Concepts that describe meditation aspects are naturally abstract and scholars often struggle with understanding the exact meaning of related Pali, Sanskrit or Chinese terms. Similes on the other hand can be very illustrative, not only for a conceptual understanding but also for a vivid memory that might come up during the process of meditation. Below is a collection of useful meditation similes.
Table of Contents
1. Suttas/ Sutras 1. Commentaries / Visuddhimagga 1. Mahayana 1. Zen and Vajjrayana 1. Contemporary buddhist teachers 1. Contemporary other teachers1. Suttas / Sutras
###The Goldsmith, AN 3.102
Just as if a goldsmith ⊠would take hold of some gold with his tongs and place it in the receptacle. Periodically he would blow on it, periodically sprinkle it with water, periodically examine it closely⊠In the same way, a monk intent on heightened mind should attend periodically to three themes: concentration⊠uplifted energy⊠equanimity.
##metta just for a finger-snap, AN 1.56
If a bhikkhu cultivates loving-kindness for as long as a fingersnap, he is called a bhikkhu. He is not destitute of jhana meditation, he carries out the Masterâs teaching, he responds to advice, and he does not eat the countryâs alms food in vain. So what should be said of those who make much of it?
##metta just for the time to pull a cowâs udder, SN 20.4
If someone were to give a gift of one hundred dishes of food ⊠and another person were to develop a mind of good-will⊠â even for the time it takes to pull on a cowâs udder â this second action would be more fruitful than the first.
##sati and the most beautiful girl in the world, SN 47.20
Suppose that on hearing, âThe most beautiful girl of the land!â a great crowd of people would assemble. Now that most beautiful girl of the land would dance exquisitely and sing exquisitely. Then a man would come along, wishing to live, not wishing to die, wishing for happiness, averse to suffering. Someone would say to him: âGood man, you must carry around this bowl of oil filled to the brim between the crowd and the most beautiful girl of the land. A man with a drawn sword will be following right behind you, and wherever you spill even a little of it, right there he will fell your head.â What do you think, bhikkhus, would that man stop attending to that bowl of oil and out of negligence turn his attention outwards?
###The well-tuned lute, AN 6.55
âWhen its strings were too tight, was your lute well tuned and easy to play?â
âNo, Bhante.â
âWhen its strings were too loose, was your lute well tuned and easy to play?â
âNo, Bhante.â
âBut, Soáča, when its strings were neither too tight nor too loose but adjusted to a balanced pitch, was your lute well tuned and easy to play?â âYes, Bhante.â
âSo too, Soáča, if energy is aroused too forcefully this leads to restlessness, and if energy is too lax this leads to laziness. Therefore, Soáča, resolve on a balance of energy, achieve evenness of the spiritual faculties, and take up the object there."
###The skilled bathman, DN 2, MN 39, MN 77, MN 119, AN 5.28
Just as a skilled bath man or a bath manâs apprentice heaps bath powder in a metal basin and, sprinkling it gradually with water, kneads it until the moisture wets his ball of bath powder, soaks it, and pervades it inside and out, yet the ball itself does not ooze; so too, a bhikkhu makes the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion drench, steep, fill, and pervade this body, so that there is no part of his whole body unpervaded by the rapture and pleasure born of seclusion.
Two sheaves of reeds leaning against each other, SN 12.67
Just as two sheaves of reeds might stand leaning against each other, so too, with name-and-form as condition, consciousness comes to be; with consciousness as condition, name-and-form comes to be⊠If one were to remove one of those sheaves of reeds, the other would fall, and if one were to remove the other sheaf, the first would fall.
The taste of liberation, AN 8.19
Just as the great ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too, this Dhamma and discipline has but one taste, the taste of liberation.
A swift pair of messengers, SN 35.245
Suppose, bhikkhu, a king had a frontier city [the body] with strong ramparts, walls, and arches, and with six gates [the sense bases]. The gatekeeper [sati]posted there would be wise, competent, and intelligent; one who keeps out strangers and admits acquaintances. A swift pair of messengers [samatha & vipassana] would come and ask the gatekeeper: âWhere, good man, is the lord of this city [viññÄáča]?â He would reply: âHe is sitting in the central squareâ [the four great elements]. Then the swift pair of messengers would deliver a message of reality [nibbana] to the lord of the city and leave by the route by which they had arrived [the Noble Eightfold Path].
2. Commentaries / Visuddhimagga
##samadhi, Effort and Sati pick flowers, Visuddhimagga, Ch. XVI, 97
Three friends, thinking, âWe will celebrate the festival,â entered a park. Then one [samadhi] saw a champak tree in full blossom, but he could not reach the flowers by raising his hand. The second [effort] bent down for the first to climb on his back. But although standing on the otherâs back, he still could not pick them because of his unsteadiness. Then the third [sati] offered his shoulder as support. So standing on the back of the one and supporting himself on the otherâs shoulder, he picked as many flowers as he wanted and after adorning himself, he went and enjoyed the festival.â
##anapanassati likened to sawing a tree trunk, Visuddhimagga, Ch. VIII, 202
Suppose there were a tree trunk placed on a level piece of ground, and a man cut it with a saw. The manâs mindfulness is established by the sawâs teeth where they touch the tree trunk, without his giving attention to the sawâs teeth as they approach and recedeâŠ
###Formations are short-lived like a seed on a needle, Visuddhimagga, Ch. XX, 104
Formations appear ⊠perpetually renewed⊠And they are not only perpetually renewed, but they are also short-lived like ⊠a line drawn on water, like a mustard seed on an awlâs pointâŠ
3. Mahayana
4. Zen and Vajjrayana
5. Contemporary Buddhist Teachers
###Experience is interrupted like a line of ants, Sayadaw U Pandita, In This Very Life
As we get closer and closer to this lifting process, we will see that it is like a line of ants crawling across the road. From afar the line may appear to be static, but from closer up it begins to shimmer and vibrate. And from even closer the line breaks up into individual ants, and we see that our notion of a line was just an illusion. We now accurately perceive the line of ants as one ant after another ant, after another ant.
6. Contemporary other teachers
##parable of the Salt Doll, Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Ramakrishna
Once a salt doll went to measure the depth of the ocean. It wanted to tell others how deep the water was. But this it could never do, for no sooner did it get into the water than it melted. Now who was there to report the oceanâs depth?
