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Richard’s Selected Correspondence
On Mr. Satya N. Goenka
RESPONDENT: I am definitely trying to practice actualism, but I
have not received one answer to any of my questions I have posed to you. You know I don’t expect you to be some sort
of guru or anything, just would like some info. Earlier you asked ‘where have I ever been evasive in answering direct
questions to me?’ and it seems to me that my direct questions have been evaded.
RICHARD: I have just now gone back through all twelve of the e-mails you have written to
this mailing list and found the following three addressed specifically to me:
• [Respondent]: ‘I have been practicing your method for about 2 months now with significant
changes in my life. Gotta enjoy that intense sensation in the amygdala! Before I discovered your experience/ method, I
was doing Vipassana the Goenka way. There I also had big changes in my life. I still sit now, what do you think of that?
I sit, and try my damnedest to be this body and every sensation that is a part of it, delighting in the change. Do you
see any conflict with this and actualism? This sitting is very restful, but that seems to be its main function now. I am
trying to decide if it would be beneficial for me to chuck it, but when I can really experience the sensations, I get
STRONG pressures/ sensations in the amygdala, an indication of change, and I propose that this is accelerating the
process – what do you think?’ (Thursday 07/10/2004 AEST).
And:
• [Respondent]: ‘I am new to the list, but have been practicing quite some time now. I posted a
question for you right before you left recently, but you never got around to it. My question is this – What is wrong
with sitting by yourself and thoroughly enjoying the changing sensations that show up in the body? (Friday 22/10/2004 AEST).
And:
• [Respondent]: ‘I am in a class called philosophy and psychology of the self, and I have the
opportunity to have many wonderful conversations with my professor. He defines beauty as complexity harmonized – where
do you have a problem with that? If you say that harmony is not a fact or is subjective, then how is peace not the same?
(Saturday 23/10/2004 AEST).
If all it takes is to not respond to each and every e-mail each and any person addresses to me in
order to qualify as being evasive (synonyms: elusive, slippery, shifty, cagey, hard to pin down, equivocal, ambiguous,
vague) in answering a direct question then all I can do is tug my forelock and say ‘guilty as charged, milord’ as
there are an untold number of e-mails I have not responded to.
You asked what I thought of you still doing Vipassana Bhavana – aka ‘Insight Meditation’ –
in the way Mr. S. N. Goenka made popular in the west (as in your ‘I still sit now’ phrasing), and whether I
saw any conflict with that and actualism, plus what I thought of your proposal that it is accelerating the process of
you trying your damnedest to be the body and every sensation that is a part of it.
First of all, in regards to your query, here is what Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin (Mr. S. N.
Goenka’s accredited Master) had to say:
• ‘Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta – Impermanence, suffering and Egolessness – are the three
essential characteristics of things in the Teaching of the Buddha. If you know Anicca correctly, you will know Dukkha as
its corollary and Anatta as ultimate truth. It takes time to understand the three together. Impermanence (anicca) is, of
course, the essential fact which must be first experienced and understood by practice. Mere book-knowledge of the
Buddha-Dhamma will not be enough for the correct understanding of Anicca because the experiential aspect will be
missing. It is only through experiential understanding of the nature of Anicca as an ever-changing process within you
that you can understand Anicca in the way the Buddha would like you to understand it. (...) The real meaning of Anicca
is that Impermanence or Decay is the inherent nature of everything that exists in the Universe – whether animate or
inanimate. The Buddha taught His disciples that everything that exists at the material level is composed of ‘Kalapas’.
Kalapas are material units very much smaller than atoms, which die out immediately after they come into being. Each
kalapa is a mass formed of the eight basic constituents of matter, the solid, liquid, calorific and oscillatory,
together with colour, smell, taste, and nutriment. The first four are called primary qualities, and are predominant in a
kalapa. The other four are subsidiaries, dependent upon and springing from the former. A kalapa is the minutest particle
in the physical plane – still beyond the range of science today. It is only when the eight basic material constituents
unite together that the kalapa is formed. In other words, the momentary collocation of these eight basic elements of
behaviour makes a man just for that moment, which in Buddhism is known as a kalapa. The life-span of a kalapa is termed
a moment, and a trillion such moments are said to elapse during the wink of a man’s eye. These kalapas are all in a
state of perpetual change or flux. To a developed student in Vipassana Meditation they can be felt as a stream of energy’.(www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel231.html).
Thus where you say you can ‘really experience the sensations’ whilst still sitting now
(doing insight meditation the way Mr. S. N. Goenka made popular in the west) then what you are experiencing – a stream
of energy known as kalapas – is impermanence or decay, and its corollary, suffering itself ... neither of which has
anything to do with who you really are as you who are trying your damnedest to be the body, and every sensation that is
a part of it (aka the kalapas), are an illusion.
