Vipassana taught by the Buddha

On the cultivation of insight/wisdom
starter
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Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by starter »

Hello Teachers/Friends,

I'd like to share with you my understanding of Vipassana taught by the Buddha in the Anapanasati Sutta (MN 118) and AN 9.36.

1. Contemplation of the body [breathing]: it is about experiencing bodily fabrications and experiencing the calming/stilling of bodily fabrications.

2. Contemplation of the feelings [piti and sukha]: it is about experiencing mental fabrications and experiencing the calming/stilling of mental fabrications (mainly feeling, perception and conception, and probably also intention and attention?).

3. Contemplation of the mind:
1) Experiencing the presence and absence [stilling] of greed/aversion/delusion
2) Gladdening the mind by the absence of greed/aversion/delusion and other hindrances [?]
3) Concentrate/steady the mind
4) Enter jhana

4. Contemplation of the Dhamma:
1) Contemplate anicca/dukkha/anatta of the five aggregates involved in the jhana [disenchantment towards the five aggregates].
2) Contemplate dispassion and ending of craving [towards the five aggregates].
3) Contemplate cessation [of attachment to the five aggregates].
4) Contemplate relinquishing [of greed/aversion/delusion].

I base the contemplation of the Dhamma on the following teaching of the Buddha in AN 9.36 (& MN 64):

'I tell you, the ending of the effluents depends on the first jhana.' Thus it has been said. In reference to what was it said?..., there is the case where a monk... enters & remains in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born of withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there [in the jhana?] that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & (sense-)consciousness, as inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from those phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property of deathlessness:

'This is the peaceful, this is the sublime, that is, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all attachments, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbana.'

If he is steady in that, he attains the destruction of the taints. But if he does not attain the destruction of the taints because of that chandaraga (desire and attachment) for the Dhamma [those states: jhanas] then with the destruction of the five lower fetters [self-identity views, grasping at sila & observances, doubts, sensual passion, and aversion] he becomes one due to reappear spontaneously [in the pure abodes], and there attain final Nibbana without ever returning from that world.

As underlined above, while remaining in the first jhana he “regards” the phenomena there as anicca/dukkha/anatta, and continue to contemplate dispassion/cessation/relinquishing, instead of only noting their arising and passing away with bare attention.

One could argue that the Buddha taught the contemplation of anicca as bare attention of the phenomena of arising and passing away with regard to the body, feelings, mind and the Dhamma in the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10 and DN 22), but such anicca contemplations are not found in the early Chinese agama versions of the equivalent suttas.

Did the Buddha teach the contemplation of anicca (for insight) as only bare attention of the arising and passing away of phenomena in some other suttas?

Your input will be most appreciated. Thanks and metta,

Starter

PS: I checked the definition of "contemplation", and found the most common meaning is "thoughtful, long, calm observation / consideration / examination / reflection of an object or objects.
Last edited by starter on Sat Apr 30, 2011 5:02 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Monkey Mind
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Monkey Mind »

I saw this on the other forum, and copied it to my notebook. Before the resident critics have their go, I'll just say thank you for the effort.
"As I am, so are others;
as others are, so am I."
Having thus identified self and others,
harm no one nor have them harmed.

Sutta Nipāta 3.710
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cooran
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by cooran »

Hello all,
Starter said: One could argue that the Buddha taught the contemplation of anicca as bare attention of the phenomena of arising and passing away with regard to the body, feelings, mind and the Dhamma in the Satipatthana Sutta (MN 10 and DN 22), but such anicca contemplations are not found in the early Chinese agama versions of the equivalent suttas.
The Chinese Canon
[……………………….]
‘’From the above it can be seen that the Chinese Tripitaka is composed mainly of Mahayana scriptures of the second 500 years, yet translations were not restricted to scriptures of this middle period. The Chinese Tripitaka also possesses a wealth of works of early Buddhism as a good portion of the later productions.

Thus, if one could have a sufficient knowledge of the Chinese Tripitaka, and could extend his knowledge from there to include the Pali Tripitaka of the Sravakayana, and the Madhyamika and Supreme Yoga of the Tibetan system, then he would have little difficulty in gaining an accurate, complete and comprehensive panorama of the 1,700 years of development of Indian Buddhism, the record of which has been preserved in the three great extant schools of Buddhist thought.

