Kasina

In Buddhism, kasina are a class of basic visual objects of meditation. There are ten kasina:
# earth ("pathavi kasina"),
# water ("apo kasina"),
# air, wind ("vayo kasina"),
# fire ("tejo kasina"),
# blue, green ("nila kasina"),
# yellow ("pita kasina"),
# red ("lohita kasina"),
# white ("odata kasina"),
# enclosed space, hole, aperture ("akasa kasina"),
# bright light ("aloka kasina").

The kasina are typically described as a colored disk, with the particular color, properties, dimensions and medium often specified according to the type of kasina. The earth kasina, for instance, is a disk in a red-brown color formed by spreading earth or clay (or another medium producing similar color and texture) on a screen of canvas or another backing material.

Kasina meditation is a concentration meditation (variously known in different traditions as "samatha", "dhyana", or "jnana" meditations), intended to settle the mind of the practitioner and create a foundation for further practices of meditation. In the early stages of kasina meditation, a physical object is used as the object of meditation, being focused upon by the practitioner until an eidetic image of the object forms in the practitioners mind. In more advanced levels of kasina meditation, only a mental image of the kasina is used as an object of meditation. Unlike the breath, Buddhist tradition indicates that the kasina are not appropriate objects for certain higher levels of meditation, nor for meditation of the "vipassana" (insight) type.

The ten kasina are part of the forty "kammatthana": objects of meditation. They are described in detail by Buddhaghosa in the meditation section of the Visuddhimagga. A survey of meditation techniques in the UK found that those who do Kasina practice form about 3-15% of total meditators [Kruawan Sookcharoen (1998) "Meditation: A Therapeutic Tool For Managing Stress", unpublished M.Sc. Nursing Studies thesis (King’s College, London). 3% for Kasina alone, 15% if those practising the "aloka kasina" practice of Dhammakaya meditation are included]

References

External links

* [http://www.birken.ca/texts/Kasina_final.html "Colour-Kasina Meditation,"] by Thitapu Bhikkhu, includes instructions for use and construction of the "kasina" object.
* [http://www.greatwesternvehicle.org/kasina.htm "Kasina: The use of a Visual Meditation Object" (2004),] by Sotapanna Jhanananda (Jeffrey S. Brooks), describes the context for "kasina" objects in the pursuit of Nibbana and discusses the color of an "earth" "kasina".
* [http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.1:1:589.pali "Kasiṇa(2),"] [Pali Text Society|PTS] Pali-English Dictionary entry, includes Tipitaka references and related terms.