Chapter 12 - Thoughts And Tactile Impressions

Tactile impression is always present all over the physical body. Thinking, too, is also present all the time except when the yogi goes to sleep. So thoughts and tactile impressions form the objects of vipassana practice for most of the time. The yogi contemplates the tactile impressions when he has nothing else to engage his attention.

He notes his thoughts even though they happen to be unpleasant and undesirable. The beginner in meditation is often subject to such distractions, but they usually disappear as he gains practice and develops concentration. Thoughts about the Dhamma occur to some yogis from time to time and these should be noted. Introspection of these thoughts also ensures insight into impermanence and the extinction of suffering.

Here, some may wonder what this description of vipassana practice has to do with the discourse on Paticcasamuppada. The doctrine points out the chain of consequences as conditioned by their respective causes and our object is to show the way to the end of samsaric suffering that finally results from the interplay of their causes and consequences. So we have to describe the practice wherever it is relevant. Thus, when it is said that “avijja leads to sankhara and sankhara to rebirth”, we have to show the way to remove avijja. So also in connection with vinnana, etc., that finally bring about dukkha, it is necessary to stress the need for removing the link between vedana and tanha, that is the main cause of dukkha.