First and Second Insights.

A Map of the Journey by u jotika
For free distribution only

Awareness of Consciousness and Object &
Comprehending the Cause of Phenomena

Welcome to meditation class, I am glad to see you.
Some of you come here quite early and sit and
meditate. It is very encouraging to see people coming
here to meditate. It shows that you really want to meditate,
that you really like, love what you are doing.

I am only here to help you, not really here to teach you.
Only if you really want to learn you learn.
Nobody can really teach you,
this is very important thing to understand.

To begin today's meditation class I would like to begin with
a question, a very simple question and the answer also is very
simple. But think for a while. What is the biggest burden we
are carrying? Just take a few minutes to think about it. It is very
important to ask the right question and also it is very important
to live the question. This idea, to live the question it is
very important. Only if we live the question will we get a living
answer and then we have to live the answer again. Only if we
live the answer we will find another very deep and meaningful
question. And, we live the question again. Living the question
is the right way to find the answer. Do you have a question? Are
you living a question? Any kind of question, but the question
must come out of your life; it must come out from your heart. It
must be a living question, not just a theoretical or hypothetical
question; it must be something very real.

Those who have real questions and
those who live the question live their life very seriously,
very meaningfully, very deeply.
After they have lived the question for a long time,
their life will give them the answer.
It is your life that gives you the answer;
you cannot find real answers from books or
from somebody else.

They may give you some hints only, but to see the truth of
the answer you have to look into your life again.

The truth of the answer does not lie in the sentence;
it lies in your life.

The question again, what is the biggest burden you are carrying
around? Have you asked that question to yourself? If not,
just ask it now, what is the biggest burden that I am carrying
around? Can you guess?

Right, the biggest burden
we are carrying around is 'I'.

Do you feel that? If you can just let go of that 'I' you'll feel
light again. That is the biggest burden! That is why the first
thing we learn in meditation is to see that there are only natural
phenomena: pure mental and physical phenomena. One phenomenon
is mental which is very distinct from another phenomenon
which is physical or material.

The first insight is to see that there are just phenomena,
nothing permanent, no being, no entity, no 'I', no ego, no
personality,
just pure phenomena. That brings tremendous relief,
it unburdens the mind. This 'I' is the creation of the mind, it
creates its own burden. The first stage of enlightenment totally
eradicates this I-ness, the wrong view of I-ness, sakkaya-ditthi. It
does not eradicate greed, this is an important point to notice,
and it does not even eradicate anger or competition like pride.
It eradicates the wrong view of 'I'. Sometimes people say "these
people are meditating but they are still very greedy." Yes, they
can still be very greedy, but that greed has no backing of 'I'. Even
though they are greedy they will not go and steal or cheat. They
will get what they want properly, in a proper way. I'll review
what I have said last week and continue from there.

Namarupanam yathavadassanam ditthivisuddhi nama.
~Vsm 587

Namarupanam is a compound word, nama and rupa. Nama is
a process, not an entity or a being, not permanent. It is not always
there. Nama is something that arises. Rupa also is not a thing. Rupa
actually is a quality. Please keep this in mind. Whenever we use the
word rupa we are not talking about a thing. We are talking about a
quality, like heat, is a quality not a thing, cold is not a thing, it
is a quality and it is a process. It is something going on and on
continuously. It has continuity but it is arising and passing away,
arising and passing away. That is why it is called a process.
These two processes, nama and rupa are distinct, they are not the
same. Sometimes I hear about this non duality, saying that there is no
such thing as nama or rupa, both of them are the same. That is not
true. They are not the same. They are very distinct. Nama is a kind of
consciousness, knowing. Rupa is just an object with out this quality
of knowing; it doesn't know. Nama is that quality which knows; rupa
does not know anything, it is just pure material quality. They are two
different things, material and mental.

In the meditation practice, the mind becomes very quiet
and still although sometimes a few thoughts might come and go,
the mind stays on the object for a long time. It begins to focus
on one thing; it does not put things together. This not putting
anything together is very important.

When we put things together we get a concept,
we get paññatti. When we don't put things together,
when we see something purely as it is;
then we are really seeing the quality, either nama or rupa.

When the mind becomes so still and sees pure quality, we
can see that this is just pure quality, not a being, not a man, not
a woman. This is the first insight, it is very important. Unless we
can get to this first insight, there is not hope of any progress. We
come to see that there is this consciousness which is aware of
this object. For example, this sound, when I make a sound, this
sound is pure physical quality, it is a process. You can hear the
ringing going on and on and then it goes away.

Before I make a sound there is no awareness of this sound.
This awareness arises because of this sound. You can see the two very
clearly, very separately. And the awareness arises now. It is not
already there, to be aware of. It is not waiting to hear the
sound. The awareness arises when the sound arises. Before the
awareness of the sound there is another awareness, which is also a
condition for the next awareness to arise. But they are not the same.
We think that there is some sameness all the time, some thing that is
always there. This is the way we create continuity in our mind.
Thoughts create continuity and they create this idea of sameness. When
we totally stop thinking and become mindful and concentrate and pay
attention to whatever is happening right now, we see that something is
arising right now. It was not there before. It is right now.

