Bhavana(Mental cultivation)

Bhāvanā stands for mental cultivation in the sense of any practice or conduct that aims at cultivating the mind, not being restricted in meaning to a cultivation undertaken only mentally. The purpose of such mental cultivation is to promote the growth of the twin qualities of tranquility, samatha, and insight, vipassanā.

Cultivation

Bhāvanā, and the corresponding verb bhāveti, is one out of several terms used in early Buddhist texts to describe activities related to the development of the mind. A few additional examples for terminology that falls into the same sphere of meaning would be:
  • Anupassati, “to contemplate”
  • Anussarati, “to recollect”
  • Jhāyati, “to meditate”
  • Paccavekkhati, “to review”
  • Paṭisañcikkhati, “to reflect meditatively”
  • Pharitvā viharati, “to dwell having meditatively pervaded”
  • Samādhiyati, “to concentrate”
  • Samāpajjati, “to attain meditatively”
  • Sammasati, “to comprehend meditatively”
  • Upasampajja viharati, “to dwell having attained”
  • Vipassati, “to see with insight”
While each of these expressions has to some degree a specific sense, bhāvanā could be seen as an overarching category that comprises all forms of cultivation of the mind recognized in early Buddhism. Such bhāvanā is not concerned with gaining knowledge of the external world for its own sake, but rather has the task of overcoming defilements and cultivating wholesome mental states within.
The example par excellence for meditative cultivation in early Buddhism is the development of the seven factors of awakening. These seven factors of awakening, bojjhaṅga, are the mental qualities required for awakening. They are: mindfulness, investigation of phenomena, energy, joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity.
The eminent role of the factors of awakening within the area of mental cultivation can be deduced from the fact that to make “an effort at mental cultivation,” bhāvanā-padhāna, is defined to require cultivation of the seven factors of awakening. Such cultivation should be undertaken “in dependence on seclusion, dispassion and cessation, culminating in letting go” ([1], Vol. III, p. 226).
The importance given in this way to the seven factors of awakening as the mental cultivation par excellence reflects their potential. In fact, the way to counter what in early Buddhism is recognized as chief obstacles to liberation – the influxes or taints, āsava – is precisely the cultivation of the seven factors of awakening in the above-described manner ([2], Vol. I, p. 11).
Another set of similar importance for bhāvanā is the noble eightfold path, which comprises rightly directed view, intentions, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. According to what tradition reckons as the first discourse spoken by the Buddha, during his own progress toward liberation he had realized that this noble eightfold path needed to be cultivated, bhāvetabbaṃ, and on having become a Buddha he knew that he had indeed cultivated it, bhāvitaṃ ([3], Vol. V, p. 422).
The use of the verb bhāveti in relation to the noble eightfold path is significant insofar as it clearly shows that the scope of mental cultivation goes beyond actual sitting in meditation. While such formal sitting is a crucial aspect of mental culture, nevertheless, everyday activities like speaking or earning one’s livelihood are an integral part of bhāvanā. Actual meditation practice will bear its potential fruit only when the proper perspective provided by the guiding principle of right view – the first of the eight factors of the noble eightfold path – pervades all areas of activity.
The noble eightfold path then provides the foundation for the mental cultivation of other sets of qualities or factors ([2], Vol. III, p. 289), such as:
  • The four establishments of mindfulness
  • The four right efforts
  • The four roads to power
  • The five faculties and powers
Together with the seven factors of awakening and the eight factors of the noble eightfold path, these constitute the mental factors and qualities that early Buddhist meditation theory singles out as being of central relevance for progress to awakening, collected later on under the heading of the 37 bodhi-pakkhiyā dhammā.
The first of these, the four establishments of mindfulness, satipaṭṭhāna, require contemplation of the body, feelings, mental states, and phenomena, dhamma. The four right efforts, sammappadhāna, mentioned next, enjoin the prevention and overcoming of unwholesome mental states and the arousing and maintaining of wholesome mental states. The four roads to power, iddhipāda, describe the development of concentration through purposely directed effort in combination with one of the four qualities of zeal, chanda, energy, viriya, (making up one’s) mind, citta, and investigation, vīmaṃsā. The five faculties, indriya, and the five powers, bala, are confidence or faith, saddhā, energy, viriya, mindfulness, sati, concentration, samādhi, and wisdom, paññā.
