Insight Journal: The title of your course at BCBS this coming August is “The Convergence of Vedanā, Our Mammalian Physiology, and Awakening.” What do you mean by our mammalian physiology? Brian Lesage: What I’m referring to, and what we’ll be talking about in this course, is our various physiological states. Stephen Porges talks about five states: social engagement, mobilization (fight-or-flight), play, immobilization (life-threat), and immobilization without fear. The state we’re in colors … [Read more...]
Vipassanā, the Three Characteristics, and the First Satipatthāna
Insight Journal: Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, Bhante. Perhaps we could start by talking about what vipassanā really means. Bhikkhu Anālayo: The term vipassanā means “insight.” I think the important point to keep in mind is that this is not a technique. It is actually a quality. That is quite different from the understanding that many nowadays have. When we say, “vipassanā,” we often feel that this is a particular technique, a particular form of meditation that you have to … [Read more...]
Jhānas, Lucid Dreaming, and Letting There Be Just Seeing in the Seeing
Insight Journal: Your new book, Right Concentration: A Practical Guide to the Jhānas, came out this October. Can you tell us a little about it? Leigh Brasington: The first part is basically the instructions I give during a retreat. I start out by saying, “You can't learn the jhānas from a book, but if you want to learn the jhānas from a book, here's the best that I can do.” There’s an introduction to what the jhānas are, as well as a bit about the necessary prerequisites like sīla, guarding … [Read more...]
Investigation: Listening as Deeply as We Possibly Can
Narayan and Michael Liebenson Grady live in Cambridge and teach at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center. This article is excerpted from a program the two offered at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on October 21, 1995. Narayan: We may hear the word "investigation" and think it has only to do with analyzing, because in our education and in our culture this is what is meant by investigation. Although using thought skillfully is certainly a level of investigation, a deeper level of … [Read more...]
Bowing to Life Deeply
Ruth Denison is the founder and resident teacher of Dhamma Dena Desert Vipassana Center in Joshua Tree, California. She is the first generation of women teachers of vipassanā in the West, and has been teaching at Insight Meditation Society in Barre since its inception in 1976. Ruth shared her life story and thoughts with Insight's editors while teaching at IMS in the fall of 1996. Ruth, you have a fascinating and unusual life story to tell. Can you share some of it with us? How did you get … [Read more...]
The Foolish Monkey (Samyutta Nikāya 47.7)
There is, on Himavat, king of mountains, a rugged and uneven land where monkeys do not wander —and nor do men. And there is, on Himavat, king of mountains, a rugged and uneven land where monkeys do indeed wander –but men do not. And there is, on Himavat, king of mountains, a level stretch of ground, quite pleasing, where monkeys do wander –and so do men. There a hunter set a trap on the trails used by the monkeys, in order to capture those monkeys. There were monkeys there who … [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...]
Body People, Mind People
One of my early teachers was Shivananda Saraswati, who was about 85 years old when I first met him. He was traveling on the Greyhound bus, and I was so impressed that I became his traveling companion. He was a Vedandin monk, and told me that Vedantins were often great scholars who practiced a kind of awareness called ‘witnessing,’ but who could also be condescending about bodily care, seeing it as a burden and obstacle to liberation. However, Shivananda observed that his fellow monks were … [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...]
Becoming More Clearly Human
The Venerable Sayadaw U Paṉḍitābhivaṃsa is one of the most renowned teachers in the tradition of the Mahāsi Sayadaw. U Pandita continues to act as guiding teacher of the Panditārāma meditation center in Burma, and offers students from around the world the wisdom he has gained over seven decades of integrating in-depth theoretical study with intensive practical application of the Buddha's teachings We are very grateful, Sayadaw, that you have agreed to talk with us today. Your remarks will be … [Read more...]