Beginner's Retreat
Vipassana Meditation
Tape 6
When you practice Vipassana meditation, you must know you are doing something, when you are doing something. When you walk, you must know I am walking. When you sit, you must know I am sitting. When you stand, you must know I am standing. This is very important. And when you think of something, you must know I am thinking. This is how you must watch things.
It may be that you do not say words. But still you must be really mindful of what is going on at the present moment. I say this because there are some people who find using words or using labels distracting. But for most people using words or using labels is very helpful for keeping their minds on the object.
So when you practice Vipassana meditation you must keep mindfulness with you always. That means you must be fully aware of whatever you are doing. It means every activity of the body and every activity of the mind, even down to the activities in the toilet, in the bathroom. In the Mahasatipatthana Sutta there are two sections, one section on the postures of the body and the other on clear comprehension of activities. When you watch, when you practice Vipassana, you must watch so that you are fully aware at that moment of whatever is happening to you, whatever is presented to you through the six sense doors.
This is very important. Many people think that it is not a 'big deal', knowing I am going when I am going and so on. But actually it is very important. You should be really mindful, not just vaguely mindful, not just saying I am going when you are going, but thinking of other things. You must apply your whole attention on the thing at the present moment. That is not easy.
When you apply your whole attention to the things at the present moment, you come to see that they are impermanent. You see there is no one exercising authority over them. They are happening independent of any agent, of any person. So it is very important that you keep yourself really mindful of everything at the present moment. That means at every moment because everything is present at every moment. So you must watch so that you are fully aware that I am going when you are going and so on.
When you eat, you must be fully aware that you are eating. Not only eating - there are a lot of small activities involved in eating. These small activities should be the objects of meditation. For example stretching out your hand to take hold of the spoon or food, bringing the food to the mouth, putting the food in the mouth, chewing the food, swallowing - all these small activities you have to be mindful of.
The instruction for Vipassana meditation is very simple. Be mindful - only two words, just that. Whatever you do, be mindful. But in practice it is not so easy. You must watch so that when you are going, you know that you are going and so on.
What is the end result of Vipassana? What will you get if you practice Vipassana? The end result of Vipassana is total purification of mind or total destruction of mental impurities which leads to final liberation from all suffering. The end result of Vipassana in other words is enlightenment. Vipassana itself is not enlightenment, but it will take you to the stage of enlightenment. It will help you to reach the stage of enlightenment. Therefore the end result of Vipassana is enlightenment.
What is enlightenment? It is the purification of mind or the total destruction of mental impurities, of mental defilements. When all mental defilements are eradicated, there is no more rebirth for that person. That means there will be no more suffering for that person. So the total destruction of mental impurities leads to final liberation from all sorrow, from all suffering. This is the result of Vipassana.
When you practice Vipassana meditation what do you expect to get? Maybe anything.
What are the other benefits of Vipassana? Enlightenment is very difficult to achieve. Before we achieve enlightenment, what benefits (we can call them 'fringe benefits.) are there when you practice Vipassana meditation? You get relaxation of both body and mind. Both body and mind are relaxed when you practice Vipassana meditation.
There may be some people who want to say, "I have sat for an hour or two, and I felt pain in the body and no relaxation there." In the beginning or in the early stages you will experience pain. You cannot avoid pain altogether. But when you reach the upper levels of Vipassana, your mind will become very concentrated. Mind is most relaxed when it is concentrated, when it is on one object only. When mind is relaxed, the physical body is also relaxed. There is a saying, "A sound body and a sound mind." We have to reverse it, " A sound mind creating a sound body." When your mind is concentrated, your mind is relaxed. When your mind is relaxed, the body is also relaxed.
That is why people who experience Jhana could sit for the whole day without any discomfort. Maybe some sit for as long as seven days even without eating, without doing anything. Mind when it is really concentrated can upkeep the physical body.
Many Yogis experience something like that during Vipassana meditation. There are many Yogis who do not sleep at all for three days and some maybe four or five days. The whole day and the whole night they practice meditation. They do not feel any discomfort, any tiredness, any weakness. That is because their physical body is sustained by this concentrated mind. So when you practice Vipassana meditation, you get relaxation of both body and mind.
You get peacefulness when you practice Vipassana. You don't worry about the past. You don't worry about the future. You just keep yourself in the present moment, observing what is at the present moment. So you find peacefulness there, tranquility, keen concentration. Concentration can develop through the practice of Vipassana meditation. It can also be achieved through Samatha meditation.
Insight into the nature of things - this is very valuable, precious. Very few people have insight into the nature of things actually. Here insight means real insight through self-experience, not through reading books or attending talks. This insight into the nature of things or the ability to see the impermanence, suffering and soulless nature of things can be obtained only through Vipassana meditation.
Also you will be able to see the arising and disappearing of all phenomena. You will come to see that they come and go very clearly. When you see things coming and going, you feel joy. You get a lot of happiness from seeing them. That kind of happiness is described as non-human. That means it transcends the happiness of human beings. Such happiness many Yogis experience when they reach the stage of seeing or discerning the arising and disappearing of phenomena.
