What psychologists refer to as the
"conscious mind" , the Super-Scientist Buddha called this part of the mind the paritta
citta (a very small surface layer of the mind). There is a big barrier between the paritta
citta and the rest of the mind at deeper levels. The conscious mind does
not know what is happening in the unconscious or half-conscious.
Vipassana
breaks this barrier of ignorance, taking you from the surface level of the mind
to the deepest level of the mind where conditioning takes root. Vipassana
practice exposes and removes the anusaya kilesa (latent mental
defilements) that are lying at the deepest level of the mind.
(from the Vipassana Newsletter)
Understand what Vipassana is and how it helps us in our day-to-day lives; how it helps us to come out of our misery, the misery of life and death.
How to live a life of peace and harmony? Siddhattha Gotama's full enlightenment enabled him to realize the truth of the way out of suffering: where misery lies, how it starts, and how it can be eradicated.
There were many meditation practices in India during Buddha's lifetime, as there are today. The Bodhisatta Gotama tried them all, but he was not satisfied because he found that he was not fully liberated from misery. Deep-rooted impurities remained. Then he started his own practical research. Through his personal experience and effort he re-discovered this technique of Vipassana, which eradicated all impurities in the mind and made him a fully enlightened person. He did not claim to have discovered Vipassana. He said the path was already there. Dhamma is timeless. A Sammasambuddha rediscovers Vipassana, when it becomes lost to humanity.
There
are many techniques that give temporary relief from suffering. When you become miserable you
divert your attention to something else. Then you feel that you have come out
of your misery, but you are not totally relieved.
If something undesirable has happened, you become agitated. You cannot bear it want to run away from it, divert the mind. You watch a movie, or indulge in other sensual entertainments. You go out drinking, and so on. All this is running away from the difficulty. Escape is no solution to the problem. Instead, the misery is multiplying.
In Buddha's enlightenment he realized that one must face reality. Instead of running away from the problem, one must face it.
The Buddha found that all the types of meditation existing in his day consisted of merely diverting the mind from the prevailing misery to another object. He found that practicing this, actually only a small part of the mind gets diverted. Deep inside one keeps reacting, one keeps generating saṅkhāras (deep-rooted mental conditioning or habit pattern of the mind) of craving, aversion or delusion. One keeps suffering at a deep level of the mind.
To clean the mind at the root level, the object of meditation should not be an imaginary object, it should be reality—reality as it is. One has to work with whatever reality has manifested itself now within, whatever one experiences within the framework of one's own mind-body.
In Vipassana practice, we explore the reality within oneself—the material structure and the mental structure, the combination of which we call "I, me, mine." And "I" generate tremendous attachment to this material and mental structure, and become miserable when things go against the wishes of this "I, me, mine". To practice the Dhamma path that the Sammasambuddha rediscovered, we must observe the truth of mind and matter. This results in wisdom, the wisdom of experienced truth and without doubts.
Wisdom is of three types: 1) wisdom gained by listening to others, 2) that gained by intellectual analysis, and 3) wisdom developed from direct, personal experience. Before Buddha, and even at the time of Buddha, there were teachers who were teaching morality, concentration, and who were also talking about wisdom. But this wisdom was only received or intellectual wisdom. It was not wisdom from personal experience. Playing intellectual or devotional games does not help. Experience the truth, develop wisdom from personal experience. This leads to the ultimate reality, and real happiness.
Vipassana is personally experienced wisdom. Listening to discourses and reading scriptures has limited and temporary impact on the mind. This is not direct experience of wisdom.
The entire field of mind and matter - the six senses and their respective objects - have the basic characteristic of anicca (impermanence). Buddha wanted us to experience this reality within ourselves. To explore the truth within the framework of the body, he designated two fields. One is the material structure: the corporeal physical structure. The other is the mental structure, the four factors of the mind: 1) consciousness; 2) perception; 3) the part of the mind that feels sensation; 4) and the part of the mind that reacts. So to explore both fields he gave us kāyānupassanā (observation of the body) and cittānupassanā (observation of the mind).
Know from your experience how mind and matter interact each other. To believe that one understands
mind and matter, without having directly experienced it, leads to delusion. It is
only direct experience that leads to the actual reality of mind and
matter. This is Vipassana.
The Dhamma Hall of the Global Pagoda
that enables thousands to benefit from practicing Vipassana. The world's largest stone dome without any
supporting pillars can seat over
8,000 Vipassana students in group meditation.
(Photograph from Afternoon Dispatch and Courier, June, 2011)
(Photograph from Afternoon Dispatch and Courier, June, 2011)
In
brief, understand how we practice Vipassana during a residential 10-day course.
We start with Anapana, awareness of respiration—natural respiration. We don't
make it a breathing exercise or regulate the breath as they do in prāṇāyāma. We observe respiration at the
entrance of the nostrils.