And I say this, not only out of my own experience, but also because of what the very goal of
Vipassana Bhavana makes crystal clear:
• [Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin]: ‘... we should understand that each action – whether
by deed, word or thought – leaves behind an active force called ‘Sankhara’ (or ‘kamma’ in popular
terminology), which goes to the credit or debit account of the individual, according to whether the action is good or
bad. There is, therefore, an accumulation of Sankhara (or Kamma) with everyone, which functions as the supply-source of
energy to sustain life, which is inevitably followed by suffering and death. It is by the development of the power
inherent in the understanding of Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta, that one is able to rid oneself of the Sankhara accumulated
in one’s own personal account. This process begins with the correct understanding of Anicca, while further
accumulations of fresh actions and the reduction of the supply of energy to sustain life are taking place
simultaneously, from moment to moment and from day to day. It is, therefore, a matter of a whole lifetime or more to get
rid of all one’s Sankhara. He who has rid himself of all Sankhara comes to the end of suffering, for then no Sankhara
remains to give the necessary energy to sustain him in any form of life. *On the termination of their lives the
perfected saints, i.e., the Buddhas and arahants, pass into Parinibbana, reaching the end of suffering*. For us
today who take to Vipassana Meditation, it would suffice if we can understand Anicca well enough to reach the first
stage of an Ariya (a Noble person), that is, a Sotapanna or stream-enterer, who will not take more than Seven lives to
come to the end of suffering’. [emphasis added]. (www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel231.html).
Hence where you ask what is wrong with sitting by yourself, and thoroughly enjoying the changing
sensations that show up in the body, you are not only committing the cardinal error of trying to identify with that
which is impermanence or decay (which, according to Mr. Buddha, is suffering or unsatisfactoriness) but you who are
trying to so identify are not who you really are anyway (the perfected saint who, at the termination of your life, will
pass into an after-death peace).
As to how all this conflicts with actualism: both who you currently are (an illusion) and who you
really are (a delusion) can never be the flesh and blood body ... both the thinker (the ego) and the feeler (being
itself) are forever locked-out of actuality.
In regards to your professor defining beauty as complexity harmonised and, if harmony is not a fact
or is subjective, then how peace is not the same: all I can say is that I have never said that harmony is not actual/is
subjective ... it is beauty itself – the very feeling of beauty – which has no existence in actuality.
When I speak of living in peace and harmony I am referring to living in accord, amity, fellowship,
and so on (and not as in blending, balance, symmetry, and so forth).
*
RESPONDENT: I think Vineeto (and perhaps Richard) do not know what
they are talking about when they speak of Vipassana: SC ‘body’.
RICHARD: As I can only presume that by ‘SC ‘body’’ you are referring me to my
‘Selected Questions’ topic labelled ‘Body’ I checked through both pages and cannot find ‘Vipassana’
mentioned at all: if you could provide the text where Richard ‘perhaps’ does not know what he is talking
about I may be able to respond constructively to your thought.
And the reason why I suggest this is also because of this (in a recent post):
• [Respondent]: ‘(...) I myself do not buy much of the theory handed down from tradition, but
the [Vipassana] technique works and it is not at all what Richard or Vineeto describes it to be. THAT is why I say they
do not understand the technique’. (Saturday 06/11/2004 AEDST).
As you not provide the text, where Richard describes the Vipassana Bhavana (aka ‘Insight
Meditation’) Mr. S. N. Goenka made popular in the west in a way which is ‘not at all’ what the technique
you were taught is, there is nothing of substance for me to respond to.
RESPONDENT: From what I have been taught, the teaching of Vipassana
is to go beyond both body AND consciousness, or mind.
RICHARD: Indeed ... here is but one instance (among many) where Mr. Buddha makes it
abundantly clear that full release is beyond both body and consciousness:
• [Richard]: ‘(...) Lastly, the discourse drives the point home by explaining that the
instructed disciple is
• [quote] ‘Disenchanted with the *body*, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with
perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with *consciousness*. Disenchanted, he becomes
dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, ‘Fully released’.
He discerns that ‘Birth is depleted, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world’.
Samyutta Nikaya XXII. 59; ‘Anatta-Lakkhana’ Sutta (The Discourse on the Not-self
Characteristic).
Note well it says ‘there is nothing further for this world’ ... if that is not a clear
indication of a withdrawal from this sensate material world I would like to know what is. [emphasises added].
RESPONDENT: (...) Are you sure actualism is 180 degrees opposite?
RICHARD: Ha ... as I am this flesh and blood body only, and as this flesh and blood body
being conscious – as in being alive, not dead, being awake, not asleep, being sensible, not insensible (comatose) –
is what consciousness is (the suffix ‘-ness’ forms a noun expressing a state or condition), I am most assuredly not
disenchanted with the body/disenchanted with consciousness ... let alone fully released from same (and thus) discerning
there is nothing further for this world.
RESPONDENT: Maybe you guys just know Vipassana as taught by quacks.
RICHARD: As the only occasion I am cognisant of, wherein you have read anything of what I
have written about the Vipassana Bhavana (aka ‘Insight Meditation’) Mr. S. N. Goenka made popular in the west, is
the e-mail I wrote to you on Tuesday 26/10/2004 AEST
– wherein I quoted from what Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin had to say – I can only assume that you are
characterising him (Mr. S. N. Goenka’s accredited Master) as being a quack.
