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Samantha Meditation and Vipassanā or
Insight Meditation
Both Samantha and Vipassanā or
Insight introduced below highlighted two distinct different meditation
methods but when meditation is established these two differences are
seen to be complementary. The calm gained from Samantha practice
is then used during Vipassanā practice for the arousing of wisdom.
For this reason, Samantha - Vipassanā are also called
calm-leading-to-wisdom methods.
There are numerous
Meditation Centers all over for meditators to seek guidance and
clarifications. It is important for meditators especially beginners to
have a teacher or instructor to help lay a foundation for them.
The most important in meditation is not
technique or tradition, but right attitude. Even if you have the best
teacher with the best tradition and the best methods, if your attitude
isn't right, it won't work. Many people meditate with a material gain
attitude. This can never relief stress.
Samantha Meditation an Introduction by
Venerable Sayadaw U Ashin Thondara
Samantha meditation means making an
effort to develop the calming down of defilements and keeping the mind
in peace. In short, it is an effort to have a peace of mind. There 40
ways of developing Samantha. One who is doing Samantha should not stop
there. Try to move on to Vipassanā or Insight meditation.
Vipassanā or Insight Meditation an
Introduction by
Venerable Sayadaw U Ashin Thondara
Vipassanā or Insight Meditation
means making an effort to develop the ability to see and perceive
clearly. In short, it is meditation with a view to see the true nature
of mind or matter. These mind and matter manifest themselves, every
time one sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches, thinks, every time the
object and sense-door come into contact. To note and comprehend their
coming and going is Vipassanā.
Vipassanā or Insight Meditation an
Introduction by Venerable Sayadaw U Silananda (1927 - 2005)
Vipassanā or Insight meditation is an awareness meditation. It teaches
you to be with the present moment, to live in the present moment. It
teaches to be aware of everything that comes to you and is happening to
you. Only the present moment is important. And everything that comes to
you at the present moment through the six sense doors - eyes, ears,
nose, tongue, body and mind - is to be noted, to be watched, to be
observed as the object of awareness.
When you practice Vipassanā meditation, by making mental notes or just
watching the various things that come to you, you will bring awareness
to a high level so that you will be able to see things as they are
truly are. You will come to see the true nature of mind and body, of
the mental and physical phenomena of which you are composed. "True
nature" means the nature of impermanence, the nature of unsatisfactory,
and the nature of insubstantiality or the absence of an unchanging self
or soul. It is important to see these three characteristics of nature
so that you can have a correct view of things, so that you may have
less attachment to mind and body, and gradually be able to weaken the
hold of mental defilements that prevent enlightenment.
When you practice Vipassanā meditation, you choose an object on which
to focus your mind. That object will be the "home" object of
meditation. Traditionally, the breadth is taken as the object. You keep
your mind focused on the breadth and make mental notes "in-out-in-out"
along with the breadth. During the notings of the breadth when your
mind gets lost or distracted, you make notes of them too, such as
"thinking" or "hearing" or "distraction" or "emotions", etc. And also
you make notes of the feelings in your body. In this way, you keep
yourself aware of everything that is happening in you or that comes to
you through the six sense doors.
By keeping your mind on the object of meditation, you are able to
develop concentration or one-pointedness of mind which is necessary for
the penetrative knowledge into the true nature of mind and body to
arise. Without concentration this cannot happen. So what you need first
is concentration. And in order to have concentration, you must first
keep your mind focused on one object. If you can keep your mind focused
on one and the same object for some time you can get the necessary
concentration. But you will find that in the beginning that is very
difficult to do even for a short time. That is because you are dealing
with the mind which is very unruly and difficult to control. You can
keep a wild bull by tying it with ropes. But you cannot tie your mind
with ropes, so you tie your mind to the object with awareness or
mindfulness. In the beginning, mindfulness may not be strong enough to
tie the mind down to one object and you may have many distractions to
interfere with your meditation. But when distractions come to you,
whether through the eyes, ears or nose, etc., do not get irritated or
upset. Just turn them into the objects of meditation by making notes of
them too.
The beauty of Vipassanā meditation lies in the fact that all things are
the object for this meditation. The breadth is only the "home" object.
If you have no other object to note, just keep noting them too. Whether
you are keeping your mind on the breadth or on other distractions, you
are doing good meditation if you are aware of them.
When you practice Vipassanā meditation, you have to be patient and
persevere. And do not get discouraged, if you cannot get concentration
at the beginning. Everybody has that experience. And leave all your
expectations behind when you are meditating. Just be in the present
moment. And if these thoughts come to you in spite of the instruction,
just make them the object of meditation. In this way, you can
effectively deal with everything that comes to you.
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