Being Still Practice

What if you could spend 90 minutes to write, or ‘assemble’, one last, possibly meaningless essay before digitally fasting for twelve days of Vipassana at a large and renowned wat (Buddhist temple), with dining hall that seats over a hundred on each side of a buffet table down the middle, and a less impressive vegetarian buffet on the wall near the door.

During the course, one should endeavor to ignore the ~200 others, monastic and lay, also practicing Vipassana but needing to eat at the dining hall. Many of the older, Thai maechi “women in white” live within the grounds and, uh, chat up a storm at the 11 o’clock lunch. Besides a small breakfast, there are no other meals, and students get the added health benefit that the monastics do by intermittently fasting 18 hours every day.

Some foreign students, in pairs, will chat. I will endeavor to say nothing except to the lay teacher, a man my age; endeavor to deep-dive the mind, as though in solitude, at all other times. Usually by Day 9-10, if not before, the illusory ego starts reminding me of favorite tunes, and one will play in my head, intermittently, for way too long. As always, one is to notice it and return to breathing, every time, not getting mad about it, or anything. During my first course at this particular wat, I did end up complimenting a dude on his 3D-looking tattoo and, during one of our many lunches thereafter, he talked about how, for example, we’re all doing Vipassana, but then we go to the dining hall, where we notice people who, for example, always take lots of fruit when there’s already not enough for everyone, and judge them, instead of simply noting our own reactions to what we’re seeing, etc.

The tattoo dude came to Thailand all the way from Surinam, because he’d heard of the temple or found it online. It’s one of many, many Thai temples that offer Vipassana courses for non-Thais. The Vipassana they practice traces its lineage to a Burmese teacher. S.N. Goenka, who established hundreds of Vipassana centers in other countries around the world, was Indian but lived in Myanmar and learned Vipassana from a different Burmese teacher. My first retreat was near Kyoto, Japan when he opened a center there c.1990.

And now, Wikipedia: In the 19-20c, the Theravada traditions in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka were rejuvenated in response to western colonialism. They were rallying points in the struggle against western hegemonism, giving voice to traditional values and culture. But the Theravada-tradition was also reshaped, using the Pali scriptural materials to legitimize these reforms… A major role was played by the Theosophical Society, which sought for ancient wisdom in south-East Asia, and stimulated local interest in its own traditions. The Theosophical Society started a lay-Buddhist organisation in Sri Lanka, independent from power of conventional temples and monasteries. Interest in meditation was awakened by these developments, whereas the main Buddhist practice in temples was the recitation of texts, not of meditation practice.

Lay participation in Theravada countries grew strongly in the 20th century, and eventually also reached the West. Most influential in this renewed interest was the "new Burmese method" of Vipassana practice, as developed by U Nārada (1868–1955) and popularized by Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982). Ultimately, this practice aims at stream entry, with the idea that this first stage of the path to awakening safeguards future development of the person towards full awakening, despite the degenerated age we live in. This method spread over South and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas, and has become synonymous with Vipassana.

A comparable development took place in Thailand, where the Buddhist orthodoxy was challenged by monks who aimed to reintroduce the practice of meditation, based on the Sutta Pitaka. In contrast to the Burmese Vipassana teachers, Thai teachers taught Vipassana in tandem with samatha. The practical and doctrinal differences have been heatedly debated within south-east Asian Theravada Buddhism. They have also influenced western teachers, who have tended to take a more liberal approach, questioning the new orthodoxy and integrating various practices and doctrines.

Since the 1980s, the Vipassana movement has given way to the largely secularized "mindfulness" practice, which has its roots in Zen and Vipassana-meditation, and has eclipsed the popularity of Vipassana meditation. In the latter approach, mindfulness, understood as "the awareness that arises by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally", is the central practice, instead of Vipassana.

