Q: The instruction to note/label something as impermanent is indeed clear, but how can you be sure that the thing *labeled* as impermanent actually *is* impermanent? If you label every person you see as female, you are wrong in ca. 50 % of the cases. I hope you understand what I mean. There must be way of looking at things that enables you to see that Whatever has the nature of arising, all that has the nature of ceasing. So for me the question remains: I am supposed to see form, etc. as impermanent, but practically, how do i do it? What do i need to do in terms of taking an action?A: Suppose you are sitting in a movie theater lost in the story of a movie, overwhelmed by the power of its story, the laughter, the tears, the dramathe emotion. For an outsider it would appear as if you are caught, dreaming, completely overpowered by the names and forms you see. Lets say my mission is it, to wake you up. And lets pretend I can only do that through the means of the movie, which you are watching, itself. Well, as soon as I tell you to disregard the story and put your attention to the process of the story itself, you will start to see, how your mind is fooled by a quick procession of frames. How would you do that? You have to remove the attention from the content (the story) and instead direct it towards how your mind perceives that story. The labeling (and that is why you see the Buddha use all kinds of labels, not just impermanent but also form is a shackle, form is a disease, form is movement (injita)etc etc. it is not the label by itself, although it works even better if you use a label which points the mind to some quality of the process of sense experience when you try to disengage it from the content of that story (anicca, dukkha, anatta or this is not mine, not me, not my self are great choices in this regard) but at the end of the day, in the environment of insight meditation, backed by very strong concentration, what these labels will accomplish is a shift of your attention away from the magic shows tricks (the story of the world you live in) and move your focus to the process of sense experience and how that magic trick is being generated. One of the first aspects of noting in this way is to get a very very deep experience of impermanence one will witness, in real-time the flashing (coming and going) of the six sense impressions So the funny thing is this: by using right view in form of a note attached to each sense impression (in meditation) and powered by sati and samadhi (this is colloquially called vipassana)one gets to see for oneself, in real time, fully experiencing it, the impermanence, the selfless and inadequate nature of that very sense process.So I hope you can see, that the label itself is just a means to the goal, a smart choice of name itself to undo the magic of names, but by itself is not all that important.PS: theoretically you could achieve the same by using female, female although, from a practical standpoint you will hardly get your mind disassociated from the content of the senses that way, especially if you are male

Vitakka & Vicara What do theymean? Or: How do i find my way to the first jhana?Lets say your meditation topic is Anapanasati (remembering the breath). So you would concentrate on breathing. If that is all you do, very soon, you would find yourself lost in millions of thoughts. Hopelessly washed away.-Now you make the following change to your practice:-With each breathing in you mentally note in with each breathing out you note out.Thatliterallyis vitakka, or thought. Simple, as the Buddha mentioned. This thought will therefore help you to remember (lit. forsati,maintaining in your mental presence) the breathing (anapana).-Now, what the heck is vicara? It isgliding(literally moving about)! You dont just think one thought and watch the breath. No, you have to repeat the thought and try to glide, abide, skid, slide, dwell, ride (all words denote a prolonged abiding, which reflects the literal meaning of vicara) on your meditation object (in this case breathing).-Repeatedly you will have to tie your mind to the pole of your meditation object,with the help of vitakka. It is like an eagle who wants to soar in the sky. He is looking for a stream of warm air which will carry and lift him up. The bird will repeatedly flap its wings and glide for a while, repeating the flapping, gliding, flapping, gliding until the eagle finds the stream of uplifting air and comes to a peaceful riding abiding effortless soaring, enjoying the ride.Yath pakkh pubba yhati pacch nyhati yath yhan eva vitakko, yath pakkhna pasraaeva vicro . Like a bird first has to exert itself and later has not to exert itself. In the same way is the exertion vitakko and the spreading of wings is vicaro (Petakopadesa, Khuddaka Nikaya, PTS p. 142)-Lets take the simile of the pole: You hammer on the top of the pole (which is your meditation object). The repeated hammering is your repetition of a thought, to help focus the mind. The repetition of this thought is initially necessary as your mind is torn in six directions by six animalsthe senses. -The movement of the pole into the earth is vicara. Each time the hammer hits the stick/pole, it moves a little deeper..-Until the pole is so deep, that it can stand alone, upright and unshaken by the sense impressionsvoila! The first jhana! Piti & Sukha have come in as a sign that the mind steadied on the meditation subject. Now, meditation became a vihara, a dwelling and is no longer a fight or struggle.-This, sankhittena, is the meaning of vitakka&vicara.PS: The same applies for any other samatha meditation object, ie. metta, metta, metta or light, light, light just to name a few famous ones

Bahiyas Bodhi-Do you have a favorite passage in the Suttapitaka?Difficult question, there are so many gems. But this one is reallyspecial, IMHO. Its a ZEN Masters dream come true in the Pali canon:Tasmtiha te, bhiya, eva sikkhitabba dihe dihamatta bhavissati, sute sutamatta bhavissati, mute mutamatta bhavissati, vite vitamatta bhavissatti. Evahi te, bhiya, sikkhitabba. Yato kho te, bhiya, dihe dihamatta bhavissati, sute sutamatta bhavissati, mutemutamatta bhavissati, vite vitamatta bhavissati, tato tva, bhiya, na tena; yato tva, bhiya, na tena tato tva, bhiya, na tattha; yato tva, bhiya, na tattha, tato tva, bhiya, nevidha na hura na ubhayamantarena. Esevanto dukkhassti.Udana I, 10-This is probably the shortest personal vipassana instruction given by the Buddha i know of. He says to Bahiya the ascetic:dihe dihamatta bhavissati by the seen only the seen shall besute sutamatta bhavissati by the heard just the heard shall bemute mutamatta bhavissati by the felt only the felt shall bevite vitamatta bhavissat by the cognised only the cognised shall be-This really is stopping short and letting the mind dry up on the sense ocean, let the itching skin healto bring in some other similes to your mind. It is the same approach used by modern day vipassana instructions using a small set of labels to increase an all-around almost 24/7 bare awareness.Buddha even tells us what will happen:tato tva, bhiya, na tena; yato tva, bhiya, na tena tato tva, bhiya, na tattha; yato tva, bhiya, na tattha, tato tva, bhiya, nevidha na hura na ubhayamantarena. Esevanto dukkhassThen, Bahiya, you will not be with it. If you are not with it, Bahiya, you will not be there. If you are not there, Bahiya, then you are neither here nor there nor in between both ends. This indeed is the end of suffering.Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu eva paipanno hoti no cassa no ca me siy, na bhavissati na me bhavissati, yadatthi ya bhta ta pajahmti upekkha pailabhati.-Here, o monks, a monk does train himself thus: Had it not been it would not occur to me;if it will not be it wont occur to me; whatever there is, whatever appeared (came into existence) that i will give up thus he develops equanimity.-We would call it these days sankharupekkha nyana or the insight knowledge of equanimity towardsformations.InMN the Buddha adds this valuable information after using exactly the same meditation instruction: So ta upekkha nbhinandati, nbhivadati, na ajjhosya tihati. Tassa ta upekkha anabhinandato anabhivadato anajjhosyatihato na tannissita hoti via na tadupdna. Anupdno, nanda, bhikkhu parinibbyatti.He does not delight in this equanimity, does not agree, does not stay overwhelmed by it. Him who does not delight, does not agree, does not stay overwhelmed with this equanimity his consciousness is not leaning on this equanimity, is not attached to it. Without attachment, Ananda, that monk completely ceases (parinibbya this word, in fact, does not mean he dies, but experiences nibbana, pari- completely).-This most beautiful vipassana style meditation instruction can be found in several places in the pali canon:i.e. SN 22. 55orAN VI. 52-The beauty of this instruction is that it makes almost only sense to you if you practice this or a similar method of insight meditation where you do not allow the mind to follow impressions but stop mental activity right after the object was born (yadatthi ya bhta) just in order to give it up right there and then, immediately. Now, a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not assume form to be the self, or the self as possessing form, or form as in the self, or the self as in form. He does not assume feeling to be the self does not assume perception to be the self does not assume fabrications to be the self He does not assume consciousness to be the self, or the self as possessing consciousness, or consciousness as in the self, or the self as in consciousness.He discerns, as it actually is, impermanent form: impermanent form impermanent feeling: impermanent feeling impermanent perception: impermanent perception impermanent fabrications: impermanent fabrications impermanent consciousness: impermanent consciousness.Note how this last paragraph gave a complete meditation instruction for simply noting form, feeling, etc. whenever they arrise with clear attention as impermanent.- Now a monk asks the Buddha whether a person training like this would fear this experience of nibbana. Buddhas response:There is the case where an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person falls into fear over what is not grounds for fear. But an instructed disciple of the noble ones does not fall into fear over what is not grounds for fear. There is no fear for an instructed disciple of the noble ones [who thinks], Had it not been it would not occur to me;if it will not be it wont occur to me; whatever there is, whatever appeared (came into existence) that i will give up.Rpupayav, bhikkhu, via tihamna tiheyya, rprammaa rpappatihanandpasecana vuddhi virhi vepulla pajjeyya. Vedanupaya v, bhikkhu saupaya v, bhikkhu sakhrupaya v, bhikkhu, via tihamna tiheyya, sakhrrammaa sakhrappatiha nandpasecana vuddhi virhi vepulla pajjeyya.Should consciousness, when standing (still), stand attached to (a physical) form, supported by form (as its object), established on form, watered with delight, it would exhibit growth, increase, & proliferation. Should consciousness, when standing (still), stand attached to feeling, perception, fabrications, supported by fabrications (as its object), established on fabrications, watered with delight, it would exhibit growth, increase, & proliferation.-Now comes the peaceful crescendo. An Arahants consciousness becomes anidassana / illustrous like the sky. Now, with consciousness ceasing its normal operation, even feelings cool down and contact ceases and extinguishes like a fire:viadhtuy ce, bhikkhu, bhikkhuno rgo pahno hoti. Rgassa pahn vocchijjatrammaa patih viassa na hoti.Tadappatihita via avirha anabhisakhraca vimutta. Vimuttatt hita. hitatt santusita. Santusitatt na paritassati. Aparitassa paccattaeva parinibbyati.Were someone to say, I will describe a coming, a going, a passing away, an arising, a growth, an increase, or a proliferation of consciousness apart from form, from feeling, from perception, from fabrications, that would be impossible.If a monk abandons passion for the property of form, feeling, perception, fabrications If a monk abandons appeal for the property of consciousness, then owing to the abandonment of appeal, the support is cut off, and there is no base for consciousness. Consciousness, thus unestablished, not proliferating, not performing any function, is released.Owing to its release, it stands still. Owing to its stillness, it is contented. Owing to its contentment, it is not agitated. Not agitated, he (the monk) is totally ceased.

