Meditation As Investigative Method

Beginning with Meditation

You’ve probably tried meditation. Maybe through an app promising better sleep, a corporate wellness program teaching stress reduction, a parent’s recommendation to “just breathe,” a friend’s admonishment to enjoy the present moment, or even a Buddhist teacher’s smiling suggestion to let things be as they are. The instructions were simple enough—follow your breath, notice your thoughts, let them go. But what are you actually doing? How is this supposed to help you? What were those techniques designed to do long term? And why did the instructions stop there, just when you started wondering what comes next? Is this all there is to meditation?

Here’s the problem: whether you encountered meditation through Mindfulness apps or through Buddhist teachers, you likely received preliminary instructions without the theoretical framework that makes progression possible. You’re left with fragments—techniques without context, instructions without theory, practice without support. Many don’t even know that the initial instructions are not the meditation itself, like someone learning the alphabet and thinking that this is what it means to read Shakespeare.

This curriculum begins with meditation because meditation is what the curriculum is about. But from one perspective, what we are teaching here is “meditation,” while from another perspective, it is just a series of exercises leading toward a personal discovery of what it means to meditate—a discovery that transforms how you understand the exercises themselves and how they engender a kind of wisdom that eliminates the sense of there being problems in our lives. In traditional settings, teachers might wait until students were ready for each next step before giving further instruction. But there is another approach: presenting an overview of where meditation is headed so that students can understand the progression before moving through it gradually. We adopt this overview-first approach because it is especially helpful in the Western context, where students benefit from seeing the map before walking the territory. You will later be able to return to the beginning with knowledge and move forward more carefully, step by step, if you choose.

To go deeper into meditation and the theory behind it, the curriculum provides context about Buddhism—not because you need to become Buddhist, but because Buddhism developed something invaluable for anyone who meditates: phenomenological categories for understanding experience, and a precise language for discussing mind and its world. Terms like duḥkha (the pervasive dissatisfaction that marks ordinary experience), emptiness (the lack of fixed identity in persons and things), and the three vehicles (progressive frameworks for practice) aren’t religious doctrines requiring belief. They are investigative tools refined over two thousand years of systematic contemplative inquiry. Whether your interest in meditation is purely secular or informed by Buddhist practice, learning about these categories and this language will deepen your meditation considerably.

The Palace of Learning provides this education. You’ll learn about three traditional Buddhist frameworks for meditation practice—Small Vehicle, Great Vehicle, and Diamond Vehicle—exploring what Buddhists meditate on, why they meditate, and how these techniques work together systematically. The curriculum examines theoretical questions and controversies surrounding Buddhist meditation as a “secular inner science” that does not depend upon adopting religious beliefs. For comparative purposes, we also examine contemporary Mindfulness practices that have emerged from Buddhist meditation—though this appears in a separate section contained in outbuildings surrounding the Palace of Learning rather than the palace itself which houses the main curriculum, since our focus is learning about the Buddhist tradition itself.

The Foundation floor””where we begin””provides orientation and context for meditation practice, but does not yet offer the precise theory of how meditation works. That systematic exploration begins in the Small Vehicle floor, where each of the Four Hallmarks becomes a research question investigated through both philosophical study and contemplative practice. Foundation prepares us for that investigation; it doesn’t attempt to complete it.

This first module introduces meditation as an investigative method. Four videos establish the basic techniques and theoretical framework that will inform everything you study in this curriculum. The first video provides Buddhism’s historical context and raises a central controversy about meditation as “secular inner science.” The second explains how meditation techniques actually work. The third provides guided practice in those techniques. The fourth addresses posture for those who choose to practice.

The modules that follow begin the Buddhist context that illuminates meditation. The next module introduces the Three Jewels—Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha—which will help you understand the role that meditation played in the Buddha’s own life and why he taught it the way he did. From this you will extract certain information that will be meaningful now, and that will shift in meaning once you see where the practice leads. This is how the curriculum works: concepts introduced early transform through experience, revealing depths that weren’t visible at first encounter.

A Note on the Videos

The videos in this curriculum were recorded for courses at Dartmouth College between 2019 and 2023. You may notice occasional references to course materials or classroom elements. Please interpret “this course” as referring to Buddhist meditation study generally. The core teaching remains accurate—these small artifacts of their original context shouldn’t diminish the content’s value.

How to Engage This Module

The Palace of Learning teaches about Buddhism from an academic perspective informed by experiential learning. No guided meditation in this curriculum requires you to adopt any religious beliefs—the practices are entirely secular techniques. Even seasoned meditators may find that experimenting with the techniques introduced here will deepen their understanding of meditation theory; others may wish to engage the materials purely through conceptual study. Both approaches are valid.

This module introduces you to meditation as an investigative method. The first video provides historical context and raises a central question about whether Buddhist meditation constitutes a “secular inner science.” The second video explains how the core meditation technique actually works—the relationship between calming the mind and developing insight. The third video guides you through the practice itself. The fourth video, which is optional, addresses physical posture for those who choose to establish a regular sitting practice.

The reflection questions at the end of this module are designed as ongoing meditation instructions rather than one-time exercises. If you choose to practice, these questions provide frameworks for investigating your experience over time. If you’re studying theory without practicing, they help you think critically about the conceptual frameworks and how they relate to the investigation of experience.

We recommend that you try the guided meditation at least once, even if you don’t intend to practice regularly. The experience of attempting to observe your own mind—whatever happens—provides a reference point for everything that follows in the curriculum.