VIPASSANA MEDITATION RETREAT
Many people all over the world are now practicing the Buddhist meditation known as Vipassana or insight meditation. Western psychotherapies have taken it up as well as ordinary people who have found it beneficial in coping with the stresses and strains of modern life, and many are increasingly taking time out to attend Vipassana retreats.
Vipassana meditation can be done quite successfully to some extent in everyday life on a casual, occasional basis as long as the practitioner has an ongoing commitment. However, to realise its ultimate benefit the practice needs to deepen, and that is best done in a supportive retreat environment where the meditator can be totally focused on the practice.
We can’t gloss over the fact that Vipassana meditation is a demanding practice. It requires serious practitioners to devote themselves full-time to the practice in a retreat situation in order to be able to sustain the practice with appropriate intensity. This needs supportive conditions such as have been itemised in the Visuddhimagga or the Path of Purification as the Seven Types of Suitability:
• Place or Dwelling – a well-furnished and supported centre or monastery, secluded and quiet,
easily accessible, few insects, with the basic requirements of food, clothes and medicine.
• Location – not too far from or close to a town.
• Food – a balanced diet, healthy, digestible and nourishing, taken in moderate amounts.
• People – other meditators as companions, who are considerate, with a good attitude and practice.
• Teacher – a learned and respected teacher, who speaks and listens well.
• Noble Silence – to be maintained during practice, other than at interviews with the teacher.
• Weather – not too hot or cold – ideally a temperate climate.
Vipassana retreat centres catering for lay people are quite a recent trend in Buddhism; originating in Myanmar after the Second World War, when the first Burmese Prime Minister U Nu, a keen meditator, invited the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw to teach in a meditation centre he set up in Yangon, the Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha.
This was the beginning of the modern revival of Vipassana meditation which, while originating in Myanmar, was soon to spread to other Theravada Buddhist countries in South East Asia and then later to retreat centres in the West. Now many Vipassana retreat centres, in various traditions, have been set up around the world to provide the conditions needed for Vipassana practice, usually to the exclusion of any religious or study activities.
A worldwide Insight Meditation culture has evolved which caters for lay meditators who are not necessarily Buddhists, and often with lay teachers, supported by senior monastic teachers in the lineage. This style of practice, while demanding, has proved to be popular because its methods and techniques can be systematically taught and its practitioners are usually able to experience at least the psychological insights and healing benefits from its practice. This interest has created a pool of knowledge and experience in Vipassana practice with trained teachers in many different countries.
An introductory Vipassana retreat usually lasts two or three days. These introductory retreats are more in the nature of workshops, where one learns the techniques and methods involved under the guidance of a teacher. The intensive Vipassana retreats are more challenging and can run for ten, twenty days, or even up to three months of fulltime practice. It is a requirement that participants undertake the Five or Eight Precepts. These precepts are the foundation of all Buddhist training. The underlying principle is non-exploitation of yourself or others. With a developed ethical base, much of the emotional conflict and stress that we experience is resolved, allowing commitment and more conscious choice.
The retreats are conducted in Noble Silence, which besides no talking includes no communication through body language, no listening to music, and no reading or writing except for brief notes to record the meditation experience. There are, however, opportunities to discuss the practice with the teacher during individual interviews or during group discussions.
A typical retreat day begins between 5 AM and 6 AM and usually ends around 9 PM or 10 PM with a rest period in the middle of the day after lunch. The whole day is spent practising sitting and walking meditation, together with cultivating continuous attention to the changing nature of one’s moment-to-moment experience during daily activities. The retreat teacher gives evening talks to inspire and explain the practice, providing a time for questions and answers, as well as conducting personal interviews usually on every second day.
An intensive Vipassana meditation retreat is a challenging undertaking, which requires effort and self-discipline. A retreat is not just a chance to escape the pressures of daily life, nor time out in which to do one’s own thing. Rather it is an opportunity to cultivate the Buddha's Way of Liberation through the practice of ethics (sila), meditation (samadhi), and insight (panna). Walking this path, we can learn to abandon actions of body, speech and mind that bring suffering to ourselves and those around us, and cultivate actions that bring happiness and harmony to ourselves and also to those with whom we are in relationship with.
Above all, the intensive Vipassana retreat is a situation that requires the meditator to leave aside mundane concerns and commit oneself to the training, in order to attain the insights that the Buddha declared has the potential to realise Nirvana in this very life
Whether this is a first time experience of intensive meditation or you are a meditator who has some experience in this style of Vipassana practice, every meditator at the beginning of a retreat will need to make some adjustment to the retreat situation - at least in having to settle down and get into the rhythm of the practice.
First let us look how one relates to an intensive retreat situation and the way to adjust to the retreat environment, before the basic instructions and the framework that puts the practice into its context are given.
Self-regulatory Approach
This is not a group practice. There are no formal group sittings or any orchestrated practice. The walking and sitting meditation sessions are done individually to allow you to go at your own pace. As this is essentially a self-regulatory practice, it is necessary that you learn how to manage yourself in the practice so that you can make your own adjustments as you go along with the help of the teacher. To self-manage the practice requires you have a thorough understanding of what you are doing as far as techniques and strategies go.
For the practice to stay on track though, it is important that the teacher and the student work together in tandem. The teacher needs to be a technician of Vipassana meditation with travel experience, whose role is to instruct, inspire and guide the meditator. But even when you go along with a guide, you still have to do your own work, which in this case is quite demanding, as the practice requires honesty, patience, and above all, persistence.
Putting Aside Unfinished Business
At the beginning of the retreat, there can be a lot of busyness of an ongoing nature in the mind that is brought into the retreat. Perhaps there is some 'unfinished business' you have not dealt with, especially if it is of an emotional nature such as a problem in a relationship. So at the start of a retreat, it is useful to make a formal determination to oneself (adithani) to put aside as much as possible all outside business for the duration of the retreat. This will help you to settle and minimise the disturbances these preoccupations have on the mind.
Be Gentle with Yourself
Be gentle with yourself as perhaps you are carrying a sleep-debt or are stressed. Most people, at least initially and up to two to three days, will experience some sleepiness and restlessness at the beginning of a retreat. If you allow for that, and without reacting too much to it, you will soon find yourself settling down into the routine of the retreat. So allow for a settling-in period as you recuperate and allow the mind to settle down somewhat. Then you will be able to focus your attention on what is happening in your own mind-body and in good time as the practice matures you will experience the naturally silent mind.
Changing the Focus
In everyday life we are naturally preoccupied with the content of our minds – the internal narrative, our story. For the most part, we are externally focused on sensory objects. What needs to happen is the change in one's focus from the sensory world with its external focus to an inner exploration of our own mind-body experience. In the intensive retreat situation, as the mind settles down, there is a switch to investigating the natural processes of the mind and body from a state of increased receptivity. Although the switch of focus will naturally happen in the course of the retreat, it can be useful to intentionally change the focus of the attention from the external to internal by inhibiting the wanderings at the sense doors such as seeing, hearing, etc. In this way, the attention is refocused to introspect or see into one's own subjective mind and body experience.
Getting Around in the Retreat Environment
Use the whole of the retreat environment as your practice arena. Do not confine the practice just to the formal sitting in the meditation hall. Have a more holistic approach. It is all about staying watchful and attentive as much as possible in the total retreat environment - in the bathroom, dining room, sleeping place, and as you travel from place to place. Start by being more deliberate in your movements and actions as you move around the retreat. This will help you to slow down and to settle. It is recommended that as the meditator moves around the retreat centre, one keeps the eyes restrained – no sightseeing, no verbal or non-verbal communication. This helps to maintain your concentration and support your fellow retreatants’ practice.
Maintaining the Intensity
It is essential to maintain the intensity of the practice without straining. Steady and sustained application is needed in all areas of practice, in sitting, walking and detailed awareness of activities throughout the day. But be careful not to over-exert yourself thereby creating stress, as it is not possible to be one hundred percent at all times. One has to go with one's natural rhythms and one's energy cycles. A balanced effort is required that needs to be as continuous as possible, as it creates the momentum to build up the awareness to finally deepen the practice.
Relating to your Experience
Notice how you are relating to your experience. Check whether you are evaluating or judging the practice. Try to have no expectations, just let it unfold. Right or skillful attitude is one of acceptance of whatever conditions and mind state arises, whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Monitor your mind states, emotions and feelings as much as possible without reacting to them. This acceptance and non-reactive awareness of whatever you are experiencing will develop the maturity factor of equanimity.
How to Act during an Intensive Retreat
* Act like an invalid
During practice, a meditator needs to move slowly and take extra care while making body movements just like an invalid or like a person who is suffering from severe back pain. A person with a chronic back problem must always be cautious and move slowly just to avoid pain. In the same way, a meditator should try to keep to slow and deliberate movements in all actions. While it is not a slow motion exercise, per se, slowing down in intensive meditation is necessary to establish moment-to-moment awareness. If you are still operating in top gear, bring the mind to low gear and be patient with the change of speed until you are able to slow down and function in low gear at all times.
Act like a blind person
It is advisable for a meditator to behave as a blind person during the course of the training. A person without restraint will be constantly scanning around to look at external things that randomly take his or her attention. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain a steady and calm state of mind. On the other hand, a blind person behaves in a composed manner, sitting quietly with downcast eyes. One never turns in any direction to look at things because, of course, being blind one cannot see them. This composed manner of a blind person is worth imitating. A meditator should not go sightseeing! Stay focused on the meditation object without exception. If a sight happens to take one’s attention, then make a mental note of it immediately, as "seeing", “seeing".
Act like a deaf person
It is necessary for a meditator to also act like a deaf person. Ordinarily as soon as a person hears a sound, one turns around and look in the direction from where the sound came or one turns towards the person who spoke and makes a reply. A deaf person on the other hand behaves in a composed manner. They do not respond to any sound or conversation because they never hear them. In the same way, a meditator should not respond to any sound or any unimportant talk, nor should he or she deliberately listen to any talk. If one happens to hear any sound or speech, one should immediately note "hearing", hearing". The meditator should be so intent on the practice that they could be mistaken for a deaf person.
In brief, act like a Vipassana meditator – careful and aware, patient, restrained, with no distracting communication, relaxed, self-monitoring, eager, accepting conditions, inquisitive, diligent, detached sensually and equanimous.
* Advice given by Mahasi Sayadaw.
3. The Framework for the Practice
In the first teaching, known as the Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta), the Buddha presented his core teaching: The Four Noble Truths*, which includes the Eight-Fold Practice Path that highlights the key meditation skill of sati or mindfulness. Later the Buddha expands on the practice of being mindful, in a teaching that consists of a set of instructions with clear directions called the Satipatthana Sutta, or the discourse on ‘The Four Establishments of Mindfulness’.
This text is a path map with detailed instructions on four frames of reference, which can be viewed as a framework for the practice of mindfulness. The Buddha very clearly states the aims and outcome of this practice, allowing for no doubt or misinterpretation. In the preamble to the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha is reported to have said:
"Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the ending of suffering (dukkha), for acquiring the true method, for the realisation of Nirvana - by means of the four satipatthanas".
Before we go any further, the term ‘satipatthana’ needs to be understood, as it is the essential practice in Vipassana meditation. As a compound word ‘satipatthana’ consist of two words: sati, which means ‘presence’ (of mind) or ‘to remember’ in the sense of remembering to stay present in the here and now, while upatthana is literally ‘placing near’. It should be enough to leave the explanation at that but we have to accept the commonly used translation of ‘sati’ as ‘mindfulness’. That being the case, ‘satipatthana’ can be understood as: attending with mindfulness or being actively attentive.
(It would be more accurate to call this practice Satipatthana rather than Vipassana as the actual practice is satipatthana while Vipassana is its outcome, i.e. insight. But it seems we have go along now with the established usage).
At its most basic the framework for the practice consists of four areas of attention:
(1) bodily phenomena (2) feelings and sensations (3) mind states and/or consciousness, and (4) mind qualities or mental phenomena.
To stay on track, the Vipassana meditator needs to be at least familiar with the text. A way to understand it is to see it as a framework for the practice. It is not expected that the beginner can work with the complete set of instructions as given in the text, although it is useful to have an overview of the instructions and directions given. The entry level is usually some aspect of the Contemplation of the Body, while mature practitioners may have an affinity for a particular satipatthana or some combination of them.
Here is an outline of the text but I would encourage you to study it in depth in the recommended books below. *
1. CONTEMPLATION OF THE BODY (Kyanupassana)
• Mindfulness of Breathing
• Four Postures of the Body
• Clear Knowing of Activities
• Anatomical Parts
• The Four Material Elements
• The Corpse in Decay
2. CONTEMPLATION OF FEELINGS (Vedananupassana)
Pleasant Feeling
Unpleasant Feeling
Neutral Feeling
3. CONTEMPLATION OF THE MIND (Cittanupassana)
• Four “Ordinary States” of Mind
• Four “Higher” States” of Mind
4. CONTEMPLATION OF THE MENTAL PHENOMENA * (Dhammanupassana)|
• The Five Hindrances
• The Five Aggregates
• Six Sense-Spheres
• Seven Awakening Factors
• The Four Noble Truths
There can be many ways to the same destination. The particular approach in this retreat follows the lineage of the late Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar. The method is that of 'bare insight', where, by direct observation, one's own bodily and mental processes are seen with increasing clarity, in the insight knowledges as inconstancy, distress and not-self.
The 'bare insight' meditator begins by tuning into the air element (vayo-dhatu) manifesting as vibration or movement in the abdomen in sitting and as movement in the steps taken in walking. This practice is taken from the Four Material Elements meditation in the body contemplation section. It focuses primarily on the air element and is combined with clear knowing of daily activities. The other main sections of the Satipatthana Sutta, feelings, mind states and mental phenomena are worked with as secondary objects as they occur.
The Two Types of Meditation
For clarity’s sake, one needs to be familiar with the two types of meditation techniques: Serenity Meditation (samatha), which is concentration based on fixing on a single object in order to attain one-pointedness, inducing a calm state; and the Insight Meditation (vipassana), which is an awareness practice where one experientially investigates one’s own mind/body processes. These two types of meditation can be combined, or Vipassana, as 'pure’ or ‘bare’ insight, can be done by itself.
Three Types of Concentration
As it is necessary for the meditator to be familiar with the two types of meditation and their outcomes, it is also useful to understand the three types of concentration in meditation. They are: one-pointedness (appana), which is a meditative absorption or Jhana; access or threshold concentration (upacara); and momentary concentration (khanika). As one-pointedness or the Jhana type is largely confined to serenity meditation (samatha), it is enough here to explain the other two types of concentration found in the ‘bare’ Vipassana meditation approach.
Momentary Concentration
The bare Vipassana meditator uses momentary concentration, which comes about through the noting of vipassana objects, that is, noting the various mental and physical phenomena that occur in the mind and body, as they arise. It is called momentary (khanika) because it occurs only at the moment of noting - not on a fixed object as in samatha meditation – as one is present with changing objects or phenomena that occur in the mind and body from moment-to-moment.
Threshold Concentration
In Vipassana, some degree of threshold concentration - also known as access concentration (upacara samadhi) – naturally arises with fluency in the practice, but it is not specifically induced in any way. Threshold and momentary concentration are more than sufficient for Vipassana practice, as most of the subjects in the Satipatthana Sutta lead only to threshold or momentary concentration. The exceptions are mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) and contemplation of the anatomical parts of the body (asubha). The other sections develop threshold concentration and momentary concentration. Generally it can be said that a person reaches threshold concentration when The Five Hindrances* are inhibited.
Unfortunately, the conditions that exist in the modern world are not conducive to developing the Jhanas. Yet in the latter stages of attainment most commentators agree that Jhana is necessary. However, with the pressures and stressful pace of life, most people find little time for intensive meditation; the same can be said for the ordained Sangha as well, as they too can be caught up in administrative work and study.
So we are following here the path of the dry or bare Vipassana practitioner, without Jhanas, whose knowledge is not from learning, reading or listening to talks, but from one’s own direct experience. By experientially knowing the characteristics of the mind and body with insight into their impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality, the meditator is freed by insight alone.
The Process of Purifying the Mind
The Five or Eight Precepts, as well as the 227 training rules of the monk, are undertaken by the meditator to restrain the mind and develop morality. But precepts and rules by themselves do not purify the mind, especially as there is a tendency to ritualise them rather than to actualize them. While they can be helpful in restraining one’s behaviour, being conceptual they are not experientially transforming of themselves.
Concentration (samadhi) by itself merely suppresses the mental impurities temporarily as it works only on the manifest level of the mind. It does not clear the dormant, or latent material of the mind, that is, the inherent tendencies of the mind.
Vipassana meditation is the direct way to purify the mind of its latent tendencies. Deep vipassana practice leads to the insight knowledges (vipassana nanas) and ultimately to Path and Fruition Attainment (magga-phala) through experientially knowing the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence. This then, as the Buddha states, is the practice for the purification of the mind and for the liberation of beings.
Psychotherapy before Meditation?
In the Western meditation culture, there is an ongoing debate on whether one needs to do psychotherapy before meditation. This is because often meditators, especially Vipassana meditators, experience mental problems and difficulties as they meditate. Well, leaving aside whether a person comes to the practice with a pre-existing mental problem or not, from a Buddhist perspective it is the mental impurities of greed, hatred and delusion (kilesas) that meditators are essentially experiencing. These mental impurities are not to be confused with clinical conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders. For most people, the negative emotions as well as the latent tendencies hidden in the mind – however strong and entrenched they may be - are workable in the long run through Vipassana meditation.
Again for most people, at least initially, it is an essential part of the Vipassana experience that one goes through the purification process that the Buddha refers to in the Satipatthana Sutta. One has to allow for a ventilation of the deep mental accumulation as one meditates so that the dormant impurities of anger, lust, and delusion are released - that is, cleansed.
The attitude of the meditator, or the way he or she relates to the meditation experience, is critical in the practice. It is vital that one allows any negative material to surface, and doesn’t react or play back into it. In this way, a non-reactive awareness develops that allows for a natural purging and cleansing of the mind.
Referring back to the text we have been following, the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha gave a specific time frame for attainment in this practice: from 7 years to 7 days. For a beginner, a 10-day retreat is hardly enough time to complete the practice, but by working sincerely during this retreat you can establish the basis for an ongoing practice, which potentially can lead to the ultimate liberation and the absolute peace of Nirvana.
Recommended source material:
* The Satipatthana Sutta can be found in Venerable Nyanaponika's first-rate book on Vipassana meditation, "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation"; or for a deeper analysis of the text, “Satipatthana, the Direct Path to Realisation”, by Ven. Analayo, published by Windhorse Publications 2003.
* Footnote:
The Five Hindrances or obstacles to the practice path:
• Sensuality
• Ill will
• Mental inertia
• Restlessness and worry
• Skeptical doubt
5 Aggregates of Grasping:
• Body
• Feelings
• Perception
• Mental formations
• Consciousness
7 Factors of Awakening:
• Mindfulness
• Investigation of the dhamma (phenomena)
• Effort
• Non-sensuous Joy
• Tranquility
• Concentration
• Equanimity
6 Internal and 6 External Sense-Spheres:
• Eye and sights
• Ear and sounds
• Nose and smells
• Tongue and tastes
• Body and tangibles
• Mind and thoughts, memories or reflections
* 4 Noble Truths:
• The fact of suffering
• Cause of suffering
• Ending of suffering
• Way to the ending of suffering, i.e. the Noble 8-Fold Path
These Three Areas of Practice is the basic practice structure to follow. If you can link them together the benefit is that it will create a continuous 'thread of awareness' throughout the day that brings the momentum that is needed to deepen the practice.
1. During Formal Sitting – where the primary focus is on the rise and fall movement of the abdomen, switching to secondary objects such as sensations, thinking, mind states, etc, as they arise.
2. During Formal Walking – sensing into the movement of the foot as the component parts of the step in walking are meticulously noted.
3. During Daily Activities – maintaining clear knowing of all body movements and postures with the support of mental noting throughout the day's activities.
The Techniques of Mental Noting
A useful device to support meditative attention is naming or labeling the various objects as you investigate your own body and mind experience. Used judiciously, it is a very useful tool for focusing and sustaining the attention. The noting is done by repeatedly making a mental note of whatever takes your attention in your body and mind: for example, ‘touching’, ‘touching’, 'feeling', 'feeling', 'thinking', 'thinking', etc. This is a powerful aid to help establish attentiveness especially at the beginning of practice, when it is vital to systematically note or label as much as possible to establish the attention. Otherwise, it is possible to get lost in unnoticed wanderings with long periods of inattention.
If the noting becomes mechanical or is so clumsy that it is interfering with the subtle attention then one needs to back off and do it more lightly. When mentally noting, ninety percent or more of the effort should go into being with the experience of the object and the rest in the labeling. When you have succeeded in sustaining the attention and the awareness has matured, only then should the mental noting be dropped. Although I would be careful not to drop the noting prematurely as it does bring the advantage of mental detachment.
Having acquired the ability to monitor your experience with just ‘bare’ attention, you will need to return to the mental noting only when the attention weakens, is lost or needs to be re-established. The mental noting can also be combined with the practice of orientating to a sense door by naming the physical and mental objects as they arise during a sense impression. This practice also helps with the restraint of the senses. Be careful not to analyse or classify what is being observed, just register or note it without reaction, or if there is a reaction be aware of the reaction itself.
Instruction for Sitting Meditation
The first step is to find a balanced sitting posture. You should be relaxed and yet your spine should be straight with its natural curve. You may have noticed how a five-year-old sits up in a balanced way without effort. Allow your head to balance freely on the spine, checking that it is not pulled back or fixed. Allow your chin to drop so that your eyes and ears are at about the same level with the face relaxed.
If sitting on the floor, use cushion(s) so that your knees are below your hips and in contact with the floor (otherwise your spine will collapse) or else use a chair with a firm base (not a sofa). Slumping only increases the pressure on the legs and discomfort in the back. Check that your breathing is free and easy - any restriction indicates a fixed posture. Turn your awareness to the parts of your body, which contact the cushion, floor or chair, softening onto the supporting surfaces. It is useful to spend five minutes scanning the entire body, part by part, in order to relax each individual region.
Note that there is no such thing as 'perfect posture'. Postural aches will come and go as a natural part of the unfolding practice. One’s posture will never be one hundred percent. It is more important to concentrate on the meditation process in hand rather than trying to achieve a perfect posture. If pain becomes overwhelming or is due to injury, mindfully adjust the posture after noting the various sensations. However, as concentration develops, sensations of hotness, stiffness and itchiness will arise, as part of the contemplation of feeling and sensation, and here it is important to note them mindfully without fidgeting.
It is sensible to attend to your posture with wisdom, not insensitive willpower. Posture will improve with time, but you need to work with the body, not use force against it. If you have a lot of pain during a period of sitting, change posture, sit on a chair or use a kneeling stool, or even stand up for a while. A preparatory session at the beginning of the sitting session is valuable, where you systematically relax and open up the body and check your sitting posture.
Checking your posture:
• Are the hips leaning back? This will cause you to slump.
• The lower back should retain its natural, unforced curve so that the abdomen is forward and 'open'.
• Imagine that someone is gently pushing between the shoulder blades, but keep the muscles
relaxed.
• Note and gently release any tension in the neck and shoulder region.
Once you have settled into a comfortable, upright, balanced position then you are ready to begin meditating. Do not move the body during a formal sitting session unless you absolutely have to. If you do move, then note the movement and sensations as you move. Be clear what has caused you to move: is it the pain or discomfort of the posture or is it some agitation in the mind? In this way, you will come to know cause and effect.
Tuning into the Primary Object
One needs to first establish the attention into the body. To do this, you connect with the predominant touch sensation of hardness or softness (earth element) from the body's contact with the cushion or chair. This will anchor the attention to the body, especially when assisted by the mental label of 'touching', 'touching'. Stay with the sitting touch point until it is well defined. Then from the sitting ‘touch point’ allow the attention to move into the natural rising and falling movement of the abdomen, which then becomes the primary meditation focus. Having tuned into the movement make a mental note or label it as 'rising', 'rising' concurrently with the upward movement and 'falling', 'falling' with the downward movement.
Make sure when noting the rise and fall movement of the abdomen, that you are connecting with the airflow and not just the conceptual form and shape of the abdomen. When you have tuned into the specific characteristics in the movement, such as vibration, pressure, etc and the subtle, fine nuances of the movement, then one knows that one is on track.
Primary and Secondary Objects
The primary focus in the sitting meditation is the movement caused by the expansion and contraction of the abdomen. This is not to be confused with any breathing practice. Be careful not to manipulate or force the natural movement in any way. Close attentiveness to the internal abdominal movement has to be established and developed by the meditator from the beginning. You will find that secondary objects such as thinking, body sensations, pain, emotions, mind states, mental images, etc, will take the attention away. Then you must allow the attention to avert to them and mentally note these secondary objects as best you can without reactions. Just register the arisen secondary objects with ‘bare attention’ as a witness. After which, one returns again to the rise and fall movement of the abdomen with close attentiveness.
It is important to be aware of the specific characteristics of the various experiences under observation e.g. a series of sensations in the movement of the abdomen (wind element) or the specific characteristics found in pain such as heat, throbbing, etc. (fire element). Maintaining the crossed legged sitting posture without moving allows you to focus intensely and apprehend at a microscopic level the body's elements and the subtle mind events.
Maintaining ‘Presence’ during the Changeover
At the end of each sitting session allow for a gentle transition. That is, do not abruptly breakout of the meditation, but carefully follow through by being aware of unfolding the limbs while noting the body sensations, the release of the pressure in the posture, and the detailed movements in standing up and stretching. In this way, you are carrying the practice into the next activity as well as sustaining the mindfulness and concentration that would have developed during the sitting session.
Take extra care in the traveling between the sitting and the formal walking meditation. Note all the detailed movements of the body as you move. Try to do this without a break, because by connecting the sitting and walking sessions it will bring the continuity to the practice that is necessary for it to deepen.
Technique in Walking Meditation
While meditation is usually associated with the sitting posture, Vipassana meditation exercises are also practised while walking. The walking exercise is essentially about the awareness of movement as you note the component parts of the steps. Alternating walking meditation with sitting meditation helps to keep one’s meditation practice in balance and the mind fresh and the body relaxed.
Walking meditation is a skillful way to energise the practice if the calming effect of sitting is making you dull or you are becoming over concentrated. Actually for many experienced insight meditators, it can be the preferred mode as it is a dynamic meditation that invigorates the practice.
You will need to find a level surface from ten to fifteen metres long on which you can walk back and forth. Your arms should hang naturally with your hands lightly clasped in front. Gaze at a point about two metres on the floor in front of you to avoid visual distractions.
