atapi sampajano satima - Pali words by Buddha

Mahasatipatthana Sutta course - (June 13 - June 22) , North Fork, CA

This is only for senior students. The evening discourses are detailed about the Mahasatipatthana Sutta delivered by Buddha.

Sati - Awareness
pa - extensively
atthana - establishing
sutta -discourse.
So, its the discourse on establishing the awareness extensively. The MOST IMPORTANT thing, its the awareness of sensations not mere bodily awareness. This is what has been missing in interpretation by many people of the Buddha's teachings.

Goenka ji explained the book very nicely. I read the book before explanation but couldn't understand. His explanations made it very clear. He inspires students so much over the discourses that he makes us feel Nirvana is just next door. Over these discourses he stressed so much on "atapi sampajano satima".

atapi = burner who is working hard
sampajanyam = equanimity
sati = awareness
So, it means a being working hard like a burner to burn his negativities by being aware of his sensations.

Goenkaji asked us to NOT forget "sampajano" during breaks or rest periods. He used to quote Buddha's "Sampajanyam nahi rinchati" - Do NOT forget sensations.

The book goes in detail of what the technique is, what are the four different paths, what are the stages on the path and the final goal.

Four paths:
1) Observing body in body
2) Observing sensations in sensations
3) Observing mind in mind
4) Observing mental contents in mental contents

The Vipassana tradition taught by Goenka follows (2) path. The reason he stated was the sensations are important on any of the paths because its the link between the sense object coming in contact with the sense organs of the human body. Unreact to the sensation and be free - is the formula.
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Coming to my personal experience, I did meditate good for most of the time. I had this pain in the head as the day progresses so couldnt do good for long time without breaks. I thought it would remain only during "anapana" but it remained through out. Its still there even after the course. So, I think it might be some health reason.

The people I met were good. Made many friends. Talked about experiences and ways to help myself.

The important thing is that I have a lot of questions on my practice itself. I thought I was doing right but now I am unsure. I have to get the technique correct before I mess up more. I feel I didn't get the basic itself.

Anyway I have to fight my own battles, I have to work out my own salvation. So, lets see.
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Long is the path,
Difficult are the steps,
....

atapi sampajano satima

నా ఆవేదన

ఏమి చెయ్యాలో తెలియని ఆవేదన

ఏదో సాధించాలనే తపన

వేసే ప్రతి అడుగులో తడబాటు

చేసే ప్రతి ఆలోచనలో ఏదో కలవరపాటు

ఎటు వెళ్ళాలో తెలియని అయోమయం

ఏమౌతుందో అనే సందేహం

ఎప్పుడు కోలుకుంటానొ ఈ అంధకారం నుంచి

ఏనాటికి తీరుతుందో ఈ అలజడి

ఈ అనిశ్చితమే నా జీవితమంటే

లేక ఇదంతా కేవలం నా ఊహా ?

-- బాటసారి

02 Jan 2008, My experience with 3rd Vipassana retreat

I attended the Vipassana meditation course from 21 Dec 2007 to 31 Dec 2007 at Occidental, CA. This is my third retreat of Vipassana, the first in USA. I have done the two earlier from 1-12 dec 2002, 1-12 dec 2003 in Hyderabad, A.P., India.

I ll go over the technique in brief and also some of the important aspects of the 10 day course.

Starting overview:

Vipassana is a meditation technique discovered by Gauthama, The Buddha for liberation of human-beings from the bondages of misery (anger, fear, hatred, jealousy,etc).

Note: The italicized words are of Pali language, the language used in India during the days of Buddha.

He categorized this into 3 steps.

1) sila - Morality

2) samadhi - Mastery over mind

3) panna - Purification of mind

Core Concept:

The pupils start by taking 5 precepts to observe sila.

samadhi: The first 3 (or 3 and 1/2) days are spent observing respiration (ana pana) to stabilize the mind.

panna: The remaning days are spent practicing Vipassana. This involves observing sensations on the body and remaining unreactive to those sensations. Sensation - any bio-chemical reaction happening on the body. Eg.: heat, perspiration, cold, itching, tingling, throbbing, pulsing, vibrating, pain, softness, hardness, etc.

