Meditation on a concept. How?

[cherrytigerbarb]

Many books recommend meditating on various concepts, like meditation on impermanence. How exactly do you do that? What do you do in your head? Meditation on the breath I can understand because it's just naked awareness of the action, but how do you concentrate on a concept? Thanks.

[Zom]

Just keep mind thinking about this or that particular theme. What's the problem here?

[cherrytigerbarb]

Well isn't that just thinking about something, rather than meditating on it? Isn't meditating on a concept different than just ordinary thinking about it? That doesn't seem like meditation to me, unless you want to replace it with the word "contemplation" which might be more accurate. Am I just getting hung up on semantics, or is meditation in this context something different than just ordinary contemplation?

[Zom]

There are different meditation methods. Some are "contemplations", while others are "recollections". Both are needed, both are useful.
Sometimes they are mixed into one (like, for example, a visualized meditation on a corpse). Sometimes not. It doesn't really matter. What does matter is that you should try to practise that as much as you can .)

[mirco]

Many books recommend meditating on various concepts, like meditation on impermanence. How exactly do you do that? What do you do in your head? Meditation on the breath I can understand because it's just naked awareness of the action, but how do you concentrate on a concept? Thanks.

Maybe send that question to universe, stop pondering upon and an answer will come?

:-) Regards

[Sam Vara]

Maybe send that question to universe, stop pondering upon and an answer will come?

Maybe they just did....

[Spiny Norman]

... but how do you concentrate on a concept?

I think by really sticking with it for a period of time, which is quite hard to do without a degree of mental stability and calm.

[ground]

Many books recommend meditating on various concepts, like meditation on impermanence. ... but how do you concentrate on a concept? Thanks.

You have to have faith in the idea and concentrate on it in the affirmative to not let any doubt creep in.
Or
You have to have faith in ideas used as lines of reasoning which seem to prove the truth of the idea and practice these in the affirmative in a concentrated way in order to not let any doubt creep in.

[Nyorai]

Many books recommend meditating on various concepts, like meditation on impermanence. How exactly do you do that? What do you do in your head? Meditation on the breath I can understand because it's just naked awareness of the action, but how do you concentrate on a concept? Thanks.

There is no different having a nose on naked meditation and head on naked meditation. The problem is that you have a head and the concept is impermanence...

[cherrytigerbarb]

Many books recommend meditating on various concepts, like meditation on impermanence. ... but how do you concentrate on a concept? Thanks.

You have to have faith in the idea and concentrate on it in the affirmative to not let any doubt creep in.
Or
You have to have faith in ideas used as lines of reasoning which seem to prove the truth of the idea and practice these in the affirmative in a concentrated way in order to not let any doubt creep in.

I do have faith and conviction in the truth of impermanence (for example), but how do you do the MEDITATION on it? What you guys seem to be saying is that it's just ordinary sitting and thinking.

[ground]

I do have faith and conviction in the truth of impermanence (for example), but how do you do the MEDITATION on it?

If you have faith and convicion, fine. Then you apply this when you need the idea of impermanence as an antidot.

What you guys seem to be saying is that it's just ordinary sitting and thinking.

Why should it be something extraordinary? Ideas/concepts are just ideas/concepts. The difference may be the concentration and the effects when applied as antidot

[jackson]

Greetings cherrytigerbarb,
The way I practice is once the mind is calm then I pick a theme to contemplate and use thought to reflect on the theme and then observe what's happening in the mind. For example, to contemplate impermanence you could start by looking at one of the five aggregates such as perception and saying, "ok, is perception impermanent or permanent?", then just drop the thinking and clear the mind and observe. You might see that perception changes from perceiving one object to another, or you may see the very object you perceive as changing. You can even use physical objects, like a knife and label it in different ways to observe the way perception changes. You could label it a tool, and observe the way the mind creates it as a tool, then you could label it a killing device and observe the way the mind perceives that. Then you could try not creating it as anything at all and just see it as it is, without adding any qualities to it. These are just examples, but if you ask the right question and then just observe with bare attention to find your answer you can gain some very deep insights. Anyway, this is just the method I use, but I thought it may be of some help.
Best wishes!

[cherrytigerbarb]

Thank you Jackson, that's the clearest explanation so far. It's practical, understandable and I think I will definatelely try it. Thanks again.