Vipasana S.N Goenkah

Question 1

What is meant by the swimology story?

Answer 1

In order to learn how to swim, you have to get wet. You cannot learn meditation from a book or even a teacher. Meditation IS the teacher. In order to learn meditation you have to meditate.

Question 2

What is the final goal of vipassana?

Answer 2

liberation from suffering, full enlightenment

Question 3

The real test of Vipassana?

Answer 3

Whether you can demonstrate a better life for it.

Question 4

Is Vipassana an escape from the world?

Answer 4

No, it is an encounter with the world in order to understand it and ourselves

By exploring the here-and-now of ourselves we can explore the world. Unless we investigate the world within we can never know reality—we will only know our beliefs about it, or our intellectual conceptions of it. By observing ourselves, however, we can come to know reality directly and can learn to deal with it in a positive, creative way.

Question 5

What is vipassana?

Answer 5

A practical way to examine the reality of ones own body and mind, to uncover and solve whatever problems lie hidden there, to develop unused potential, and to channel it for one’s own good and the good of others.

Question 6

What does the world Vipassana mean?

Answer 6

Insight in Pali

Question 7

Why can vippassan be hard?

Answer 7

Because we all have a need to preserve our possitive self-concept through functional self deception. During meditation we experience the unedited version of ourselves which tends to threaten our possitive self concept.

Question 8

What is meant by lancing the boil?

Answer 8

The meditator has undergone a process analogous to a surgical operation, to lancing a pus-filled wound. Cutting open the lesion and pressing on it to remove the pus is painful, but unless this is done the wound can never heal. Once the pus is removed, one is free of it and of the suffering it caused, and can regain full health. Similarly, by passing through a ten-day course, the meditator relieves the mind of some of its tensions, and enjoys greater mental health.

Question 9

Why is vippassana a serious technique, not to be taken lightly?

Answer 9

Because it deals with the depth of the psyche

Question 10

What is the basic problem of life

Answer 10

This is the basic problem of life: its unsatisfactory nature. Things happen that we do not want; things that we want do not happen. And we are ignorant of how or why this process works, just as we are each ignorant of our own beginning and end.

Hart, William. The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation as Taught by S. N. Goenka . Pariyatti. Kindle Edition.

Question 11

What was the Buddha’s name?

Answer 11

Siddhattha Gotama

Question 12

What did the Buddha teach?

Answer 12

Dhamma, the law of nature

Question 13

What should we do with that which is beyond our experience?

Answer 13

it is proper to doubt and to test whatever is beyond one’s experience:

Question 14

What is the highest authority?

Answer 14

The highest authority is one’s own experience of truth. Nothing should be accepted on faith alone; we have to examine to see whether it is logical, practical, beneficial. Nor having examined a teaching by means of our reason is it sufficient to accept it as true intellectually. If we are to benefit from the truth, we have to experience it directly.

Question 15

What is the only refuge in life?

Answer 15

The only real refuge in life, the only solid ground on which to take a stand, the only authority that can give proper guidance and protection is truth, Dhamma, the law of nature, experienced and verified by oneself.

Question 16

What is the eight fold noble path?

Answer 16

It is a path of insight into the nature of reality, a path of truth-realization.

Question 17

Why is ignorance harmful?

Answer 17

We remain unknown to ourselves. We do not realize how harmful this ignorance is, how much we remain the slaves of forces within ourselves of which we are unaware.

Question 18

How does meditation lead to the purificaiton of the mind?

Answer 18

By observing ourselves we become aware our conditioned responses, our prejudices that cloud our judgment, and the accumulated inner tensions that keep us agitated, miserable, and we realize they can be removed. Gradually we learn how to allow them to disolve, and our minds become pure, peaceful and happy.

Question 19

Do you have to be buddhist to practice meditation?

Answer 19

No. labels are irrelevant, suffering is universal.

Question 20

Is meditation conditioning?

Answer 20

it is a process of de-conditioning. Instead of imposing anything on the mind, it automatically removes unwholesome qualities so that only wholesome, positive ones remain. By eliminating negativities, it uncovers the positivity which is the basic nature of a pure mind.

It allows one to experience truth directly, for oneself. And from this experience, naturally understanding develops, which destroys all previous conditioning.

Question 21

What is the purpose of life?

Answer 21

To come out of misery. A human being has the wonderful ability to go deep inside, observe reality, and come out of suffering. Not to use this ability is to waste one’s life. Use it to live a really healthy, happy life!

Question 22

What is the true nature of the mind?

Answer 22

When the mind is free of conditioning, it is always full of love—pure love—and you feel peaceful and happy. If you remove the negativity, then positivity remains, purity remains.

Question 23

What is the solution to the problem of suffering?

Answer 23

To know thyself

We must begin by knowing our own nature; otherwise we can never solve our own problems or the problems of the world.

Question 24

What are the 5 processes that every being is composed of?