"Namarupanam yathavadassanam ditthivisuddhi nama":
Yathava means truly, properly rightly, as it is. Dassanam means
to see. To see nama and rupa, mental and physical phenomena
as they are, truly, properly, rightly is called ditthivisuddhi.
Ditthi means view. Visuddhi means purity or purification. And here the
(second) word nama means "it is called."

When we see this Pali word Nama, we have to keep in mind
that it has many meanings, a different meaning in different contexts.
In some cases, some people translate nama-rupa as name
and form, which is wrong translation. I discussed this with Venerable
Ñanavisuddhi and it took us two days. We went through many
translations. Nama does not mean name. Name is a concept.
But another meaning of nama is name. And in another
case it means 'it means'. In the beginning of the sentence, nama
means mental process. In the same sentence (at the end) nama
means 'it means'.

So to translate this Pali sentence, it means ditthivisuddhi
(purification of view) means seeing as it is, truly, properly,
rightly the process of mental and physical phenomena. So nama-rupa
doesn't mean name and form. Name is a concept. Form and
shape is also a concept. They're not reality.

When we meditate and develop this nama-rupa-paricchedañana,
it does not mean that we know the name and the form; it
means that we see mental and physical process. Wrong translation
gives us a very wrong idea, it is very confusing sometimes.
For example we are sitting and meditating and breathing in and
out, at first we are aware of the shape of our body, the shape
of our nose, sometimes we even imagine the shape of the air
long, like a rope, going in and out. This 'long' is something you
imagine. Where is the long air going in and out? No long air.
But sometimes it feels like that. Slowly and slowly we overcome
all this imagination of shape and name and we come to the pure
awareness of sensation, something rushing in, touching, pushing
and this touching, pushing is a process, a very simple process.
Even in this simple process, we have wrong view.

To purify this wrong view, we see this simple process
without mixing it with anything else.
We see that this is just pure sensation.

And after a while we see that there is this consciousness,
which is aware of this sensation. The sensation can be warm,
can be cold. When we breathe in, it is a little bit cool, when we
breathe out, it is a little bit warm. This warm or cool, pushing,
touching,... you become aware of it, we are not thinking about
it and we see that there are two very distinct processes going on,
and neither of them is a being, an entity, and neither of them
lasts a long time. They are arising now and disappearing now.

In the beginning we don't emphasize on arising and passing
away, we emphasize on just pure process. This physical process, this
materiality has no volition, it has no intention. For example the hair
does not know that it is in the head and the hair does not want to go
anywhere; so who wants to go? mind, consciousness.

This materiality has no volition, no intention. Seeing that
consciousness goes to the object and it reaches the object. We want to
hear, we pay attention, and this paying attention is a quality of
nama, taking the object knowing the object. There is something which
does not know anything, which is physical process and there is another
process which knows the object. The two are very different. Nama
arises because of the object. Without any object there cannot be any
consciousness. The consciousness is not already there.

For example when I touch like this, the sound does not
come out of this stick, it does not come out from the bell even.
This means that the sound is not already there. Depending on
how hard I hit, the quality of the sound will be different; it is not
already there sitting and waiting to come out one after another.
If it is already sitting there waiting to come out, no matter how
hard I hit, the same sound will come out. If I change the condition
the result will be different. So, the sound is not in the
stick, it is not in the bell, and it is not waiting there. It happens
when the stick hits the bell, which means everything is new. To
understand it as something new is very important. It is the same
thing with seeing, when there is no awareness, when you keep
your eyes shut, you do not see what is in front. The moment you
open your eyes, something strikes your eyes and this awareness, this
seeing consciousness arises. It arises at this moment; you can see the
two different things, the object and the consciousness.
This is called, namarupa-pariccheda-ñana.

In another case, for example when you want to move, first
consciousness arises, the intention to move and then the hand
or the leg moves. In the case of the sound, the sound preconditions
the consciousness, because of the sound, consciousness arises. In the
case of moving it is your intention which preconditions the movement,
physical process conditioning mental process, and mental process
conditioning physical process. It works both ways. When we feel hungry
and we want to eat, we take the food and put it in our mouth. But who
is eating really? The function of eating it is done by the body, the
physical process.
The hand takes the food and puts it in the mouth. If you don't
move the hand and just sit and look at the food and tell the food
to go to the mouth, it won't go.
The mind intends and gives directions, instructions to the
body; so the mind intends and the body eats.

Mind and body eating, not 'I' eating,
mind and body eating, but we think that I am eating.
In truth it is just mind and body process eating.
If you can understand that as a process then
you have this purity of view.

When you want to drink it is the same process. When you
want to walk it is the same thing. Like you are standing for a
long time and you feel very tired, you legs become very stiff, you
want to move, and the intention is coming, 'move, move', it
really pushes the body. You decide to move, lift your leg, move
it forward and place it, so... mind and body moving, not a being
moving. That way of seeing is nama-rupa-pariccheda-ñana.

