Why didn't the Buddha provide a meditation manual?

The Watercooler
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This is a tangent based on the current essay discussion Jhānaṁ and satipaṭṭhānā in the pāli nikāyas and the 2018 thread Are the Satipathana suttas not original? (DN22, MN10).

Let’s assume, per the research, that these statements hold true:

So, (1) we have a path from samatha to jhana that was likely part of the core and (2) the satipatthana “instructions” in the MN10 and DN22 core that were, in all likelihood, quite spare.

Which is why I resonate with this, from the 2018 thread:

So why didn’t the Buddha provide a meditation manual? Or, you know, something like it that was part of the core EBTs.

I come back to this frequently because I discuss with people how to meditate – typically these are people with no background whatsoever in Buddhist meditation.

They have no access to monastics in their daily lives so it ends up being a lay person such as myself to explain it. And I don’t prefer sending people off to read a book right away as means of explaining it to them.

The modern vipassana movement gained so much traction amongst the common folk, I have to think, because it provided explicit instructions – based on the highly evolved MN10 and DN22. By extension, this includes the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) “teaching career path” that so many have followed.

Maybe the question is, why do we naturally seek explicit instructions when, apparently, the Buddha wasn’t that worried about it.

I understand that he came to the fore in a North Indian milieu where the samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā were already practicing some form of the jhanas.

Is that why?

Apologies for dredging up a sore subject for some, but I’m still at a loss on this question.

Without MN10, I’m not certain I ever could have established a daily sitting practice. (I guess that begs the question what’s a sitting practice if I’m a lay person who sits daily for about an hour.)

Not an urgent discussion but I wanted to put it out there.

:pray: :elephant:

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It would seem that, looking at the Canon as a whole, the Buddha was more interested in teaching a daily living practice rather than a daily sitting practice.

(And when rather specific ‘meditation instructions’ were given, e.g. the Anapanasati Sutta, they were given to a rather illustrious assembly - “pure heartwood”)

Here is a good summary of the gradual training:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/

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To answer this in a roundabout way, here’s a the instruction section from the already brief meditation manual Fukanzazengi of Eihei Zenji:

The usual practice is to spread out a thick mat and place a cushion upon it. Then sit in the full or half cross-legged position. In the full cross-legged position, place your right foot on your left thigh and your left foot on your right thigh. In the half cross-legged position, simply press your right thigh with your left foot. Wear your robes and sashes loosely but neatly and orderly.

Next, rest your right hand on your left foot, and place your left palm on your right palm, [both facing upward], with the thumb tips supporting each other. Now, sit upright, leaning neither to left nor right, neither for ward nor backward. You must align your ears over your shoulders and keep your nose in line with your navel. Rest your tongue against the upper palate, lips and teeth closed. You must always keep your eyes open. Breathe through your nose subtly and silently.

Maintaining the proper bodily alignment, exhale deeply once and rock to the left and right. Settle into the solid, steadfast seated samådhi. Fathom the unfathomed state. How do you fathom the unfathomed state? Fathomless! Such is the essential art of zazen.

This is an important part - what is meditation?

If it’s cultivating skillful thoughts, it can be argued that entire canon is such. For example, MN8 is full of self-effacement ideas like ‘Others will be cruel, but here we will not be cruel.’ There’s tons of examples of such skillful thoughts spread throughout the suttas.

But if it’s about providing a peaceful abode to observe the reality for what it truly is - well, there’s little that can be said on the matter. N8P provides the basic necessary ground that allows a person to abide peacefully, then you sit and observe.

I think suttas provide more than enough material to go on with (the basic jhānā descriptions in DN2 etc). And I honestly think the jhānā discussions are too busy and mouthful to begin with. But then again, I’m neither a monastic nor a meditation teacher and don’t care about specifics of jhānās beyond them providing a framework to analyse my own experiences descriptively (rather than prescriptive instructions to follow). I understand how Vipassana instructions are juicy and desirable to many, because it’s step by step abc steps to enlightenment - or so it seems.

