Perception—one of the basic constituents of the body and mind—can be
both a source of suffering and pain, as well as a source of happiness
and health. The Buddhist tradition teaches that perception can be
trained and ultimately purified through the practice of meditation. When
we understand how perception impacts our lives, we can use it, just as
we do any other object of meditation, to overcome harmful ways of
thinking and acting and to develop healthy states of mind instead. In Meditation on Perception
Bhante G brings us, for the first time in English, an illuminating
introduction to the unique Buddhist practice of meditation on perception
as taught in the popular Girimananda Sutta.
The ten healing practices that comprise meditation on perception make
up a comprehensive system of meditation, combining aspects of both
tranquility and insight meditation. Tranquility meditation is used to
calm and center the mind, and insight meditation is used to understand
more clearly how we ordinarily perceive ourselves and the world around
us. Alternating between these two practices, meditators cultivate
purified perception as explained by the Buddha. As a result of these
efforts, we progress on the path that leads to freedom, once and for
all, from illness, confusion, and other forms of physical and mental
suffering.
Meditation on Perception gives us the keys to move beyond
ordinary, superficial perception into an enlightened perspective, freed
from confusion and unhappiness.