The late Venerable Tai Hsu once said, "To mold a new, critical and comprehensive system, based on the Chinese Tripitaka, the Theravada teaching of Ceylon, and selected components of the Tibetan canon, should be the objective of the writing of a history of Indian Buddhism."
Even more so, it should be the objective of coordinating and connecting the many tributaries of world Buddhism. It is our responsibility to discard the trimmings and to retain the very essence of the great Tripitakas, adapting Buddhism to the modern world so that it may fulfil its mission of leading the way, taking under its wings the miserable beings of the present era. ‘’

http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/his ... tripit.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Kenshou »

This Chinese Tipitaka may contain Mahayana material, but the Agamas do not, as far as I've ever heard, being that they're more or less same body of texts as the Nikayas. Anyhow, I believe that the Satipatthana suttas of the Pali Canon are thought to likely be something of an amalgam. Which doesn't necessarily nullify the information in those texts, but it would explain why the particulars of the content vary. Not a big deal.

But I realize I haven't provided a source (damned if I can remember where I read everything I do), so feel free to tell me I'm wrong.
starter
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by starter »

"This Chinese Tipitaka may contain Mahayana material, but the Agamas do not, as far as I've ever heard, being that they're more or less same body of texts as the Nikayas."

-- Indeed, the Agamas were introduced to and translated (around end 300 A.C.) in China well before Mahayana.
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Assaji
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Assaji »

Hi Starter,
starter wrote:Did the Buddha teach the contemplation of anicca (for insight) as only bare attention of the arising and passing away of phenomena in some other suttas?
He emphasized it very much. "Bare attention" is a modern invention, for the the Buddha's description of recognition of impermanence see:

See: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 834#p40805" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Metta, Dmytro
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Nyana »

Dmytro wrote:"Bare attention" is a modern invention
:!:

All the best,

Geoff
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IanAnd
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by IanAnd »

Ñāṇa wrote:
Dmytro wrote:"Bare attention" is a modern invention, [for the the Buddha's description of recognition of impermanence...]
:!:
Give Dmytro a break. He's Ukrainian and not a native speaker of English (even though he has a very good command of the language, much better than I have of Russian (or Ukrainian, whichever is the case), which is zilch!).

I think he meant to say a "modern idiom" or "way of expression" rather than "invention." Eliminating or not including the context (in brackets above) makes it sound or appear more extreme than was intended. :)
"The gift of truth exceeds all other gifts" — Dhammapada, v. 354 Craving XXIV
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Nyana »

IanAnd wrote:Give Dmytro a break. He's Ukrainian and not a native speaker of English (even though he has a very good command of the language, much better than I have of Russian (or Ukrainian, whichever is the case), which is zilch!).

I think he meant to say a "modern idiom" or "way of expression" rather than "invention." Eliminating or not including the context (in brackets above) makes it sound or appear more extreme than was intended.
Actually, I was agreeing with him. I guess a :!: doesn't really make that clear.

All the best,

Geoff
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by IanAnd »

Ñāṇa wrote:
IanAnd wrote:Give Dmytro a break. He's Ukrainian and not a native speaker of English (even though he has a very good command of the language, much better than I have of Russian (or Ukrainian, whichever is the case), which is zilch!).

I think he meant to say a "modern idiom" or "way of expression" rather than "invention." Eliminating or not including the context (in brackets above) makes it sound or appear more extreme than was intended.
Actually, I was agreeing with him. I guess a :!: doesn't really make that clear.

