[raj]

Thanks to Lalji, the Pali Glossary has all the terminologies I need to learn for the time being or may be it has everything I need to know in this lifetime!
It is an amazing tool and a gift to all of us who are not familiar with tripitika terminologies!

[raj]

Hi Lang,

Thanks for informing me about the Dharmayai Obai talks. I have started listening to it.
The dhamma talks you first suggested are great but he uses too many pali words as the series progresses and it is hard to understand.

I am impressed on your knowledge of Tripitika terminology in spite of your Vietnamese background. How long have you been learning Pali (or have you picked up all the terms by studying the pure dhamma site?) and can you suggest a online course or a book which teaches tripitika words?

I got a book (learn pali) a couple of years back, but they only teach mundane words so I lost my interest.
Thanks again.

Raj

[raj]

Hi Lang,
I was listening to the second talk today (season 1 episode 2). He uses a lot of pali terms, but
I can understand most of it, and I plan to listen to the same talk couple of times more.
But at one point towards the end (around 45 minutes) he mentions the characteristics of 1 Jhana
Savittaka, Savicara, Vivekjana and Pritisukha and he says savittaka corresponds to the reciting of the karmastthanas.
I could kind of understand the rest of it but do you know what is savittaka and karmastthanas mean?
I tried to scan at the topics on the main page, but thought it would be easier to just ask you.
Thanks.

[raj]

Thank you. It was excellent. I listened to the first talk and others popped up and I will be listening everyday. But it does not inform who the speaker is. Also I will be signing up to the subscription and may get more information of the speaker in the process.
Thank you again and wish you all the best on your spiritual journey.
I presume that Lang is your name, and cubibobi is your sign on ID.

[raj]

Thankyou Lang, for the information. I listen to many of the monks in the forest tradition and some others too.
Most of the name just pop as I am watching, but I was wondering if you have some names you can suggest.
I prefer to listen, it is hard for me to read extensively. Thanks again.

[raj]

I heard a talk from Ven. Dhammavudhho (a monk from Malaysia) on Sottapanna. He says that one may
enter the stream but could take some time to attain the fruit.
He also says that one just needs to listen to dhamma talks to attain the sottapanna stage (meditation and jhana are not a requirement for sottapanna attainment)
So if one regularly listens to dhamma talks and does his or her best to follow the teachings, is it a correct understanding that one can enter the stream at some stage and progress during the time of death and attain the fruit and become a sottapanna.
There are stories of people becoming sottapanna or even reach the highest attainment of arhant while undergoing the process of death.
There is the story of queen Samavati and her servants who attained stages between Sottapana up to arhanthood by being mindful at the time of death and the story of Sarakhani who attained the
streamentry at the moment of death by being receptive to the teachings of the Buddha.

[raj]

Thank you sir.
Just want to say that I did not mean to offend anyone. The instructors are very good at
giving the required guidance to advance in the technique. I have received a lot of help
from them, there is very little time to discuss anything in detail (each student is allowed 5 minutes).
I know only about 15 or 20 of instructors and Goenkaji has appointed probably hundreds of them.
But among the few I know, none of them are expert in the tripitika and pali terminologies as you are.
We are very fortunate to have the puredhamma website and to have direct access to
you.

[raj]

Just want to add a few more points to the above post.

Goenkaji makes a comment that there are students who hit a century (meaning sat on a hundred courses) and still don’t understand the technique. They play the sensation game (happy when they
experience pleasurable sensations and unhappy when the painful one arise).

He explicitly explains that we need to simply observe, can’t pick and choose, and if we fail, we can regress. It is a waste of time regardless of how many courses one has done.
He makes significant and important statements on his talks, but since we are not allowed to take
notes, we tend to forget. Also some of us are drowsy, we are not allowed to stand up, we have to
sit during the talks. There has been times I have dozed off during the talk and regretted later.

In my case, I was forced to work a little bit harder because my wife and son would tease me that I have not changed. Every time I loose my temper they would gang up and make fun of me.
When I analyze myself, I have improved a lot. My consistent listening to dhammatalks from various
sources and trying to put it into practice is certainly a contributing factor.

This puredhamma site is certainly proving to be a booster on this path, and hopefully I will
make some significant progress. I feel extremely grateful to Lalji. (I hope he does not mind me
referring to him as Lalji, in India you add (ji) to your teacher and elders).

[raj]

Sir, you are absolutely right when you say the instructors don’t know what is samphassa ja vedana, most of them don’t but there may be a few who do.

I myself did not have a clue what the term was, but having heard six set of six (over and over again on audio) read by Bhante Vimalaramse (he reads a translation by Bhikku Bodhi and has a very soothing voice), I put two and two together and made a statement on post 34781 that the vipassana topic is further explained in chachaka sutta.

But when you said that I was wrong, I just accepted your statement because I felt if you said so,
it must be true.

But when you placed the question yesterday in that manner, I took the time to understand properly what the term meant and analyzed it with the vipassana practice and
I remembered that Mr. Goenka instructs his students in one of his final lectures on how to
progress on the path.
Though I said I will listen to all his discourses again, I have only managed to listen to about half of his day one discourse, but I think he makes this statement on his day 10 or final day 11 discourse. I will check it out and get back to you.

