Traditions:Contemplative universals and meditative landmarks

Kenneth Rose's five Contemplative Universals and Meditative Landmarks result from a comparative synthesis of traditional texts from Hindu, Christian, and Buddhist models of development.

Step 1: Convergence

"Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas, convergence, as the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary, is a key stage in the eight limbs of the Pātañjalian Yoga of Hinduism, in the multiple jhānas of samatha practice in Theravāda Buddhism, and in the degrees of unio mystica in Catholic contemplative prayer. Through remarkably similar practices of concentrating the mind in these three traditions, the yogi, or contemplative, accesses an ensemble of subtle inner states characterized by sublime sentiments of tranquility, immaterial sensation, liberative insight, and unitive awareness. The focusing practices that access these subtle inner states are called recueillement actif in French, dhāraṇā in Sanskrit and Pāli, and parikamma- nimitta (“training sign”) and uggaha-nimitta (“learning sign”) in Pāli (these two signs share between themselves the features of dhāraṇā in the Yoga Sūtra), and I see them as locally distinctive expressions of the contemplative universal that I call “convergence.”

In brief:

• Preceded by preparatory practices of Catholic ascetical theology, Buddhist sīla, and the yogic yamas and niyamas
• convergence is the first station on the common yogic-mystical itinerary
• mind focuses on meditation object
• sublime sentiments of tranquility
• immaterial sensation
• liberative insight
• unitive awareness

Step 2: Coalescence

”Coalescence is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of dhyāna, paṭibhāga-nimitta, and la ligature des puissances. Each of these terms names a distinctive experience that a skilled yogic contemplative in these three traditions will likely have experienced: the sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection. This coalescence of the mind and the meditation object is one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation, and it will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it. This coalescent practice opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states. This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight (treated in the next sections) that escape the nets of cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning."

In brief:

• sudden locking in or fixing of the mind on the meditation object after a period of increasingly focused concentration or recollection
• one of the great “landmarks” in yogic contemplation
• will not go unnoticed or be soon forgotten by the yogic contemplative who experiences it
• opens inner portals into a timeless and always available sublime realm of the subtle-body states
• This realm is intermediate between the physical world and more sublime states of quiescence and insight

Step 3: Simplification

"Simplification is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of the sequential suppression of the sets of factors that constitute the four jhānas, the stages of saṃprajñāta-samādhi, and the stages of unio mystica. It is a notable feature of advancing concentration in each of the three contemplative traditions that the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real. Now, the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and effective liberative and salvific insights, which weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative."

In brief:

• mind simplifies itself factor by factor
• notable feature of advancing concentration
• the visionary phenomena and the pleasant psychological and bodily states of the earlier stages of meditative absorption gradually give way to a quiet inner stillness in which the mind becomes clear and a stable mirror of what is ultimately real
• the tranquilized mind becomes the site of powerful and effective liberative and salvific insights
• [Insights in this stage] weaken to the point of overcoming the cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditioning of the yogic contemplative

Step 4: Quiescence

• mind is stilled
• the mediation of the mind by cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, social, intellectual, and religious conditions ceases
• state of virtual cessation in which the outward faculties have been stilled while awareness is utterly transfixed from within
• There is now no further attraction to or concern with the objects of the external realms of the body and the mind
• the yogic contemplative takes their stand upon the ground of immaterial being itself
• This condition of cessation is intermittent, so long as physical life continues
• experienced, especially in its initial phases, as a spiritual night of disorientation
• [Takes time for the contemplative] to become accustomed to
• New condition of absolute inner freedom
• Over time, this sense of disorientation is transformed into a steadily calm and blissful mood of unwavering inner recollectedness allows the yogic contemplative to make a return to effective and compassionate external activity until the end of physical life

Step 5: Beatitude

"Beatitude is expressed in Pātañjalian Yoga, Buddhist bhāvanā, and Catholic mystical theology in the meditative landmarks of nibbāna, jīvanmukti, and transforming union, which is, variously expressed, the condition of perfected, saintly human existence where the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres. This end state of the common yogic-mystical itinerary represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form, and is a foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision."

In brief:

• mind is transcended
• the condition of perfected, saintly human existence
• the yogic contemplative lives simultaneously in the inner and outer realms while exercising mastery in both spheres
• represents the perfection of the spiritual life in its embodied, human form
• foretaste of the transhuman condition of parinibbāna, videhamukti, and the beatific vision

Discussion

Rose's presentation of the meditative landmarks that characterise reaching specific "contemplative universals" seen as common to the the three traditions in question, should be seen as the authors' interpretation. Firstly, his presentation of the Theravada model of progressing through the Jhānas as representing the entirety of the path of development within this tradition is debatable: there are several stages of enlightenment in several Buddhist traditions, the relationship of which with the jhāna states is discuted. Furthermore, the fourth "universal" is equated with the attainment of the "cessation of perception and feelings" (NS), and then described as a "state". Rose confuses NS with the immaterial Jhānas, it seems; NS is a specific and rare attainment which is in theory only available to some of the practitioners who are beyond the third of four stages of enlightenment in the previously mentioned four path model. See Laukkonen et al. (2023) and the Visuddhimagga, for instance, or more recently, Mahāsi Sayadaw (1994). There are other "cessation" attainments, corresponding to the attainment of lower levels of realization - and the culmination of the Jhāna itenerary in the theravadin model - but these are not "experiences" (not even of "immaterial being" or a "spiritual night of disorientation" , or, as stated at p. 82, "a nondual, unitive state of awareness that, as we have seen, Newberg and d’Aquili call “absolute unitary being, ” or an “enhanced non- cognitive state. ")