All the best,

Geoff
Then, as Rosann Rosanna Dana would say: "Nevermind."
"The gift of truth exceeds all other gifts" — Dhammapada, v. 354 Craving XXIV
Nyana
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Nyana »

IanAnd wrote:Then, as Rosann Rosanna Dana would say: "Nevermind."
:smile:
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Assaji
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Assaji »

Ñāṇa wrote:
Dmytro wrote:"Bare attention" is a modern invention, [for the the Buddha's description of recognition of impermanence...]
:!:
The Concept of "Choiceless Awareness" was introduced by Jiddu Krishnamurti:

"(Choiceless) Awareness is a state in which there is no condemnation, no justification or identification, and therefore there is understanding: in that state of passive, alert awareness there is neither the experiencer nor the experienced."

http://books.google.com/books?id=_5ho4x ... frontcover" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Krishnamurti's books were popular in Srli Lanka:

"Godwin once said to me: 'I learned to think from K.N (Jayatillake), Ven. Nyanaponika encouraged me to read the suttas, and Krishnamurti's writings made sense of it all.'"

http://www.godwin-home-page.net/Tributes/Dhammika.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ven. Nyanaponika mentions the Krishnamurti's "Choiceless Awareness" in his book on "Achtsamkeit" (Mindfulness), and describes the difference between his approach and Krishnamurti's. However the name "Choiceless Awareness" and the key features remain the same in both approaches - it's passive observation of what happens.

Ven.Nyanaponika writes:

"By bare attention we understand the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception. It is called “bare” because it attends to the bare facts of a perception without reacting to them by deed, speech or mental comment."

http://www.midamericadharma.org/gangess ... lness.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu says:

"The Myth of Bare Attention
The Buddha never used the word for “bare attention” in his meditation instructions. That’s because he realized that attention never occurs in a bare, pure, or unconditioned form. It’s always colored by views and perceptions—the labels you tend to give to events—and by intentions: your choice of what to attend to and your purpose in being attentive.
If you don’t understand the conditioned nature of even simple acts of attention, you might assume that a moment of nonreactive attention is a moment of Awakening. And in that way you miss one of the most crucial insights in Buddhist meditation, into how even the simplest events in the mind can form a condition for clinging and suffering. If you assume a conditioned event to be unconditioned, you close the door to the unconditioned. So it’s important to understand the conditioned nature of attention and how the Buddha recommended that it be trained—as appropriate attention—to be a factor in the path leading beyond attention to total Awakening."

http://dharma.org/ij/documents/FoodforAwakening_000.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"In the Satipatthana Sutta, they’re combined with a third quality: atappa, or ardency. Ardency means being intent on what you’re doing, trying your best to do it skillfully. This doesn’t mean that you have to keep straining and sweating all the time, just that you’re continuous in developing skillful habits and abandoning unskillful ones. Remember, in the eight factors of the path to freedom, right mindfulness grows out of right effort. Right effort is the effort to be skillful. Mindfulness helps that effort along by reminding you to stick with it, so that you don’t let it drop.
All three of these qualities get their focus from what the Buddha called yoniso manisikara, appropriate attention. Notice: That’s appropriate attention, not bare attention. The Buddha discovered that the way you attend to things is determined by what you see as important—the questions you bring to the practice, the problems you want the practice to solve. No act of attention is ever bare. If there were no problems in life you could open yourself up choicelessly to whatever came along. But the fact is there is a big problem smack dab in the middle of everything you do: the suffering that comes from acting in ignorance. This is why the Buddha doesn’t tell you to view each moment with a beginner’s eyes. You’ve got to keep the issue of suffering and its end always in mind."

http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writ ... efined.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Santikaro wtites:

"Sometimes people use the term “choiceless awareness,” and over the years I’ve heard it used in various ways—some of them quite fuzzy. If awareness is really choiceless, there’s no reaction. And actually very few people can practice real choiceless awareness: when all seven factors are pretty well developed. If the wholesome and the unwholesome stuff keeps coming up, we might not quite be able to be choiceless. It’s easy to take things for granted; stuff that we’re comfortable with, stuff we like and don’t like to look at. We all tend to build up lot of habits, and then we don’t want to look at those. But often when there’s a habit pattern there’s a lot of working of the self, and that’s exactly where we need to look."

http://dharma.org/ij/archives/2000b/santikaro.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ven.Bhikkhu Bodhi writes:

"To practice heedfulness is to take full account of these dualities with their profound implications. The heedful person does not aim at a choiceless awareness open to existence in its totality, for to open oneself thus is to risk making oneself vulnerable to just those elements in oneself that keep one bound to the realm of Mara. The awareness developed through heedfulness is built upon a choice — a well-considered choice to abandon those qualities one understands to be detrimental and to develop in their place those qualities one understands to be beneficial, the states that lead to purity and peace."