In truth there is no being. There is a reality where we see
the being as a truth, this is sammuti-sacca (mundane reality).
Don't mix the two realities. In mundane reality there are beings,
there are men, there are women. When we come to paramattha,
when we meditate we go beyond that, and look into the
qualities only. But when we meditate we don't think about it.
The important point is to try and think before you meditate,
but when you sit and meditate don't think about nama-rupa
anymore. As you become more and more mindful, as your mind
stays more and more on the process, it will appear naturally,
spontaneously, and the understanding will be there very clearly:
two processes going on.

Understanding or seeing nama-rupa process properly, rightly
means seeing that "This is nama, this is a mental process", this
means that this is not a being. This is mental process. And nama
means just this (process). It does not mix with physical process,
no mixing and no adding. Normally we mix all things together
and we have a vague idea about things. But here we come to a
very clear cut seeing: this is nama, just nama and it does not
mix with rupa. Although they are interrelated they are not the
same, they are two distinct processes. There is nothing more
than this. Nama is just this nama. It's not more than that, and
seeing, "This is rupa, physical": heat, cold, movement, pressure,
heaviness, anything, these are just physical process. This much
is physical, not more than this. It has a limit to it. This much is
physical. It doesn't mix with mental, although it is also related
with mental process. 'No more than that'.

'Just seeing the inherent quality of nature', many different
qualities; just seeing the different qualities of nature. Clean the
impurity of seeing the process as something, ego or 'I' and to
remove it. So remove the impurity of the wrong view of 'I', or
the wrong view of soul, of being of entity. Removing this wrong
view of belief in a soul should be understood as ditthi-visuddhi.
When a person reaches this insight, nama-rupa-paricchedañana,
this state of insight is purity of view (ditthivisuddhi). That
comes with the first insight.

The second insight is Paccaya-pariggaha-ñana. Paccaya
means cause, and pariggaha means grasping, understanding.
Ñana means understanding. This English word grasping has
many meanings. One of them is to grasp something in your
hand, to take it very firmly, but it also means understanding.
So, grasping the cause of the phenomena, seeing, understanding
the cause of the phenomena, they are related. First we see the
object as object and the consciousness as just consciousness and
then slowly when this insight becomes mature, without thinking
about it, the meditator starts seeing that because of this object,
consciousness arises.

This object is the cause of this consciousness. The consciousness
does not arise by itself; nobody is creating it. It is
not arising just without any reason; it is arising because it has
a cause to arise. Depending on the person's intellectual development
or knowledge, different people see different aspects of
causes and some people see more, some people see less but it
does not matter. The thing that does matter is that no matter
what arises you see that it has a cause. For example, taking the
sound again, the consciousness of the sound arises because of
the sound which is quite obvious. But we may think that every
body knows that, why do we need to go and meditate? We don't
need to meditate to find that out. We know it intellectually, but
it is quite different.

Intellectual understanding does not
remove this strong believe in self.
We think that we hear the sound, "I hear the sound".
But in meditation this 'I' disappears.

You see that this consciousness arises just now because of this
sound, no 'I' hearing. Sometimes you come to the understanding
that because of the ear, there is hearing; hearing is a
consciousness.
Sound and ear, the ear drum which is the sensitive part of
the ear, is the cause of hearing. If you go on meditating for a long
time, you come to understand that, "only when I pay attention, I
hear the sound"; I am using the word 'I' in a conventional sense.
Sometimes there is a lot of noise going on around, people talking
etc., but if we don't pay attention we don't hear.

We come to understand the mind turning to the object,
paying attention (manasikara);
without paying attention we don't hear.

When we are sleeping although the ear drum is still working
and there are many sounds happening we don't hear, because
we are not paying attention. This is a very obvious example.
Also when we are awake and we are very absorbed in reading, if
somebody near us calls our name, we don't hear, because we are
not paying attention. Sound, sensitive ear and attention conditions
the hearing.

The same with seeing, we think that we see, but when we
develop this insight and we are looking at something, we know
the consciousness; we know that because of the object there is
this consciousness. After a while, without thinking it may appear
to you and because the eye is sensitive, we see. Sometimes people
come and tell me "it is so amazing, we see". Suddenly the
person finds out that it is really amazing that we see. Have you
have experienced that? This is so marvelous, miraculous; suddenly
we feel something in a new way.

Why not seeing? One philosopher, Wittgenstein, have you
heard of him? He was a contemporary of Bertrand Russell. In fact
he was a student of Russell and he replaced Russell in his
professorship.
Wittgenstein said something which is very deep and
meaningful, he said "Why not nothing instead of something"? If
you really understand this, sometimes you'll be really shocked; it
is so amazing that there is something! So amazing that there are
flowers, there are trees, there are insects and animals, there are
human beings and there are planets. Why not nothing? Why is
there something? Just that something is there is really amazing.
In the same away a meditator begins to find out that seeing is
happening and it is really amazing. The person sees the seeing as
a new process, a new experience. Most of the time we go about
doing things unconsciously, like in a dream; suddenly we wake
up and see that... there is seeing and this is really amazing. You
experience seeing as something really new. It really strikes you,
and it hits you. I really feel happy when somebody comes and
tells me "Oh, it is amazing, we see, we hear, we think". Why is
that happening?

