The Canberra 1992 Talks Venerable Chanmyay Sayadaw
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The Canberra 1992 Talks Venerable Chanmyay Sayadaw Published for free distribution by Chanmyay Yeiktha Meditation Centre 55a Kaba Aye Pagoda Road Mayangone P.O. Yangon 11061 Myanmar Phone: 95 (1) 661479 Email: [email protected] c 2017 Chanmyay Yeiktha Sodality 55a Kaba Aye Pagoda Road Mayangone P.O. Yangon 11061 Myanmar This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license as found here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. It allows to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and adapt, remix, transform, and build upon the material, under the following terms: • Attribution—You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. 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Printed by: Swel Taw Color Offset Printing No. 115, 51st Street (Middle), No. 1 Block Pazundaung Township, Yangon Manymar Phone: 95 (1) 294976 Email: sweltaw.printing@gmailcom Contents Refuge and precepts, meditation instructions1 Meditation instructions, contd. 13 Meditation instructions, contd. 27 Meditation instructions, contd. 39 Purification of mind 49 Purification of mind, contd. 63 Purification of mind, contd. 77 Purification of mind, contd. 89 Tenth day 101 Purification of view 115 Insight knowledge of cause and effect 127 Insight knowledge of cause and effect, contd. 137 Realising the thought process through noting it 141 Purification by overcoming doubt 145 Purification by overcoming doubt, contd. 155 The Noble Eightfold Path 167 The Noble Eightfold Path, contd. 179 The Noble Eightfold Path, contd. 187 Progressive stages of practise 199 The seven benefits of mindfulness meditation 209 The story of Visakha¯ and Dhammadina¯ 221 Visakha¯ and Dhammadina,¯ contd., story of Sujampati 233 The seven factors of enlightenment 243 Parable of the log 255 Samatha and vipassana¯ meditation 269 Samatha is helpful to vipassana¯ meditators 279 The progress of insight 293 Questions and answers 307 About the author 321 Refuge and precepts, meditation instructions To practise this mindfulness meditation we need to purify our morality Today is the first day of our retreat, the 28th of December 1991 Everybody likes to live a happy, peaceful and blissful life, so ev- ery possible effort is made to be free from suffering. Mindful- ness meditation, or vipassana¯ meditation, which was taught at the time of the Lord Buddha, is the way of release from all kinds of suffering. To attain the cessation of suffering, we need to de- stroy the causes which are lobha (greed, desire, craving, attach- ment) dosa (ill-will, hatred, anger) and moha (ignorance or delu- sion). To eradicate all these mental defilements we need to re- alize or rightly understand each and every mental and physical phenomenon in its true nature. We need to practise vipassana¯ meditation to realize this body-mind process as it really is by being aware of what is occurring in our body and mind as it re- ally occurs. This mindfulness meditation is taught in accordance with the discourse of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Mah¯asatipat.t.h¯ana Sutta, expounded by the omniscient Buddha well over 2,500 years ago. To practise this mindfulness meditation, first of all, we need to purify our morality, our moral conduct by observing the pre- 1 cepts such as five precepts, eight precepts, nine precepts, and so on, for laymen. For bhikkhus there are 227 rules of monas- tic code. Fully observing these precepts we can purify our moral conduct, morality. These precepts were laid down by the om- niscient Buddha as a prerequisite for the development of mind- fulness. That’s why we have to take up eight precepts here, just now. The aim of taking up eight precepts is to purify our deed and speech, our moral conduct. This is indispensable to attain deep concentration of mind based on which the insight knowl- edges will arise. To have a clear conscience we have to observe eight precepts Penetrating knowledge, or experiential knowledge, of mental and physical phenomena is indispensable to exterminate all kinds of mental defilements which are the causes of all kinds of suffering. To have the penetrating insight, or experiential knowledge of the body-mind process, we need some degree of deep concentration. To attain a degree of deep concentration, constant and continuous mindfulness of what is happening to our body and mind is required. To have constant and contin- uous mindfulness, our mind should be balanced and stable. To have a balanced and stable mind, we should have purification of morality or of deed and speech. To purify our deed and speech we need to observe the rules of the precepts laid down by Lord Buddha. That’s why we have to take up the eight precepts: ab- stention from killing, abstention from taking what’s not given, abstention from incelibacy, abstention from telling lies, absten- tion from using any kind of intoxicant, abstention from taking substantial food after midday, and so on. So, by fully observing these eight precepts our deed and speech will be purified. Based on the purification of deed and speech we are able to concentrate our mind to a large extent. 