The Lotus Sutra and Meditatin Practice
The Lotus Sutra is one of the most important and sacred of Buddhist sutras. It is often considered a summary of The Buddha’s teaching, presented many years after he began to teach and share his experiences. The version considered here is the Kumarajiva translation, as translated by B. Watson; it may also be known as The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. I will not present the many core teaching noted in this sutra; instead I will focus on the end, about How to Practice Meditation. Since this is such an important sutra, you are strongly encouraged to look into the vast content in it on your own. One important thing I will note is that in this sutra The Buddha notes a unified, single path to enlightenment. In the past he noted that monastic practices, forest practices, and bodhisattva practices all held potential for all people to achieve enlightenment or awakening. Experts suspect that The Buddha taught this sutra in the 6th to 5th century BCE. Here, however, he emphasizes the bodhisattva path as the most important single path. Let us move now into the meditation instructions.
- Stand in prayer pose and circle the teacher three times. Another option would be to circle each person in your group; this fits well within the Buddha’s view that we all are buddhas.
- Bow, and kneel on one knee to signify readiness to pursue instructions on meditation practice.
- Close your eyes and sit (cross-legged) quietly.
- Remain in a dignified posture.
- Re-commit to your vow to reduce the suffering of others.
- Practice this meditation deeply. “Practice with…[your] entire mind…”(p. 370).
- As you sit contemplate how meditation is helpful in reducing earthly desires, especially six-senses contact conditioning.
- Imagine that your body holds 50 shades of white light.
- Make a profound assumption that this white light has healing properties.
- Now notice that the white healing light has taken on a golden-white shade.
- Feel this healing light in your body and on your skin. Notice how it sparkles.
- Imagine the golden white healing light coming to you from The Ten Directions (N, S, E, W, NE, SE, NW, SW, and UP and DOWN).
- Allow! Allow! Allow! Stay out of simple thinking. Just be!
- Feel inner joy, compassion for others/yourself, and tranquility.
- Simply allow yourself to be bathed in the healing golden white light.
- Now a big step: practice emitting the healing golden light from your inner body and into the room. This itself is a bodhisattva act.
- Add your own loving kindness.
- Do your best to detach from attachment, even attachment to this wonderful experience.
- Give repentance for any wrongs you are connecting with at this time.
- Improve your Karma by doing this as strongly as you can.
- Take refuge in The Buddha, in The Dharma, and In The Sangha.
- Now sit in utter silence for a longer period of time – just notice without any evaluation. Just be!
- When you hear the sound of the singing bowl, gently and slowly open your eyes, orient yourself, and prepare to enter a full conscious state
- The Buddha. (B. Watson, Trans.). (1993/1994). The Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 369-396. Nichiren Buddhist Library.
Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC
From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha
Author of Mindful Happiness
authentic entities outside/inside the self. It is more likely that personal experience has conditioned the person to understand these variable processes as quite serious and sometimes dangerous. To maintain a clear boundary, this post is not presenting a way to treat people suffering from any form of identity disorder; rather, this post offer some ideas about how one might go about becoming healthier via less targeted clinical interventions. The remaining part of the post will offer comments and suggestions for personal consideration of the reader. Most content deals with realistic natural phenomena in life. I hope I am making myself clear here. I hope you find the content helpful.
suggest it may be equally effective in all psychological pain. In neuroscience theory yoga nidra may reset your central nervous system, improve coping capacity, and open doorways to spiritual development. In the following yoga nidra meditation I have integrated my own yoga nidra practices with the iRest method presented by 
that when we die the essence but not the ego lives on into new experiences. Karma and re-birth are givens in this spiritual view. Our tissue and bones, all our atoms and molecules of body-mind decompose. Eventually we return to the earth as elements, carbon dioxide, and water. The mind is purely a biologically (bio-chemical) function of existence, of being in this world. It cannot be permanent, so neither can we. The mind is a n integration and response to experiences coming into us from our sense-doors. And the ego, well that goes away along with the rest of us. The confusion that sometimes exists about being alive in this contemporary world versus living on an another or other form/s is challenging to many people. The Buddha did not deny that we exist in this samsaric world; he placed greater emphasis, however, on our spiritual, moral, and ethical development. On his death-bed he reportedly noted to his followers that everything is transient, so personal attachment to anything (people, places, things, experiences) is not recommended. This is not nihilism, nor is it some form of adverse nothingness. He called to his followers to know their own true self, and to follow the dharma in all life’s experiences. If all things are impermanent, then so is our pain and suffering. And yes, so is our joy and happiness. When unhelpful thoughts and emotions dominate, take refuge in The Buddha, The Dharma, and The Sangha. So what does this imply in day-to-day challenges of living? Below I have noted a few Zen Buddhist practices that may be helpful to you – Buddhist or not.
“Sacred Seeing.” Lectio Divina follows specific steps as a process: lectio or reading a passage; Meditatio or meditating on the passage or image; Oratio or praying (I add – in your own way); Contemplatio or contemplation on it; and, Actio or action based on your new insights. Modified below.