I think it makes the whole contemplative tradition & effort a disservice to boil it down to a formula. Part of the sammasati / sammasamadhi is contemplation; and if you already know what you’re supposed to contemplate, how’s that good for anyone to be a robot like that? :slight_smile: I really think meditation works it’s best when you’re asking the right questions, rather than repeating the right thoughts (like “Is there anything permanent?” and investigating, rather than forcing the thought “Everything is impermanent” and trying to make yourself accept it).

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I do not think that there is no manual, but rather see each sutta as a manual.

Reading one sutta in MN in morning and same one or next one in evening might be good practice - one will get acquainted with what is in suttas and reading suttas can be part of practice.

There are many steps mentioned such as:

  • ethical conduct
  • guarding sense doors
  • awareness, alertness
  • noble contentment
  • moderation in eating
  • five hindrances
  • finding meaning in the teaching & training
  • joy connected with skillful
  • talk on self-effacement that helps open the heart
  • overcoming emotional bareness
  • not grasping at views
  • purifying one’s physical, verbal and mental conduct
  • admitting one’s mistake and dealing with it appropriately: “it was foolish of me to act that way: please accept my mistake for what it is and i will commit to restrain in the future”
  • faith
  • being energetic
  • honesty
  • understanding gratification, drawback, and escape from sensual pleasures
  • … and many more

In short there are three practice categories: sila, samadhi, wisdom
Lay practitioners who enjoy sensual pleasure typically focus on sila - that is purifying one’s conduct.
Awareness of body and breath is described as very beneficial. I wonder if this was taught to everyone including lay practitioners.
PS: suttas also mention walking meditation where one walks here and there.

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Something I’ve been wanting to throw into the mix for a while was prompted by @josephzizys’ thread.

It may seem tangential to this one, but my question is:
“Why are the suttas on the gradual training given to lay people?”

As far as I know, there are no suttas saying: “Bhikkhu’s, I will teach you an overview of the gradual training…”. In DN2 it’s King Ajātasattu, for example: “And how, great king, is a mendicant accomplished in ethics? …”

The suttas addressed to monastics are much more nuts and bolts of various parts of practice. Details of how to give up the hindrances, breath meditation, and so on. However, there is never a stock formula for everyone. Various hints of how to overcome certain difficulties are tailored to the individuals involved. As @Dogen says:

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Well, wouldn’t you say the assumption is that monastics have moved past the initial stages of the training, that by going forth into homelessness they are somewhat in the higher stages of practice?
In Pali, the lay life is actually referred to as ‘hina’ - inferior, lesser.

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According to the simile of the handful of leaves, the Buddha said he knew a lot of things but he only taught those things that were relevant and useful for living the spiritual life that leads to extinguishment.

So if we want to go by the internal logic of the EBTs, the answer to “why is X in the EBTs but not Y” is that X is part of the handful of leaves and Y is not.

And like, the Buddha is not really teaching meditation, he is teaching a spiritual life that is “utterly full and pure, like a polished shell”. This spiritual life includes meditation of course, but IMO, even the idea of meditation as a separate thing that is unrelated to other factors of our life is not found in the EBTs AFAIK.

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What are you talking about? There are plenty of such suttas.

They start at MN6 which is exactly what you are asking for and says “mendicant” about a hundred time! :slight_smile:

MN19 is another patipada sutta adressed to monastics…

MN38 is a famous patipada sutta addressed to monastics…

Your “as far as I know” is doing an enournous anount of heavy lifting in your mostaken argument im afraid.

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I would argue that he did, I call it the āsavanirodhagāminī paṭipadā and you can read it in full at DN2, repeated at DN3, DN4, DN5, DN6… MN4, MN6, MN19… SN6.3, SN12.70…AN3.58… etc etc.

This is precicely.and nothing but a full insteuction on how to leave home, purify yourself, develop meditation, gain psychic powers, and see through reality, destroying all imperfections in your wisdom.