Can consciousness seeitself?-Some seers of ancient India held that it is impossible to understand consciousness itself, because it is with consciousness that we get to know everything else. They thought that it is like trying to touch ones finger-tip with the same finger-tip.-But we have to get more acquainted with the five representatives of Name. Let us have them at our fingertips. In fact one can even count them on ones fingers. Feeling (Vedan)is the little finger small but mischievous. Perception(sa)is the ring-finger both popular and notorious. Intention(cetan)is the middle finger prominent and intrusive. Contact(phasso)is the fore-finger fussy and busy all the time. Attention(manasikro)is the thumb standing apart but approachable to the rest.-So it is in this case of the tragic drama of consciousness, though himself culpable, Attention is dependable as a witness provided he does his duty as Right Attention (yoniso manasikro).-Now attention will gradually disclose what feeling felt, what perception perceived, what intention intended, what contact contacted and last but not least what attention attended to.-This is why all insight meditators single out attention for preferential treatment when they want to get the full inside story of the tragic drama of consciousness.-In his book Magic of the mind venerable Nyanananda introduced a simile of the magic show (taken from the Buddhas comparison of the consciousness to be like a magician in SN ?) and explained in detail how an insight meditator is moving away from the position of the simple spectator living in and being overwhelmed by the tricks of the magician towards a position of someone who is starting to see the backstages and behind the screens action which results in a dispassion and disenchantment.-Here, he reconnects that simile with the definition of name-and-form (namarupa) and how a meditator is going to usein practiceone of his mental faculties to peek behind the workings between consciousness and name-and-form.-Where nowadays the term sati (remembering) from the verb sarati (to remember) has taken on a life of its own and is very often used in a sense to be mindful in place where the pali canon would use instead yoniso manasikaro (close/thorough/in-depth attention) venerable Nyananandas explanation gives us an idea for the paradoxical moment which the moment of enlightenment must be it is when attention discloses what attention attended to and the duality between consciousness and nama-rupa vanishes in a moment of bhavanirodho or extinguishing of being.In this way one could say that if you use samma-sati (or right remembering) you are in fact practicing a form of yoniso manasikaro (or close attention) as you keep your attention watching/remembering/re-attending what is either in terms of the classic for sets of labels (the Maha-Satipatthana) gradually refining the process of attention to subtler and subtler objects, working your way from an experience of the world down to how the world is generated until you arrive at this samsaric cortex, the interplay between consciousness-name/form which is basically the barrage of six sense impressions, contact, feeling which arrive and are reflected in consciousness and which create your here-there duality and the echo of an I immediately followed by thoughts of grasping and clinging in this chaos of fleeting bubbles.-Lets go to another text, which will now sound like a summary of the aforesaid:Throughout our lives, we are walking through an art gallery. On the vast canvas of the world around us, there are the objects and beings so realistic and life-like that we live fully immersed and involved in them. The mysterious four elements earth, water, fire, air with colour and form to deceive us, keep the panorama on the move, so we are spell-bound.-Insight into Name and Form helps us to throw off the spell produced by sight. Contemplation of the four elements within and without us forming the warp and woof of the world-canvas, gives flashes of insight into the unreality of the 3-dimensional world we live in. This is the form aspect of the picture feeling, perception, intention, contact and attention with which we are enthralled by the panorama, constitute the name aspect of the picture. Practising full awareness with regard to them we become detached observers of our framed-up world.-Being aware of this framework of name-and-form, we can watch the scenes on the eye-screen as they come, stay, and go away as if we are watching a movie unmoved.-Another way of describing the moment to moment set-up and experience of the mind is Buddhas famous declaration of the five groups of grasping or panca upadanakkhanda. They are form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness. So they basically are the same like consciousness-nama/rupa but putting them all together in one list not classifying the dichotomy between consciousness and name-and-form but listing them as the aggregates of our clinging. With a simple comparison you will see that from the group of mental formations the Buddha especially highlights contact, volition and attention in his definition of name and form. Of all the sankharas or mental formations we cling to, the interplay between attention based on certain volitions and faced with contact is the work place of the meditator. Sankharas are not just the lubrication which keeps the samsaric gear continue its operation and proliferates our word experience from moment to moment with a whole mountain of concepts, it might also develop the grain of wisdom which contaminates this gearbox and brings it to the brink of a stall (bhavanirodho).-But dont fear, usually our mental activities produces enough lubrication in terms of concepts and worldy proliferation that there is hardly any chance for this gearbox of consciousness vs name and form to halt any time soon-The tragedy however, is that everyone of these 5 groups is disintegrating. There is nothing permanent or substantial in them, to be prided on as self. They betray the trust one puts on them as I and Mine. -In the face of change and disintegration the very existence of the self is threatened. This is the -dreadful predicament of the self-oriented being.-The Buddhas solution to this chronic feeling of insecurity, is the development of the perception of impermanence. Taking a more realistic view of the five groups as impermanent, made-up, dependently arisen, and of a nature to waste away, pass away, fade away, and cease, one has to go on attending to their rise-and-fall with mindfulness and full-awareness. The perception of the compact will gradually give way to the perception of the heap. In ones contemplation of the rise and fall, one will discern not only the breakers of the ocean of impermanence but also the waves, the ripples and the vibrations. This leads to disenchantment. One turns away from ones deeply ingrained samsaric habit of grasping, holding and clinging on to the five fleeting groups which promise no security. -Giving-up the attachment to the five groups one sees as the only security, the clinging free deliverance of the mind the sublime peace of Nibbana.

