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.

■ Your cell: raise a monk of your own
- Home is a single room of an ancient Indian monastery, where your pixel-art monk lives.
- He has four hearts: mind, wisdom, stamina and belly. They slowly fade over time.
- Meditating fills his mind and studying fills his wisdom. An alms round fills his belly, and resting on his bed restores his stamina.
- Tap the screen to talk with him. He tells you what he needs: "I'm hungry", "I want to sit"... He never dies or runs away.
- "Words" opens Today's words: one passage a day from the Heart Sutra, Vimalakirti, the Lotus Sutra, Nagarjuna, Shantideva and more, with the original text and a short explanation.
- The cell starts bare: a stone bed, a grass mat, a clay lamp. As wholesome seeds accumulate, a mendicant's belongings arrive in 30 small steps: a water pot, a mala, an iron alms bowl, palm-leaf scriptures, an incense holder, a walking staff...
- His robe changes too: a layman's white, then the shaved head and ochre robe of a novice, the saffron robe of full ordination, a scholar's stitched border, and finally a kathina robe.
- He grows from a village youth into a novice, bhikshu, scholar monk, acharya and arhat. Each advancement opens a chapter of his life with Master Shilabhadra and his brother monk (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.