The Vipassanā movement emphasizes the use of Vipassanā to gain insight into the three marks of existence as the main means to attain wisdom and the beginning of awakening and become a stream-enterer, or even attain full liberation. The practices are based on the Satipatthana sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and other texts, emphasizing satipatthana and bare insight. (For more specifics on satipatthana, see my essay https://outofunitedstates.com/p/vipassana-satipatt-na)

The various movements espouse forms of samatha and Vipassanā meditation. The various Vipassana teachers also make use of the scheme of the insight knowledges, stages of insight which every practitioner passes through in their progress of meditation. The foundation for this progress is the meditation on the arising and passing away of all contemplated phenomena (anicca), which leads to an understanding of their unsatisfactory (dukkha) nature and insight into not-self (anatta).

Vipassana/Insight meditation is classed as a "deconstructive" form of meditation by Buddhist scholar and scientist Cortland Dahl and coauthors. Contemporary Burmese Theravāda Buddhism is one of the main creators of modern Vipassanā practice, which has been gaining popularity since the 1950s. Ledi Sayadaw (1846–1923) prepared the ground for the popularisation of meditation by a lay audience, by re-introducing the practice of meditation, based on the Abhidhamma. S. N. Goenka (1924–2013) was a well-known Indian lay teacher in the Ledi-lineage who was taught by Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899–1971). According to S. N. Goenka, Vipassanā techniques are essentially non-sectarian in character, and have universal application. He asserted that Vipassana technique of meditation was originally espoused in Rigveda however lapsed after the Vedic era and was rejuvenated by Gautam Buddha. One need not convert to Buddhism to practice these styles of meditation. In the tradition of S.N.Goenka, Vipassanā practice focuses on the deep interconnection between mind and body, which can be experienced directly by disciplined attention to the physical sensations that form the life of the body, and that continuously interconnect and condition the life of the mind.

Ruth Denison (1922–2015) was another senior teacher of the U Ba Khin method. Anagarika Munindra studied with both S.N. Goenka and Mahasi Sayadaw, and combined both lineages. Dipa Ma was a student of his.

The "New Burmese method" was developed by U Nārada (1868–1955) and popularized by his student, Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982). It was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1939, but became popular in the 1950s with the arrival of Burmese monks, where it gained great popularity among the laity, but was also severely criticised because of its disregard of samatta. Most senior western Vipassana teachers (Goldstein, Kornfield, Salzberg) studied with Mahasi Sayadaw and his student Sayadaw U Pandita. Nyanaponika Thera (1901–1994) ordained already in the fifties, contributing to the interest in Vipassana with his publications. Prominent teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi is a student of Nyanaponika.

Interestingly for me, as I’m about to head to his temple for the third time in three years, Ajahn Tong was a Thai master who studied for a short time under Mahasi Sayadaw before returning to found his own Vipassana lineage at Chom Tong in Thailand. The "New Burmese Method" emphasizes the attainment of Vipassana, insight, by practising satipatthana, paying close attention to the ongoing changes in body and mind. According to Gil Fronsdal:

Nyanaponika Thera coined the term "bare attention" for the mindfulness practice of the "new Burmese Method." Yet, Robert H. Sharf notes that Buddhist practice is aimed at the attainment of "correct view", not just "bare attention": An important feature of the “Mahasi approach” is its dispensing with the traditional preliminary practice of fixed concentration or tranquilization (appana samadhi, samatha). Instead, the meditator practices Vipassana exclusively during intensive periods of silent retreat that can last several months with a daily schedule of meditation from 3:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Two key elements in Mahasi’s method for developing mindfulness are the careful labeling of one’s immediate experience together with the cultivation of a high level of sustained concentration known as "momentary concentration" (khanika samadhi).

Mahasi’s technique did not require familiarity with Buddhist doctrine (notably abhidhamma), did not require adherence to strict ethical norms (notably monasticism), and promised astonishingly quick results. This was made possible through interpreting sati as a state of "bare awareness" — the unmediated, non-judgmental perception of things "as they are," uninflected by prior psychological, social, or cultural conditioning. This notion of mindfulness is at variance with premodern Buddhist epistemologies in several respects. Traditional Buddhist practices are oriented more toward acquiring "correct view" and proper ethical discernment, rather than "no view" and a non-judgmental attitude.

