Vipassana Meditation : Lectures On Insight Meditation by Venerable

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passing away. but he must strive with padhana (strong and firm viriya oreffort) to meditate on mental and physical processes to attain the fourth stageof insight knowledge, i.e. Udayabbaya-nana, knowledge of arising and passingaway. If a meditator possesses wisdom he is sure to make progress until heattains at least the lowest Path Knowledge - Sotapatti-magga-nana. That is whythe Buddha said that a meditator must possess wisdom, which realizes theappearance and disappearance of mental and physical phenomena. So theseare the five factors, which a meditator must have.When a meditator has attained Sotapatti-magga-nana, the first stage ofenlightenment, he has uprooted both the concept of a soul or a self,personality or individuality (sakkaya-ditthi) and doubt (vicikiccha) about theTriple Gem. When a meditator has attained purification of mind, his mindbecomes sharp enough to penetrate into the true nature of the mind-bodyprocesses. Then he distinguishes between the mental and physical processesand realizes the specific characteristics of mental and physical phenomena.This is the first stage of insight. When he can realize the specific characteristicsof mental and physical phenomena and can distinguish between nama andrupa, he can destroy sakkaya-ditthi and atta-ditthi for the time being. At thisstage of insight, he has uprooted sakkaya-ditthi and atta-ditthi. When he is notexperiencing this insight, sakkaya ditthi and atta-ditthi will come back to him,although not strongly. Sakkaya-ditthi is only uprooted or exterminated byattaining the first stage of enlightenment, Sotapatti-magga- nana.Attá in BrahmanismWe should understand the concepts of sakkaya-ditthi and atta-ditthi from thepoint of view of Hinduism.According to Hinduism or Brahmanism, the whole world was created byMaha-Brahma. This Mahabrahmahas many names such as, Isvara,Paramatmaand Prajapati. 'Pati' means creator or master. Prajameans creaturesor living beings. So he is the master of living beings because he created them.Paramatma is a Sanskrit or Hindu term. In Pali it is Paramatta. When wedivide this Paramatma into two words, it is Parama and atma. Here paramameans the noblest, the holiest; 'atma' means soul or self. So Paramatma meansthe holiest soul. Some translate this word as the big self or big soul. This soulis big enough to create the world and living beings. When the condition of theworld was good enough for living beings to live in, he created all living beingsmen,decas, Brahmas, and animals. He even created tigers, lions and poisonoussnakes, which are a great danger to man. When Maha-Brahma or Paramatmafirst created living beings, they were like corpses; they could not move, sit orstand. Then Maha-Brahma wanted to make these creatures come to life. So heput a soul into each creature or living being. Then all the creatures got up andmoved stood, sat and so on. In this way, that small soul or self existed in everyliving being according to Brahmanism. Even an insect has a small soul in it.45
That soul is called Jiva-atta. It is everlasting and indestructible and cannot hedestroyed by any means, even an atomic bomb, because it is supported byMaha-Brahma or Prajapati. But when this body is about to disintegrate, thatsoul knows that the body is about to disintegrate - so it has to be prepared toleave that body and reincarnate into another body. It has to take existenceeither in a lower or higher world, depending on its kamma in this life. If thatsoul performs meritorious deeds in this life, these meritorious deeds are goodkamma so they lead the soul to a higher level of existence. When the soulreincarnates into another body, we call it reincarnation. But that everlastingsoul, jiva-atta or self cannot be destroyed in the next existence either. So thecycle of reincarnation continues.. This is what Brahmanism believes about soul.In short, according to Brahmanism, there is an everlasting entity in us, the socalledself, soul or ego.That belief or concept of an everlasting entity, soul, self or ego, known asAtta-ditthi, is due to the non-realization of the true nature of the naturalprocesses.Attá in BuddhismWe are not Hindus but we have the concept of a soul, though the concept isnot so strong because we follow the doctrine of the Buddha. We understandtheoretically that there is no soul or self or that there is no everlasting entity,yet we believe that when a person dies, the soul comes out of the body andstays near his house or his corpse or his coffin. It Is a common belief that if wedo not make offerings to the monks (Bhikkhu ) and have not shared ourmeritorious deeds with the departed ones, the soul has to live around us.Though we believe the doctrine of the Buddha, we still have this concept ofatta-ditthi, and based on this concept we have another concept of personality,individuality, a being, a man or a woman -sakkaya-ditthi (sakkaya here meansnama and rupa, ditthi means wrong or false view). We have this conceptbecause we do not comprehend the specific and common characteristics of themind-body processes; we take them to be everlasting.If you ask yourself, "Will I die tomorrow?" - you dare not answer thequestion. If I say you are going to die tomorrow, you will get angry with mebecause you have the idea of permanency of mental and physical processes.You think your mind-body processes are permanent; at least until tomorrow.Yes, that is the idea of permanency. You hold it because you have not realizedthe appearance and disappearance of the process of mental and physicalphenomena. If you see the constant, instant appearance and disappearance ofmental and physical phenomena, you will not believe them to be permanent.Theoretically you understand that none of the mental and physicalprocesses last even a second according to the doctrine of the Lord Buddha, butpractically you do not believe it because you have not realized their46
Page 1 and 2: Vipassana MeditationLectures On Ins
Page 3 and 4: PrefaceSudassam vajjamannesamAttano
Page 5 and 6: will not arise any suffering. Then
Page 7 and 8: 2. Mindfulness of feeling or sensat
Page 9 and 10: A Samatha meditator has to make som
Page 11 and 12: it is concentrated on it for a mome
Page 13 and 14: meditative practice. When moral con
Page 15 and 16: thinks about your work, your family
Page 17 and 18: nothing else to do except to be min
Page 19 and 20: parittas as taught by the Buddha, w
Page 21 and 22: can observe the five precepts perfe
Page 23 and 24: That means, he can attain Arahantsh
Page 25 and 26: When the root of all kinds of defil
Page 27 and 28: Chapter FourThe Four Foundations Of
Page 29 and 30: Chain of Cause and EffectWhen attac
Page 32 and 33: contemplation of mind objects, i.e.
Page 34 and 35: the Law of Cause and Effect (action
Page 36 and 37: ealize how intention is related to
Page 38 and 39: Purification of Knowledge and Visio
Page 40 and 41: confidence in the Buddha, Dhamma an
Page 42 and 43: According to the Visuddhimagga, the
Page 44 and 45: To summarize, these are the nine wa
Page 48 and 49: impermanent nature. Only if you hav
Page 50 and 51: Note mindfullyNote attentively and
Page 52 and 53: Walking MeditationTake the walking
Page 54 and 55: Pain is observed not to make it go
Page 56 and 57: 4. Samadhindriya: deep concentratio

Vipassana Meditation : Lectures On Insight Meditation by Venerable

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