Etass' eva pana namarupassa paccayapariggahanena
tøsu addhasu kankham vitaritva thitam ñanam
Kankhavitarana-visuddhi nama.
~Vsm 598

Etass' eva pana namarupassa: of that nama-rupa that we talked
about just a few moments ago.

paccayapariggahanena: Seeing the cause of it
tisu addhasu: past, present and future. When we meditate we
pay attention to the present only. We don't pay attention to
the past because it has gone. And we don't pay attention to
the future because it is not there. But when we understand
the present properly, we also understand the past and the
future.

kankham vitaritva: When we see that nama-rupa arises because
of the conditions, because there is a cause to arise, seeing
this very clearly eradicates all doubts; kankham means
doubt. Vitaritva means to overcome. We overcome doubt.

What are the doubts that we have? We think about this 'I',
"was I born before? Am I going to be born in the future?" But
when you see the nama-rupa, the process and the causes for
the nama-rupa to arise, we understand that as it is happening
now, it has happened before, and it will happen in the
future if there are sufficient causes for it to happen. If there
are conditions it will happen, if there are no conditions it
will not happen.

When we ask the question "was I before"? It is a wrong question.
"Will I be there again?" Some people ask what happens to
the Arahant after death. If we are asking this question with the
idea of a person, this question is a wrong one. In reality there
is no such thing as 'I', but there is process. If you understand
process happening now and the cause of the process happening
now, you'll understand that no matter what the story is, what
we call a man, a woman, a mother, a father, this and that, if
we leave out all those names and concepts but look at it as just
process, you'll find that in the past also there was nama process,
and rupa process arising and passing away, just the way they are
arising and passing away just now. Understanding the present
completely, eradicates doubts about present and future. It also
eradicates the doubt of "who created this"? It is happening just
out of the blue, just for no reason, no cause, or is there some
body who is making it all happen?

This is a question that is also cleared away,
because we know nobody is creating it,
it is just natural causes and natural effect only.

Depending on the person's knowledge sometimes, say if a
person has studied Dependent Origination (paticcasamuppada),
they start to see the reality of it. But if the person has not
studied it, it does not matter. The basic idea of Dependent
Origination
is that because of this cause, this result arises, if there were
no cause, there would not be any results. If the cause ceases, the
result ceases. In brief this is Dependent Origination. If the person
has a wide knowledge, he will understand that because of
this sound, and because of this ear, and because of this coming
together of the sound, ear and consciousness, there is a contact.
Because of this coming in contact, there is vedana; there is some
sort of pleasant or unpleasant sensation or feeling. Because of
this pleasant or unpleasant feeling, desire or aversion arises.
We can see the reality of it very clearly, we may not be able
to see it completely but we will see part of it very clearly. If
you have never heard or seen something before and having no
expectation see or hear about it, can there be any desire for that
thing? You don't even know what it is, so no desire for it. How
does desire arises? Because you have heard about it or you have
seen it before. Because of coming into contact there is vedana,
because of vedana there is tanha (craving, desire).

Depending on a person's knowledge, during meditation
without thinking much, suddenly a flash of understanding
comes up, very short and brief, sometimes even a very short
Pali word or even an English word if you read in English will
come up in your mind. Don't think too much of these thoughts,
although they are very deep and profound, if you go on thinking
it interrupts your continuity of mindfulness and observation. In
between your meditation practice these thoughts will come up
again and again, watch them, thinking... reflecting.... These
thoughts in those moments can be very powerful and have a lot
of energy, very deep, very clear and very inspiring too, so that
sometimes we want to talk about it; we cannot stop talking about
it. When that sort of thing happens to you, it is very important
to understand that if you start talking about it, you lose your
mindfulness. During the meditation retreat or any other situation
if you really want to develop deeper insights don't think
or talk about it, although it is very hard to control. We develop
such clear insights and feel so happy about it, so relieved and we
want the same thing to happen to our friends, whoever is close
to us. We know that if this person understands this, they will be
really relieved, because you have experienced yourself that kind
of relief.

This burden of 'I', once you see nama-rupa,
once you see the cause of nama-rupa
arising and passing away, you feel tremendous relief.
There is a lot of joy, rapture, a lot of saddha (faith)
and also you believe in the Buddha.

Somebody told me that, when he first experienced this
he felt a lot of joy and rapture in his body and immediately he
thought of the Buddha: "Buddha was really right". Many people
in that moment want to bow down and pay respect to the Buddha,
real respect, real veneration, true saddha appears. You don't
force yourself, it happens so naturally. Another friend also who
is a good meditator, he was sitting and meditating and when he
developed deep insight said "I pay respect to the Buddha who
taught this mindfulness". It is a very new way of paying respect;
very personal; not because of any reason or other causes but just
because he taught this mindfulness practice.

In the texts there are many different doubts mentioned, but
it is not necessary to go through all of them. The first thing
is that, before this life was there 'I'? This is one doubt. Before
this life wasn't there 'I'? This is actually the same question from
a different angle. If there was an 'I' how was that 'I'? In what
shape, in what form, was that a man or a woman? All sorts of
doubts people have. Last week I spoke about a friend of mine
who was a woman and now is a man.

