Vipassana Meditation
How to practice Vipassana in the right way
Currently, in the domestic and international Buddhist market, many Vipassana meditation retreats are organized. So, we will discover what Vipassana actually is to orient ourselves on the proper path of practice to save time and effort in the process of learning Buddha’s liberation.
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Vipassana Meditation is so-called insight meditation, the highest meditation stage to reach Nibbana and liberation.
DEVELOP THE LIGHT OF WISDOM
Strong and powerful concentration produces strong and powerful light, and it is by that strong and powerful light that you are able to penetrate to ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca). It is explained by The Buddha in the ‘Ābhā-Vagga’ (‘Splendour Chapter’) of the Anguttara Nikaya: [42]
There are, bhikkhus, four splendours. What four? The splendour of the moon, of the sun, of fire, and of wisdom (paññ-ābhā).
There are, bhikkhus, four radiances. What four? The radiance of the moon, of the sun, of fire, and of wisdom (paññā-pabhā).
There are, bhikkhus, four lights. What four? The light of the moon, of the sun, of fire, and of wisdom (paññā-āloko).
There are, bhikkhus, four brilliances. What four? The brilliance of the moon, of the sun, of fire, and of wisdom (paññ-obhāso).
There are, bhikkhus, four brightnesses. What four? The brightness of the moon, of the sun, of fire, and of wisdom (paññā-pajjoto).
And He refers to the light also in His very first teaching, the ‘Dhamma- Cakka-Ppavattana’ sutta, when He explains His enlightenment:[43]
… thus, bhikkhus, in regard to things (dhammā) unheard before, there arose in me vision (cakkhu), knowledge (ñāṇa), wisdom (paññā), true knowledge (vijjā) and light (āloko).
Consciousnesses of mundane vipassanā produce strong and powerful ‘light of enlightenment,’ but consciousnesses of supramundane vipassanā produce light that is even more strong and powerful: for example, the light of the Enlightened One’s enlightenment spread throughout the ten-thousand-fold world system.[44]
How does this light arise? The deeply concentrated consciousness is associated with wisdom (paññā). Such consciousness produces many generations of consciousness-born materiality (cittaja-rūpa) off great brightness. [45] Using that light, we are able to penetrate to ultimate truth (paramattha-sacca); to see things as they really are. It is like going into a dark room: we need light to see the objects there.[46]
Note:
[42] A.IV.III.v.1-5 ‘Ābhā-‘, ‘Pabhā-‘, ‘Āloka-‘, ‘Obhā’, and ‘Pajjota-Suttaṁ’
[43] S.V.XII.ii.1 ‘The Dhamma-Wheel Setting-in-Motion Sutta’
[44] VsM.xx.634 ‘Vipassan-Upakkilesa-Kathā (‘Vipassanā Imperfection Discussion’) PP.-xx.107. The light is the result of wholesome dhammas and is in itself not an imperfection. But it can be the basis for imperfection. But it can be the basis for imperfection (uppakilesa-vaṭṭhu) if the yogi who experiences it becomes very attached to it, and develops the wrong view that he has thereby attained Path and Fruition. See also SA.V.XII.ii.1 ‘Dhamma-Cakka-Ppavattana-Suttaṁ’ (The Dhamma-Wheel Setting-in-Motion Sutta’), and ‘How You Overcome the Ten Imperfections’, p.222.
[45] For details about the light that arises with very deep concentration and vipassanā meditation, see ‘Consciousness-born Materiality’, p.112, and Q&A 4.10, p.156.
