality.

Some traditions begin with focusing on the breath and then expanding that focus to an awareness of the energy throughout the whole body, and others focus just on the breath in one spot—for example, at the nostrils or the abdomen. Some traditions relax on the in-breath and focus only on the out-breath. These differences show how varied working with the breath can be: it is a profound and creative practice.

Here is a link to a simple breath meditation you can try right now. (Click on the 12-minute “breath” meditation.)

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Many people become interested in meditation because of unwelcome feelings of stress, sadness, grief, jealousy, anger, resentment, and so on. Indeed, we are repeatedly caught up in avoiding unpleasant emotions and clinging to pleasant ones. The Buddha taught that our fixation on emotional states is a source of suffering. Understanding how emotions function, what they produce, and how to work with them can lead to well-being and freedom.

In meditation, a watchful distance is created between any emotions that arise and our tendency to grasp, reject, or ignore them. Focusing on the breath, for example, lays the groundwork of mental stability that supports this watchfulness. Or we may observe the physical sensations that accompany emotions instead of allowing our minds to be caught up in the stories the emotions elicit.

In some forms of meditation, awareness of emotions may be actively used to gain direct insight into their nature and the nature of the mind that produces them, or to foster compassion and an experience of interconnectedness. In metta, or lovingkindness, meditation, awareness and goodwill are used to generate heartfelt aspirations for peace and well-being, both for ourselves and for the countless beings that share our world.

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Variations of walking meditation are taught in many schools of Buddhism: walking is a core practice in Theravada, modern mindfulness, and Zen, for example. We can walk alone or in file with a group, in a circle or straight, and with varying speed. A common form of walking meditation zooms in on the legs and feet—sensations of contact, lifting, muscular activity, pressure, and so on—as we mindfully move forward. We might take stock of the body when standing still, then walk slowly and attentively in a straight line for some steps, stop, turn, stop, and walk back.

It may feel awkward at first, but once walking meditation has become a natural practice, it can be applied in a less formal way to the comings and goings of everyday life (although you may want to pick up the pace!). When we’re present and mindful in motion, we can use the synergy of body, mind, and environment to foster a grateful awareness of interconnectedness with other beings and the earth. And the Buddha himself listed additional benefits: increased endurance when traveling or exerting oneself, better disease resistance, improved digestion, and long-lasting concentration.

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In a well-known and beloved excerpt from his Metta Sutta (“Discourse on Lovingkindness”) the Buddha presents lovingkindness as a dynamic aspiration that counteracts any tendency to single out those we choose to care about:

Whatsoever living beings exist,
Without exception, whether weak or strong,
Whether tall & large, middle-sized, or short,
Whether very subtle or very gross,

Whether visible or invisible,
Dwelling far away or not far away,
Whether born already or not yet born
—May all beings be happy in themselves.

(Verses 4 and 5, trans. Andrew Olendzki)

In formal lovingkindness practice, meditators focus on the genuine happiness of all beings: ourselves, the beings we care about, and those we feel neutral about or don’t generally notice, as well as those who arouse reactions of fear, disgust, ill will, and aggression in us. Ultimately, all beings are included. If the heart and mind are filled with benevolence, there is no space left for negative emotions to arise and thrive.

Metta meditation may be practiced in silence, as a visualization, or by repeating verses such as “May all beings be happy and safe. / May they be well and at ease. / May they be filled with lovingkindness,” either silently in the mind or out loud.

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Visualizations can be straightforward and calming or elaborate and stimulating, according to the Buddhist tradition and intention. For example, practitioners may seek inspiration by imagining the benevolent, radiant presence of the Buddha; they may develop compassion by imagining beings in distress and sending them well-wishes and relief; or they might look to quell their sensual appetite by imagining an object of desire as flesh, bones, and organs stripped of the skin. Depending on the intention, visualization practices run the gamut from glorious to gory!

In certain Buddhist schools, the mind’s natural creativity is channeled so as to help practitioners break free of the confines of ordinary perception. In Tibetan Buddhism, visualization practices follow precise guidelines and are generally associated with specific practice-related commitments. Tibetan Buddhism’s elaborate symbolism and iconography—images of meditation deities and otherworldly scenes—are designed as an interface with a deeper dimension of reality, presented in a form that meditators can relate to and practice with. The dynamic visualization phase of such practices is always followed by a phase of simply sitting in open awareness.

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Sometimes described as “sound meditation,” chants may articulate sutras, mantras, invocations, requests for protection, or reminders of ethical commitments and vows. In Tibetan Buddhism, complex visualization practices are chanted, accompanied by ritual instruments; in Pure Land Buddhism and Nichiren, chanting is a devotional core practice that gives those with sincere aspirations access to transformative blessings; and in some forms of Zen, collective chanting offers a direct experience of reality by short-circuiting individualism and conceptual thinking.

Chanting can put the intellectual mind on hold and give access to the wisdom of traditional teachings on a different level. Those who enjoy this form of practice appreciate the meditative energy, sense of community, and connection with generations of practitioners who have given voice to their aspirations, confidence, and insights by chanting the exact same phrases. And you don’t necessarily have to understand the words or know how to carry a tune: you can just go with the flow. The Japanese Zen teacher Taizan Maezumi Roshi wrote: “Chant with your ears, not with your mouth.”

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The simplest version of tonglen consists of first taking a moment to rest in the natural spaciousness of the mind, or to ground and settle yourself. You then picture the suffering in the world—you can also home in on a certain person in need or a certain circumstance—and breathe it into yourself in the form of thick, heavy black smoke that dissolves in your heart. Opening your heart to feelings of compassion, you then breathe out the suffering in the form of “white energy,” bringing goodness to those afflicted.

You can practice tonglen formally in this way; however, many find tonglen challenging, so it’s best to practice under the guidance of a teacher. You can also, as the American Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön suggests, practice “on the spot” when you are confronted with challenges in everyday life or are dealing with strong negative emotions.

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In Buddhist traditions today, it is common to bow to depictions of the Buddha as well as to images of bodhisattvas (enlightened beings); great teachers of the past; and one’s own teacher. In some traditions, one also bows to one’s meditation seat and to the other practitioners with whom one meditates. Some take this even further, bowing to the four cardinal directions in recognition of the presence of enlightened ones everywhere and in recognition that all of reality is a teacher.

Some traditions teach that bowing to the Buddha symbolizes bowing to the capacity for enlightenment, which exists in all beings. It is also a gesture of respect for the ardent effort exerted by all those on the path.

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The inexorable matter of impermanence and death within every life is very present in the Buddha’s teachings. Is this a cause for despondency? Not necessarily, the Buddha says. We can ignore or reject this truth and remain trapped in delusion, fear, and suffering. Or we can remember it, know it, and practice with it all the way to liberation.

For instance, in one of the Buddha’s discourses, monks are urged to consider before they retire at night that they may not live until morning. Possible causes of death are cited (including indigestion and scorpions). If death were near, what would their state of mind be? What lingering mental or emotional concerns should they have addressed while there was still time? Could they face death with confidence, knowing they had given their all to awakening?

Some Buddhist texts describe the process of dying—and beyond—in great detail so that we will be able to recognize what’s happening in real time. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is one famous (and actually rather impenetrable) example. Many Buddhists believe that with the proper training, the end of this life can be the gateway to liberation: the state of spiritual realization that is beyond birth, aging, sickness, and death.

The practice of contemplating death calls out the importance of using every moment wisely, while we still can. A Zen Buddhist evening chant expresses this perfectly:

Life and death are of supreme importance.
Time passes swiftly and opportunity is lost.
Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken.
Take heed. Do not squander your life.
—Dogen Zenji

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