January 2007 Newsletter

Vipassana Fellowship Newsletter

January 2007 Edition

"Mindfulness of breathing, when developed and pursued, is of great fruit, of great benefit. Mindfulness of breathing, when developed and pursued, brings the four frames of reference to their culmination. The four frames of reference, when developed and pursued, bring the seven factors of awakening to their culmination. The seven factors of awakening, when developed and pursued, bring clear knowing and release to their culmination. "
- Anapanasati Sutta

Ten Years of Online Meditation Courses

Vipassana Fellowship's online meditation courses have been offered since 1997 and have proven helpful to meditators in many countries around the world. The main text is based on a tried and tested format and serves as a practical introduction to samatha (tranquillity or serenity) 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 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.

We shall be offering courses beginning in January, May and September 2007. The courses are led by Andrew Quernmore, an experienced meditation teacher based in England, and the first begins on Monday, January 22nd, 2007. Andrew wrote our first course ten years ago and he has personally led each course since then.

Registration for the January course is available at:

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

Applications will be accepted until the start of the course. Please note that the Audio Supplement is despatched from the UK by Airmail but late applicants will be able to work with online versions of the main audio files until the CD-Rom arrives.

Parisa Support Programme

If you have taken one or more of our online courses you are eligible to subscribe to our Parisa support and encouragement programme for former participants. Parisa provides ongoing access to our courses and new monthly material to provide inspiration for your practice.

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

Andrew writes: One of the greatest influences on my meditation practice was Godwin Samararatne, a lay meditation teacher from Sri Lanka, who provided encouragement to the many Westerners, like me, who visited his centre high in the tea plantations outside Kandy looking for a practical approach to the Dhamma. Godwin was a very joyful and compassionate individual who was keen that the benefits of meditation should be shared with as many people as possible. Here is a glimpse of his approach:

Anapanasati and its Advantages

by Godwin Samararatne

(From a retreat talk in Hong Kong in 1998)

The subject that has been suggested to me today is to speak about the benefits of meditation on our breath. So we can reflect on the question as to why the Buddha chose the breath as an object of meditation.

Now one thing is, as I said yesterday that a very important aspect of meditation is developing awareness, mindfulness. So here we can use our breath to develop awareness. In Pali this technique is called Anapanasati, developing awareness, mindfulness, in relation to the in-breath and the out-breath. So we can use the breath to develop the practice of mindfulness and awareness, because we are breathing all the time and the breath is with us all the time, we can make use of it to develop awareness. Ajahn Chah, one of the meditation masters in Thailand, has said that if you have time to breathe, then you have time to meditate. So this is the first point I want to make as to why the Buddha might have chosen breathing as a technique of meditation.

Experiencing the Present Moment

Another important aspect of meditation is learning to experience the present moment, the here and the now. So here again, when we breathe, it is very interesting, we always breathe in the present, we always breathe in the here and the now. Sometimes I like to refer to our breath as our friend. If we make a connection with our breath as a friend, then whenever we think of our friend, our friend will help us to experience the present moment. Whenever we are lost in thoughts about the past and the future, and there is confusion and disorder in our mind, we have only to think of our friend and immediately we can experience the present moment.

Another important aspect is that, as we all know here, we are sometimes affected by our thoughts. Most of the time thoughts control us. Here again our friend can help us to learn to let go of the thoughts, maybe even for the first time, to learn to control the thoughts rather than allow the thoughts to control us by again being with our friend and experiencing the present moment, letting go of the thoughts about the past, letting go of the thoughts about the future.

And related to our thoughts are our emotions. There's a very strong connection between our thinking, between our thoughts, and emotions. So sometimes thoughts can create emotions, and then what happens is that when we have these emotions we can make them bigger than they really are. Here again, if we can remember our friend immediately it will help us to recover from our emotions. Because if we can spend a few minutes with the breath in such a situation it will help us to find some space in our mind and then that space can help us to recover from whatever emotions we are experiencing. You can experiment with this. You can try it for yourself.

Another useful thing our friend can show us is our state of mind. We all know what happens to our friend when we are affected by a strong emotion like anger, fear, excitement, stress and insecurity. What happens to our breath? It moves very, very fast. So it can be a very useful signal, a very reliable signal to show us what is happening in our mind. If we have problems with emotions, to take an example, like anger, our friend will immediately show to us from the way the breathing moves that we are getting angry. So it can be a very useful signal, as I said, and then if you can listen to the signal, heed the signal, you'll be able to recover from that anger or whatever emotion immediately.