So close you cannot seeit Or: What does sankhara mean?There is quite a deal of confusion regarding this important Buddhist term some of the translations run as follows:volitional formationsmental formationsfabrications, etc. etc.-From this simile it is clear that sankharas could very well be translated as preparations. But, i hear you ask: What the heck, are mental preparations. And how do preparations relate to Buddhas teaching?.-Well, in our modern day and age we would use the following terms instead: (mental) planning / opinionating / decision making / speculating /preparing to do something it is our thought machine going on in our minds moment after moment after moment creating a force which results in actions and in results of those actions.-An example: We take in a sound of a bird and immediately have preparing thoughts like I love the song of this bird. I like to see it. Where is this sound coming from? etc etc. These preparations, eventually, will lead to new moments of existence this is how preparations prepare us to experience even more new sense impressions once we started moving our head to see the bird a whole new series of sense impressions and resulting sankharas will arise and move us forward. This, in effect, is watching kamma and vipaka in action;-)-If you look at the 5 upadanakhandha which, according to Buddha, completely summarize our world experience you find the term sankhara in the correct spot, if you keep our simile of listening to the bird in mind: form (the sound) -> is the basis for -> feelings (positive) is the basis for -> perception (melodious) -> is the basis for the mental commentaries going on in our mind and consciousness, number 5 of the 5 groups of grasping / fueling is the counterpart for this to occur, to be known very much in terms of the mirror.-Eventually this moment of experience will lead to new moments of sight-, sound- etc. thought-objects, feelings, perceptions and consciousness. So the sankharas are the preparation part, the part, where the foundation for the next moment(s) is laid.-In the case of thenon-meditatorthis mental preparing for each next step in the world leads to a next barrage of sense impressions and moments of being on which we take our stand (upadana))-In the case of themeditatorthe mental preparations are slowly but surely subdued to a mere tagging, labeling. Noting impermanenceisa preparation as well (even a meditator keen on insight, has to work with what is there already), but its direction isnottowards proliferation of our experience but towards a minimizing of preparations/mental commentating/planning through the use of a simple label. Giving up (pajahati)whateverarises.-The tool used to achieve this is attention (manasikaro).-Usually attention is working to enlarge the chatting and opinionizing and preparing of the mind, insomuch as our moment to moment attention is drawn towards the content of the scenes of our experience: Not notinghowthe world appears but rather enjoying, being, the movie. This is what the Buddha calls an ayoniso manasikaro or an attention which does not look at the roots (its own roots).-Now, the meditator trains his mind using yoniso manasikaro, or an attention which goes back at the root (yonisolit. wombly meaning thoroughly, completely, going to the source). So instead of watching the movie which our senses present it means applying attention to the inner works of the mind, attending to the rise of fall in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, feeling, thinking.-That way, slowly but surely, the forms are seen, as they arise and fall, the feelings are seen, as they arise and fall, the perceptions are witnessed, as they arise and fall, the preparations are seen as they arise and fall and eventually the consciousness is seen as it arises and falls away.-This gradual step-back towards the source is made possible by sankharas in a novel, very subdued and tag like way, which allows attention to use the power of names (the power of nama-rupa) to get away from lengthy stretches of rolling identified (tam-mayata) in thoughts, sights, sounds etc. It replaces the in the movie What a beautiful sunset -like sense movie with a simple tagging of the individual frames Seeing, seeing or impermanent, impermanent etc-Now, this is going to be so boring for the mind:-)not right away, there are all kinds of stages we go through, say the elders, but eventually dispassion sets in, disenchantment.-Seeing that the movie is in reality a framed show, the fun appeal (nandiraga) towards those sense impressions will subside, thirst will at one moment stop, the mind will stop taking a stand on some other object, and as the mind does not take a stand, does not take up (upadana) there will be no connection between the moments of being (bhava) and existence with its smaller and larger sequence of birth and death, sorrow and suffering will cease. And they call this: bhavanirodho nibbanam.

Forever taking astand-The most difficult part in insight meditation is to realize that your mind always takes a stand. Otherwise it could not exist.-If yousee, you took a stand on a sight, a see-sensing, a seeing, a see-feeling. If you hearsmelltastetouchand especially and most subtle: if you think there was already a taking a stand on. A thought, a think-sensing, a thinking, a think-feeling all in one moment, moment after momentendlessly.-What do we mean by to take a stand on? Right now, you watch a computer screen or a paper. A sequence of sights, sights, sights (the letters on the paper) sound, sound (surrounding sounds) and thought, thought (thinking of thoughts written in this text) appear with an amazing speed and unbelievable force.-What do they force? They force you to be them. What we possess that possesses us, what we catch, that caught us.-Now, you might mistaketanhaor thirst for some kind of emotion or craving like I like this text or very well i dont like this text.-Butno, this is not what the Buddha meant by craving in this context!. Those thought-chains are already many many moments of individual thought-moments each of which are connected by a deep deep unsatiable thirst for life, for being, for continuity:tanha bhavanettika, as the Buddha defined, a thirst leading to being it does not mean a connection of lives for rebirth. You do not need to remember past lives or look into the future to understand the Buddhas teaching. No, it is shockingly much closer to you. Directly under your nose, in your eye, in your ear, between your thoughts. Each and every moment. It is so close that you cannot see it. Because for one, it is very fastand there is no ordinary way for you to see and directly witness what is going on under your nose. Secondly, in order to live your mind needs to group and perceive heaps where there is just bubbles popping in and out of existence. How, do you think, could you walk, if you did not.-Now, if this number of thoughts which we usually tend to think about as craving, longing are not what the Buddha meant when he spoke about tanha, or thirst, what are they instead? You could flat and simply call them mental defilements or emotionskilesa. And the Buddha did talk about them too, but more so in the context of morality and initial mental training.-As an insight meditator, we need to go deeper, have to be careful, not to get stuck there. We might be very happy to be able to see how the mind acts and reacts as a whole. We might think: Wow, now i see the craving in me. This is what the Buddha was talking about. Let me try to empty myself and avoid this.-The trouble iswhile we have such thoughts and entertain them, we are again taking a stand, holding on to moment after moment of sense impressionsall in the realm of thought this time, but nevertheless. We look for the movement of a train, but we ignore, at the same time, the movement of the wheels.-As soonas we arewe by necessity take a stand on something. On a sight, a sounda thought. Therecannot be any being(bhava) if there was no priorupadana, or taking up.So the English term grasping might be misleading. It is not grasping of a number of thoughts labeled as emotions or feelings or observations = all of which are coarse, because they in themself mean that we did already took on or identified in 200+ sense impressions.-Now, bear with me, and have a look at this description found in a meditation instruction:And right after that, theres the thoughts about it. So,when youre letting go of the thoughtsabout that feeling, youre letting go of the clinging to it.When you open up and let goandallow that feeling to float, just like its a bubble in the air, andthen relax that tightness in your head, in your mind, youve let go of the craving. Now youstart to see this as a true process. Theres nothing personal about it.Its just an arising, and passing away of different phenomena, Thats all it is. Andthis is a continual process of opening and relaxing, opening and relaxing, opening and relaxing, why? Because then youre able to recognize more easily, when your mind starts to grab on to something, when the mind starts to close down around something,when it starts identifying so heavily with things, whenit gets that emotional hold on it. Thats what the craving really is. Its an emotional hold: I like it. I dont like it.

-Question to you: If you are simply given 6 building blocks to chose from and not one more, and you have to translate the above statement into an uninterrupted series of six sense impressions, how many moments can you identify in which the meditator did not see the arising and falling of those objects but instead identified with them, explaining this identification of his even as meditative practice? There is a comedy in the tragedy.-I hope you can see or imagine where this is going. Even me, now, i am holding from one moment to the next onto sense contact experiences, racing along, while i write this text, while itype: think, think, think, see, see, hear, think, feel-What if we were to give up the holding ontoanyof those appearing and disappearing sense impressions?-Buddha says: updnapaccay bhavo (SN 12.44 Lokasutta) Based on holding on to is being.-So, you give up the holding and there will be no being. Would you know about it. No, because that entails at least one moment of thought-consciousness. Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw interestingly speaks about this moment of forgetting. You could also call it the deathlessness. Where there is nothing held onto which can appear or disappear, there is not death.-Now, we dont need to go overboard in a fancy abhidhamma-like classifications of mind-moments in order to understand what is happening here. The Buddha said world, world, o monks. The six sense spheres, this o monks is called the world.-There is an alignment between a form, a sense-faculty, a see-ing and in the moment of their going together a positive/negative/neutral feeling accompanies the sense impression. Can you really point them out into separate objects? Venerable Nagasena (Mil 3.4.1 ekatobhvagatna vinibbhujitv) and he will tell you no. Thisis just onemoment. We can point out flavors in this moment, but experentially, it is one of those six sense spheres being active moment after moment.-The conditions of nama-rupa (name and form) with vinnyana (consciousness) come together and give rise to feeling. That is it. No need for any intellectual enumeration of abstract mental atoms, which, funny, in itself is in fact just a mere generation of never-ending thoughts after thoughts this time thinking about the Dhamma. Instead of being seen with right attention they lead to the manufacturing of books. Does this help to lead others from the not-knowing of this process to the knowing of how this magic show of the consciousness works? Well, it may, but those lengthy explanations are less precise and clear cut as Buddhas direct and simply instructions in the suttas which usually ends in a direct indication of how to practice and realize for oneself. I am currently doing the same. Noted.-Now, be that as it may, the danger an abhidhamma scholast faces with regard to his own practice of awakening to the workings of the magic show of consciousness are real. And insight meditation is a process of refinement, where with the right tools one discovers subtler and subtler stuff which the mind is taking a stand on and completely identifying with, so that we do not even know, that we are grasping.-Here, at this stage, even the thought about grasping is a moment of grasping based on a thought moment which made us to be in this moment. If you dont believe this try it a couple of seconds for yourself. Ask yourself: why made you one moment stop watching youself and follow past memories or any distracting thought? Try to watch your mind for a momentyou will very very quickly be gone finding yourself taking up, being, following other sensory information. Your attention is brutally swept away by this storm of grasping in each moment. This is why in insight meditation, as well as in samatha meditation, the intentional use of one thought will make all the difference.-Now there is this subtle subtle inclination, the thirst, which in this moment makes us grasp the next thought or sense moment. Thustanhaisbhavanetti: It leads to be.-The Buddha tells us, that if we work our way down with such a thorough attention (yoniso manasikaro), trying to face any object with equanimity (Q: how many moments, do you think, might one miss, while thinking: i have to face any object appearing in front of me?) we will eventually reduce tanha and get to a point where this very very dispassionate pure attending to EVERYTHING coming (even thoughts about our meditation) will lead to a cessation in thirsting for the next.tahnirodhupdnanirodho, updnanirodh bhavanirodho. MN 9. etc.Bhavanirodho nibbnaAN 10. Anisamsavaggo

