"Vipassana" by Sayadaw U Tejaniya
(Sayadaw teaches vipassana or "insight" meditation. The introductory section on vipassana at the beginning of "When Awareness Becomes Natural" is relatively brief. So here is an overview selection of read- ings on vipassana practice, especially in relation to samatha practice, taken from throughout the book. In WABN the introduction to vipassana and samatha, as the two ways to develop samadhi, is on pp. 20-25.)
In my youth, and later when experiencing depression, I didn't practice gentle awareness because I knew it would work. It was just that I was so helpless at the time. I was in so much depression it was the only way I could practice. The mind was too tired to do any more than that.
Another reason we find it hard to practice in daily life is that we put in so much personal effort that it is not sustainable. Personal effort feels like you can only be aware or, lost in the work you are trying to do.
But with gentle awareness, although not continuous in the beginning, it soon gains momentum to become natural and continuous. It really feels like you're aware while doing everything. You are actually living in this awareness.
That is when I understood the true nature of vipassana meditation and started to believe it possible to become enlightened in daily life.
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There are two kinds of meditation. In samatha (calm abiding), you need to sit and be still. My emphasis is vipassana (insight meditation).
For vipassana practice, sitting is not necessary. The purpose of practicing vipassana is to cultivate wisdom. We cultivate wisdom to understand, to see clearly, to know.
[A calm and stable mind, samadhi, can be developed by either samatha practice or by vipassana practice.]
1 Samatha-samadhi is gained by focusing on one object again and again.
In order to develop vipassana-samadhi, wisdom must be present. This can be right information and/or what you have understood through your own reflection and experience. Because of this wisdom, the mind feels stable.
There is no reaction in the mind. This is vipassana-samadhi and it is only from this kind of samadhi that insight can arise.
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If we focus only on one object, the mind cannot think much anymore, and the faculty of awareness is weak. The mind does not think of unwholesome things, but neither can it think of anything wholesome. Therefore, wisdom also becomes weak. For that reason, whenever we are applying a samatha kind of samadhi, insight cannot arise.
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In meditation, it is only important to recognize when there is identification with an object and when there is not.
It is the meditator's job to stay with awareness and not be so concerned with the object itself or to immerse in the object; just remember to be aware. Only with awareness and openness can we know more.
To develop insight, we must practice with vipassana samadhi.
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YOGI: I couldn't figure out why I felt hot and sweaty. I was uncomfortable and my mind wasn't stable, so I couldn't get an answer.
SUT: Do samatha first. When you have some stability of mind from the samatha, do vipassana. If the mind isn't in the right mood you won't be able to right the attitude. In that case just use samatha meditation to still the mind.
2 There are two ways you can adjust the mood of the mind. You can adjust it with right thinking, right thought, right view. If that's not possible, then with samatha. ✻
The samatha yogi deliberately chooses an object. The vipassana yogi observes what is happening and is therefore aware of many different objects.
The samatha yogi gets attached to the object. The vipassana yogi does not get attached to any object.
Vipassana always steps back to see things more clearly, whereas samatha dives in and gets absorbed in the object. Stepping back and watching allows understanding to arise.
The idea in vipassana is to relate without attachment and to be aware of any or all objects as they arise without trying to create a particular result or experience.
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The purpose of samatha is to attain certain mental states. Vipassana is a journey of learning and understanding.
Like any other learning process, there must be a level of intelligence, and if you want to learn something, there must be interest: "What does this happen? Why does this pass away? What can I do about it?" We must look many times, and then slowly we will begin to understanding and insight will arise.
We want to know ourselves: "Who am I?" We are nature, a physical and mental process that is happening at this point in time. We need to be like a scientist, researching ourselves. "Why am I so angry? Why am I so anxious and worry all the time?" Once you know, suffering becomes less and less.
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3 With vipassana, instead of giving our attention to one object we bring our attention also to the mind, specifically to the observing mind. We check the mind for reactions or defilements and also to see whether wisdom is present.
With the practice of vipassana, it is very important to have wisdom in the observing mind, and also the ability to recognize it and use it.
As an example, two yogis are meditating. One yogi is bothered by sound, while the other yogi considers the sound as an object, a natural phenomenon.
So which yogi will have samadhi? The yogi with aversion to sound will become more agitated; his or her aversion will increase whenever there is sound. While the other yogi who neither likes nor dislikes the sound will remain calm and peaceful. This yogi is practicing with some wisdom present.
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The morality that emerges from this practice of vipassana comes from the wisdom mind. It encompasses compassion for both ourselves and others. We see that if there is no awareness and wisdom behind the intention to act, then those volitional acts will have the potential to cause harm and suffering.
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The ideal vipassana is not so much "I am meditating," but more "meditating is happening naturally." Any time the mind becomes balanced, then understanding will happen naturally: "I am not meditating, but meditation is happening." At that time the understanding becomes deeper.
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With the practice of vipassana, we can take our cue from nature itself. If we look around us, we will see nature constantly renewing and then passing away. Nothing stays the same. A plant grows according to seasonal conditions, flowers, seeds, and then dies away. We are no different. Both our minds and bodies are forever in a state of flow and renewal because of conditions, or cause and effect. Objects are forever arising and passing away.
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In meditation there is really only samatha and vipassana that we can work with.
In vipassana all objects are available to build concentration. This is the method I preferred to use but would also use samatha to build concentration if there was no time available to investigate and learn from vipassana practice.
I knew that if I could maintain peacefulness, then wisdom would come easily. Wisdom can only arise if samadhi is maintained. It is essential to have continuity of practice, so we should use whatever means available to maintain the samadhi. I would maintain the calm with samatha, and then when I had the space, I would watch many objects and investigate my mind reactions or just watch objects coming and going with no investigation at all.
We can interweave the two practices. If the mind is sluggish or distracted, it can be good to practice samatha. When we have some samadhi, we can investigate. During the time of depression, I was mainly knowing, knowing, knowing the feelings, but, because of the continuity of awareness, it turned into a process of actual learning or gathering data.
Any object that is available and is within our awareness is an opportunity to learn. This is a faster process: awareness of body and mind, with more emphasis on the mind.
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YOGI: We can either be aware of the knower, or be aware of the objects that it is knowing. Which is better to know? The knower or the object?
SUT: Take the knower if you can know it. Because the knower comes with the known, with the objects. If you know the knower you already know the objects. If you choose the object, you may not know the knower. But if you know the knower then you cannot help but know the object.
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5 Vipassana is a "general purpose" practice. We can take it anywhere, and it can be practiced in all conditions. We can use it while living life. It is so simple and it can be summed up in a few words: "Just observe and let it be." We can take delight in the simplicity of this practice.
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