hermitwin wrote:I believe the Theravada view is that samadhi leads ultimately to 4 stages of enlightenment. This is in the sutta.
Under the Burmese Mahasi Sayadaw and Ledi sayadaw, the emphasis
is that vipassana is more important than samadhi.
Not at all. Mindfulness and concentration are both equally required, but I think it is imprtant to understand the context of the Mahasi Sayadaw practice. It was developed as a way of practice that could be taught to groups of laity, people who are not professional contemplatives. This footnote from some unknown book helps put into context the emphasis of practice:
- Cf. Mahasi 1990:PP.17and 21:"the actual method of practice in vipassanii meditation is
to ... observe ... the successive occurrences of seeing, hearing, and so on, at the six
sense doors. However, it will not be possible for a beginner to follow these on all successive
incidents as they occur, because his mindfulness, concentration and knowledge
are still very weak. ... A simpler and easier form of the exercise for a beginner is
this: With every breath there occurs in the abdomen a rising-falling movement. Abeginner
should start with the exercise of noting this movement." Mahasi 1992: P.7S:
"we used to instruct the yogi whose powers of concentration have strengthened to
extend this method ofmeditation to noting all that happens at his six sense doors." Ba
Khin 1985=P.94: "in fact one can develop the understanding of anicca through any of
the six organs of sense. In practice, however, we have found that ... the feeling by
contact of touch ... is more tangible than other types of feeling and therefore a beginner
in Vipassanii meditation can come to the understanding of anicca more easily
through bodily feelings .... This is the main reason we have chosen the body feelings
as a medium for the quick understanding of anicca. It is open to anyone to try other
means, but my suggestion is that one should have oneself well established in the
understanding of anicca through bodily feelings before an attempt is made through
other types of feeling."
The point here is a practice for the laity that can be taught in groups that helps cultivate insight early on in the practice as mindfulness and concentration are increasingly cultivated.
The other thing that needs to be understood is that jhana is not emphasized in this practice in the early stages is because jhana, as they understood it was in terms as it was taught in the Visuddhimagga. Take a careful look at this msg:
http://dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 6&p=140097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The reality is, however, that the level of concentration cultivated by Mahasi Sayadaw type vipassana practice looks, according some people, a lot like jhana described in the suttas.
You might find it of interest and of value to listen to these two talks by these two vipassana teachers:
http://www.dharmaseed.org/talks/?search ... =-rec_date" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
