Vipassana Meditation

Lectures on Insight Meditation

by Chanmyay Sayadaw | 22,042 words

Vipassana Meditation: English lectures on Insight Meditation By venerable Chanmyay Sayadaw U Janakabhivamsa....

In a meditation retreat, you must not do any action or movement quickly. You must slow down all actions and movements as much as possible so that you can apply mindfulness to every minute movement or action of the body. At home, you need not slow down all these actions and movements but rather, they should be normal, and mindfully observed. All actions and movements must be mindfully noted as they really are. That is general mindfulness. In a retreat, you must slow down all actions and movements because you have nothing else to do except to be mindful of all your mental and physical activities. You must not talk. except for the few words which are necessary in your daily routine, but these few words should also be spoken slowly and softly so that your words do not disturb the concentration of other meditators. You should do everything with very little noise or without any noise. You must not make a sound by walking sluggishly and heavily. If you are mindful of the movements of your foot, you wont make any sound when walking.

You must be mindful of whatever arises in your body and mind. You must be aware of any activity of your mind and body as it really is. As you are eating, you must be mindful of all the actions and movements in eating. When you are taking a bath, dressing or drinking water, you must slow down all your actions and observe the movements. When you sit down, you should do it very slowly, being aware of the whole movement of sitting. When you stand up, that must also be done very slowly by being aware of the movement because we want to realise every mental or physical process in its true nature. All mental and physical processes are ever changing - appearing and disappearing, arising and vanishing. We want to realise this true nature of mental and physical processes. Therefore, we should slow down all actions and movements.

Mindfulness and concentration will pave the way for insight to unfold. When mindfulness becomes continuous, naturally the concentration becomes deeper. When the concentration becomes deeper, insight will unfold by itself. Therefore, we should strive to have constant and continuous mindfulness.

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