METHODS OF VISUALIZATION MEDITATION
Visualization is an excellent meditation practice, but it is also one of the most difficult. It’s easy to have a quick vision or image in our head for a few seconds or entertain a day dream, but to hold onto a single image for a longer period of time is very difficult.
One of the most popular Mahayana “visualization” sutras/texts is The Visualization of Amitabha’s Pure Land Sutra. The sutra describes 16 detailed visualization practices and the practitioner visualizes Amitabha’s Pure Land. Visualizing Amitabha’s Pure Land helps us aspire to attain confidence in our practice and see a pure land in our chaotic world.
Visualization meditation helps us in many ways, but it has two main functions: 1) it helps us improve our concentration and focus. With most other methods, we are focusing on our breath or counting, so the object is always “moving.” With visualization, our object is static and unmoving, so focusing on is typically lasts only a few seconds before the image is gone or we lose focus. So visualization meditation helps us improve and increase the length of time we are able to hold onto a single image during meditation. 2) Visualization meditation can help us develop qualities and characteristics of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas by visualizing them and visualizing ourselves as Buddhas as Bodhisattvas. In many Buddhist traditions, there are special ceremonies where the main monk or nun visualizes themselves as a specific Buddha or Bodhisattva to emulate their qualities and preform whatever special ceremony they are conducting in honor of that Buddha or Bodhisattva. This method also helps us see ourselves as a potential Buddha or Bodhisattva, because we all have Buddha-Nature – the ability to become a Buddha, an enlightened person.
There are many ways to practice visualization meditation. We can google many different ways and methods to practice, but we always want to start out slowly and with something simple. It’s easier to have whatever you are going to visualize in front of you first. Stare at it for a few minutes. Study its details, its shape, size, etc. You can use an image, a statue, or even a lit candle. After a few minutes, close your eyes and bring that image up in your mind. See the details you were studying, its texture, size, and movement. Do this for as long as you can. Whenever you lose the image in your head, try to bring it back up, again recalling all of the item’s details. If after a while you can no longer visualize it, open your eyes slowly and re-examine the image again and then go back to your visualization. Repeat this process for your entire meditation session. It will take time to develop this method, so practice, practice, practice!
Below is the first visualization from The Visualization of Amitabha’s Pure Land Sutra on the setting of the sun. You can use this as a sort of guided visualization meditation, or just use something else. Whatever will help you best.
“The Buddha said to Vaidehi, “You and all sentient beings should single-mindedly concentrate your thoughts with one-pointed attention, on the Western Quarter. How is this to be done? All the multitudes of sentient beings who are not born blind and have the sense of sight have seen the setting sun. Focusing your attention and sitting in the proper posture, you should face the west. Contemplatively examine the sun, with your mind firmly fixed upon it. Firmly concentrate upon the setting sun and do not let your sight wander from it. It should appear like a (red) drum suspended above the horizon. Once the sun is visualized in this way, then whether the eyes are shut or open, it can be clearly seen. This is the image of the sun and is called the First Visualization.”
Google The Visualization of Amitabha’s Pure Land Sutra for the full text to read all 16 visualizations. It is an excellent and profound practice.
Other common visualization practices that are beneficial include visualization on generosity and giving. Generosity is an extremely important practice in Buddhism and for humanity as a whole. If we can visualize ourselves giving up our possessions to others, we can become more giving in our everyday life. Sit and meditate on yourself walking into your home and taking all the things that are important to you and start giving them to others. It can be things like jewelry, clothes, personal items, things that are meaningful to you. Visualize yourself giving these things to your neighbors, friends, strangers, the homeless. See your possessions shrink until you have nothing at all. At the extreme, you can visualize yourself giving your own life to save someone else. Seeing this helps us overcome our attachment to materialistic things and property because it is all impermanent. Everything you hold dear and important will not last forever. The house can survive hundreds of years, but eventually the wood and materials that keep it standing will rot and fall apart. Our car that can also last for hundreds of thousands of miles will also eventually stop running. Our expensive clothes and shoes will get dirty, break, and become too big or too small. Nothing lasts forever. So when we can understand and accept this, giving will become much easier for us.