The History of Buddhist Thought c12.55

c12.55

The Buddhist tradition was that Buddha used to give each disciple a subject for meditation in accordance with his disposition and afterwards question him about it. It was certainly the practice later on for monks to receive subjects of meditation (*kammaṭṭhāna*) from their teachers. Physical means were adopted for the preliminary fixing of the attention.⁴ These are the *kasiṇas* (Skt. *kṛtsna*), devices for using physical objects, of which there were ten: earth, water, fire, wind, blue, yellow, red, white, light, and consciousness. The method of using them is described by Buddhaghosa in great detail.⁵ The monk in a secluded place makes a circle of reddish clay on the ground, or he may make it on a piece of cloth kept flat by tying four sticks to it. The circle should be one span four fingers across. He sits on a couch conveniently near and looks at the circle, repeating some suitable phrase, such as “ insatiable are lusts ”, sometimes closing his eyes until the “ sign ” arises. When he can see the sign (i.e. the after-image) with his eyes shut as well as open, the required sign has come about. He then returns and with the sign begins his meditation proper, but if it disappears he must go back and recover it. The other devices are essentially the same. The water-device is done with a bowl of water, and the fire-device is done by making a hole in a rush-mat or piece of cloth and putting it before a blazing fire so that a bright circle appears. By these devices various stages of trance are attained and the possibility of performing special kinds of exercises.