[Buddha-l] Tibetan word for meditation

[Joy Vriens]

>As that person I take responsibility, in lieu of Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche 
>whose definition of meditation I reported but who, unfortunately, has by now 
>reincarnated and is not available to account for utterances from his previous 
>life. 

I am sorry to hear he has reincarnated, but I am sure he will use his new life to achieve wonderful things.

>In contrast to the present dialogue between Buddhists and neuro scientists 
>in which he latter try to show that meditation is a function of the the brain, 
>Rinpoche gave a simple, basic definition. Meditation is a function of mind, 
>namely, paying attention. This definition fits Shine or Shamatha - breath 
>awareness, and also lag thong or vipassana which also involves paying attention. 
>In fact, every form of meditation, including all that have been given to 
>this list, involve paying attention. 
  
>So perhaps Rinpoche's definition is correct, even if it not literal or 
>dictionary based, although it seems to me to be consistent with all those given. 

Yes, "meditation" could simply be anything "needed" to achieve awakening, even simply being present or awake. It could be compared to yoga. Yogacaara is said to mean "practice of yoga". Whatever yoga Yogacaarins practise, we would probably call "meditation". Yoga can both refer to the objective and to the means to achieve it. If you want friendship, be a friend. If you want to achieve patience, be patient. If you want to achieve awakening, be awake. 

Joy
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