Conflicting views in meditation

Extract from www.dhammawheel.com

P. raised this issue:

I've read/heard so many different opposing views on meditation practice that I got confused!

For example:

* mental noting <-> silently observing

* jhana is necessary for awakening <-> dry vipassana

* The Buddha declared the four rupa-jhanas as samma samadhi and he didn't teach a sevenfold path <-> momentary and/or access concentration are sufficient

* not everyone can attain jhana / jhana is impossible nowadays <-> everyone can attain jhana, some even in a very short time

* Sayadaw U Pandita's distinction between vipassana jhanas and samatha jhanas <-> every other description of the jhanas

* the description of the jhanas in the suttas is different from the jhanas in the commentaries <-> the commentarial description of the jhanas is the same as in the suttas

* you have to practice samatha before doing vipassana <-> dry vipassana <-> samatha and vipassana aren't two separated systems

* don't practice samatha it just leads to a blissful feeling and to rebirth as a deva <-> samatha and vipassana aren't two separated systems

* if you want to practice vipassana you should watch the movement of the abdomen or chest as your primary object because the breath is a concept and therefore a samatha object <-> you can also observe the elements commonly labeled as 'breath' while they are touching your nostrils

* body sweeping is just a warm-up exercise <-> Goenka's approach

* The phrase "... putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world" in the opening of the Satipatthana sutta indicates that one has to attain a jhana and emerge from it first before doing satipatthana vipassana <-> the Satipatthana sutta is the defintion of dry vipassana

* The Satipatthana sutta is the crown of the Buddha's teachings <-> the Buddha never taught the Satipatthana sutta. It's rather a compilation of meditation instructions made by meditation teachers after the Buddha's parinibbana

* etc.

It's quite funny to see that many meditators think that their own technique is the best and everyone else got it wrong!

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B. commented:

- I am not surprised that you are confused. I recommend that you find yourself a teacher that you have some confidence in and try one particular method to the exclusion of all others for a year (at least). I also recommend attending residential meditation retreats that will help you develop some depth of experience and to establish yourself with the practice.

This I think will be more beneficial than a smorgasbord approach.

J. commented:

- I think that you'll find a lot of these apparent disagreements are matters of symantics and language usage. If you look behind the words being said, and if you look to the actualy practice and results, you may see a lot of the seeming differences fall away. Not all of them, but many. It's like a person who says, "Wow, what a beautiful sunset," and another one says, "No, that's actually light reflected off particles in the atmosphere, not the sun." And then they discuss what a sunset actually is, and how to experience it correctly, and meanwhile the sun has long set and it's nighttime again. (So they can talk about the stars!)

Get a teacher, stick with a practice that works for you. Either you're doing it, or you're not. And in either one of those two cases, you have the opportunity to understand in equipoise in body and mind.

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