Establish your attentiveness by first noting the standing posture and the touch sensation of the feet at the start of the walking track. Then, as you walk, keep the attention on the movement of the foot without identifying with it and not on the leg or any other part of the body.
For the first five to ten minutes or so, you can start with noting each step as 'left', 'right', then you can move to noting four parts of each step: 'lifting', 'pushing', 'dropping', and ‘touching’. Mentally note or label each step part-by-part, building up until you are noting all the six component parts, 'raising', 'lifting', 'pushing', 'dropping', 'touching', and 'pressing', concurrently with the actual experience of the movements.
While walking and noting the parts of the steps, you will probably find the mind is still thinking. Not to worry, keep focused on the noting of the steps as long as the thoughts remain just as 'background thoughts'. However if you find you have been walking and 'lost in thought', you must stop and vigorously note the thinking as 'thinking', 'thinking', 'thinking' until it stops. Then re-establish your attention on the movement of the foot and carry on. Keep the foot soft and relax and be careful that the mental noting does not become so mechanical that you lose the experience of the movement.
Try to do a minimum walking period of half an hour, and build it up to a full hour. Strategically it is better to do a walking period before a sitting session, especially first thing in the morning, as it loosens stiff muscles and also after meals as it assist digestion and helps to avoid sleepiness. If you can alternate the walking and sitting sessions without any major breaks you will develop a continuity of awareness that naturally carries through into the awareness of daily activities.
Awareness of Daily Activities
For the awareness to deepen, continuity that gives momentum to the practice must be maintained for at least three or more hours in the practice day. Continuity arises through careful and precise attention to movements and postures for as long as possible during the routine activities of the day.
Again we use the ‘primary and secondary object’ strategy to help maintain awareness throughout the day. As you walk about in the retreat environment maintain awareness of, or mentally note the steps as you walk, as ‘walking’, ‘walking’. Then as you stand, ‘standing’, ‘standing’, or when sitting, ‘sitting’, ‘sitting’ or laying down, as ‘laying down’: that is, noting the Four Postures as the primary focus. Then as other things take your attention, such as seeing, hearing, thinking, mind states, etc., they become secondary objects. In this way, you naturally maintain moment-to-moment awareness during daily activities. It is a simple thing to do, and is used as a 'thread of awareness' practice from which you can find more details in the movement as your concentration intensifies.
Monitor the four main postures throughout the day, until the end of the day when you lay down to take rest for the night. There are many details to be found in the posture movements as you make a transition from one posture to another. This will help to maintain the continuity of the attention, which in Vipassana practice is the key to its success.
You would start this attentiveness to the postures from the moment of awakening in bed in the lying down posture: first note or be aware of all the touch sensations of the body on the bed. Then as you rise note the sitting posture as 'sitting', ‘sitting’ and then having got out of bed, you are standing, note it as 'standing', 'standing' and as you move, note it as 'walking', 'walking' and as secondary objects arise, such as seeing, hearing, etc., pay attention to them as well.
Nothing can be dismissed as unimportant when noting daily activities such as domestic chores, eating, cleaning your teeth. All these are good opportunities for the meditator to practice presence of mind. Repeatedly note any and every movement and activity in order to establish the practice so that it becomes ‘second nature’ for you to note them in your daily routine. Of course, this is not so easy to establish. It requires patience and perseverance, especially in being kind to yourself when you feel frustrated by constant forgetfulness!
It is useful to reinforce your efforts of being attentive in daily activities by reviewing or taking stock of your mindfulness practice at the end of the day, but without evaluating or making judgments about the practice. Another way is to record the practice in a meditation diary. In this way, the patterns and habits of one’s practice will become apparent to you, which could suggest strategies and ways to work with them so as to help you to overcome any difficulties.
The strategy in working with thinking in Vipassana meditation is to first allow it to be, not getting into struggle with it, and to regard it as just another object to be noted. In time, one becomes skilled in witnessing the thinking process without becoming involved so much in the content of the mind. It is like standing on the pavement passively aware of the traffic going by without reacting to the passing traffic itself; until eventually the mind is quiet or at least it quietens down somewhat. Then the naturally quiet or silent mind opens to the direct experience of the phenomena under observation.
To have the truly 'stilled mind' is not so easy, for again and again the meditator finds himself or herself 'lost in thought', only catching the thinking retrospectively. Patience and perseverance is called for in this situation. Be assured in time that the trains of thoughts will slow down sufficiently so that you will start to notice gaps or pauses in the thoughts.
So by being aware, even just occasionally, of the gaps in the thinking, there is an opening to be able, as it were, to catch the next thought as it is forming, that is the beginning of the thought. This acts as a circuit breaker. The circuit is broken and the mind has quietened and one’s attention is able to resume noting the primary object. At this level the mind has quietened sufficiently to just know, that is, the mind knowing the mind.
In the short term, there is another way to work with circuitous thinking using 'skillful means'. That is, using the mental noting of 'thinking',' thinking', ‘thinking’ to cut the incessant thinking. But it has to be done vigorously otherwise one can find one has drifted off thinking about the nature of thought! The mental noting of thinking can be a powerful tool to inhibit the thinking, but has to be used judiciously.
There is a saying: "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional".
Understandably, meditators want the unpleasant feeling or pain they are experiencing in the practice to go away. The underlying assumption is that by bearing the pain it will go away and then they will feel good, and without the pain they will have pleasant experiences as a reward for their effort. Actually, in Vipassana meditation we do the opposite: that is, we are trying to understand the nature of pain and to investigate the so-called pain - not to get rid of it. The Vipassana meditator is very fortunate to have pain, at least posture pain, as it is an excellent teacher - with the added bonus that you will at least remain awake!
Pain is the body's signal that something is wrong. The pain is telling you that you must attend to it. The painful sensations we work with in meditation are mostly those from the sitting posture. The reason, of course, for the pain is that a person is not used to sitting in the crossed legged position for long periods at a stretch. So posture pain is workable.
The rule of thumb when working with any pain is to first check – given that it is not a pre-existing condition - whether its cause is a health problem or not. Take note as to whether the pain that one was experiencing during the sitting goes away more or less immediately after the session. If that is the case, then one can be assured that it is only posture pain and no damage is being done.
When one experiences posture pain in sitting meditation, it is actually an opportunity to work with it. Regard it as your best friend, as you can learn much from it. So do not drive it away. Invite it in and get to know it. It is not a matter of just bearing the pain. The practice is to investigate it - to penetrate it deeply. If you can successfully work with physical pain, then you are more likely to be able to work with mental pain.
Yet meditators are inclined to avoid working with pain. For example, every time they get to the threshold of pain they pull away, and this then becomes the 'pain barrier', a block in the practice. They hope that they can build up a tolerance of pain without having to work with it. But unfortunately disinclination to work with pain becomes a major mental and physical obstacle to the meditator's progress.
How to Work with Pain
It is not likely that you are experiencing pain all over the body, so first localise it, for example in the knee area. Initially, there might be muscular reaction to the pain: like when one has a dip in icy cold water, there is an initial shock, but once one is in the water usually one can bear it and stay with the cold sensations. Relax and soften into the painful sensations, looking for particular characteristics in the pain - heat, tension, stabbing, throbbing, etc.
When there is no resistance to the pain, the particular characteristics will manifest. Then when the particular characteristics are aligned with the 'knowing of' (consciousness of) the pain this will reveal the general or universal characteristics of change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
Besides posture pain, there can be all sorts of mysterious aches and pains in this type of meditation, so-called 'vipassana pain', that is, various painful sensations in the body, often so intense that you suppose there must be some medical condition causing them. If that is the case, having checked whether that is or not - then not to worry, it is all ‘workable’. They have a saying in the Burmese Vipassana tradition: "Pain is the doorway to Nibbana". The teachers are very pleased when you report interesting pain in the interview, as they know that you can make good progress in the meditation if you are prepared to work with and can sort out the pain from the suffering.
It is the resistance to the pain that is causing the suffering. The mind is striking at the so-called pain, complaining about the pain, wanting it to go away or trying to dissociate from the pain. But once you are able to work with pain you will be able to differentiate the pain from the suffering, and thus how one relates to the pain will change.
Three Kinds of Suffering
Not appreciating the basic premise of the Buddha Dharma, that is, the 1st Noble Truth, the fact of suffering (dukkha sacca), is the root of the problem. It cannot be as a senior monk has recently advocated, that the Buddha’s 1st Noble Truth is that of Happiness! Understandably, the fact of suffering is not palatable to many people; but if you think you will popularize the Buddha’s Dharma in this way then one is mistaken. This is contrary to the Buddha’s core teaching and the reason why so many people are caught in delusion. Whether we like it or not, we need to understand and be able to handle suffering to some extent, especially mental suffering, notwithstanding our inclination to acknowledge the fact of suffering or not.
Vipassana meditators are more likely to be compelled to work with the three kinds of suffering: ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha) such as emotional ups and down, and relationship difficulties. We all experience this ordinary suffering to some degree. But if you are skillful it need not be such a problem as you can work with this kind of suffering.
Then there is the suffering of change (viparinama dukkha) also known as the 'suffering of happiness'. Whether it is a change in circumstances or just a mind-state, nothing can remain the same for very long, everything, absolutely everything is subject to change. But if one is not so attached to things or relationships, then again, this type of suffering caused by change is manageable.
The third kind of suffering is not so apparent - it is conditioned or existential suffering (sankhara dukkha). Ordinary people are usually not even aware of it. It is the deep suffering stemming from the mental constructions (sankharas). It is experienced in the 'insight knowledges' (vipassana nanas) in Vipassana meditation, when the intelligence and wisdom is highly developed, that one sees that all mental and physical phenomena are unstable, unsatisfactory and are just an impersonal process - not me, not myself. The maturity of this insight brings about a deep transformation of consciousness that finally frees us from all suffering.
The purpose of Buddhist meditation, Vipassana or otherwise, is not just for curing physical diseases. If physical healing happens to occur then it is considered a byproduct of the practice, nothing more. A whole range of stress related physical illnesses such as stomach ulcers, angina, migraine, etc., could be alleviated by meditation practice. But meditation is not about miraculous cure - that is more of the nature of faith healing.
Healing and transformation is the outcome of the practice. All forms of suffering or mental pain, such as anguish, remorse, grief, etc., can be cured in Vipassana meditation, through the purification of the mind. That is the real miracle. Whether medical science can ultimately cure all physical disease is problematic, as it is the nature of the body to eventually break down. All phenomena have three phases: birth, life and death. Therefore, pain is inherent in nature. While we may or may not be able to cure physical disease, Vipassana meditation is tailored to cure mental suffering.
Nobody wants to suffer, and the underlying message of the Buddha Dharma is that suffering on all levels is unnecessary. We do not need to suffer. There is the fact of suffering, the cause of suffering, the ending of suffering and the practice path leading out of suffering. If we are suffering, it is because of ignorance - not knowing. What we usually experience is unnecessary suffering.
But we do not need to suffer mentally at all, as the compassionate Buddha has shown us that the way to be free of suffering is through wise attention that insights into the true nature of the mind and body, then we can finally be free from the burden of suffering.
You might suppose that perhaps they haven’t practiced deeply or intensively enough to affect the deep-seated problematic behaviour patterns. So maybe they are better off doing some psychotherapy or having counselling to get some insight into their problems. If that is the case, then it is rather ironic, when you consider that many Buddhist meditation techniques are being incorporated into psychotherapies, such as cognitive training and mindfulness practices.
To understand the problem as to why long-term practitioners are still having to deal with psychological difficulties we have to make the distinction between mental disorders, that is, clinical conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and, on the other hand, unwholesome behaviour or negative predispositions that are detrimental to oneself as well as harmful to others with whom one is in relationship with.
Then, being clear that we are dealing with the mind’s unwholesome predispositions and not clinical conditions, we need to examine them in depth and learn how to work with them from the point of view of meditation practices, especially Vipassana meditation.
Unfortunately it is not uncommon that many people experience these ingrained unwholesome patterns of mind that are harmful to their wellbeing. However, while we have to acknowledge that it is not an easy matter, it is possible through Vipassana meditation to detoxify the mind just as it is possible to detoxify the body.
These mental poisons or pollutants of the mind are known in Buddhist teachings as the Three Poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance. Often they are expanded to a set of seven that includes sensual desire, aversion, wrong view, doubt, conceit, craving for existence, as well as ignorance. Then they are referred to as the latent tendencies (anusaya) or predispositions to negative patterns of mind. These latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind and are the source of one’s addictions and deep clinging, holding the mind in a state of attachment and, as a result, in suffering.
As a meditator, I personally became acutely aware of these hidden tendencies of the mind during a year’s intensive Vipassana retreat in Burma in 1986 when, in spite of sustained attentiveness and without consciously controlling or suppressing the mind, unwholesome material kept surfacing, for example, anger would continually flare up month after month even though I was in silence and was not relating with anyone except the teacher. Although, when the mind was powerfully concentrated these anusayas – or dormant tendencies - that had been manifesting were suppressed. But that was not the desired outcome, as I was trying to follow the ‘pure’ Vipassana approach that avoids the blocking effect that results from fixed concentration.
I would say now though that strategically it is useful, even necessary, to use the inhibiting effect of one-pointed concentration to help pacify the mind during Vipassana meditation, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the cathartic effect that comes with pure moment to moment awareness. One needn’t be afraid of any turbulence that arises in Vipassana, as it is an essential part of the cleansing and healing process that purifies the mind and insights into the three marks of existence, of change, distress, and impersonal mental processes.
Now, can I ask you to do some radical reflection on these latent tendencies, as an understanding of them is crucial in dealing with the ongoing difficulties that plague the mind? First, one needs to be truly honest with oneself and accept the fact of their presence together with the knowledge on how they are activated. Then one is ready to undergo the cleansing process, the purification of mind in Vipassana meditation, which eventually leads to the healing and transformation that ultimately frees one from mental suffering.
The anusaya’s are inbuilt tendencies - it is known that babies have them at birth - so everybody has them to some degree or other. Perhaps we can say that they are our karmic inheritance, somewhat like our genes. But don’t suppose that the latent or underlying tendencies need be there forever – that they are everlasting, or that we are fated to their effects. As it is a universal truth that everything changes, so we need not get stuck in conditioned patterns of the mind, as we have the potential to decondition the mind and be free!
There was an American politician who won an election with the slogan, ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’ We say ‘it’s the mind, stupid’, as it is the mind that is the source of self-inflicted suffering, or you might say stupid suffering. So we identify the mind as the source of suffering and the root latency in the mind is the latency to ignorance. This tendency to ignorance forms the foundation for the latency to craving, which is the tendency to get attached to - to identify with - things. We are very much inclined to identify with one belief system or another, seeking certainty and relentlessly pursuing the myth of security, while not being savvy to the Wisdom of Insecurity.
One of the deeply conditioned latent tendencies is the attachment to concepts while taking them for realities. It is the tendency to get attached to concepts, per se, without understanding them for what they are in themselves: as just something that someone has thought up, or has been able to imagine. There is an ingrained tendency to grab hold of the concepts in worldly usage, to cling to them tenaciously and identify with them. We assume that the words that we use have a reality of their own, that they are true in their own right, even going to the extreme of a war of words over ideas – over some ideology.
As the latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind below the conscious level, the question is what triggers them, or what causes them to surface? As far as I know there are two ways that this happens: during the play of emotions, when the mind state is coloured by the unwholesome latent tendencies, which tends to reinforce them; or during the process of perception, when there is thought and then conceptual proliferation.
In whatever way they find expression, the latent tendencies are activated unconsciously in the mind and that is why they are so difficult to control, even when they are continually cut down (without uprooting them) by concentration-based meditation (samatha).
There is a verse by the Buddha in the Dhammapada that illustrates this:
If its root remains undamaged and strong,
A tree, even if cut will grow back.
So too if latent craving is not rooted out,
This suffering returns again and again.
- Dhp 338
A model of the mind used to explain Buddhist practice has the mind in three layers. The top is the expressed level, where restraint is used to inhibit expressions of unwholesome emotions; the middle is the manifest level, where unwholesome thoughts are swirling about and are pacified or temporarily inhibited through concentration based meditations, such as loving-kindness; while the bottom level is where the latent tendencies lie, which are only accessed and eliminated through insighting into the processes of the mind itself, in various forms of awareness based meditations.
A simile used to illustrate this is that of a sleeping snake, i.e. the dormant level, who when provoked rises up in anger, the manifest level and then strikes, the expressed level. So you can see that while we use restraint to block the anger and loving-kindness meditation to change the climate of the mind, the latent tendency remains dormant until the mind’s ventilating processes during Vipassana meditation releases the dormant material; and as long as one does not play back into the content of the mind, that is, when there is non-reactive awareness, then this de-conditions and gradually cleanses the mind of the latent tendencies.
Another possibility of accessing the latent tendencies is by intercepting them during the process of perception. But this presupposes that the practitioner can increase the perceptual threshold level. The perceptual thresholds are levels where subtle or fast processes can be observed. Below the threshold the process is not observed, and above the threshold the process is observed.
In a study at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts during a three month’s intensive Vipassana retreat in 1984, the perceptual threshold of meditators increased as much as 100%, 200% or more. This showed that it is possible to substantially increase one’s perceptual threshold, at least in intensive meditation practice.
The latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind, becoming activated during the perceptual process: through contact, or during a sense impression at any of the six sense-doors (i.e. the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, or the processes of the mind itself). The process of perception is normally experienced as a conditioned sequence, and functions in this way: with contact via feeling and cognition (a pair) thought arises, which in turn stimulates conceptual proliferation.
The conceptual proliferations (papanca) can in turn give rise to further concoctions and biased cognitions, which lead from the original sense data to all kind of associations. Once the stage of conceptual proliferation is reached though, the course is set. So allowing that the perceptual threshold is above the norm, one could be ‘clearly knowing’ during the stages of cognition and initial conceptual reaction with close attentiveness (sati) and so be free of the conditioned sequence. Insight and therefore reduced suffering are the result of a change in perceptual thresholds that allow access to previously unconscious mental processes. These processes though are beyond the perceptual threshold of the normal person.
The most difficult latent tendency to root out is that of sensual desire. In Buddhist practice, there needs to be at least a degree of renunciation, whether for lay people or monastics, in order to expose the latent tendencies. While this can be challenging and is not for everybody, sensual desire is best worked with within the context of the celibate lifestyle of the monk and nun. This is certainly going against the stream of worldly life, but in order to cut the roots of defilements in the mind one needs to expose the unconscious processes of the mind and make them conscious.
The way to do this is to focus the mind in a profound examination of the present moment processes of the mind (satisampajana), which though not accessible to normal consciousness, thereby become conscious. Unconscious processes become conscious processes. It is like switching a light on in a dark room so that which was unseen becomes seen, which is a simile commonly used in the discourses for Enlightenment. So regardless of which sense object is focused on — sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or processes of the mind itself — the sense object becomes a projection screen for observing the fundamental processes of consciousness, which brings about the stilling of the mind and a deep transformation of consciousness.
Handling Difficulties in the Practice
Mind Wanderings: Preoccupied with the content of the mind, being lost in thought or obsessive trains of thoughts requires skillful handling. It is not the object of the practice to repress the thinking. Rather one has to allow that, over the period of a retreat, the mind will naturally settle. There are two ways to work with the thinking - vigorously mentally noting the thinking as 'thinking', 'thinking', to cut it, as this helps to ‘break the circuit’ or, when possible, allow the train of thoughts to run and find the gaps or pauses between thoughts, and if one is sharp enough, then try to catch the beginning of the next thought as it is about to form. In this way, at least the circuitous thinking pattern is broken and the mind will then tend to quieten.
Sleepiness: This is a common problem when people come to meditation retreats. Usually, it is just mental and physical exhaustion for a lot of people. We are so over-extended, stretched and stressed, that people are often just simply exhausted. In today’s society we do not give ourselves enough rest. We are trying to function on less sleep while achieving more and more so we end up with a 'sleep debt' at the cost of our well-being. A meditation retreat gives us time out to recuperate and recharge ourselves. It used to take just a few days into a retreat for people to recover fully - now it can take a week or so, which indicates that the pace of everyday life is accelerating rapidly. Yet it is possible that by focusing on the ‘sleepy state’ as one mentally notes it, the sleepiness will disperse.
Inability or Disinclination to Handle Pain: Posture pain is being referred to here, not a pre-existing medical condition. Pain is inevitable in meditation, as in life - only suffering is optional. The meditator should not try to make it go away, but regard it as a friend for then its true nature will be seen. One should work with posture pain by softening into the pain sensations and relaxing into any muscular contractions. Then find the centre of the so-called pain by noticing specific characteristics in it, such as tension, heat, throbbing, stabbing, etc. When the mind is quiet and there is just the knowing of the pain i.e. the 'consciousness of', then the pain will change. It will probably come back but one achieves some insight into its true nature.
Fears and Feelings of Anxiety: Unpleasant feelings of apprehension or distress caused by the anticipation of imagined danger. It is the feeling of looking forward in dread to something that one supposes is going to happen that brings up the fear. The antidote for fear is to stay in the present moment. There is also 'fear of the unknown'. As a result some people stop meditating altogether. Deep within most of our minds lie unwholesome latent tendencies - the dark side, or the shadow. Powerful material can surface during Vipassana meditation, and most meditators can handle this adequately without breaking down. Only people deeply troubled with a neurosis or with a clinical condition such as psychosis should not do intensive Vipassana meditation without guidance.
Wrong Attitude: Ambition to achieve results or wanting immediate effects, which is an acquisitive attitude. Right attitude is an open acceptance of things as they are without any expectation. Above all, patience and forbearance is needed in relating to the meditation experience. The Buddha describes it well in the Dhammapada: "Patience and forbearance is the power of those who meditate".
Handling the Meditation Object Wrongly: Unusual experiences and sensations can arise in the meditation, such as: visions, images, voices, and lights. If you cling to them whether they are blissful or fearful you will become attached to the phenomena. It is critical that you remain neutral towards them by labeling them as 'seeing', 'seeing', 'hearing', 'hearing', etc. Never give any unusual experience, positive or negative, any significance. Report them to a qualified teacher or mentor who can assist you with an appropriate strategy or technique to handle them.
Understanding these problems will help you manage your practice and give you the ability to make the appropriate adjustments based on knowledge of methods and techniques. The path of meditation is a path of practice. Practice is a repeated performance or methodical exercises to develop skills, which include the ability to self-manage your meditation practice.
When all is said and done, the best way to work with difficulties in Vipassana meditation is to seek a Kalyanamitta. This is not a guru who claims to do the work for you, but a meditation friend or teacher who has had some travel experience and can guide and advise you on the practice path.
There was an exchange between the Buddha and his attendant, Ananda, where Ananda said that he had heard all the teachings and therefore he could practise by himself. The Buddha responded to the effect that without a guide (kalyanamitta), the Dharma could not be realised. In the final analysis, it is not a matter of this or that technique, but the need for a guide with travel experience - a mentor in the Dharma.
For the Vipassana meditator the following are ways of relating to the meditation experience to maintain the balance:
• Witnessing your experience: an attitude of neutrality, which is restricted to the bare registering of physical and mental events without posturing or positioning oneself - 'just witnessing'.
• Non-clinging: rather than seeking gratification of wishes, impulses, desires, there has to be at least some degree of non-clinging to create the space to see and 'let go'.
• Removal of the Censor: an attitude of acceptance of all thoughts, emotions, feelings and sensations coming into awareness, with impartiality, without censorship.
• Cultivating Receptivity: Vipassana meditation is tuning in and being sensitive to, and intimate with, what is observed, from a place of spaciousness - 'receptivity'.
An image often used to describe the practice of awareness is that of walking a tightrope. In order to do so, you must necessarily pay attention to the balance. In meditation practice, this applies to how you are relating to your experience. Reaching out to grasp the object (attaching) or pushing it away (rejecting) are both reactions that are unbalancing. Keeping your balance is developing a mind that does not cling or reject, like or dislike, and is without attachment or condemnation. Balance and equanimity in the face of life's inevitable stress and conflict is to practise the Buddha's Middle Way.
For a meditator, developing the ability to adjust and manage one’s own effort in practice is essential. A certain effort is involved in developing 'moment-to-moment awareness', but it is not the effort to attain anything in the future. The effort is to stay in the present, just paying attention with equanimity to what is happening in the moment.
The Buddha gave an example of just how attentive we should be. He told of a person who was ordered to walk through a crowd with a jug of oil, full to the brim, balanced on his head. Behind him walked a soldier with a sword. If a single drop were spilled the soldier would cut off his head! That is the quality of attention needed. So you can be sure that the person with the jug walked very attentively.
Yet, it has to be a relaxed awareness. If there is too much force or strain the least jostling will cause the oil to spill. The person with the jug has to be loose and rhythmic, flowing with the changing scene, yet staying attentive in each moment. This is the kind of care we should take in practicing mindfulness, being relaxed yet alert. In this way, the training helps to maintain your balance and the ability to live in harmony with others.
The task then, in this retreat, is to turn this around and train oneself to be fully attentive as much as possible. This 'presence of mind' with clear knowing uncovers reality and in time brings healing and transformation of consciousness. So there is a need to develop the capacity for sustained and close attentiveness of all one’s movements and activities down to the minutest detail throughout the day. Such a dynamic practice of close attentiveness with clear knowing is the key to deepening one’s mindfulness, as it intensifies the awareness, to expose the reality of one's own physical and mental phenomena as constantly changing, unsatisfactory, and as just impersonal process.
We cannot pretend that this is easy, as having continuous, close attentiveness goes somewhat against the grain - it is not natural to us. The Buddha once described the practice of the Dharma as “going against the stream”. As long as one swims with the current of the river, one remains largely unaware of it. But if one chooses to turn against it, suddenly it is revealed as a powerful, discomforting force.
It is said that just prior to the Buddha’s enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha floated his alms bowl on the nearby Nerangera River, and when the bowl went against the current he took that as a sign that he would be successful in his aspiration to attain enlightenment. I do not think we need to take this story literally, as I see it as more of a metaphor that points to the need to consciously face and explore one’s own conditioning and assumptions in order to grow in the Dharma.
The “stream” refers to the accumulated habits of conditioning. The practice of Dharma requires us to turn around midstream, to observe mindfully and intelligently the forces of conditioning instead of reacting to their promptings. Therefore, we need to make constant effort to train ourselves to do this practice until it is so well established that it has become, as it were, our second nature, that is, ingrained - only then will deeper states of mindfulness develop.
