Bhavana – The Mind Development.

Bhavana in Pali Language means, the practice meant for 'the development of the Mind', which is translated to English as Meditation, which is wrong, hence I would be using only the word Bhavana.

The Mind is not Brain, and the mind is not a physical organ. There is a specific meaning to the word 'Mind', in Buddhism, which is not important to the practitioner of Bhavana, to the practitioner of the Buddhist Mind Development.

There are four areas of Bhavana, the development of the mind, in the Buddhist Bhavana.

1. Maithree Bhavana. Here one practices the development of the mind status of 'Non-anger' which is called Maithree. Since in the next Bhavana practice, the state of 'Non-anger' is developed and achieved, it would not be discussed here as to how to practice it.
2. Samatha Bhavana. This Buddhist Bhavana is translated as Tranquil Mediation or Concentration Mediation. The object of concentration is, in and out breathing. But both the English translation does not give the meaning of what is practiced and what is achieved. In Pali Language the practice of Samatha Bhavana is known as the practice of “Aanapala Sati”, meaning the practice of Sati (continuous UN-interruptible attention) on Breathing. Hence, at the successful end of the practice, one would have achieved (developed) the 'Sati' (continuous UN-interruptible attention) on the breathing. Since the word Awareness does not give the real meaning of 'Sati', it would not be used here, and it would be explained in much detail later.
3. Satara Satipattana Bhavana. This Buddhist mediation practice is translated as Insight Mediation into English. Based on the Sati, once one get developed and get established in the Samatha Bhavana above, one gets the 'Sati' to be established in four states of mind and Body. Which helps to one to penetrate the mind to see what is inside the mind, hence 'insight'. This four states of mind and body are Body, Sensations, Mind and Mental states. But this practice does not end in the 'insight' itself. Here, one develops the Wisdom (Panna) using the 'insight-ed' things of the mind, which would be discussed later.

    4. Panna Bhavana.
      This Bhavana practice is known as Development of 
      Wisdom. The practice of which does not start at any 
      particular point with other Bhavana. When one studies 
      from Buddhist books and Nikayas (Lord Buddha's 
      teaching in the Thripitaka) about the Three Signs of 
      Existence, that is, Impermanence, Suffering and 
      Essence-less-ness, one start to develop Wisdom, as an 
      understanding in relation to the world. But with the 
      practice of Samatha and Vipassana Bhavana, Wisdom 
      would be further developed to the nature of the mind.
 
There are Buddhist Bhavana practitioners, so they call themselves as such, who practice the Vipassana Bhavana they say, that is Insight Mediation, thus trying to Penetrate the Mind, without getting established in Sati. That is they have not practised Samatha Bhavana. So without having Sati, they cannot get their 'Sati' established in the four states of mind and body to penetrate (Vipassa) the mind, so they never have insight, to see the depth of the mind, but they only see the surface level of the mind, that is they see thoughts, emotions and feelings only.
 
If one is unable to develop Sati and get established in it, by Samatha Bhavana, then until such time he has to forget about developing the Penetration (Vipassa), using Vipassana Bhavana, Insight Mediation.

Therefore it should be clear that one cannot start with Vipassana Bhavana, that is Insight Mediation, before developing Sati and getting established in the Sati, by Samatha Bhavana, to start the  Bhavana practice of Vipassana Bhavana, which is next.

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