Reflecting on the JhanaFactors-Here comes vitakka and vicara to our rescue. Vitakka is the thought which resembles a hammer and drives the pole, for instance light, light, light down into the ground. Each repetition of light, light is another blow with the hammer prolonging the steadiness of the object in this case the perception of light.-But we are not to mindlessly recite a mantra here. We want clarity and gain concentration so that we can induce this whenever we like. As mentioned above we are looking for mastery.-Therefore, lets try to understand vicara, the second jhanic factor. Vicara is like the resonance after the hammer hit the pole. It is themovement into the ground, the resonance of a bell hit by a stick.-If you think loving kindness, loving kindness now pause for a moment and watch your mind. The being on the topic just after you think such a concentrated thought (vitakka) dwelling on the object of your concentration (the feeling/perception of kindness towards all) is what vicara (moving about) is all about.-Soon, if these two factors are established piti, or joy, will follow in due course. This is like a very natural law: The mind, subdued and calmed by one calming thought and focusing on one object/color/feeling/perception (depending on what your meditation subject is. If it is loving kindness it will more be a feeling. if it is breathing, it will be the feeling of the breathing, if it is light, it will be the perception of light) a mind thus steadied will experience joy because of a reduction in sense impressions.-So the only task at hand for you seeking the entrance into the first of the four jhanas is establishing a repeated focused thought like loving kindness and a mental listening or close thoughtless observation or dwelling and gliding on the aftermath after striking the bell with this meditative thought. The longer you can hold your mind gliding on this resonance the quicker you will establish vitakka and vicara. Having established those two, piti will come in quickly.So far so good. How does the method of pacca-vekkhati or looking back come into play here, helping us to master states of absorption?-Giving it a modern name, we would probably call it tagging. The purpose of pacca-vekkhati is a tagging and labeling of our actual experience. That way the mind establishes signposts and it will be easier and easier to repeat and identify an experience.-Think of someone doing samatha meditation like a person stumbling through a stretch of forest. In themiddle of the forest runs a straight clear clean and beautiful path. But this path is initially very small and hard to find. Now the person might start entering the forest from many different sides but wherever it enters (whatever the subject of meditation is) in the beginning it will be hard for that person to even come across this path.-However, once in a while, this person would by chance stumble over this clear clean beautiful trail. Standing there, it looks around and says: Wow, this is a beautiful trail. But his dwelling on this path and walking along is only for a very short time. For one, because this trail is not very wide in the beginning and as soon as he looses track he finds himself again surrounded by trees and lost.-Now with regard to the first jhana, the thought which we use to set up the pole with can be any concise mentioning of the topic like earth, earth or loving kindness. Do not mix this up with mental chatter about your meditation topic. We use one thought to substitute all others. So go on repeating this thought. Then, once in a while think: This is vitakka. Now, doing this reflection/looking back/paccavekkhana you have to be careful like the driver looking back on the road. You temporarily diminish your concentration by letting in a stray thought. That is fine as long as you do not loose control over your vehicle and crash into other cars, piling up a heap of thoughts: this would mean losing your concentration. But, if you just, once in a while, internally tag what you experience then that will be no problem at all, even beneficial because now your mind knows what to look for.-Next step: Repeating this vitakka is just the first step to pull yourself closer to a concentrated mind. Now you add the following task: After each repetition of the thought take close attention to the state of your mind directly after thinking the thought for instance loving kindness the gliding/flapping of your wings or resonance that thought leavesif you think you identified it, tag it, thinking: This is vicara.Can you feel the sense streamsdrag?-Our lives resemble a scary situation. Because, in a certain sense, reality as such means constant change and the onslaught of sense impressions share a similarity with the currents of a stream. In order to stay alive we need to keep our head/ego above the water.-We could not live one moment if sounds, thoughts, pictures, feelings would come into being and simply continue unchanged never changing again. If such a thing would happen, there would be no thinking, no moving, no perceiving possible: Everything would freeze in a moment and unknowing eternity would be the result. Now, that is not the case. We know very well, that life comes with death and a new car will one day break. But on a much more intimate level, not one moment stays the same.-All life is a question of measurement of this against that, of object and subject the sounds you hear, the pictures you see, the body you feel. It all is like a cocoon or a huge meshed echo of sense impressons and mental activity creating the seemingly robustness of a river in which you swim, but on zooming close to that little fellow in the water who so aptly learnt to survive in the waves you will see that he is frantically trying to keep himself above the water in each moment of being(that is the strange feeling in the back of your mind, deeply buried, that longing for final contentment which makes you skydive, have a family, watch TV, buy new clothesmakes you live through objects).-So you try to keep your head above the water because of the fear of reality, because of the fear of: 1.impermanence which seems to take away our foundations whatever water we just splashed against to pull ourselves upwards will give way and we loose ground again, 2. exhaustion because of this eternal fight for being, fight for existence in a very fleeting fluid environment causes discontentment, unsatisfactoriness on a very deep level and 3. emptiness, as there seems to be no lasting hold not in the seen, not in the heard, not in the felt, not even in the thought, the water arround us is so merciless natural.

The world II concept andreality-Nama-rupa is a compound, a noun, made up of two words. They are really easy to translate. Nama is name in English and many other indo-european languages as well, and rupa is form or picture, as in the form on a canvas.-Well, if that is so easy, why do we nowadays seem to find this term almost exclusively translated as mind-matter??-How does that sound to you? Ah, maybe you are familiar with this word in a Buddhist context. But, dare we say, doesnt it sound a bitmaterialistic. And the reason for the common translation is pretty simple: Modern day scholars follow the late commentarial interpretation which on this important topic is.. shall we say .. a bit abhidhammic-like materialistic in that it views mental phenomena as compartmentalizable realities by themselves. Which they are not. They are all concepts. Names.-However, especially this term nama-rupa shows the depthness of the Buddhas realization. Therefore, psychologically looking into name and form, could then be considered a postmodern physics topic where your four quantum theory semester would be the preliminary course in Buddhist vipassana meditation.-In fact, if the Buddha would have meant mind and matter in his language it would have been something like mana-kaya or cittakaya.-However, as it happens, Buddha had something very important in mind when he used the term nama-rupa not in this conventional materialistic connotation.-Nama-rupa definitely relates to mental phenomena and reality, but, from the perspective of the insight meditator, in a more idealistic sense: those mental phenomena which are at the root of proliferating the world in time and space around us based on 6 (sense) impression, that is the viewpoint which the Buddha had in mind, when he was looking for a term which could appropriately denote this deeper perspective, beyond the conventional terms of mind and body. Those terms, used separately, are concepts of content fabricated by the mind and are thus only useful in a very conventional type of communication. All just said where concepts as well, generated in the way outlined. You can sense an endless loop here.-If you will, there is a wisdom-speak and a conventional-speak in the suttas. Both deal with the same things, but the first talks in technical terms trying to catch the experience someone practicing vipassana or insight meditation may garner. That is hard, being at the event-horizon of reality, but Buddha came up with some pretty neat and accurate labels describing what is going on if you try to translate them literally, that is. It is hard to grasp their meaning without practice and personal experience, because they talk about things which can only be seen by experience now translating them in a very abstract and alienated way just to capture a readership used to the materialistic mechanic positions of last century physics doesnt help in appreciating the novelty and depthness of the Buddha-Dhamma.-So, what is nama rupa? Here some suggested translations:name and formconcept and realityconcept and formsrepresentation and reality-Nama or Name/Concept stands for a number of mental phenomena which are all necessary to fabricate and generate mental concepts which are then perceived as reality by our mind. It is a tricky process, and a quick one as well, but bare attention can shed some real light into this. If you like to read more about what constitutes name and produces concepts by which we live, have a lookat this post.-Rupa or form is the physical counterpart on which our sixfold sense consciousness bases it concept-creation. The basic objective for our samsaric thirst for continuity is getting a picture or representation of the physical reality so that we can go on feeding the whirlpool. But the physicalness of the world is very evasive, as we can only interpret and infer it. And if we do a good job doing that, we end up with quantum physics pointing the finger back at the finger who is pointing. Anyway, if you like to read more about the definition on rupa, see Nibbana Sermon 1.-So, the next time you write/read a text on Buddhism, try to re-consider mind-matter as name and form. Using terms like concept and reality so much more precisely points us in the right direction, i.e. a direction of mindfulness and insight.There could not be any liberation from a mind created by matter. But there very well can be a liberation from concepts and forms.