He does say that many students do the course over and over again without properly understanding
the technique and they are not able to progress.
I have done an equivalent of 120 days (if I add the 7 ten day, 3 sattipattana, one 20 day and 3 short courses) and I have also served in six ten day courses also, but surprisingly did not have a clue of the term sampassa ja vedana.
I have also heard dhamma talks from over 50 different monks and dhamma scholars. I listen to whatever pops up on youtube, I find it hard to read but feel more inclined to listen.
I also read topics on accesstoinsight.org, and other dhamma sites. I have a tendency to jump from site to site, but your site is the best, and I hope to start studying and taking notes from puredhamma.net.
I am very grateful to have this one on one interaction with a person like you who knows the topic
so well.
I sincerely hope that I will get an opportunity to learn more from you.
Thankyou for your time and patience.

[raj]

I would like to add one more thing to the above comment. Mr. Goenka says we should try to be aware of our breath and some sensation in the body all the time.
Be aware of sensations before going to sleep and do that as soon as we wake up in the morning.
He says our mind will be doing it even when we are asleep.
So I presume that once we train to be aware of breath and sensations all the time, we will automatically do it when there is a crisis, and the so called crisis will cease to be a crisis because it will just be another sensation, and we are trained to observe and not react.

[raj]

Mr. Goenka teaches the students to practice samphassa-ja-vedana in ones daily activities.
The meditation prepares one for the daily encounters in life. He says when we have an encounter
with (lust, anger ect.) to watch the breath and the sensations in the body.
If somebody yells at us, we get angry, but with that anger we can see a change in our breathing
and it is accompanied by a sensation. He tells his student to be aware of that.
Initially one may fail to do so, but by practice one becomes conscious of what one needs to do.
In the initial stages one may get angry but the cooling down happens relatively quicker. As one
advances one will see the change. After an episode, one might have been miserably for many hours,
the duration is reduced and a point will come that the meditator will not react at all.
I presume that just as during ones meditation, one learns to watch the sensations without reacting, similarly in ones day to day activities one learns not to react to sensations influenced by external inputs, and I presume this is done intuitively due to the practice.
He says that it is not an overnight process but could take years. I presume, it depends on the individuals karma and the dedication to the practice of meditations and following the precepts.

[raj]

Just wanted to add a few more points to the above comment.
The students get an ideal environment to follow the five and eight precepts.
Just being silent and not talking for 9 days prevents one from idle talk and the agitation of the mind.
The students don’t make any eye contact and one gets to silently contemplate with no sound whatsoever, other than the sound of nature, which is almost impossible in the modern world for most people.

[raj]

I read the bhavana meditation portion of the link. It is very helpful and the entire puredhamma website is a treasure of information for sincere seekers.
But in all fairness to Mr. Goenka, the students are allowed to move, re-adjust and find a comfortable posture. Only on the fifth day he recommends not to move, for three one hour sits, but it is not strictly enforced. Rest of the time the students are allowed to move, standup and even walk outside. He stresses the importance of Sila, that, it is the foundation of samadhi and panya. On his daily discourses, he gives enough information to kindle one’s curiosity in the teachings of the Buddha.
The course gives one an opportunity to live like a monk for ten days and accumulate a little bit of
the 10 paramittas.
The course is a window to the wonderful teachings of the Buddha and those who have the good fortune
can explore the teachings on their own.

[raj]

I grew up in a Hindu family and had absolute faith in the basic teachings but had a problem with
some technicalities about the ultimate goal.
I got exposed to the teaching of the Buddha after attending a vipassana course. I started investigating the teachings and have developed a lot of faith in it, and have come to the conclusion that the Buddha’s teachings are very scientific and one can experience the results immediately on putting it into practice.
I am happy with my progress in following the 8 fold noble path, but in the back of my mind there is always one question, which I have put on the back burner and have not paid much attention.
The common understanding is that the Buddha said that there is no self, but the question is
what gets liberated? I can very clearly understand that we are not the body or the mind and
all the problems are due to our misidentification, but what are we and what part of us is
seeking nirvana?
I hope I will find a satisfying answer on this forum and want to thank the participants in advance.

[raj]

Sorry, I misunderstood the Chachaka sutta.
Goenkaji’s talks on the 10 day courses are available on You Tube and I plan on listening to all of them again and have a meaningful discussion.
But I do remember him explaining that the sensations we experience are the sankarras. When we learn to watch them in a detached way they arise and pass away, but if we react to them, they will multiply and get worse.
We are reducing our avidya gradually as we progress.
I remember after doing a course in 2011, I stopped practicing and did a another one in 2015.
He recommends sitting 1 hour in the morning and evening. I would do it for a few days and
then it will reduce to 1 hour and then to 30 minutes and slowly to zero practice.
In 2016 I went for a one day refresher course and on my first sit in the evening I could feel some discomfort on my legs. Instead of observing impartially I was thinking how uncomfortable it
was and very quickly I experienced a sharp pain and almost jumped and stood up.
He tells us that all sensations (pleasant and unpleasant) will arise and pass away.
We have to learn to be aware of every sensation in the body and just learn to observe.
He compare awareness and equanimity to the two wings of a bird. In order to progress on the path
to nibhana, we need both.
He gives a little more detail on the 20 day course.
Anyone who does a 10 day vipassana course will have a life changing experience, but the key is
to continue the practice at home and go back and do the another retreat as and when required.
After doing 1 ten day course, students are eligible to do a self course a home.

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