It is very informative to read the instructions the Buddha himself gave in the Contemplation of the Body in the subsection on Clearly Knowing (sati-sampajanna) in the text we are following: the Four Establishments of Mindfulness:
"And again, monks, a monk, while going forward or while going back he does so with clear knowing; while looking straight ahead or while looking elsewhere he does so with clear knowing; while bending or stretching his limbs he does so with clear knowing; while carrying the alms bowl and while wearing the robes he does so with clear knowing; while eating, drinking, chewing, and savouring he does so with clear knowing; while urinating or defecating he does so with clear knowing; while walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking or when remaining silent, he does so with clear knowing or full attentiveness".
You can see here that the Buddha is emphasising the continuity of attentiveness or mindfulness of all daily activities, with clear knowing of all body movements in great detail - including what you do in the bathroom: nothing is too trivial that it is left out. This is the most important set of instructions and the most demanding to follow in the practice of intensive Vipassana meditation. Yet a lot of meditators often find resistance in the mind to being purposefully attentive to daily activities and movements. One has to overcome this disinclination to be mindful by persistently training oneself until you experience some positive feedback – as one does with the fluency of the practice, which will give you the confidence to keep going with the practice.
From the Buddha's time down to the present there have been teachers who have suggested practices and strategies that support the attentiveness practice. One of the most prominent of these was the late Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar, who recommended and taught a very effective mental naming or noting technique in his book “Practical Exercises in Vipassana Meditation”.
"When making bodily movements, the meditator should do so slowly, gently moving the arms and legs, bending or stretching them, lowering the head and raising it up. When rising from the sitting posture, one should do so gradually, noting as 'rising, rising'. When straightening up and standing, note as 'standing, standing'. When looking here and there, note as 'looking, seeing'. When walking, note the steps, whether they are taken with the right or the left foot. You must be aware of all the successive movements involved, from the raising of the foot to the dropping of it.
When one wakes up, one should immediately resume noting. The meditator who is really intent on attaining the path and its fruition (magga phala) should rest from meditation only when asleep. At other times, in all waking moments, one should be noting continually the successive body/mind phenomena without let up. That is why, as soon as one awakens, one should note the awakening state of mind as 'awakening, awakening'. If one cannot yet be aware of this, one should begin with noting the rising and falling of the abdomen.
As one goes on noting in this way, one will be able to note more and more of these events. In the beginning, as the mind wanders here and there, one may miss many things, but one should not be disheartened. Every beginner encounters the same difficulty, but as one becomes more skilled, one becomes aware of every act of mind wandering until eventually the mind does not wander any more. The mind is then riveted onto the object of its attention, the act of mindfulness becoming almost simultaneous with the object of its attention. In other words, the rising of the abdomen becomes concurrent with the act of noting it and similarly with the falling of the abdomen and all other activities”.
It is important not to give the mind any chance to slip into its old habitual ways. We are creatures of habit operating on "autopilot" a lot of the time, making many unconscious movements and actions. In a retreat situation, there is no need to hurry and in fact one is encouraged to slow down. Hurrying is an indicator that you have slipped into automatic pilot. So turn off the autopilot and use the manual controls by consciously and deliberately noting all your actions throughout the day. Effort has to be made in this practice, but the effort you make is to be in the moment, while being intimate with, and fully attentive to, whatever you are doing as you are doing it.
The beginner is advised to start by keeping a ‘thread of awareness’ on a particular action throughout the day, for example, naming the walking movement as 'walking', 'walking' without a break. Whenever the mind wanders from the noting of the walking to a secondary object such as thinking, seeing, hearing, mind state - then note the object that has taken your attention as a secondary object, before going back to the noting of walking. Then combine the noting of the walking with the noting of sitting, standing, and lying down, being especially attentive to the transition movements between each posture.
Take at least one activity during the day, such as eating, and taking your time try to do it one hundred percent - finding the minutest detail. When you are eating, all the senses are activated: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, so try and note all the physical movements as well as the biting, chewing, tasting, savouring and swallowing. This detailed noting is dynamic and intensifies the momentary concentration that results in a more in-depth experience.
As you can see, the practice of clearly knowing is not a superficial, casual observation, as one must deeply penetrate the object under observation: 'presence' is combined with clear comprehension. That is, one must see the specific characteristics of the phenomena, the subtle and fine nuances, the minute detail of the movement, without identifying with it.
Close and sustained attention is the key to the practice. Maintaining close attentiveness for, say, seventy-five percent of daily activities for at least three to four hours in the day will be carried over to and increase the fluency of the practice in the formal sitting and walking sessions. The benefit of this precise and detailed noting is that it will increase and intensify the momentary concentration (khanika samadhi) that is needed to insight deeper into the mind-body phenomena.
For meditators whose practice of full attentiveness has matured, they would be able to note or know nearly all their movements and actions - whatever is predominant in their experience - including the specific characteristics of the movements, for most, if not all of the day.
Then they will discover that what appears to be one continuous movement is actually a series of individual discontinuous movements. Such an insight exposes the illusion of continuity. While this practice is not a slow motion exercise per se, it cannot be emphasized enough that the Vipassana meditator must slow down all bodily movements as much as possible in order to be aware of the subtleties of the movements.
A benefit that is not so much appreciated from ‘attentiveness training’ is that, with presence of mind, the mind is wholesome, and so mindfulness intensifies, and insights will follow. Therefore you will feel good, pleasant feelings (piti) will arise, as you are freed from anxiety and worry and experience the blessing of being in the present moment.
Having established and habituated the practice of full attention with clearly knowing in the supportive conditions of a retreat environment, one has developed the skill that gives you the potential to integrate the mindfulness training into everyday life. The benefits of an ongoing practice of mindfulness in daily living are that it brings about an increase in well-being for oneself and harmonious relationships with others.
To make a statement of the obvious, as sometimes the obvious can be overlooked: we are beings on the sensory plane. We live in the world of the senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. It is through our senses that we experience the world and through the sense impressions at the sense doors that we experience feelings.
Feelings are the source of our liking and disliking. If we are not aware of the underlying feelings, we tend to automatically react to sense objects with liking or disliking, which is what is conditioning us and keeping us in trapped in cyclic existence (samsara). We 'pull in' and have attachment to what we like and 'push away', have aversion to what we don't like. What we then experience is coloured by ‘liking, disliking’ - 'pushing and pulling'.
What tends to be overlooked and so should be looked out for is the effect of neutral feelings. For when there are neither obvious pleasant nor unpleasant feelings manifesting, the mind is ignoring feelings or at least is not aware of feeling, and therefore can become confused and reactive because of having lost presence of mind.
For the majority of us on this blue planet, we spent our lives in constant effort to increase pleasant feelings and avoid unpleasant feelings; while more pleasant feelings are sought after as they bring the emotional enjoyment we call happiness. Whether we are aware of it or not, feelings are all encompassing in life. So we can appreciate the Buddha's pithy saying on feelings: "All things converge on feelings".
The feeling by itself though, in its primary state, is quite neutral, when it just registers the impact of an object as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Only when repeated emotional elaborations are made, such as when one's personal story is involved, will there arise aversion, happiness, hatred, anxiety, greed or fear.
Feelings and emotions need not be mixed, as they are separable. In fact, many of the weaker impressions we experience during the day stop at the mere registering of very faint and brief feelings. This shows that staying with the primary feeling is possible and that it can be done with the help of awareness and self-restraint, even in cases when the urge to convert feeling into emotion is strong.
For the Vipassana meditator, it is essential to work with feelings, especially one's mental feelings, or feelings associated with states of mind. By monitoring feelings one can maintain one's equilibrium in the practice, which allows the enlightenment factor of equanimity to mature.
There are occasions when the mind is calm and alert and one is not totally preoccupied, and so is able to notice feelings clearly at their primary stage. Then it is just a practice of monitoring what feelings are present even when they are faint and brief throughout the day. In fact, working with feelings as a practice starts with establishing awareness on minor feelings. For example, many times during the day when the mind is quiet one can be noticing minor body sensations and or feelings that come and go.
If, however, one is unable at first to clearly differentiate feelings, it is a useful strategy to ask oneself a checking question: 'What feeling is present?’ In this way, the meditator can highlight the predominant feeling and be able to focus on it rather than being confused by the jumble of fleeting feelings and their successive emotional states of mind.
It is of particular importance to dissociate the feelings from the thought of 'I' or 'mine'. There should be no ego-reference, as for instance, "I feel"; nor should there be any thoughts of being the owner of the feeling, "I have pleasant feelings" or "I have pain". Awareness of the feeling tone without the ego-reference allows the meditator to keep the attention focused on the bare feeling alone.
In working with feelings there should first be an awareness of the feelings when they arise, clearly distinguishing them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. While there are degrees of intensity of feelings, with close attentiveness, it is clear that there is no such thing as a mixed feeling.
When noting feelings, attention should be maintained throughout the short duration of the specific feeling down to it’s ending or passing away. If the vanishing point of feeling is repeatedly seen with increasing clarity, it will become much easier to catch and finally to stop or inhibit thoughts and emotions. These normally follow so regularly, being habitually linked through conditioning to their associated feeling tones: pleasant feeling is habitually linked with enjoyment and happiness, while unpleasant feelings are linked with aversion or pain, while neutral or indifferent feelings are linked with ignorance and confusion.
When 'bare' attention, that is, registering the feeling without reaction in a state of receptivity, is directed to the rising and vanishing of feelings, the polluting add-ons or defilements are held at bay and inhibited from further elaboration. So gradually the gross feelings weaken and fall away, one loses interest; thus dispassion arises, which is a natural, effortless 'letting go'.
A trap to watch out for is not acknowledging pleasant feelings, especially pleasant feelings and sensations that arise from the fluency of the practice and later stages of insight. There is usually no problem in noticing unpleasant feelings, but you should be on your guard with regard to pleasant feelings as they arise, as we are predisposed to get attached to them very easily and thus lose equanimity.
Through one’s own direct experience as a Vipassana meditator, it can be confirmed that the ever-revolving round of the wheel of life (samsara) that we tread, can be stopped, with karma producing activities neutralised at the point of feeling, and that there is no inherent necessity that feeling is automatically followed by attachment or aversion. This is done by the practice of being mindful at one of the sense doors and intercepting the bare feeling between the linkage of sense impression and craving.
Like all mindfulness exercises, it is essential that the practice of awareness of feelings be applied in everyday life, especially whenever feelings are prone to turn into unwholesome emotions. So by practising awareness of feelings, the benefits will be immediately apparent in one’s relationships and dealings with the external world: for example, an increase in compassion and equanimity, as well as in one’s own clarity and peace of mind.
In the teaching of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, the Buddha likened feelings to bubbles. If feelings can be seen in their bubble-like, blowed-up and bursting nature, their linkage to aversion and attachment will be weakened until the chain is finally broken. Through this practice, attachment, which is a kind of stuckness to feelings, will be skillfully eliminated.
This does not mean that this practice will make one aloof or emotionally withdrawn. On the contrary, mind and heart will become more open and free from the fever of clinging. Out of this seeing, an inner space will be provided, for the growth of the finer emotions: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and on-looking equanimity.
Gautama Buddha’s disciples whose
mindfulness, both day and night,
is constantly immersed in the body.
– Dhp 299
We live in a world of concept and ideas, mostly enclosed within an autobiographical reality. Yet we have the potential to know Ultimate Reality and thereby be free. While we might be inclined to search for the nature of reality through the study of philosophy, true knowledge is acquired through the senses rather than through abstract reasoning. We tend to overlook the familiar, in the search for the unusual, as for instance, searching for meaning in literature while not realising the immediate experience of one’s own body reality.
The body, as matter or material properties (rupa), is the first of the Paramattha Dhammas or the Buddha’s Teachings on Ultimate Reality, together with consciousness (citta), mental properties (cetasika), and Nirvana; and therefore is a subject of Vipassana contemplation. This investigation starts by acquiring the ability to access the primary elements of the body, with the aim to expose the body’s true nature.
For many people one’s sense of the body is not so much the qualities we are actually experiencing such as sensations, temperature, heaviness, etc., but more its form and shape – the body image. You could hardly say this is a reality, rather it is imaging – a misreading that creates an illusion. While at the same time, most of us are unaware of the identification we make with the body, not to mention the more obvious identification with the internal narrative, our story, as well.
The Buddha lists the body as the first of the five aggregates or groups we cling to, that is, identify with as 'me, myself' – the other aggregates are: feeling, perception, mental constructions, and consciousness. The question then is: is it possible to have a direct experience of the body without automatically identifying with it?
It is not so easy to be free of this identification, as medical science has well documented in the 'lost limb syndrome', where a person who loses a limb, say in an accident, will act as if the lost limb is still there, even apparently feeling painful sensations in the missing limb. This illustrates that there is an unconscious identification with the body's form and shape. That is, we have a deeply imprinted image in our mind's eye – a phantom – of the shape and appearance of the body, not so much what is actually being experienced in the body.
How then to access the reality of the body and not automatically identify with it? One way to loosen this identification or attachment to the body is through the meditations in the body contemplations, as given in the Satipatthana Sutta, on the unpleasant or disgusting aspects of the body – which is rather like shock therapy! This is a rather drastic approach but it can be very effective if done under proper guidance. At least it helps to free one from the gross attachment anyway.
What we can explore here though is the deep investigation of body phenomena at its elemental level, that is, through what are termed the four primary elements of earth, air, fire and water, or the reality of the corresponding experiences of hardness and softness, movement and vibration, temperature and fluidity. Such an introspection of the body will expose just the elements in the body and thus the meditator momentarily loses the sense of the body's boundaries, thereby loosening the identification with the body image, to eventually experience the body, with the other aggregates, as just rising and passing away (anicca).
In the sitting posture, the primary object is the tactile bodily process of motion, evident in the rising and falling movement of the abdomen. The 'inner wind element' is active in the body as motion, vibration and pressure, manifesting itself in the passage of air through the body (e.g. in breathing) and also in the movement of limbs and organs. It becomes perceptible as a tactile process - as an object of touch - through the pressure or pushing sensation caused by it. As the meditator tunes into this particular sensation or specific characteristics in the movement of the abdomen, it will then reveal or expose the three general characteristics, of change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
Insight meditators, who focus on the body as their primary meditation object, need to have the same body consciousness – not necessarily the level of fitness, may I add - of an elite athlete in training. It is essential that the meditator's body is open and relaxed so that he or she can sense into the subtle internal and external movements from a state of receptivity.
If on the other hand, the meditator's body is tense and tight, the practice becomes a struggle and one is out of touch with the present moment awareness. So at the beginning of a sitting session, check to see if the body is relaxed and if at any time during the session you notice that the body has tensed, do a body scan, that is, scan the body part-by-part, relaxing each region as the awareness moves through the body, while softening into any tension or contraction you find. If the body is contracted so must be the mind. Be open and allowing, as the practice is about receptivity and openness, allowing a ‘tuning in’ to what actually is manifesting.
Do not interfere. Do not force or manipulate the movement of the abdomen in any way, just sense the natural movement. Beginners often assumed that they must stay focused on the abdomen’s movement all the time, and measure their success on whether they achieve this or not. Actually, within an hour’s sitting session, the abdomen movement might be discernible for short periods of time only. Other objects such as body sensations, mind states and thinking might become predominant, and these must be noted as secondary objects until they disappear.
While the meditator is focused on body phenomena, there are actually two things that one can be aware of: the object, and the 'knowing of it' or the 'consciousness of it'. For example, there is one’s body sensations and the associated awareness that knows the sensations. This practice is known as 'pairing' and needs to be established from the very beginning of the practice. In this way, the meditator will come to appreciate that what is observing the phenomena is just the 'knowing' or the mind knowing the mind, and 'not me or myself'. At least one comes to see one’s identification with the consciousness, which perhaps was not suspected at all before.
To have clarity that leads to insight, the meditator needs to be able to differentiate between mind and body. Normally, we have the sense that the mind and body are merged or we act as if the body leads. Yet the Buddha tells us in the first verse of the Dhammapada that: "Mind precedes all knowables, mind is their chief, mind-made are they". Seeing the distinction between mind and body will create a ‘mental space’, which will help to free us from the gross identification with the phenomena, allowing one to witness the mind and body relationship as an impartial observer without identification.
Walking meditation can be the key to insighting into the body’s reality. When investigating movement in walking, the meditator needs to slow down and sense into the subtle movements as the component parts of the step that are experienced. Then what had appeared to be just one continuous movement is seen to be clearly defined stages. He or she will know that the lifting movement is the not the same as the pushing forward movement and the pushing forward movement is differentiated from the lifting or the placing movement. In this way, the illusion of continuity is seen through.
As the practice deepens, the meditators will experience subtler phenomena, such as the qualities of the essential body elements i.e. heaviness, lightness, heat, vibration, etc. By paying close attention to the stages of walking meditation, the four elements in their true essence are experienced, not as concepts, but as actual processes, as ultimate realities.
As the fluency of the practice increases, it will be realised that with every movement, there is also the concurrent knowing of the movement or the mind that knows the movement. There is the lifting movement and also the mind that is aware of the lifting. In the next movement, there is the pushing forward movement and also the mind that is aware of that movement. In addition, the meditator will realise that both the movement and the awareness of it arises and vanishes in that moment very quickly like a flash of lightning. The meditator will experience mind and matter (nama-rupa) arising and passing away from moment to moment.
Also the meditator has by now realised that a mental intention precedes every movement - that is, the mind leads the body. After the intention, movement occurs. So there arises an understanding of the conditionality of all these occurrences, that movements never arise by themselves without conditions: that there is a cause or condition for every movement and that the condition here is the mental intention preceding every movement.
When meditators comprehend mind and matter arising and disappearing at every moment then they will understand the impermanence nature of the body processes. That disappearing happens after arising is a characteristic by which we understand that something is impermanent. The next insight is unsatisfactoriness, which is seen because the constant arising and vanishing of phenomena undermines one sense of stability and therefore is stressful and unsatisfactory.
Then, after realising impermanence and the unsatisfactory nature of things, the meditator sees that he or she has no control over these things. That is, things are arising and passing away according to natural laws. A meditator at this level has therefore ‘insighted’ into the universal characteristics of all conditioned phenomena: change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
What are the benefits of this? Such knowledge will ultimately free us from attachment and desire, which the Buddha indicated as the root cause of suffering. By experientially knowing the three universal characteristics through Vipassana meditation, desire or hankering in the mind is eventually overcome. This being deeply realised, attachment and craving will end and with it comes absolute peace and freedom from all conditioned things!
The focus of the practice so far has been mainly introspective; now the watchfulness or attentiveness can be expanded to include the external as well. That is, the attention is switched from the subjective to the objective. This is done by orientating to the sense-spheres, which are about the relationship between oneself and the outer world. Practising both internal and external satipatthanas can prevent self-absorption, and achieve a skilled balanced between introversion and extroversion.
The importance of contemplation of the sense-spheres is that it directs awareness to the six “internal” and “external” sense-spheres and the fetters (samyojana) arising in dependence on them. Although a fetter arises dependent on sense and object, the attaching nature of such a fetter should not be attributed to the senses or objects themselves, but to the influence of the hankering pull of desire (tanha).
The fetters have to be taken into consideration in the practice, as a fetter is a shackle or something that causes bondage. There are ten types of fetters that need to be discarded, which are belief in a substantial and permanent self, doubt, dogmatic clinging to particular rules and rituals, sensual desire, aversion to, and craving for, immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.
All our experience is limited to the senses and their objects, with the mind counted as the sixth. The five outer senses collect data only in the present but mind, the sixth, where this information is collected and processed, adds memories from the past and hopes and fears for the future as well as thoughts of various kinds relating to the present. Beyond these six bases of sense and their corresponding six objective bases, we know nothing.
Each of these sense-spheres includes both the sense organ and the sense object. Besides the five physical senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) and their respective objects (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch), the mind is included as the sixth sense. Mind represents mainly the activity of thoughts, such as reasoning, memory, and reflection. Thus all perceptual processes rely to some extent on the interpretive processes of the mind, since it “makes sense” out of the other spheres.
Here are the instructions for this practice from the text: “He knows the eye, he knows forms, and he knows the fetter that arise dependent on both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented.
He knows the ear, he knows sounds, He knows the fetter that arises dependent on both, and . . . He know the nose, he knows the odours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the tongue, he knows flavours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the body, he knows the tangibles, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the mind, he knows mind-objects, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented. - MI61
The task of mindfulness then, is to observe the fetter that can arise in dependence on contact between sense and object. To develop awareness and detachment in regard to these six internal and external sense-spheres is of crucial importance for the progress of insight - especially in regard to the deeply rooted ‘sense of self’ that assumes it is an independent experiencer of sense objects.
Orientation to a Sense-door
To make an orientation to a sense-door, you start by literally coming to your senses - seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. These are the five sense-doors or sense bases; the 'sixth sense' is 'consciousness of something', which is the mind-base with its eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, etc. You also need to be aware of the senses internally as well as externally. That is, the organs and their sense objects: nose/smell, tongue/taste, body/tactile objects, ear/sound, mind/mind-objects or consciousness.
Attentiveness or 'presence of mind' at one of the sense-doors during a sense impression is the way to practice. For example, most people are predominantly visual, so being attentive at the eye-door allows you to notice the effects of the contact between the eye and the visible objects and how you are relating to them.
The process is this: there is the eye (the internal base), and a visible object (the external base). With contact or a sense impression between the sense-door and external object, consciousness arises followed by feeling. The moment of consciousness ordinarily is too rapid to catch while the feeling tone can be more easily known and apprehended.
This orientation to a sense-door brings awareness of what is happening during the moment of contact or the sense impression, and with it the ability to monitor the associated feelings and consciousness that arises. When this feeling tone is apprehended, the link to liking and disliking is broken and therefore one is free at that moment from conditioned suffering.
This strategy of wise attention at a sense-door ties in with the practical implementation of the teaching of Dependent Arising (patticcasamuppada). In fact these two teachings when combined will lead to the purification of mind and the realisation of Nirvana.
The Law of Dependent Arising is a deep subject. It is the very essence of the Buddha's Teachings. In the words of the Buddha: "He who sees Dependent Arising sees the Dharma; he who sees the Dharma sees Dependent Arising."
There was an exchange between the Buddha and his personal attendant, Ananda, when Ananda casually remarked that he thought it was an easy thing to understand. The Buddha responded by saying, "Not so Ananda, don't ever say such a thing. It is because people do not understand origination, that they are not able to penetrate it, that their minds are befuddled. Just as a ball of twine becomes all tangled up and knotted, just so are beings ensnared and unable to free themselves from the wheel of existence, the conditions of suffering and states of hell and ruin”.
’How to untangle the tangle?’ This is a quote from the Visuddhimagga or The Path of Purification. The untangling can be done by insighting into Dependent Arising through the practice of attentiveness at a sense-door. What we are experiencing now is from a series of events that arose because of previous conditions and is linked as a causal chain of effects, that is, cyclic existence or samsara.
It is useful for the meditator to be familiar with the twelve links in the cycle of Dependent Arising: that is, the principle of conditionality, which lies at the heart of the Buddha's Teaching. They form the causal sequence responsible for the origination of samsaric suffering. The series of conditions can be mapped out in the abstract as follows:
With Ignorance (avijja) as a condition - Kamma formations (sankhara) arises;
With Kamma formations (sankhara) as a condition - Consciousness (vinnana) arises;
With Consciousness (vinnana) as a condition - Mentality-materiality (nama-rupa) arises;
With Mentality-materiality (nama-rupa) as a condition – Six-fold sense-base (salayatana) arises;
With the Six-fold sense-base (salayatana) as a condition - Contact (phassa) arises;
With Contact (phassa) as a condition - Feeling (vedana) arises;
With Feeling (vedana) as a condition - Craving (tanha) arises;
With Craving (tanha) as a condition - Attachment (upadana) arises;
With Attachment (upadana) as a condition - Existence (bhava) arises;
With Existence (bhava) as a condition - Birth (jati) arises;
With Birth (jati) as a condition - Suffering (dukkha) arises.
As the Vipassana meditator experiences the series of causal events, they can be intercepted at the linkage between contact and feeling during a sense impression. The ability to do this gives one the potential of being free of the conditioned cycle of suffering that most people are unknowingly trapped in.
Try an Exercise in Orientating to a Sense-door
Check! Where is your attention at this present moment? What sense impression is predominant now? Is it the eye-door attracted by some visual object, the ear-door taken by sounds, or the touch sensations of the body's contact on the cushion or chair you're sitting on? This moment is the time to establish the habit of being consciously present at a sense-door and notice what is happening during a sense impression.
So stop for a few minutes, choose a sense-door (most people are predominantly visual, although others can be more auditory inclined) and be attentive to what is happening there - what feeling is present, what is the quality of that feeling, is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral; and particularly notice the changes. It is useful to make a habit of asking yourself checking questions during your daily routine: what sense door am I at, what is happening there, and what are the associated feelings that arise?
The Story of Bahiya
This is the enlightenment story of Bahiya, the wooden robed one, who was able to practise in this way. Bahiya was originally a merchant, who, when traveling at sea with all his merchandise, was shipwrecked and was cast ashore naked. He found some bark to cover himself and finding an old bowl on the beach, he went searching for alms-food at a nearby village. The village people were impressed by his seeming austerities and his reputation grew as an ascetic. He was tested when people offered him fine robes, but knowing that they would loose faith in him if he accepted, he refused, keeping up the deception.
Bahiya was installed in a temple and worshiped as an Arahant, so that in time he came to believe that he was actually an enlightened being. He lived impeccably and gained good concentration powers. Sitting in meditation one day, it is said that a deva was able to persuade Bahiya that he wasn't really enlightened at all, but that he should go and see the Buddha, an Arahant who could help him.
Bahiya made the journey to where the Buddha was staying at the Savatthi monastery and found the Buddha was just about to go on the daily alms-round. So Bahiya was asked to come back at a more opportune time. But Bahiya was insistent and implored the Buddha to instruct him in the essence of the Dharma. The Buddha then responded with these brief instructions:
“Bahiya, you should train yourself in this way:
With the seen, there will be just the seen; with the heard, there will be just the heard; with the sensed there will be just the sensed; with the cognised, there will be just the cognised. When for you, Bahiya, there is merely the seen, heard, sensed, and cognised, then you will not be therein. Then you, Bahiya, will be neither here nor there nor within both - this is itself the end of suffering”.
Through this brief instruction, Bahiya was immediately enlightened - through non-clinging - thus becoming an Arahant.
Not long after the Buddha left, a cow fatally gored Bahiya. When the Buddha returned from the alms-round and heard that Bahiya was dead, he arranged for his cremation and a stupa to be built for him. When asked what the destiny of Bahiya was, the Buddha said that because he had grasped the meditation subject in the teacher's presence, and practiced as instructed, Bahiya had attained Parinibbana - final Enlightenment.