Lets talk about theworld!-Just pause for a moment and give it a thought. Except for those six building blocks, where can there be a world beyond those? Can you imagine outside imagination? Can you feel outside feelings? Can you think the thoughtless?-Okay, you say: But there is our earth and the stars. But, well, yes, that what you said was in itself, if we are honest, a thought. Or better: a series of sense impressions. You say: Beware of solipsism. That is just a philosophical playground. But well, yes, even this standpoint, if we show absolutely no interest in this questions content but try just to be aware, listening to the sixfold noise of becoming, this question too was, in effect, just a thought.-Even my reflection, whether there could be something beyond thoughtsis, again, a thought. You say: It is all a brain function. Guess what? Gotcha, another thought (this term is used here very loosely. As seen in the quotation above, in addition to the five sense impressions Buddha reckons the mental objects and mind consciousness as just another sense all in all, those six realms (sal-ayatana) are the foundation of all (even time and space are derived from their interplay). Whoever wants to know has to work with them. The trick however is to not get intangled with the contents (usually summed up sense impressions wrought into concepts and proliferated into perceptions of a 3D-surrounding filled with comedy and tragedy. -The one trying to stop running away into labyrinths and thought chains, stopping hard to confront himself with the shock and aftermath of each sense impression, enters the abyss of impermanence which in each moment is closer than we fear but made invisible by some form of existentially necessary amblyopia. Or, did you ever enjoya film were you could see each individual frame flashing? You may have enjoyed the funny aspect about that, a joy the insight meditator may very well experience seeing the rising and falling of his world in real-time. But enjoying the story? The story as such comes only into being through interpretation.-Our existence is based solely on the ever-fleeting present. Essentially, therefore, it has to take the form of continual motion without there ever being any possibility of our finding the rest after which we are always striving. It is the same as a man running downhill, who falls if he tries to stop, and it is only by his continuing to run on that he keeps on his legs; it is like a pole balanced on ones finger-tips, or like a planet that would fall into its sun as soon as it stopped hurrying onwards. Hence unrest is the type of existence.-Though he still interacts with the world, usually in a very positive sense, he enjoys a personal freedom and detachment which is beyond thoughts. This goal, ending all goals, an unshakeable deliverance of the mind even when facing death: this was what prince Siddhattha had been looking for for such a long time. The cooling off of the fire, i.e. Nibbana. And that is why they still call him the Awakened One, Buddha.

-The pali word for world is loka. In most contexts the pali word is used very conventionally like the English pendant world. However, in a couple of suttas like the ones quoted in this post, Buddha tries a re-interpretation stressing some very deep insights (taking us beyond a plain materialistic viewpoint of the world around us is the origin of all).-Very often this is done in a more meditative setting, where the person talking with the Buddha is looking for a deeper understanding of what our world is made of. In these cases the Buddha takes us down to the workings of consciousness and the fundamental process of sense impressions and related positive or negative reactions.-Of course there are many instances, where the suttas deal with everyday life problems (from a meditative perspective: deal with problems of content presented by the senses, not the process as such).-However, we really get a very good feel of the deep implications of the Buddhas teachings in such cases as Malunkyaputtas question about beginning and end of the world. In general faced with such questions where someone tries to take the concept of the world for ultimate reality, the Buddha would make clear that this kind of understanding is incorrect. Thus he used to refuse answering questions which were essentially based on wrong premises.-It is like asking what is the taste of cooking. Cooking is a process, it has no taste. It is just a label for a process. At the end of the process there is a dish to taste from. In the end, based on fast sense impressions, spread out and interpretated by consciousness there comes the concept of the world into being. It thus cannot be there in the first placesomeone really trying to understand real-ity can observe the fleeting concoon presented by the senses. That is as close to reality as one can get. And, according to Buddhas findings, such close look can have a transforming impact on the meditator.-In the same manner the concept of the world serves only a conventional purpose, ultimately i.e. when seen without interpretation but simply bare attention it disintegrates in each moment.

Immediate Enlightenment Graduallyattained-The beauty of this term sankhara is the correlation to a theater performance. Sankhara carries the meaning of presentation, imagination, show is created by our imagining things (vor-stellen, to mentally put up a presentation). In the same sense does the Buddhas usage of sankharas work. These are our concepts about the world, our imagination, our representation of how the world seems after it comes into being by phasso or sense contact, of how it presents itself to us. To see this, of course, is quite difficult but not impossible.-If you stop reading for a moment and look around you. At whatever you look whatever presents itself to you, you will imagine a you sitting in a here confronted by a there. It comes so natural, you cannot even think differently. This is how your mind processes the sense information creating an image of yourself within your surroundings.-Sure, a vipassana meditator might say. Once my pure attention starts to become so intense that i can watch/know how the sense impressions come and go my compounded/congregated perceptions of a me in a world become very thin. The minds ability to perform this theater performance is limited because attention stops short at sense contact where feeling, perception and sankharas are generated, mirrored through consciousness induced by forms. This is the twofold bundle of hay form&name on the one side and consciousness on the other, both of which keep our being flowing in this theatrical reality show.-There you go. So even the fully relaxed flower girl in harmony with the universe sitting on a meadow in a late summer day content with herself and nature experiences right in that moment sense objects, i.e. forms which give rise to thirst. In the same manner, the tourist on vacation at the beach looking at an amazing sunset experiences a moment of thirst. Tanha, which is very often roughly translated as craving or desire should rather be left translated as literal as it gets, tanha = thirst because it is this inherent attachment toward any sense experience which binds us to samsara on a psychological level. So even if there seems to be no craving at all, we are still bound to being (bhava) in those moments.-So, when a bulldozer suddenly shows up at the meadow or the party noise destroys the silent moment of our seemingly content spectator at the beach this inherent thirst towards the presentation is the source of pain, mental and physical, because to live is to change, and that is why: yam aniccam tam dukkham. yam dukkham tam anatta.-What is impermanent is unsatisfactory, is empty of self.But, as this sutta continues right away, the good news is that this process is conditioned. It is not written in stone. If it would be an irreversable natural law there would be no way to remove those conditions. And the Bodhisatta still looking for a release was looking for an irreversable transformation. One which he found beyond the all of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, feeling or even thinking.-Like a meditation instruction: This imagination is conditioned. This thirst is conditioned. This feeling too, is impermanent and conditioned. Sense contact is with condition as well and so is the ignorance of this whole process. So also this ignorance can vanish (and be replaced byknowing ones own knowing.)This is the path which will lead to the end of overwhelming in-fluences, tendencies, defilements.-Therefore, a translation of mental formations might be in line with an Abhidhamma mechanical analysis but completely mis-represents (LOL) the simple original term the Buddha usedwhen trying to explain his teaching to village folks.They knew what a theatre show was, they knew what imagining was they had no clue what mental formations are and neither do we.-PS: Enjoy watching your own movie experience going on after reading and thinking about this articleMaybe you can catch the theatrical performance as such and not fall for the overwhelming content.The process ofawakening-This is the second noble truth. Every time a sound catches your attention (conventional speak) your sound world gets born. Every time a feeling in the body emerges, a thought appears there is a renewed endless process of self-identification taking place in every moment. That is why nibbana is so close and far away at the same time. If we could stop this existence-addiction for only one moment-But in order to do so, we need to see this process of identification first hand. Once it gets uncovered, dispassion needs to be developed towards this eternal activity/habit. If the mind for one moment does not take a stand on an object or consciousness does not feed on an object the world as we know it falters. Nirodho.Mlunkyaputtas vipassana instruction-The question this sutta solves is the how do we create such an aniccasa?-Taking your favorite object of concentration as the starting point, you would start to note/label whatever (!) your mind would turn to. That could be a form, a sound, a taste, a smell, a body-touch-related feeling, a thought.-Quickly you would note whatever would present itself to your mind and you would turn immediately around back to your concentration object. The concentration should be good already so that your noting / sati will be strongly established (upatthna). Otherwise you will be lost shortly in a wave of sense impressions. In any case, (very similar when one starts to practice any form of samatha, long before reaching an abiding in the jhanas) it takes quite a while before such an exercise of noting becomes routine and turns from a very labor intensive manual exercise into a yes, you got it, into a sa (perception it turns into a real-time mode of observation), in this case an anicca-saif impermanence is the main characteristic of focus.-Again, this is not about reflection not about mental theorizing not about contemplation (which imply all forms of wild, random, trains of thought). Rather, what will be established by such an exercise within a couple of weeks / months, is a mode of direct vision ayathbhuta-nadassanawhich by definition will lead to nibbida:Na so rajjati rpesu, rpa disv paissato;Virattacitto vedeti, taca njjhosa tihati.Yathssa passato rpa, sevato cpi vedana;Khyati nopacyati, eva so carat sato;Eva apacinato dukkha, santike nibbnamuccati.He does not delight in forms, having seen a form he re-members (lit. returns to his remembering [a meditation object as anchor point, for example his breath, see below].(**)With a dispassionate mind he feels, and does not grasp (does not rest) on this form.It falls away, does not amass, thus he practices remembering/witnessing.Thus suffering is reduced, and close is he to the blowing-out (Nibbana), they say.-The translation of paissato begs for some clarifying remarks. IMHO, this term too is crucial towards a better understanding of the practice of insight meditation as described in these early pali texts. If you compare general translations they have little to say on this wordmany simply translate it as a synonym for sato and thus say again mindful. To most people it does not make any sense why suddenly sati is combined with the prefix pati which in pali means back or is used reflexive.-The further your progress, the more subtle stuff your mental microscope will notice your attention which went to the womb (yoni) of the just arisen object to wherever and whatever it has come into being (yatha-bhuta) your attention which thus went to the source (yoniso manasikara)of each established sense contact (phassa) will then be re-directed BACK (pai-)to your main concentration object. While the zoom and scale of your microscope will be directly linked to the amount of concentration you are currently operating under it is clear that there IS some form of returning to the focus of ones object which one tries to keep in mind taking place. Exactly this little but essential part of the exercise as implied by patissato is described in the Mahasatipatthanasutta with the words: Atthi kayoti panassa sati paccupatthita hoti yavadeva nanamattaya patissatimattaya-There is a body so too (using this note) is his remembering/noting/attention established,just for the sake of knowing (i.e. to gain insight, just to be aware of whatever object presented itself!) andfor the sake of back-remembering (for the sake of getting quickly back to his meditation object as too keep the concentration up this is what this note is used for).-Thus, my interpretation of pati-ssato tries to capture this integral part of vipassana.-Another small remark on carati sato. While it is true that it literally means he walks sato and is usually translated as he walks mindful it is strange while at the one hand we are looking at an extremely subtle description of observing the six senses (rather fast!) and then, out of the nothing, the verse closes thus he walks mindful. Seen in context carati while meaning a physical movement also carriers a connotation of proceeding, going forward, i.e. practice. This now makes perfect sense in such a text like ours. Ven. Malunkyaputta concludes that we ought to persist and practice this mode of observation continuously. It emphasizes the fact that it is unlikely for most people to be called near Nibbana when they are able to only recognize form etc. in this manner for one moment.-As AN, 7 stated: Idha, bhikkhave,ekaccopuggalo sabbasakhresu aniccnupass viharati, aniccasa, aniccapaisaved satatasamitaabbokia cetas adhimuccamno paya pariyoghamno. So savna khaype sacchikatvupasampajja viharati.-We need to practice ouraniccnupassana always (satatam) samitam (without interruption) determined without interruptions by the mind (abbokia cetas adhimuccamno) with wisdom completely yoked to this exercise (paya pariyoghamno).-This sutta is one of the many which, if it would have been the only one to survive, would have been enough to re-discover Buddhism as intended by the Buddha.