Answer 24

PHYSICAL
matter

MENTAL
Consciousness -vinnana
Perception - sanna
Sensation - vedana
reaction - sankhara

Question 25

What is the ultimate reality of matter, discovered by Buddha?

Answer 25

is that the body is made up out of matter, and all matter is made up out of smaller indivisible units or particles called “kalapas” (molecules) that appear to have some permanence but in reality are in a constant state of continuesly arising and falling away.

The ultimate reality of matter is that it is a constatn stream of waves or particles

Question 26

How is it possible to understand the laws of the universe through an awareness of ourselves?

Answer 26

The same laws that created the universe also created us, and is present within us.

The Buddha through meditation and observation of himself discovered that the universe and all matter is made up out of atoms and that these atoms or particles are impermanent as they are constantly popping into and out of existence. A continues pulsating stream of energy (waves and particles)

modern day scientists came to the same conclusion thousands of years later. Einstein discovered the Matter contains Energy, and later discoveries in Quantum physics confirmed that at the quantum level particles pop in and out of existence, a phenomena called “quantum foam” or “virtual particles”

Matter, according to science, is nothing more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.

Question 27

Consciousness (vinnana)

Answer 27

the receiving part of the mind, the act of undifferentiated awareness or cognition. It simply registers the occurrence of any phenomenon, the reception of any input, physical or mental. It notes the raw data of experience without assigning labels or making value judgments.

Commonly reffered to as the “Observer”

Question 28

Perception (sanna)

Answer 28

the act of recognition. This part of the mind identifies whatever has been noted by the consciousness. It distinguishes, labels, and categorizes the incoming raw data and makes evaluations, positive or negative.

Commonly reffered to as “the mind”

Question 29

Sensation (vedana)

Answer 29

As soon as any input is received, sensation arises, a signal that something is happening. So long as the input is not evaluated, the sensation remains neutral. But once a value is attached to the incoming data, the sensation becomes pleasant or unpleasant, depending on the evaluation given.

Question 30

Reaction (Sankhara)

Answer 30

If the sensation is pleasant, a wish forms to prolong and intensify the experience. If it is an unpleasant sensation, the wish is to stop it, to push it away.

Question 31

How do the five processes of being work together?

Answer 31

When the ear is functioning normally and one hears a sound, cognition is at work. When the sound is recognized as words, with positive or negative connotations, perception has started to function. Next sensation comes into play. If the words are praise, a pleasant sensation arises. If they are abuse, an unpleasant sensation arises. At once reaction takes place. If the sensation is pleasant, one starts liking it, wanting more words of praise. If the sensation is unpleasant, one starts disliking it, wanting to stop the abuse. The same steps occur whenever any of the other senses receives an input: consciousness, perception, sensation, reaction.

Question 32

What did Buddha say about our sense of Identity?

Answer 32

We each experience ourselves as an “I”. We experience our identity as having continuity, we live from a deeply rooted conviction that “I was, I am, I shall be”, however in reallity every human being is in fact a series of seperate but related events, each event producing the next, without interval. The progression of closely connected events gives teh appearance of continuity of identity, but this is only apparent reality, not ultimate truth.

We may give a river a name but actually it is a flow of water never pausing in its course.

We may think of the light of a candle as something constant, but if we look closely, we see that it is really a flame arising from a wick which burns for a moment, to be replaced at once by a new flame, moment after moment.

We talk of the light of an electric lamp, never pausing to think that in reality it is, like the river, a constant flow, in this case a flow of energy caused by very high frequency oscillations taking place within the filament.

Every moment something new arises as a product of the past, to be replaced by something new in the following moment. The succession of events is so rapid and continuous that it is difficult to discern. At a particular point in the process one cannot say that what occurs now is the same as what preceded it, nor can one say that it is not the same. Nevertheless, the process occurs.

In the same way, the Buddha realized, a person is not a finished, unchanging entity but a process flowing from moment to moment. There is no real “being,” merely an ongoing flow, a continuous process of becoming.

Of course in daily life we must deal with each other as persons of more or less defined, unchanging nature; we must accept external, apparent reality, or else we could not function at all. External reality is a reality, but only a superficial one. At a deeper level the reality is that the entire universe, animate and inanimate, is in a constant state of becoming—of arising and passing away.

Question 33

What is the difference between understanding the truth (intelectually, as in science) and experiencing a truth directly (as in mysticism)

Answer 33

Personal realization of truth will automatically change the habit pattern of the mind so that one starts to live according to the truth. Every action becomes directed towards one’s own and others good.

Mere scientific understanding does not, nescesarrily lead to changes in behaviour, smokers know smoking kills, yet they smoke.

Question 34

What is the difference between apparent and ultimate reality?

Answer 34

apparent reality (aka Maya or illusion) is things as they appear, ultimate reality is things as they truely are

Question 35

What is the truth about life that we cannot avoid?

