Be Self-Dependent !

- by Sayagyi U S. N. Goenka

Attā hi attano nātho" (You are your own master and no one else). "Attā hi attano gati" You make your own future

You have all gathered here to take part in the New Year group sitting. Understand that it is the group sitting that is important and not the New Year. Every day, every moment is equally important. We have to give importance to every moment; we have to give importance to meditation. It is good that you have gathered in a group today. The Buddha has said, "Samaggāna tapo sukho." There is great happiness in meditating together. After all, what is happiness? When suffering is removed, there is happiness. So we meditate to remove suffering.

What is the cause of suffering? Suffering is caused by your mental defilements. You spend the whole life seeking the cause of suffering outside and trying to get rid of this outside cause. By the practice of Vipassana, you realize that whatever the external cause, suffering arises within yourself. Why has suffering arisen? Because you have generated a mental defilement within. As soon as you generate a mental defilement, suffering arises and you strengthen the habit of generating defilements. Such situations keep arising repeatedly and you keep generating defilements and multiplying your misery. How can you free yourself from this misery?

It is not wrong to try to get rid of the apparent external cause of your suffering. But it is more important to get rid of the internal cause. The habit of generating defilements within because of one reason or another results in the habit of remaining miserable. You wish to be free from suffering, and instead, you have developed the habit of reacting with craving and clinging to pleasant sensations and with aversion to unpleasant sensations. This habit pattern continues day and night. Even when you are in deep sleep and a sensation arises in the body-if it is unpleasant, you react with aversion; if it is pleasant, you react with craving. This continues all the time for 24 hours.

You learn to observe these sensations with awareness-whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral-without generating any defilements. Enough is enough! You have been a slave to defilements for so many lives! And this slavery is continuing even now, in this life. You are very fortunate to have received Vipassana, the path of liberation, the way to free yourself from the habit of generating defilements. It would be foolish if you do not make proper use of it. Come out of this foolishness. If you understand Vipassana in its pristine purity, you won't make this mistake.

You yourselves have to fight the battle against these defilements; you have to defeat and eradicate them. You have to realize this without generating ego. Why should you generate ego? If your hands or your bodies become dirty, you immediately wash them. You do not generate ego that you have cleaned your hands and bodies. If they become dirty, it is your responsibility to clean them. Who else will clean them? Similarly, if the mind becomes defiled, it is your responsibility to clean it. There is no question of developing ego.

Every meditator should understand that he or she is wholly responsible for defiling the mind. No other external power or invisible entity has defiled your minds. Why would any invisible being defile the minds of people and make them miserable? We keep generating impurities in our minds out of ignorance. Understanding this, do not allow new impurities to arise and eradicate the old ones so that you come out of suffering, out of bondage and progress on the path of liberation. This is the law of nature.

For full article: http://www.vridhamma.org/en2004-04

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Every Moment A Beneficial New Year, with Anicca

" Dhamma eradicates suffering and gives happiness. Who gives this happiness? It is not the Buddha but the Dhamma, the knowledge of anicca within the body, which gives the happiness. That is why you must meditate and be aware of anicca continually. "

- Sayagyi U Ba Khin, an inspiration for the Global Vipassana Pagoda, and benevolent Dhamma teacher of Sayagyi U S.N.Goenka

Anicca

by the Vipassana Research Institute Change is inherent in all phenomenal existence. There is nothing animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic that we can label as permanent, since even as we affixed that label on something it would undergo metamorphosis. Realizing this central fact of life by direct experience within himself, the Buddha declared, "Whether a fully Enlightened One has arisen in the world or not, it still remains a firm condition, an immutable fact and fixed law that all formations are impermanent, subject to suffering, and devoid of substance." Anicca (impermanence), dukkha (suffering), and anatta (insubstantiality) are the three characteristics common to all sentient existence. Of these, the most important in the practice of Vipassana is anicca. As meditators, we come face to face with the impermanence of ourselves. This enables us to realize that we have no control over this phenomenon, and that any attempt to manipulate it creates suffering. We thus learn to develop detachment, an acceptance of anicca, an openness to change, enabling us to live happily amid all the vicissitudes of life. Hence the Buddha said that: To one who perceives the impermanence, O meditators, the perception of insubstantiality manifests itself. And in one who perceives insubstantiality, egotism is destroyed. And (as a result) even in this present life one attains liberation. The comprehending of anicca leads automatically to a grasp of anatta and dukkha, and whosoever realizes these facts naturally turns to the path that leads out of suffering.

Given the crucial importance of anicca, it is not surprising the Buddha repeatedly stressed its significance for the seekers of liberation. In the Mahā Satipatthāna Sutta, the principal text in which he explained the technique of Vipassana, he described the stages in the practice, which must in every case lead to the following experience: (The meditator) abides observing the phenomenon of arising . . . abides observing the phenomenon of passing away . . . abides observing the phenomenon of arising and passing away. We must recognize the fact of impermanence not merely in its readily apparent aspect around and within us. Beyond that, we must learn to see the subtle reality that every moment we ourselves are changing, that the "I" with which we are infatuated is a phenomenon in constant flux. With this experience we can easily emerge from egotism and so from suffering.

Elsewhere the Buddha said:

The eye, O meditators, is impermanent. What is impermanent is unsatisfactory. What is unsatisfactory is substanceless. What is substanceless is not mine, is not I, is not my self. This is how to regard eye with wisdom as it really is.

The same formula is for the ear, nose, tongue, body and mind—for all the bases of sensory experience, every aspect of a human being. Then the Buddha continued: Seeing this, O meditators, the well-instructed noble disciple becomes satiated with the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind (i.e., with sensory existence altogether). Being satiated he does not have the passion for them. Being passionless he is set free. In this freedom arises the realization that he is freed. In this passage the Buddha makes a sharp distinction between knowing by hearsay and by personal insight. One may be a sutavā, that is, someone who has heard about the Dhamma and accepts it on faith or perhaps intellectually. That acceptance, however, is insufficient to liberate anyone from the cycle of suffering. To attain liberation one must see truth for oneself, must experience it directly within oneself. That is what Vipassana meditation enables us to do. If we are to understand the unique contribution of the Buddha, we must keep this distinction firmly in mind. The truth of which he spoke was not unknown before him and was current in India in his time. He did not invent the concepts of impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality. His uniqueness lies in having found a way to advance from hearing truth to experiencing it.

For full article : https://www.vridhamma.org/node/2489

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