The Buddha’s succinct instruction to Bahiya directs bare attention to whatever is seen, heard, sensed or cognised. Bare attention just registers whatever arises during a sense impression, allowing one to be present at the initial stage of the perceptual process and thereby inhibiting unwholesome associations and biased cognitions. Maintaining bare attention in this way prevents the mind evaluating and proliferating (papanca) the raw data of perception. Bahiya, as an Arahant, was no longer influenced by subjective bias, and cognized phenomena without self-reference, and thus was enlightened.
Having cultivated sufficient loving-kindness to overcome negative states of mind, the meditator can then switch back to the vipassana mode of meditation. Investigating the particular characteristic of the mind state that was induced from loving-kindness meditation is in effect the reverting back to the insight mode.
Loving-kindness is a meditation practice that retrains the mind to overcome all forms of negativity. It brings about positive attitudinal changes by systematically developing the quality of 'loving-acceptance'. It is the qualities of acceptance and receptivity that creates the spaciousness and clarity of mind that allows for deepening attentiveness. That is why combining loving-kindness with vipassana is supportive of the meditator’s ongoing practice.
Loving-kindness can be developed either to support, or clearing the way for, Vipassana meditation. Or it can be further developed in a more systematic way to achieve a level of meditative absorption or one-pointedness.
When Loving-kindness meditation is developed systematically to the level of meditative absorption or one-pointedness, the five absorption factors of concentration are developed. The first two are causal factors – application and sustained application - followed by three effects: rapture, ease-of-mind, and one-pointedness or unification of mind. It is not really necessary to develop loving-kindness to the absorption level, but it can be useful for the meditator to be familiar with the absorption factors, as some of them will arise during vipassana meditation as well. And being familiar with the effects of concentration, the Vipassana meditator is less likely to get attached to them when they arise.
The advantages of having gained the five absorption factors are that they counteract the Five Mental Hindrances or the obstacles on the path of the meditator - although the pure Vipassana meditator should be aware that threshold concentration is sufficient to inhibit these hindrances as well.
The five absorption factors, and how they neutralise the five mental hindrances, are:
• Mental application arouses energy and effort to overcome the hindrance of sloth and torpor or mental inertia;
• Sustained application steadies the mind to overcome skeptical doubt, which has the
characteristic of wavering;
• Rapture, with its uplifting effervescence, prevails over feelings of ill-will;
• Ease-of-mind, by relieving accumulated stress, counteracts restlessness or agitation of mind;
• One-pointedness holds the mind's wanderings in the sense-fields, to inhibit sensuality.
Because of its auto-suggestive nature, the positive attitude of loving-kindness combined with deep concentration will imprint the new positive conditioning to override old negative patterns. For example, the overly critical mind, which finds fault with anything and everything, is reprogrammed to be more accepting and allowing. So on the psychological level, the therapeutic benefits for the individual are considerable, as old negative habits are broken and are replaced with new positive ways of thinking.
Loving-kindness is practiced as the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love. They are Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness matures, it naturally overflows into compassion because it empathises with people's difficulties. On the other hand, one needs to be wary of it’s near enemy, pity, merely mimicking the quality of concern without real empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people's good qualities or good fortune rather than feelings of jealousy towards them, which is the enemy of appreciative joy.
This series of meditations comes to maturity through on-looking equanimity. This equanimity has to be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations or else it tends to manifest as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. It remains caring and on-looking with an equal spread of feeling and acceptance toward all people, relationships and situations, without discrimination.
The structure of the practice is fairly simple. The meditator must start with generating loving-feelings and acceptance towards him or herself. This is important, as one needs to have loving feeling towards oneself before it can be projected towards others. Then one induces positive emotional feelings of loving-kindness towards four types of people, after which, one directionally pervades the loving-feeling to all points of the compass. The final stage is non-specific pervasion, which more or less arises spontaneously as the concentration intensifies, and there is little or no self-referencing.
As loving-kindness is a concentration-based meditation, one must not allow the mind to wander, and when it does, one gently brings it back. The time you need to spend doing this practice would depend on the time it takes to arouse the loving feelings. At least a half-hour session would be needed for the practice to develop sufficiently.
The practice must always start with developing loving acceptance of oneself. However, if any resistance is experienced, then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. Don't worry, as this indicates there is work to be done. Essentially you are working with a quality of mind, and as the practice is auto-suggestive, any quality of mind, positive or negative, can be changed. In good time, and with persistent practice, feelings of self-doubt and negativity can be overcome. Then you can move on to develop loving-kindness to others.
Four types of people are chosen to develop loving-kindness towards:
First: a respected, beloved person, such as a teacher or mentor (kalyanamitta);
Second: a dearly beloved person, that is a close family member or dear friend;
Third: a neutral person, somebody you know but have no emotional involvement with;
Fourth: a difficult person, that is, a person you are currently having difficulty with.
Starting with yourself, then moving systematically from person to person in the above order, the objective is to break down the barriers between the four types of people and yourself. In this way, it can be said to break down the divisions within one's own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience in our relationships.
The key to the practice is being able to go beyond the barriers we create in the mind, for the Buddha describes the loving person as having 'a mind with the barriers broken down'. When a person has seen, and seen through, the conceptually created barriers of gender, race, class, and 'mine' and 'not mine', they are able to love others unconditionally.
The effect of practising systematic loving-kindness meditation is that one is transforming the particular love one naturally has for one's close family members and dear friends - which is actually an attached kind of love - to a more general, universal love that embraces everybody without exception, that is, altruistic love.
Just a word of caution, if you practice loving-kindness intensively, it is best to choose a member of the same sex, or if you have a sexual bias to your own sex then a person of the opposite sex. This avoids the risk of arousing the near enemy of loving-kindness, that is, lust.
Try different people to practise on, as some people do not easily fit into the above categories, but do keep to the prescribed order.
Three ways to arouse feelings of loving-kindness:
Visualisation - create a vivid positive mental picture of oneself and the four people one has chosen, in order to promote a sense of loving-feeling, well being and joyousness.
Reflection - think about the positive qualities of the person and the acts of kindness they have done, or make an affirmation, which is a positive statement about yourself, in your own words.
The exception to using the 'reflection device' is when working with the 'difficult person', because the thinking might trigger the painful relationship and aggravate things. So just a visualisation of the difficult person, reinforced by the auditory repetition, is sufficient.
Auditory - This is the simplest but probably the most effective way. Repeat a phrase such as 'loving-kindness', 'loving-kindness'.
The visualisations, reflections and the repetition of loving-kindness are devices to help you arouse positive emotional feelings of love. You can use all of them or one that works the best for you. When the positive emotional feeling arises, switch from the devices to the feeling, as it is the feeling that is the primary focus. Keep the mind fixed on the feeling; if it strays, bring it back to the device, or if the feeling weakens or is lost then return to the device, for example, use the visualisation to bring back or strengthen the feeling of loving-kindness.
The next stage is Directional Pervasion, where one systematically projects the aroused feeling of loving-kindness to all points of the compass: north, south, east and west, up and down, and all around. Bringing to mind Dharma friends and communities in the cities, towns and countries around the world can enhance the directional pervasion.
The last stage, Non-specific Pervasion, tends to spontaneously occur as the practice matures. It is not discriminating. It has no specific object and involves just naturally radiating feelings of universal love. When it arises, the practice has come to maturity in that it has changed preferential love, which is an attached love, to an all-embracing, unconditional love!
When the mind has been uplifted and is sweeten with feelings of loving-kindness, you will find that the drier Vipassana practice is very much easier. The meditator is in a heightened state of receptivity and able to tune in more sensitively to what is happening in the present moment.
It has to be acknowledged that incorporating meditation into a busy life is not easy. Therefore, meditators needs to set themselves up to do it, good intention is not enough, it has to be purposely set up and there has to be commitment. One has to consider one’s priorities, such as what will be of more benefit, hours sitting in front of the TV screen or time spent meditating? The regular daily home sit, morning or evening, is the anchor for the practice, even if it is only amounts to mental hygiene that allows a discharge of the day's busyness. It is really a 'must do', as it will bring peace of mind and harmonise family and work relationships.
Most people will continue on with the sitting meditation after the retreat at home. A daily sit of an hour a day will just keep the practice going, a block of two hours a day will maintain the practice at the level one reached in the retreat. Three hours or more a day at home will allow the practice to develop, which might seem a lot considering many other commitments the meditator has. However, if one’s priorities are examined closely, you may be surprised by what is possible.
When meditating at home, it is a good strategy to combine Loving-kindness meditation with an awareness exercise, as these practices compliment each other and will keep the mind wholesome, uplifted and alert. It is important to maintain the daily meditation sit at home as a way of sustaining and stabilising your practice. It has to done regularly though, otherwise if it is done only occasionally or only when one feels like it, then one is likely to find some excuse to put if off for another day until it is forgotten. Studies have shown that for any activity to be habituated, one must persist with it for three to six months before it becomes part of one’s routine - by then the practice has become ingrained.
With a busy life, it is easy to convince oneself that there really isn’t the time anymore to maintain the regular sitting, or when feeling tired one will want to drop it. Naturally if one is stressed or overtired, there can be resistance in the mind to facing the stress by meditating, but usually it is only the initial resistance that has to be overcome before one gets back into the meditation routine.
What meditators are inclined to overlook when practising at home is the walking meditation. As many working people are stretched and stressed, it can be difficult to immediately get down to a static sitting practice whereas a walking meditation session of a half hour or so, before a sitting session, will help a busy mind and body to settle and relax.
When we are out and about in life, we can apply ourselves to what can be called 'situational mindfulness', which is another way of saying, use the circumstances and situations one happens to find oneself in as the practice environment, whether this is the home, the workplace or any public place. It is somewhat analogous to the sport of orienteering, where the objective is to navigate one's way through some terrain as efficiently as possible. With 'situational mindfulness,' the objective is to navigate a way through the business of the day with presence of mind.
A particular advantage of Vipassana meditation when applied to daily life is that it does not require any special place, equipment or posture. In fact it is done discreetly without anybody ever knowing that you are watching the mind states, feelings and checking the thinking, etc. because you appear to be doing nothing out of the ordinary. All that differs from normal behaviour, but is not apparent to others, is that the meditator has more 'presence of mind' in whatever they are doing.
In the relentless busyness of most people's lives, there is a need for the practitioner to have a reference point to anchor their attention to. This will act as an aid to help maintain presence of mind. Such a reference point can the predominant ‘touch point’ with any body contact, such as the sitting touch points. But it has to be habituated or ingrained so one does not have to think about doing it. Bringing the attention back to the body will keep one grounded during the busyness of the day’s activities and thus less likely to get lost in ‘unmindful’ wanderings.
We lose a lot of energy and create unnecessary stress through the random wanderings of the mind while not focused sufficiently on the job at hand. So checking the wandering mind has to be targeted, as it is leaking energy. Intellectual work is more efficient and done with less stress when we are fully focused. Daydreaming needs to be checked by noting the wandering mind as 'thinking', 'thinking'. If one is persistent, a lot of mind wanderings will be inhibited and there will be more peace and clarity. The way to relate to all superfluous thinking is as a witness watching the passing traffic of the mind without being involved in it, until eventually interest is lost and the mind becomes naturally still when not engaged in any particular task.
One can also be monitoring one’s mind states throughout the day. Just naming them as they arise: happy, sad, elated, depressed, whatever. We are simply noticing, not evaluating them or trying to change them. When the mind states are not noticed, we tend either to indulge in them, if they are pleasant, or resist them when they are unpleasant. By noticing mind states as they change, we go with the flow, not getting stuck, being with the natural changes and rhythms of the day's activities.
If the presence of mind can be sustained for two or three hours in the daily routine, the mindfulness will noticeably improve. If one is so inclined, a check of one’s state of mindfulness every hour on the hour can be performed. This will help bring one back to the present moment awareness and reduce the times when the mindfulness is lost.
A useful way to manage the awareness practice is to review the day's mindfulness work at the end of the day, or by keeping a meditation diary. In this way, the patterns of one’s practice will become apparent, allowing adjustments to be made.
Adinnadana – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
3. refrain from sexual misconduct (i.e. no sexual contact during the retreat)
Kamesu – micchacara - veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
4. refrain from false speech
Musavada – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
5. refrain from intoxicants that confuse the mind. (i.e. drugs & alcohol)
Surameraya – majjapamadatthana - veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
While they act as restraints, the Five Precepts are also intended to harmonise one’s behaviour so they can be expressed as positive qualities:
To the best of my ability I will endeavour:
1. to act with compassion and loving-kindness towards all sentient beings.
2. to be open-hearted and generous.
3. to practice stillness, simplicity, contentment, and self-restraint.
4. to speak with truth, clarity and peace.
5. to live with mindfulness.
ATTHAGA SILA (The Eight Precepts)
1) PÀNÀTIPÀTÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from harming or taking life.
2) ADINNÀDÀNÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given.
3) ABRAHMACARIYÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from any from sexual contact.
4) MUSÀVÀDÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from false speech.
5) SURA - MERAYA – MAJJA - PAMÀDATTHANA - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from the use of intoxicants, i.e. drugs and alcohol.
6) VIKÀLA - BHOJANÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from eating after the mid-day meal.
7) NACCA - GITA - VÀDITA - VISUKADASSANÀ - MÀLAGANDHA - VILEPANA - DHÀRANA - MANDANA - VIBHUSANATTHÀNÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from dancing, singing, music and watching entertainments, and from using enticing beauty aids, i.e. perfume, etc.
8) UCCASAYANA – MAHASAYANA - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from indulging in high and luxurious seats and beds.
The interview is the basis for the relationship between the teacher and the student. It is crucial for the development of Vipassana meditation, as it is where the meditator reports his or her experience and can be guided and given further instructions if need be by the teacher.
The communication with the teacher and the ability to report in the interview can greatly affect the outcome of the practice. While the teacher will try to encourage and inspire the meditator, it is not a counseling or therapy session. Rather it is more in the nature of a technical report by the meditator of what is happening in their practice.
The teacher will check the student’s grasp of the techniques and make corrections, and if need be give further instructions. In this way it assists the meditator to eventually manage his or her own practice and clarify what they are doing, to help them progress further.
As new meditators are usually working in unfamiliar territory of the mind, often one will find that they do not report their experiences satisfactorily or are unable to describe what they are experiencing precisely, even though they might have practiced well.
If the student is having difficulties in reporting his or her practice, the following standard questions that a teacher would ask about the practice in an interview will perhaps help to clarify the meditation experience, as well as be the basis for a succinct report that will assist both teacher and student.
The interview can be either one-to-one with the teacher or in a small group. It can be on a daily basis or more usually every other day, while the length of an interview can vary from five to ten minutes.
What to Report
Describe briefly and clearly what is happening in the three practice areas: sitting, walking, and daily activities.
1) Sitting
How long for, and are there any problems?
Can you follow the primary object of attention – the rising and falling of the abdomen? Describe what you notice about the movement.
How much thinking is going on, and how are you handling the thinking?
What about pain, and how are you working with it?
Are you noticing feelings?
Are you checking your mind states – and predominately what are they?
Are there any unusual experiences, and how are you relating to them?
2) Walking
How long for, and are there any problems?
Are you mentally labeling (or just knowing) the movement concurrent with the experience?
What are you finding in the movement, and what specific characteristics – if any – are you able to notice?
Is there much thinking during the walking, if so how do you handle it?
3) Daily Activities
What percentage of the day are you able to stay attentive to what you are doing. And what degree of attentiveness are you able to sustain?
Are you able to keep a ‘thread of awareness’ during the day by noting the body postures together with the naming of walking as ‘walking’, ‘walking’, as you get around the retreat centre?
Are you able to note the moment of awakening and the moments leading up to sleep?
How detailed can you be?
Can you describe what you noted during meal times?
Have you been able to link the Three Areas of Practice, if so to what extent?
Are there any new experiences to report since the last interview?
Many people all over the world are now practicing the Buddhist meditation known as Vipassana or insight meditation. Western psychotherapies have taken it up as well as ordinary people who have found it beneficial in coping with the stresses and strains of modern life, and many are increasingly taking time out to attend Vipassana retreats.
Vipassana meditation can be done quite successfully to some extent in everyday life on a casual, occasional basis as long as the practitioner has an ongoing commitment. However, to realise its ultimate benefit the practice needs to deepen, and that is best done in a supportive retreat environment where the meditator can be totally focused on the practice.
We can’t gloss over the fact that Vipassana meditation is a demanding practice. It requires serious practitioners to devote themselves full-time to the practice in a retreat situation in order to be able to sustain the practice with appropriate intensity. This needs supportive conditions such as have been itemised in the Visuddhimagga or the Path of Purification as the Seven Types of Suitability:
• Place or Dwelling – a well-furnished and supported centre or monastery, secluded and quiet,
easily accessible, few insects, with the basic requirements of food, clothes and medicine.
• Location – not too far from or close to a town.
• Food – a balanced diet, healthy, digestible and nourishing, taken in moderate amounts.
• People – other meditators as companions, who are considerate, with a good attitude and practice.
• Teacher – a learned and respected teacher, who speaks and listens well.
• Noble Silence – to be maintained during practice, other than at interviews with the teacher.
• Weather – not too hot or cold – ideally a temperate climate.
Vipassana retreat centres catering for lay people are quite a recent trend in Buddhism; originating in Myanmar after the Second World War, when the first Burmese Prime Minister U Nu, a keen meditator, invited the late Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw to teach in a meditation centre he set up in Yangon, the Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha.
This was the beginning of the modern revival of Vipassana meditation which, while originating in Myanmar, was soon to spread to other Theravada Buddhist countries in South East Asia and then later to retreat centres in the West. Now many Vipassana retreat centres, in various traditions, have been set up around the world to provide the conditions needed for Vipassana practice, usually to the exclusion of any religious or study activities.
A worldwide Insight Meditation culture has evolved which caters for lay meditators who are not necessarily Buddhists, and often with lay teachers, supported by senior monastic teachers in the lineage. This style of practice, while demanding, has proved to be popular because its methods and techniques can be systematically taught and its practitioners are usually able to experience at least the psychological insights and healing benefits from its practice. This interest has created a pool of knowledge and experience in Vipassana practice with trained teachers in many different countries.
An introductory Vipassana retreat usually lasts two or three days. These introductory retreats are more in the nature of workshops, where one learns the techniques and methods involved under the guidance of a teacher. The intensive Vipassana retreats are more challenging and can run for ten, twenty days, or even up to three months of fulltime practice. It is a requirement that participants undertake the Five or Eight Precepts. These precepts are the foundation of all Buddhist training. The underlying principle is non-exploitation of yourself or others. With a developed ethical base, much of the emotional conflict and stress that we experience is resolved, allowing commitment and more conscious choice.
The retreats are conducted in Noble Silence, which besides no talking includes no communication through body language, no listening to music, and no reading or writing except for brief notes to record the meditation experience. There are, however, opportunities to discuss the practice with the teacher during individual interviews or during group discussions.
A typical retreat day begins between 5 AM and 6 AM and usually ends around 9 PM or 10 PM with a rest period in the middle of the day after lunch. The whole day is spent practising sitting and walking meditation, together with cultivating continuous attention to the changing nature of one’s moment-to-moment experience during daily activities. The retreat teacher gives evening talks to inspire and explain the practice, providing a time for questions and answers, as well as conducting personal interviews usually on every second day.
An intensive Vipassana meditation retreat is a challenging undertaking, which requires effort and self-discipline. A retreat is not just a chance to escape the pressures of daily life, nor time out in which to do one’s own thing. Rather it is an opportunity to cultivate the Buddha's Way of Liberation through the practice of ethics (sila), meditation (samadhi), and insight (panna). Walking this path, we can learn to abandon actions of body, speech and mind that bring suffering to ourselves and those around us, and cultivate actions that bring happiness and harmony to ourselves and also to those with whom we are in relationship with.
Above all, the intensive Vipassana retreat is a situation that requires the meditator to leave aside mundane concerns and commit oneself to the training, in order to attain the insights that the Buddha declared has the potential to realise Nirvana in this very life
2. Orientation to the Practice
Vipassana meditation is by its nature developmental. It requires practice, that is, repeated performance or the repetition of an action to develop a skill. The skill that is being developed is that of close attentiveness to and experiential investigation of one’s own mind-body processes. In this way one progressively develops insights. Thus the practice is known as Insight meditation or Vipassana.
Adjusting to the Retreat SituationVipassana meditation is by its nature developmental. It requires practice, that is, repeated performance or the repetition of an action to develop a skill. The skill that is being developed is that of close attentiveness to and experiential investigation of one’s own mind-body processes. In this way one progressively develops insights. Thus the practice is known as Insight meditation or Vipassana.
Whether this is a first time experience of intensive meditation or you are a meditator who has some experience in this style of Vipassana practice, every meditator at the beginning of a retreat will need to make some adjustment to the retreat situation - at least in having to settle down and get into the rhythm of the practice.
First let us look how one relates to an intensive retreat situation and the way to adjust to the retreat environment, before the basic instructions and the framework that puts the practice into its context are given.
Self-regulatory Approach
This is not a group practice. There are no formal group sittings or any orchestrated practice. The walking and sitting meditation sessions are done individually to allow you to go at your own pace. As this is essentially a self-regulatory practice, it is necessary that you learn how to manage yourself in the practice so that you can make your own adjustments as you go along with the help of the teacher. To self-manage the practice requires you have a thorough understanding of what you are doing as far as techniques and strategies go.
For the practice to stay on track though, it is important that the teacher and the student work together in tandem. The teacher needs to be a technician of Vipassana meditation with travel experience, whose role is to instruct, inspire and guide the meditator. But even when you go along with a guide, you still have to do your own work, which in this case is quite demanding, as the practice requires honesty, patience, and above all, persistence.
Putting Aside Unfinished Business
At the beginning of the retreat, there can be a lot of busyness of an ongoing nature in the mind that is brought into the retreat. Perhaps there is some 'unfinished business' you have not dealt with, especially if it is of an emotional nature such as a problem in a relationship. So at the start of a retreat, it is useful to make a formal determination to oneself (adithani) to put aside as much as possible all outside business for the duration of the retreat. This will help you to settle and minimise the disturbances these preoccupations have on the mind.
Be Gentle with Yourself
Be gentle with yourself as perhaps you are carrying a sleep-debt or are stressed. Most people, at least initially and up to two to three days, will experience some sleepiness and restlessness at the beginning of a retreat. If you allow for that, and without reacting too much to it, you will soon find yourself settling down into the routine of the retreat. So allow for a settling-in period as you recuperate and allow the mind to settle down somewhat. Then you will be able to focus your attention on what is happening in your own mind-body and in good time as the practice matures you will experience the naturally silent mind.
Changing the Focus
In everyday life we are naturally preoccupied with the content of our minds – the internal narrative, our story. For the most part, we are externally focused on sensory objects. What needs to happen is the change in one's focus from the sensory world with its external focus to an inner exploration of our own mind-body experience. In the intensive retreat situation, as the mind settles down, there is a switch to investigating the natural processes of the mind and body from a state of increased receptivity. Although the switch of focus will naturally happen in the course of the retreat, it can be useful to intentionally change the focus of the attention from the external to internal by inhibiting the wanderings at the sense doors such as seeing, hearing, etc. In this way, the attention is refocused to introspect or see into one's own subjective mind and body experience.
Getting Around in the Retreat Environment
Use the whole of the retreat environment as your practice arena. Do not confine the practice just to the formal sitting in the meditation hall. Have a more holistic approach. It is all about staying watchful and attentive as much as possible in the total retreat environment - in the bathroom, dining room, sleeping place, and as you travel from place to place. Start by being more deliberate in your movements and actions as you move around the retreat. This will help you to slow down and to settle. It is recommended that as the meditator moves around the retreat centre, one keeps the eyes restrained – no sightseeing, no verbal or non-verbal communication. This helps to maintain your concentration and support your fellow retreatants’ practice.
Maintaining the Intensity
It is essential to maintain the intensity of the practice without straining. Steady and sustained application is needed in all areas of practice, in sitting, walking and detailed awareness of activities throughout the day. But be careful not to over-exert yourself thereby creating stress, as it is not possible to be one hundred percent at all times. One has to go with one's natural rhythms and one's energy cycles. A balanced effort is required that needs to be as continuous as possible, as it creates the momentum to build up the awareness to finally deepen the practice.
Relating to your Experience
Notice how you are relating to your experience. Check whether you are evaluating or judging the practice. Try to have no expectations, just let it unfold. Right or skillful attitude is one of acceptance of whatever conditions and mind state arises, whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Monitor your mind states, emotions and feelings as much as possible without reacting to them. This acceptance and non-reactive awareness of whatever you are experiencing will develop the maturity factor of equanimity.
How to Act during an Intensive Retreat
* Act like an invalid
During practice, a meditator needs to move slowly and take extra care while making body movements just like an invalid or like a person who is suffering from severe back pain. A person with a chronic back problem must always be cautious and move slowly just to avoid pain. In the same way, a meditator should try to keep to slow and deliberate movements in all actions. While it is not a slow motion exercise, per se, slowing down in intensive meditation is necessary to establish moment-to-moment awareness. If you are still operating in top gear, bring the mind to low gear and be patient with the change of speed until you are able to slow down and function in low gear at all times.
Act like a blind person
It is advisable for a meditator to behave as a blind person during the course of the training. A person without restraint will be constantly scanning around to look at external things that randomly take his or her attention. Therefore, it is not possible to obtain a steady and calm state of mind. On the other hand, a blind person behaves in a composed manner, sitting quietly with downcast eyes. One never turns in any direction to look at things because, of course, being blind one cannot see them. This composed manner of a blind person is worth imitating. A meditator should not go sightseeing! Stay focused on the meditation object without exception. If a sight happens to take one’s attention, then make a mental note of it immediately, as "seeing", “seeing".
Act like a deaf person
It is necessary for a meditator to also act like a deaf person. Ordinarily as soon as a person hears a sound, one turns around and look in the direction from where the sound came or one turns towards the person who spoke and makes a reply. A deaf person on the other hand behaves in a composed manner. They do not respond to any sound or conversation because they never hear them. In the same way, a meditator should not respond to any sound or any unimportant talk, nor should he or she deliberately listen to any talk. If one happens to hear any sound or speech, one should immediately note "hearing", hearing". The meditator should be so intent on the practice that they could be mistaken for a deaf person.
In brief, act like a Vipassana meditator – careful and aware, patient, restrained, with no distracting communication, relaxed, self-monitoring, eager, accepting conditions, inquisitive, diligent, detached sensually and equanimous.
* Advice given by Mahasi Sayadaw.