Especially so as you specifically say that you [quote] ‘do not buy much of the theory handed down
from tradition’ [endquote].
RESPONDENT: Ok –
RICHARD: If I may ask? Are you saying ‘Ok’ (as in an assent or acquiescence in
response to a question or statement) to my assumption that it is Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin – Mr. S. N. Goenka’s
accredited Master – whom you are characterising as being a quack?
RESPONDENT: Actually I was referring to your general description of
Vipassana and the SC body from Vineeto.
RICHARD: If you could provide the ‘general description of Vipassana’ of mine you
are referring to where you think Richard [quote] ‘perhaps’ [endquote] does not know what he is talking about I may
be able to respond constructively to your thought.
Furthermore, as you do not provide the ‘general description of Vipassana’ of mine you
are referring to, where Richard describes the Vipassana Bhavana (aka ‘Insight Meditation’) Mr. S. N. Goenka made
popular in the west in a way which is [quote] ‘not at all’ [endquote] what the technique you were taught is, there
is nothing of substance for me to respond to.
RESPONDENT: I just figured you guys agree on most of the things you
say about actualism.
RICHARD: Indeed we do ... however, as the Vipassana Bhavana (aka ‘Insight Meditation’)
Mr. S. N. Goenka made popular in the west is not, and never will be, actualism there is no reason to suppose that such
concordance would extend to each and every detail of one of the multitudinous sub-sects of the multiplicity of sects
which subsist in the religious denomination known as ‘Buddhism’.
Speaking personally, I always leave sectarian disputes to the sectarians to deal with.
RICHARD: Ahh ... good. There are several items in your last post that I wished to respond
to. Vis.:
• [Respondent]: ‘I was thinking about ‘spiritualism versus actualism’.
I think the reason why I still can’t differentiate between these two is perhaps a lack of PCE. To me both Satori and
PCE look same. I have no experience of either. I practiced Vipassana irregularly and found that it made difference in my
ordinary life. It did help to make me reasonably happy. I don’t care about what is the exact philosophy behind it. I
don’t think that the spiritual practices are useless’.
It is this simple: the English translation of the Pali ‘Vipassana Bhavana’ is ‘Insight
Meditation’. ‘Bhavana’ means ‘to cultivate’, and, as the word is always used in reference to the mind, ‘Bhavana’
means ‘mental cultivation’. ‘Vipassana’ means ‘seeing’ or ‘perceiving’ something with
meticulousness discernment, seeing each component as distinct and separate, and piercing all the way through so as to
perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing and which leads to intuition into the basic reality of whatever is
being inspected. Thus ‘Vipassana Bhavana’ means the cultivation of the mind, aimed at seeing in a special way
that leads to intuitive discernment and to full understanding of Mr. Buddha’s basic precepts. In ‘Vipassana
Bhavana’ , Buddhists cultivate this special way of seeing life. They train themselves to see reality exactly as it
is described by Mr. Buddha, and in the English-speaking world they call this practice ‘Vipassana Meditation’.
Consequently, when a person who ‘doesn’t care about what is the exact philosophy behind it’
blindly practices ‘Vipassana’ it is a further withdrawal from this actual world than what ‘normal’ people
currently experience in the illusionary ‘reality’ of their ‘real world’. All Buddhists (just like Mr. Buddha) do
not want to be here at this place in space – now at this moment in time – as this flesh and blood form, walking and
talking and eating and drinking and urinating and defecating and being the universes’ experience of its own infinitude
as a reflective and sensate human being. They put immense effort into bringing ‘samsara’ (the Hindu and/or
Buddhist belief in the endless round of birth and death and rebirth) to an end ... if they liked being here now they
would welcome their rebirth and delight in being able to be here now again and again as a human being. They just don’t
wanna be here (not only not being here now but never, ever again). Is it not so blatantly obvious that Mr. Buddha just
did not like being here? Does one wonder why one never saw his anti-life stance before? How on earth can someone who
dislikes being here so much ever be interested in bringing about peace-on-earth? In this respect he was just like all
the Gurus and God-Men down through the ages ... the whole lot of them were/are anti-life to the core. For example:
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘If there is someone who is unaware of the Tathagata’s most profound
viewpoint of the eternally abiding, unchanging, fine and mysterious essential body (dharmakaya), that it is said that
the body that eats is not the essential body, and who is unaware of the Tathagata’s path to the power of virtue and
majesty; then, this is called suffering. (...) you should know that this person necessarily shall fall into the evil
destinies and his circulation through birth and death (samsara) will increase greatly, the bonds becoming numerous, and
he will undergo afflictions. If there is someone who is able to know that the Tathagata is eternally abiding without any
change, or hears that he is eternally abiding, or if [this] Sutra meets his ear, then he shall be born into the Heavens
above. And after his liberation, he will be able to realize and know that the Tathagata eternally abides without any
change. Once he has realized this, he then says, ‘Formerly, I had heard this truth, but now I have attained liberation
through realizing and knowing it. Because I have been entirely unaware of this since the beginning, I have cycled
through birth and death, going round and round endlessly. Now on this day I have for the first time arrived at the true
knowledge’. [endquote].Chapter 10: The Four Truths; [647b]; ‘The Great
Parinirvana Sutra’; (T375.12.647a-c); Redacted from the Chinese of Dharmakshema by Huiyan, Huiguan, and Xie Lingyun
(T375); Translated into English by Charles Patton.
