Now, Kalamas, do not be led by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: “This is our Teacher”. But, O Kalamas, when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong and bad, then give them up… and when you know that certain things are wholesome and good, and that the wise believe them to be so, then accept them and follow them. 

The Buddha (Anguttara Nikaya)

The Buddhist path needs to be reflected upon and understood if one is to practise it, so study of the Buddha’s teachings, and reflection upon them are important at all levels of practice in Triratna.

For the Dharma, or the Buddha’s teachings, to take you to Enlightenment, Buddhist tradition says that you must do three things: listen, reflect, and meditate on it.

First it is important to know what Buddhism teaches. The Buddha had a radical and distinctive approach to life which underlies the meditation and other practices Buddhists engage in. These teachings are challenging and inspiring, and reveal a unique vision of human potential, but often they need interpretation and discussion if their relevance to our lives is to become clear. Talks, courses, and study groups, that are held at every Triratna centre, are opportunities to hear the Dharma in this way, and to make sense of it in terms of one’s own life. Many centres also have bookshops with books from across the Buddhist traditions.

Reflecting on the Dharma can be done individually or with others. Study groups give a chance to clarify understanding, share experience, and learn new approaches along with others, so these are an important part of how teaching happens in Triratna.

Some people in the Triratna Buddhist Community have made thorough studies of aspects of the Buddhism. Sangharakshita is a respected scholar whose works have been influential in both the East and the West. A number of

Order Members are academics, studying and teaching Buddhism in Europe and the US. The task for thinkers in our community, academics or otherwise, is not simply to know how Buddhism has been articulated in the East, but also to make links between it and western culture, and to help show how the tradition applies in the modern world. Sangharakshita emphasises the need for a critical and historical awareness of the Buddhist tradition that draws on a range of commentarial material in study, including the findings of modern scholarship, the Buddhist commentarial tradition, and even comparative literature.

Meditating on the Dharma is the third stage. Buddhism aims at an understanding of life which transforms one’s entire being. Study often takes place in the context of retreats and seminars, and there is often an opportunity to reflect on Buddhist teachings in the context of meditation.

Listen to a talk on ‘The Art of Reflection’ by Ratnaguna. You can also now buy his excellent book of the same name.

What is meditation?
There are many things in life that are beyond our control. However, it is possible to take responsibility for and to change one’s state of mind. According to Buddhism this is the most important thing we can do, and Buddhism teaches that it is the only real antidote to the anxiety, hatred, discontentedness, sleepiness, and confusion that beset the human condition.

Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. Buddhist meditation practices are techniques that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a clear seeing of the true nature of things. By engaging with a particular meditation practice one learns the patterns and habits of the mind, and the practice offers a means to cultivate new, more positive ways of being. With discipline and patience these calm and focused states of mind can deepen into profoundly tranquil and energised states of mind. Such experiences can have a transformative effect and can lead to a new understanding of life.

Over the millennia countless meditation practices have been developed in the Buddhist tradition. All of them may be described as ‘mind-trainings’, but they take many different approaches. The foundation of all of them, however, is the cultivation of a calm and positive state of mind.

Learning meditation
Every year thousands of people learn meditation with the Triratna Buddhist Community. We teach two basic meditations that were originally taught by the historical Buddha. These help develop the qualities of calmness and emotional postivity: the Mindfulness of Breathing and Loving-Kindness (Metta Bhavana) meditations. 

The techniques of meditation are very simple. However, reading about them is no substitute for learning from an experienced and reliable teacher. A teacher will be able to offer you guidance in how to apply the technique and how to deal with difficulties. Perhaps most importantly, a teacher can offer the encouragement and inspiration of their own example.

At Triratna Centres meditation is taught by members of the Triratna Buddhist Order, who are experienced meditators. Classes and courses are open to everyone: you need not be interested in Buddhism. Motives for learning meditation vary. Some people want to improve their concentration for work, study, or sports; others are looking for calm and peace of mind. Then there are people trying to answer fundamental questions about life. With regular practice, meditation can help all of us to find what we are looking for. Meditation Courses are excellent contexts for learning. Meditation Retreats offer ideal conditions to take things further.

Preparation
When you sit down to meditate you need to set up your meditation posture in a way that is relaxed but upright, usually sitting on a cushion and probably cross-legged. If this is not easy you can sit kneeling or else in a chair. Then you close your eyes, relax, and tune in to how you are feeling. It is important to be sensitive to your experience because this is what you work with in meditation. It is a good idea to take some time to sit quietly before starting a meditation, to slow down and relax. Some gentle stretching can also help.

Resources
There are lots of resources available to help you learn meditation – or to take your practice deeper.

Read an excellent meditation posture guide by Bodhipaksa, from Wildmind.

For a comprehensive set of free audio and text resources on learning meditation, see free buddhist audio’s meditation pages.

You can find answers to some common questions about Buddhist meditation with Clear Vision video.