3. The Framework for the Practice
In the first teaching, known as the Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta), the Buddha presented his core teaching: The Four Noble Truths*, which includes the Eight-Fold Practice Path that highlights the key meditation skill of sati or mindfulness. Later the Buddha expands on the practice of being mindful, in a teaching that consists of a set of instructions with clear directions called the Satipatthana Sutta, or the discourse on ‘The Four Establishments of Mindfulness’.
This text is a path map with detailed instructions on four frames of reference, which can be viewed as a framework for the practice of mindfulness. The Buddha very clearly states the aims and outcome of this practice, allowing for no doubt or misinterpretation. In the preamble to the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha is reported to have said:
"Monks, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the ending of suffering (dukkha), for acquiring the true method, for the realisation of Nirvana - by means of the four satipatthanas".
Before we go any further, the term ‘satipatthana’ needs to be understood, as it is the essential practice in Vipassana meditation. As a compound word ‘satipatthana’ consist of two words: sati, which means ‘presence’ (of mind) or ‘to remember’ in the sense of remembering to stay present in the here and now, while upatthana is literally ‘placing near’. It should be enough to leave the explanation at that but we have to accept the commonly used translation of ‘sati’ as ‘mindfulness’. That being the case, ‘satipatthana’ can be understood as: attending with mindfulness or being actively attentive.
(It would be more accurate to call this practice Satipatthana rather than Vipassana as the actual practice is satipatthana while Vipassana is its outcome, i.e. insight. But it seems we have go along now with the established usage).
At its most basic the framework for the practice consists of four areas of attention:
(1) bodily phenomena (2) feelings and sensations (3) mind states and/or consciousness, and (4) mind qualities or mental phenomena.
To stay on track, the Vipassana meditator needs to be at least familiar with the text. A way to understand it is to see it as a framework for the practice. It is not expected that the beginner can work with the complete set of instructions as given in the text, although it is useful to have an overview of the instructions and directions given. The entry level is usually some aspect of the Contemplation of the Body, while mature practitioners may have an affinity for a particular satipatthana or some combination of them.
Here is an outline of the text but I would encourage you to study it in depth in the recommended books below. *
1. CONTEMPLATION OF THE BODY (Kyanupassana)
• Mindfulness of Breathing
• Four Postures of the Body
• Clear Knowing of Activities
• Anatomical Parts
• The Four Material Elements
• The Corpse in Decay
2. CONTEMPLATION OF FEELINGS (Vedananupassana)
Pleasant Feeling
Unpleasant Feeling
Neutral Feeling
3. CONTEMPLATION OF THE MIND (Cittanupassana)
• Four “Ordinary States” of Mind
• Four “Higher” States” of Mind
4. CONTEMPLATION OF THE MENTAL PHENOMENA * (Dhammanupassana)|
• The Five Hindrances
• The Five Aggregates
• Six Sense-Spheres
• Seven Awakening Factors
• The Four Noble Truths
There can be many ways to the same destination. The particular approach in this retreat follows the lineage of the late Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar. The method is that of 'bare insight', where, by direct observation, one's own bodily and mental processes are seen with increasing clarity, in the insight knowledges as inconstancy, distress and not-self.
The 'bare insight' meditator begins by tuning into the air element (vayo-dhatu) manifesting as vibration or movement in the abdomen in sitting and as movement in the steps taken in walking. This practice is taken from the Four Material Elements meditation in the body contemplation section. It focuses primarily on the air element and is combined with clear knowing of daily activities. The other main sections of the Satipatthana Sutta, feelings, mind states and mental phenomena are worked with as secondary objects as they occur.
The Two Types of Meditation
For clarity’s sake, one needs to be familiar with the two types of meditation techniques: Serenity Meditation (samatha), which is concentration based on fixing on a single object in order to attain one-pointedness, inducing a calm state; and the Insight Meditation (vipassana), which is an awareness practice where one experientially investigates one’s own mind/body processes. These two types of meditation can be combined, or Vipassana, as 'pure’ or ‘bare’ insight, can be done by itself.
Three Types of Concentration
As it is necessary for the meditator to be familiar with the two types of meditation and their outcomes, it is also useful to understand the three types of concentration in meditation. They are: one-pointedness (appana), which is a meditative absorption or Jhana; access or threshold concentration (upacara); and momentary concentration (khanika). As one-pointedness or the Jhana type is largely confined to serenity meditation (samatha), it is enough here to explain the other two types of concentration found in the ‘bare’ Vipassana meditation approach.
Momentary Concentration
The bare Vipassana meditator uses momentary concentration, which comes about through the noting of vipassana objects, that is, noting the various mental and physical phenomena that occur in the mind and body, as they arise. It is called momentary (khanika) because it occurs only at the moment of noting - not on a fixed object as in samatha meditation – as one is present with changing objects or phenomena that occur in the mind and body from moment-to-moment.
Threshold Concentration
In Vipassana, some degree of threshold concentration - also known as access concentration (upacara samadhi) – naturally arises with fluency in the practice, but it is not specifically induced in any way. Threshold and momentary concentration are more than sufficient for Vipassana practice, as most of the subjects in the Satipatthana Sutta lead only to threshold or momentary concentration. The exceptions are mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) and contemplation of the anatomical parts of the body (asubha). The other sections develop threshold concentration and momentary concentration. Generally it can be said that a person reaches threshold concentration when The Five Hindrances* are inhibited.
Unfortunately, the conditions that exist in the modern world are not conducive to developing the Jhanas. Yet in the latter stages of attainment most commentators agree that Jhana is necessary. However, with the pressures and stressful pace of life, most people find little time for intensive meditation; the same can be said for the ordained Sangha as well, as they too can be caught up in administrative work and study.
So we are following here the path of the dry or bare Vipassana practitioner, without Jhanas, whose knowledge is not from learning, reading or listening to talks, but from one’s own direct experience. By experientially knowing the characteristics of the mind and body with insight into their impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and insubstantiality, the meditator is freed by insight alone.
The Process of Purifying the Mind
The Five or Eight Precepts, as well as the 227 training rules of the monk, are undertaken by the meditator to restrain the mind and develop morality. But precepts and rules by themselves do not purify the mind, especially as there is a tendency to ritualise them rather than to actualize them. While they can be helpful in restraining one’s behaviour, being conceptual they are not experientially transforming of themselves.
Concentration (samadhi) by itself merely suppresses the mental impurities temporarily as it works only on the manifest level of the mind. It does not clear the dormant, or latent material of the mind, that is, the inherent tendencies of the mind.
Vipassana meditation is the direct way to purify the mind of its latent tendencies. Deep vipassana practice leads to the insight knowledges (vipassana nanas) and ultimately to Path and Fruition Attainment (magga-phala) through experientially knowing the Three Universal Characteristics of Existence. This then, as the Buddha states, is the practice for the purification of the mind and for the liberation of beings.
Psychotherapy before Meditation?
In the Western meditation culture, there is an ongoing debate on whether one needs to do psychotherapy before meditation. This is because often meditators, especially Vipassana meditators, experience mental problems and difficulties as they meditate. Well, leaving aside whether a person comes to the practice with a pre-existing mental problem or not, from a Buddhist perspective it is the mental impurities of greed, hatred and delusion (kilesas) that meditators are essentially experiencing. These mental impurities are not to be confused with clinical conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders. For most people, the negative emotions as well as the latent tendencies hidden in the mind – however strong and entrenched they may be - are workable in the long run through Vipassana meditation.
Again for most people, at least initially, it is an essential part of the Vipassana experience that one goes through the purification process that the Buddha refers to in the Satipatthana Sutta. One has to allow for a ventilation of the deep mental accumulation as one meditates so that the dormant impurities of anger, lust, and delusion are released - that is, cleansed.
The attitude of the meditator, or the way he or she relates to the meditation experience, is critical in the practice. It is vital that one allows any negative material to surface, and doesn’t react or play back into it. In this way, a non-reactive awareness develops that allows for a natural purging and cleansing of the mind.
Referring back to the text we have been following, the Satipatthana Sutta, the Buddha gave a specific time frame for attainment in this practice: from 7 years to 7 days. For a beginner, a 10-day retreat is hardly enough time to complete the practice, but by working sincerely during this retreat you can establish the basis for an ongoing practice, which potentially can lead to the ultimate liberation and the absolute peace of Nirvana.
Recommended source material:
* The Satipatthana Sutta can be found in Venerable Nyanaponika's first-rate book on Vipassana meditation, "The Heart of Buddhist Meditation"; or for a deeper analysis of the text, “Satipatthana, the Direct Path to Realisation”, by Ven. Analayo, published by Windhorse Publications 2003.
* Footnote:
The Five Hindrances or obstacles to the practice path:
• Sensuality
• Ill will
• Mental inertia
• Restlessness and worry
• Skeptical doubt
5 Aggregates of Grasping:
• Body
• Feelings
• Perception
• Mental formations
• Consciousness
7 Factors of Awakening:
• Mindfulness
• Investigation of the dhamma (phenomena)
• Effort
• Non-sensuous Joy
• Tranquility
• Concentration
• Equanimity
6 Internal and 6 External Sense-Spheres:
• Eye and sights
• Ear and sounds
• Nose and smells
• Tongue and tastes
• Body and tangibles
• Mind and thoughts, memories or reflections
* 4 Noble Truths:
• The fact of suffering
• Cause of suffering
• Ending of suffering
• Way to the ending of suffering, i.e. the Noble 8-Fold Path
4. The Basic Instructions
From the beginning and throughout the retreat, the strategies and fundamentals of Vipassana meditation will be given so that you become well established in the essentials of the techniques involved. Then it is important that the meditator understands the practice in its context. So a frame of reference is necessary, in the form of a framework to the practice as given by the Buddha in his teaching in the Satipatthana Sutta or the discourse on The Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
As we go through the retreat further instructions will be given both during the personal interviews and in the morning instruction sessions. The evening Dharma talks will elaborate on the teachings based on the text - sufficient at least to give you an overview of the practice. Added to this will be instruction on loving-kindness meditation to help support the Vipassana practice.
The Three Areas of PracticesFrom the beginning and throughout the retreat, the strategies and fundamentals of Vipassana meditation will be given so that you become well established in the essentials of the techniques involved. Then it is important that the meditator understands the practice in its context. So a frame of reference is necessary, in the form of a framework to the practice as given by the Buddha in his teaching in the Satipatthana Sutta or the discourse on The Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
As we go through the retreat further instructions will be given both during the personal interviews and in the morning instruction sessions. The evening Dharma talks will elaborate on the teachings based on the text - sufficient at least to give you an overview of the practice. Added to this will be instruction on loving-kindness meditation to help support the Vipassana practice.
These Three Areas of Practice is the basic practice structure to follow. If you can link them together the benefit is that it will create a continuous 'thread of awareness' throughout the day that brings the momentum that is needed to deepen the practice.
1. During Formal Sitting – where the primary focus is on the rise and fall movement of the abdomen, switching to secondary objects such as sensations, thinking, mind states, etc, as they arise.
2. During Formal Walking – sensing into the movement of the foot as the component parts of the step in walking are meticulously noted.
3. During Daily Activities – maintaining clear knowing of all body movements and postures with the support of mental noting throughout the day's activities.
The Techniques of Mental Noting
A useful device to support meditative attention is naming or labeling the various objects as you investigate your own body and mind experience. Used judiciously, it is a very useful tool for focusing and sustaining the attention. The noting is done by repeatedly making a mental note of whatever takes your attention in your body and mind: for example, ‘touching’, ‘touching’, 'feeling', 'feeling', 'thinking', 'thinking', etc. This is a powerful aid to help establish attentiveness especially at the beginning of practice, when it is vital to systematically note or label as much as possible to establish the attention. Otherwise, it is possible to get lost in unnoticed wanderings with long periods of inattention.
If the noting becomes mechanical or is so clumsy that it is interfering with the subtle attention then one needs to back off and do it more lightly. When mentally noting, ninety percent or more of the effort should go into being with the experience of the object and the rest in the labeling. When you have succeeded in sustaining the attention and the awareness has matured, only then should the mental noting be dropped. Although I would be careful not to drop the noting prematurely as it does bring the advantage of mental detachment.
Having acquired the ability to monitor your experience with just ‘bare’ attention, you will need to return to the mental noting only when the attention weakens, is lost or needs to be re-established. The mental noting can also be combined with the practice of orientating to a sense door by naming the physical and mental objects as they arise during a sense impression. This practice also helps with the restraint of the senses. Be careful not to analyse or classify what is being observed, just register or note it without reaction, or if there is a reaction be aware of the reaction itself.
Instruction for Sitting Meditation
The first step is to find a balanced sitting posture. You should be relaxed and yet your spine should be straight with its natural curve. You may have noticed how a five-year-old sits up in a balanced way without effort. Allow your head to balance freely on the spine, checking that it is not pulled back or fixed. Allow your chin to drop so that your eyes and ears are at about the same level with the face relaxed.
If sitting on the floor, use cushion(s) so that your knees are below your hips and in contact with the floor (otherwise your spine will collapse) or else use a chair with a firm base (not a sofa). Slumping only increases the pressure on the legs and discomfort in the back. Check that your breathing is free and easy - any restriction indicates a fixed posture. Turn your awareness to the parts of your body, which contact the cushion, floor or chair, softening onto the supporting surfaces. It is useful to spend five minutes scanning the entire body, part by part, in order to relax each individual region.
Note that there is no such thing as 'perfect posture'. Postural aches will come and go as a natural part of the unfolding practice. One’s posture will never be one hundred percent. It is more important to concentrate on the meditation process in hand rather than trying to achieve a perfect posture. If pain becomes overwhelming or is due to injury, mindfully adjust the posture after noting the various sensations. However, as concentration develops, sensations of hotness, stiffness and itchiness will arise, as part of the contemplation of feeling and sensation, and here it is important to note them mindfully without fidgeting.
It is sensible to attend to your posture with wisdom, not insensitive willpower. Posture will improve with time, but you need to work with the body, not use force against it. If you have a lot of pain during a period of sitting, change posture, sit on a chair or use a kneeling stool, or even stand up for a while. A preparatory session at the beginning of the sitting session is valuable, where you systematically relax and open up the body and check your sitting posture.
Checking your posture:
• Are the hips leaning back? This will cause you to slump.
• The lower back should retain its natural, unforced curve so that the abdomen is forward and 'open'.
• Imagine that someone is gently pushing between the shoulder blades, but keep the muscles
relaxed.
• Note and gently release any tension in the neck and shoulder region.
Once you have settled into a comfortable, upright, balanced position then you are ready to begin meditating. Do not move the body during a formal sitting session unless you absolutely have to. If you do move, then note the movement and sensations as you move. Be clear what has caused you to move: is it the pain or discomfort of the posture or is it some agitation in the mind? In this way, you will come to know cause and effect.
Tuning into the Primary Object
One needs to first establish the attention into the body. To do this, you connect with the predominant touch sensation of hardness or softness (earth element) from the body's contact with the cushion or chair. This will anchor the attention to the body, especially when assisted by the mental label of 'touching', 'touching'. Stay with the sitting touch point until it is well defined. Then from the sitting ‘touch point’ allow the attention to move into the natural rising and falling movement of the abdomen, which then becomes the primary meditation focus. Having tuned into the movement make a mental note or label it as 'rising', 'rising' concurrently with the upward movement and 'falling', 'falling' with the downward movement.
Make sure when noting the rise and fall movement of the abdomen, that you are connecting with the airflow and not just the conceptual form and shape of the abdomen. When you have tuned into the specific characteristics in the movement, such as vibration, pressure, etc and the subtle, fine nuances of the movement, then one knows that one is on track.
Primary and Secondary Objects
The primary focus in the sitting meditation is the movement caused by the expansion and contraction of the abdomen. This is not to be confused with any breathing practice. Be careful not to manipulate or force the natural movement in any way. Close attentiveness to the internal abdominal movement has to be established and developed by the meditator from the beginning. You will find that secondary objects such as thinking, body sensations, pain, emotions, mind states, mental images, etc, will take the attention away. Then you must allow the attention to avert to them and mentally note these secondary objects as best you can without reactions. Just register the arisen secondary objects with ‘bare attention’ as a witness. After which, one returns again to the rise and fall movement of the abdomen with close attentiveness.
It is important to be aware of the specific characteristics of the various experiences under observation e.g. a series of sensations in the movement of the abdomen (wind element) or the specific characteristics found in pain such as heat, throbbing, etc. (fire element). Maintaining the crossed legged sitting posture without moving allows you to focus intensely and apprehend at a microscopic level the body's elements and the subtle mind events.
Maintaining ‘Presence’ during the Changeover
At the end of each sitting session allow for a gentle transition. That is, do not abruptly breakout of the meditation, but carefully follow through by being aware of unfolding the limbs while noting the body sensations, the release of the pressure in the posture, and the detailed movements in standing up and stretching. In this way, you are carrying the practice into the next activity as well as sustaining the mindfulness and concentration that would have developed during the sitting session.
Take extra care in the traveling between the sitting and the formal walking meditation. Note all the detailed movements of the body as you move. Try to do this without a break, because by connecting the sitting and walking sessions it will bring the continuity to the practice that is necessary for it to deepen.
Technique in Walking Meditation
While meditation is usually associated with the sitting posture, Vipassana meditation exercises are also practised while walking. The walking exercise is essentially about the awareness of movement as you note the component parts of the steps. Alternating walking meditation with sitting meditation helps to keep one’s meditation practice in balance and the mind fresh and the body relaxed.
Walking meditation is a skillful way to energise the practice if the calming effect of sitting is making you dull or you are becoming over concentrated. Actually for many experienced insight meditators, it can be the preferred mode as it is a dynamic meditation that invigorates the practice.
You will need to find a level surface from ten to fifteen metres long on which you can walk back and forth. Your arms should hang naturally with your hands lightly clasped in front. Gaze at a point about two metres on the floor in front of you to avoid visual distractions.
Establish your attentiveness by first noting the standing posture and the touch sensation of the feet at the start of the walking track. Then, as you walk, keep the attention on the movement of the foot without identifying with it and not on the leg or any other part of the body.
For the first five to ten minutes or so, you can start with noting each step as 'left', 'right', then you can move to noting four parts of each step: 'lifting', 'pushing', 'dropping', and ‘touching’. Mentally note or label each step part-by-part, building up until you are noting all the six component parts, 'raising', 'lifting', 'pushing', 'dropping', 'touching', and 'pressing', concurrently with the actual experience of the movements.
While walking and noting the parts of the steps, you will probably find the mind is still thinking. Not to worry, keep focused on the noting of the steps as long as the thoughts remain just as 'background thoughts'. However if you find you have been walking and 'lost in thought', you must stop and vigorously note the thinking as 'thinking', 'thinking', 'thinking' until it stops. Then re-establish your attention on the movement of the foot and carry on. Keep the foot soft and relax and be careful that the mental noting does not become so mechanical that you lose the experience of the movement.
Try to do a minimum walking period of half an hour, and build it up to a full hour. Strategically it is better to do a walking period before a sitting session, especially first thing in the morning, as it loosens stiff muscles and also after meals as it assist digestion and helps to avoid sleepiness. If you can alternate the walking and sitting sessions without any major breaks you will develop a continuity of awareness that naturally carries through into the awareness of daily activities.
Awareness of Daily Activities
For the awareness to deepen, continuity that gives momentum to the practice must be maintained for at least three or more hours in the practice day. Continuity arises through careful and precise attention to movements and postures for as long as possible during the routine activities of the day.
Again we use the ‘primary and secondary object’ strategy to help maintain awareness throughout the day. As you walk about in the retreat environment maintain awareness of, or mentally note the steps as you walk, as ‘walking’, ‘walking’. Then as you stand, ‘standing’, ‘standing’, or when sitting, ‘sitting’, ‘sitting’ or laying down, as ‘laying down’: that is, noting the Four Postures as the primary focus. Then as other things take your attention, such as seeing, hearing, thinking, mind states, etc., they become secondary objects. In this way, you naturally maintain moment-to-moment awareness during daily activities. It is a simple thing to do, and is used as a 'thread of awareness' practice from which you can find more details in the movement as your concentration intensifies.
Monitor the four main postures throughout the day, until the end of the day when you lay down to take rest for the night. There are many details to be found in the posture movements as you make a transition from one posture to another. This will help to maintain the continuity of the attention, which in Vipassana practice is the key to its success.
You would start this attentiveness to the postures from the moment of awakening in bed in the lying down posture: first note or be aware of all the touch sensations of the body on the bed. Then as you rise note the sitting posture as 'sitting', ‘sitting’ and then having got out of bed, you are standing, note it as 'standing', 'standing' and as you move, note it as 'walking', 'walking' and as secondary objects arise, such as seeing, hearing, etc., pay attention to them as well.
Nothing can be dismissed as unimportant when noting daily activities such as domestic chores, eating, cleaning your teeth. All these are good opportunities for the meditator to practice presence of mind. Repeatedly note any and every movement and activity in order to establish the practice so that it becomes ‘second nature’ for you to note them in your daily routine. Of course, this is not so easy to establish. It requires patience and perseverance, especially in being kind to yourself when you feel frustrated by constant forgetfulness!
It is useful to reinforce your efforts of being attentive in daily activities by reviewing or taking stock of your mindfulness practice at the end of the day, but without evaluating or making judgments about the practice. Another way is to record the practice in a meditation diary. In this way, the patterns and habits of one’s practice will become apparent to you, which could suggest strategies and ways to work with them so as to help you to overcome any difficulties.
5. Working with Thinking and Pain in Meditation
At the beginning of the practice at least, a lot of meditators are much troubled by their thoughts as well as painful body sensations. Pain from the sitting posture is workable, as the cause comes from not being accustomed to the crossed legged sitting posture. Thinking is more of a challenge, as it requires patience and skill to come to terms with it.
Meditators are likely to assume that somehow they must get rid of the thoughts or block them out to be successful in meditation. This might be the case in concentration-based meditation, where the one-pointed concentration on the meditation object will eventually suppress the thinking process to produce a state of calm. But in Vipassana meditation we do not want to suppress the thinking merely to get some relief from the turbulence in the mind. Rather we seek to insight into the nature of the mind and to the thinking process itself.
Thinking
by its nature cannot be exactly aligned with the present moment
experience. It can describe it but the description can never be the
actual experience. Thinking is mostly either of the past or a projection
into the future. Thinking creates ideas, plans, concepts, or opinions
produced by mental activities. It is a symbolic, not an ultimate
reality. It does not lead to the primary experience, that is, direct
experiential knowing.At the beginning of the practice at least, a lot of meditators are much troubled by their thoughts as well as painful body sensations. Pain from the sitting posture is workable, as the cause comes from not being accustomed to the crossed legged sitting posture. Thinking is more of a challenge, as it requires patience and skill to come to terms with it.
Meditators are likely to assume that somehow they must get rid of the thoughts or block them out to be successful in meditation. This might be the case in concentration-based meditation, where the one-pointed concentration on the meditation object will eventually suppress the thinking process to produce a state of calm. But in Vipassana meditation we do not want to suppress the thinking merely to get some relief from the turbulence in the mind. Rather we seek to insight into the nature of the mind and to the thinking process itself.
The strategy in working with thinking in Vipassana meditation is to first allow it to be, not getting into struggle with it, and to regard it as just another object to be noted. In time, one becomes skilled in witnessing the thinking process without becoming involved so much in the content of the mind. It is like standing on the pavement passively aware of the traffic going by without reacting to the passing traffic itself; until eventually the mind is quiet or at least it quietens down somewhat. Then the naturally quiet or silent mind opens to the direct experience of the phenomena under observation.
To have the truly 'stilled mind' is not so easy, for again and again the meditator finds himself or herself 'lost in thought', only catching the thinking retrospectively. Patience and perseverance is called for in this situation. Be assured in time that the trains of thoughts will slow down sufficiently so that you will start to notice gaps or pauses in the thoughts.
So by being aware, even just occasionally, of the gaps in the thinking, there is an opening to be able, as it were, to catch the next thought as it is forming, that is the beginning of the thought. This acts as a circuit breaker. The circuit is broken and the mind has quietened and one’s attention is able to resume noting the primary object. At this level the mind has quietened sufficiently to just know, that is, the mind knowing the mind.
In the short term, there is another way to work with circuitous thinking using 'skillful means'. That is, using the mental noting of 'thinking',' thinking', ‘thinking’ to cut the incessant thinking. But it has to be done vigorously otherwise one can find one has drifted off thinking about the nature of thought! The mental noting of thinking can be a powerful tool to inhibit the thinking, but has to be used judiciously.
There is a saying: "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional".
Understandably, meditators want the unpleasant feeling or pain they are experiencing in the practice to go away. The underlying assumption is that by bearing the pain it will go away and then they will feel good, and without the pain they will have pleasant experiences as a reward for their effort. Actually, in Vipassana meditation we do the opposite: that is, we are trying to understand the nature of pain and to investigate the so-called pain - not to get rid of it. The Vipassana meditator is very fortunate to have pain, at least posture pain, as it is an excellent teacher - with the added bonus that you will at least remain awake!
Pain is the body's signal that something is wrong. The pain is telling you that you must attend to it. The painful sensations we work with in meditation are mostly those from the sitting posture. The reason, of course, for the pain is that a person is not used to sitting in the crossed legged position for long periods at a stretch. So posture pain is workable.
The rule of thumb when working with any pain is to first check – given that it is not a pre-existing condition - whether its cause is a health problem or not. Take note as to whether the pain that one was experiencing during the sitting goes away more or less immediately after the session. If that is the case, then one can be assured that it is only posture pain and no damage is being done.
When one experiences posture pain in sitting meditation, it is actually an opportunity to work with it. Regard it as your best friend, as you can learn much from it. So do not drive it away. Invite it in and get to know it. It is not a matter of just bearing the pain. The practice is to investigate it - to penetrate it deeply. If you can successfully work with physical pain, then you are more likely to be able to work with mental pain.
Yet meditators are inclined to avoid working with pain. For example, every time they get to the threshold of pain they pull away, and this then becomes the 'pain barrier', a block in the practice. They hope that they can build up a tolerance of pain without having to work with it. But unfortunately disinclination to work with pain becomes a major mental and physical obstacle to the meditator's progress.
How to Work with Pain
It is not likely that you are experiencing pain all over the body, so first localise it, for example in the knee area. Initially, there might be muscular reaction to the pain: like when one has a dip in icy cold water, there is an initial shock, but once one is in the water usually one can bear it and stay with the cold sensations. Relax and soften into the painful sensations, looking for particular characteristics in the pain - heat, tension, stabbing, throbbing, etc.