It can be seen that he clearly and unambiguously states that he (Mr. Buddha) is ‘the eternally
abiding, unchanging, fine and mysterious essential body’ even to the point of repeating it twice (‘the
Tathagata is eternally abiding without any change’) and (‘the Tathagata eternally abides without any change’)
so as to emphasise that ‘someone who is able to know that the Tathagata is eternally abiding without any change ...
shall be born into the Heavens above’. And to drive the point home as to just what he means he emphasises that ‘the
body that eats is not the essential body’ ... which ‘essential body’ can only be a dissociated state by
any description and by any definition.
Which all brings me to your next point. Vis.:
• [Respondent]: ‘What appealed me most about actualism is that I don’t
have to believe in it (the same thing I liked about Vipassana)’
If you did ‘care about what is the exact philosophy behind it’ you would find that you
do indeed have to believe in ‘Vipassana’ ... but do not take my word for it; instead, shall we see what Mr.
Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin (Mr. S. N. Goenka’s accredited Master) had to say in 1981? Vis.:
• [quote]: ‘Panna (Wisdom) is [developed by] the understanding of Anicca (Impermanence),
Dukkha (Suffering) and Anatta (Egolessness) through the practice of Vipassana, i.e., insight meditation (...) Anicca,
Dukkha and Anatta are the three essential characteristics of things in the Teaching of the Buddha. If you know Anicca
correctly, you will know Dukkha as its corollary and Anatta as ultimate truth (...) it is only through experiential
understanding of the nature of Anicca as an ever-changing process within you that you can understand Anicca in the way
the Buddha would like you to understand it (...) it is by the development of the power inherent in the understanding of
Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta, that one is able to rid oneself of the Sankhara (Karma) accumulated in ones own personal
account (...) he who has rid himself of all Sankhara comes to the end of suffering, for then no Sankhara remains to give
the necessary energy to sustain him in any form of life. On the termination of their lives the perfected saints, i.e.,
the Buddhas and Arahants, pass into Parinibbana, reaching the end of suffering (...) for us today who take to Vipassana
Meditation, it would suffice if we can understand Anicca well enough to reach the first stage (...) the fact of Anicca,
which opens the door to the understanding of Dukkha and Anatta and eventually to the end of suffering, can be
encountered in its full significance only through the Teachings of a Buddha (...) for progress in Vipassana Meditation,
a student must keep knowing Anicca as continuously as possible (...) the last words of the Buddha just before He
breathed His last and passed away into Mahaparinibbana were: ‘Decay (or Anicca) is inherent in all component things.
Work out your own salvation with diligence’. This is in fact the essence of all His teachings during the forty-five
years of His ministry. If you will keep up the awareness of the Anicca that is inherent in all component things, you are
sure to reach the goal in the course of time (...) it is only when you experience impermanence (Anicca) as suffering
(Dukkha) that you come to the realization of the truth of suffering, the first of the Four Noble Truths basic to the
doctrine of the Buddha. Why? Because when you realize the subtle nature of Dukkha from which you cannot escape for a
moment, you become truly afraid of, disgusted with, and disinclined towards your very existence ... and look for a way
of escape to a state beyond Dukkha, and so to Nibbana, the end of suffering (...) before entering upon the practice of
Vipassana Meditation, that is, after Samadhi has been developed to a proper level, a student should acquaint himself
with the theoretical knowledge of material and mental properties, i.e., of Rupa and Nama. For in Vipassana Meditation
one contemplates not only the changing nature of matter, but also the changing nature of mentality, of the
thought-elements of attention directed towards the process of change going on within matter. At times the attention will
be focused on the impermanence of the material side of existence, i.e., upon Anicca in regard to Rupa, and at other
times on the impermanence of the thought-elements or mental side, i.e., upon Anicca in regard to Nama (...) the world is
now facing serious problems which threaten all mankind. It is just the right time for everyone to take to Vipassana
Meditation and learn how to find a deep pool of quiet in the midst of all that is happening today. Anicca is inside of
everybody. It is within reach of everybody. Just a look into oneself and there it is – Anicca to be experienced. When
one can feel Anicca, when one can experience Anicca, and when one can become engrossed in Anicca, one can at will cut
oneself off from the world of ideation outside (...) the time-clock of Vipassana has now struck – that is for the
revival of Buddha-Dhamma Vipassana in practice’.
