Man Now Needs Meditation More Than Ever

Questions: What can Vipassanā do for you? When is Vipassanāneeded? / Write a short essay on Vipassanā meditation and modern society or why is this world always engaged in turmoil, distress and suffering? Suggest some solutions to this problem. / Do you believe that meditation is a means of happiness in our life? Give ample reasons for your answers.

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According to the Pāli texts, primitive people were reincarnated from the Brahman world, so they obscured morality without any prompting. They lived in the four sublime abodes, i.e. loving-kindness (mettā), compassion (karuṇā), sympathetic joy (muditā) and equanimity (upekkhā). As a consequence, no problems and conflicts arose among them. They were on amicable terms with one another. Luckily they happened to taste the earth-essences and craving arose in their minds. Thus, greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha) become manifested in their minds.

Driven by these unwholesome states of mind, people become inclined to do misdeeds. Some people, nowadays, steal other’s properties; some kill other beings; some commit sensual misconducts, some tell lies and some become indulgent in intoxicants. Murders occur everywhere. Wars often break out between countries. The whole world is now burning with the fire of greed, hatred and delusion. People have to suffer from endless miseries. They become overcome with mental sufferings such as worry, anxiety, pain, grief, lamentation, despair, etc. Scientists have invented the medicine to cure physical diseases. Nonetheless, no remedy has yet been invented to cure mental sufferings. The people overwhelmed with mental sufferings are helpless. So they come to seek ways and means to eliminate their sufferings. At last, they find Buddhist meditation able to cure their mental sufferings. According to the Buddha, meditation is a means to keep one’s mind quiet or calm, not let it go away here and there, and developing it stage by stage for the progress of mental purity. In this way, meditation can make one’s mind calm, tranquil, peaceful, strong and wise.

There are two types of meditation: Samatha and Vipassanā. Samatha can reduce mental defilements (kilesa) to some extent, while Vipassanā can totally eradicate all mental defilement. Today more problems are arising in the world more than ever before. Most people fall prey to mental sufferings. We can cure these sufferings by practising meditation only. Therefore, undertaking meditation becomes more popular among the world people at present.