This book aims at all those who wish to understand Buddhist meditation and practice it to reap its transformative benefits: physical and mental wellbeing, long lasting peace, becoming a better person, harmonious relationships, new objective perspective on life, development of loving kindness, compassion, equanimity, and spiritual wisdom.
The story of the Buddha’s spiritual journey has been told many times, first by the Buddha himself, and translated into many languages. In this book, Zen Master Thich Thong Triet stayed close to the original Pali suttas but also drew extensively on his personal experience of attaining the four levels of samadhi described by the Buddha to explain to meditation students in clear and modern language how the Buddha practiced and attained the ultimate enlightenment. Meditation students will find invaluable lessons and guidance that remain very relevant today.
The Buddha’s spiritual journey started when he made the momentous decision to leave behind the princely life full of pleasure and luxury to seek the spiritual path. He reached this decision after witnessing the specter of aging, sickness and death from which no human being can escape once born. He was determined to go on a quest to save himself and his fellow humans from this inevitability. This was his first awakening: the spiritual path is the only way to free oneself and others from suffering.
The Buddha’s initial search for teachers led him to two famous teachers who taught him methods to use the mind to control the mind. He quickly mastered these methods but found that they do not help him meet his ultimate goals of awakening his spiritual wisdom and achieving freedom from birth, aging, sickness and death. This was his second awakening: the right method is more important than the teachers.
The next stage of the Buddha’s spiritual practice was a harrowing six years of extreme self-mortification practice in which he used his strong will to subjugate his body and all its desires. He eventually collapsed from exhaustion and was only saved from death by a passing shepherdess who offered him some milk. However, these six years also purified him from all mental defilements and helped him control and stabilize his mind. He decided to eschew self-mortification and embrace the Middle Way - between extreme austerity and self-indulgence - as he realized that the body is a valued medium for his spiritual practice. This was his third awakening.
Returning to his own method of mindful breathing meditation, the Buddha sat at the foot of the bodhi tree and went through four stages of samadhi (stillness of mind) meditation based on the energy of wordless awareness. Through successively silencing his speech formation, thought formation and bodily formation processes, the Buddha dwelled deep into his immobile tatha-mind and realized the Three Insights. He saw his own past lives, other individuals’ past lives, and the law of Karma that governs their lives. He saw the Four Noble Truths, saw that mental defilements are the cause of the endless cycle of birth and death and saw the path to their termination. This was the Buddha’s spiritual realization.
In the last stage, the Buddha discovered the ultimate truths about the nature of humanity and the phenomenal world. He saw the law of Dependent Origination, the law of Dependently Arisen Phenomena, the law of Change and Transformation, the Twelve Causal Conditions, and the true nature of all phenomena: Suchness, Illusion and Emptiness. He had attained the ultimate enlightenment.
The Buddha’s spiritual journey has inspired generations of spiritual seekers. The insights that he gained have helped human beings answer such deep questions as: the true nature of worldly phenomena, the self, suffering and the path to end suffering, liberation from rebirth, and spiritual wisdom.
