lhag mthong

lhag mthong

Insight meditation.

The first of the seven buddhas, with Śākyamuni as the seventh.

The second of the two main branches of Buddhist meditation, aiming at developing insight into the nature of reality.

This is paired with "mental quiescence" (see entry). In general "meditation" is too often understood as only the types of practices categorized as "quietistic"—which eschew objects, learning, analysis, discrimination, etc., and lead only to the attainment of temporary peace and one-pointedness. However, in order to reach any high realization, such as the absence of a personal self, the absence of a self in phenomena, or voidness, "transcendental analysis," with its analytical penetration to the nature of ultimate reality, is indispensable. The analysis is called "transcendental" because it does not accept anything it sees as it appears. Instead, through analytic examination, it penetrates to its deeper reality, going ever deeper in infinite penetration until tolerance is reached. All apparently self-sufficient objects are seen through and their truth-status is rejected—first conceptually and finally perceptually, at buddhahood. Thus "meditation," to be efficacious, must include both mental quiescence (śamatha), and transcendental analysis (vipaśyana) in integrated combination.

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