Equanimity with regard to things in life - you can accept things without much agitation-is another benefit of Vipassana meditation. When you practice Vipassana meditation and you come to see the true nature of things, then you can develop equanimity, impartiality. When you see things coming and going, you don't have any attachment to them or you don't have any aversion to them. When you are not attached to things or averse to things, you are said to be in equanimity.
These qualities can be developed through Vipassana meditation. These are some of the benefits of Vipassana meditation. These benefits have been enjoyed by many, many Yogis in the past. Also at present many Yogis are enjoying this peacefulness, tranquility and ability to be in equanimity and so on. That is wry most people are attracted to Vipassana meditation.
Instructions for Vipassana meditation are very simple. There is nothing difficult to understand in the instructions. The only thing difficult is to put them into practice.
It is also simple in that you don't need any gadgets whatsoever to practice Vipassana meditation. You don't even need cushions, chairs or anything if you can sit on the floor. In our country Yogis don't use cushions much. If they want to be a little comfortable, they may fold a blanket and sit on it. So you don't need any gadget at all if you can sit on the floor and be comfortable.
But a little comfort is important to get concentration. This morning I told you about the happiness you get from the purity of moral conduct. Happiness from comfort, peacefulness is proximate cause for concentration. In order to get concentration you need a certain amount of comfort. So using a cushion or whatever is allowable. But they are not indispensable. Vipassana can be practiced without any gadget.
It can be practiced anywhere - at home, in the forest or where ever you are.
This meditation can be practiced by any person regardless of his or her religion. Because it was discovered by the Buddha and taught by him we call it a Buddhist meditation. But in the practice itself there is nothing in particular we can call Buddhism. As you may know, Vipassana is just watching, watching yourself, watching your mind, watching your body and watching whatever is presented to you through the six sense doors. Watching yourself, I think, is not against any religion. So everybody regardless of his or her religion can practice Vipassana meditation. That is why in this country there are even Roman Catholic priests practicing Vipassana meditation. They don't become Buddhists. Still they practice Vipassana meditation and they get benefits from the practice of Vipassana meditation. So I think Vipassana meditation is easily available. You can practice without much expense. You can practice without many gadgets. Therefore it has become popular with people in this country.
Vipassana
is taught in many places in the
Actually it is not so easy to get the opportunity to practice meditation. Even in Buddhist countries not everyone practices Vipassana meditation or any kind of meditation. But here the tendency is to practice meditation before knowing the Buddha or what Buddhism is.
Practice is very important for everybody. Everything must come from practice, from personal experience. Only through personal experience can we prove or disprove what has been said by others. Once we have personal experience we do not have to rely on sayings of others. We do not have to rely on faith. The personal experience will make us firm in our convictions. This personal experience can be gained through Vipassana meditation.
So on this retreat, especially tomorrow, we will be practicing Vipassana meditation. As I said this evening we will practice Samatha meditation on breathing. Then tomorrow we will practice Vipassana meditation. There are breaks between periods of meditation, about ten minute breaks. These breaks are for checking with you. If you want to ask something or if I want to ask you something, we can do so during these breaks. Thank you very much.
Now we come to the practice period. From now on until the end of the retreat there will be practice only. During the practice period it is important not to do anything that is distracting. So you will keep Noble Silence during the practice period. Noble Silence means just the practice of meditation and also not talking if it is not really necessary. So you will talk only when it is really necessary.
Also to avoid possible distraction you will avoid eye contact with each other. Please keep your eyes down. Also keep mindful always.
We are going to practice loving-kindness meditation and breathing meditation. When we practice meditation, we want to keep our minds very pure. If possible we don't want to have any unwholesome thoughts come to us. The unwholesome thoughts which tend to come to us at such time are feelings of guilt or remorse. If we have done something wrong to some persons, especially to those who are worthy of respect, to whom our respect is due, like religious teachers and others, we have the feeling of guilt. This feeling of guilt comes up again and again especially when we want to keep our minds pure. So it is good to practice to ask forgiveness from such persons. If we have done something really wrong to them, the best thing is to go to them and ask forgiveness. But if we cannot do that, we will do the next best thing. That is we will ask forgiveness in the presence of a Buddha image or in the presence of a teacher. We can even do it by ourselves.
Then in order to practice loving-kindness meditation we need to forgive others. There may be persons in your life who have done something wrong to you and to whom you have feelings of grudge or hatred. But when we practice loving-kindness meditation, we have to send thoughts of loving-kindness to all people, to all beings without exception. In order to include them with the beings we send loving-kindness to we have to forgive them:
Last we will forgive ourselves. Sometimes it is more difficult to forgive ourselves than to forgive others. We may have done something bad in the past or not done something good in the past. We may blame ourselves, find fault with ourselves, and hate ourselves. But when we practice loving-kindness meditation, we begin with ourselves. We send thoughts of loving-kindness to ourselves first. So in order to be able to practice loving-kindness towards ourselves we will have to forgive ourselves too.
