I promised I will write the descriptions of the words Mr. Goenka uses in the discourses, and also are the fact of what we are practicing.
In a way, it reminds me at all times of all what my body is going through, the sensations, the wandering mind, specially the food thoughts that has been hunting me.
The teacher I connected with, warned me not to mix water fast with Vipassana, as Vipassana is not a simple meditation, it is a deep surgery within the body and mind for purification.
"You should not mix fasting and doing the self-course. You should follow the regular course outline and code of discipline and do your fasting another time. To have a successful course one should follow the code of discipline and separate this 2 as two different projects."
So all my mind is kind of arguing with my body and thoughts should I or should I not.
Simply to mention, during the group sitting and the half day course that was offered online, I was thinking about texting the fellow of the organic grocery shop to ask him if he delivers to my area, and also had the ingredients in my mind: 2 bags of Celery, 2 bags of Carrots, 6 Beets, 6 Oranges, 3 Grapefruits, 6 Granny Apples... all I thought was because tomorrow is Sunday and now with the COVID, everything closes Sunday, I thought maybe it will be a good idea.
Anyways, I didn't message anyone, I simply wrote an email to the teacher, and waiting for her reply.
Following the course this am, I decided to clean my place, slowly, as I felt tired, and I remembered that during all this time, I never rested, there is a lot of work that happens during meditation, plus I am all about preparing my water, and the fast, and the walks... so yes that was my realization.
So the group sitting at 2:30 was a success for me, at least I felt that I truly meditated. Usually this happens even during the course on campus... your mind and body are adjusting... plus I have tried so many ways of sitting, all failures until the last one.... Finally.
So to go over the definition:
"
Anicca
- by the Vipassana Research Institute
Change is inherent in all phenomenal existence. There is nothing
animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic that we can label as
permanent, since even as we affixed that label on something it would
undergo metamorphosis. Realizing this central fact of life by direct
experience within himself, the Buddha declared, "Whether a fully
Enlightened One has arisen in the world or not, it still remains a firm
condition, an immutable fact and fixed law that all formations are
impermanent, subject to suffering, and devoid of substance."
Anicca (impermanence),
dukkha (suffering), and
anatta (insubstantiality) are the three characteristics common to all sentient existence.
Of these, the most important in the practice of Vipassana is
anicca.
As meditators, we come face to face with the impermanence of ourselves.
This enables us to realize that we have no control over this
phenomenon, and that any attempt to manipulate it creates suffering. We
thus learn to develop detachment, an acceptance of
anicca, an openness to change, enabling us to live happily amid all the vicissitudes of life. Hence the Buddha said that:
To
one who perceives the impermanence, O meditators, the perception of
insubstantiality manifests itself. And in one who perceives
insubstantiality, egotism is destroyed. And (as a result) even in this
present life one attains liberation. The comprehending of
anicca leads automatically to a grasp of
anatta and
dukkha, and whosoever realizes these facts naturally turns to the path that leads out of suffering.
Given the crucial importance of
anicca, it is not surprising the Buddha repeatedly stressed its significance for the seekers of liberation. In the
Mahā Satipaṭṭhāna Suttanta,
the principal text in which he explained the technique of Vipassana, he
described the stages in the practice, which must in every case lead to
the following experience:
(The meditator) abides observing the
phenomenon of arising . . . abides observing the phenomenon of passing
away . . . abides observing the phenomenon of arising and passing away.
We
must recognize the fact of impermanence not merely in its readily
apparent aspect around and within us. Beyond that, we must learn to see
the subtle reality that every moment we ourselves are changing, that the
"I" with which we are infatuated is a phenomenon in constant flux. With
this experience we can easily emerge from egotism and so from
suffering.
Elsewhere the Buddha said:
The eye, O meditators,
is impermanent. What is impermanent is unsatisfactory. What is
unsatisfactory is substanceless. What is substanceless is not mine, is
not I, is not my self. This is how to regard eye with wisdom as it
really is.
The same formula is for the ear, nose, tongue, body and
mind—for all the bases of sensory experience, every aspect of a human
being. Then the Buddha continued:
Seeing this, O meditators, the
well-instructed noble disciple becomes satiated with the eye, ear, nose,
tongue, body and mind (i.e., with sensory existence altogether). Being
satiated he does not have the passion for them. Being passionless he is
set free. In this freedom arises the realization that he is freed.
In this passage the Buddha makes a sharp distinction between knowing by hearsay and by personal insight. One may be a
sutavā,
that is, someone who has heard about the Dhamma and accepts it on faith
or perhaps intellectually. That acceptance, however, is insufficient to
liberate anyone from the cycle of suffering. To attain liberation one
must see truth for oneself, must experience it directly within oneself.
That is what Vipassana meditation enables us to do.
