Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

meditation, and their practice will not lead to attainment
either in Buddhism, or of any goal outside it. (See
Appendix I, Part One, A. 3.)
6. The livelihood of many Westerners makes them tense
and they feel the need to maintain their health and
develop power, or to gain more money and become
popular with friends, especially those of the opposite
sex. The real purpose of meditation—the
super-mundane benefit of Enlightenment—is either not
known to them or else forgotten. Under this type of
mistake falls also the attraction of gaining supernormal
powers. Even young bhikshus desire to gain this control.
Then he mentioned the case of a sramanera who
had come as a layman to Bhante with the ambition
to be able to read the minds of others and hear them
speak from a distance.
Bhante remarked, "I still have the crystal ball he
brought from England to help him gain these
powers."
All aims of this sort in the practice of meditation are
very mistaken.
7. A seventh mistake is found in the minds of all who
think that Buddhism is utter atheism. People with this
idea do not believe in any deities who can protect them
while they practice meditation or help rid them of
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