This is what Mr. Eric Lerner had to say about Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin:
• [quote]: ‘In the past few decades in the Theravada Buddhist countries there has been a
general revival of interest in insight meditation among the robed Sangha, and with it a spreading of the practice
outside the monastery walls (...) one of the most important meditation masters of modern day Burma, Thray Sithu U Ba
Khin [taught] Vipassana Meditation at the International Meditation Centre in Rangoon, which was established under his
guidance in the early 1950s. The unique characteristics of his spiritual teaching stem from his situation as a lay
meditation master in an orthodox Buddhist country ... all of his practice was geared specifically to lay people. He
developed a powerfully direct approach to Vipassana Meditation that could be undertaken in a short period of intensive
practice and continued as part of householding life. His method has been of great importance in the transmission of the
Dhamma to the West, because in his twenty five years at the Centre he instructed scores of foreign visitors who needed
no closer acquaintance with Buddhism per se to quickly grasp this practice of insight. Since U Ba Khin’s demise in
1971 several of his commissioned disciples have carried on his work, both within and outside of Burma. Hundreds of
Westerners have received the instruction from S. N. Goenka in India, Robert Hover and Ruth Denison in America and John
Coleman in England. In addition, several of U Ba Khin’s closest disciples still teach at the Centre in Rangoon’.
Just in case this précis of Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin’s teaching was too much for you to
take in, may I leave you with just one sentence of his (copied from above) to ponder upon? Vis.:
• [quote]: ‘On the termination of their lives the perfected saints, i.e., the Buddhas and
Arahants, pass into Parinibbana, reaching the end of suffering’.
And just in case you miss the point, he is clearly saying that the end of suffering lies in ‘Parinirvana’
(an after-death state) and is the sole goal of ‘Vipassana Bhavana’ .
So, can you now start to ‘differentiate between spiritualism versus actualism’ ?
RESPONDENT: Richard – you may also want to look at this and
explain how you can still assert the 180 degree different-ness of actualism and what you call spirituality. Sure, you
don’t have to know everything about all the different sects and such, but you better know enough to be able to assert
how what you say and what others say is actually 180 deg. opposite.
[Richard]: ‘Actual freedom: This physical universe is beginningless and
endless (unborn and undying). Spiritual freedom: God (by whatever name) is beginningless and endless (unborn and
undying)’.
No God in Vipassana., this becomes clear after practice.
RICHARD: I draw your attention to the following:
• [Mr. Satya Goenka]: ‘The law of nature is such that when you stop creating new sankharas
[mental formations] you are on the path of liberation, nirodha-gamini patipada. The Buddha called it dukkha-nirodha-gamini
patipada, the path to eradicate all miseries; and he has also called it vedana-nirodha-gamini patipada, the
path to eradicate all vedana [sensation]. In other words, by walking on the path one reaches the stage where there is no
more vedana because *one experiences something beyond mind and matter*. Within the field of mind and matter there
is constant contact, because of which there is vedana, whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. To come out of vedana is
to come out of misery’. [italics in original, emphasis added]. (‘The Snare Of Mara’;
www.vri.dhamma.org/newsletters/nl0002.html).
Just as a matter of interest ... were you ever to ‘come out of misery’ (as also expressed in
the ‘freedom from all suffering’ phrasing below) just what is your plan for informing this mailing list of your
success? And here is why I ask:
• [Mr. Satya Goenka]: ‘When one experiences the truth of nibbana – a stage beyond the entire
sensorium – all the six sense organs stop working. *There can’t be any contact with objects outside*, so
sensation ceases. At this stage there is freedom from all suffering’. [emphasis added]. (‘Buddha’s Path Is to Experience Reality’; www.vri.dhamma.org/newsletters/nl9510.html).
Here is some more on that ‘something’ referred to in the first quote which is beyond mind and
matter:
• [Mr. Satya Goenka]: ‘... transcending the field of mind and matter, one comes to *the
ultimate truth* which is beyond all sensory experience, beyond the phenomenal world. In this transcendent reality
there is no more anicca [impermanence]: nothing arises, and therefore nothing passes away. It is a stage without birth
or becoming: the deathless. While the meditator experiences this reality, the senses do not function and therefore
sensations cease. This is the experience of nirodha, the cessation of sensations and of suffering’. [emphasis added]. (‘Sensation – The Key to Satipattana’; www.vri.dhamma.org/archives/ddsensation.html).
RESPONDENT: What appealed me most about actualism is that I don’t
have to believe in it (the same thing I liked about Vipassana).
RICHARD: If you did ‘care about what is the exact philosophy behind it’ you would
find that you do indeed have to believe in ‘Vipassana’ ... but do not take my word for it; instead, shall we see
what Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin (Mr. S. N. Goenka’s accredited Master) had to say in 1981? Vis.:
• [quote]: ‘Pañña (Wisdom) is [developed by] the understanding of Anicca (Impermanence),
Dukkha (Suffering) and Anatta (Egolessness) through the practice of Vipassana, i.e., insight meditation (...) Anicca,
Dukkha and Anatta are the three essential characteristics of things in the Teaching of the Buddha. If you know Anicca
correctly, you will know Dukkha as its corollary and Anatta as ultimate truth (...) it is only through experiential
understanding of the nature of Anicca as an ever-changing process within you that you can understand Anicca in the way
the Buddha would like you to understand it (...) it is by the development of the power inherent in the understanding of
Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta, that one is able to rid oneself of the Sankhara (Karma) accumulated in ones own personal
account (...) he who has rid himself of all Sankhara comes to the end of suffering, for then no Sankhara remains to give
the necessary energy to sustain him in any form of life. On the termination of their lives the perfected saints, i.e.,
the Buddhas and Arahants, pass into Parinibbana, reaching the end of suffering (...) for us today who take to Vipassana
Meditation, it would suffice if we can understand Anicca well enough to reach the first stage (...) the fact of Anicca,
which opens the door to the understanding of Dukkha and Anatta and eventually to the end of suffering, can be
encountered in its full significance only through the Teachings of a Buddha (...) for progress in Vipassana Meditation,
a student must keep knowing Anicca as continuously as possible (...) the last words of the Buddha just before He
breathed His last and passed away into Mahaparinibbana were: ‘Decay (or Anicca) is inherent in all component things.