[46] In S.IV.I.xvi.5 ‘Jīvak-Amba-Vana-Samādhi-Suttaṁ (‘The Jīvaka’s-Mango-Grove Concentration Sutta’), the Buddha explains this in accordance with the six bases: ‘Develop concentration, bhikkhus. When concentrated (samāhitassa), bhikkhus, things become manifest to the bhikkhu, according to reality. And what becomes manifest according to reality? The eye becomes manifest according to reality as impermanent. Sights… Eye cousciousness… Eye contact… And any feeling that arises because of eye contact, be it pleasant, unpleasant, or neither unpleasant nor pleasant… [the eye, nose, tounge, body, mind, their objects, respective consciousnesses, contact, and feelings: the same as “the all” referred to in quotation, p.152].’ SA explains that ‘become manifest’ (okkhāyati) means they become manifest (paccakkhāyati), knowable (paññāyati), and evident (pākataṁ): paccakkha (discernible, perceivable, known to the senses, manifest) is the opposite of anumāna (inference). And in S.V.III.i.4 ‘Sāla-Suttaṁ’ (‘The Sāla Sutta’), the Buddha explains that newly ordained bhikkhus should be trained to abide contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness ‘of unified (ekodibhūtā) clear consciousness (vipassana-cittā), concentrated (samāhitā), of one-pointed consciousness (ek-agga-cittā), in order to know… [the four foundations of mindfulness] according to reality (kāyassa yathā-bhūtaṃ ñāṇāya).’
The splendor, radiance, light, brilliance and brightness of wisdom that you have developed enables you to go back along the line of successive mentality-materiality from the present to the moment of your rebirth in this life, to the moment of your death in your past life, and further back in the same way to as many lives as you can discern, and then also look into the future, to the time of your own Parinibbāna.[84] By looking at the individual constituents of mentality-materiality, you will be able to identify the causes and effects.
Without seeing past lives and future lives it is impossible for you to understand dependent origination as it really is: to know and see how past causes have given results in the present, and present causes will give results in the future, and how the cessation of the causes gives the cessation of the results. And without knowing and seeing dependent origination, it is impossible to know and see the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering as it really is. It is explained in the Visuddhi-magga:[86]
“There is no one, even in a dream, who has got out of the fearful round of rebirths, which is ever destroying like a thunderbolt, unless he has severed with the knife of knowledge well whetted on the stone of sublime concentration, this Wheel of Existence, which offers no footing owing to its great profundity, and is hard to get by owing to the maze of many methods.”
And this has been said by the Blessed One:
“This dependent origination is profound, Ānanda, and profound it appears. And, Ānanda, it is through not understanding, through not penetrating it, that this generation has become a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, matted as the roots in a bed of reeds, and finds no way out of the round of rebirths, with its states of loss, unhappy destinations… perdition[87].”
Once you have known and seen the Second Noble Truth (the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering) as it really is, you will have overcome doubt about the three divisions of time: present, past, and future. It is explained in the Visudhi-magga:[88]
“When he has thus seen that the occurrence of mentality-materiality is due to conditions (paccayato), then he sees (samanupassati) that, as now, so in the past too its occurrence was due to conditions, and in the future too its occurrence will be due to conditions.”
Having reached this stage, you have realized the Doubt-Overcoming Purification.[89] It is only at this stage that you can begin to practice Vipassāna, because it is only at this stage that you know and see ultimate reality: you cannot practice vipassanā until you have seen dhammas[90] as they really are.
Note:
[84] For details see ‘How You Discern Your Future,’ p.191, and Table 1d ‘Death and Rebirth’, p.188.
[86] VsM.xvii.659 (‘The Wheel of Existence Discussion’) PP.xvii.314:
the quotation is from D.ii.2 ‘Mahā-Nidāna-Suttaṁ’ (‘The Great Causation Sutta’)
[87] This passage is quoted and analysed p.79.
[88] VsM.xix.679 (‘Cause-Apprehending Discussion’) PP.xix.5
[89] For the discernment of dependent origination/cessation, and past and future mentality/materiality, see Talk 6 ‘How You See the Links of Dependent Origination’, p.183ff.
[90] For dhammas, see footnote 22, p.5.
Knowing and seeing – Pa Auk Sayadaw
