Compassionate Service Society East

What is meditation?

Meditation is a spiritual science to help us go beyond thinking and reasoning, and lead our minds to a deeper state of clarity, awareness, and relaxation. 
Many dharma doors and religions have long practiced meditation in order to concentrate their mind, reach a higher level of consciousness, develop creative ability and self enlightenment, and enjoy simple benefits like relaxation and peace of mind.

There are two main styles of Buddhist meditation practices:  Samatha or cessation, and Samadhi or insight.

Samatha develops concentration ability through the practice of focusing on an object causing all erroneous thoughts to cease, helping the mind to reach a calm state, undisturbed by any other element.

Samadhi or Vipassana develops the ability to recognize the true nature of all things with the light of wisdom.  Vipassana is looking deeply and carefully to realize that everything is impermanent, non self, interconnected, and leading to Nirvana.  Unlike Samatha, Vipassana practitioners do not have to pick an object on which to concentrate.  They just look and observe  with mindfulness to understand things as they are.

What is Integral Meditation?  What are its characteristics?  How is master Hang Truong’s teaching different from other meditation sects?

This is a special Meditation session introducing the Kuei Yang Meditation Sect, condensed and prepared by Master Hang Truong to meet everyone’s needs and levels appropriately.

Master Hang Truong defined Buddhism a spiritual education field which needs to adapt to the ever changing scientific and technological innovations.

After leading a number of Meditation sessions, Master Hang Truong noticed that his practitioners did not make much progress.  Using scientific methods to analyze the situation, he found the causes:  There was no accurate method to measure progress and not enough material to guide meditation practice.

The EEG (Electroencephalogram) method is too complicated to use, so the Master tried to find a connection between “meditation practice progress” and other measurable factors such as “number of breaths in a minute,” levels of leg pain and back pain, meditation duration etc. so the meditation practitioner can follow a clear path.

After years of teaching, Master Hang Truong integrates his experiences, combines the teaching of Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua, philosophy from Avatamsaka Sutra, Surangama Sutra (also called the Sutra of the Heroic One), Mahayana Sudden Teaching, Mahayana Perfect teaching, Samatha and Vipasyana (Ceasing and reflecting), Straightforward, Psychology, and modern Philosophy.  He applies the method of verifying statistics to follow students’ progress.  In addition, he includes physical exercises like Integral Taichi or CK10 to help relax the joints, tendons, muscles, making meditation practice easier and more effective.

Integral Meditation’s big advantage is that it can measure practitioner’s progress and integrate all aspects of life.  In a scientific way, Master Hang Truong incorporated old traditions with new knowledge, and designed a standard training program with ways to measure levels and key points.