Don't be too proud of being a man and
don't be unhappy about being a woman.
Nobody is better.
It is your practice, it is your understanding,
and it is your heart which really counts.

So "was I a woman?", "was I a man?", "was I a European or
an Asian?" There are all sorts of doubts, but when you under
stand this very deeply, you'll see that these names are just
conventions,
something that happened before. As long as there are
sufficient causes there will be results.

"Will I be reborn again?" "Will I not be reborn?" The same
doubt. "Is there a soul inside, living somewhere?" That is also
another kind of doubt. When you look very deeply into the
physical and mental process, you'll find that everything is always
arising and passing away. There is no such thing as permanent
entity, everything is changing, arising and passing away. Where
does this 'I' come from?

When we use the word rebirth it is very different from reincarnation,
although sometimes we use the two as if they are the
same. The two words are not the same. Reincarnation means,
some permanent entity taking a new body. It means that a soul
is going into a new body; there is no such thing as the soul going
into a new body, there is only consciousness, mental process and
physical process. In the text it is explained in great detail
repeating the same thing again and again. It is a two volume text on
meditation. If I go through every detail it will take quite a long
time. Just try to understand this in any other context, smelling,
tasting, sensation on the body, in the sound and seeing as I have
explained before. Take that as an example and try to understand
any other process in the body and mind.

Just briefly, for some people who have a very deep understanding,
they see the Dependent Origination from the beginning,
so, avijja which means ignorance or not knowing, not knowing
what? Not knowing the truth, not knowing the reality. Because
we don't know, we think that if I do this I'll get something that
will make me happy. This is called 'not knowing'; because there
is nothing that can really make us happy.

If you think about it, it is very depressing; we have been
deceiving ourselves for too long. Just wake up and grow up!
Have you ever found anything that really makes you satisfied
always? We look for that all the time, something that would
make us really satisfied, really happy, have you found it? Is there
anything like that?

Believing that something will make us happy and
doing things in the hope that it will make us happy,
it is a delusion, it is avijja; also not understanding
the Four Noble Truths which is the same thing.

I want to put things in a very simple way so that you can
relate to it. For example, we do dana here, every Sunday; people
come and offer to me. Every day people come and offer that is
a good thing to do; generosity is great! We need to help each
other, to give to each other. We give money, we give food, we
give clothing, we give time, we give attention, we give knowledge,
teaching is also giving, and it is good to do. But what
do you expect from it? That expectation is very important. "If
I offer this food to this venerable bhikkhu (monk) then by the
result of this kamma, I'll be reborn as a very rich person, I'll be
very happy, I will be very satisfied"; this is delusion. It will
bring results but it will not really make you happy.

Even in doing dana sometimes we are doing it with a lot of
avijja, thinking that it will bring us real happiness, real
satisfaction.
Why do we do that? What do we expect when we do that?

The best to expect is that,
"by the power of this generosity may I get
the opportunity to practice and understand the reality",
that is the reality that we can hope for.

In many stories you'll hear that somebody offers a small
amount of this and then he got so much. It is a good investment.
It is based on greed and 'I'; I'll get a lot again, it is a good
investment.
Look deep into that, because if you expect so much, it is
greed. You are doing dana but it is rooted in greed, in this wrong
view of 'I'. Because of that sort of view, we do something good
and sometimes we foolishly do bad things, unwholesome actions,
stealing, killing, all rooted in the belief that if we get it we will
be happy; such as taking intoxicants, believing that it will make us
happy. Either good or bad kamma, if we don't understand deeply,
we'll be doing it with the belief of "I will get some result".

When a person meditates deeply, he or she will
begin to see that: avijja-paccaya sankhara;
Sankhara-paccaya viññanam, and
the whole process of Dependent Origination goes on.

To explain Dependent Origination there should be another
class, in order to explain it very deeply. Because this
paccayapariggaha-ñana is talking about cause and effect,
and Dependent Origination is also cause and effect; it is related.

Here is something very interesting and very deep:

Kammam n' atthi vipakamhi, pako kamme na vijjati,
Aññamaññam ubho suñña, Na ca kammam vina phalam.
Kammañ ca kho upadaya tato nibbatttate phalam.
Na h' ettha devo brahma va samsarass' atthi karako,
Suddhadhamma pavattanti hetusambharapaccaya ti.
~Vsm 603

Kammam n' atthi vipakamhi, pako kamme na vijjati: The cause is
not in the effect, in the cause there is no effect. It is not one
in another. The two are not the same. If you think the result
is in the cause or the cause is in the result, you are taking the
two as together. They are not together, they are separate.

Aññamaññam ubho suñña: One is devoid of the other, this is not
in that; that is not in this; they are devoid of each other.

Na ca kammam vina phalam: but without the cause there is no
effect. It is a very beautiful gatha (verse); it is like a quiz,
very deep and meaningful.

Kammañ ca kho upadaya tato nibbatttate phalam: Because of the
kamma the result happens.

Na h' ettha devo brahma va saasarass' atthi karako: There is no
creator which creates saasara (cyclic existence).

Suddhadhamma pavattanti hetusambharapaccaya: just pure
dhamma, and pure nature happening, because of suitable
conditions.

