Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c17.s5: The Preliminaries
Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c17.s5
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The Preliminaries
v1.c17.s5.1
In the *Visuddhimagga*, a few details are lacking about the preliminaries that a candidate has to go through before he commences his meditational exercises. These are to be found in the *Yogāvacāra's Manual* (edited by Dr. Rhys Davids in P.T.S. Series).
v1.c17.s5.2
The candidate first salutes the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha by uttering the usual formulæ with the belief that this not only makes him meritorious but also removes many of the hindrances to meditation.²
v1.c17.s5.3
² Iccevam accanta namassaneyyaṃ, Namassamāno ratanattayaṃ yaṃ Puññābhisandaṃ vipulaṃ aladdhaṃ Tassānubhāvena hatantarāyo. *Yogāvacāra's Manual*, p. 3.
v1.c17.s5.4
Then he prays for happiness for all beings including his friends and relatives and at the same time wishes that Māra be kept away from him so that he may succeed in his mission.
v1.c17.s5.5
He then utters the formulæ of confession, praying that he may be absolved of all sins that he may have committed knowingly or unknowingly.
v1.c17.s5.6
He now promises to abide by the teachings of the omniscient Gotama and prays for *uggaha-nimitta*, *paṭibhāga-nimitta*, *upacāra-vidhi*, and *appanā-samādhi*.¹ To infuse confidence into his mind he thinks of those of Buddha's disciples, who had before him followed this path and succeeded in attaining their object, and resolves that he will likewise with the help of his teacher, succeed in reaching the goal, Nibbāna.
v1.c17.s5.7
¹ See *Infra*.
v1.c17.s5.8
He now sits cross-legged keeping his body erect and fixes his mind on the subject of meditation (*Kammaṭṭhāna*).²
v1.c17.s5.9
² The *Yogāvacāra's Manual* does not treat the subject systematically as has been wrongly supposed by Dr. Rhys Davids. It contains just an enumeration, like all other Buddhist texts, of the different mental states and objects of meditation, connected with the four jhāna.