Meditation Sickness
The Oxford Handbook of Meditation October 8, 2020 DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808640.013.45 (opens in new tab)
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractIn Buddhist traditions, the path to liberation was thought to require perfect concentration or supernatural insight, or both. Concerns about failing to achieve concentration or having insight go wrong were common; Buddhists called these undesirable conditions meditation sicknesses. This chapter surveys canonical Buddhist discussions of these two meditation sicknesses, starting with hindrances to concentration and then covering concerns about insight, which appear mainly in Mahayana, Chan, and Zen sources.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 7 |
| Key finding | Argues that Buddhist traditions conceptualized failures in concentration and insight as 'meditation sicknesses,' with concerns about insight especially prominent in Mahayana, Chan, and Zen sources. |
Abstract
Abstract Buddhists commonly assumed the path to liberation to require perfect concentration or supernatural insight, or the combination of the two. Concerns were therefore often voiced about the inability to attain concentration and the possibility of insight going awry. Buddhists came to regard these undesirable conditions as sickness and called them meditation sicknesses. This chapter provides an overview of canonical Buddhist discourses about these two meditation sicknesses. It begins with a discussion of the hindrances to the attainment of concentration and then proceeds to discuss concerns about insight, which were voiced mainly in Mahayana and Chan and Zen sources.