Reasoning:

- Maintenance of sila builds a strong foundation for the next activities.

- The respiration observed here is natural respiration, not intervened by human exercise. Its not a breathing exercise like pranayama. Just making the mind to observing the incoming and outgoing breath. So here a question may arise, why only breath? why not count numbers or chant a name. Counting, chanting for long, takes the mind away from observation and makes the process mechanical. The human body has organs like hands, feet, etc which can be controlled by the being. There are other organs like heart, liver, kidneys, etc whose function cannot be controlled by the being. Breathe is one of the things, which can be controlled by the being and also functions without human intervention or knowing. So, it is like a bridge from the controllable world to the uncontrollable world within.

- By the second step, the mind becomes stable and can now feel the more subtle things on the body. According to Gauthama, every moment there is a sensation on every part of the human body. Remaining un-reactive to these sensations will make the usual routine habit of the mind to react by craving for pleasant sensations and by aversion for unpleasant sensations. This habit pattern change is happening at the deep, root level of the unconscious mind.

Scientific theory behind the procedure:

The human body has 6 sense doors - Eyes, nose, ear, skin (touch), mouth, mind. Whenever these sense organs come in contact with their respective sensual objects they react with either craving or aversion towards them based on pleasant or unpleasant situations respectively. The pleasant or unpleasant categorizing is from the previous (existing) conditioning of the mind.

Gauthama discovered the core basic particle of the body as kalapa. This comes from 4 different elements of the natural human body - Earth (solid), fire, water, gas.

The basic fundamental element of the mind consists of 4 parts:

vinyana - cognizing part

sanya - recognizing part

vedana - evaluating part

sankhara - reacting part

The cognizing part cognizes the sensation, the recognizing part, recognizes, the evaluation part evaluates based on the previous experience.

Every moment, a particle of the mind and a particle of the body get in contact together, which results in a biochemical reaction on the body - sensation. The sensation has 4 parts:

1 - from the kalapa - this can be Earth, Water, Fire and Gas (Air)

2 - from the atmosphere around the body

3 - sankhara, generated now

4 - sankhara, previously existing

So, when the sensation happens a new sankhara is generated (3rd part) every time. This pile of sankharas is the misery of the human being because this the cause of his reaction.

The discovery of Buddha was, if we stop generating new sankhara, everytime when a sensation happens, the previous existing sankharas would come up on to the top, if again the being remains equanimous then the sankharas get eradicated and so is the liberation from misery.

Gauthama's Pioneering:

Many saints, sages, "so called" gods, buddhas, etc before Gauthama, at the time of Gauthama and after Gauthama have said the same thing - to eliminate misery. Krishna in Gita or Jesus or whoever, spoke to be equanimous in all situations of life, eradicate misery, etc. but nobody told how to achieve that state. Thats the pioneering discovery of Gauthama, the Buddha. This is the reason he is referred as the SUPREME MOST ENLIGHTENED PERSON ON EARTH.

Everybody spoke about panna. The difference was everyone spoke about only 2 ways of gaining wisdom - reading scriptures, intellectual discussions - suthmaya panna, chintanmaya panna.

But Buddha discovered Bhavanamaya panna - wisdom from direct personal experience. As and when the mind remains equanimous with the sensations, its habit pattern of reacting changes, so now one doesn't need any reading of scriptures or intellectual discussions. Its all happening within without any feeding from outer sources.

Everybody spoke about being aware to live in present and calm the mind but Buddha found that this is not mere superficial awareness, its the awareness of the sensations thats required. Eg.: A girl in a circus walking on a rope is aware of every step but only that will not liberate from miseries because its only the conscious mind acting, not the unconscious mind and its the unconscious mind thats constantly reacting to each and every sensation on the body and generating misery (craving, aversion).

Buddha's words:

After becoming enlightened Buddha could see his previous lives. He said that for many lives he has been reacting, generating sankharas and so continuing his life then for many years he was looking for the creator of this life. After enlightenment he found that sankara is the creator.

Results from the technique:

As one eliminates more and more deep rooted sankharas from the mind, one feels less reactive. So, its a life full of action without any reaction. The final stage is liberation and later full enlightenment.