It is unfortunately not a particulary useful instruction for those with a busy home life (or, probably, in a bustling monastary with texts to memorise) so a sequence of other manuals where prepared, a good exampe of which is MN10, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.

The tension is only illusory though, as reading between the lines the psychic visions juat convinced the practitioner of the exact same facts that the student who couldnt even see a mud goblin could understand, that the phenomena of the sensual world are unstable amd bring no lasting happiness, and weening ourselves from addiction to these phenomena constitutes wisdom and freedom.

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The following information may be relevant to your question on a meditation manual:

As for the teachings of Satipatthana, the earlier texts are found in the SN/SA Satipatthana Samyutta and SN/SA Anapana Samyutta; e.g. SN 47.2 = SA 622 (SuttaCentral), SN 54.1 = SA 803 (SuttaCentral). (Choong Mun-keat, The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism , pp. 215-216, 225-227).

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Perhaps I’m misunderstanding you, but MN6 and most of the other suttas you mention are, to me, rather different from the “big picture” gradual training suttas such as DN2, MN27, and so on that are spoken to lay people. However, you’re right that MN38 does contain the sequence.

I think it’s interesting that the Buddha gives so many (most?) of these these gradual training discourses to lay people. I presume it’s to inspire them, and others.

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I find this a fascinating statement and wonder how you get to this conclusion.

Because:

a) Even the scholars that consider the Canon and EBT late generally agree that Jhana must have been at the center of the historical Buddha’s teachings; and

b) It feels like every second Sutta is repeating some of the standard stock passages on meditation.

Can you elaborate on your sources and/or line of reasoning?

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I think everything required to establish first jhana to fourth is included. All the instructions and all of the bench marks have been stated by the Buddha such that if you follow path A and destination B doesn’t include:

  • rapture
  • Bliss
  • DirectEd thought
  • Evaluation

Then you haven’t reached first jhana. Also if path A doesn’t require that you eradicate the hinderances, then you’re not likely to reach the right destination.

Are you practising in seclusion or around people? Is your body erect or no? The suttas have made it clear that these are requirements. Is the attention drawn to the fore? Well … there’s no real consensus on what that even means - so there’s a point definitely worth talking about.

But A meditation guide would also need to go into what the hinderances really are and why they are so crucial in the jhana formulation . But then, this is a dialogue about morality, so the idea that a more full explanation of “how to meditate” exists seems to assume there’s a method for eradicating the hinderances which hasn’t been fully elucidated.

IMO, the Buddha has called the hindrances “corruptions of the heart”. IMO, look to your heart before you even sit your keester down on the pillow.

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I only mention 3 suttas @mikenz66 and all of them contain the patipada.

Maybe you need to read MN6 again?

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My reading finds the Buddha did provide a meditation manual but most cannot understand the manual. Most are confusing the results of meditation detailed in the suttas with the practice of meditation. The various things listed in the suttas, such as long breathing, short breathing, rapture, vipassana, samatha, read to me to be results of meditation rather than practices of meditation.

The vipassana movement has taken the descriptions of the results of meditation as described in the suttas and attempted to turn the results into practises. If the Burmese practices really worked, all the monks would be practicing them.

My reading finds the Buddha provided explicit instruction, which was to give up craving. SN 56.11 says: This noble truth of the origin of suffering should be given up

This explicit instruction is a type of ‘non-doing’ but over the centuries the Buddhists (including the vipassana movement) have created types of ‘doing’ as meditation.

I read near the end of MN 149 ‘vipassana’ is one of two results (the other being ‘samatha’) of practicing the Noble Eightfold Path. If this is true, this makes the Burmese vipassana movement not consistent with the sutta. The Noble Eightfold Path is the path of giving up craving.

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Vipassana and samatha are the practices, not the results of the eightfold path.

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Thank you for offering the very example of what I was referring to.

