Oct 26, 2020

The sweetness of Dhamma


by Sayagyi U Goenka 

 

Vivādaṃ bhayato disvā,

avivādaṃ ca khemato.

Samaggā sakhilā hotha,

esā buddhānusāsanī.

- Khuddaka-nikāya, Apadāna 1.79

 Seeing danger in dispute,

Security in concord,

Dwell together in amity,

This is the teaching of the Buddhas.


In Dhamma service, sweetness is important. If there is Dhamma, there is bound to be sweetness. This is the yardstick: sweetness must come in life. You exchange your views and experiences, but if you are attached to your views and argue that whatever you say is correct, you will lose all the sweetness.

The Enlightened One’s words should keep ringing in your ears: be like milk and water mixed together, inseparable, full of sweetness. The whole Vipassana field must always be full of sweetness.

By mistake you might use certain harsh words to justify your view. If you know that you have hurt somebody but think, "What else could I do? I was correct and that fellow couldn’t understand it," then your thoughts are still full of aversion. Don’t try to justify your mistakes, accept them: "I made a mistake, either from ignorance or my weakness which allowed anti-Dhamma forces to overpower me. I will be careful not to do this in future." Give the balm of mettā now.

How quickly do you realize your mistake and start generating mettā? How long do you work on mettā, and how deeply? That is the yardstick of your progress in Vipassana. Understand this and see that the atmosphere always remains full of Dhamma, full of sweetness.

By practising Vipassana one realizes: "Yes, it works! It has purified my mind, if only a little, and whatever impurities have gone, that much misery has gone. Oh, this is such a wonderful technique! Everyone, all around the world is miserable. May more and more people get this wonderful practice of Vipassana and come out of their misery!"

When you see others really enjoying happiness, peace and harmony, then sympathetic joy arises. Seeing others joyful makes you feel joyful, and this joy multiplies.

You smile seeing so many people smiling. You are serving others for this purpose, not to develop ego. There should be no status, no power, no position. You serve whether you have this or that responsibility. You are serving to make yourself happier and to make others happier. This is Dhamma.

Keep this in mind and work. Distribute this wonderful Dhamma for your good and for the good of so many suffering people around the world. 

May pure Vipassana be shared worldwide. 

May more people start practising Vipassana to enjoy real peace, harmony, happiness.

Bhavatu sabba maṅgalaṃ.

May all beings be happy.

(From the Vipassana Research Institute newsletter article ‘The Sweetness of Dhamma’ by S.N. Goenka, Vol.10, 13 October 2000)

 ***

 " I am merely a medium. Dhamma is doing its own work."


from the Vipassana Research Institute publication 'For Benefit of Many', by S.N. Goenkaji

"A large number of suffering people have some unwholesome saṅkhāras accumulated in the past which have brought so much misery to them; but many also have some very good saṅkhāras, and the time has arisen now that the fruit of their wholesome saṅkhāra should come up as the Dhamma. Then who are you or I to give them Dhamma through Vipassana practice? They are receiving Vipassana meditation because of their good karmas of the past. We are just vehicles, that is all.

I keep on telling the story of the puppy walking under the bullock cart.  A bullock cart owner used to transport goods from one place to the other. This man had a small dog. When he traveled from one village to another, he trained the dog to walk under the bullock cart to avoid the sun’s heat. Wherever they traveled, the farmer sat on the bullock cart but the dog walked below in the shade of the cart. 

In time the small dog came to feel that he was carrying the entire burden of the cart,and he wondered why the farmer gave so much attention to the bullocks. He thought, 'I am carrying the burden of this cart! Wherever we travel, it is over my back. More importance should be given to me!' A mad puppy.

Actually, nobody is carrying the cart; the Dhamma is carrying the cart. Nobody should feel, "I am the most important person, it is only because of me that the Vipassana centre functions properly. It is only because of me that the teaching is given, that Dhamma spreads." 

You have been given the opportunity to serve in one way or another, and this should not become a cause of inflating your ego.

Come out of this madness of the ego! Understand that you are simply a vehicle, a tool, and Dhamma is doing its job. If you had not been given this responsibility, somebody else would have taken it and the work would go on. Dhamma is bound to spread now; the clock of Vipassana has struck.

Nobody who serves Dhamma should think like that puppy. You should feel, 'It is Dhamma that is working, and I have a wonderful shelter, I am in the shadow of Dhamma. Good!'

Those who are giving service should remember that Dhamma is not spreading because of them, but because it is the time for Dhamma to spread. They are just vehicles, and should feel so pleased to be a vehicle. Because of this they are gaining wonderful pāramīs, wonderful paññā and developing their own meditation. This is not an ordinary gain.

May Dhamma grow. Keep on enjoying Dhamma by growing in Dhamma, under the shelter of Dhamma. May more and more suffering people round the world grow under the shelter of Dhamma, and come out of their misery through practice of Vipassana. 

May Vipassana be shared for the good of many, for the liberation of many. 

