Find out more about Steve’s course at BCBS this September 23 - 28, 2016, Mindfulness, Insight, and Nibbāna: In this Very Life. Find out more about Steve’s online course starting September 27, 2016, Introduction to the Manual of Insight. Insight Journal: Can you tell us about Manual of Insight by Mahasi Sayadaw? Steve Armstrong: Kamala Masters, a team of translators, and myself have been working on this for fifteen years. Manual of Insight, recently published by Wisdom Publications, … [Read more...]
One Tool Among Many: The Place of Vipassana in Buddhist Practice
What exactly is vipassanā? Almost any book on early Buddhist meditation will tell you that the Buddha taught two types of meditation: samatha and vipassanā. Samatha, which means tranquility, is said to he a method fostering strong states of mental absorption, called jhāna. Vipassanā—literally "clear-seeing," but more often translated as insight meditation—is said to be a method using a modicum of tranquility to foster moment-to-moment mindfulness of the inconstancy of events as they are … [Read more...]
It Can Be Very Simple
Ajahn Sundarā, a senior nun from the Amaravati community in England, spent the three-month vassa, or rains retreat, at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in the summer of 2001. She spoke to us just before her departure. Thank you, Ajahn, for taking the time to talk with us this morning. Let me start by asking you something simple: What do you feel is the essence of dharma? [Laughter.] This is not such a simple question... The essence of dharma is liberation. Liberation from dukkha, … [Read more...]
Stillness and Insight
These excerpts were taken from a program offered by Christina at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in September of1999. Samatha is a Pali word meaning stillness, tranquility or calm. Samatha practice involves a sustained, unwavering attentiveness to a single focus or object. Whenever the attention is drawn to other thoughts, sensations or sounds, one simply lets go of them, and attention returns to the object. In the deepest development of samatha, the absorption states, there is a … [Read more...]
The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness
Most practitioners of insight meditation are familiar with the four foundations of mindfulness, and know that the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (M 10; D 22), the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness is the cornerstone of the vipassanā [insight meditation] tradition. The first foundation, mindfulness of the body, has to do with bringing awareness, attention, or focus to breathing and to bodily sensations. The second foundation of mindfulness, mindfulness of feeling, involves noticing the affect … [Read more...]
All About Change
Change is the focal point for Buddhist insight—a fact so well known that it has spawned a familiar sound bite: “Isn’t change what Buddhism is all about?” What’s less well known is that this focus has a frame, that change is neither where insight begins nor where it ends. Insight begins with a question that evaluates change in light of the desire for true happiness. It ends with a happiness that lies beyond change. When this frame is forgotten, people create their own contexts for the teaching … [Read more...]
A Comprehensive Matrix of Constructed Experience
These are the building blocks with which we construct our world. Every action which creates karma is represented on this chart. It is meant as an exhaustive categorization of all conditioned human experience. Try examining each of these options, one at a time, and look for examples of such activity in your own life and practice. You will find that such a matrix of experience provides a generic and de-personalized way of looking at what is taking place moment by moment, which supports the … [Read more...]
The Truth of Interpersonal Suffering
This article is extracted from a talk given by Greg Kramer at the start of a one-week residential intensive program at the Barre Centerfor Buddhist Studies in October of last year. Greg is a student of Anagarika Dhammadina, Achan Sobin Namto, Ven. Ananda Maitreya Maha Nayaka Thera, and Ven. Punnaji Mahathera. He holds a Ph.D. based on work with dialogic meditation and meditative practice on the internet, and teaches Insight Dialogue worldwide. The framework for all the Buddha teaches is found … [Read more...]
Dhamma as Skillful Kamma
There is a rather humorous text in the Middle Length Discourses called the Kukkuravatika Sutta, or The Dog-duty Ascetic (M 57). In the Buddha's time, the so-called spiritual scene was full of people who did extreme ascetic practices. In this text, we’re told of an ascetic who likes to practice like he’s a dog. He walks around on all fours, traipsing in and out of puddles, and will only eat food that is thrown on the ground. And he has an ascetic friend who likes to practice like he’s an ox. This … [Read more...]
The Path of Concentration and Mindfulness
This article is adapted from a workshop offered at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, February 23-25,1996 by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Abbot of Metta Forest Monastery, San Diego County, California. Many people tell us that the Buddha taught two different types of meditation: mindfulness meditation and concentration meditation. Mindfulness meditation, they say, is the direct path, while concentration practice is the scenic route that you take at your own risk because it's very easy to get … [Read more...]