When the noble eightfold path is developed, the following are fully developed: the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, and the seven awakening factors. And these two qualities proceed in conjunction: serenity and discernment.

MN 149

MN 149 says the Path is developed (practised) and samatha & vipassana proceed (vattanti; take place) in conjunction.

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Here is a short meditation manual from MN6:

So I have heard.
Evaṁ me sutaṁ

At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.
ekaṁ samayaṁ bhagavā sāvatthiyaṁ viharati jetavane anāthapiṇḍikassa ārāme.

There the Buddha addressed the mendicants,
Tatra kho bhagavā bhikkhū āmantesi:

“Mendicants!”
“bhikkhavo”ti.

“Venerable sir,” they replied.“Bhadante”ti te bhikkhū bhagavato paccassosuṁ.

The Buddha said this:
Bhagavā etadavoca:

“Mendicants, live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and seeking alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you’ve undertaken.
“Sampannasīlā, bhikkhave, viharatha sampannapātimokkhā; pātimokkhasaṁvarasaṁvutā viharatha ācāragocarasampannā aṇumattesu vajjesu bhayadassāvino; samādāya sikkhatha sikkhāpadesu.

A mendicant might wish: ‘May I be liked and approved by my spiritual companions, respected and admired.’ So let them fulfill their precepts, be committed to inner serenity of the heart, not neglect absorption, be endowed with discernment, and frequent empty huts.
Ākaṅkheyya ce, bhikkhave, bhikkhu: ‘sabrahmacārīnaṁ piyo ca assaṁ manāpo ca garu ca bhāvanīyo cā’ti, sīlesvevassa paripūrakārī ajjhattaṁ cetosamathamanuyutto anirākatajjhāno vipassanāya samannāgato brūhetā suññāgārānaṁ.
MN6

anirākatajjhāno.

It’s a short version of the same technique described in really kind of needless detail, at the DN2 āsavanirodhagāminī paṭipadā beginning with "Consider when a Realized One arises in the world…

Here it is in a grammatically incorrect and wilful personal translation:

sīlesvevassa paripūrakārī: They should be one who is entirely faultless in conduct.

ajjhattaṁ cetosamathamanuyutto: They should be one who is devoted to mental calm.

anirākatajjhāno: They should not neglect prayer.

vipassanāya samannāgato: They will be possessed by wisdom.

brūhetā suññāgārānaṁ: Those should, dwelling in empty places, cultivate emptiness.

I think prayer is a good model for jhana, in terms of what the vitakkavicara is going on! lol.
Anyway.

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In fact I think

“Why don’t I shave off my hair and beard, dress in sack cloth and ashes, and go forth from the lay life to homelessness?’”
Yannūnāhaṁ kesamassuṁ ohāretvā kāsāyāni vatthāni acchādetvā agārasmā anagāriyaṁ pabbajeyyan’ti.

Is a perfectly fine free translation of the DN2 text.

In fact I think

“Why don’t I shave off my hair and beard, dress in sack cloth and ashes, and go forth from this psychosensual life to cultivate emptiness.?’”
Yannūnāhaṁ kesamassuṁ ohāretvā kāsāyāni vatthāni acchādetvā agārasmā anagāriyaṁ pabbajeyyan’ti.

Is a perfectly fine description of the buddhas āsavanirodhagāminī paṭipadā in plain english.

We give you a pamphlet presentation of MN10 for further instructions on your way into the compound :slight_smile:

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These seem like explicit meditation instructions to me. Why are they overlooked?:

"…the monk reflects on this very body from the soles of the feet on up, from the crown of the head on down, surrounded by skin and full of various kinds of unclean things: In this body there are head hairs, body hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, tendons, bones…

…Just as if a sack with openings at both ends were full of various kinds of grain — wheat, rice, mung beans, kidney beans, sesame seeds, husked rice — and a man with good eyesight, pouring it out, were to reflect, ‘This is wheat. This is rice. These are mung beans. These are kidney beans. These are sesame seeds. This is husked rice’"

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