Depending on the person's intelligence, knowledge, a lot of
these things appear in the mind... it is arising because it has
sufficient
causes. In this stage of meditation a lot of thoughts arise,
naturally, because you begin to see something that is so true, so
profound. Again and again many links appear in the mind, very
important to remember, not to think too much about it, because
you have developed some samadhi and some mindfulness you
can see things so clearly that it makes you think very deeply.

You can get very attached to your own insights,
"Oh, now I see it so clearly, it is so true",
you keep repeating things like that, and
you want to think about it.
A person who has understood these two insights is called
a minor Sotapanna. Sotapanna means stream winner. The real
sotapanna is the person who has attained the first magga-phala
(knowledge of entering the stream of the Path and fruition).
This is not really magga-phala but a person who has understood
nama-rupa and the cause of nama-rupa, has eradicated a lot of
gross wrong views of permanent entity, 'I', self. Because of that
purity this person is very similar to a real Sotapanna. So he is
called a minor Sotapanna.

This is something very inspiring:

Imina pana ñanena samannagato vipassako
Buddhasasane laddhassaso laddhapatittho niyatagatiko
~Vsm 605

The meditator (vipassako) who has (samannagato) this
understanding, with this insight (ñanena), has got relief
(laddhassaso),
meaning that before he was burdened, now he has
been relieved from this burden. He has something to stand on
(laddhapatittho), some deep insight to rely on. A person who
has attained and maintains this insight, he is niyatagatiko which
means that he will not be reborn in a lower realm. Your rebirth
depends on the quality of your mind, the quality of your
consciousness.
This deep insight has tremendous power and gives
you a kind of purity of view, and because of this purity of view
the quality of mind is so high that it cannot be reborn in a lower
realm. Your life depends on your quality of mind. The two
have to match. A lower quality of consciousness, gets rebirth
so to speak, in a lower realm, lower quality of life. Once you
have developed a deeper insight and pure understanding and
also have purity of Søla, purity of your clear mind, purity of this
insight; the quality is so high that you can not be reborn in a
lower realm. But if you lose your Sila, if you lose your Samadhi
and you lose this wisdom then it is unsure. If you can maintain
this insight it gives tremendous relief because you won't be
reborn in a lower realm.

One of my friends who was a meditator, I don't know if he
is still a meditator now because he is very busy. I hope he still
is. Once when he penetrated into these insights he came and
told me that, "before I understood this, I thought that when I
want something I have to have it, I wouldn't be happy without
it, I have to go and get it". This 'have to', to have to is a big
burden. Now he said "even though I am still very greedy", (he
is a very greedy person actually), "whenever any greed comes
in my mind I know this is greed, before that I thought I really
want this". If you identify 'I' and this want together it becomes a
big problem. But when you don't identify with it, you see it as a
process, a desire, a strong wanting arising. He said "now I know
that I don't have to do anything about it". At first he thought if
he didn't get it he would not be happy, "I want this and I will be
happy if I get it and if I don't get it I won't be happy". Now he
says he can just watch it and it is a tremendous relief. If you can
do that much you can eradicate ninety per cent of your unhappiness.
You can see the greed and desire just for what it is.

Without getting the back up of this wrong view of 'I',
any defilement becomes weak.
Defilements become very strong whenever
they get this back up of 'I', wrong view,
"I am angry, I am upset, I want to be better".

Whenever that kind of thought appears in your mind, if you
can just back away, detach, not identify, and watch it just as a
mental process it loses its power. You can maintain your dignity,
your equanimity and if you really need it you can find a good
way to get it.

Between what we need and what we want there is a very
big gap. What we want is limitless, what we really need is very
little; you won't believe how little we really need to be happy. I
told you about my teacher once, maybe some of you remember.
He lives in a very small place. He is a very learned monk,
exceptional.
I am very fortunate to have met quite a few teachers.
They practice what they teach and they teach what they practice.
They are not teaching from the head or from the books,
they teach from their life. So, this teacher lives a very simple
life. His place is empty, just a bare empty room. He sleeps on
a piece of wooden block and puts a towel on it and uses it as a
pillow. No carpet, nothing on the floor. He will spread a piece of
cloth on the floor and sleep there. No furniture, nothing in his
place. Some people, who came to visit him, found he had nothing.
They said that they had heard about this monk not having
anything but when they got there and looked in the place they
really found that truly he had nothing. He eats one meal a day,
vegetarian, most of the time a little rice, a bit of tomato salad,
bean sprouts, very small amount of boiled beans and a very
small amount of some other vegetables. People offer him cakes,
biscuits but he does not eat them. He says that these things are
not agreeable. Eating just one meal a day, he has been doing
that for more than forty years and is very healthy. I have known
him for twenty years now and he was sick only twice and that
somebody chopped some pork meat in small pieces, and the person
offering him food that day didn't know that he didn't eat meat
and as it was mixed with the vegetables he didn't know. So he
just ate it and got diarrhea. Amazing, if you tell a doctor that a
person can eat such a simple meal once a day and stay healthy, I
think that ninety nine percent of them will say that this person
will suffer from all kinds of malnutrition, but he didn't have any
of those signs. I cannot be like him, but he lives like that. Every
thing he possesses can be carried in a small bundle.

Between what we want and what we need there is a tremendous
gap, but these days people are increasing their wants
more and more.

If you understand your mind,
if you understand this greed, then let go,
you can make your life very simple and easy.
Life will not be such a big burden anymore!
Actually, the burden of life is not so big;
the burden of greed is bigger.

I think I should stop here today and let you ask a few questions.
On our next meeting I'll talk about the third and the
fourth insight. The third and fourth are very important, the first
and second are very important also. They are the base. Without
understanding the first two we cannot move on.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
If you keep practicing you can maintain that.
It is the practice that maintains them. Also, once you have
developed that sort of insight you can see the importance
of it. That insight also can help make your life very simple.
When we don't have that insight, we make our lives very
complicated; you are doing too many unnecessary things,
thinking too much unnecessarily, seeing, hearing, eating,
and going here and there.

Once you develop this insight it
will make you see that there are important things in
your life and there are things that are not important.
You'll see the two very differently.

Mostly, we put everything together and think that everything
is of equal importance and we get involved in so many
things that we don't have enough time, not to meditate
even. A lot of our worries, worrying about the children, the
husband, the wife, about work, are not necessary. Once you
develop these insights you worry very little. Your worries
are only immediate problems. Only when you get sick you
need to worry about it and see a doctor. But you don't sit
and think of what will happen in the next ten years or thirty
years. You do what you need to do, what you have to do and
you can let go a lot, very simple

That's why I said that most meditators,
real meditators who keep the insights,
live a very lead a simple life;
they cannot live a complicated life.

One of my friends' who is a good meditator said that
she is really afraid of getting something new in the house,
because that new thing will occupy her mind, will take her
time. Most people when they go to the city, they see many
stores, full of so many beautiful things, useful things... "I
want this, I want that"... no end to it. This person said that
whenever she goes down the road and looks at the stores
she sees so much junk. Who needs these things? Who is creating
these needs? People are creating need and making you
believe that you really need it and if you don't have it you
won't be happy; you are conned! People who understand
this mental process deeply know that they don't need it.

You can do away with so much and let your life become
very simple and you'll have more time to meditate.
It is important to maintain the insight and the only way
to do it is to keep practicing.
If you can develop deeper and deeper and reach the
first stage of enlightenment, there is no way of coming back
again. Until we reach the first stage of enlightenment we
have to keep practicing.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
I said that nama has many meanings. We
already know that nama means name, rupa means form;
nama, mental process, rupa, physical process. Use the meaning
according to the context. Nama has many other meanings
too, it is confusing. Once you understand that there are
many meanings and you use the right one for that context,
it won't confuse you anymore.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
In brief the first insight is to see that there is a
physical process, which is not a being and there is another
process, consciousness, mental process. The two are distinct;
physical process is not mental process, mental process is not
physical process but one conditions the other. For example
when you hear something the sound conditions the hearing,
the ear conditions the hearing, the sound and the ear which
is the ear drum is rupa, physical process. You pay attention
to the sound and this hearing consciousness arises which
is næma. Another example is when you want to move, the
intention to move arises which is consciousness and the
body moves. Even when you close or open your eyes there is
the intention to open and to close. Intention and consciousness
arising with it is nama. Second insight is very close to it.
You see that this nama arises because of this rupa, and this
rupa, physical process arises because of this mental process,
depending on the situation; the two condition each other.

Seeing the conditioning, seeing that it arises because of conditions
is the second insight. I have not spoken about the
third and the fourth insight yet, but since you want to know
I'll explain them very briefly. The first insight is Anatta, seeing
næma and rupa as a process, not a being, not an entity,
not soul, it means Anatta. Seeing that it arises because of
sufficient causes it is also Anatta. It is not created, so this is
also Anatta-ñana. The third insight sees all three, Anicca,
Dukkha and Anatta, seeing this process arising and passing
away. Only in the third insight the person begins to see real
anicca, arising and passing away, but not really mature. The
fourth insight emphasizes more on Anicca, not Dukkha and
Anatta. Although it comes together, it emphasizes more on
arising and passing away. Next week I'll talk about the third
and fourth insight in detail. As I repeat things, I hope it will
get clearer and clearer.

QUESTION &AN S W E R:
Even the first two you will not be able to get
them by just reading. It is easy to understand when you talk
about them, but it is not real insight, it is knowledge. When
you experience them you'll know because at that moment
you are not thinking about them. You are really seeing very
clearly. It is really amazing how clear it is. It is really surprising
also.

