Basic Steps for Meditation

And
Chanting for Mind Development
 

        This booklet is one of my valuable works on Buddhism, written to aid people wishing to understand Buddhist meditation.  Its purpose is to support and promote the Buddhist method of meditation practice.  It is directed towards beginners who are starting their own meditation practice.  Included in the booklet are specially  selected Buddhist chanting themes which are beneficial in obtaining successful meditation results.

        Before practising meditation one has to pay respect to the Triple Gem: the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism; the Dhamma, His teaching; and the Sangha, His Noble Disciples; along with chanting the necessary Buddhist doctrines written in this booklet.

        If time is limited, one can chant only the topics that are necessary for supporting meditation practice.  This will take about 15 minutes each time.  But if there is no time for chanting, one can begin the meditation practice without the chanting.

        Good practice can increase the effectiveness of mind development.  Moreover, when being trained under the guidance of a meditation master, one can continue meditation at home by following the direction from this booklet.

        This Booklet is of two parts:

        The first part consists of the basic steps of meditation practice.  This part describes the method for pupils, students or beginners who are interested in starting meditation practice.  It gives simple exercises to practise mindfulness of breathing (Anapanasati).  In fact, you can practise this kind of meditation by yourself withour the presence of an instructor.  If you meditate in your home using the correct methods, you will get the same sesults as if you had meditated under the continual presence of a meditation master.  But if you want to practise at an advanced level, it is necessary for you to have an expert instructor to give advice in order to increase the desirable effectiveness of the meditation practice.

        The second part is composed of chanting topics for preparing oneself at the beginning of meditation practice.  All topics of chanting in this booklet are selected from traditional chanting books and from the chanting book of His Holy Highness Sumdet Phra Vanarata (Buddhasiri Mahathera), the first Lord Abbot of Wat Somanas Vihara, Bangkok, Thailand.  He was well versed in the Tipitake (The Three Main Canonical Books of Buddhism) and a famous meditation master in Thailand who passed away 100 years ago.  I have selected only the necessary important chanting for those whose time at their disposal is limited.

        However, if anyone wants to continue meditation practice over a long period, or if one has more time for chanting, the Morning and Evening chanting passages may also be chanted as appropriate.

        In this booklet I have added two principal rules:

·       that which meditators should avoid and

·       the seven procedures for practising mindfulness of breathing in order to get increasingly good meditation practice results.

I hope that this booklet on “Basic Steps for Meditation and Chanting for Mind Development” can provide the desirable results for those who are interested in meditation practice.

May the Dhamma (Teaching) of the Enlightened One

(The Buddha) introducing the Middle Way bring peacefulness to all beings in the world and improve the welfare of mankind forever.

                                                Ven. Phra Tepvisuddhikavi

                                                        (Pichitr Thitavanno)

                                                      January 25, 1999/2542

Wat Somanas Vihara, Section 3

Pomprab District, Bangkok  10100.  Thailand.

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