What exactly is vipassanā? Almost any book on early Buddhist meditation will tell you that the Buddha taught two types of meditation: samatha and vipassanā. Samatha, which means tranquility, is said to he a method fostering strong states of mental absorption, called jhāna. Vipassanā—literally "clear-seeing," but more often translated as insight meditation—is said to be a method using a modicum of tranquility to foster moment-to-moment mindfulness of the inconstancy of events as they are … [Read more...]
Upon the Tip of a Needle (Mahā Niddesa 1.42)
Andrew Olendzki
This remarkable and powerful poem, found buried amid the rather dry linguistic commentary of the Niddesa (a canonical commentary on the Aṭṭhakavagga of the Sutta Nipāta attributed to Sāriputta), speaks to the dual themes of impermanence and selflessness. In the later systematic psychology called Abhidhamma, these themes are developed into the doctrine of momentariness and the thorough enumeration of impersonal phenomena. All human experience is ever-changing, but is … [Read more...]
Sitting Just to Sit
Larry Rosenberg
The intimacy of practice is the practice of non-separation, of being at one with whatever is happening. We tend to think that we are not all right now—we're too fearful, greedy, angry, whatever—and if we take up some spiritual practice we can improve ourselves. By doing this, we think, we will be all right at some moment in an imagined future. This is the mind that works on the "in order to" principle—we are always doing this in order to get that, or to be that. Yet this very tendency—to … [Read more...]
Let the Wilderness Serve! (Saṃyutta Nikāya 6.2.3)
Andrew Olendzki
At one time the Buddha was residing in Magadha, near [a place called] Andhakavinda. At that time the Buddha was seated under the open sky, in the deep darkness of the night, and the rain-god was making it rain, drop by drop. Then the Brahmā Sahampati, as the night was passing away, lighting up Andhakavinda with his surpassing brilliance, approached the Buddha and stood to one side. As he stood to one side, the Brahmā Sahampati offered up these verses in the presence of the … [Read more...]
To the Forest for Refuge
Joseph Goldstein
Joseph, after practicing in India for ten years and teaching in this country for more than twenty, you have recently returned from a well-earned teaching sabbatical, in which I understand you did quite a bit of personal meditation practice. Has anything emerged from this experience, in terms of greater clarity? I think one of the pieces that has emerged from the time off is a greater clarity about where I'd like to put my energy in the following years. With so many newer teachers coming … [Read more...]
Mindfulness: Gateway into Experience
Carol Wilson
These words are excerpted from a dharma talk given at BCBS on January 18, 1997 as part of the Nalanda Program's weekend retreat. Mindfulness (sati) reveals to us the nature of reality, of our own mind and body in each moment of our experience. When we apprehend any aspect of our experience with mindfulness, we find that experience to be fleeting. Seeing the fleeting nature of all our experiences over a period of time, we become grounded in the wisdom or insight that we cannot rely on any … [Read more...]
Practicing for Awakening
Jack Engler
These remarks have been excerpted from a day-long program given by Jack Engler at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on November 1, 1997. Jack has had a long association with Dharma study and practice. He studied Pali language and Abhidhamma at the Post-Graduate Institute of Buddhist Studies in Nalanda, Bihar, and practiced meditation for several years in India with Anagarika Munindraji and Dipa Ma. He also studied with the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma. He is co-author of Transformations of … [Read more...]
