Vipassana Meditaion

Based on my 10 days silence Vipassana Meditation course 

• Period: from 18^th of August 2012 to 29^th of August 2012
• Venue: Dhamma Soba Vipassana Meditation Center, Pahala Kosgama, Kosgama, Sri Lanka.
• Telephone: +94362253955, +94363866715, +94719551096
• Email: info@sobha.dhamma.org
• Website: www.sobha.dhamma.org or http://courses.dhamma.org/en/schedules/schsobha
• Free resources: Free dhamma talks (www.sobha.dhamma.org)
• Taught by S.N. Goenka according to the Sayagyi U ba kin’s (1899 – 1971) tradition
• Code of conduct:  Observe 5 or 8 precepts, 10 days noble silence and few more (please refer http://www.dhamma.org)

Outline:

[1]     Objectives

[2]     Outcomes

[3]     How to measure the success

[4]     Definitions

[5]     Structure

[6]     The Mind

[7]     Secret to the happiness is “Be here and now”

[8]     Do we need to meditate?

[9]     Respiration is the gift.

[10] Connection between sensations and the mind

[11] Nothing is permanent

[12] Why need Sila?

[13] Why noble silence?

[14] Posture

[15] Why need samatha meditation?

[16] Counting, chanting or murmuring with ana-pana sathi meditation

[17] How to keep equanimity of the Mind.

[18] Meditation on daily basis.

[19] Method

[20] Possible pitfalls

Objectives:

•  Learn to do “the ana-pana sathi” as a samatha meditation as well as vipassana meditation.
• Understand the importance of five precepts for day-to-day life.
• Experience the clarity gain by the meditation to the day-to-day works.
• Improve the equanimity of the mind by not reacting through craving or aversion. See things as they are, objectively rather than subjectively.
• Understand the universal law of cause and effect (Hethu-Pala vadaya).
• Understand the “eight noble path”.
• Learn how ten perfections (dasa paramitha) help you on your meditation process.
• Experience the three truth (Thri-lakshana : Anichcha, Dukka and Anathma) about the nature.

Outcomes:

• Learn to do “the ana-pana sathi” as a samatha meditation as well as vipassana meditation.
• Experience the respiration, shuttle sensations throughout the body and their impermanent (Anichcha) nature.

How to measure the success:

Equanimity of the mind is the only yard-stick that can measure the successfulness of the vipassana meditation.

Definitions

Anichcha means, nothing is permanent. Everything is in a continues cycle of grow–stay-decay. Everything happens according to the law of cause and effect.

Upeksha means, do not wish pleasant sensations (craving) or do not hate unpleasant sensations (aversion) any more.

Structure:

·         3 ½ days (1/3 of the time) of ana-pana sathi as a samatha meditation to calm the mind and improve the samadi.

·         6 ½ days of ana-pana sathi as a vipassana meditation to understand the impermanent nature of everything (Anichcha) and improve the equanimity (upeksha).

The Mind

Your mind is not you. Mind can’t exist without objectives. On the other hand it can’t have more than one objective at a time. It has exactly one objective at a time. Moreover it continuously jumps from one objective to another, especially to the past and to the future. Like a monkey. This causes the endless suffering of our lives. Through the meditation, we practice to keep our mind in the present moment.

Secret to the happiness is “Be here and now”.

The point of “Be here and now” (Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now” http://www.baytallaah.com/bookspdf/51.pdf) is not stopping thinking about past or future. We just stop the unintentional jumps to the past and to the future. By doing so, we can save lot of energy which helps us to remind the past more efficiently and effectively when we really need it and plan the future with more clarity. The past is gone we can’t change anything there. The future is always uncertain; No one knows what will happen. But the present is the gift as the word “present” says. It always with us, but we never noticed it.

Do we need to meditate?

Meditation is the one and only way to liberation. A set of blind people are trying to understand how the elephant is look like by touching its parts. Everybody gets an understanding according to the part they touch, but not the complete or the real understanding. Likewise we all have some understanding about the life depending on the parts that we touch, but not the complete or the real understanding. To see things as they are, we need to grow our organs. Meditation helps us to do this.

Respiration is the gift.

If the sansara is a river then the two Bank Rivers are known side and the unknown side. Known side is the place where we live. We are continuously trying to make it more and more beautiful, but by its nature it always gets polluted. That is why we always cleaning our body, even many time a day. Think what will remain if we remove our fine skin. Is there anything beautiful? Think about hair, teeth, nail etc. They seem to be pleasant when we take them as a whole. But if we take them separately then nothing is pleasant.

Real beauty is on the other side. One who got there, come and tells to others about the beauty of the other side has. But unless others really go there and have experienced themselves, they can’t understand it properly. It is something like a blind person trying to understand how the color white is look like.  He would never able to do so since his organs are not grown properly.

Arms and legs are moving according to our thoughts. They are like the known side, we can control them. On the other hand heart and kindness are working automatically. They are like the unknown side, we can’t control them. But respiration is the gift, which happens automatically as well as intentionally. It acts as a bridge that connects known side to unknown side.