When there is no resistance to the pain, the particular characteristics will manifest. Then when the particular characteristics are aligned with the 'knowing of' (consciousness of) the pain this will reveal the general or universal characteristics of change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
Besides posture pain, there can be all sorts of mysterious aches and pains in this type of meditation, so-called 'vipassana pain', that is, various painful sensations in the body, often so intense that you suppose there must be some medical condition causing them. If that is the case, having checked whether that is or not - then not to worry, it is all ‘workable’. They have a saying in the Burmese Vipassana tradition: "Pain is the doorway to Nibbana". The teachers are very pleased when you report interesting pain in the interview, as they know that you can make good progress in the meditation if you are prepared to work with and can sort out the pain from the suffering.
It is the resistance to the pain that is causing the suffering. The mind is striking at the so-called pain, complaining about the pain, wanting it to go away or trying to dissociate from the pain. But once you are able to work with pain you will be able to differentiate the pain from the suffering, and thus how one relates to the pain will change.
Three Kinds of Suffering
Not appreciating the basic premise of the Buddha Dharma, that is, the 1st Noble Truth, the fact of suffering (dukkha sacca), is the root of the problem. It cannot be as a senior monk has recently advocated, that the Buddha’s 1st Noble Truth is that of Happiness! Understandably, the fact of suffering is not palatable to many people; but if you think you will popularize the Buddha’s Dharma in this way then one is mistaken. This is contrary to the Buddha’s core teaching and the reason why so many people are caught in delusion. Whether we like it or not, we need to understand and be able to handle suffering to some extent, especially mental suffering, notwithstanding our inclination to acknowledge the fact of suffering or not.
Vipassana meditators are more likely to be compelled to work with the three kinds of suffering: ordinary suffering (dukkha-dukkha) such as emotional ups and down, and relationship difficulties. We all experience this ordinary suffering to some degree. But if you are skillful it need not be such a problem as you can work with this kind of suffering.
Then there is the suffering of change (viparinama dukkha) also known as the 'suffering of happiness'. Whether it is a change in circumstances or just a mind-state, nothing can remain the same for very long, everything, absolutely everything is subject to change. But if one is not so attached to things or relationships, then again, this type of suffering caused by change is manageable.
The third kind of suffering is not so apparent - it is conditioned or existential suffering (sankhara dukkha). Ordinary people are usually not even aware of it. It is the deep suffering stemming from the mental constructions (sankharas). It is experienced in the 'insight knowledges' (vipassana nanas) in Vipassana meditation, when the intelligence and wisdom is highly developed, that one sees that all mental and physical phenomena are unstable, unsatisfactory and are just an impersonal process - not me, not myself. The maturity of this insight brings about a deep transformation of consciousness that finally frees us from all suffering.
The purpose of Buddhist meditation, Vipassana or otherwise, is not just for curing physical diseases. If physical healing happens to occur then it is considered a byproduct of the practice, nothing more. A whole range of stress related physical illnesses such as stomach ulcers, angina, migraine, etc., could be alleviated by meditation practice. But meditation is not about miraculous cure - that is more of the nature of faith healing.
Healing and transformation is the outcome of the practice. All forms of suffering or mental pain, such as anguish, remorse, grief, etc., can be cured in Vipassana meditation, through the purification of the mind. That is the real miracle. Whether medical science can ultimately cure all physical disease is problematic, as it is the nature of the body to eventually break down. All phenomena have three phases: birth, life and death. Therefore, pain is inherent in nature. While we may or may not be able to cure physical disease, Vipassana meditation is tailored to cure mental suffering.
Nobody wants to suffer, and the underlying message of the Buddha Dharma is that suffering on all levels is unnecessary. We do not need to suffer. There is the fact of suffering, the cause of suffering, the ending of suffering and the practice path leading out of suffering. If we are suffering, it is because of ignorance - not knowing. What we usually experience is unnecessary suffering.
But we do not need to suffer mentally at all, as the compassionate Buddha has shown us that the way to be free of suffering is through wise attention that insights into the true nature of the mind and body, then we can finally be free from the burden of suffering.
6. The Mind’s Latent Tendencies
The
question exists as to why it is that many long-term meditators still
experience difficulty with negative emotions, when you might suppose
that after many years of practice they would have at least come to terms
with psychological problems.You might suppose that perhaps they haven’t practiced deeply or intensively enough to affect the deep-seated problematic behaviour patterns. So maybe they are better off doing some psychotherapy or having counselling to get some insight into their problems. If that is the case, then it is rather ironic, when you consider that many Buddhist meditation techniques are being incorporated into psychotherapies, such as cognitive training and mindfulness practices.
To understand the problem as to why long-term practitioners are still having to deal with psychological difficulties we have to make the distinction between mental disorders, that is, clinical conditions such as psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders and, on the other hand, unwholesome behaviour or negative predispositions that are detrimental to oneself as well as harmful to others with whom one is in relationship with.
Then, being clear that we are dealing with the mind’s unwholesome predispositions and not clinical conditions, we need to examine them in depth and learn how to work with them from the point of view of meditation practices, especially Vipassana meditation.
Unfortunately it is not uncommon that many people experience these ingrained unwholesome patterns of mind that are harmful to their wellbeing. However, while we have to acknowledge that it is not an easy matter, it is possible through Vipassana meditation to detoxify the mind just as it is possible to detoxify the body.
These mental poisons or pollutants of the mind are known in Buddhist teachings as the Three Poisons of greed, hatred and ignorance. Often they are expanded to a set of seven that includes sensual desire, aversion, wrong view, doubt, conceit, craving for existence, as well as ignorance. Then they are referred to as the latent tendencies (anusaya) or predispositions to negative patterns of mind. These latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind and are the source of one’s addictions and deep clinging, holding the mind in a state of attachment and, as a result, in suffering.
As a meditator, I personally became acutely aware of these hidden tendencies of the mind during a year’s intensive Vipassana retreat in Burma in 1986 when, in spite of sustained attentiveness and without consciously controlling or suppressing the mind, unwholesome material kept surfacing, for example, anger would continually flare up month after month even though I was in silence and was not relating with anyone except the teacher. Although, when the mind was powerfully concentrated these anusayas – or dormant tendencies - that had been manifesting were suppressed. But that was not the desired outcome, as I was trying to follow the ‘pure’ Vipassana approach that avoids the blocking effect that results from fixed concentration.
I would say now though that strategically it is useful, even necessary, to use the inhibiting effect of one-pointed concentration to help pacify the mind during Vipassana meditation, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the cathartic effect that comes with pure moment to moment awareness. One needn’t be afraid of any turbulence that arises in Vipassana, as it is an essential part of the cleansing and healing process that purifies the mind and insights into the three marks of existence, of change, distress, and impersonal mental processes.
Now, can I ask you to do some radical reflection on these latent tendencies, as an understanding of them is crucial in dealing with the ongoing difficulties that plague the mind? First, one needs to be truly honest with oneself and accept the fact of their presence together with the knowledge on how they are activated. Then one is ready to undergo the cleansing process, the purification of mind in Vipassana meditation, which eventually leads to the healing and transformation that ultimately frees one from mental suffering.
The anusaya’s are inbuilt tendencies - it is known that babies have them at birth - so everybody has them to some degree or other. Perhaps we can say that they are our karmic inheritance, somewhat like our genes. But don’t suppose that the latent or underlying tendencies need be there forever – that they are everlasting, or that we are fated to their effects. As it is a universal truth that everything changes, so we need not get stuck in conditioned patterns of the mind, as we have the potential to decondition the mind and be free!
There was an American politician who won an election with the slogan, ‘it’s the economy, stupid!’ We say ‘it’s the mind, stupid’, as it is the mind that is the source of self-inflicted suffering, or you might say stupid suffering. So we identify the mind as the source of suffering and the root latency in the mind is the latency to ignorance. This tendency to ignorance forms the foundation for the latency to craving, which is the tendency to get attached to - to identify with - things. We are very much inclined to identify with one belief system or another, seeking certainty and relentlessly pursuing the myth of security, while not being savvy to the Wisdom of Insecurity.
One of the deeply conditioned latent tendencies is the attachment to concepts while taking them for realities. It is the tendency to get attached to concepts, per se, without understanding them for what they are in themselves: as just something that someone has thought up, or has been able to imagine. There is an ingrained tendency to grab hold of the concepts in worldly usage, to cling to them tenaciously and identify with them. We assume that the words that we use have a reality of their own, that they are true in their own right, even going to the extreme of a war of words over ideas – over some ideology.
As the latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind below the conscious level, the question is what triggers them, or what causes them to surface? As far as I know there are two ways that this happens: during the play of emotions, when the mind state is coloured by the unwholesome latent tendencies, which tends to reinforce them; or during the process of perception, when there is thought and then conceptual proliferation.
In whatever way they find expression, the latent tendencies are activated unconsciously in the mind and that is why they are so difficult to control, even when they are continually cut down (without uprooting them) by concentration-based meditation (samatha).
There is a verse by the Buddha in the Dhammapada that illustrates this:
If its root remains undamaged and strong,
A tree, even if cut will grow back.
So too if latent craving is not rooted out,
This suffering returns again and again.
- Dhp 338
A model of the mind used to explain Buddhist practice has the mind in three layers. The top is the expressed level, where restraint is used to inhibit expressions of unwholesome emotions; the middle is the manifest level, where unwholesome thoughts are swirling about and are pacified or temporarily inhibited through concentration based meditations, such as loving-kindness; while the bottom level is where the latent tendencies lie, which are only accessed and eliminated through insighting into the processes of the mind itself, in various forms of awareness based meditations.
A simile used to illustrate this is that of a sleeping snake, i.e. the dormant level, who when provoked rises up in anger, the manifest level and then strikes, the expressed level. So you can see that while we use restraint to block the anger and loving-kindness meditation to change the climate of the mind, the latent tendency remains dormant until the mind’s ventilating processes during Vipassana meditation releases the dormant material; and as long as one does not play back into the content of the mind, that is, when there is non-reactive awareness, then this de-conditions and gradually cleanses the mind of the latent tendencies.
Another possibility of accessing the latent tendencies is by intercepting them during the process of perception. But this presupposes that the practitioner can increase the perceptual threshold level. The perceptual thresholds are levels where subtle or fast processes can be observed. Below the threshold the process is not observed, and above the threshold the process is observed.
In a study at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts during a three month’s intensive Vipassana retreat in 1984, the perceptual threshold of meditators increased as much as 100%, 200% or more. This showed that it is possible to substantially increase one’s perceptual threshold, at least in intensive meditation practice.
The latent tendencies lie dormant in the mind, becoming activated during the perceptual process: through contact, or during a sense impression at any of the six sense-doors (i.e. the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, or the processes of the mind itself). The process of perception is normally experienced as a conditioned sequence, and functions in this way: with contact via feeling and cognition (a pair) thought arises, which in turn stimulates conceptual proliferation.
The conceptual proliferations (papanca) can in turn give rise to further concoctions and biased cognitions, which lead from the original sense data to all kind of associations. Once the stage of conceptual proliferation is reached though, the course is set. So allowing that the perceptual threshold is above the norm, one could be ‘clearly knowing’ during the stages of cognition and initial conceptual reaction with close attentiveness (sati) and so be free of the conditioned sequence. Insight and therefore reduced suffering are the result of a change in perceptual thresholds that allow access to previously unconscious mental processes. These processes though are beyond the perceptual threshold of the normal person.
The most difficult latent tendency to root out is that of sensual desire. In Buddhist practice, there needs to be at least a degree of renunciation, whether for lay people or monastics, in order to expose the latent tendencies. While this can be challenging and is not for everybody, sensual desire is best worked with within the context of the celibate lifestyle of the monk and nun. This is certainly going against the stream of worldly life, but in order to cut the roots of defilements in the mind one needs to expose the unconscious processes of the mind and make them conscious.
The way to do this is to focus the mind in a profound examination of the present moment processes of the mind (satisampajana), which though not accessible to normal consciousness, thereby become conscious. Unconscious processes become conscious processes. It is like switching a light on in a dark room so that which was unseen becomes seen, which is a simile commonly used in the discourses for Enlightenment. So regardless of which sense object is focused on — sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or processes of the mind itself — the sense object becomes a projection screen for observing the fundamental processes of consciousness, which brings about the stilling of the mind and a deep transformation of consciousness.
7. Difficulties Facing Meditators - and how to work with them
In a way it is a good thing that there is no such thing as a perfect meditator, as all the problems and difficulties that one comes across in meditation practice are 'grist for the mill': that is, they are 'workable'. As in life, what we see as difficulties in meditation can be the cause of growth in the Dharma.
This is especially true of Vipassana meditation, where a lot of difficulties both physically and mentally can be encountered. It is not until the enlightenment factor of equanimity develops sufficiently that there will cease to be difficulties in the practice. That is why it is critical for the meditator to be monitoring feelings and emotions in his or her practice, as it is the ability to accept whatever feelings and subsequent emotions arise without reaction that eventually helps the practice to stabilise and mature.
There are common difficulties facing all meditators. They are called the Nirvaranas in Pali, which translates as the Five Hindrances or the obstacles that block the path of the practitioner.
• Sensuality: yearning after sense objects or preoccupation with the sensory world
• All forms of ill-will: from resentment to outright hostility
• Mental Inertia: lack of mental and/or physical energy
• Restlessness and Worry: agitation in the mind and body as well as tracing back to the past or remorse
• Skeptical Doubt: persistent uncertainty either about one's own ability, the teacher or the technique.
Having mentioned the above negatives, we should then look at possible solutions. An antidote for sensuality is the reflection on the anatomical parts of the body (asubha). This is a powerful method in dealing with attachment to the body. Loving-kindness meditation will change the quality of mind from negative to positive and thereby overcoming all forms of ill-will. Arousing one's energy and effort can help overcome mental inertia. As for restlessness and worry, calming and stabilising the mind with a concentration meditation is helpful. Skeptical doubt is more difficult to overcome until one develops sufficient confidence (saddha) in the Buddha Dharma to overcome the wavering in the mind. So, doing reflections on the qualities of the Buddha (Buddhanussati), one can inspire and arouse the necessary confidence.
Concentration
meditation can be relied on to give some relief from the Five
Hindrances by temporarily suppressing them. When threshold concentration
(upacara samadhi) arises in Vipassana meditation it too will inhibit
the hindrances to some extent as well. But ultimately the mind is
purified and completely cleared of the Five Hindrances through the
cleansing power of Vipassana meditation.In a way it is a good thing that there is no such thing as a perfect meditator, as all the problems and difficulties that one comes across in meditation practice are 'grist for the mill': that is, they are 'workable'. As in life, what we see as difficulties in meditation can be the cause of growth in the Dharma.
This is especially true of Vipassana meditation, where a lot of difficulties both physically and mentally can be encountered. It is not until the enlightenment factor of equanimity develops sufficiently that there will cease to be difficulties in the practice. That is why it is critical for the meditator to be monitoring feelings and emotions in his or her practice, as it is the ability to accept whatever feelings and subsequent emotions arise without reaction that eventually helps the practice to stabilise and mature.
There are common difficulties facing all meditators. They are called the Nirvaranas in Pali, which translates as the Five Hindrances or the obstacles that block the path of the practitioner.
• Sensuality: yearning after sense objects or preoccupation with the sensory world
• All forms of ill-will: from resentment to outright hostility
• Mental Inertia: lack of mental and/or physical energy
• Restlessness and Worry: agitation in the mind and body as well as tracing back to the past or remorse
• Skeptical Doubt: persistent uncertainty either about one's own ability, the teacher or the technique.
Having mentioned the above negatives, we should then look at possible solutions. An antidote for sensuality is the reflection on the anatomical parts of the body (asubha). This is a powerful method in dealing with attachment to the body. Loving-kindness meditation will change the quality of mind from negative to positive and thereby overcoming all forms of ill-will. Arousing one's energy and effort can help overcome mental inertia. As for restlessness and worry, calming and stabilising the mind with a concentration meditation is helpful. Skeptical doubt is more difficult to overcome until one develops sufficient confidence (saddha) in the Buddha Dharma to overcome the wavering in the mind. So, doing reflections on the qualities of the Buddha (Buddhanussati), one can inspire and arouse the necessary confidence.
Handling Difficulties in the Practice
Mind Wanderings: Preoccupied with the content of the mind, being lost in thought or obsessive trains of thoughts requires skillful handling. It is not the object of the practice to repress the thinking. Rather one has to allow that, over the period of a retreat, the mind will naturally settle. There are two ways to work with the thinking - vigorously mentally noting the thinking as 'thinking', 'thinking', to cut it, as this helps to ‘break the circuit’ or, when possible, allow the train of thoughts to run and find the gaps or pauses between thoughts, and if one is sharp enough, then try to catch the beginning of the next thought as it is about to form. In this way, at least the circuitous thinking pattern is broken and the mind will then tend to quieten.
Sleepiness: This is a common problem when people come to meditation retreats. Usually, it is just mental and physical exhaustion for a lot of people. We are so over-extended, stretched and stressed, that people are often just simply exhausted. In today’s society we do not give ourselves enough rest. We are trying to function on less sleep while achieving more and more so we end up with a 'sleep debt' at the cost of our well-being. A meditation retreat gives us time out to recuperate and recharge ourselves. It used to take just a few days into a retreat for people to recover fully - now it can take a week or so, which indicates that the pace of everyday life is accelerating rapidly. Yet it is possible that by focusing on the ‘sleepy state’ as one mentally notes it, the sleepiness will disperse.
Inability or Disinclination to Handle Pain: Posture pain is being referred to here, not a pre-existing medical condition. Pain is inevitable in meditation, as in life - only suffering is optional. The meditator should not try to make it go away, but regard it as a friend for then its true nature will be seen. One should work with posture pain by softening into the pain sensations and relaxing into any muscular contractions. Then find the centre of the so-called pain by noticing specific characteristics in it, such as tension, heat, throbbing, stabbing, etc. When the mind is quiet and there is just the knowing of the pain i.e. the 'consciousness of', then the pain will change. It will probably come back but one achieves some insight into its true nature.
Fears and Feelings of Anxiety: Unpleasant feelings of apprehension or distress caused by the anticipation of imagined danger. It is the feeling of looking forward in dread to something that one supposes is going to happen that brings up the fear. The antidote for fear is to stay in the present moment. There is also 'fear of the unknown'. As a result some people stop meditating altogether. Deep within most of our minds lie unwholesome latent tendencies - the dark side, or the shadow. Powerful material can surface during Vipassana meditation, and most meditators can handle this adequately without breaking down. Only people deeply troubled with a neurosis or with a clinical condition such as psychosis should not do intensive Vipassana meditation without guidance.
Wrong Attitude: Ambition to achieve results or wanting immediate effects, which is an acquisitive attitude. Right attitude is an open acceptance of things as they are without any expectation. Above all, patience and forbearance is needed in relating to the meditation experience. The Buddha describes it well in the Dhammapada: "Patience and forbearance is the power of those who meditate".
Handling the Meditation Object Wrongly: Unusual experiences and sensations can arise in the meditation, such as: visions, images, voices, and lights. If you cling to them whether they are blissful or fearful you will become attached to the phenomena. It is critical that you remain neutral towards them by labeling them as 'seeing', 'seeing', 'hearing', 'hearing', etc. Never give any unusual experience, positive or negative, any significance. Report them to a qualified teacher or mentor who can assist you with an appropriate strategy or technique to handle them.
Understanding these problems will help you manage your practice and give you the ability to make the appropriate adjustments based on knowledge of methods and techniques. The path of meditation is a path of practice. Practice is a repeated performance or methodical exercises to develop skills, which include the ability to self-manage your meditation practice.
When all is said and done, the best way to work with difficulties in Vipassana meditation is to seek a Kalyanamitta. This is not a guru who claims to do the work for you, but a meditation friend or teacher who has had some travel experience and can guide and advise you on the practice path.
There was an exchange between the Buddha and his attendant, Ananda, where Ananda said that he had heard all the teachings and therefore he could practise by himself. The Buddha responded to the effect that without a guide (kalyanamitta), the Dharma could not be realised. In the final analysis, it is not a matter of this or that technique, but the need for a guide with travel experience - a mentor in the Dharma.
8. Keeping the Practice in Balance
It is not just some technique or the meditation practice by itself that we are following, but the Buddha’s Eight-Fold Practice Path, also known as the three-fold training, consisting of: an ethical base of skilful speech, actions and occupation; which leads to moral well-being that acts as the underpinning for the meditation skills of effort, mindfulness and concentration; which is then directed to right aspiration, which leads to right understanding, with the outcome of liberation.
This teaching was the method taught by the Buddha to realise the Dharma or Universal Truth, which he explained on many occasions during his forty-five year teaching career. Even as he lay dying, when the ascetic Subhadra asked the Buddha whether other contemporary teachers were enlightened, partially enlightened or not at all, the Buddha responded that unless they follow the principles of the Eight-Fold Path then it was not possible for any of these teachers to be enlightened partially or otherwise.
So you can appreciate that the complete system of practice of the Eight-Fold Path needs to be implemented to obtain the desired effect. However, more often than not you find that meditators, who although well motivated, are not practicing correctly in that they are overreaching in their effort to extract something from the practice, that they have a gaining attitude: that they are inclined to confine the practice to a static sitting practice and/or they are disinclined to or are unaware of the necessity of developing the dynamic practice of ongoing mindfulness during daily activities. Also, many do not understanding the effects of fixed concentration which, when not handled correctly, will bring their efforts to a dead end.
Generally, when difficulties are encountered in the meditation practice they often are caused by an imbalance in the meditation skills. Maintaining your balance in meditation is a matter of harmonising the three meditation skills of effort or application, attentiveness or mindfulness, and intensifying the attentiveness or concentration.
Too much effort makes the mind restless, while too much fixed concentration restricts the attention to a single point thereby losing moment-to-moment awareness. Effort and concentration are active factors, while mindfulness is non-reactive awareness from a state of receptivity. As you practise, keep in mind the characteristics of these three factors, for applying them appropriately will allow you to adjust, harmonise and keep your meditation in balance.
With mindfulness (sama sati) it is not necessary to induce concentration as such, because sufficient concentration will naturally arise by being continuous with presence of mind coupled with clear knowing (sati-sampajanna). There is no problem of having too much awareness, as there is in effort and concentration. It is not something that you can over do, rather it is more likely that there is not enough mindfulness to help balance the factors of effort and concentration. So it is worthwhile to put in more effort to maintain continuity of attention, as this contributes to settling and stabilising the mind.
For
concentration to be right, (samma samadhi) the type has to be
appropriate to the mode of meditation. In concentration meditation
(samatha) the meditator fixes on a single object, ignoring secondary
objects to become absorbed in one object only. While the type of
concentration in Vipassana meditation is the moment-to-moment knowing of
many and various objects as they arise without fixing on particular
objects. Actually, in Vipassana meditation it is really a matter of
intensifying the awareness that makes for concentration. If you wish to
change the meditation mode, from concentration to a more receptive
awareness practice, fixing on a single object has to be dropped to allow
for a flowing moment-to-moment awareness (khanika samadhi) of whatever
is predominant in your experience.It is not just some technique or the meditation practice by itself that we are following, but the Buddha’s Eight-Fold Practice Path, also known as the three-fold training, consisting of: an ethical base of skilful speech, actions and occupation; which leads to moral well-being that acts as the underpinning for the meditation skills of effort, mindfulness and concentration; which is then directed to right aspiration, which leads to right understanding, with the outcome of liberation.
This teaching was the method taught by the Buddha to realise the Dharma or Universal Truth, which he explained on many occasions during his forty-five year teaching career. Even as he lay dying, when the ascetic Subhadra asked the Buddha whether other contemporary teachers were enlightened, partially enlightened or not at all, the Buddha responded that unless they follow the principles of the Eight-Fold Path then it was not possible for any of these teachers to be enlightened partially or otherwise.
So you can appreciate that the complete system of practice of the Eight-Fold Path needs to be implemented to obtain the desired effect. However, more often than not you find that meditators, who although well motivated, are not practicing correctly in that they are overreaching in their effort to extract something from the practice, that they have a gaining attitude: that they are inclined to confine the practice to a static sitting practice and/or they are disinclined to or are unaware of the necessity of developing the dynamic practice of ongoing mindfulness during daily activities. Also, many do not understanding the effects of fixed concentration which, when not handled correctly, will bring their efforts to a dead end.
Generally, when difficulties are encountered in the meditation practice they often are caused by an imbalance in the meditation skills. Maintaining your balance in meditation is a matter of harmonising the three meditation skills of effort or application, attentiveness or mindfulness, and intensifying the attentiveness or concentration.
Too much effort makes the mind restless, while too much fixed concentration restricts the attention to a single point thereby losing moment-to-moment awareness. Effort and concentration are active factors, while mindfulness is non-reactive awareness from a state of receptivity. As you practise, keep in mind the characteristics of these three factors, for applying them appropriately will allow you to adjust, harmonise and keep your meditation in balance.
With mindfulness (sama sati) it is not necessary to induce concentration as such, because sufficient concentration will naturally arise by being continuous with presence of mind coupled with clear knowing (sati-sampajanna). There is no problem of having too much awareness, as there is in effort and concentration. It is not something that you can over do, rather it is more likely that there is not enough mindfulness to help balance the factors of effort and concentration. So it is worthwhile to put in more effort to maintain continuity of attention, as this contributes to settling and stabilising the mind.
For the Vipassana meditator the following are ways of relating to the meditation experience to maintain the balance:
• Witnessing your experience: an attitude of neutrality, which is restricted to the bare registering of physical and mental events without posturing or positioning oneself - 'just witnessing'.
• Non-clinging: rather than seeking gratification of wishes, impulses, desires, there has to be at least some degree of non-clinging to create the space to see and 'let go'.
• Removal of the Censor: an attitude of acceptance of all thoughts, emotions, feelings and sensations coming into awareness, with impartiality, without censorship.
• Cultivating Receptivity: Vipassana meditation is tuning in and being sensitive to, and intimate with, what is observed, from a place of spaciousness - 'receptivity'.
An image often used to describe the practice of awareness is that of walking a tightrope. In order to do so, you must necessarily pay attention to the balance. In meditation practice, this applies to how you are relating to your experience. Reaching out to grasp the object (attaching) or pushing it away (rejecting) are both reactions that are unbalancing. Keeping your balance is developing a mind that does not cling or reject, like or dislike, and is without attachment or condemnation. Balance and equanimity in the face of life's inevitable stress and conflict is to practise the Buddha's Middle Way.
For a meditator, developing the ability to adjust and manage one’s own effort in practice is essential. A certain effort is involved in developing 'moment-to-moment awareness', but it is not the effort to attain anything in the future. The effort is to stay in the present, just paying attention with equanimity to what is happening in the moment.