Work out your own salvation with diligence’. This is in fact the essence of all His teachings during the forty-five
years of His ministry. If you will keep up the awareness of the Anicca that is inherent in all component things, you are
sure to reach the goal in the course of time (...) it is only when you experience impermanence (Anicca) as suffering
(Dukkha) that you come to the realization of the truth of suffering, the first of the Four Noble Truths basic to the
doctrine of the Buddha. Why? Because when you realize the subtle nature of Dukkha from which you cannot escape for a
moment, you become truly afraid of, disgusted with, and disinclined towards your very existence ... and look for a way
of escape to a state beyond Dukkha, and so to Nibbana, the end of suffering (...) before entering upon the practice of
Vipassana Meditation, that is, after Samadhi has been developed to a proper level, a student should acquaint himself
with the theoretical knowledge of material and mental properties, i.e., of Rupa and Nama. For in Vipassana Meditation
one contemplates not only the changing nature of matter, but also the changing nature of mentality, of the
thought-elements of attention directed towards the process of change going on within matter. At times the attention will
be focused on the impermanence of the material side of existence, i.e., upon Anicca in regard to Rupa, and at other
times on the impermanence of the thought-elements or mental side, i.e., upon Anicca in regard to Nama (...) the world is
now facing serious problems which threaten all mankind. It is just the right time for everyone to take to Vipassana
Meditation and learn how to find a deep pool of quiet in the midst of all that is happening today. Anicca is inside of
everybody. It is within reach of everybody. Just a look into oneself and there it is – Anicca to be experienced. When
one can feel Anicca, when one can experience Anicca, and when one can become engrossed in Anicca, one can at will cut
oneself off from the world of ideation outside (...) the time-clock of Vipassana has now struck – that is for the
revival of Buddha-Dhamma Vipassana in practice.
This is what Mr. Eric Lerner had to say about Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin:
• [quote]: ‘In the past few decades in the Theravada Buddhist countries there has been a
general revival of interest in insight meditation among the robed Sangha, and with it a spreading of the practice
outside the monastery walls (...) one of the most important meditation masters of modern day Burma, Thray Sithu U Ba
Khin [taught] Vipassana Meditation at the International Meditation Centre in Rangoon, which was established under his
guidance in the early 1950s. The unique characteristics of his spiritual teaching stem from his situation as a lay
meditation master in an orthodox Buddhist country ... all of his practice was geared specifically to lay people. He
developed a powerfully direct approach to Vipassana Meditation that could be undertaken in a short period of intensive
practice and continued as part of householding life. His method has been of great importance in the transmission of the
Dhamma to the West, because in his twenty five years at the Centre he instructed scores of foreign visitors who needed
no closer acquaintance with Buddhism per se to quickly grasp this practice of insight. Since U Ba Khin’s demise in
1971 several of his commissioned disciples have carried on his work, both within and outside of Burma. Hundreds of
Westerners have received the instruction from S. N. Goenka in India, Robert Hover and Ruth Denison in America and John
Coleman in England. In addition, several of U Ba Khin’s closest disciples still teach at the Centre in Rangoon’.
Just in case this precis of Mr. Sayagyi Thray Sithu U Ba Khin’s teaching was too much for you to
take in, may I leave you with just one sentence of his (copied from above) to leave you with? Vis.: [quote]: ‘On the
termination of their lives the perfected saints, i.e., the Buddhas and Arahants, pass into Parinibbana, reaching the end
of suffering’ [endquote]. And just in case you miss the point, he is clearly saying that the end of suffering lies in
‘Parinirvana’ (an after-death state) and is the sole goal of ‘Vipassana Bhavana’.
So, can you now start to ‘differentiate between spiritualism versus actualism’?
VINEETO: As you say you quite enjoy the practice of ‘grooving on
ecstatic vibes’ then clearly actualism is not for you because, as the very term expressively states, actualism is all
about what is actual whereas vibes, being feelings, are not actual.
RESPONDENT: Sorry I’m not hip to your lingo ...
RICHARD: It is quite commonplace ‘lingo’ actually. Vis.:
• ecstatic: of the nature of, characterized by, or producing ecstasy [the state of being
distracted by some emotion; a frenzy, a stupor; (now the usual sense) an exalted state of feeling]. (Oxford Dictionary).