-Lets have a look at the vanishing of the first 5er group of grasping. In this moment of feeling the breath there was a form (the physical tactile form) and a feeling (maybe an agreeable sensation) and a perception (perception ofsomething bodily) and a sankhara and consciousness or awareness / knowing of the form by means of name. All of these qualities of one and the same personal experience of one moment of breathing disappeared in that moment where sound and sound consciousness made themselves present.-What prevented this gap of vanishing 5 groups to be bridged? It is tanha, tanha ponobhavika. Thirst is a description of that state of affairs which can be observed in our life moment by moment. The world is like acrumbling dissolving bridge giving way under our very feet. This spurs a reaction which is thirsting for another hold. This thirst / longing results in another placing of our feet, another upa-adana, another taking up 5 groups.-We fear to let go, because it goes against our samsaric nature. We believe that this extinguishing (Nibbana) would mean the destruction of our personality. Vipassana shows us, that there is no such thing in the first place.-Also, tanha is described as sewing. She sews the two ends together. She sews the ceasing existence together with a rising existence. While our physical karmic representation is re-born slower, our 5 group moment to moment experience is a continuous rebirth(*).-Anyway, back to that moment where one form vanishes, rupanirodham.-Now what would happen if instead of taking on another new object, our mind would let go completely. Would practice a patinissaggo, a cago. What would it find? What if we were able in this this very one moment not to take hold on another experience. What if we would let go of the last 5 groups of grasping, let go of sound, feeling, thinking but would NOT take up another one. Basically letting the nirodha of an object be a complete nirodha (asesaviraganirodho)?-In that one moment the entire chain of existential causality as depicted in the famous dependend origination would crumble and instantaneously dissolve for a moment. Release and freedom will be felt as soon as we come back.-But can we achieve this by will (intention, mental sankhara) or feeling, or thinking, or. no.-According to the Buddha it is only through clear and unwavering observation of ANY incoming object (visual, sound, smell, taste, tactile, thought) that a certain alienation will set in automatically (it is a dhammata, a natural law, says the Buddha). Like someone watching a movie with very strong concentration is dismissing the content, the story of the movie but starts to concentrate on the frames instead. The seeing of each film frame coming and going will make him find less and less interest (nir-vindati = nibbindati, lit. de-finding) and the story will loose its fascination and color (vi-raga, lit. dis-coloring). When the spell of the movie has lost its impact so much that he is able to let go one frame but not take up another, the movie stops.-If we would experience this once, if we were able through training and were to develop such an ability to so fundamentally let go of life, this ability would have transformational characteristics.-As we know, we would come back, as did the Buddha (our body, the frozen karmic vessel, works as a re-animator). We know that he and his monks could prolong this state through the use of strong concentration states. And while karmic forces and remaining defilements will push us back into the waves of sense impressions we gained an insight which will fundamentally change the fabric of our existence.-With other words: He attained release/freedom because he did not take up anything (anupada) after the form disappeared after he was experiencing disenchantment because he got weary of it. This reads like a precise description of all the events which have to take place, one after the other, for our little thought experiment to work!

