Reply To: Validity of current interpretation of Satipatthana Sutta

#51054
skywander
Participant

3. Focusing the mind on examining Dhamma concepts will address both of the above issues. This is called “insight meditation” or Vipassanā.

I agree, yet, for some of us, the concentration needed to successfully do vipassana is out of our skills. I will share my experience.

As a side note: more than a year ago I did a Goenka 10 day retreat. From the fifth day it was really hard for me. I probably had the same “struggling” meditations hours than “successful” ones. Nevertheless the calm effect I’ve got were really noticeable, and more lasting I imagined. This was not due to the vipassana, but the fact that the mind rested for 10 days, without engaging in activities or speech. The insight I got from the retreat was close to zero. I experienced a lot the fact that in no two consecutive moments you never really feel the same sensations in the body, and even a persistent 20 minutes pain can disappear for no good reason. But, to be honest, I already knew, and experiencing such things, as far as I’m concerned, didn’t bring me anything. After the retreat, I did not practice the Goenka Vipassana, not even once, nor the watching the sensations at the tip of the nose, the Goenka anapana. I must say the organization was perfect, and they delivered exactly what they promise in their website – which nowadays it is already a big deal.

After the retreat I investigated a bit, since I knew almost nothing about buddhist meditation or vipassana. In Burmese, Goenka retreats are not that popular. The most popular meditation style seems to be the vipassana method taught by Mogok Sayadaw. Lal, do you know about Mogok? It is hard to find material in English. It seems he teaches legit vipassana – but I can’t asses it. I read one book that covered in brief their entry level 10 day retreats – and it was one of the most useful reads I’ve got about meditation. One of the peculiarities, of the Mogok meditation teaching, is that prior any meditation they teach the core of the Buddha Dhamma. Not merely the four noble truths and the three marks, but the path, the hindrances, the seven factors, the PS, a simplified list of the 52 cetasika of the Abhidhamma, and more. Then the meditator practice vipassana, is asked to pay attention to the citta and dhammas that come up, and recognize the arising and passing aways of the cetasikas (but not labeling a la Mahasi).

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The problem I have when I try to do real vipassana is that by examining citta and dhammas my mind ends lost in itself. The only way for me to be able to consistently do real vipassana and keeping right yoniso attention, is by putting distance between the observer mind and the observed mind. Otherwise the mind collapses on the mind and I lose the recollection/mindfulness/sati. The only solution I know is to put a neutral object between the observer mind and the observed mind.

The two objects that work for me is the breath or the feeling of the earth element (this is, the pressure I feel in the feet against the soil when walking, or the legs and the soil when sitting). The only purpose of also paying attention to the breath/earth along the mind, is the same that if I were to put a paper in front of my eyes with the phrase “keep being sati of the mind” written on it. Without such physical reminder, I lose the sati, my mind drifts away from meditation, and eventually I found myself daydreaming with no direction, sometimes about mundane things, another times about stuff related of the teachings themselves.

The earth element has the good qualities that it is gross and almost impossible to lose it. The breath element has the good qualities that helps me to understand more clearly the rythm and doings of the mind, however, if I am doing some activities I tend to lose the breath too, even the breath is too of a subtle object for me.

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