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THEMES OF SOTERIOLOGICAL REFLECTION
Bhāvanāsandhiprakaraṇa.
Although bhāvanā in the sense of meditation or cultivation of thought is used rather very infrequently in Brahmanical texts, there is a short Tāntrika text of early medieval origin called the Bhāvanopanişad. It teaches Tāntrika type of meditation which is called bhāvanā. As is well known, the Yogasūtra employs bhāvanā in the sense of cultivation of certain virtuous emotions in order to counteract certain evil tendencies.36
It is in the classical Buddhist texts in Pali and Sanskrit that we come across a very widespread usage of bhāvanā. It is used in the sense of cultivation of thought, mental culture, meditational development or mind-development. Thus samatha-bhāvanā and vipassanā-bhāvanā are understood to mean 'development of tranquillity' and 'development of insight respectively. Generally speaking, bhāvanā indicates a process of deliberate deep thinking on some idea, element, or phenomenon; as a process of mental development in the sense of producing a specific kind of awareness, it can be viewed as a form of meditation. It has a fundamental position of importance in the meditational terminology of Buddhism, and its function is ethical as well as soteriological.
Buddhist texts repeatedly refer to 'wisdom based on meditational development' (bhāvanāmaya-paññā/bhāvanāmayi-prajñā), 'the path of meditational development' (bhāvanā-patha), 'the power of meditational development' (bhāvanā-bala), 'the basis of pure action consisting of meditational development' (bhāvanāmaya-puññakiriyāvatthu), 'delight in meditational development' (bhāvanārāmatā), and so on. Some texts mention four kinds of bhāvanā, viz. samatha, 'tranquillity'; vipaśyanā, ‘insight'; samathavipaśyanāabhyāsa, “practice of tranquillity and insight'; and śamathavipaśyanā-abhirati, 'delight in tranquillity and insight.o36
Meditational development or bhāvanā has been often recommended for overcoming evil tendencies; for example, one is recommended to have maitri-bhāvanā in order to get rid of hostility (pratigha), and to dwell upon the theme of liberality (dāna) in order to overcome avarice (lobha). It is understood as a psychological method of conquering impurities or defilements. The Buddha is reported to have said : atthi āsavā bhāvanā pahātabbā - "there are impurities (āsavas) which should be got rid of by meditational development."37 The impurities in this context are the four cardinal defiling influxes, viz. kāma, bhava, drșți, and avidyā, desire for sensual pleasure, desire for continued existence, perverted views, and spiritual blindness or ignorance. These asravas can be
35. Yogasūtra, II. 33-34. 36. Bodhisattvabhūmi (Patna edition), p. 77. 37. Majjhimanikāya, vol. 1 (Nalanda edition), p. 11.
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