Early Buddhist Meditation

• The author uses a text-based (philological) method to identify the Buddha’s original teachings, distinguishing them from later additions influenced by other religious movements.
• The method identifies practices as later borrowings if they are (1) sometimes accepted and sometimes rejected within the Buddhist canon, and (2) are found in contemporary movements like Jainism.
• Examples of borrowed practices include extreme sensory withdrawal, forceful suppression of thoughts, and asceticism to annihilate past karma, all of which reflect a Jaina focus on stopping all activity.
• The authentic core of the Buddha’s meditation teaching is identified as the Four Dhyānas (meditative states) and the practice of mindfulness (smrti/sati).
• This path involves abandoning the five hindrances, progressing through the four Dhyānas, and using the resulting concentration to gain knowledge that destroys the “taints” (āsravas), leading to liberation from suffering.
• The central claim of the early texts is that a permanent end to psychological suffering is possible, which should be taken seriously as a subject for scientific and psychological inquiry.
• Meditational states are described not as an end in themselves, but as a necessary means to achieve a lasting psychological transformation.
• A psychological theory is proposed based on the texts: pleasure arises from absorption (samādhi). Liberation is the discovery of this true source of pleasure, ending the mistaken pursuit of it through external objects and attachments.
• The author concludes that scholars should engage seriously with the texts’ central claim about ending suffering, rather than dismissing it based on unstated cultural prejudices.