In the same way when our mind is calm, when our mind is relaxed, when our mind is still, what happens to our friend? The breath also becomes calm. Sometimes it becomes so subtle that you don't even realise that you are breathing. So if we can learn to make a connection with our friend, the friend will always tell us what is happening in our mind. Some of the friends we have can sometimes be wrong - or maybe most of the time they can be wrong - but you'll realise this friend is always right, this friend is always reliable.

Our friend also shows us about the state of our body. Here again, the way we breathe can indicate to us our state of physical well-being, and also our state of mental well-being. If you can focus attention on the breath sometimes you'll realise the breathing can be very relaxed, sometimes the breathing can be very deep, and sometimes also shallow. And when you realise that your breathing is shallow it will always show that you are having tension in your body.

It is interesting that our friend will show that when our body is tense how naturally it will create an emotion, or it will indicate the connection between feeling tense and our emotions. And one of the ways of letting go of the tension is by using our friend. Sometimes in such a situation, if you can breathe consciously, if you can take some deep breaths, you might be able to relax your mind and body to a great extent almost immediately.

Samatha and Vipassana

In Buddhist meditation, there are two aspects. One is the aspect of experiencing calm and tranquillity, which is called Samatha. The other aspect is developing Vipassana, insight or wisdom. So it is interesting that this object of meditation, this technique, is relevant to both these aspects. When we are being aware of the in-breath and the out-breath, if we can learn not to react to what is happening, then the mind becomes calm and tranquil. And then this technique also helps us to develop wisdom or insight or vipassana.

One aspect of vipassana is to experience the fact of impermanence, the fact of change. And when we are aware of the breath, we'll realise how whatever is happening in our mind and body, including the breathing, changes from moment to moment. So if you are having thoughts you'll immediately realise how thoughts are arising, how thoughts are passing away. And the same thing becomes very clear with our breath. Here again, if we can be aware of the sensations, we'll realise how from moment to moment there are varieties of sensations taking place, and again how sensations are changing from moment to moment. So we learn to be open to any changes that are taking place in our mind and body from moment to moment.

This insight which we develop through being open to change and impermanence internally will help us also to be open to changes, the fact of impermanence when it happens externally. As you know, sometimes we have no control over what is happening inside us and we have no control over what is happening externally, in certain events in our life. Suffering arises when we resist these changes, when we resist impermanence. So if we can really be open to impermanence, and understand the nature of impermanence, this is a very powerful way of overcoming suffering. And as I said, we develop this very important insight: how suffering is created by resisting change and how we can overcome suffering by being open to change and to an understanding of impermanence.

Another important insight that can arise in relation to our breath, is that we can have moments when we realise that there is only the breathing that is taking place, the rise and the fall of the breath, and then there is no ego and there is no sense of "I" or "me" that is breathing, but just the process of breathing going on from moment to moment.

Another very important insight is to realise that we are all inter-connected, inter-related, inter-being, although we think we are separate, foreign to each other in some sense. But when we reflect on breathing, we realise that what is common to all beings is this fact of breathing. So this should enable us to have a feeling of oneness with all beings around us because what unites us, what is common to all beings, is this fact of breathing. And we have to realise that we breathe the same air, that in relation to the air that we breathe, we can't separate the breath and say the air that I'm breathing is mine. So there is this universality.

According to a Buddhist text, when we die, when we pass away, those who have meditated on this object can easily remember the breath at the time that they die if they are conscious, of course. I know some people who are working with people who are dying and one of the techniques that they use in helping people to die is to get them to breathe consciously at that time, to learn to be conscious of their breathing. So when we are dying, if we can experience the present moment with our friend, then we have a good chance of dying peacefully.

So our good friend helps us to live peacefully, and it can also help us to sleep peacefully. Before you fall asleep if you can spend sometime just to relax your mind and body, with the breath we can sleep peacefully. And then we can die peacefully. Is there anything more that we need to live in this world peacefully?

(Godwin Samararatne was the principal teacher at Nilambe and Lewella meditation centres in Sri Lanka until his death in March 2000. There is a memorial site containing transcribed talks and conversations at http://www.godwin-home-page.net. A book of his talks is currently being prepared. Nilambe still welcomes individual meditators visiting Sri Lanka http://www.nilambe.org)

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 February. Our site can be accessed via the vipassana.com and vipassana.org domains.