If a meditator works hard continuously in a congenial atmosphere without any disturbance, within two or three days some subtle reality on this part of the body will start manifesting itself: some sensations—natural, normal bodily sensations. Maybe heat or cold, throbbing or pulsing or some other sensations.
When one reaches the fourth or fifth day of practice (Vipassana is taught on the fourth day - namely, objectively observing the impermanence of bodily sensations), he or she will find that there are sensations throughout the body, from head to feet. The Vipassana student becomes more clearly aware of the sensations, pleasant or unpleasant. The student observes this bio-chemical reality with equanimity, without reacting with craving or aversion. Just observe objectively, without identifying yourself with the sensations.
By working correctly, by the seventh day or the eighth day, you experience subtler realities. This mind-body structure initially appears to be so solid, you now experience as a free flow of sensations, of subatomic particles. And even these tiniest subatomic particles are not solid. They are mere vibration, wavelets. The Buddha's words become clear by experience:
Sabbo pajjalito loko, sabbo loko pakampito.
The
entire universe is nothing but combustion and vibration.
Vipassana enables experiencing how the entire material world is nothing but vibration.
Vipassana is to move from the gross, apparent truth to the subtlest, ultimate truth, from oḷārika to sukhuma. The apparent truth always creates illusion and confusion in the mind. By dividing and dissecting apparent reality, you will come to the ultimate reality. As you experience the reality of matter to be vibration, you also start experiencing the reality of the mind: viññāṇa (consciousness), saññā (perception), vedanā (sensation) and saṅkhāra (reaction). If you experience them properly with Vipassana, it will become clear how they work. You experience how the mind works.
At the apparent, surface level, it seems that I am reacting with either craving
or aversion to the external world, to things happening outside. Vipassana enables realizing the subtler truth: the deepest part of the mind is continuously reacting to sensations, not to anything outside.
The sense organs come in contact with objects
outside. A sensation in the body, either pleasant or unpleasant. And the mind reacts to these sensations with like or dislike.
Every sensation arises and passes away. Nothing is eternal. When you practice
Vipassana you start experiencing this. However unpleasant a sensation may
be—look, it arises only to pass away. Pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, the
characteristic of impermanence remains the same. You are now experiencing the
reality of anicca, impermanence - fundamental truth of the cosmos - and training your mind to remain balanced with impermanence. No depression when the wanted has not happened or is no longer there; no depression when the unwanted is there.
Only this experience of anicca and equanimity - at the level of sensations - will change the habit pattern of the mind.
By observing reality as it is, you gradually become free from all your conditioning of craving and aversion.
Western psychologists refer to the "conscious mind" Buddha called this part of the mind the paritta citta (a very small part of the mind). There is a big barrier between the paritta citta and the rest of the mind at deeper levels. The conscious mind does not know what is happening in the unconscious or half-conscious. Vipassana breaks this barrier, taking you from the surface level of the mind to the deepest level of the mind. Vipassana practice exposes the anusaya kilesa (latent defilements) that are lying at the deepest level of the mind.
The so-called "unconscious" mind is not unconscious. It is always conscious of body sensations, and it keeps reacting to them. If they are unpleasant, it reacts with aversion. If they are pleasant, it reacts with craving. This is the habit pattern, the behaviour pattern, of the so-called unconscious at the depth of the mind.
An example: You are in deep sleep. A mosquito bites you and there is an unpleasant sensation. Your conscious mind does not know what has happened. The unconscious knows immediately that there is an unpleasant sensation, and it reacts with aversion. It drives away or kills the mosquito. But still there is an unpleasant sensation, so you scratch, though your conscious mind is in deep sleep. When you wake up, if somebody asks you how many mosquito bites you got during the night, you won't know. Your conscious mind was unaware but the unconscious knew, and it reacted.
Another example: Sitting for about half an hour, some pressure starts somewhere and the unconscious mind reacts: "There is a pressure. I don't like it!" You change your position. The unconscious mind is always in contact with the body sensations. You make a little movement, and then after some time you move again. Just watch somebody sitting for fifteen to twenty minutes. You will find that this person is fidgeting, shifting a little here, a little there. Of course, consciously he does not know what he is doing. This is because he is not aware of the sensations. He does not know that he is reacting with aversion to these sensations. This barrier is ignorance.
Vipassana breaks this ignorance. Then you start experiencing, understanding how sensations arise and how they give rise to craving or aversion. Blind reaction to sensations is the root cause of suffering. Equanimity to sensations changes the habit pattern of the mind, eradicates all impurities in the mind gradually. The whole habit pattern of the mind changes at the deepest level.
Vipassana practice enables freeing the mind from anger, passion, fear, ego, all harmful habit patterns of the mind. Life changes for the better.
Make best use of Vipassana practice.
Be happy, peaceful, be liberated.