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ay_17.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brahmavamso writes:

"Would you be happy with such a gatekeeper's explanation of mindfulness? A wise gatekeeper knows that mindfulness is more than bare attention. A wise gatekeeper has to remember the instructions and perform them with diligence. If he sees a thief trying to break in then he must stop the burglar, or else call in the police.

In the same way, a wise meditator must do more than just give bare attention to whatever comes in and goes out of the mind. The wise meditator must remember the instructions and act on them with diligence. For instance, the Buddha gave the instruction of the 6th Factor of the Noble Eightfold Path, "Right Effort." When wise meditators practising mindfulness observe an unwholesome state trying to "break in", they try to stop the defilement, and if the unwholesome state does slip in, they try to evict it. Unwholesome states such as sexual desire or anger are like burglars, sweet-talking con artists, who will rob you of your peace, wisdom and happiness. There are, then, these two aspects of mindfulness: the aspect of mindfulness of awareness and the aspect of mindfulness of remembering the instructions."

http://www.buddhanet.net/budsas/ebud/ebmed070.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best wishes, Dmytro
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by tiltbillings »

Dmytro wrote:
Ñāṇa wrote:
Dmytro wrote:"Bare attention" is a modern invention, [for the the Buddha's description of recognition of impermanence...]
:!:
The Concept of "Choiceless Awareness" was introduced by Jiddu Krishnamurti:
The terminology of "choiceless awareness" was taken over by vipassana teachers from Krishnamurti and put into a Buddhist context.

Ven.Bhikkhu Bodhi writes:
"To practice heedfulness is to take full account of these dualities with their profound implications. The heedful person does not aim at a choiceless awareness open to existence in its totality, for to open oneself thus is to risk making oneself vulnerable to just those elements in oneself that keep one bound to the realm of Mara. The awareness developed through heedfulness is built upon a choice — a well-considered choice to abandon those qualities one understands to be detrimental and to develop in their place those qualities one understands to be beneficial, the states that lead to purity and peace."
Bare attention is a phrase coined by Ven Nyanaponika, and is clearly explained by him in his book HEART OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION, and Ven Bodhi defends it and puts into the Buddhist context in his exchange with Wallace:

http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 140#p74190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://shamatha.org/sites/default/files ... ndence.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; See page 15.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Assaji
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by Assaji »

tiltbillings wrote:Bare attention is a phrase coined by Ven Nyanaponika, and is clearly explained by him in his book HEART OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION, and Ven Bodhi defends it and puts into the Buddhist context in his exchange with Wallace:

http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 140#p74190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://shamatha.org/sites/default/files ... ndence.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; See page 15.
Thank you, that's interesting. The "bare attention" concept has its merits, but the Buddha's terms are more exact and immediately applicable.

In the Sutta, "sati" is explained as "recollection, remembrance":
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4299" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The practice of Satipatthana, as explained in Bihikkunupassaya sutta, is not passive, and involves an active redirection of attention to change what's going on:

http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 656#p88181" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Best wishes, Dmytro
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tiltbillings
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Re: Vipassana taught by the Buddha

Post by tiltbillings »

Dmytro wrote:
tiltbillings wrote:Bare attention is a phrase coined by Ven Nyanaponika, and is clearly explained by him in his book HEART OF BUDDHIST MEDITATION, and Ven Bodhi defends it and puts into the Buddhist context in his exchange with Wallace:

http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 140#p74190" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://shamatha.org/sites/default/files ... ndence.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; See page 15.
Thank you, that's interesting. The "bare attention" concept has its merits, but the Buddha's terms are more exact and immediately applicable.

In the Sutta, "sati" is explained as "recollection, remembrance":
http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4299" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Like a lot of words in Pali and in any other language, the strict dictionary meaning is not always carried by the word.
The practice of Satipatthana, as explained in Bihikkunupassaya sutta, is not passive, and involves an active redirection of attention to change what's going on:

http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 656#p88181" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And so it is with "bare attention."
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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