The Buddha’s ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ is a further ‘unpacking’ of the ‘Threefold Way’ and is perhaps the most widely known of the Buddha’s teachings. It is ancient, extending back to the Buddha’s first discourse and is highly valued as a treasury of wisdom and practical guidance on how to live our lives. Traditionally the teaching is seen as highlighting eight areas or ‘limbs’ of ‘right’ practice (Sangharakshita prefers ‘perfect’ to ‘right’), which sit in mutual relationship to one other and are each essential elements in an integrated approach to the Dharma:

1. Right Understanding or Perfect Vision
2. Right Resolve or Perfect Emotion
3. Right Speech or Perfect Speech
4. Right Action or Perfect Action

5. Right Livelihood or Perfect Livelihood
6. Right Effort or Perfect Effort
7. Right Mindfulness or Perfect Awareness
8. ​Right Meditation or Perfect Samadhi

Listen to Sangharakshita’s classic series of talks on The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path.

Read the extended companion book.

Another formulation of the path is the Threefold Way of ethics, meditation, and wisdom. This is a progressive path, as ethics and a clear conscience provides an indispensable basis for meditation, and meditation is the ground on which wisdom can develop.

Ethics

To live is to act, and our actions can have either harmful or beneficial consequences for ourselves and others. Buddhist ethics is concerned with the principles and practices that help one to act in ways that help rather than harm.

The core ethical code is known as the Five Precepts. These are not rules or commandments, but ‘principles of training’, which are undertaken freely and put into practice with intelligence and sensitivity. The Buddhist tradition acknowledges that life is complex and throws up many difficulties, and it does not suggest that there is a single course of action that will be right in all circumstances. Indeed, rather than speaking of actions being right or wrong, Buddhism speaks of them being skilful (kusala) or unskilful (akusala). Many Buddhists around the world recite the five

precepts every day, and try to put them into practice in their lives.

Meditation

Meditation is the second stage of the threefold way. It is described in more detail in What Is Meditation?

Wisdom

The aim of all Buddhist practices, including meditation, is prajna, or wisdom. The Buddha taught that the fundamental cause of human difficulties is our existential ignorance – our failure to understand the true nature of reality and wisdom is the opposite of this. To start with, we simply need to hear the teachings that indicate the Buddhist vision of life. Then we need to reflect on them and make sense of them in relation to our own experience. But prajna proper means developing our own direct understanding of the truth.

It is not enough to know the Buddha’s philosophy, or even to have a good understanding of it. The ultimate aim is to 

realise the truth for oneself and to be transformed by that realisation.

The Buddha taught that life - everything we experience - has three characteristics. He called these the three marks of conditioned existence. Firstly he said that all life is dukkha, or unsatisfactory. He also said that it is impermanent. Everything in the universe, including ourselves and the thoughts that make up our minds, is in a constant process of change. And yet we act as if the world around us is predictable and stable, and we live our lives as if death were not a certainty. Buddhists reflect on the fact of impermanence, and try to live with this understanding. Thirdly, wherever we may look in life for something solid and unchanging, we only find flux. So he said that all existence is anatta or insubstantial. There is no fixed, abiding essence to things, and no eternal soul within human beings.

A person who is wise in the Buddhist sense will naturally see life in terms of these qualities or marks, and prajna means setting aside the pleasing illusions that we adopt to make life comfortable, and to live more and more on the basis of these truths. A full comprehension that nothing lasts, or has anyfixed substance, has an utterly transformative effect.

This also means that everything in life is interconnected: no individual is entirely separate from other individuals, and humanity is not separate from the world it inhabits. From this naturally arises compassion, or universal loving-kindness, which is the counterpart of wisdom.

Listen to explorations of prajna (wisdom).

Read Wisdom Beyond Words by Sangharakshita, or listen to the free community audiobook

The Four Aryan (or Noble) Truths are perhaps the most basic formulation of the Buddha’s teaching. They are expressed as follows:

1. All existence is dukkha. The word dukkha has been variously translated as ‘suffering’, ‘anguish’, ‘pain’, or ‘unsatisfactoriness’. The Buddha’s insight was that our lives are a struggle, and we do not find ultimate happiness or satisfaction in anything we experience. This is the problem of existence.

2. The cause of dukkha is craving. The natural human tendency is to blame our difficulties on things outside ourselves. But the Buddha says that their actual root is to be found in the mind itself. In particular our tendency to grasp at things (or alternatively to push them away) places us fundamentally at odds with the way life really is.

3. The cessation of dukkha comes with the cessation of craving. As we are the ultimate cause of our difficulties, we are also the solution. We cannot change the things that happen to us, but we can change our responses.

4. There is a path that leads from dukkha. Although the Buddha throws responsibility back on to the individual he also taught methods through which we can change ourselves, for example the Noble Eightfold Path.

Listen to different expositions of the Four Noble Truths.