QUESTION &
AN S W E R: A few people that I have known that don't
read much have reached the first insight, but it is very difficult
to reach deeper insights. They see that thoughts are
just thoughts, there is no being there. I know one person
like that. He didn't go to any meditation centre but when
I spoke with him, the way he spoke about it makes me feel
that this person has real deep insight about just process. He
said there are just thoughts, they are not mine, they come
and go.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
Minor insight, according to my understanding of
what you mean... Buddha spoke about three different kinds
of understanding. First you understand something when you
listen to somebody talking, or when you read. That is a kind
of minor insight. Second when you think deeply, you get a
deeper insight and the third is real meditative insight. The
first two levels you can just read listen and think, you can
clear away a lot of wrong views just by reading and thinking.
That's why it is important to read, to listen and to think, to
ask questions and to make things clear. That's why we are
here to get minor insights. Listening and reading can give
you deep insight but there is one more stage to go: meditative
ñana. This is the beauty of the teaching of the Buddha.
Buddha acknowledges the knowledge or understanding you
get from reading and listening and the knowledge that you
get from thinking and mostly people stop there, especially
western philosophers, they stop there. Buddha goes one step
further: meditative ñana.

QUESTION: ... but you can't get really deep insight unless
you are meditating.

AN S W E R: That's right. That's why Buddhism is practical.
If you really want to understand nama, rupa, anicca,
dukkha, anatta there is no other way to get it.
The only way is to really meditate,
to become really mindful.
That's the profundity of the Buddhist teaching.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
Samatha meditation is a base, a very strong
base, very good if you can develop that.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
Buddha talked about mindfulness every day,
and mindfulness is vipassana. Buddha has repeatedly spoken
about looking deeply. Satipatthana is vipassana. These
four foundations of mindfulness have four different types of
objects. In practice we cannot really categorize them like
this, because they get mixed. When you sit and meditate
on breathing it is kayanupassana; and then thoughts come,
and you watch a thought, it is cittanupassana. You feel
something in your body, which is pleasant or unpleasant,
that is vedananupassana. Sometimes your mind becomes
very calm and you see, oh, it is calm, which becomes dhammanupassana.
When you are mindful and you know there is
mindfulness it is dhammanupassana.
Nu is a short form of anu which means repeatedly, passana
means to see: to see it again and again.
When you see something just for a brief moment
you are not really sure of what you have seen,
but when you see it again and again,
it becomes more and more clear.
If I have something in a cup and I cover it, show it to
you for a brief second, cover it again and ask you what is in
there, you may not be very sure. If you have some time to
look at it, you know what it is. So, it is keeping your mind
again and again on these processes - kaya, vedana, citta,
dhamma.

QUESTION & AN S W E R:
Without a cause, nothing can arise. When you
have a pleasant sensation it is because... for example, the
most obvious is unpleasant. If you pinch yourself there is an
unpleasant sensation. Because of the pinching, something
coming in contact, it is hard so you feel pain. When you sit
on a very soft mattress it is very pleasant. With the eye you
have only neutral feeling, neutral vedana, it has no pleasant
or unpleasant but when you interpret it as pleasant or
unpleasant it becomes another process, a mental process.
When you like what you see it is not eye consciousness anymore.
This liking is another consciousness. When you see
something, purely seeing is eye consciousness and at that
moment you don't even know what you see, there is only
pure seeing. Another step is when you identify with what
you see, and then you decide whether you like it or not.
Consciousness is Nama, the object is rþpa which is colour.
When we see, we only see colour, eye consciousness
is only colour; it does not see man or woman or anything,
only colour. The next step happens in the mind, which is
interpretation. When the mind interprets, it is not seeing
consciousness anymore, it is mind consciousness. Because
of your past experience when you see something you know
what you see. Because you liked it before you liked it now. If
you see something totally new and you don't know what it
is, you don't have either liking or disliking. You just think;
what is this? So, it is past conditioning. For example in
Burma a lot of people like this fish sauce, ground fish paste;
ground like flour. It is sticky and very smelly. People like it
very much and I hate it very much. So it is conditioning.

When seeing is not mixed with anything,
not mixed with memory;
that is pure consciousness of seeing.
It has no liking or disliking.
Only the memory which comes with a thought
makes liking or not liking happen.

When you see something and you like it, it is because
of your past conditioning. When you see something and you
don't know what it is then you have only this consciousness
of, 'what is it?'

You make no decision on whether you like it or not.
So, liking or not liking is conditioned.
We can de-condition that too.

For example, you have lived here for many years and
until you came here there were many things of which you
didn't have experience. Now after a long time you are
used to eating, seeing, hearing so many things, now you
like them. Before you didn't know whether you liked them
or not. Sometimes we eat something and we are not sure
whether we like it or not. But if we eat that thing again and
again, slowly we acquire the taste, and we begin to like it.
For example, before I came here, I didn't have any taste for
soy milk, and now I am beginning to drink a small quantity
of it and I am beginning to acquire the taste. I am beginning
to like it, I am developing greed now.

QUESTION &
AN S W E R: That is a very good question. Without developing
sufficient intensity in the first insight you cannot
move into the following insight; one insight leads to another
when it is ready, when it is sufficiently developed and strong
enough it leads to another insight. But we cannot voluntarily
go into another insight. We cannot do that, it will happen.
Thank you very much for that question.

Don't be in a hurry.
Stay where you are and develop deep enough,
you cannot push yourself too hard.

A Map of the Journey by u jotika
The whole book at link below:
http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/mapjourney6.pdf
Where to obtain the free book here:
http://www.myanmarbookshop.com/EngBookDetails.aspx?intBookID=4791
For free distribution only.