Meditation in early Buddhism: The interpretation of the developmental process of transformation

The fundamental problem in studying Buddhist meditation is that most of the studies regard the meditative process as a resultant situation with static linear stages rather than being an actual activity. Due to this bias, the hermeneutic role that the authors play in the Buddhist texts have not had an opportunity to be acknowledged along with the strategies and methods that the authors invented. Applying Ricoeur's hermeneutic theory and linguistic perspectives, this study focuses on the methods that early Buddhist texts applied to interpret the process of meditation. Using the model of ‘Contemporary Composing Theory’ suggested by Ben McClelland, an in-depth analysis on the process of Buddhist meditation, reveals the essential aspects of the developmental process in meditation.; Viewing how the interpretative methods play a vital role in bridging the gap between the linguistic interpretation and the meditative experience, this study examines how Buddhist texts have been interpreted by the use of two predominate methods: ‘System’ and ‘Narration.’; By first demonstrating how the systematic methods dominate the interpretation of the Buddha's teachings from their inception to the fifth century C.E.; next an examination of the systematic methods shows that there has been a historical development that formed the Abhidharma/ Abhidhamma texts from Numerical Lists (mātikā), Theme, and Meta-Theme structures. Further exploration of how narrative methods were applied in interpreting instruction on ‘breathing meditation’ further scrutinizes the “Eight Steps of Mindfulness Breathing” in Chapter eight of the Visuddhimagga. Buddhaghosa's innovation illustrates a more complete description of the developmental aspects found in the meditation process. From investigating the methods of description, a refined Buddhist hermeneutic approach to study, read and apply Buddhist doctrines emerges.