page_title: Buddhist meditation
section_title: Pre-sectarian Buddhism
hierarchical_section_title: Buddhist meditation / Pre-sectarian Buddhism
caption_attribution_description: English: A Lying Buddha Statue in Gal Viharaya
context_page_description: Buddhist meditation is the practice of meditation in Buddhism. The closest words for meditation in the classical languages of Buddhism are bhāvanā and jhāna/dhyāna.
  Buddhists pursue meditation as part of the path toward liberation, awakening and Nirvana, and includes a variety of meditation techniques, most notably asubha bhavana; reflection on pratityasamutpada; sati and anussati, including anapanasati; dhyana; and the Brahma-viharas. These techniques aim to develop equanimity and sati; samadhi c.q. samatha and vipassanā; and are also said to lead to abhijñā. These meditation techniques are preceded by and combined with practices which aid this development, such as moral restraint and right effort to develop wholesome states of mind.
  While these techniques are used across Buddhist schools, there is also significant diversity. In the Theravada tradition, reflecting developments in early Buddhism, meditation techniques are classified as either samatha and vipassana. Chinese and Japanese Buddhism preserved a wide range of meditation techniques, which go back to early Buddhism, most notably Sarvastivada.
context_section_description: Early Buddhism, as it existed before the development of various schools, is called pre-sectarian Buddhism. Its meditation-techniques are described in the Pali Canon and the Chinese Agamas.
caption: The early Buddhist tradition also taught other meditation postures, such as the standing posture and the lion posture performed lying down on one side.
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