Coming back to remember SatiII-You do not need to see the end of your dish washing activity and the beginning of you moving to the fridge. That is not going to stop mental proliferation from happening. And it wont stop suffering not in a million lifetimes. You can eat as many mandarins mindfully as you like, you will not decrease thirst if you establish your home in the forms you see, even if your house is empty.-When the Buddha is talking about with regard to the seen only the seen heard felt (i.e. tasted/smelled/felt) and with regard to the cognized just the cognized (yes, any mental activity included) he is not talking about: with regard to the driving just the driving, with regard to the ice cream eating just the ice cream eating.-Yet that is how many people understand sati, due to the unfortunate translation of sati as mindfulness. (Well, to be honest, there is hardly any better word to capture sati. But more on that later).-Why is the Buddha, when he is talking about uncovering the source of human suffering pointing towards that subtle experience of sights, sounds, thoughts, feeling, in short: sense contacts rise and fall? Not just once, but consistently, in all instances where he points out the pathway to Nibbana?-Because that is the level to which we must go in order to develop a deep existential exhaustion, a samsaric fatiguea mind opening (or shall we say blowing out) experience. He does not want us to give up driving or eating ice cream or unloading our dishwasher.-Samsara is not overcome by movementswithinthe samsaric context and its powerful pictures which we weave into compelling storybooks and then place our selfright in the middle of it. So as to find orientation. So as to find a stronghold in a fleeting world (SN 22.93). Samsara is onlyworn off like an old skinof a snake if we fundamentally alienate from it. The internal and external. In a complete and ultimate way.-Therefore, the coming and going necessary to be seen is the rising and falling of the building blocks of life. In these six senses or five groups of grasping which are just classification schemes (another group of grasping) describing however thatlevelof observation which we need to reach to develop the ultimate ability to let go. They are as fundamental realities as name and form is real. -At this point the true meaning of sati comes into play.Because the story of samsara is so compelling I am drawn to indulge myself in the data my vision delivers (very crude way of explaining, I know) to me rather than looking at how this data is processed. The duality which is created in each moment by consciousness based on name and form spiraling into being is not seen if I take the fabricated world for granted. (and even that is just a concept, a working theory which works to uncover the plot we are caught in)No matter of cleaning my kitchen mindfully which, if you take the word colloquially, is just observing the story as it passes by will reduce avijja, because, with every step in the kitchen, ever jump from one heap of grasping to the next, one acceptance of the veil through which I see and hear I acknowledge avijja.-Engulfed in darkness of not seeing seeing not seeing where one vision came and was replaced by another grasping of sound; of a sound related feeling; of a sound related perception; and of sound related world fabrication and sound-knowing i will embed my conceived ego in a relationship to the world as the senses present it to me. I will fall for their story and perceive myself in or as part of that world: for example as a good meditator thinking that i do what i am supposed to do. So, right mindfulness is not about feeling more alive or enjoying the pure present.It is about leaving that home which the senses provide (SN 22.3).-What is the difference in indulging in thoughts about the future (mind-mind/object) and endulging in this present moments fantasy of oh, i am just feeling my breath, i am so mindful (body/feeling). There is none. In both cases we are caught in the nebula of avijja or not-knowing sense contact (phassa) and so paticca samuppada rolls on. We might see the beginning and end of a breath. But that is not disillusioning us from samsara-In order to make the fundamental samsara-transcending paradigm shift however, I will have to employsati, a faculty of memory which can only work in conjunction with concentration and has to be developed in order to get so strong as to rip through this samsaric nebula, moha, which keeps us trapped in the storybook our senses tell us.-I will bind my mind to a certain meditation object, i.e. the breath, a feeling in the body, a jhanic state etc. Now, whenever my attention moves to another object (i.e. my mind takes hold and positions itself with avijja into another object-subject relationship, making me the subject of duality, i immediately let go and get back to my previous object of attention, lets say the breath.-So now you wonderwhat has that to do with mindfulness? Why is going back to a fixed object any different than from moving along with whatever arises? And what is the difference to someone who tries to suppress sense activity by trying to concentrate?-Because, simply, here youremember continuously. The power of remembering stops the mind (consciousness) ingrowing on its perceived object (SN 22.54). In spinning new and more data on the perceived object, inweaving (Sn 5.2)and interpretation of that sensory datain placing itself into a relationship with the object.-Lets say you listen to a seemingly chaotic radio transmission. How can you distinguish and learn the patterns in this quick fluctuating mesh of frequencies? Well, by studying patternsBy establishing a baseline you can see the coming and going of patterns. So start to see differences. This is what we attempt in vipassana as well and why we need concentration.-The attention on our breath for example is a series of similar 5-groups-grasping events which, if we can hold onto them, will create some kind of boring but extremely recognizable samsaric baseline. Every time now our attention shifts, whatever object will present itself the seen, the heard, the thought will become clearer and clearer to our understanding. Simply because it appears so well defined now like a mountain peak in comparison to the ongoing stick with the breath concentration. We will start to see the pattern of existence if we dare to look. But wait! We need something to get back immediately otherwise we would lose our concentration and get stuck in the story this new object of our attention wants us to identify with Here the noting comes handy. Almost like a reminder. And that is samma sati. And this is why concentration leads to wisdom, but only if it is combined with nyana-dassana. In a pure samatha environment any shift of attention is seens as a loss and thus the practice of samatha operates still on a level of avijja!-So, we are simply noting the newly arisen object the just seen . the just heard but nothing more!!! than that (and nothing more following it, due to the abrupt break in the growing proliferation by the power of sati, or remembering and concentration combined) we will be able to note that object which tried to take us in. We will be able to see howthe house is being build right in front of our eyes (Dhp 154).-While before I enjoyed the ready-made houses my mind had built for me, like Potemkins village in awe over the facades of sensual proliferation, now I start to see how these fragile components of life are wrought moment afte moment.-I start to see their entering my consciousness and yes, even the destruction of my consciousness together with its content moment after moment like a world vanishing in a crevice under my running feet. It sounds scary, and is, but seeing life as it is will eventually lead to less and less grasping and holding of its perceived (deducted, inferred!) crumbling and therefore inherently distressing reality. There is no place for rest there, in any moment. Even the moments of deepest jhanic concentration states are filled with subtle terror in the face of ever dying samsara. While the movie continues and all seems as if it goes on as it did before the loosening of its grip simply through the power of truth and awakening in this ongoing building process makes you one move closer to ultimate peace. You could say: In order to find the Deathless, death has to die:-)-So indeed it is sati in conjunction with concentration which does the final work. Because, if concentration cannot keep you on your object (and that is where the jhanas come in handy) the power of sati will not be strong enough to pull you back often enough. You will be lost in the story of your mind the story of your senses and they DO know how to trick you into thinking or believing that you are not tricked:-)-So while concentration keeps you in one point and sati brings you back quickly you might wonder what is so special about this. Why hasnt someone before the Buddha done this? The truth is, it is extremely tricky. And we only do it, because of the faith and trust we developed in the Buddha and his teaching. Otherwise no one would do this kind of thingbecause, as the Buddha saysavijja is far too thickwe have been sitting in this movie theatre for far too long a time. Anytime someone in the movie tells us to look at ourselves how we sit in a movie, we nod our head and look in the movie for a clue about how we sit in a movieinstead of starting to let the story of the film fade away by not showing ANY attention to the content of the movie any longer butby just acknowledging every frame. Then, when we start to realize that there are only frames and all of them are just that just frames!The story becomes less and less intriguingHowever, what really does start to intrigue us is the how and what.-So when, by good friendship and other factors, we do find ourselves sitting in a series of deep and dedicated vipassana sessions where we start to slow down the movie of samsara by catching up with its frenzy/speed (thanks to samatha) and, while we experience what ahulu.comuser feels when his favorite TV show suddenly sputters because the speed of his data stream downloading frames of pictures diminishes (in case you never experienced such a phenomenon on the internet, which is hard to believe, the phases you go through are remarkable similar to vipassana and go like this -> desire to see the movie while having to watch interrupted and sputtering images -> disillusionment -> disenchantment sets in -> and finally switching off the computer, the movies power over the watcher is broken) However, wouldnt it be interesting if this experiential fact which was just re-established over the last couple of decades is indeed the background and reason for the metta sutta and its interesting first line? Probably too mind-boggling for most simple daily usage of the metta sutta-Being aware of this idea will make many of you scratch their heads as well. I will rest my case at this point and let you make up your own mind. The metta sutta, after all, is good inspiration for all of us, even beyond this potential deeper implication.-Now we dont know about time, but whatever present moment of reality we look at we find and recognize these factors which the Buddha explained as paticcasamuppadaand, like in layers of different abstraction [think:OSI Model] all of them rest on the preceding ones or wrap them into higher levels of complexity: Build on the background of ignorance does consciousness and name and form play through the senses. And from mere tanha for more arises via mana into full fledged views and ideas (ditthi) our ego. Not so much in time, as you can see, as in layers of complexity or papanca, proliferation.-If you will, paticcasamuppada explains life. And every time you are able to explain something thoroughly you can manipulate it (sounds like science? Well, not materia-listic science but real-istic science.**-If you are still following conventional commentarial explanations that dependent originationmainlytalks about three lives, the things I just mentioned but especially the interpretations which follow will definitely escape you. Therefore, to make most out of this post (or for later referencing) please read these articles/clarifications first, before you continue..or come back to them, in case you like to better understand what the following observations are based on:-And while you could still apply paticcasamuppada to explain rebirth, that is definitely not at its center coreIf that did not become clear yet, wait till the end of this blog post:-). Wait, lets restate this: Paticcasamuppada only talks about re-birth: The rebirth which takes place in each moment. Once you understand continuity through conditions on this scale, it is kind of a given that life will go on no matter what as long as those conditions are in place.-You note consciousness and name and form in its barest notability. And as we know from the definition of paticcasamuppada the interplay of consciousness and name and form in this moment is based on intentions of the moment(s) [and yes, lifes] beforewhich in due course can only arise when ignorance of exactly this entire process wraps us up.-So the past is made up of myrads of moments like the present one. And because in those moments you were under the influence of not knowing you created intentions, preparations, determinations, creations whatever we should call those sankharas which lead to new moments of existance like the current one. And here, in this moment again, you are wrapt up in avijja, or ignorance of that process of being wrapt up. And so now too, you work on the foundation for future moments. But this present moment, could be the very last.-Sometimes we note a feeling. What about the rest of the 5 groups of grasping in that moment? Are the five groups of grasping chained and come one after the other in time like moments. No, they do not. These terms are just names to describe experience. And sometimes our awareness (part of name and consciousness) witnessesone part of itselfin a moment of vipassana. But then, in the next moment, we are already at the next moment of life.-However, until we get down to the level of consciousness and name and form we (our I, you remember, the little ball) is all the time pushed up again by the fountain.-Does not that feel exactly like vipassana? Sometimes a series of extremely refined notings and sometimes we find ourselves caught up in larger emotions and ideas. We are delving into (i.e. recognizing) parts of the now-reality in varying degrees of abstraction: More often emotions, ideas. Less often pure object. Even less often just the feeling of a moment. Rarely what lies beyond where in the contact consciousness and name-and-form align.-If in this moment we would be able to stop at the level of consciousness and name and form (where the present moment is conceived in) we would have removed the vail of ignorance, destroyed sankharas (at least for one moment) and thus we would extinguish the foundations for the birth of (or better into?) the next moment.-In that one moment the entire pyramid of life comes falling down. Vinnanassa nirodhena etthetam uparujjhati bhavanirodho nibbanam sankharasamatho etc. etc.-The implications of understanding this (i.e. theoretically and even more so pragmatically) are quite numerous.(*)-We now understand what in fact we are trying to achieve in our vipassana -mindful-noting-pure-attentional mode. We understand, that it is not time (although that might be helpful) but rather skill/ability gained through pushing this mental cultivation towards the brink of experiental existance-Have you ever tried to extinguish a candle flame with two fingers? Sometimes you need several attempts..you get closer and further away from the wick but one moment you succeed and the dancing burning fighting flame disappears smoke (phala samapatti?) indicates the attainment but overall peace concurs.So what is paticcasamuppada?-A description of experience (like the 5 groups of grasping and the six sense impressions). However, it also indicates the conditions keeping samsara going which, if tumbled lead instantly to the cessation of samsara. Whereas the description of the 5 groups of grasping needs additional qualifiers (groupsof grasping) the paticcasamuppada is a self-sufficient explanation of the entire Dhamma.-Again, we might think of the similes of trees and seeds which the Buddha sometimes used for explaining the sprouting of consciousness. Each moment of life is like the sprouting of a seedling, planted by the previous fully blossomed paticcasamuppada into the tree of suffering and each new seedling in every moment almost instantaneously blossoms into a new treeand so on (like the simile of the forest, our life is a growing forest or a forest fire, as no other trees seem to be left standing)- with vipassana it seems as if we stop or slow down the blooming or growing of this flower/tree for a short period.-Sometimes we slow down that process just before the flowers open sometimes we delve deeper and stop the growth of its stem or even closer to its root But we never fully succeed in stopping it at the moment where the seed touches earth. (Whether it is really a when and not a what, I leave that question open for Arahants to answer:-)-So, in most cases we note and see one part of this process of growth into concepts or growth of papanca (proliferation) and each time we only succeed in slowing down for a moment.-It seems however, that that is enough, over the long course of insight meditation to do two things: 1. We start to get an experiental understanding of the entire process of becoming a self in each present moment2. We start to get skilled in our reflective attention (pati-vekkhana == looking back, pati-san-cikkhati == looking back) until there will be one moment where we catch the process where consciousness gets born on grounds of the sankharas of previous moments.-The funny/paradox thing is this: as we unravel our avijja in this moment to see the beginning of this moment we in the moment we do succeed also destroy the very foundation for this to happen in the next moment bam! and before you know it cessation. Skilled cessation through the power of developed insight.-Of course, having seen that, the mind never completely functions like it did before. It found its own samsara-off switch,-One could argue (with Bhikkhu Bodhi) if need be that jati might literally stand for birth. However, that still does not make DO talk about three existances-As you pointed out, the connection is this: once you are born into this moment (I definitely think bhava does mean that) and as soon as you identify you are (=being = bhava) and as soon as you are (as soon as there is an I and a we and a me and a mine) there is a beginning (jati) and an end (marana) for/to you.-So yes, bhava leads to jati. Self-identification leads to birth. THAT becoming is the real birth. Once you are born you suffer, because the world is constantly (moment by moment) falling apart. Wherever you grasp you loose.-So I think we can definitely see that the middle part of the DO is mental stuff focused on the one present moment in fact, it is very very enlightening to see how in every moment we are born into a proliferating samsaric world.

