"Wise Reflection" is the way to Freedom

Buddhist Publication Society

Wise Reflection: The Importance of Yoniso Manasikara in Meditation (BPS Wheel 463)

What is "wise reflection" (yoniso manasikara) and why encourage readers to use their own thought processes for the growth of wisdom in meditation practice?

The majority of experienced Buddhist meditators Steven Weissman met during 30 years of meditation and 18 years of teaching were unfamiliar with formal reflective meditation. I hope to correct this lack of understanding.

The Buddha stressed the importance of wise reflection. In an important sutra on the topic (MN 2), he says:

“I say that the getting rid of anxieties and troubles ^[1] is possible for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and see. What must one know and see in order to get rid of anxieties and troubles? Wise reflection and unwise reflection. For one who reflects unwisely, there arise anxieties and troubles that have not yet arisen. And those that have already arisen increase. But for one who reflects wisely, anxieties and troubles that have not yet arisen do not arise. And those already arisen disappear.”

What is yoniso manasikara (wise reflection)? One might call it systematic attention, careful attention, reasoned attention, having thorough method in one’s thought, proper consideration, wise consideration, critical reflection, analytical reflection, or thinking in terms of causal relations or by way of problem solving. It is a significant factor leading to the arising of insight or wisdom.

What causes our mental suffering? Simply stated, wrong thinking produces mental suffering (dukkha).^[2] Right thinking ends suffering. So it is important to use formal reflective meditation in order to develop right thinking. More

CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1. Meditation and Concentration

Does concentration automatically lead to wisdom?

Is wise reflection a requisite for enlightenment?

Thinking can be meditating

Wise reflection in the Satipatthana Sutta

How can we end dukkha?

It is all right to think in meditation

Does experience automatically lead to wisdom?

Four types of thoroughbred horses

Moral shame and moral dread

Yoniso manasikara—wise reflection

Part 2. Wise Reflection Meditations

Eating and our relationship to food

Compassion and loving-kindness

D/D (defusing and diffusing)

Waking up in the morning

How fortunate we are

Generosity

Dukkha

Impermanence

Death

Actions and their results

Balancing compassion and equanimity

The five daily recollections

The Four Noble Truths

The eight worldly dhammas

The ten perfections

Conclusion

About the author

Mind Like Sky: Wise Attention Open Awareness

Text by Jack Kornfield (Shambhala Sun)

Buddha at Isdaan Restaurant, Tarlac, North Luzon, Philippines (lucas78/flickr)

Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans, conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to rest in awareness.

In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging the moment-to-moment changing conditions -- the pleasure and pain, the praise and blame, the litany of ideas and expectations that arise. Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself, beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called jai pongsai, our natural lightness of heart.

Developing this capacity to rest in awareness nourishes concentration (samadhi), which stabilizes and clarifies the mind, and wisdom (prajna), which sees things as they are.

We can employ this awareness or wise attention from the very start. When we first sit down to meditate, the best strategy is to simply notice whatever state of our body and mind is present. To establish the foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs his followers "to observe whether the body and mind are distracted or steady, angry or peaceful, excited or worried, contracted or released, bound or free."



Observing what is so, we can take a few deep breaths and relax, making space for whatever situation we find. From this ground of acceptance we can learn to use the transformative power of attention in a flexible and malleable way. Wise attention -- mindfulness -- can function like a zoom lens. Often it is most helpful to steady our practice with close-up attention. More

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