Even the most sublime meditation (dhyâna) is considered worldly or lokiya if nirvana is not its object. Only when nirvana has become the object of meditation is meditation considered to be supramundane or lokuttara. Put another way, supramundane meditation must have for its object the increate nature (asamkhatadhamma) which is the deeper meaning of nirvana. This increate nature is empty of desire, hatred, and delusion.
I hasten to mention, also, through meditation, with the realization of nirvana, comes the end of old age and death, disease and suffering, insofar as attained nirvana transcends the psychophysical body which is always impermanent, suffering and subject to death.
In light of the fact that nirvana is supramundane, one has to wonder why in the West it appears that only worldly meditation is taught. As we might expect, such meditation never manages to get beyond the three poisons of desire, hatred, and delusion. It also can’t get beyond what is born, become, made, and created.
Part of the reason lies with what Western Buddhist believe meditation is. For most, it is superficial. Meditation is about sitting on a cushion with legs crossed and the hands placed in a particular position. But this is not meditation anymore than say hatha yoga is the yoga Patanjali taught in his Sutras. Meditation is an inward looking for the self by the self, the self being unable to recognize itself in the corporal body, its thoughts and the world. This task is far more difficult than just sitting in a seated posture as if such a act were something magical and liberating.
The self awaking to itself, sufficient to know that it is essentially free of the carnal body, not to mention being also free of the most subtle thought-forms and feelings, is nirvana. Looking at this another way, I am in this body but not of it. Because of the condition of ignorance, I cannot distinguish between what I really am and what I am not. I mistake what I am not, which is really unessential, for what I am. It is only through meditation that I am able to find my true self this finding being nirvana.
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