2 Purification of deed and speech is called s¯ıla visuddhi, purifica- tion, virtue or morality. Without purification of morality we do not have a clear conscience when we practise our mindfulness meditation. To have a clear conscience we have to observe eight precepts as a base for our vipassana¯ meditation. So, based on pu- rified conduct, or morality, or virtue, we concentrate our mind on any mental process or physical process as it really occurs. Because of the clear conscience, the mind becomes stable, bal- anced. Then it is able to concentrate on its meditative objects very well. Then we attain deep concentration of mind. When the mind is deeply concentrated, the insight that arises becomes sharp, penetrating. That insight realises the true nature of bod- ily and mental phenomena. Three kinds of training In Buddhism, to free oneself from all kinds of suffering, we have three kinds of training. The first one is s¯ıla sikkha¯, training in s¯ıla, virtue or moral conduct. The second one is samadhi¯ sikkha¯, training in concentration. The third is pañña¯ sikkha¯, training in insight or wisdom or enlightenment. Of these three trainings the first training is to observe these precepts so that we can pu- rify our morality or conduct. Based on purified morality or con- duct, we contemplate our mind, we contemplate all mental and physical phenomena as they really are. That is vipassana¯ medi- tation. The difference between samatha meditation and vipassana¯ meditation I think here we need to explain very briefly the difference be- tween samatha meditation and vipassana¯ meditation. Samatha here means calm, tranquillity. Samatha means a mental state 3 that calms defilements or hindrances. When the mind is not con- centrated on any object of meditation, it is unable to calm any of the hindrances or mental defilements. It is only when the mind is well concentrated on the object of meditation that it can calm all kinds of hindrances and mental defilements. So samatha actu- ally means concentration. So it can be called calmness and tran- quillity and serenity. The aim of samatha meditation is to attain a fair degree of concentration of mind only, not for the realisation of bodily and mental phenomena. A samatha meditator cannot realize any mental or physical phenomena, even though he has attained the highest degree of concentration such as jhana¯ , and also abhiñña¯ (supernormal power). So, samatha meditation aims at the attainment of deep concentration only. A samatha meditator cannot realize bodily and mental phe- nomena in their true nature, so he is not able to destroy mental defilements which are the cause of suffering. vipassana¯ means the insight which penetrates into the true nature of bodily and mental phenomena, especially the three characteristics of exis- tence. These are anicca—impermanence, dukkha—suffering, and anatta—impersonal nature. But without some degree of concen- tration a vipassana¯ meditator is not able to realize these bodily and mental phenomena in their true nature. An appropriate de- gree of concentration can be obtained by being aware of what is happening in body and mind as it really occurs. The aim of vipassana¯ meditation is to attain the cessation of suffering through realization of bodily and mental phenomena based on some degree of deep concentration. That is the differ- ence between samatha meditation and vipassana¯ meditation. There are also other points of difference between the two types of meditation: the samatha meditator takes a single object. Suppose he takes respiration (in-breathing and out-breathing) as the object of meditation, he contemplates on in-breathing and out-breathing. Whenever the mind goes out he has to bring it back to the primary object and focus it on the nostrils and make a mental note, “in-out, in-out” and so on. 4 Realize what is happening at the moment as it really occurs But a vipassana¯ meditator needs to realize each and every men- tal process and physical process as it really occurs.