Method
Nididhyāsana
Classification
- Method family
- contemplative
- Domains
- Philosophy of Mind
Overview
Nididhyāsana is sustained Vedāntic contemplation that assimilates a teaching about self and brahman after it has been heard and examined through reasoning.
Purpose. The practice seeks a stable, liberating recognition rather than mere verbal agreement with a doctrine. It is the contemplative stage of a larger learning sequence, not a generic name for all Hindu meditation.
Characteristic operations
- Receive the teaching: Begin from an Upaniṣadic instruction learned through study and guidance.
- Resolve conceptual doubt: Use reflection and reasoning to clarify what the instruction means.
- Contemplate steadily: Return sustained attention to the teaching and its bearing on self-understanding.
- Assimilate the insight: Work against habitual identification until understanding becomes stable and transformative.
Applied to questions
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Śaṅkara, §§1 and 4
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.4.5