VIPASSANÃ MEDITATION (2)

If he does not observe these experiences mindfully, he will like them and may desire more of them. He may become very satisfied with his practice and he may think this is Nibbãna (the cessation of all kinds of suffering) because this is the best experience he has ever had.

All this happens because he does not observe his pleasant experiences, and so is attached to them. This attachment arises depending on the pleasant feeling or sensation about good experience.

If a meditator enjoys this pleasant feeling about his good experience without being mindful of it, he is sure to become attached to it. So, he should observe and be aware and mindful of whatever experience he has encountered at this stage. He must not analyse it or think about it, but must be aware of the experience as it really occurre. He must do do so in order to realise that this experience of the mental process or mental state is subject to impermanence. Whenever he notes, he finds that the experience is not everlasting.

When the 'nothing mind' becomes constant, sustained and powerful, it penetrates into the nature of his experience, i.e. the mental state. The mind begins to realise that the experience has disappeared. Whenever it arises, the mind notes it, and again it disappears. He then concludes that this pleasant feeling together with his experience is impermanent (anicca), because he has comprehended the nature of impermanence through his personal experience of the Dhamma.

Here, Dhamma means mental as well as physical processes. Because he has realised that the pleasant sensation together with the good experience is impermanent, he will not to be attached to it. Attachment will not arise when the meditator rightly understands the true nature of good mental states or a good experience.


CHAIN OF CAUSE AND EFFECT

When attachment does not arise, grasping or upãdãna will not arise. When grasping does not arise, there will not be any wholesome or unwholesome actions, verbal, physical or mental. The action that is caused by grasping is known as kãmmã-bhãva. This may be wholesome or unwholesome. Wholesome bodily action is kusala kãyã-kãmmã. Unwholesome bodily action is akusala kãyã-kãmmã. Wholesome verbal action is kusala vaci-kãmmã. UnWholesome verbal action is akusala vaci-kãmmã. Wholesome mental action is kusala mano-kãmmã. Unwholesome mental action is akusala mano-kãmmã. These actions or kãmmã arise through the grasping which is the result of attachment to any pleasant or unpleasant feeling or sensation (vedanã paccaya tanhã).

When any bodily, verbal or mental action is carried out, it becomes a cause. This cause has its result which may occur in this life, or future lives. So in this way, a being is reborn again as a result of his wholesome or unwholesome actions. There actions are caused by the grasping which has attachment as its root. Attachment, in turn, is conditioned through feeling or sensation, vedanã. In this way, a being will be reborn in the next existence to experience a variety of suffering because he does not observe his pleasant feelings as past of his experience.

Therefore, if a meditator thinks that feelings should not be observed, he will be carried away along the Chain of Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppada). He will be reborn in the next existence and suffer from a variety of dukkha. That is why the Buddha teaches us to be mindful of any kind of feeling or sensation whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.


MINDFULNESS OF FEELING

Mindfulness of sensation or contemplation of sensation is known as Vedanãnupassana Satipatthana. Usually at the beginning of the practice, the meditator feels the unpleasant physical sensations as well as mental sensations. Here we need to explain again the two kinds of sensation:

i. Kãyikã vedanã - physical sensation
ii. Cetasikã vedanã - mental sensation

If the feeling or sensation arises depending on physical processes, it is known as kãyikã vedanã. We may translate it as physical feeling or sensation, or bodily feeling on mental processes, it is called cetasikã vedanã. We may render it as mental feeling or mental sensation. Actually, every feeling, every sensation is a mental process, not a physical process. However, sometimes feeling or sensation arises depending on the physical process of discomfort. When a meditator feels discomfort in his body, then unpleasant sensation arises. That unpleasant sensation is called kãyikã vedanã; because it arises depending on physical processes.

In the beginning me the practice, a meditator generally experiences mostly unpleasant mental and physical sensations. But whatever sensation he may experience, he must observe it very attentively, energetically and precisely so that he can realise the true nature of that feeling or sensation. The specific and the general characteristics of the feeling must be thoroughly realised so that he will not be attached to it or repulsed by it. This is Vedanãnupassana Satipatthana mindfulness of feelings....