The Buddha gave an example of just how attentive we should be. He told of a person who was ordered to walk through a crowd with a jug of oil, full to the brim, balanced on his head. Behind him walked a soldier with a sword. If a single drop were spilled the soldier would cut off his head! That is the quality of attention needed. So you can be sure that the person with the jug walked very attentively.
Yet, it has to be a relaxed awareness. If there is too much force or strain the least jostling will cause the oil to spill. The person with the jug has to be loose and rhythmic, flowing with the changing scene, yet staying attentive in each moment. This is the kind of care we should take in practicing mindfulness, being relaxed yet alert. In this way, the training helps to maintain your balance and the ability to live in harmony with others.
9. Clearly Knowing Daily Activities
A basic skill in Vipassana meditation is to acquire the ability to give full and sustained attention or mindfulness to what you are doing as you are doing it; yet we rarely, if ever, give anything our full attention, at best it is just partial attention. The consequence of this is 'faulty intelligence', that is, not being in touch with reality, or having false views. If one does not have the right information one misreads the experience, lives in delusion and therefore suffers. The writer, Iris Murdoch, wrote: "We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality".
Regrettably,
we live in a shallow, superficial culture that lacks any real depth.
Almost everything is geared to allow us to give only partial attention
towards what is in front of us. The dominant software company,
Microsoft, has coined a phrase for the way we take in the world around
us: ‘continuous partial attention’. Their products are all geared to be
usable under such circumstances. Three or more task windows are open on
my computer screen at any time. So we skip from one to the other - just
skimming and scanning - which is symptomatic of the rather shallow life
the majority of us lead.A basic skill in Vipassana meditation is to acquire the ability to give full and sustained attention or mindfulness to what you are doing as you are doing it; yet we rarely, if ever, give anything our full attention, at best it is just partial attention. The consequence of this is 'faulty intelligence', that is, not being in touch with reality, or having false views. If one does not have the right information one misreads the experience, lives in delusion and therefore suffers. The writer, Iris Murdoch, wrote: "We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality".
The task then, in this retreat, is to turn this around and train oneself to be fully attentive as much as possible. This 'presence of mind' with clear knowing uncovers reality and in time brings healing and transformation of consciousness. So there is a need to develop the capacity for sustained and close attentiveness of all one’s movements and activities down to the minutest detail throughout the day. Such a dynamic practice of close attentiveness with clear knowing is the key to deepening one’s mindfulness, as it intensifies the awareness, to expose the reality of one's own physical and mental phenomena as constantly changing, unsatisfactory, and as just impersonal process.
We cannot pretend that this is easy, as having continuous, close attentiveness goes somewhat against the grain - it is not natural to us. The Buddha once described the practice of the Dharma as “going against the stream”. As long as one swims with the current of the river, one remains largely unaware of it. But if one chooses to turn against it, suddenly it is revealed as a powerful, discomforting force.
It is said that just prior to the Buddha’s enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Buddha floated his alms bowl on the nearby Nerangera River, and when the bowl went against the current he took that as a sign that he would be successful in his aspiration to attain enlightenment. I do not think we need to take this story literally, as I see it as more of a metaphor that points to the need to consciously face and explore one’s own conditioning and assumptions in order to grow in the Dharma.
The “stream” refers to the accumulated habits of conditioning. The practice of Dharma requires us to turn around midstream, to observe mindfully and intelligently the forces of conditioning instead of reacting to their promptings. Therefore, we need to make constant effort to train ourselves to do this practice until it is so well established that it has become, as it were, our second nature, that is, ingrained - only then will deeper states of mindfulness develop.
It is very informative to read the instructions the Buddha himself gave in the Contemplation of the Body in the subsection on Clearly Knowing (sati-sampajanna) in the text we are following: the Four Establishments of Mindfulness:
"And again, monks, a monk, while going forward or while going back he does so with clear knowing; while looking straight ahead or while looking elsewhere he does so with clear knowing; while bending or stretching his limbs he does so with clear knowing; while carrying the alms bowl and while wearing the robes he does so with clear knowing; while eating, drinking, chewing, and savouring he does so with clear knowing; while urinating or defecating he does so with clear knowing; while walking, standing, sitting, falling asleep, waking, speaking or when remaining silent, he does so with clear knowing or full attentiveness".
You can see here that the Buddha is emphasising the continuity of attentiveness or mindfulness of all daily activities, with clear knowing of all body movements in great detail - including what you do in the bathroom: nothing is too trivial that it is left out. This is the most important set of instructions and the most demanding to follow in the practice of intensive Vipassana meditation. Yet a lot of meditators often find resistance in the mind to being purposefully attentive to daily activities and movements. One has to overcome this disinclination to be mindful by persistently training oneself until you experience some positive feedback – as one does with the fluency of the practice, which will give you the confidence to keep going with the practice.
From the Buddha's time down to the present there have been teachers who have suggested practices and strategies that support the attentiveness practice. One of the most prominent of these was the late Mahasi Sayadaw of Myanmar, who recommended and taught a very effective mental naming or noting technique in his book “Practical Exercises in Vipassana Meditation”.
"When making bodily movements, the meditator should do so slowly, gently moving the arms and legs, bending or stretching them, lowering the head and raising it up. When rising from the sitting posture, one should do so gradually, noting as 'rising, rising'. When straightening up and standing, note as 'standing, standing'. When looking here and there, note as 'looking, seeing'. When walking, note the steps, whether they are taken with the right or the left foot. You must be aware of all the successive movements involved, from the raising of the foot to the dropping of it.
When one wakes up, one should immediately resume noting. The meditator who is really intent on attaining the path and its fruition (magga phala) should rest from meditation only when asleep. At other times, in all waking moments, one should be noting continually the successive body/mind phenomena without let up. That is why, as soon as one awakens, one should note the awakening state of mind as 'awakening, awakening'. If one cannot yet be aware of this, one should begin with noting the rising and falling of the abdomen.
As one goes on noting in this way, one will be able to note more and more of these events. In the beginning, as the mind wanders here and there, one may miss many things, but one should not be disheartened. Every beginner encounters the same difficulty, but as one becomes more skilled, one becomes aware of every act of mind wandering until eventually the mind does not wander any more. The mind is then riveted onto the object of its attention, the act of mindfulness becoming almost simultaneous with the object of its attention. In other words, the rising of the abdomen becomes concurrent with the act of noting it and similarly with the falling of the abdomen and all other activities”.
It is important not to give the mind any chance to slip into its old habitual ways. We are creatures of habit operating on "autopilot" a lot of the time, making many unconscious movements and actions. In a retreat situation, there is no need to hurry and in fact one is encouraged to slow down. Hurrying is an indicator that you have slipped into automatic pilot. So turn off the autopilot and use the manual controls by consciously and deliberately noting all your actions throughout the day. Effort has to be made in this practice, but the effort you make is to be in the moment, while being intimate with, and fully attentive to, whatever you are doing as you are doing it.
The beginner is advised to start by keeping a ‘thread of awareness’ on a particular action throughout the day, for example, naming the walking movement as 'walking', 'walking' without a break. Whenever the mind wanders from the noting of the walking to a secondary object such as thinking, seeing, hearing, mind state - then note the object that has taken your attention as a secondary object, before going back to the noting of walking. Then combine the noting of the walking with the noting of sitting, standing, and lying down, being especially attentive to the transition movements between each posture.
Take at least one activity during the day, such as eating, and taking your time try to do it one hundred percent - finding the minutest detail. When you are eating, all the senses are activated: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching, so try and note all the physical movements as well as the biting, chewing, tasting, savouring and swallowing. This detailed noting is dynamic and intensifies the momentary concentration that results in a more in-depth experience.
As you can see, the practice of clearly knowing is not a superficial, casual observation, as one must deeply penetrate the object under observation: 'presence' is combined with clear comprehension. That is, one must see the specific characteristics of the phenomena, the subtle and fine nuances, the minute detail of the movement, without identifying with it.
Close and sustained attention is the key to the practice. Maintaining close attentiveness for, say, seventy-five percent of daily activities for at least three to four hours in the day will be carried over to and increase the fluency of the practice in the formal sitting and walking sessions. The benefit of this precise and detailed noting is that it will increase and intensify the momentary concentration (khanika samadhi) that is needed to insight deeper into the mind-body phenomena.
For meditators whose practice of full attentiveness has matured, they would be able to note or know nearly all their movements and actions - whatever is predominant in their experience - including the specific characteristics of the movements, for most, if not all of the day.
Then they will discover that what appears to be one continuous movement is actually a series of individual discontinuous movements. Such an insight exposes the illusion of continuity. While this practice is not a slow motion exercise per se, it cannot be emphasized enough that the Vipassana meditator must slow down all bodily movements as much as possible in order to be aware of the subtleties of the movements.
A benefit that is not so much appreciated from ‘attentiveness training’ is that, with presence of mind, the mind is wholesome, and so mindfulness intensifies, and insights will follow. Therefore you will feel good, pleasant feelings (piti) will arise, as you are freed from anxiety and worry and experience the blessing of being in the present moment.
Having established and habituated the practice of full attention with clearly knowing in the supportive conditions of a retreat environment, one has developed the skill that gives you the potential to integrate the mindfulness training into everyday life. The benefits of an ongoing practice of mindfulness in daily living are that it brings about an increase in well-being for oneself and harmonious relationships with others.
10. Working with Feelings and Emotions
It is difficult for the practitioner to make progress until he or she has come to terms with feelings and emotions, as the practice itself, at least in the early stages, can bring up intense and persistent feelings and their associated emotions. So we will consider feelings and emotions together, as while they are two distinct contemplations in the framework of the practice, they tend to merge and overlap.
An emotion is an agitated mind state or disturbance caused by strong feelings about somebody or something. There need be no preference as to whether they are positive or negative as they are related to as just mind states: as ordinary or higher states of mind, that is, just mental events to be noted without seeing them as significant in any way.
Without judging or evaluating them, emotions are monitored throughout the day by labeling or mentally noting them. This helps to develop a more non-reactive awareness toward the emotion, without the tendency to identify with them or play back into the associated story. This practice helps one to relate to emotions more dispassionately while at the same time revealing the transitory nature of mental events.
The clarity now that one has in relating to the emotion can then be taken a step further by tuning into the underlying feeling tone that is associated with an emotion, such as unpleasant feeling. In this way the feeling quality itself is highlighted, thus allowing for the primary feeling to be investigated as it has become distinct from the emotional content.
In the context of the Contemplation of Feelings we need to understand what precisely is meant by feelings. While the term 'feeling' (vedana) refers to physical sensation (kayika vedana), it also includes mental feeling (cetasika vedana) as well. The practice of attentiveness to mental feelings - not just sensations or physical feelings - needs to be stressed, because by differentiating feelings from their associated emotions, you can defuse the emotional charge once you have developed the ability to catch the underlying feeling tone.
Let us
take a closer look at feelings and how to work with them. In the English
language, we use the term 'feelings' interchangeably with 'emotions'.
For example when we say, "I'm feeling delighted", we are referring to
the emotion of happiness or delight. On the other hand, a Vipassana
meditator would note that a pleasant feeling has arisen and that the
emotion is one of delight. So in the context of the practice, the term
'feeling' is used in the technical sense of a quality of pleasant
(sukkha vedana), unpleasant (dukkha vedana) or neither pleasant nor
unpleasant, that is neutral feeling (upekkha vedana). It is difficult for the practitioner to make progress until he or she has come to terms with feelings and emotions, as the practice itself, at least in the early stages, can bring up intense and persistent feelings and their associated emotions. So we will consider feelings and emotions together, as while they are two distinct contemplations in the framework of the practice, they tend to merge and overlap.
An emotion is an agitated mind state or disturbance caused by strong feelings about somebody or something. There need be no preference as to whether they are positive or negative as they are related to as just mind states: as ordinary or higher states of mind, that is, just mental events to be noted without seeing them as significant in any way.
Without judging or evaluating them, emotions are monitored throughout the day by labeling or mentally noting them. This helps to develop a more non-reactive awareness toward the emotion, without the tendency to identify with them or play back into the associated story. This practice helps one to relate to emotions more dispassionately while at the same time revealing the transitory nature of mental events.
The clarity now that one has in relating to the emotion can then be taken a step further by tuning into the underlying feeling tone that is associated with an emotion, such as unpleasant feeling. In this way the feeling quality itself is highlighted, thus allowing for the primary feeling to be investigated as it has become distinct from the emotional content.
In the context of the Contemplation of Feelings we need to understand what precisely is meant by feelings. While the term 'feeling' (vedana) refers to physical sensation (kayika vedana), it also includes mental feeling (cetasika vedana) as well. The practice of attentiveness to mental feelings - not just sensations or physical feelings - needs to be stressed, because by differentiating feelings from their associated emotions, you can defuse the emotional charge once you have developed the ability to catch the underlying feeling tone.
To make a statement of the obvious, as sometimes the obvious can be overlooked: we are beings on the sensory plane. We live in the world of the senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. It is through our senses that we experience the world and through the sense impressions at the sense doors that we experience feelings.
Feelings are the source of our liking and disliking. If we are not aware of the underlying feelings, we tend to automatically react to sense objects with liking or disliking, which is what is conditioning us and keeping us in trapped in cyclic existence (samsara). We 'pull in' and have attachment to what we like and 'push away', have aversion to what we don't like. What we then experience is coloured by ‘liking, disliking’ - 'pushing and pulling'.
What tends to be overlooked and so should be looked out for is the effect of neutral feelings. For when there are neither obvious pleasant nor unpleasant feelings manifesting, the mind is ignoring feelings or at least is not aware of feeling, and therefore can become confused and reactive because of having lost presence of mind.
For the majority of us on this blue planet, we spent our lives in constant effort to increase pleasant feelings and avoid unpleasant feelings; while more pleasant feelings are sought after as they bring the emotional enjoyment we call happiness. Whether we are aware of it or not, feelings are all encompassing in life. So we can appreciate the Buddha's pithy saying on feelings: "All things converge on feelings".
The feeling by itself though, in its primary state, is quite neutral, when it just registers the impact of an object as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. Only when repeated emotional elaborations are made, such as when one's personal story is involved, will there arise aversion, happiness, hatred, anxiety, greed or fear.
Feelings and emotions need not be mixed, as they are separable. In fact, many of the weaker impressions we experience during the day stop at the mere registering of very faint and brief feelings. This shows that staying with the primary feeling is possible and that it can be done with the help of awareness and self-restraint, even in cases when the urge to convert feeling into emotion is strong.
For the Vipassana meditator, it is essential to work with feelings, especially one's mental feelings, or feelings associated with states of mind. By monitoring feelings one can maintain one's equilibrium in the practice, which allows the enlightenment factor of equanimity to mature.
There are occasions when the mind is calm and alert and one is not totally preoccupied, and so is able to notice feelings clearly at their primary stage. Then it is just a practice of monitoring what feelings are present even when they are faint and brief throughout the day. In fact, working with feelings as a practice starts with establishing awareness on minor feelings. For example, many times during the day when the mind is quiet one can be noticing minor body sensations and or feelings that come and go.
If, however, one is unable at first to clearly differentiate feelings, it is a useful strategy to ask oneself a checking question: 'What feeling is present?’ In this way, the meditator can highlight the predominant feeling and be able to focus on it rather than being confused by the jumble of fleeting feelings and their successive emotional states of mind.
It is of particular importance to dissociate the feelings from the thought of 'I' or 'mine'. There should be no ego-reference, as for instance, "I feel"; nor should there be any thoughts of being the owner of the feeling, "I have pleasant feelings" or "I have pain". Awareness of the feeling tone without the ego-reference allows the meditator to keep the attention focused on the bare feeling alone.
In working with feelings there should first be an awareness of the feelings when they arise, clearly distinguishing them as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. While there are degrees of intensity of feelings, with close attentiveness, it is clear that there is no such thing as a mixed feeling.
When noting feelings, attention should be maintained throughout the short duration of the specific feeling down to it’s ending or passing away. If the vanishing point of feeling is repeatedly seen with increasing clarity, it will become much easier to catch and finally to stop or inhibit thoughts and emotions. These normally follow so regularly, being habitually linked through conditioning to their associated feeling tones: pleasant feeling is habitually linked with enjoyment and happiness, while unpleasant feelings are linked with aversion or pain, while neutral or indifferent feelings are linked with ignorance and confusion.
When 'bare' attention, that is, registering the feeling without reaction in a state of receptivity, is directed to the rising and vanishing of feelings, the polluting add-ons or defilements are held at bay and inhibited from further elaboration. So gradually the gross feelings weaken and fall away, one loses interest; thus dispassion arises, which is a natural, effortless 'letting go'.
A trap to watch out for is not acknowledging pleasant feelings, especially pleasant feelings and sensations that arise from the fluency of the practice and later stages of insight. There is usually no problem in noticing unpleasant feelings, but you should be on your guard with regard to pleasant feelings as they arise, as we are predisposed to get attached to them very easily and thus lose equanimity.
Through one’s own direct experience as a Vipassana meditator, it can be confirmed that the ever-revolving round of the wheel of life (samsara) that we tread, can be stopped, with karma producing activities neutralised at the point of feeling, and that there is no inherent necessity that feeling is automatically followed by attachment or aversion. This is done by the practice of being mindful at one of the sense doors and intercepting the bare feeling between the linkage of sense impression and craving.
Like all mindfulness exercises, it is essential that the practice of awareness of feelings be applied in everyday life, especially whenever feelings are prone to turn into unwholesome emotions. So by practising awareness of feelings, the benefits will be immediately apparent in one’s relationships and dealings with the external world: for example, an increase in compassion and equanimity, as well as in one’s own clarity and peace of mind.
In the teaching of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, the Buddha likened feelings to bubbles. If feelings can be seen in their bubble-like, blowed-up and bursting nature, their linkage to aversion and attachment will be weakened until the chain is finally broken. Through this practice, attachment, which is a kind of stuckness to feelings, will be skillfully eliminated.
This does not mean that this practice will make one aloof or emotionally withdrawn. On the contrary, mind and heart will become more open and free from the fever of clinging. Out of this seeing, an inner space will be provided, for the growth of the finer emotions: loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and on-looking equanimity.
11. Investigating the Body’s Reality
They awaken, always wide awake:Gautama Buddha’s disciples whose
mindfulness, both day and night,
is constantly immersed in the body.
– Dhp 299
We live in a world of concept and ideas, mostly enclosed within an autobiographical reality. Yet we have the potential to know Ultimate Reality and thereby be free. While we might be inclined to search for the nature of reality through the study of philosophy, true knowledge is acquired through the senses rather than through abstract reasoning. We tend to overlook the familiar, in the search for the unusual, as for instance, searching for meaning in literature while not realising the immediate experience of one’s own body reality.
The body, as matter or material properties (rupa), is the first of the Paramattha Dhammas or the Buddha’s Teachings on Ultimate Reality, together with consciousness (citta), mental properties (cetasika), and Nirvana; and therefore is a subject of Vipassana contemplation. This investigation starts by acquiring the ability to access the primary elements of the body, with the aim to expose the body’s true nature.
For many people one’s sense of the body is not so much the qualities we are actually experiencing such as sensations, temperature, heaviness, etc., but more its form and shape – the body image. You could hardly say this is a reality, rather it is imaging – a misreading that creates an illusion. While at the same time, most of us are unaware of the identification we make with the body, not to mention the more obvious identification with the internal narrative, our story, as well.
The Buddha lists the body as the first of the five aggregates or groups we cling to, that is, identify with as 'me, myself' – the other aggregates are: feeling, perception, mental constructions, and consciousness. The question then is: is it possible to have a direct experience of the body without automatically identifying with it?
It is not so easy to be free of this identification, as medical science has well documented in the 'lost limb syndrome', where a person who loses a limb, say in an accident, will act as if the lost limb is still there, even apparently feeling painful sensations in the missing limb. This illustrates that there is an unconscious identification with the body's form and shape. That is, we have a deeply imprinted image in our mind's eye – a phantom – of the shape and appearance of the body, not so much what is actually being experienced in the body.
How then to access the reality of the body and not automatically identify with it? One way to loosen this identification or attachment to the body is through the meditations in the body contemplations, as given in the Satipatthana Sutta, on the unpleasant or disgusting aspects of the body – which is rather like shock therapy! This is a rather drastic approach but it can be very effective if done under proper guidance. At least it helps to free one from the gross attachment anyway.
What we can explore here though is the deep investigation of body phenomena at its elemental level, that is, through what are termed the four primary elements of earth, air, fire and water, or the reality of the corresponding experiences of hardness and softness, movement and vibration, temperature and fluidity. Such an introspection of the body will expose just the elements in the body and thus the meditator momentarily loses the sense of the body's boundaries, thereby loosening the identification with the body image, to eventually experience the body, with the other aggregates, as just rising and passing away (anicca).
In the sitting posture, the primary object is the tactile bodily process of motion, evident in the rising and falling movement of the abdomen. The 'inner wind element' is active in the body as motion, vibration and pressure, manifesting itself in the passage of air through the body (e.g. in breathing) and also in the movement of limbs and organs. It becomes perceptible as a tactile process - as an object of touch - through the pressure or pushing sensation caused by it. As the meditator tunes into this particular sensation or specific characteristics in the movement of the abdomen, it will then reveal or expose the three general characteristics, of change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
Insight meditators, who focus on the body as their primary meditation object, need to have the same body consciousness – not necessarily the level of fitness, may I add - of an elite athlete in training. It is essential that the meditator's body is open and relaxed so that he or she can sense into the subtle internal and external movements from a state of receptivity.
If on the other hand, the meditator's body is tense and tight, the practice becomes a struggle and one is out of touch with the present moment awareness. So at the beginning of a sitting session, check to see if the body is relaxed and if at any time during the session you notice that the body has tensed, do a body scan, that is, scan the body part-by-part, relaxing each region as the awareness moves through the body, while softening into any tension or contraction you find. If the body is contracted so must be the mind. Be open and allowing, as the practice is about receptivity and openness, allowing a ‘tuning in’ to what actually is manifesting.
Do not interfere. Do not force or manipulate the movement of the abdomen in any way, just sense the natural movement. Beginners often assumed that they must stay focused on the abdomen’s movement all the time, and measure their success on whether they achieve this or not. Actually, within an hour’s sitting session, the abdomen movement might be discernible for short periods of time only. Other objects such as body sensations, mind states and thinking might become predominant, and these must be noted as secondary objects until they disappear.
While the meditator is focused on body phenomena, there are actually two things that one can be aware of: the object, and the 'knowing of it' or the 'consciousness of it'. For example, there is one’s body sensations and the associated awareness that knows the sensations. This practice is known as 'pairing' and needs to be established from the very beginning of the practice. In this way, the meditator will come to appreciate that what is observing the phenomena is just the 'knowing' or the mind knowing the mind, and 'not me or myself'. At least one comes to see one’s identification with the consciousness, which perhaps was not suspected at all before.
To have clarity that leads to insight, the meditator needs to be able to differentiate between mind and body. Normally, we have the sense that the mind and body are merged or we act as if the body leads. Yet the Buddha tells us in the first verse of the Dhammapada that: "Mind precedes all knowables, mind is their chief, mind-made are they". Seeing the distinction between mind and body will create a ‘mental space’, which will help to free us from the gross identification with the phenomena, allowing one to witness the mind and body relationship as an impartial observer without identification.
Walking meditation can be the key to insighting into the body’s reality. When investigating movement in walking, the meditator needs to slow down and sense into the subtle movements as the component parts of the step that are experienced. Then what had appeared to be just one continuous movement is seen to be clearly defined stages. He or she will know that the lifting movement is the not the same as the pushing forward movement and the pushing forward movement is differentiated from the lifting or the placing movement. In this way, the illusion of continuity is seen through.
As the practice deepens, the meditators will experience subtler phenomena, such as the qualities of the essential body elements i.e. heaviness, lightness, heat, vibration, etc. By paying close attention to the stages of walking meditation, the four elements in their true essence are experienced, not as concepts, but as actual processes, as ultimate realities.
As the fluency of the practice increases, it will be realised that with every movement, there is also the concurrent knowing of the movement or the mind that knows the movement. There is the lifting movement and also the mind that is aware of the lifting. In the next movement, there is the pushing forward movement and also the mind that is aware of that movement. In addition, the meditator will realise that both the movement and the awareness of it arises and vanishes in that moment very quickly like a flash of lightning. The meditator will experience mind and matter (nama-rupa) arising and passing away from moment to moment.
Also the meditator has by now realised that a mental intention precedes every movement - that is, the mind leads the body. After the intention, movement occurs. So there arises an understanding of the conditionality of all these occurrences, that movements never arise by themselves without conditions: that there is a cause or condition for every movement and that the condition here is the mental intention preceding every movement.
When meditators comprehend mind and matter arising and disappearing at every moment then they will understand the impermanence nature of the body processes. That disappearing happens after arising is a characteristic by which we understand that something is impermanent. The next insight is unsatisfactoriness, which is seen because the constant arising and vanishing of phenomena undermines one sense of stability and therefore is stressful and unsatisfactory.
Then, after realising impermanence and the unsatisfactory nature of things, the meditator sees that he or she has no control over these things. That is, things are arising and passing away according to natural laws. A meditator at this level has therefore ‘insighted’ into the universal characteristics of all conditioned phenomena: change, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality.
What are the benefits of this? Such knowledge will ultimately free us from attachment and desire, which the Buddha indicated as the root cause of suffering. By experientially knowing the three universal characteristics through Vipassana meditation, desire or hankering in the mind is eventually overcome. This being deeply realised, attachment and craving will end and with it comes absolute peace and freedom from all conditioned things!
12. The Six Sense-spheres
The teaching of the sense-spheres is to be found in the Contemplation of Mind (dhammanupassana) in the text we are following: the Satipatthana Sutta, which by now is familiar to you as the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
After each
section in the text in the Satipathana Sutta, you will find this
passage: "In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body (or
feelings, mind states and mental phenomena) internally, externally, and
both internally and externally". What does this mean? It means that the
focus of one's attention changes from the subjective (internal) to the
objective (external) and by "both" is meant the understanding of the
interrelationship or interdependence. The teaching of the sense-spheres is to be found in the Contemplation of Mind (dhammanupassana) in the text we are following: the Satipatthana Sutta, which by now is familiar to you as the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.
The focus of the practice so far has been mainly introspective; now the watchfulness or attentiveness can be expanded to include the external as well. That is, the attention is switched from the subjective to the objective. This is done by orientating to the sense-spheres, which are about the relationship between oneself and the outer world. Practising both internal and external satipatthanas can prevent self-absorption, and achieve a skilled balanced between introversion and extroversion.
The importance of contemplation of the sense-spheres is that it directs awareness to the six “internal” and “external” sense-spheres and the fetters (samyojana) arising in dependence on them. Although a fetter arises dependent on sense and object, the attaching nature of such a fetter should not be attributed to the senses or objects themselves, but to the influence of the hankering pull of desire (tanha).