• ecstatic: of, relating to, or marked by ecstasy [a state of being beyond reason and self-control; a state of
overwhelming emotion; trance, especially: a mystic or prophetic trance]. (Merriam
Webster Dictionary).
• ecstatic: feeling or characterized by ecstasy [an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement; an
emotional or religious frenzy or trancelike state]. (Compact Oxford English
Dictionary).
• ecstatic: showing or feeling great pleasure or delight; completely dominated by an intense emotion; (plural)
somebody who undergoes spells of intense emotion. (Encarta® World English
Dictionary).
• ecstatic: enraptured, rapturous, rhapsodic; feeling great rapture or delight. (WordNet®
2.0).
• ecstatic: marked by or expressing ecstasy [a state of emotion so intense that one is carried beyond rational thought
and self-control]. (American Heritage® Dictionary).
And:
• vibes: a distinctive emotional atmosphere; sensed intuitively; synonym: vibration. (WordNet® 2.0).
• vibe: (slang) an emotional quality believed to be detectable in a person or thing by intuition; vibration; often
plural; related word: intuition. (Wordsmyth Dictionary).
• vibe: (slang) a vibration; often used in the plural; short for vibration [a distinctive emotional aura or atmosphere
regarded as being instinctively sensed or experienced; often used in the plural]. (American
Heritage® Dictionary).
• vibes: (slang) the feeling you get from being in a particular place or situation or from being with a particular
person. (Cambridge Dictionary of American English).
• vibe: (informal) the atmosphere or aura of a person or place as communicated to and felt by others. (Compact Oxford English Dictionary).
• vibes: (slang) atmosphere or feeling: a particular kind of atmosphere, feeling, or ambience; plural: vibes. (Encarta® World English Dictionary).
• vibe: mood or atmosphere; feeling; (plural) signals or messages sent out to someone. (Macquarie Dictionary).
• vibe: (slang) transmit in the form of vibrations [characteristic signals or impressions about a person or thing,
regarded as communicable to others; (an) atmosphere: also, a mental (esp. occult) influence]; affect in a specified way
by means of vibrations. (Oxford Dictionary).
• vibe: a characteristic emanation, aura, or spirit that infuses or vitalizes someone or something and that can be
instinctively sensed or experienced – often used in plural; a distinctive usually emotional atmosphere capable of
being sensed – usually used in plural. (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
RESPONDENT: (...) I was not referring to ‘Psychic Vibes’ or
vibes as ‘feelings’, sorry.
RICHARD: That being the case then, for the sake of clarity in communication, it would be
handy to use some other expression than ‘grooving on ecstatic vibes’ as that phraseology does not convey what
you explain it to mean in this e-mail (more on this below).
RESPONDENT: As you continue to put (unintended) meaning into my
words you will continue to misunderstand me, making effective communication impossible. This has happened countless
times now.
RICHARD: As I also took your ‘grooving on ecstatic vibes’ as to be conveying that
you were intensely enjoying (as in ‘grooving’) exalted (as in ‘ecstatic’) feelings (as in ‘vibes’) I checked
with a wide range of dictionaries to see why I too had taken it that way ... given the (further above) definitions it is
a quite understandable take and thus your remonstrations (above) are most definitely uncalled for.
Here is what you say, in this e-mail, that you were conveying (from the parenthesised snip above):
• [Respondent]: ‘What I am referring to is the utter delight in experiencing the universe as it
actually is’. [endquote].
And the following is how the universe ‘actually is’ (also from the parenthesised snip)
according to you:
• [Respondent]: ‘... as I recall, the whole universe is vibrating. Atoms are themselves
harmonic oscillators, same for molecules, etc. Molecules are constantly vibrating in your body, and effective chemical
signalling between neurons would be impossible with out vibration (diatomic, etc.). So, when you are sensately
experiencing the universe, this input can only come in the form of vibration (sensation, sight, sound, even taste and
smell)’. [endquote].
Thus ‘grooving on ecstatic vibes’ is your way of conveying that you are utterly
delighting (as in ‘grooving’) in experiencing exalted (as in ‘ecstatic’) vibrations (as in ‘vibes’) of the
nature proposed by theoretical physicists ... which, being but a mathematical model of the universe, cannot be
experienced sensately.
Here is what you go on to say:
• [Respondent]: ‘If you insist that vibrations are feelings and you have no part of them I
wonder in what realm your experience happens’. [endquote].
Going by what your co-respondent has written it is most certainly not the realm where the following
occurs (from the web site you provided a link to previously):
• Question: What are vibrations? How do they affect us?
• Mr. Satya Goenka: Everything in the Universe is vibrating. This is no theory, it is a fact. The entire Universe is
nothing but vibrations. The good vibrations make us happy, the unwholesome vibrations cause misery. Vipassana will help
you come out of effect of bad vibrations – the vibrations caused by a mind full of craving and aversion. When the mind
is perfectly balanced, the vibrations become good. And these good or bad vibrations you generate start influencing the
atmosphere all around you. Vipassana helps you generate vibrations of purity, compassion and goodwill – beneficial for
yourself and all others’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#vibrations).
