October 2005 Newsletter

Vipassana Fellowship Newsletter

October 2005 Edition

"The man who cannot leave his sorrow behind him

only travels further into pain.

His mourning makes him a slave to sorrow."

(- Salla Sutta)

Start the New Year with Meditation

Vipassana Fellowship's online meditation courses have been offered since 1997 and have proven helpful to meditators in many countries around the world. Registration is now available for our first course of 2006 which begins on January 7th. The main text is based on a tried and tested format and serves as a practical introduction to samatha (tranquility) and vipassana (insight) techniques from the Theravada tradition of Buddhism. Intended primarily for beginners, the 90 day course is also suitable for experienced meditators who wish to explore different aspects of the tradition. The emphasis is on building a sustainable and balanced meditation practice that is compatible with lay life.

The course is suitable for users of any major operating system (Windows, Apple Mac, Linux) provided they have a recent web browser that can display Macromedia Flash files. The course uses our Online Course Campus which adds additional flexibility and permits greater interactivity. Participants also receive an audio supplement on CD-Rom containing guided meditations and chants to support the online material.

The course is led by Andrew Quernmore, an experienced meditation teacher based in England.

Registration details are available at:

http://www.vipassana.com/course/

Parisa - support for continuing meditators

If you have taken one or more of our online courses during the past 8 years you are eligible to subscribe to our new Parisa support and encouragement scheme for former participants. The scheme provides ongoing access to the latest edition of the 90 day course (there are 3 of these each year), new material to aid your practice and understanding of the Dhamma in the form of monthly themed "parisa packs" and a similar level of access to personal support from Andrew as available to regular course members. This is a flexible scheme that can be joined throughout the year for as long or as short a period as you wish. It is hoped that regular contact during the three courses we run each year and added inspiration from the parisa packs will help to provide a support network for those who do not have access to a local group or who would like to further explore our tradition.

If you have already taken one of our courses, Parisa details can be found here:

http;//www.vipassana.com/parisa/

Choiceless Awareness

There are many valid approaches to meditation within the Buddhist tradition. Some are based on formal techniques; others retain a degree of simplicity and flexibility. Here, in an extract from 'Awareness in Buddhist Meditation', the late Henri van Zeyst (formerly Bhikkhu Dhammapala) outlines what he called the Passive Approach - more usually known as Choiceless Awareness.

Awakening begins with Awareness

The world in which we move, live and think is indeed but a world of actuality, in which we react to the environment as mechanically and unintelligently as in a dream. Here too, our actions are conditioned by reflexes, subject to the influence of the past, of memory, of attachment and repulsion, of love and hate, of the senses and their contacts, tradition and education, hopes and fears. In short, it is the world of 'self', in which we move with self as aim, in which we live with self as the centre, in which we think with self as the subject, the thinker. This world of actuality is then only a world of reaction, for it is seen only with reference to the 'self'.

In this reaction there is constant comparing, judging, selecting, choosing, willing, retaining, absorbing, prospecting, projecting, which has only one reference, the 'self'. It is in this context that love so easily turns to hate, that memories are cherished as ideals building up the future. And all this reaction is necessary to maintain the illusion of a self as separate from its activity.

Awakening in the true sense begins with an awareness of this delusion-centred activity, which is the beginning of awareness which sees and understands things and people and events as they are, and not merely as instruments and means of fulfilling as ego-centric life of reaction.

The mere seeing of life as a reaction to 'self', and the understanding of that 'self' as a reaction to life, will halt this delusion, this living dream. And in that awakening there is new life, a new sight, a new world with new dimensions in which 'self' has no place, in which there is no conflict, but only an approach of learning, of loving with deep sympathy, in which there is no more striving and becoming; and in which there is an immediate response in direct action. And that alone is truth.

It is not enough to be aware of a certain event. It is far more important to see the entire set-up in which the event takes place, its conditioning, its reactivity, its background, its aim and projectivity. Thus, awareness is the beginning of self understanding. The problem is not a choice between smoking and non-smoking, for which we know all the arguments and answers. The problem is why we want a solution, which is an escape, which actively supports the 'self' in our choice through identification with the answer. The intelligent understanding of this new problem or challenge will automatically (not methodically) dissolve all questions, all problems, without choice, without conflict. That is the work of awareness.

Awareness is a passive approach without choice, which gives the problem quite a different significance. An active approach means a method which the mind has adopted. Methods are stereo-typed approaches of memory, advocated by sages and saints, accepted on their authority in one's search for a solution, safety, security. In an active approach there is a goal, and the method becomes all-important in the search for finding a solution, which is a striving for the attainment of a goal. A method is a memory of the past, while the living problem is vital in the present. How can the dead past solve a present problem, when the method of solving has become more important that the understanding of the problem? A method has already chosen the approach without seeing the significance of the problem, the actuality of the challenge. A method is aimed at finding a solution to do away with the problem; and hence is a form of escape.