Understanding Vipassan-The identification with an object leads to the floating with objects and happens when we loose our awareness (sammosa), i.e. we become forgetful of the task at hand, forget to repeat. In this case our effort in an ongoing attention at the setup of experience itself, not its content. (Very much unlike concentration, where it is sati which keeps the attention one one particular object of concentration, a sense object. In insight meditation the attention is not at one particular sense object at the expense of all others the attention is at the process itself, disecting it forcefully with applied pa, i.e. sam+paja). So in vipassan we have shifted from the normal state of mind, which is attending ANY of the six sense objects content via concentration which meant attending only ONE selected sense object to now attending to the PROCESS of experienceitself.-However, in order to do that and to loosen the compelling story-telling force of the six sense objects (including thinking!!) we need pa here in form of tagging/marking of some sort to quickly know, recognize something as what it is, see it and let go of it immediately. If we were to attend to any of these objects longer than necessary we are already proliferating inside the context of a content provided (even if we think in thoughts of the Dhamma) and thereby miss the actual role of pa: seeing anything(!) as coming, going, painful in its unreliable nature, void of control, self-less, fake.-When we get carried away by the story the sense objects tell us (in our vipassana meditation), we therefore first loose our wisdom (pa), then our concentration on the process, then our sati and eventually our energy. In fact, you could also view it the other way round: each of these mental skills developed props up the other one. Only by aligning them properly, pa is able to do its job.

From Vipassana Hater to VipassanaLover-Many meditators who are simply asked to stay in the present will be lost immediately. In fact, you dont even see what amazing subtle stuff you are getting drawn into if not for the help of a neutral recurring peg against which you can measure (like breathing as an anchor point as you pointed out and then using a label to bring back the mind within this framework nyana-dassana develops)-It is the amazing fact of how our world is based on and shaped by our sense impressions better still: how our cognition interprets the experience of sense-contact.-While we are on an accelerating path to a more and more realistic replication of sense stimuli tricking our mind into generating new worlds (think 3-D technology and touch devices) we are traveling on the same path as the insight meditator however in the opposite direction:-)-This has a fascinating consequence: Similar to the simile of the movie experience this technological advance could be an eye-opener for many samsaric travelers about the nature of their mind and senses. But, more realistically they will probably fall for it, like the devas do: More enticing sense impressions leading to more craving instead of a deeper realization of the magic show of the mind.-So, there is or might be a point along that technological vs. insight journey were the insight meditator feels that the world he sees with his natural eyes appears exactly as shallow as the fata morgana presented to him through a screen (still a few centimeters away but coming closer and maybe one day behind the eye instead in front of it. Not really making any difference in the purpose, however.-The question then remains, do we want to continue getting fooled by our six-sense-spheres, the names-and-forms and our own cognitive interpretation or do we intend to disengage and wake up? That is exactly the question Talaputta was faced with, after listening to the Buddhas answer. He decided to wake up: Theragatha, v.1091-1145

-Just one little caveat. Tah IMHO goes deeper than just hanging on to pleasures or hoping that pain may end. Craving in fact goes so deep that it craves to just be. Unfortunately, this watering down of the meaning is such a common place now in modern Buddhist literature that most people would probably not even recognize it: 1. You crave sensual pleasures. You crave for pleasure to go on forever. You crave for discomfort to end right now OR 2.In fact, every sensation, every perception, every emotion you feel, every belief you maintain, every thought that arises in you hanging on to all that just produces more pain and distress.- While the translations are incredibly readable simplyjust scratches the surface of the what the Buddha alluded to.-Bhavatah and vibhavatah really do mean what they mean: a thirsting forexistence(or to be) and for some people even a thirsting to not exist exists (:-)) it all is just thirst. Kmatah, bhavatah and vibhavatah can therefore be easily seen as an ever refining way of clinging or thirsting. So even if you overcame your craving for sensual pleasures tomorrow (kmatah) you are still NOT done. Then again, even if you overcome your thirst to be (bhavatah) your are STILL not done. Even if, in the meditation battles of the Anagami, he finds himself longing for the non being he still is trapped by longing (vibhavatah) see that?-And thus, while the translation of sankhara and via as every belief you maintain and every thought that arises in you at least will make more sense to 90% of the people reading the sutta pointing them rightfully to their own experience of each moment (rather than into some abstract abhidhammic crossword puzzle), please consider this for a moment:-According to the Buddha via does not merely occur with thoughts. It occurs with any of the six senses. This is subtler and important at the same time! The most straightforward and non-technical rendering could be recognition(2) (consciousness is more or less a meaningless term when all five groups of grasping are supposed to be seen in your meditation and not some empty names on a philosophical list. Can you be aware of the impermanence of your consciousness? Hardly. But could you become aware of the fact that your mind recognizes things. Sure!).-Therefore, this of course is a trap: Our thirst and craving is NOT just targeting the object (thought) itself which we experience, but we also thirst the experiencing of the experience. -Moving in similar tracks: If people really understood how their minds operate, would they continue to consume sense impressions (movies, TV, places, situations and other)in the way they normally do?-All those impressions although