Don't give the smallest opening for anti-Dhamma forces to enter. And the biggest enemy, the worst weakness is one's own ego.

---
Sayagyi U Ba Khin:

“……This Vipassana centre (International Meditation Centre, Yangon) does not belong to me. U Ba Khin should not get conceited, saying this is U Ba Khin’s centre. I do not own it. It belongs to the Vipassana Association of the Accountant General’s Office. I will have to leave if they drive me out. See, how nice! I do not own it. I have to be re-elected each year. Only if they re-elect me will I be here. If they say that they have found someone better than me, and elect that person, it’s over for me. Or some members from the committee may not like me, they may say I talk too much and elect someone else. Then I would have to leave. I do not own the place.”

------

May all in Vipassana service be protected from anti-Dhamma forces within, and be able to serve selflessly, in purity, for the benefit of many. 
May there be no hindrances and disturbance caused by one's own ego and other impurities. 
May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.

---

Sep 12, 2020

Experiencing the universe, within


by Sayagyi U Goenka
[from the article 'Vedanā Within This Very Body', Vipassana Research Institute newsletter, January 1993]


The entire universe can be experienced within this fathom-long body. The truth of nature is within. Suffering is within. The cause of suffering is within. The way out of suffering is within. Happiness is within.

This is why Vipassana meditators explore the entire mind-matter structure within, this continuously changing phenomenon called ‘I’.

With Vipassana, we experience the subtler realities of this inner world of impermanence within. We gradually come out of ignorance, delusions.

Suffering reduces. Real happiness increases. Impurities get eradicated. The chains of bondage weaken. The door to liberation opens.

The doors of the six sense organs, including the mind, are within the body. These six sense doors come in contact with the world outside.

The universe exists for us only when the sense doors come in contact with the world outside: a visible form in the eye, a sound in the ear, a fragrance in the nose, a taste in tongue, a touch on the body and a thought in the mind.

A visible form, for example, exists for us only when it comes into contact with the eyes. Otherwise it has no existence for us. The entire universe is experienced through these six sense doors. As the Fully Enlightened Super-Scientist said, the entire universe is experienced within this fathom-long body.

To explore the reality within this mind-body structure, the Vipassana meditator works objectively like a scientist.

Set aside all prior beliefs, philosophies, imaginations, and dogmas. To realize the ultimate truth within, work only with the truth that you experience - not blindly accepting another's experience. Accept as truth only what you experience.

How the mind works


When a sense door comes in contact with an external object, cognition arises. You experience how when eyes are in contact with a visible form, eye consciousness arises— cognition.

You realize this contact produces a vibration - a sensation spreading throughout your body, like striking a bronze vessel at one spot causes the entire vessel to vibrate.

After cognition, perception starts. A part of the mind gives evaluation: the visible form is seen as a male, female, beautiful, ugly.

Sensations, a bio-chemical flow arising in the body, are influenced by this evaluation. If the part of the mind gives evaluation of the object as "good", the sensation is felt as pleasant. If evaluated as "bad", the sensation is unpleasant.

Then the blind reaction. The mind reacts with craving to the pleasant sensations, aversion to unpleasant.

Thus, the Vipassana meditator clearly understands from experience how the four parts of the mind work: consciousness, perception, sensation, and reaction.

Stopping the wheel of misery


Craving multiplies the pleasant sensation, and the pleasant sensation intensifies craving. Aversion multiplies the unpleasant sensation, and unpleasant sensations reinforce aversion.

The meditator working correctly experiences how this blind reaction to bodily sensations starts a vicious cycle which gathers momentum. This is the wheel of becoming, of misery.

The same process follows with the other sense doors: ear, nose, taste in the tongue, a physical contact with the body, a thought in the mind.

In this way the wheel of becoming continues rotating, gathering intensity with craving and aversion.

The wheel of misery stops rotating with the Vipassana practice of awareness and equanimity to bodily sensations.

Not merely observe sensations, experience the arising, passing away


Merely to feel sensations is not enough to purify the mind. Very necessary to experience the three characteristics of all phenomena: anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), and anatta (substancelessness).

Of these three, the Buddha gave all importance to anicca because the realisation of the other two easily follows when experiencing deeply the characteristic of impermanence.

Vipassana meditators should not merely objectively observe sensations, but make the effort to clearly experience the arising, passing nature of these sensations (anicca).

Exploring the truth within in this correct way, all subtle truths of nature are realized.

The meditator begins by experiencing gross, solidified, apparent truths. Piercing, penetrating these solidified realities at the level of bodily sensations, the meditator experiences subtler truths. From the grossest to subtler, you reach the stage of the subtlest, ultimate truth.

Learn to observe with equanimity the truth of impermanence; experience the arising, passing bodily sensations. Be liberated from impurities, ignorance, delusions, suffering. Stop the wheel of becoming, of bondage, of misery. Attain real happiness.

May all beings be happy, be peaceful, be liberated.
***

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