The Five Classifications of Meditation

The major classifications of meditative practices as set forth by Zen Master Kueifeng Zhongmi (780-841). Kueifeng fashi trained in Chán under a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch known as Chán Master Heze Shenhui (686-760). Although Master Kueifeng is known for many of his Chán dissertations, he is most famous for his place, as the Fifth Ancestor, of the Chinese Avatamsaka (Hwayen) School of Buddhism. As a school within the Jögye Order of Korean Buddhism, the Hwaom School still exists today.

1. Outer Path (Exoteric) Meditation These types of practice originally pointed to the Daoist practices of developing supernatural powers and abilities as well as the Yogic practices of the time. These practices are religiously motivated but are grounded in some attainment other than the self, i.e.: attaining God or becoming immortal.

2. Goal Directed (Esoteric) Meditation These types of meditation practice have no religious motivations. The are normally practiced for the improvement of mental states or for bodily health.

3. Insight (Vipassana) Meditation This type of practice leads to a state of deep ‘no-mind’ where all sense perceptions are cut off and consciousness is discontinued. If one remains in this state of ‘no-mind’ until death there is no rebirth and a separation from samsara is attained. However, because this practice is motivated by the attainment of ones own inner peace it is not considered part of the great Bodhisattva way.

4. Great Vehicle (Mahayana) Meditation This type of practice leads to self realization and the actualization of the Great Way within the context of our daily lives. Since this realization is that there is no self or other, one then adopts the Bodhisattva’s vow to save all beings through the natural unfolding of events.

5. Supreme Vehicle Meditation This type of practice results in the path and the way fusing into one. Not so much about ‘attainment’ but realization that it is already apparent that Buddha nature is immanent already in all beings.