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Vipasana
in Meditation
I am talking about Bhanga nana or body dissolution, which is attained by scanning each part of the body. It is said you must scan from head to toe to notice sensations. What if we notice some itching round the torso while scanning the face, do we ignore the face and focus on the itching round the stomach? Must we always scan in a certain order? Some advice would be helpful.
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Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation, by Gil Fronsdal
If you would rather read than listen along, here are the transcripts.
Body awareness starts at week two. But start at week one just to be sure you're up with the play.
But like everyone else has said, there's no substitute for a real live teacher. Go on a retreat! They are often free, if that's a problem.
Seriously though, what do you understand by the word dissolution in this context? Because the actual meaning may be more subtle than than you imagine.
What happens when Insight ( which is the actual aim of Vipassana ) arises may differ completely from your ideas of what might happen..Apart from anything else Insight undermines concepts.
It may be...
But the aim of Vipassana is to gain insight into what is..Which happens by awareness of what arises. Concepts...any concept at this stage, is likely to interfere with that process.
And it's just an essence of a state, it's not an actual description of something happening, physically....
It's a state of being: Losing body consciousness means something different to different people. Do you know what it means to you?
Of course not. You won't until you achieve it.
And it can take a very long time.
I get the impression that (a bit like Mr. mercury) you 'want it all, and you want it now'.....
My advice to music is that Zen is very good at dissolving the tendency to see things this way, and I would also recommend reading the Tao Te Ching.
I would also advise studying what vipassana means in the context of the Buddha's teachings.
For instance 'body scan' as opposed to Buddha's 'mindfulness of the body'.
'4. “Here a bhikkhu, gone to the forest or to the root of a tree or to an empty hut, sits down; having folded his legs crosswise, set his body erect, and established mindfulness in front of him, ever mindful he breathes in, mindful he breathes out. Breathing in long, he understands: ‘I breathe in long’; or breathing out long, he understands: ‘I breathe out long.’ Breathing in short, he understands: ‘I breathe in short; or breathing out short, he understands: ‘I breathe out short.’ He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in experiencing the whole body [of breath]’; he trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out experiencing the whole body [of breath].’ He trains thus: ‘I shall breathe in tranquilizing the bodily formation’; he trains thus: ‘I shall breathe out tranquilizing the bodily formation.’ As he abides thus diligent, ardent, and resolute, his memories and intentions based on the household life are abandoned; with their abandoning his mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness, and concentrated. That is how a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of the body.'
http://www.palicanon.org/en/sutta-pitaka/transcribed-suttas/majjhima-nikaya/83-mn-119-kyagatsati-sutta-mindfulness-of-the-body.html
'21. “Again, bhikkhus, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. He sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind, so that there is no part of his whole body unpervaded by the pure bright mind. Just as though a man were sitting covered from head down with a white cloth, so that there would be no part of his whole body not covered by the white cloth; so too, a bhikkhu sits pervading this body with a pure bright mind, so that there is no part of his body unpervaded by the pure bright mind. As he abides thus diligent, ardent, and resolute, his memories and intentions based on the household life are abandoned; with their abandoning his mind becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness, and concentrated. That too is how a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of the body.'
http://www.palicanon.org/en/sutta-pitaka/transcribed-suttas/majjhima-nikaya/83-mn-119-kyagatsati-sutta-mindfulness-of-the-body.html
But again, I hesitate to say even this, because it isn't quite like that... it's like it is. More like playing a violin than operating a computer. More art than science?
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html
Here's a good essay by Bhikku Thanissaro.
hope this helps.
In my experience unless someone has undergone at least one Vipassana retreat with instruction or a series of one day instructions, exchanging ideas about the underlying conceptual base is misleading at best..
metta..
Whatever happens, @music, you're going to have to put prolonged practice in, and be patient.
I think it's worth observing that vipassana ( insight ) and samatha ( tranquillity ) are qualities rather than practices, and that they are really 2 sides of the same coin.
In simple terms, having developed a degree of tranquillity ( sometimes known as access concentration ), one can either develop jhana or one can develop insight. There seems to be a view that jhana isn't transformative in the way that insight is, though I'm not sure it's as simple as that...possibly another thread though.
Also there are a range of possible approaches, and so I think it's partly about putting in the time and effort to explore them, seeing what works for us.
Nonetheless, now I understand the OP was talking about a certain sect.
It is good to hear that you are eager in your practices, and I hope to perhaps provide my share about Body contemplation.
Over here in South East Asia, many notable teachers teach such methods as a ways to help the student realizing the nature of this body and help reduce our clinging to it.
Vipasana is qualities in which the person sees the nature of things as it is present and is happening. So in words, the mind scans for things as they are happening. When the itching or any kind of feeling (whether small shocks, twitching, spasm, tension or relaxation) is happening, one is to be mindful and aware of those as they are happening.
Don't try to focus too much, you might end up making the feeling more intense.
Use the same concentration as the scanning to scan at the particular feeling. Keep on observing it as it is happening, observe it as it fade away. Once it disappear then goes back to the scanning the body following the orders. That in itself is impermanence of the feelings.
At this stage, I would recommend following the scanning order first before you are more attuned to the practice. I will also recommend for you to put aside your objectives or motivations as being a state of feeling or of seeing 'this' or 'that'. It is a kind of desire and it will hinders your progress but rather treat the practice as the goal in itself or as a tools to further understand yourself.
May I ask you, what discourages you from your anapanasati practice?
Hope this helps,
Mindfulness and Wisdom be on your way.
There is one single session where they go for 1.5 hours, that's where they actually teach the vipassana technique on day four. But you are free to shift around and change the way you sit.
Plus, if you aren't used to sitting on the floor, you can ask for a chair on you application form, and they'll put you at the back of the hall on a low chair.