If we are to
understand the unique contribution of the Buddha, we must keep this
distinction firmly in mind. The truth of which he spoke was not unknown
before him and was current in India in his time. He did not invent the
concepts of impermanence, suffering and insubstantiality. His uniqueness
lies in having found a way to advance from hearing truth to
experiencing it.
One text that shows this special emphasis of the teaching of the Buddha is the
Bāhiya Sutta, found in the
Saṃyutta Nikāya.
In it is recorded an encounter of the Buddha with Bāhiya, a wanderer in
search of a spiritual path. Although not a disciple of the Buddha,
Bāhiya asked him for guidance in his search. The Buddha responded by
questioning him as follows:
What do you think, Bāhiya: is the eye permanent or impermanent?
Impermanent, sir.
That which is impermanent, is it a cause of suffering or happiness?
Of suffering, sir.
Now,
is it fitting to regard what is impermanent, a cause of suffering, and
by nature changeable, as being "mine," being "I," being one's "self?"
Surely not, sir.
The
Buddha further questioned Bāhiya about visual objects, eye
consciousness and eye contact. In every case, this man agreed that these
were impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self. He did not claim to be a
follower of the teaching of the Buddha, and yet he accepted the facts of
anicca, dukkha and
anatta. The
sutta thus
documents that, among at least some of the contemporaries of the Buddha,
ideas were current that we might now regard as having being unknown
outside his teaching. The explanation, of course, is that for Bāhiya and
others like him the concepts of impermanence, suffering and egolessness
were simply opinions that they held—in Pāli,
mañña. To such
people the Buddha showed a way to go beyond beliefs or philosophies, and
to experience directly their own nature as impermanent, suffering,
insubstantial.
What, then, is the way he showed? In the
Brahmajāla Suttanta
the Buddha provides an answer. There he lists all the beliefs, opinions
and views of his time, and then states that he knows something far
beyond all views:
For having experienced as they really are the
arising of sensations and their passing away, the relishing of them, the
danger in them, and the release in them, the Enlightened One, O monks,
has become detached and liberated.
Here the Buddha states quite
simply that he became enlightened by observing sensations as the
manifestation of impermanence. It behoves anyone who aspires to follow
the teachings of the Buddha to do likewise.
Impermanence is the
central fact that we must realize in order to emerge from our suffering,
and the most immediate way to experience impermanence is by observing
our sensations. Again the Buddha said:
There are three types of
sensations, O meditators (all being) impermanent, compounded, arising
owing to a cause, perishable, by nature passing away, fading and
ceasing.
The sensations within ourselves are the most palpable expressions of the characteristic of
anicca.
By observing them we become able to accept the reality, not merely out
of faith or intellectual conviction, but out of our direct experience.
In this way we advance from merely hearing about the truth to seeing it
within ourselves.
When we thus encounter truth face to face, it is bound to transform us radically. As the Buddha said:
When
a meditator thus abides mindful with proper understanding, diligent,
ardent and self-controlled, then if pleasant bodily sensations in him
arise he understands, "This pleasant bodily sensation has arisen in me,
but it is dependent, it is not independent. Dependent on what? On this
body. But this body is impermanent, compounded, arising from conditions.
Now how could pleasant bodily sensations be permanent that arise
dependent on an impermanent, compounded body, itself arising owing to
conditions?"
He abides experiencing the impermanence of
sensations in the body, their arising, falling and cessation, and the
relinquishing of them. As he does so, his underlying conditioning of
craving is abandoned. Similarly, when he experiences unpleasant
sensations in the body, his underlying conditioning of aversion is
abandoned; and when he experiences neutral sensations in the body, his
underlying conditioning of ignorance is abandoned.
In this way,
by observing the impermanence of bodily sensations, a meditator
approaches ever closer to the goal of the unconditioned,
nibbāna.
Upon reaching that goal, Kondañña, the first person to become liberated through the Buddha's teaching, declared,
yaṃ kiñci samudayadhāmmaṃ sabbaṃ te nirodha-dhammaṃ—"Everything that has the nature of arising also has the nature of ceasing." It is only by experiencing fully the reality of
anicca
that he was eventually able to experience a reality that does not arise
or pass away. His declaration is a signpost to later travellers on the
path, indicating the way they must follow to reach the goal themselves.
At the end of his life the Buddha declared,
vaya-dhammā saṅkhārā—"All
created things are impermanent." With his last breaths he reiterated
the great theme of which he had spoken so often during his years of
teaching. He then added,
appamādena sampādetha—"Strive
diligently." To what purpose, we must ask, are we to strive? Surely
these words, the last spoken by the Buddha, can only refer to the
preceding sentence. The priceless legacy of the Buddha to the world is
the understanding of
anicca as a means to liberation. We must
strive to realize impermanence within ourselves, and by doing so we
fulfil his last exhortation to us, we become the true heirs of the
Buddha." --- Ref:
https://www.vridhamma.org/node/2489