Answer 35

The truth of the existence of suffering - life is imperfect, incomplete, unsatisfatctory

Question 36

What is a common misunderstanding about the word Karma, or Kamma?

Answer 36

That it means fate. Karma actually refers to “action”

Fate is something outside our control, the decree of providence, what has been preordained for each one of us. Kamma, however, literally means “action.”

Our own actions are the causes of whatever we experience: “All beings own their deeds, inherit their deeds, originate from their deeds, are tied to their deeds; their deeds are their refuge. As their deeds are base or noble, so will be their lives.”

I other words, you reap what you sow.

Question 37

How can we become masters of our fate?

Answer 37

By becoming masters of our actions

Each of us are responsible for the actions that give rise to our suffering. Each of us have the means to end our suffering in our actions.

Question 38

What are the 3 types of action?

Answer 38

Physical, vocal, mental

Question 39

Which of the 3 types of actions, are the most important, according to the Dharma?

Answer 39

Mental action, as it precedes all other types of action and determines the significance of any vocal or physical action.

If with an impure mind you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal.

If with a pure mind you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs.

Question 40

Which part of the mind, consciousness, perception, sensation, and reaction, gives rise to suffering?

Answer 40

reaction or samskara

The first three are primarily passive. Consciousness merely receives the raw data of experience, perception places the data in a category, sensation signals the occurring of the previous steps.

But when the mind starts to react, passivity gives way to attraction or repulsion, liking or disliking. This reaction sets in motion a fresh chain of events. At the beginning of the chain is reaction, saṅkhāra.

This is why the Buddha said, Whatever suffering arises has a reaction as its cause. If all reactions cease to be then there is no more suffering.

Question 41

The second noble truth, is that suffering has a cause, but what is the cause of suffering?

Answer 41

The real kamma, the real cause of suffering is the reaction of the mind.

One fleeting reaction of liking or disliking may not be very strong and may not give much result, but it can have a cumulative effect.

The reaction is repeated moment after moment, intensifying with each repetition, and developing into craving or aversion.

This is what in his first sermon the Buddha called taṇhā, literally “thirst”: the mental habit of insatiable longing for what is not, which implies an equal and irremediable dissatisfaction with what is.

And the stronger longing and dissatisfaction become, the deeper their influence on our thinking, our speech, and our actions—and the more suffering they will cause.

Question 42

What is the first step in the cessation of suffering?

Answer 42

The first step toward emerging from such suffering is to accept the reality of it, not as a philosophical concept or an article of faith, but as a fact of existence which affects each one of us in our lives.

With this acceptance and an understanding of what suffering is and why we suffer, we can stop being driven and start to drive.

By learning to realize directly our own nature, we can set ourselves on the path leading out of suffering.

Question 43

Isn’t suffering a natural part of life? Why should we try to escape from it?

Answer 43

We have become so involved in suffering that to be free from it seems unnatural. But when you experience the real happiness of mental purity, you will know that this is the natural state of the mind.

Question 44

Can’t the experience of suffering ennoble people and help them to grow in character?

Answer 44

Yes. In fact, this technique deliberately uses suffering as a tool to make one a noble person. But it will work only if you learn how to observe suffering objectively. If you are attached to your suffering, the experience will not ennoble you; you will always remain miserable.

Question 45

Surely it is unnatural never to react?

Answer 45

It seems so if you have experienced only the wrong habit-pattern of an impure mind. But it is natural for a pure mind to remain detached, full of love, compassion, goodwill, joy, equanimity. Learn to experience that.

Question 46

How can we be involved in life unless we react?

Answer 46

Instead of reacting you learn to act, to act with a balanced mind.

Vipassana mediators do not become inactive, like vegetables. They learn how to act positively. If you can change your life pattern from reaction to action, then you have attained something very valuable. And you can change it by practising Vipassana.

Question 47

The Story of Seed and Fruit

Answer 47

In the same soil a farmer plants two seeds, one sugar cane, the other bitter neem. The two seeds receive the same nutrients and water and sun shine

two plants emerge, one full of sweetness, the other bitterness in every fiber

Nature was neither cruel or kind to either tree, it works according to fixed laws and it only helped each seed to reveal the quality that is latent within itself

The farmer goes to the neem tree, bows down, walks around it 108 times, offers flowers, incense, candles, fruit and seets adn then starts praying “Oh neem god, please give me sweet sugar. But alas the neem god is powerless to provide the farmer with sweetness.

the moral is that if you want sweetness in your life, then plant seeds of sweetness not bitterness.

By seeds, it is meant, sangkarah, Our reactions are like seeds that grows into trees of word and deed and produce results after their own nature.

blind reaction often plants seeds of bitterness that produce bitter suffering in our lives, by being heedful of our mental responses and by acting instead of blindly reacting, we can plant seeds of sweetness in our life.