page_title: Buddhist meditation
section_title: Contemporary Theravāda
hierarchical_section_title: Buddhist meditation / Theravāda / Contemporary Theravāda
caption_attribution_description: English: The Meditation Hall of the Burmese Buddhist Temple in Singapore.
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.
caption: The practice of meditation by Buddhist laypersons is a key feature of the modern vipassana movement.
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