Vipassana Meditation : Lectures On Insight Meditation by Venerable

ealize how intention is related to the pushing movement of the foot. When weobserve the intention before the dropping of the foot, we will also come torealize how the intention is related to the dropping movement of the foot andso on. When we come to realize this relationship of cause and effect, we havealmost completely realized the Law of Cause and Effect. By this realization weovercome doubt as to whether there is any personality or entity, which iseverlasting in us. Then what really exists is just the process of cause and effect.Purification of Knowledge and Vision of Path and Non-PathThe fifth visuddhi is Purification of Knowledge and Vision of Path and NonPath visuddhi). In this stage of insight, you get very good experiences;lightness, happiness, tranquility, serenity etc. Sometimes you may feel yourbody has become light, as if it has been lifted, or as if you were flying in thesky. Your mindfulness is very keen. Your effort is steady; neither slack norvigorous, nor rigid. Your effort is moderate, steady and firm. Yourconcentration is deep, so you experience peace, calmness, serenity, tranquility,happiness, rapture and so on. This is a very good stage that meditators must gothrough. This stage may be experienced in about two weeks if meditatorspractice strenuously, but some meditators go through this stage within a week.With such good experiences, meditators may think 'This must be nibbána- thisis great, I have never experienced it before, it is better than having a milliondollars - now I have attained nibbána Thus, he does not go further because heis clinging to it. He thinks that if he goes further, he will go beyond nibbána. Ifa meditator holds that this stage is nibbána, this is the wrong path. Therefore,he must continue to meditate and practice strenuously. This is only a veryminor and trivial experience and he should not be content with it, but must goahead with his practice.Purification of Knowledge and Vision of the CourseThe sixth Visuddhi is Patipada-nanadassana-visuddhi. 'Patipada'means thecourse of practice, 'nana' means knowledge, 'dassana' means vision. 'Nina' and'dassana' are here referred to in the same sense. In order to lay emphasis onpenetration, the text used the two words in the same sense-knowledge andvision. So Patipada-nanadassana-visuddhi means Purification of Knowledgeand Vision of the Course of Practice. It means that when we have passedMaggamaggananadassana-visuddhi, we are on the right path, which leads toArahantship or the cessation of suffering.If we were on the wrong path, we would stop at Maggamaggananadassana-visuddhi.Because we are on the right path, we have to gothrough the nine stages of insight and are approaching the goal, so we canjudge that our course of practice is right. Then we do not have any doubtabout the course of practice. That doubt has been destroyed by knowledge andvision of the course of practice. Then there is purification of knowledge and35