The fetters have to be taken into consideration in the practice, as a fetter is a shackle or something that causes bondage. There are ten types of fetters that need to be discarded, which are belief in a substantial and permanent self, doubt, dogmatic clinging to particular rules and rituals, sensual desire, aversion to, and craving for, immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.
All our experience is limited to the senses and their objects, with the mind counted as the sixth. The five outer senses collect data only in the present but mind, the sixth, where this information is collected and processed, adds memories from the past and hopes and fears for the future as well as thoughts of various kinds relating to the present. Beyond these six bases of sense and their corresponding six objective bases, we know nothing.
Each of these sense-spheres includes both the sense organ and the sense object. Besides the five physical senses (eye, ear, nose, tongue and body) and their respective objects (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch), the mind is included as the sixth sense. Mind represents mainly the activity of thoughts, such as reasoning, memory, and reflection. Thus all perceptual processes rely to some extent on the interpretive processes of the mind, since it “makes sense” out of the other spheres.
Here are the instructions for this practice from the text: “He knows the eye, he knows forms, and he knows the fetter that arise dependent on both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented.
He knows the ear, he knows sounds, He knows the fetter that arises dependent on both, and . . . He know the nose, he knows the odours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the tongue, he knows flavours, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the body, he knows the tangibles, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and . . . He knows the mind, he knows mind-objects, and he knows the fetter that arises dependent on them both, and he also knows how an unarisen fetter can arise, how an arisen fetter can be removed, and how a future arising fetter can be prevented. - MI61
The task of mindfulness then, is to observe the fetter that can arise in dependence on contact between sense and object. To develop awareness and detachment in regard to these six internal and external sense-spheres is of crucial importance for the progress of insight - especially in regard to the deeply rooted ‘sense of self’ that assumes it is an independent experiencer of sense objects.
Orientation to a Sense-door
To make an orientation to a sense-door, you start by literally coming to your senses - seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling. These are the five sense-doors or sense bases; the 'sixth sense' is 'consciousness of something', which is the mind-base with its eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness, etc. You also need to be aware of the senses internally as well as externally. That is, the organs and their sense objects: nose/smell, tongue/taste, body/tactile objects, ear/sound, mind/mind-objects or consciousness.
Attentiveness or 'presence of mind' at one of the sense-doors during a sense impression is the way to practice. For example, most people are predominantly visual, so being attentive at the eye-door allows you to notice the effects of the contact between the eye and the visible objects and how you are relating to them.
The process is this: there is the eye (the internal base), and a visible object (the external base). With contact or a sense impression between the sense-door and external object, consciousness arises followed by feeling. The moment of consciousness ordinarily is too rapid to catch while the feeling tone can be more easily known and apprehended.
This orientation to a sense-door brings awareness of what is happening during the moment of contact or the sense impression, and with it the ability to monitor the associated feelings and consciousness that arises. When this feeling tone is apprehended, the link to liking and disliking is broken and therefore one is free at that moment from conditioned suffering.
This strategy of wise attention at a sense-door ties in with the practical implementation of the teaching of Dependent Arising (patticcasamuppada). In fact these two teachings when combined will lead to the purification of mind and the realisation of Nirvana.
The Law of Dependent Arising is a deep subject. It is the very essence of the Buddha's Teachings. In the words of the Buddha: "He who sees Dependent Arising sees the Dharma; he who sees the Dharma sees Dependent Arising."
There was an exchange between the Buddha and his personal attendant, Ananda, when Ananda casually remarked that he thought it was an easy thing to understand. The Buddha responded by saying, "Not so Ananda, don't ever say such a thing. It is because people do not understand origination, that they are not able to penetrate it, that their minds are befuddled. Just as a ball of twine becomes all tangled up and knotted, just so are beings ensnared and unable to free themselves from the wheel of existence, the conditions of suffering and states of hell and ruin”.
’How to untangle the tangle?’ This is a quote from the Visuddhimagga or The Path of Purification. The untangling can be done by insighting into Dependent Arising through the practice of attentiveness at a sense-door. What we are experiencing now is from a series of events that arose because of previous conditions and is linked as a causal chain of effects, that is, cyclic existence or samsara.
It is useful for the meditator to be familiar with the twelve links in the cycle of Dependent Arising: that is, the principle of conditionality, which lies at the heart of the Buddha's Teaching. They form the causal sequence responsible for the origination of samsaric suffering. The series of conditions can be mapped out in the abstract as follows:
With Ignorance (avijja) as a condition - Kamma formations (sankhara) arises;
With Kamma formations (sankhara) as a condition - Consciousness (vinnana) arises;
With Consciousness (vinnana) as a condition - Mentality-materiality (nama-rupa) arises;
With Mentality-materiality (nama-rupa) as a condition – Six-fold sense-base (salayatana) arises;
With the Six-fold sense-base (salayatana) as a condition - Contact (phassa) arises;
With Contact (phassa) as a condition - Feeling (vedana) arises;
With Feeling (vedana) as a condition - Craving (tanha) arises;
With Craving (tanha) as a condition - Attachment (upadana) arises;
With Attachment (upadana) as a condition - Existence (bhava) arises;
With Existence (bhava) as a condition - Birth (jati) arises;
With Birth (jati) as a condition - Suffering (dukkha) arises.
As the Vipassana meditator experiences the series of causal events, they can be intercepted at the linkage between contact and feeling during a sense impression. The ability to do this gives one the potential of being free of the conditioned cycle of suffering that most people are unknowingly trapped in.
Try an Exercise in Orientating to a Sense-door
Check! Where is your attention at this present moment? What sense impression is predominant now? Is it the eye-door attracted by some visual object, the ear-door taken by sounds, or the touch sensations of the body's contact on the cushion or chair you're sitting on? This moment is the time to establish the habit of being consciously present at a sense-door and notice what is happening during a sense impression.
So stop for a few minutes, choose a sense-door (most people are predominantly visual, although others can be more auditory inclined) and be attentive to what is happening there - what feeling is present, what is the quality of that feeling, is it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral; and particularly notice the changes. It is useful to make a habit of asking yourself checking questions during your daily routine: what sense door am I at, what is happening there, and what are the associated feelings that arise?
The Story of Bahiya
This is the enlightenment story of Bahiya, the wooden robed one, who was able to practise in this way. Bahiya was originally a merchant, who, when traveling at sea with all his merchandise, was shipwrecked and was cast ashore naked. He found some bark to cover himself and finding an old bowl on the beach, he went searching for alms-food at a nearby village. The village people were impressed by his seeming austerities and his reputation grew as an ascetic. He was tested when people offered him fine robes, but knowing that they would loose faith in him if he accepted, he refused, keeping up the deception.
Bahiya was installed in a temple and worshiped as an Arahant, so that in time he came to believe that he was actually an enlightened being. He lived impeccably and gained good concentration powers. Sitting in meditation one day, it is said that a deva was able to persuade Bahiya that he wasn't really enlightened at all, but that he should go and see the Buddha, an Arahant who could help him.
Bahiya made the journey to where the Buddha was staying at the Savatthi monastery and found the Buddha was just about to go on the daily alms-round. So Bahiya was asked to come back at a more opportune time. But Bahiya was insistent and implored the Buddha to instruct him in the essence of the Dharma. The Buddha then responded with these brief instructions:
“Bahiya, you should train yourself in this way:
With the seen, there will be just the seen; with the heard, there will be just the heard; with the sensed there will be just the sensed; with the cognised, there will be just the cognised. When for you, Bahiya, there is merely the seen, heard, sensed, and cognised, then you will not be therein. Then you, Bahiya, will be neither here nor there nor within both - this is itself the end of suffering”.
Through this brief instruction, Bahiya was immediately enlightened - through non-clinging - thus becoming an Arahant.
Not long after the Buddha left, a cow fatally gored Bahiya. When the Buddha returned from the alms-round and heard that Bahiya was dead, he arranged for his cremation and a stupa to be built for him. When asked what the destiny of Bahiya was, the Buddha said that because he had grasped the meditation subject in the teacher's presence, and practiced as instructed, Bahiya had attained Parinibbana - final Enlightenment.
The Buddha’s succinct instruction to Bahiya directs bare attention to whatever is seen, heard, sensed or cognised. Bare attention just registers whatever arises during a sense impression, allowing one to be present at the initial stage of the perceptual process and thereby inhibiting unwholesome associations and biased cognitions. Maintaining bare attention in this way prevents the mind evaluating and proliferating (papanca) the raw data of perception. Bahiya, as an Arahant, was no longer influenced by subjective bias, and cognized phenomena without self-reference, and thus was enlightened.
13. The Support of Loving-kindness Meditation
Once the
meditator is well established in the basics of Vipassana meditation,
Loving-kindness meditation (metta bhavana) can be used to support the
more challenging vipassana practice. While this is switching meditation
modes to a concentration-based practice, its benefit is that it uplifts
and sweetens the mind and helps the meditator to cope with negative
emotions that they are not yet able to deal with in their vipassana
practice.Having cultivated sufficient loving-kindness to overcome negative states of mind, the meditator can then switch back to the vipassana mode of meditation. Investigating the particular characteristic of the mind state that was induced from loving-kindness meditation is in effect the reverting back to the insight mode.
Loving-kindness is a meditation practice that retrains the mind to overcome all forms of negativity. It brings about positive attitudinal changes by systematically developing the quality of 'loving-acceptance'. It is the qualities of acceptance and receptivity that creates the spaciousness and clarity of mind that allows for deepening attentiveness. That is why combining loving-kindness with vipassana is supportive of the meditator’s ongoing practice.
Loving-kindness can be developed either to support, or clearing the way for, Vipassana meditation. Or it can be further developed in a more systematic way to achieve a level of meditative absorption or one-pointedness.
When Loving-kindness meditation is developed systematically to the level of meditative absorption or one-pointedness, the five absorption factors of concentration are developed. The first two are causal factors – application and sustained application - followed by three effects: rapture, ease-of-mind, and one-pointedness or unification of mind. It is not really necessary to develop loving-kindness to the absorption level, but it can be useful for the meditator to be familiar with the absorption factors, as some of them will arise during vipassana meditation as well. And being familiar with the effects of concentration, the Vipassana meditator is less likely to get attached to them when they arise.
The advantages of having gained the five absorption factors are that they counteract the Five Mental Hindrances or the obstacles on the path of the meditator - although the pure Vipassana meditator should be aware that threshold concentration is sufficient to inhibit these hindrances as well.
The five absorption factors, and how they neutralise the five mental hindrances, are:
• Mental application arouses energy and effort to overcome the hindrance of sloth and torpor or mental inertia;
• Sustained application steadies the mind to overcome skeptical doubt, which has the
characteristic of wavering;
• Rapture, with its uplifting effervescence, prevails over feelings of ill-will;
• Ease-of-mind, by relieving accumulated stress, counteracts restlessness or agitation of mind;
• One-pointedness holds the mind's wanderings in the sense-fields, to inhibit sensuality.
Because of its auto-suggestive nature, the positive attitude of loving-kindness combined with deep concentration will imprint the new positive conditioning to override old negative patterns. For example, the overly critical mind, which finds fault with anything and everything, is reprogrammed to be more accepting and allowing. So on the psychological level, the therapeutic benefits for the individual are considerable, as old negative habits are broken and are replaced with new positive ways of thinking.
Loving-kindness is practiced as the first of a series of meditations that produce four qualities of love. They are Friendliness (metta), Compassion (karuna), Appreciative Joy (mudita) and Equanimity (upekkha). The quality of 'friendliness' is expressed as warmth that reaches out and embraces others. When loving-kindness matures, it naturally overflows into compassion because it empathises with people's difficulties. On the other hand, one needs to be wary of it’s near enemy, pity, merely mimicking the quality of concern without real empathy. The positive expression of empathy is an appreciation of other people's good qualities or good fortune rather than feelings of jealousy towards them, which is the enemy of appreciative joy.
This series of meditations comes to maturity through on-looking equanimity. This equanimity has to be cultivated within the context of this series of meditations or else it tends to manifest as its near enemy, indifference or aloofness. It remains caring and on-looking with an equal spread of feeling and acceptance toward all people, relationships and situations, without discrimination.
The structure of the practice is fairly simple. The meditator must start with generating loving-feelings and acceptance towards him or herself. This is important, as one needs to have loving feeling towards oneself before it can be projected towards others. Then one induces positive emotional feelings of loving-kindness towards four types of people, after which, one directionally pervades the loving-feeling to all points of the compass. The final stage is non-specific pervasion, which more or less arises spontaneously as the concentration intensifies, and there is little or no self-referencing.
As loving-kindness is a concentration-based meditation, one must not allow the mind to wander, and when it does, one gently brings it back. The time you need to spend doing this practice would depend on the time it takes to arouse the loving feelings. At least a half-hour session would be needed for the practice to develop sufficiently.
The practice must always start with developing loving acceptance of oneself. However, if any resistance is experienced, then it indicates that feelings of unworthiness are present. Don't worry, as this indicates there is work to be done. Essentially you are working with a quality of mind, and as the practice is auto-suggestive, any quality of mind, positive or negative, can be changed. In good time, and with persistent practice, feelings of self-doubt and negativity can be overcome. Then you can move on to develop loving-kindness to others.
Four types of people are chosen to develop loving-kindness towards:
First: a respected, beloved person, such as a teacher or mentor (kalyanamitta);
Second: a dearly beloved person, that is a close family member or dear friend;
Third: a neutral person, somebody you know but have no emotional involvement with;
Fourth: a difficult person, that is, a person you are currently having difficulty with.
Starting with yourself, then moving systematically from person to person in the above order, the objective is to break down the barriers between the four types of people and yourself. In this way, it can be said to break down the divisions within one's own mind, the source of much of the conflict we experience in our relationships.
The key to the practice is being able to go beyond the barriers we create in the mind, for the Buddha describes the loving person as having 'a mind with the barriers broken down'. When a person has seen, and seen through, the conceptually created barriers of gender, race, class, and 'mine' and 'not mine', they are able to love others unconditionally.
The effect of practising systematic loving-kindness meditation is that one is transforming the particular love one naturally has for one's close family members and dear friends - which is actually an attached kind of love - to a more general, universal love that embraces everybody without exception, that is, altruistic love.
Just a word of caution, if you practice loving-kindness intensively, it is best to choose a member of the same sex, or if you have a sexual bias to your own sex then a person of the opposite sex. This avoids the risk of arousing the near enemy of loving-kindness, that is, lust.
Try different people to practise on, as some people do not easily fit into the above categories, but do keep to the prescribed order.
Three ways to arouse feelings of loving-kindness:
Visualisation - create a vivid positive mental picture of oneself and the four people one has chosen, in order to promote a sense of loving-feeling, well being and joyousness.
Reflection - think about the positive qualities of the person and the acts of kindness they have done, or make an affirmation, which is a positive statement about yourself, in your own words.
The exception to using the 'reflection device' is when working with the 'difficult person', because the thinking might trigger the painful relationship and aggravate things. So just a visualisation of the difficult person, reinforced by the auditory repetition, is sufficient.
Auditory - This is the simplest but probably the most effective way. Repeat a phrase such as 'loving-kindness', 'loving-kindness'.
The visualisations, reflections and the repetition of loving-kindness are devices to help you arouse positive emotional feelings of love. You can use all of them or one that works the best for you. When the positive emotional feeling arises, switch from the devices to the feeling, as it is the feeling that is the primary focus. Keep the mind fixed on the feeling; if it strays, bring it back to the device, or if the feeling weakens or is lost then return to the device, for example, use the visualisation to bring back or strengthen the feeling of loving-kindness.
The next stage is Directional Pervasion, where one systematically projects the aroused feeling of loving-kindness to all points of the compass: north, south, east and west, up and down, and all around. Bringing to mind Dharma friends and communities in the cities, towns and countries around the world can enhance the directional pervasion.
The last stage, Non-specific Pervasion, tends to spontaneously occur as the practice matures. It is not discriminating. It has no specific object and involves just naturally radiating feelings of universal love. When it arises, the practice has come to maturity in that it has changed preferential love, which is an attached love, to an all-embracing, unconditional love!
When the mind has been uplifted and is sweeten with feelings of loving-kindness, you will find that the drier Vipassana practice is very much easier. The meditator is in a heightened state of receptivity and able to tune in more sensitively to what is happening in the present moment.
14. Continuing the Practice at Home
The time
and effort a meditator puts in and the skills learnt in a Vipassana
retreat will not be lost if one continues to practise regularly at home.
Of course, the meditation cannot be done as intensively, and will have
to be done discreetly, allowing for the situation one is in. The real
challenge after a retreat is integrating the mindfulness practices
established at the retreat into the daily routine. It has to be acknowledged that incorporating meditation into a busy life is not easy. Therefore, meditators needs to set themselves up to do it, good intention is not enough, it has to be purposely set up and there has to be commitment. One has to consider one’s priorities, such as what will be of more benefit, hours sitting in front of the TV screen or time spent meditating? The regular daily home sit, morning or evening, is the anchor for the practice, even if it is only amounts to mental hygiene that allows a discharge of the day's busyness. It is really a 'must do', as it will bring peace of mind and harmonise family and work relationships.
Most people will continue on with the sitting meditation after the retreat at home. A daily sit of an hour a day will just keep the practice going, a block of two hours a day will maintain the practice at the level one reached in the retreat. Three hours or more a day at home will allow the practice to develop, which might seem a lot considering many other commitments the meditator has. However, if one’s priorities are examined closely, you may be surprised by what is possible.
When meditating at home, it is a good strategy to combine Loving-kindness meditation with an awareness exercise, as these practices compliment each other and will keep the mind wholesome, uplifted and alert. It is important to maintain the daily meditation sit at home as a way of sustaining and stabilising your practice. It has to done regularly though, otherwise if it is done only occasionally or only when one feels like it, then one is likely to find some excuse to put if off for another day until it is forgotten. Studies have shown that for any activity to be habituated, one must persist with it for three to six months before it becomes part of one’s routine - by then the practice has become ingrained.
With a busy life, it is easy to convince oneself that there really isn’t the time anymore to maintain the regular sitting, or when feeling tired one will want to drop it. Naturally if one is stressed or overtired, there can be resistance in the mind to facing the stress by meditating, but usually it is only the initial resistance that has to be overcome before one gets back into the meditation routine.
What meditators are inclined to overlook when practising at home is the walking meditation. As many working people are stretched and stressed, it can be difficult to immediately get down to a static sitting practice whereas a walking meditation session of a half hour or so, before a sitting session, will help a busy mind and body to settle and relax.
When we are out and about in life, we can apply ourselves to what can be called 'situational mindfulness', which is another way of saying, use the circumstances and situations one happens to find oneself in as the practice environment, whether this is the home, the workplace or any public place. It is somewhat analogous to the sport of orienteering, where the objective is to navigate one's way through some terrain as efficiently as possible. With 'situational mindfulness,' the objective is to navigate a way through the business of the day with presence of mind.
A particular advantage of Vipassana meditation when applied to daily life is that it does not require any special place, equipment or posture. In fact it is done discreetly without anybody ever knowing that you are watching the mind states, feelings and checking the thinking, etc. because you appear to be doing nothing out of the ordinary. All that differs from normal behaviour, but is not apparent to others, is that the meditator has more 'presence of mind' in whatever they are doing.
In the relentless busyness of most people's lives, there is a need for the practitioner to have a reference point to anchor their attention to. This will act as an aid to help maintain presence of mind. Such a reference point can the predominant ‘touch point’ with any body contact, such as the sitting touch points. But it has to be habituated or ingrained so one does not have to think about doing it. Bringing the attention back to the body will keep one grounded during the busyness of the day’s activities and thus less likely to get lost in ‘unmindful’ wanderings.
We lose a lot of energy and create unnecessary stress through the random wanderings of the mind while not focused sufficiently on the job at hand. So checking the wandering mind has to be targeted, as it is leaking energy. Intellectual work is more efficient and done with less stress when we are fully focused. Daydreaming needs to be checked by noting the wandering mind as 'thinking', 'thinking'. If one is persistent, a lot of mind wanderings will be inhibited and there will be more peace and clarity. The way to relate to all superfluous thinking is as a witness watching the passing traffic of the mind without being involved in it, until eventually interest is lost and the mind becomes naturally still when not engaged in any particular task.
One can also be monitoring one’s mind states throughout the day. Just naming them as they arise: happy, sad, elated, depressed, whatever. We are simply noticing, not evaluating them or trying to change them. When the mind states are not noticed, we tend either to indulge in them, if they are pleasant, or resist them when they are unpleasant. By noticing mind states as they change, we go with the flow, not getting stuck, being with the natural changes and rhythms of the day's activities.
If the presence of mind can be sustained for two or three hours in the daily routine, the mindfulness will noticeably improve. If one is so inclined, a check of one’s state of mindfulness every hour on the hour can be performed. This will help bring one back to the present moment awareness and reduce the times when the mindfulness is lost.
A useful way to manage the awareness practice is to review the day's mindfulness work at the end of the day, or by keeping a meditation diary. In this way, the patterns of one’s practice will become apparent, allowing adjustments to be made.
Avoid
making negative judgments or evaluating the practice, as the reviewing
will probably expose some weaknesses. However, reviewing can also be
helpful as it can suggest new strategies to improve the practice. So
reviewing the day's practice is a very worthwhile thing to do, as one
needs to be continually reinforcing the practice of mindfulness in daily
life.
APENDIX
The Precepts - 5 & 8
The Five Training Precepts (Panca Sila)
The Precepts are the foundation of all Buddhist training. The underlying principle is non-exploitation of yourself or others.
Free choice and intention is important. It is "I undertake" not “Thou Shalt" - a personal choice, not an external command.
With a developed ethical base, much of the emotional conflict and stress that we experience is resolved, allowing commitment and more conscious choice.
The Five Precepts or training rules are to be agree to during the retreat:
I undertake the training precept to:
1. refrain from intentionally harming or taking life
Panatipa – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
2. refrain from taking things which are not given to meThe Precepts are the foundation of all Buddhist training. The underlying principle is non-exploitation of yourself or others.
Free choice and intention is important. It is "I undertake" not “Thou Shalt" - a personal choice, not an external command.
With a developed ethical base, much of the emotional conflict and stress that we experience is resolved, allowing commitment and more conscious choice.
The Five Precepts or training rules are to be agree to during the retreat:
I undertake the training precept to:
1. refrain from intentionally harming or taking life
Panatipa – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
Adinnadana – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
3. refrain from sexual misconduct (i.e. no sexual contact during the retreat)
Kamesu – micchacara - veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
4. refrain from false speech
Musavada – veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
5. refrain from intoxicants that confuse the mind. (i.e. drugs & alcohol)
Surameraya – majjapamadatthana - veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami
While they act as restraints, the Five Precepts are also intended to harmonise one’s behaviour so they can be expressed as positive qualities:
To the best of my ability I will endeavour:
1. to act with compassion and loving-kindness towards all sentient beings.
2. to be open-hearted and generous.
3. to practice stillness, simplicity, contentment, and self-restraint.
4. to speak with truth, clarity and peace.
5. to live with mindfulness.
ATTHAGA SILA (The Eight Precepts)
1) PÀNÀTIPÀTÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from harming or taking life.
2) ADINNÀDÀNÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from taking what is not given.
3) ABRAHMACARIYÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from any from sexual contact.
4) MUSÀVÀDÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from false speech.
5) SURA - MERAYA – MAJJA - PAMÀDATTHANA - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from the use of intoxicants, i.e. drugs and alcohol.
6) VIKÀLA - BHOJANÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from eating after the mid-day meal.
7) NACCA - GITA - VÀDITA - VISUKADASSANÀ - MÀLAGANDHA - VILEPANA - DHÀRANA - MANDANA - VIBHUSANATTHÀNÀ - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from dancing, singing, music and watching entertainments, and from using enticing beauty aids, i.e. perfume, etc.
8) UCCASAYANA – MAHASAYANA - VERAMANI SIKKHAPADAM SAMADIYAMI
I undertake to abstain from indulging in high and luxurious seats and beds.
The Retreat Interview
Being
reasonably established in the basic techniques, students are then
required to report their experience to the teacher in a formal interview
throughout the retreat. As in the Zen tradition, the retreat interview
is an essential part of the Theravadin Vipassana style of practice.The interview is the basis for the relationship between the teacher and the student. It is crucial for the development of Vipassana meditation, as it is where the meditator reports his or her experience and can be guided and given further instructions if need be by the teacher.
The communication with the teacher and the ability to report in the interview can greatly affect the outcome of the practice. While the teacher will try to encourage and inspire the meditator, it is not a counseling or therapy session. Rather it is more in the nature of a technical report by the meditator of what is happening in their practice.
The teacher will check the student’s grasp of the techniques and make corrections, and if need be give further instructions. In this way it assists the meditator to eventually manage his or her own practice and clarify what they are doing, to help them progress further.
As new meditators are usually working in unfamiliar territory of the mind, often one will find that they do not report their experiences satisfactorily or are unable to describe what they are experiencing precisely, even though they might have practiced well.
If the student is having difficulties in reporting his or her practice, the following standard questions that a teacher would ask about the practice in an interview will perhaps help to clarify the meditation experience, as well as be the basis for a succinct report that will assist both teacher and student.
The interview can be either one-to-one with the teacher or in a small group. It can be on a daily basis or more usually every other day, while the length of an interview can vary from five to ten minutes.
What to Report
Describe briefly and clearly what is happening in the three practice areas: sitting, walking, and daily activities.
1) Sitting
How long for, and are there any problems?
Can you follow the primary object of attention – the rising and falling of the abdomen? Describe what you notice about the movement.
How much thinking is going on, and how are you handling the thinking?
What about pain, and how are you working with it?
Are you noticing feelings?
Are you checking your mind states – and predominately what are they?
Are there any unusual experiences, and how are you relating to them?
2) Walking
How long for, and are there any problems?
Are you mentally labeling (or just knowing) the movement concurrent with the experience?
What are you finding in the movement, and what specific characteristics – if any – are you able to notice?
Is there much thinking during the walking, if so how do you handle it?
3) Daily Activities
What percentage of the day are you able to stay attentive to what you are doing. And what degree of attentiveness are you able to sustain?
Are you able to keep a ‘thread of awareness’ during the day by noting the body postures together with the naming of walking as ‘walking’, ‘walking’, as you get around the retreat centre?
Are you able to note the moment of awakening and the moments leading up to sleep?
How detailed can you be?
Can you describe what you noted during meal times?
Have you been able to link the Three Areas of Practice, if so to what extent?
Are there any new experiences to report since the last interview?
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