Event time:
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 7:00pm
Location:
Buddhist Shrine - Base of Harkness Tower in Branford College
Event description:
Exploring the Ten Paramitas (Ten Perfections) and Making Them Come Alive in Your Daily Life: Concentration
(Note: This topic has been suggested by members of the Yale Buddhist Sangha)
In the fifth session of our year-long series of Dharma Discussions devoted to investigating each of the Ten Perfections, we turn to dhyana: ”concentration” or “meditative absorption.”
Of all the Perfections, this is the one that most people in the West associate with Buddhism. Concentration or meditative absorption is indeed important in Buddhist traditions, and “Right Concentration” is included in the Noble Eightfold Path, along with Right Effort and Right Mindfulness, as one of the essential components of techniques for developing clarity, insight, equanimity, and freedom.
Buddhist traditions maintain complex and highly technical lists of levels and sub-levels of meditative absorption. At its most basic, though, the perfection of dhyana involves developing focus on an object of meditation, such as the breath or a visualization, and experiencing states of selfless absorption. (In Theravada Buddhism, although concentration is emphasized as vital, it is not listed as one of the ten parami; rather, naiskramya or “renunciation” is cited and refers to leaving the mundane life of suffering. We’ll look at renunciation as well.)
Making concentration relevant to our own lives, how can we deepen this in our meditation practices when we encounter distraction or hindrances? What do we experience when we meditate? Can we usefully adapt meditative concentration to help us develop greater focus in academic work? What does Santideva’s A Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life tell us about the perfection of dhyana? And in regard to renunciation, how might periodic, temporary withdrawal – such as from news, Internet, phones, social media, and other obsessions of contemporary life – foster more peace of mind?
Join us to share in an open conversation around these and other questions related to meditative concentration and renunciation, facilitated by Reverend Kanji, and bring questions of your own. We’ll begin with a brief meditation period (beginner instruction available on request). Everyone is welcome – Buddhists of all traditions and levels of experience, from beginner to advanced, and non-Buddhists, too!
It is not necessary to attend each Dharma Discussion in the series.