The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation - A Basic Buddhist Mindfulness Exercise E-Book

Mahasi Sayadaw

• Herausgeber: VintReads
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Satipatthana or the practice of mindfulness is recommended for all who seek to grow spiritually and eventually attain the realization of enlightenment. Buddhism itself is essentially a practical path, a system of physical and psychological techniques designed to bring about this realization. The method here described in this little book may be practised with benefit by all, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, because its aim is simply to expand the practiser’s consciousness and bring him face to face with his mind.Buddhist psychology or Abhidhamma teaches that you are not your mind. You already know that you are not your body. But you do not yet know that you are not your mind, because normally you identify yourself with each thought, feeling, impulse, emotion or sensation that comes into your mind. Each takes you on a little trip. Through the practice of mindfulness, you come to observe the rise and fall, the appearance and disappearance of these various thoughts and feelings, and gradually develop a sense of distance and detachment from them. Then you will no longer become caught up by your hangups. This leads to a deep inner peaceful calm. Through further practice, you will develop insight and wisdom, which is the power of consciousness to pierce through the veils of illusion and ignorance to the reality that lies beyond.

Leseprobe

Mahasi Sayadaw

The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation A Basic Buddhist Mindfulness Exercise

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Table of contents

The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation

INTRODUCTION

Namo Buddhassa (Honour to the Fully Enlightened One)

Practical Insight Meditation

PREFACE

Part I - Basic Practice

Basic Exercise I

Basic Exercise II

Basic Exercise III

Advancement in Contemplation

Basic Exercise IV

Summary

PART II - Progressive Practice

How Nirvana is Realized

Reviewing

How to Attain to the Higher Paths (Maggas)

Advice

A Special Note

Notes

APPENDIX

Techniques of Meditation

Rising and Falling Movement of the Abdomen

Starting with Materiality

Contemplation on the Arising at the Six Sense Doors

Insight Meditations Without Prior Jhana Development.

Attainment of Purity of Mind by Access Concentration

The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation

A Basic Buddhist Mindfulness Exercise

Mahasi-Sayadaw

The Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation

A Basic Buddhist Mindfulness Exercise

The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw

Agga Maha Pandita

First published

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS

RANGOON, BURMA

1979

INTRODUCTION

Satipatthana or the practice of mindfulness was recommended by the Buddha for all who seek to grow spiritually and eventually attain the realization of enlightenment. Buddhism itself is essentially a practical path, a system of physical and psychological techniques designed to bring about this realization. The method here described in this little book by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, Bhadanta Sobhana Mahathera, Aggamahapandita, the spiritual head of Sasana Yeiktha Meditation Centre, Rangoon, is the foundation of all Buddhist meditation practice. This form of meditation may be practised with benefit by all, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, because its aim is simply to expand the practiser’s consciousness and bring him face to face with his mind.

Buddhist psychology or Abhidhamma teaches that you are not your mind. You already know that you are not your body. But you do not yet know that you are not your mind, because normally you identify yourself with each thought, feeling, impulse, emotion or sensation that comes into your mind. Each takes you on a little trip. Through the practice of mindfulness, you come to observe the rise and fall, the appearance and disappearance of these various thoughts and feelings, and gradually develop a sense of distance and detachment from them. Then you will no longer become caught up by your hangups. This leads to a deep inner peaceful calm. Through further practice, you will develop insight and wisdom, which is the power of consciousness to pierce through the veils of illusion and ignorance to the reality that lies beyond.

At the instance of the former Prime Minister of the Union of Burma and of the President of the Buddha Sasana Nuggaha Association of Rangoon, the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw came down from Shwebo to Rangoon on the 10th November 1949. The Meditation Centre at the Thathana Yeiktha, Hermitage road, Rangoon, was formally opened on the 4th December 1949 when the Mahasi Sayadaw began to give to twenty-five devotees a methodical training in the right system of Satipatthana Vipassana (Insight Meditation through Mindfulness).

From the first day of the opening of the Centre, a discourse on the exposition of the Satipatthana Vipassana, its purpose, the method of practice, the benefits derived therefrom, etc., has been given daily to each batch of devotees arriving at the Centre almost every day to undertake the intensive course of training. The discourse lasts normally for one hour and thirty minutes, and the task of talking almost daily in this manner had inevitably caused a strain. Fortunately the Buddha Sasana-nuggaha Association came forward to relieve the situation with an offer of charity or a tape recorder machine with which the discourse given on the 27th July 1951 to a group of fifteen devotees undertaking the training was taken on tape. Thereafter this tape recorded discourse has been in constant use daily, preceded by a few preliminary remarks spoken by the Mahasi Sayadaw in person.

Then owing to the great demand of many branch Meditation Centres of the Mahasi Satipatthana Vipassana as well as of the public, this discourse was published in book form in 1954. This book has now run to several editions. As there was also a keen interest and eager demand among many devotees of other nationalities who are unacquainted with Burmese, the discourse was translated into English by the late U Pe Thin, a lay disciple and practised Mahasi yogi, who had acted as interpreter to British Rear Admiral Shattock who went through a course of Vipassana meditation practice at the Centre in its early days.

Explanatory Note on certain technical Buddhist terms

Dhamma (Sanskrit Dharma) may mean (1) the doctrine of the Buddha, (2) the Truth, (3) the Ultimate Reality, (4) the correct conduct of life, (5) the ultimate psychic events which combine to form the content of consciousness.

Nana may mean Gnosis or higher spiritual knowledge and illumination, or could signify an individual cognition of this type.

Samadhi may mean (1) ordinary attention, (2) concentration of mind so it becomes one-pointed, (3) ecstatic trance, (4) a general name for all the various practices of mindfulness and meditation.

The aim of Buddhist psychology (known as Abhidhamma) is to show that the mind is in reality an impersonal process composed of a large number of elementary psychic events called dhammas.

Through mindful observation one comes to realize that there is no permanent abiding entity called a self or ego in the Khandhas (Sanskrit Skandhas) (the five aggregates of human existence). The result of this realization is a detachment from the sensations, feelings, thoughts, ideas, impulses, etc, which are continually arising in the mind. The insight into this and full realization of it, is known as Panna (Sanskrit Prajna) or wisdom.