The Types of Buddhist Meditation

In this article, we’ll look at the types of Buddhist meditation. Narrowing all Buddhist practices down to a few essential ones is quite a daunting task: Buddhism is a sprawling tradition present all across Asia, with three major elaborations or Turnings of the Wheel, and a number of schools that originated during each turn.

To give some structure to this, we’ll look at the major types of Buddhism and the Three Turnings of the Wheel. That will allow us to better orient ourselves as we look at the major Buddhist schools present in the West today, along with the main types of meditation they use.

Let’s start with the three major types of Buddhism.

Two or Three Major Types of Buddhism

There are two or three main kinds of Buddhism, and each branch, of which there are dozens if not hundreds, falls into one of them.

One is the Theravada school. Think of this as Buddhism 101, the original teachings of the Buddha as-is. This is behind the stereotypical image of Buddhism as being a tradition of renunciation and purity.

Some of the key concepts in Theravada are samsara and nirvana, the Three Marks of Existence, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path. The goal is to escape samsara to find nirvana. Samsara is despised, as are ordinary human desires. The ultimate goal or archetypal ideal is the arhat.

The second major type is Mahayana, a later elaboration that included much of the original Theravada canon, but added its own twist and discarded the parts it deemed to be unhelpful. Mahayana emphasises compassion, wisdom, and the Bodhisattva archetype.

Vajrayana is the final one. You can consider it part of Mahayana or as its own type. It incorporates tantric practices and esoteric techniques into the Mahayana system.

Now, let’s turn to the Three (or four) Turnings of the Wheel: the three major chronological elaborations of Buddhism from its origins 2600 years ago to the present day, each of which transcends and includes its predecessor:

• Theravada, the first major kind as described above,
• Madhyamaka (part of Mahayana), emphasising the transformation of defilements into radiance, the unity of Nirvana and Samsara, the emptiness of self and reality, the Two Truths doctrine, and the unqualifiability of the absolute,
• Yogachara (part of Mahayana), emphasising the transmutation of defilements, the full union of Nirvana and Samsara, perception not reality as the cause of illusion,
• Tantric/Vajrayana (often enveloped within Yogachara), emphasising that poisons are wisdoms, the use of defilements as vehicles, the view that all things are ornaments of Spirit, direct pointers to Spirit, enlightenment now.

Knowing about the two or three major types of Buddhism and the Three (or Four) Turnings of The Wheel helps us better understand the sprawling Buddhist tradition and why its school and sub-schools use different types of meditation.

The Major Types of Buddhist Meditation

Now, let’s turn to the major types of Buddhist meditation, each of which is primarily from Theravada, Mahayana or Vajrayana.

We’ll focus on the kinds that are popular and well-known in the West and the mainstream so that you can better understand and begin to practice these common systems. Follow the links to learn more about each and begin to practice them.

Types of Buddhist Meditation 1: Zen Meditation

Who hasn’t heard of Zen in some form? This is possibly the most practiced form of meditation in the West. Zen originated in China and spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam before being imported to the West in the sixties and seventies.

Zen is a Mahayana school, and its modern-day famous teachers include Roshi Joan Halifax, Sasaki Roshi, Shinzen Young and Thich Nhat Hanh.

Just to complicate things, there are two major school of Zen Buddhism, Rinzai Zen and Soto Zen. Interestingly, Jon Kabat-Zinn’s clinical meditation programme is influenced in part by Soto Zen.

Rinzai Zen is the world of Zazen, koans, and spontaneity. We might call it an “other-shore” tradition, meaning that enlightenment is viewed a distant goal to be attained, which is typical of non-Vajrayana approaches.

Zazen means “just sitting”, and is a panoramic form of meditation that has us dissolve the sense of separation between ourselves and our surroundings.

Koans are paradoxical or confusing statements that point to our true nature and that one contemplates until their solution arrives in the form of an epiphany. Koans are the brainchildren of Master Hakuin and comprise six stages that take thirty years for Rinzai students to complete.

Soto Zen has flavours of Yogachara and Vajrayana, and is what we might call an “already-here” tradition. Its fundamental Zazen practice has us contact what already is, rather than arrive to special states of consciousness. As its figurehead, Eihei Dogen, said,

The essential teaching is fully available; how could effort be necessary? Furthermore, the entire mirror is free of dust; why take steps to polish it? Nothing is separate from this very place; why journey away?

Eihei dogen

In Rinzai, meditation is seen as an expression of Nirvana, which we already are and which is inseperable from Samsara, rather than as transport for the journey from Samsara to Nirvana.

2: Vipassana Meditation (AKA Insight Meditation)

Before we talk about Vipassana, a quick clarification. Vipassana is both a fundamental skill in meditation and one of the many types of Buddhist meditation, with its own distinct practices.

The skill of vipassana goes back to the historical Buddha, while only in recent times has Vipassana emerged as its own school, also called Insight Meditation, whose proponents include Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. This tradition also influenced Jon Kabat-Zinn.

The school comes from Burmese Theravada Buddhism, and became popular in the West thanks to S.N. Goenka, a student of U Ba Khin, and the famous 10-day silent retreats in this lineage.

There are four main phases in U Ba Khin and Goenka’s practice: breathing meditation, body scanning, body sweeping and lovingkindness. Learn how to practice U Ba Khin’s Vipassana.

There is another popular school of Vipassana, the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition, which uses the breath as an anchor as we develop our awareness, eventually bringing it into walking and into observing emotions.

Types of Buddhist Meditation 3: Tibetan Meditation

Tibetan Buddhism is another of the main types of Buddhist meditation. This is a sprawling Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition, with four main lineages: Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya and Nyingma. Its current leader is the 14th Dalai Lama, and famous modern-day teachers include Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Lama Surya Das.

We’ll focus on the two systems that are well known to advanced Western meditators: Dzogchen, part of the Nyingma school, and Mahamudra, part of Kagyu. You can learn and practice the meditations by following the links.

Often you’ll hear Dzogchen and Mahamudra referred to together, because they’re very similar practices. In my opinion, Dzogchen is a Vajrayana or Tantric approach, and Mahamudra is more a Yogachara approach.

In Dzogchen, we point directly to the nature of mind, to our Buddha nature, to our ultimate non-dual perfected self through pithy instructions. In Mahamudra, we systematically remove our delusions and misidentifications, which then leads us to discovering our Buddha nature.

After spending around eight years working on Theravadan- and Mahayanan-style meditation with teachers like Jon Kabat-Zinn and Shinzen Young, I’ve spent this year practicing and studying Dzogchen, and it has left its mark on me.

I love its poetic and direct style. I find it empowering to see that my Buddha nature is right here, right now, not after 10,000 hours of meditation, or in some future lifetime.

In August 2024, I recorded a series of live guided Dzogchen meditations on my YouTube channel. Here is one:

I hope this helps you better understand the many types of Buddhist meditation, their origins, and their relation to one another. Do practice and experiment until you find the kind that resonates with you. But the key word really is practice. It’s best to be a practitioner, not a scholar.

In my six-week meditation course, we cover many of the common Buddhist techniques in a secular context. See you there!