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Stages of Meditation cover art

Stages of Meditation

By: His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Narrated by: Ken McLeod
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Summary

Stages of Meditation is a commentary by the Dalai Lama on a rare text by ninth-century Indian Buddhist scholar Kamalashila. It is a favorite of the Dalai Lama's and he often teaches from this text because "on the basis of this knowledge you will be able to understand other treatises without great difficulty. This text can be like a key that opens the door to all other major Buddhist scriptures."

Throughout the program, the Dalai Lama emphasizes the importance of the logical analysis of scriptures, even those in the Buddha's own words. Some teachings, he stresses, "should not be taken literally, but need interpretation." And interpretation is what the Dalai Lama presents in this clear and enjoyable commentary. Included are such familiar Buddhist themes as training the mind, compassion, the nature of suffering, and the practice of calm abiding. Those who practice meditation, whether Buddhist or not, will find this a thoughtful and practical guide, written with the Dalai Lama's characteristic warmth and gentleness.

©2001 His Holiness the Dalai Lama (P)2002 Audio Renaissance, a Division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

"Those who practice meditation, whether Buddhist or not, will find this a thoughtful and practical guide." ( Amazon.com)

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What I learned

This was a concise summary of important teachings.

The first thing I noticed, was that it suffices to have one core practice (and if I got the gist right, you should stick to just one core, the rest are means), and that the best core of your practice is COMPASSION. Let that be your sole focus, and all the rest will spring from it.

The second thing I noticed through-out, was the insistence on a balance between "open abiding" or one-pointedness meditation AND "skilful means" / wisdom / "special insight" on the other. The Dalai Lama gave an example of a very skilled meditation master who nevertheless had problems with anger because his practice was one-sided: he had excellent concentration skills, but had not worked through his (emotional) hindrances, and so the truth was obscured to him and he could not see. But the other imbalance would not take you all the way, either. You would see, but your inner eye would be unfocused.

The insights are gained through observation and inference, and (a bit surprising to me) the non-self is found more through this inferential analysis than through meditation itself. A fact to be filed for later analysis again.

The Dalai Lama insisted at the beginning on proper study technique, on taking notes. The best notes, in my experience, are the short summaries. So these are my study notes.

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