The Buddha prescribed a range of objects for the development of samatha meditation, the meditation of serenity. The best known is contemplation of the breath, ānāpānasati, but it is one of forty.
They exist in that number for a reason: every person has a different temperament, so the practice that suits one may be wrong for another. The forty objects, the kammaṭṭhāna, are grouped like this:
- The ten contemplative devices (kasiṇa)
- The ten impurities (asubha)
- The ten recollections (anussati)
- The four immeasurables (brahmavihāra)
- The four immaterial absorptions (arūpa-jhāna)
- Reflection on the repulsiveness of food (āhāre paṭikūlasaññā)
- Analysis of the four elements (catudhātuvavatthāna)
This article covers the first group. Part two covers the ten impurities.
The ten kasinas
A kasina is a device representing one particular quality, used as a support for concentration. The ten are made up as follows.
Based on the elements
- The earth kasina
- The water kasina
- The fire kasina
- The air kasina
Based on color
- The blue kasina
- The yellow kasina
- The red kasina
- The white kasina
The remaining two
- The light kasina
- The kasina of bounded space
How the practice works
Say the object you have selected is the earth kasina, pathavī-kasiṇa. You fix your gaze on some patch of earth and repeat the mental note pathavī, pathavī, pathavī — or earth, earth, earth.
After some time repeating this contemplation, a vivid image of the earth device appears in the mind, as though it had been perceived by the eye. This mental image is called the acquired image, the uggaha-nimitta.
As soon as that image is fixed and holds steadily in the mind, you can take it anywhere — sitting, walking, standing or lying down — and continue the contemplation using the uggaha-nimitta rather than the physical object, still making the note earth, earth.
During this the mind will not always stay fixed. It will be pulled away by other objects: desire, aversion, drowsiness, agitation, doubt. These are the hindrances. You observe them arising and passing, and then return to the acquired image and the note. If the mental image is lost altogether, go back to the physical device and contemplate it again, repeating earth, earth, until the image is recovered.
The same procedure applies to the other kasinas, according to which one you have chosen.
From the image to the absorptions
Contemplating the acquired image repeatedly over a long period, it takes on an extremely bright, crystalline appearance. This is called the counterpart image, the paṭibhāga-nimitta. Throughout, the mind is free of the hindrances and stays on the counterpart image as directed. This state is access concentration, upacāra-samādhi.
Then, by constantly fixing that access concentration on the counterpart image, the mind reaches a state where it sinks into the object and stays absorbed in it. That fixed, calm state is attainment concentration, appanā-samādhi — and it unfolds through four levels: the first, second, third and fourth jhāna.
A note on the color kasinas
For the color kasinas you can construct the device artificially. Take card or any material in the color you have chosen, cut it into a circle to make a disc, and set it in front of you. Then fix your gaze on it and follow the same process as above.
Continue
Part two of this series covers the ten impurities (asubhas) — the corpse contemplations, which work on a very different principle and carry a content warning.
Reference: the Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosa.