Actual Freedom – Selected Correspondence by Topic

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 Correspondence’ 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.

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.

RESPONDENT: There is nothing new in the idea of using mindfulness as a methodical approach to awakening. If effort at self-mastery makes sense to you right now, so be it. The nondualistic approach is difficult to penetrate.

RICHARD: I have never advocated ‘using mindfulness as a methodical approach to awakening’ because, first of all, I have explained to you that ‘to awake from a dream is but to be lucidly dreaming’ and that the ‘dreamer’ must become extinct and, secondly, ‘mindfulness’ is a Buddhist term that I never use and it involves a total withdrawal of self from the sensate world so as to realise the ‘timeless’ which is another term I never use and, thirdly, I speak of ‘self-immolation’ and not ‘self mastery’. I have never, ever said anything whatsoever that could possibly persuade you to make such inaccurate and unsubstantiated comments about what Richard is on about ... leaving me no option but to consider you ignorant (as in ignoring what I write) or ignorant (as in stupid).

RESPONDENT: To ask and stay aware of what I am experiencing now is mindfulness.

RICHARD: The word ‘mindfulness’ is an English word that means ‘taking heed or care; being conscious or aware; paying attention to, being heedful of, being watchful of, being regardful of, being cognizant of, being aware of, being conscious of, taking into account, being alert to, being alive to, being sensible of, being careful of, being wary of, being chary of’ and may be used, more or less, the same as ‘watchfulness’, ‘heedfulness’, ‘regardfulness’, ‘attentiveness’, and to a lesser extent ‘carefulness’, ‘sensibleness’, ‘wariness’. However, the word ‘mindfulness’ has taken-on the Buddhist meaning of the word for most seekers (the same as the word ‘meditation’ which used to mean ‘think over; ponder’), and no longer has the every-day meaning as per the dictionary. The Buddhist connotations come from the Pali ‘Bhavana’ (the English translation of the Pali ‘Vipassana Bhavana’ is ‘Insight Meditation’). ‘Bhavana’ comes from the root ‘Bhu’, which means ‘to grow’ or ‘to become’. There fore, ‘Bhavana’ means ‘to cultivate’, and, as the word is always used in reference to the mind, ‘Bhavana’ means ‘mental cultivation’. ‘Vipassana’ is derived from two roots: ‘Passana’, which means ‘seeing’ or ‘perceiving’ and ‘Vi’ (which is a prefix with the complex set of connotations) basically means ‘in a special way’ but there also is the connotation of both ‘into’ and ‘through’. The whole meaning of the word ‘Vipassana’, then, is looking into 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. This process leads to intuition into the basic reality of whatever is being inspected. Put it all together and ‘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 special mode of perception: ‘mindfulness’.

Which is why I have never advocated ‘using mindfulness as a methodical approach to awakening’ because ‘mindfulness’ is clearly a Buddhist term and involves a total withdrawal from the sensate world so as to realise the ‘timeless’ (which is another term I never use), apart from which, to awake from a dream is but to be lucidly dreaming ... the ‘dreamer’ must become extinct. And how to bring about extinction? By asking oneself, each moment again, how one is experiencing this moment of being alive. Given that this is one’s only moment of being alive, if one is not experiencing the peace-on-earth that is already always here now, then one is wasting this moment of being alive by settling for second-best ... it means that the long evolutionary process that produced this flesh and blood human being has come to naught. But, here is another moment, another opportunity, to actually be here now – where one’s destiny is – and how is one experiencing this moment? More often than not one is experiencing this moment through a feeling – standing back and feeling it out like putting a toe into the water – instead of jumping-in boots and all. Thus one can find out what brought about this feeling that is preventing me from being here now and through this ‘hands-on’ examination have it vanish ... and the reward is immediate and direct.

This actualist method is a far cry from the Buddhist carefully cultivated ‘mindfulness’ ... which is a further withdrawal from this actual world.

RESPONDENT: If it is a technique to bring about a desired result such as self-immolation or freedom from conditioned reaction, it is effort at self-mastery in which the old me is gone and the desired state only remains, i.e.: attainment.

RICHARD: Goodness me, no ... ‘self-mastery’ is all about imposing discipline, order, regulation, control, restraint, obedience and so on. Psychological and psychic self-immolation is self-sacrifice ... how can it be seen by you as ‘self-mastery’?

You are stretching a long bow, here.

RESPONDENT: Dualistic approach is effort to bring about a desired result of freedom for me. It starts with belief that I know what is and I know what I want, what should be, so I will work to get there. But that is like a fish trying to become water. Fish or form is the time aspect and water or emptiness is the timeless aspect.

RICHARD: Indeed ... you are, more or less acceptably, describing the Buddhist approach, although the Buddhist Bhikkhu and Bhikkhuni starts with the attitude that they cannot know in advance ‘what is’ (‘Isness’) or ‘what they want’ (‘Nirvana’) or ‘what should be’ (‘Deathless’) really is like, but that Mr. Buddha does. Hence the necessity of ‘taking refuge’ in the Buddha (the awakened one), in the ‘Dhamma’ (the timeless law) and in the ‘Sangha’ (the community of perfected people). I would agree with you that all this is a belief as in faith (and, further, that the word ‘refuge’ is but a code-word for ‘surrender’) but Buddhists will shake their heads knowingly and tell me that I just do not understand.

RESPONDENT: I suspect they are right.

RICHARD: Why? What does ‘I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha’ mean to you?

*

RICHARD: The word ‘emptiness’ as you use it is the Buddhist ‘Sunyata’ ... which is a ‘timeless an spaceless and formless absolute’.

RESPONDENT: The state of the man or woman determines the level of understanding and it is understanding that determines approach. Emptiness can not be understood conceptually.

RICHARD: Then why talk to me about it? If you can say that ‘fish or form is the time aspect and water or emptiness is the timeless aspect’ then why can I not say that the Buddhist ‘Sunyata’ is a ‘timeless and spaceless and formless absolute’? You do this quite often – introduce a topic giving your view on it – then when the discussion gets going you come out with your stock-standard response that grinds everything to a halt. If you will not discuss it then why start in the first place?

RICHARD: Do you practice detachment (you are twice-removed from actuality)?

RESPONDENT No. 25: Alas, I do not practice much (please define detachment). Do you have a method which you endorse?

RICHARD: I am using ‘detachment’ in the Buddhist meaning of ‘withdrawal from the world of the senses’. I would never endorse any such method.

RESPONDENT: While there may indeed be some who proclaim to be Buddhist who hold to this definition of detachment it is by no means ‘the Buddhist meaning’ as Richard would have us believe.

RICHARD: Methinks upon closer examination you will find that it is indeed ‘the Buddhist meaning’ of the word. Contrary to popular belief, Buddhists are not actively pursuing peace-on-earth per se. The Buddhist’s ‘Ultimate Reality’ is called ‘The Parinirvana’ (Complete Nirvana) or the freedom of spirit (by whatever name) brought about by release from the body. According to the Buddhist assessment of the human condition, delusions of egocentricity and their resultant desires bind humans to a continuous round of rebirths and its consequent suffering (dukkha). It is release from these bonds that constitutes ‘Nirvana’, or the experience of Enlightenment. However, ‘Nirvana’ – in Buddhist religious thought and spiritual philosophy – is but the initial goal of the mindfulness disciplines and practice in that it signifies the transcendent state of freedom achieved by the extinction of desire and of individual consciousness. That this is only the inaugural objective is very clear to the discerning eye because – while liberation from rebirth does not imply immediate death and thus release into the ‘Ultimate Reality’ – the physical death of a ‘Perfect One’ (an Arhat or a Buddha) does. Thus while the immediate aim of the Buddhist path is release from the round of phenomenal existence with its inherent suffering by attaining Nirvana (the enlightened state in which the fires of greed, hatred, and ignorance have been quenched), Nirvana is not to be confused with total annihilation because, after attaining Nirvana, the enlightened individual will continue to live, burning off any remaining karma until the state of ‘Final Nirvana’ (Parinirvana) is attained at the moment of physical death. It may be noted that, during the early centuries of Buddhist history, not only were there the three major pilgrimage centres – the place of Mr. Buddha’s birth at Lumbini, the place of his Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, the Deer Park in Varanasi where he preached his first sermon – but particularly the village of Kusinara, (or Kushinagara) located in the eastern district of Deoria, which is the place of his Parinirvana.

Quite obviously, this is a very self-seeking approach to life on earth ... something that all metaphysical peoples are guilty of. The quest to secure one’s immortality (by whatever name) in some spurious ‘After-Life’ (by whatever name) is unambiguously selfish ... peace-on-earth is readily sacrificed for the supposed continuation of the imagined spirit (by whatever name) after physical death. So much for their humanitarian ideals of peace, goodness, altruism, philanthropy and humaneness. All religious and spiritual and mystical quests amount to nothing more than a self-centred urge to perpetuate oneself for ever and a day. All metaphysicists fall foul of this existential dilemma. They pay lip-service to the notion of self-sacrifice – weeping crocodile tears at noble martyrdom – whilst selfishly pursuing the timeless ‘State of Being’ ... the ‘Deathless State’. The root cause of all the ills of humankind can be sheeted home to this single, basic fact: the overriding importance of the survival of ‘self’ by whatever name.

RESPONDENT: Rather, detachment (properly understood in the context of the teachings of Buddha) is regarded on one level as an ending of the identification process; identifying with possessions, beliefs, titles, jobs, status, etc.

RICHARD: The word ‘detachment’ is a common English rendering of the mental absorption deemed necessary for the removal of what the Buddhists conceive of as being the cause of birth in the first place (in Pali ‘nirodha’ more properly means ‘cessation’). It refers to the ‘mindfulness’ that leads to the cessation of ‘dukkha’ (‘unsatisfactoriness’ or ‘suffering’) through the cessation of craving. In Buddhism, ‘craving’ (Pali ‘tanha’ or Sanskrit ‘trishna’) is said to draw creatures on through greed – and drives them on through hate – while ignorance prevents their seeing the truth of how things are or where they are going (ignorance is regarded as a basic factor in the continuity of existence). Therefore the Buddhist ‘detachment’ (‘nirodha’) is seen as the removal of a poison, the curing of a disease, not as the mere denial of it (opposed to the assertion of it) or the obstruction of it (in conflict with the favouring of it) since both assertion and denial confirm and maintain alike the basic idea or state that is required to be cured ... which state is known as ‘clinging’ (Pali ‘upadana’). The word ‘upadana’ means literally ‘taking up’ (‘upa’ plus ‘adana’) and is used for what the Buddhists maintain is the assumption and consumption that satisfies craving and produces existence. As craving pre-dates birth, such upadana is the condition sine qua non for ‘being’. And, as clinging’s ending is Nirvana, the Buddhist detachment (as ‘cessation’) is not to be confounded with mere negativism or nihilism ... it is a total disassociation of self from the world of people, things and events. Mr. Buddha expressly states that the self is not to be found anywhere in phenomenal existence ... as he so clearly enunciates to compliant monks in the Samyutta Nikaya XXII. 59 ‘Anatta-Lakkhana’ Sutta (The Discourse on the Not-self Characteristic). Vis.:

• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘Form, monks, is not self. If form were the self, this form would not lend itself to dis-ease (...) But precisely because form is not self, form lends itself to dis-ease (...) ‘Feeling is not self (...) ‘Perception is not self (...) ‘Mental fabrications are not self (...) ‘Consciousness is not self. If consciousness were the self, this consciousness would not lend itself to dis-ease (...) ‘What do you think, monks: Is form constant or inconstant?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Inconstant, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Stressful, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘No, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘Is feeling constant or inconstant (...)?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Inconstant Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘Is perception constant or inconstant (...)?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Inconstant, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘Are fabrications constant or inconstant(...)?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Inconstant, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘What do you think, monks: Is consciousness constant or inconstant (...)?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Inconstant, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘And is that which is inconstant easeful or stressful?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘Stressful, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘And is it fitting to regard what is inconstant, stressful, subject to change as: ‘This is mine. This is my self. This is what I am’?’
• [Messrs. Monks]: ‘No, Lord’.
• [Mr. Buddha]: ‘Thus, monks, any body whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every body is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am’. Any feeling whatsoever (...) Any perception whatsoever (...) Any fabrications whatsoever (...) Any consciousness whatsoever that is past, future, or present; internal or external; blatant or subtle; common or sublime; far or near: every consciousness is to be seen as it actually is with right discernment as: ‘This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am’. (...) Seeing thus, the instructed noble disciple grows 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’. (http://world.std.com/~metta/canon/samyutta/sn22-59.html).

Hence my use of ‘detachment’ in the post quoted (at the top of this post) was indeed in the full Buddhist meaning of ‘withdrawal from the world of the senses’ and, as I further wrote, I would never, ever endorse any such method because it promotes the fantasy that the ‘Real Self’ (by whatever name) is to be found in the ‘Timeless and Spaceless and Formless’ dimension that is not of this temporal and spatial world of matter ... this physical world of the senses.

RESPONDENT: We depend on these things to define who we are, to give substance to our self image. Therefore we are attached to them, because to lose them is to lose a part of our ‘self’. The practice of detachment in this context would be to pay attention to these ‘things’ and the fact of the identification process. Detachment itself (not its practice) arises from an awareness of the truth of the matter; the confusion, conflict and harm inherent in the identification process. With awareness of the truth comes an end to the matter; one is no longer attached by identification. One is now ‘detached’ (so to speak).

RICHARD: The ‘end to the matter’ only comes with the psychological and psychic extinction of self in any way, shape or form. One’s very identity is felt and thought to be a ‘being’ inside this flesh and blood body ... busily identifying with people, things and events ‘outside’ the body. To become detached from the superficial ‘outer’ identification (self-image as presented to self and others) only endorses and perpetuates the delusion that who ‘I’ feel and think ‘I’ am is a psychological and psychic entity inhabiting this body.

RESPONDENT: On another level detachment is regarded as an end to the bias and prejudice of past conditioning. It is freedom from partiality. It is seeing clearly. The practice of detachment in this context is to be attentive to the process of bias and prejudice as they manifest. Once again, it is awareness of the truth of the matter that ends the matter and detachment is then actualised, not practiced. In all matters it is this way. To practice is to be attentive to what is happening now. Attention is the seed. Returning again and again to attentiveness is caring for the seed. Awareness is the flowering plant that naturally arises from the seed of its own accord.

RICHARD: May I ask? What is the constitution of this ‘seed’ that you are letting flower into awareness? To say that the seed is ‘attention’ (and say nothing else) does not convey that this seed is, in itself, innocent.

RESPONDENT: To return to the ‘Buddhist meaning’ of detachment. I have never come across a ‘Buddhist’ definition as presented by Richard.

RICHARD: I beg to differ. Mr. Gunaratana Mahathera (the ‘Venerable H. Gunaratana Mahathera’ of the Bhavana Society; Rt. 1 Box 218-3 High View, WV 26808. USA.), for just one example, said on December 7, 1990:

• [quote]: ‘Vipassana is the oldest of Buddhist meditation practices. The method comes directly from the Sitipatthana Sutta, a discourse attributed to Buddha himself. Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years (...) this Sutta offers comprehensive practical instructions on the practice of mindfulness meditation’. [endquote].

An examination of this core Sutta shows a pronounced and deliberate withdrawal from the world of the senses and this flesh and blood body itself. Vis.:

The Satipatthana Sutta’ (Frames of Reference) Majjhima Nikaya 10: