Araya: Buddhist Meditation

There are many meditation apps. But Buddhism explained why meditation works a very long time ago. Araya lets you learn, sit with, and grow into the two great ideas of Mahayana Buddhism, emptiness and Yogacara (consciousness-only), as a monk of your own. ■ Monastery: live in an ancient Indian sangha - Your hero is a village youth knocking at the gate of a great monastery like Nalanda. - Every sitting and every lesson stores wholesome seeds in the alaya-vijnana, and he grows: novice, bhikshu, scholar monk, acharya, and finally arhat. - His home changes too: under a banyan by the gate, a novice's grass hut, a bhikshu's cell, a scholar's room at Nalanda, the acharya's teaching hall, and beneath the Bodhi tree. - Swipe to look around his home. Tap him to walk or sit. - In "My cell", walk around a 3D room with your fully animated monk: tap the floor and he walks there; on the cushion he sits in full lotus. - Each advancement opens a chapter of his life with Master Shilabhadra and his brother monk Mitra (16 chapters). ■ Sit: contemplations that meditate on the teaching itself - Four on emptiness: Observing the Five Aggregates / Contemplating Dependent Origination / Analyzing the Absence of Own-Being / The Form-and-Emptiness Breath - Four Yogacara contemplations: Labeling the Eight Consciousnesses / Watching the Manas / Turning the Three Natures / The Dream Contemplation - Three minutes each, with a spoken guide. Choose the voice, pitch and speed. - 4-7-8 breathing with the longest out-breath. Follow it by ear with Zen temple, shakuhachi, waves or voice. - Keeps playing with the screen off, so you can sit with your eyes closed. ■ Study: a real course in Mahayana Buddhism - From the Four Truths and dependent origination to the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka, Yogacara and Buddha-nature. - Five-minute lessons with the original verse and a quiz. ■ Monk: your record of practice - Ranks follow a real path of practice, the 16 stages to arhatship. - Attributes are the six paramitas: generosity, discipline, patience, effort, meditation and wisdom. - A broken streak is fine. Coming back counts as patience. ■ Japanese, English and Hindi - Switch any time in Settings. Free, with no ads. All data stays on your device; no account needed. Optional offerings (in-app purchases) support development and do not affect the game. One seed today, for your alaya-vijnana.