Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

These three C's (Cause, Course, and Consequence) will
be used again.
C. SOME TERMS CONCERNING THE
CONTENT OF MEDITATION
1. There are many kinds of meditation within the
Triyana, and success in these may be attained in
different ways. The practice of the latter will provide the
subject matter for further chapters, while the categories
of the former will be listed here. Seven classes have
been mentioned in the sutras and have been explained
thus:
a. Amongst mankind there are those who devote
themselves to various practices promoting the growth of
goodness. By a little practice of meditation they attain,
while living, the heavens of sensual desire (kamavacara
devas), into which states they arise after the death of
their human body. This is called "attainment by practice
dhyana."
b. The gods of form and of formlessness do not have to
struggle or try to practice the various stages of dhyana.
Their whole lives already are spent in these states since
their minds' natural level is one of dhyanic
concentration. This is "attainment by birth dhyana" (see
also Chapter VII).
c. The next is called "attainment by right thinking (or
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