Mogok Sayadaw (1899-1962) taught the importance of the awareness of noticing the 'arising' and 'passing away' of all experience as the way to gain insight into impermanence. Mogok Sayadaw emphasized the importance of right understanding and that a meditator should learn the theory of Dependent Origination (Paticcasamuppada) when practicing Vipassana. The Mogok Vipassana Method focuses on meditation of Feeling (Vedanannupassana) and meditation on Mind states (Cittanupassana).

The method of the Pa Auk Sayadaw is closely based on the Visuddhimagga. He promotes the extensive development of the four jhanas, states of meditative absorption and focus. The insight element is based on surveying the body by observing the four elements (earth, water, fire and wind) by using the sensations of hardness, heaviness, warmth and motion. Western teachers who work with this method include Shaila Catherine, Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen.

Since the early 1980s, insight meditation’s popularity has grown in the western world, and seen a synthesis of various practices and backgrounds, with the growing insight in its roots and doctrinal background, and the introduction of other modern traditions. A major development is the popularization of mindfulness as a technique of its own.

Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein taught a series of classes at Naropa University in 1974, and began teaching a series of retreats together for the next two years. The retreats were modeled on 10- and 30-day Goenka retreats, but the technique taught was mainly based on Mahasi Sayadaw's practice (with the inclusion of Metta meditation). In 1976 Kornfield and Goldstein, along with Sharon Salzberg and Jacqueline Schwartz founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. Kornfield later founded a sister center, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in Marin County, California, and Goldstein and Salzberg founded the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies on land adjoining IMS.

Kornfield, and related teachers, tend to de-emphasize the religious elements of Buddhism such as "rituals, chanting, devotional and merit-making activities, and doctrinal studies" and focus on meditative practice. According to Jack Kornfield, “We wanted to offer the powerful practices of insight meditation, as many of our teachers did, as simply as possible without the complications of rituals, robes, chanting and the whole religious tradition.”

Some teachers adhere to a strict 'Burmese approach', in which meditation is equated with kasina (concentration) meditation, and Vipassana is the main aim.  Others, like Bhikkhu Thannissaro, who trained in Thailand, criticise the Burmese orthodoxy, and propagate an integrative approach, in which samatha and Vipassana are developed in tandem. Kornfield, who trained in both Burma and Thailand, also propagates an integrative approach.

A main criticism of the Burmese method is its reliance on the commentatorial literature, in which Vipassana is separated from samatha, and jhana is equated with concentration meditation. Thanissaro Bhikkhu stresses the fact that the kasina method is marginally treated in the suttas, in which the emphasis is predominantly on jhana. In the suttas, samatha and Vipassana are qualities of the mind which are developed together. This point is also reiterated by Shankman, arguing that samatha and Vipassana cannot be separated.

Groundbreaking research on early Buddhist meditation has been conducted, arguing that jhana may have been the core practice of early Buddhism, and noting that this practice was not a form of concentration-meditation, but a cumulative practice resulting in mindful awareness of objects while being indifferent to it. Polak, elaborating on Vetter, notes that the onset of the first dhyana is described as a quite natural process, due to the preceding efforts to restrain the senses and the nurturing of wholesome states. Recently Keren Arbel, elaborating on Bronkhorst, Vetter and Gethin, has argued that mindfulness, jhana, samatha and Vipassana form an integrated whole, leading to an alert, joyful and compassionate state of mind and being. Polak and Arbel, following Gethin, further note that there is a "definite affinity" between the four jhanas and the bojjhaṅgā, the seven factors of awakening.

The "bare attention" propagated in the New Burmese Method has been popularized as mindfulness, starting with Jon Kabat Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), developed in the late 1970s, and continuing in applications such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) and mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM). The Pa-auk method is mindfulness of breathing based on sutan and visuddhimagga.

Back to me: Any of these many methods and versions will benefit someone with no meditation experience. The teacher is an addedm, necessary bonus.