As compassion is unambiguously a passion it would appear that the [quote] ‘good vibrations’
[endquote] of the entire universe are affective in character ... as is evidenced by the following:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘... at the end of a 10-day Vipassana course, you are taught how to send
metta, the vibrations of love and compassion. He or she [the deceased person being referred to in the question being
answered] will be happy. Wherever you are, your metta vibrations will touch this person’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#emotion).
Thus the [quote] ‘metta vibrations’ [endquote] are indeed the ‘good vibrations’ being
referred to and, furthermore, like all such vibes, are both transmittable and receivable. Vis.:
• Question: ‘Are there Dhamma forces that support us as we develop on the Path?
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘Certainly – visible as well as invisible ones. (...) If we develop love, compassion and
goodwill, we will get tuned up with all beings, visible or invisible, that have these positive vibrations, and we will
start getting support from them. It is like tuning a radio to receive waves of a certain meter band from a distant
broadcasting station. Similarly, we tune ourselves to vibrations of the type we generate; and so we receive the benefit
of those vibrations’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#dhammaforces).
And:
• Question: ‘What is the value of attending group sittings?
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘Whenever a few people sit together, whatever they generate in their minds permeates the
atmosphere. If five, ten, twenty, or fifty people meditate together, the vibrations of one or two among them might be
good vibrations and this may help the others meditate better in that atmosphere’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/newsletters/nl9906.html).
And:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘... at the end of every Vipassana course, or a 1-hour sitting, a meditator
is asked to practice metta [loving-kindness], to share the merits gained with all beings. Metta vibrations are tangible
vibrations whose beneficial power increases as the purity of the mind increases. (...) Without samadhi, the metta is
really no metta [selfless love]. When samadhi is weak, the mind is very agitated, and it is agitated only when it is
generating some impurity, some type of craving or aversion. With these impurities, you cannot expect to generate good
qualities, vibrations of metta, or karuna (compassion)’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#metta).
And:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘... people who don’t practice Vipassana can practice Metta Bhavana. In
such countries as Burma, Sri Lanka and Thailand, Metta Bhavana is very common in every household. However, the practice
is usually confined to mentally reciting ‘May all beings be happy, be peaceful’. This certainly gives some peace of
mind to the person who is practicing it. To some extent good vibrations enter the atmosphere, but they are not strong.
However, when you practice Vipassana, purification starts. With this base of purity, your practice of Metta naturally
becomes stronger. Then you won’t need to repeat these good wishes aloud. A stage will come when every fiber of the
body keeps on feeling compassion for others, generating goodwill for others’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#metta).
As for the [quote] ‘bad vibrations’ [endquote] of the entire universe ... the following is
quite clear:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘When we generate vibrations of negativity – anger, hatred, ill-will,
animosity, ego, etc. – the atmosphere around us becomes charged with these vibrations. This pollution, although
invisible, causes so many problems in human society – tensions, stress, strain, conflicts. Misery, nothing but misery.
Vipassana is the way out of this misery. It is a technique to purify the mind. In order to overcome the darkness of
ignorance and negativity we must generate love, compassion and goodwill. In order to generate these wholesome qualities,
we need to purify our minds. (...) It is the mind which creates all these different types of pollution. As long as the
mind remains impure, it will continue to generate unhealthy vibrations, making the entire atmosphere full of misery’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/research/94sem/sng94talk.html).
And:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘This is how mara (which is nothing but the manifestation of your own
impurities) gets into the centre; you start fighting with each other and generating bad vibrations of anger and hatred
and this spoils the entire atmosphere of the centre. You have come to help develop good vibrations of love and
compassion and peace, and in the name of Dhamma you have started harming the centre and also harming yourselves. Be
careful to see that you do not fight with each other; you must live together in peace and harmony’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/dgedays.html).
And:
• Mr. Satya Goenka: ‘Vipassana wants you to observe the natural vibration that you have – in
the form of sensations – vibrations when you become angry, or when you are full of passion, or fear, or hatred, so
that you can come out of them’. (www.vri.dhamma.org/general/question.html#mantras).
Needless is it to add there there are no such vibrations, be they either ‘good’ or ‘bad’
vibrations, here in the actual world (the world of the senses)?
I have provided those detailed quotes because the problem with the peoples who discard the
Christian/Judaic/Islamic god is they do not realise that by turning to the eastern spiritual philosophy they have
effectively jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Eastern spirituality is religion ... merely in a different form
to what people in the west have been raised to believe in. Eastern spiritual philosophy sounds so convincing to the
western mind which is desperately looking for answers. The Christian/Judaic/Islamic conditioning actually sets up the
situation for a thinking person to be susceptible to the esoteric doctrines of the east. It is sobering to realise that
the intelligentsia of the west are eagerly following the east down the slippery slope of striving to attain to a
self-seeking divine immortality ... to the detriment of life on earth. At the end of the line there is always a
god/goddess/truth, of some description, lurking in disguise wreaking its havoc with its ‘ancient wisdom’.
Have you ever been to India to see for yourself the results of what they claim are tens of
thousands of years of devotional spiritual living?
I did, back when there was a full suite of affections in this body, and it was hideous.
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