The Passive Approach

But in the passive approach of awareness there is only the seeing of the problem without judgement. Thus there is no identification, no colouring of the problem as good or evil, as mine or not mine. The the problem can present itself in its own form and thus reveal its content. Without interpretation and identification there is no choice, no desire for a solution, for an answer, for a revolt. Then the challenge is not met with an old pattern which is of the memory, of ideals, of 'self'. In the absence of self-awareness there is only awareness of the challenge which is always new. Such awareness will show that we are not passively interested, but that we are related to the problem with self-interest, with prejudice, with desire for an answer, with the image of an ideal solution.

Now, what does awareness do? It not only sees my nervous reactions which drop when "caught in action", but it sees the entire building up of the mental system which has produced those reactions. For reactions are not only of the nerves, they are also the unconscious layers of thought, to which the 'I' so readily reacts as the easiest way out of a problem. Conformity to fashion, social customs, cultural ties, national flag-waving, religious adherence to rituals, which one may laugh at privately and yet cling to in public to avoid 'difficulties', are some of the expressions of that inner fear of standing alone while losing the support of the mass. Awareness will not only expose the childlike immaturity of conformity, but also the basic fear underlying it. Exposure of fear does not make one brave, but shows the emptiness of the mind in fear. When the mind is truly empty, thought as reaction ceases, and in that silence and altogether new relationship of understanding can establish itself from moment to moment without attachment, without fear, without conflict.

To be aware of something is not just a vague acquaintance with something in the background: a baby crying in a house down the lane. To be aware means to be fully involved. It is an experiencing, as to be hungry, which gathers in all the senses; even sight gets blurred, hearing indistinct, because hunger is a challenge to the entire system. We may read of people dying of starvation, and feel pity; but we are not involved in the same way, as long as there is a mere recording, a comparison with an image in the memory.

But when I am hungry, I am so totally involved that I am hunger itself; this is, I am the immediate response to that experience. there is no escape possible through thought, memory sublimation, sacrifice. Whatever I do or not do, I am experiencing hunger to the exclusion of everything else. I cannot bring in another unrelated element, such as prayer, submission, distraction; for the experiencing of hunger is all-pervading. I can temporarily avoid the issue and escape in a dreamland of plenty for the moment, by artificial means, prayers or drugs, concentration or activity, but I am still hungry. I am that hunger.

In that awareness there is an immediate experiencing which produces immediate action. If the hunger is purely physical, I do something about it; if the need is extreme, I may even steal and disregard all consequences, because the awareness in not on the outcome, but on the need.

Psychological hunger, which is the desire of the mind to continue in its search for self-satisfaction, will likewise disregard all consequences in its search for continued existence of the 'self'. But if there is awareness, seeing the reactionary activity of thought which seeks continuance in impermanence, conflict in its contradictory search, then that awareness will also see the void of both search and conflict.

Mettanisamsa Sutta

The Advantages Of Gentleness

He who never violates friendly feelings, whenever he journeys from his own residence shall obtain abundance of food, and become the means of supporting many others.

He who never violates friendly feelings, whether he visits town, country, or province, he shall be everywhere treated with respect.

He who never violates friendly feelings shall be unassailed by robbers, shall receive no dishonour from princes, and shall escape from every enemy.

He who never violates friendly feelings shall return in tranquillity to his home, rejoice in the assemblies of the people, and be a chief among his kindred.

He who never violates friendly feelings, exercising hospitality to others, shall be hospitably treated, honouring others he shall be honoured himself, and his praises and good name shall be spread abroad.

He who never violates friendly feelings, presenting offerings to others, he himself shall receive offerings, saluting others he shall receive salutations, and shall attain to honour and renown.

He who never violates friendly feelings shall shine as the fire, be resplendent as the gods, and never be deserted by prosperity.

He who never violates friendly feelings shall have fruitful cattle, abundant crops, and his children shall have prosperity.

He who never violates friendly feelings, should he fall from a precipice, from a mountain, or from a tree, when he falls he shall be sustained (so as to receive no injury).

He who never violates friendly feelings shall never be overthrown by enemies, even as the nigrodha-tree, firmly fixed by its spreading roots, stands unmoved by the winds.

The Vipassana Fellowship Newsletter is published about 10 times each year and is sent only on request and to previous participants of our courses. Vipassana Fellowship is an organisation dedicated to the dissemination of accurate and useful information on Buddhist meditation practices as found in the Theravada tradition. Our next mailing will be in November. Our site can be accessed via the vipassana.com and vipassana.org domains.