Wisdom is certainly a quality that should be cultivated, paññā bhāvetabbā ([2], Vol. I, p. 293). Wisdom gained from mental cultivation, bhāvanā-mayā-paññā ([1], Vol. III, p. 219), builds on the type of wisdom that can be developed by reflection and study. A chief means for the gaining of wisdom through mental cultivation is contemplation of the impermanent nature of the five aggregates that according to the early Buddhist analysis are the chief constituents of an individual – bodily form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness. The proper way to carry out such contemplation, explicitly identified as a form of bhāvanā, can be compared to a hen hatching her eggs ([3], Vol. III, p. 153). As long as the hen keeps properly sitting on the eggs, her chicken will hatch safely. Similarly, one who properly undertakes bhāvanā will safely reach liberation.
The relevance of bhāvanā extends to both tranquility, samatha, and insight, vipassanā, in that each of these twin qualities should be cultivated ([3], Vol. V, p. 52). As a form of mental cultivation, tranquility has the particular purpose of developing the mind and thereby overcoming desire, whereas insight serves to develop wisdom and thereby overcome ignorance ([4], Vol. I, p. 61).
A preliminary practice for being able to gain tranquility is sense-restraint, which already falls within the scope of bhāvanā ([3], Vol. V, p. 74). Sense-restraint requires maintaining stability and balance of the mind in regard to anything that is experienced, not allowing what is seen, heard, smelled, etc., to disturb the inner equipoise and to lead to the arising of unwholesome reactions by way of desire or aversion.
Based on some degree of sense-restraint, concentration can be cultivated. This will eventually lead to a mental condition which, thanks to deepening concentration, has become temporarily free from defilements, upakkilesa, and thereby can be reckoned as luminous, pabhassara. Realizing this potential of the mind is a requirement for the higher stages of mental cultivation, citta-bhāvanā ([4], Vol. I, p. 10).
Cultivation of the mind can be undertaken by way of various recollections, such as recollecting the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha (of those who have reached any of the four levels of awakening), or else recollecting one’s own morality, one’s own generosity, and (the meritorious deeds that lead to rebirth as) a celestial being, a deva ([4], Vol. I, p. 30). Recollection of death or of the peace (of Nirvāṇa) would also fall under the topic of bhāvanā, as well as mindfulness of breathing and mindfulness of the body.
Mindfulness of the body as a form of mental cultivation is repeatedly highlighted for its benefits ([4], Vol. I, p. 43). Mindfulness of breathing, besides its potential to lead to deeper concentration, can also become a vehicle for the cultivation of the four establishments of mindfulness. Such form of bhāvanā could then issue in the cultivation of the seven factors of awakening and culminate in the gaining of knowledge and liberation ([3], Vol. V, p. 329).
Another form of bhāvanā takes place by way of the four divine abodes, brahmavihāra, which are loving kindness, sympathetic joy, compassion, and equanimity ([4], Vol. IV, p. 299). The ten kasiṇas, “totalities,” are also included among things that should be cultivated ([1], Vol. III, p. 290). The experience of such a totality, in the sense of the mind becoming totally absorbed in its object, can take place through the perception of earth, water, fire, wind, blue, yellow, red, white, space, and consciousness.
A form of concentration that, like the other instances surveyed so far, is explicitly linked in the early discourses with the notion of bhāvanā, or its verbal correspondent bhāveti, is the “signless concentration,” animitta samādhi ([3], Vol. III, p. 93). This can be attained by not giving attention to any sign at all.
In sum, bhāvanā can be understood as the bringing into being of those mental factors and qualities that are favorable for maturing the mind toward concentration and awakening. Hence, bhāvanā is reckoned one of the three kinds of meritorious actions ([4], Vol. IV, p. 241) and delight in bhāvanā constitutes one out of four “noble usages,” ariyavaṃsa ([4], Vol. II, p. 28). According to a summary presentation of the teachings given by the Buddha, the compass of bhāvanā could then be summed up with the following maxim: “what is wholesome should be cultivated,” kusalaṃ bhāvetabbaṃ ([4], Vol. II, p. 182).

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