The practice of forgiveness consists in asking forgiveness from others, forgiving others and forgiving ourselves. We will practice forgiveness now. Please fold your hands up and repeat after me: "If by deed, speech or thought foolishly I have done wrong, may all forgive me honored ones who are in wisdom and compassion strong." Now we will forgive others. " I freely forgive anyone who may have hurt or injured me." Now we will forgive ourselves. "I freely forgive myself." Please put down your hands.
Now we will practice loving-kindness meditation. As I said loving-kindness is a genuine and wholesome desire for the well-beings of all beings. It is a kind of love not mixed with attachment, or craving, or lust.
When we practice loving-kindness meditation, we begin with ourselves. So we will send thoughts of loving-kindness to ourselves by saying, "May I be well, happy and peaceful." This is not to be interpreted as selfishness because we need to generate thoughts of happiness, thoughts of loving-kindness in our own hearts before we can send them out to other beings. If we are not happy ourselves, not peaceful ourselves, we will not be able to send thoughts of peacefulness and happiness to other beings. So we will begin with ourselves.
Then we will send thoughts to other beings. Tonight we will send thoughts to all beings by location. 'By location' means to all beings in this building, then to all beings in this place, to all beings in this area, in this city, in this county, in this state, in this country, in this world, in this universe and last to all beings in general.
At the end of loving-kindness I will say a verse. Just listen to it and go with it.
I will say the sentences. Please repeat them to yourselves. You will be repeating a number of times. When you repeat them, really mean them. Try to see beings as really happy and peaceful and your thoughts of loving-kindness going to them, touching them, making them really happy and peaceful. Now I will say the sentences. Please repeat them to yourselves silently.
May I be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this building be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this place be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this area be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this city be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this county be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this state be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this country be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this world be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings in this universe be well, happy and peaceful.
May all beings be well, happy and peaceful.
May suffering ones be suffering-free,
and the fear-struck fearless be,
May the grieving shed all grief,
and all beings find relief.
Now we have pervaded all beings with loving-kindness. Next we will practice breathing meditation as a Samatha meditation. Please sit comfortably. Keep your body straight. Be relaxed. Focus your mind on the breath. Keep your mind on the entrance of the nostrils and be mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths. When you breathe in, be mindful of the in-breath for the entire duration or from the beginning to the end. When you breathe out, be mindful of the out-breath for the whole duration or from the beginning to the end. Try to be really mindful of the breath. Do not follow the breath into the body or outside the body. Your mind is like a gate-keeper, standing at the gate, making notes of people going in and coming out. Just try to be really mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths. Try to see the in-breaths and out-breaths separately from one another. Ignore all other things - your thoughts, noise from outside and so on. Just keep on being mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths.
During this period you will do counting. When you breathe in, be mindful of the in-breath and count one or you may say to yourself, "In one." When you breathe out, count one again or you may say to yourself, "Out one." When you breathe in again, count two. And when you breathe out again, count two. Make counts until ten, until you say, "In ten, out ten." After ten go back to one - "In one, out one, in two, out two" and so on.
Let your mind be on the breaths and not on counting. If any in-breath or out-breath does not appear to you clearly, then do not count it. Only count the breaths that are clear to you. For example you count one, two, three. On number four your mind is hazy and you do not see or you do not feel the breath clearly. Then you do not count that in-breath or out-breath. So on the next breath you count four. You count only those that are clear to you. When you reach ten, begin with one again.
Ignore all other things. Just be on the breath. We will practice until 8:OOpm.
We will have another session of breathing meditation. This time too we will do the counting. Try to fix your minds on the breaths and do counting, the same as you did before. Try to be really mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths. Count only those that are clear to you. We will practice until 8:45pm.
This is the last sitting for today. Pay close attention and try to be mindful of the breaths. This time we will quit counting. We will not do counting, but just be mindful of the in-breaths and out-breaths. Still ignore all other things. Let your mind be with the breaths always. Try to be really mindful of the breaths. Try to see them clearly. Let your mindfulness be precise. Be mindful of in-breaths only when you are breathing in and out-breaths only when you are breathing out. We will practice until 9:30pm.
This is the end of the day. We will share merits. By the practice of meditation we acquire merit. It is a good practice to share merit with all other beings. Sharing of merit itself is an act of merit. So by sharing merit we gain more merit. Sharing of merit means giving other beings chance to get merit themselves by rejoicing at our merit. Our merit is a condition for their merit. Now let us share merit with all beings. Please repeat after me. "May all beings share this merit which we have thus acquired for the acquisition of all kinds of happiness. May beings inhabiting space and earth, Devas and Nagas of mighty power share this merit of ours. May they long protect the Teachings!
Sadhu! Sadhu! Sadhu!