Connection between sensations and the mind

According to goenka, gross sensations like sweat, heat, touch etc. are related to our conscious mind. It is like the surface of a water tank; we can purify it by using knowledge gain by listening (Educational) and thinking (Logical inference or intellection). On the other hand shuttle sensations like aching, wobbling etc. are related to our unconscious mind. It is like the bottom of a water tank; we can purify it only by using knowledge gain through meditation (Experienced truth). The point here is; we open our unconscious mind gradually while we are awakened. We let our deeply rooted thoughts to come out and let got without reacting to them. Just keep the equanimity of the mind by not doing either craving or the aversion.

Nothing is permanent

Everything is always changing, nothing is permanent even a fraction of a second. Everything is in a grow–stay-decay cycle where stay is less than 10²² fraction of a second. According to the Buddha, fundamental unit of all is a vibration called “Ashta kalapa” (eight phases or zones). Those are Apo (Liquidity), Thejo (Heat), Wayo (Air), Patavi (Solidness), Warna (Color), Gandha (Smell), Rasa (Taste) and Ojasa (juice). Everything formed using this building block. Things get their characteristics based on which parts are dominant.  For example the air has all these eight facts. This is something similar (probably more advanced) to sub atomic particles like Higgs bosons in the modern physics. Honestly science is nowhere close (not even in the future) to the facts reveal by the Buddha 26 centuries ago without using any instrument.

Why need Sila?

Here we are going to do a deep surgery on our subconscious mind to eliminate deeply rooted misery that we have. Unfortunately no one can do other’s surgery, everyone has to do themselves. That is why you need to have good practices like five precepts to keep stability in your mind. Otherwise who knows where you going to cut?

Why noble silence?

You should not talk with others even through text, hand signals or eye contacts. Talk is the enemy of the meditation. Every word you say need to go through your mind, so it destroys the calmness in your mind. On the other hand it may break the forth precept. Moreover it may cause the comparisons, which keep away your mind from the reality of the present moment.

Posture

Initially you can have any posture. Whatever it is, It should be comfortable enough to be still longer time, even without moving a muscle; At least one hour. When you are progressing, you will feel something like cobweb around you. If you make any movement, even swallowing breaks the cobweb. It will take minute or more to form again. It is better to keep your trunk straighten as much as possible. So it is always better if you can have full lotus or half lotus as your posture.

If you can’t be still one hour don’t worry. You can achieve that as you go on.

Why need samatha meditation?

If the water is not still then you can’t see the bottom of the pond. Like wise in order to see the deep truth about the world,  you need to calm your mind first. Samatha meditation is to calm you mind.With the development of the samatha, you will able to focus on one objective for a longer period of time. in highest level it can be days. Another fact is that how much focus you have. It means if your focus is higher then you can see more and more smaller or tiny sensations.

Counting, chanting or murmuring with ana-pana sathi meditation:

We think we can do many things simultaneously, but in-fact our mind can take one objective at a time. on the other hand it always jumping one objective to another. keeping mind in one objective is not easy as we think. In many samatha meditation techniques counting methods, chanting or murmuring methods or visualization methods will be used to replace this unwanted secondary thoughts. But here we don’t use any of these techniques  since our main objective is to practice vipassana meditation not the samatha meditation. In vipassana meditation we are going to see or experience the reality of things. For that we need to have real natural thing instead human creations.

How to keep equanimity of the Mind.

Do not compare your experience with another. Even with yourself, yesterday with today, last hour with this hour or last second with this second. Good or bad it won’t help you. Just be on the present moment. No past, no future, accept the present moment reality as it is.

Do not fight with your mind; it won’t help you in anyway. Accept as it is, ”This is my mind”, ”This is how it look like”. Doesn’t matter whether it is pleasant or unpleasant don’t follow it. Just accept the present moment reality as it is. Clinging and conflicting are two extremes. Extremes are not the way to go; middle way is the only way to the liberation.

Meditation on daily basis.

Meditation is like rubbing two wood sticks to get fire. If you stop before you get the fire then you have to restart it again. Another example is digging a well to get water. You don’t know how much deeper you need to dig in order to have the water. Let say water is at 10 feet below, you dig 9 feet and stop, then you won’t get the water.

Method

It won’t take so long you to understand that it is not an easy task to keep your mind in one place. Soon it will jump to the past or future. Don’t worry; don’t fight with your mind, be peace with it. Accept the reality of your mind. If you can notice it within 15 minutes, that is fine for the first day. When you notice your mind is out, then take it back to the objective. As you go on, you will notice that you can quickly identify when your mind is out and gradually it stay longer with our objective.

Possible pitfalls

·         Don’t use eyes, Close them. Don’t move them, it may cause headache. Just point your mind.

·         Don’t clinging to pleasant sensation or don’t hate unpleasant sensation. Try to keep equanimity of your mind.

·         Don’t compare with others or even with past points of yourself. Just be here and now.

·         Don’t fight with your mind. Accept the present reality.

There can be places are called blind spots where you don’t get uniform shuttle sensations. Don’t get frustrated, there you should observe gross sensations like sweat, contact with cloth or air. Be patient, eventually you will get the uniform shuttle sensations.