A Minute Of Meditation

“The secret to wisdom is Dhiyan, or consciousness. Also you can call it concentration or mindful thought. To reach dhiyan, first go to a quiet place where you are alone. Your old habits will not change so fast that you can concentrate in the wrong environment. There are different kinds of dhiyan. Ignorant dhiyan is the one done by people who are copying the masters but don’t understand why. They see suffering and know they are impure but are afraid to let go of their ego. So instead of trying to reach consciousness, they try to stop all thought. Their minds are vacant.” -- Lankavatara Sutra (Chapter 7) The Lankavatara Sutra (literally, “The Lanka Castle Teaching”) is an important Buddhist writing. The exact origin of this sutra is unknown, but its setting is definitely Lanka, the closest major island south of India (today it is called Sri Lanka). As you probably already have read, Indian myth calls Lanka the home of the god Ravan . This sutra teaches valuable lessons in the form of a series of questions aske