Vipassana: Skillful Means
All people suffer from the same condition, they are like boats upon
the ocean with no rudders; they have no means of direction.
Vipassana provides that direction, but it is not only a means of
‘seeing clearly’, it is also a skillful means that needs to be
understood correctly.
This skillful means, the core of vipassana, is exactly the same for
all meditators, whether beginners or those already fully aware.
Providing that the meditator has developed the basic skills
involved in vipassana development, the most effective part of
vipassana is just one action, one skill, which eventually leads to
the cessation of all forms of suffering.
Practicing like an Arahant
When meditators first begin the practice they develop two skills,
samadhi, concentration, fixing the mind upon the breath, and sati,
mindfulness, being aware of and noting the phenomena in the mind as
they arise. Then, when they have sila and samadhi, pannya arises
and they are then able to see the phenomena arising in their minds
as unsatisfactory, impermanent and not belonging to a self. This
part of vipassana development is ‘seeing clearly’, developing and
using pannya.
Thus, we can say that the first path is primarily concerned with
the development of pannya and the early stages of letting go;
seeing the true nature of phenomena that arise, and seeing that
‘self’ is simply an illusion formed by a mind process involving the
5 khandas (aggregates). Along the way, meditators begin to develop
the real skill in vipassana, namely letting go, and it is this
letting go that contains the real secret, the core of vipassana’s
skillful means.
When someone is very angry, there is little point in telling them
to let go of their anger because letting go is usually impossible
under such circumstances, and they will probably get angry with you
for even suggesting it. Therefore, letting go has to be correctly
understood. When we develop vipassana, we come to realize that
letting go is in two parts. The first part comes from sati,
mindfulness, we have to be able to note what has arisen in the
mind. Thus, if we are angry we have to be able to note anger, this
means that we have completed the first part, and then we use the
core skill of vipassana and redirect the mind to another object,
the breath.
Here, using anger, a somewhat large monster to deal with, may be a
little overwhelming, but it serves the purpose of showing that just
the idea of letting go is not enough (just as the usual idea of
having mindfulness for most meditators is not enough without
noting); you have to develop the two-part skill of noting and
redirecting the mind. This redirecting, or direction, is the real
secret to vipassana development; it is the skillful means. We are
able to let go of all phenomena by noting and then directing the
mind to another object.
From this, we can see that vipassana is not about mind control, we
cannot possibly control any phenomena arising in the mind.
Vipassana is about developing direction, the ability to redirect
the mind away from all sources of suffering. What meditators
develop in their practice becomes the skill they can then use in
any situation; to be aware of the situation, noting, noting, and
then to let go and redirect the mind. For beginners this direction
is to the breath, later it becomes the path knowledges, and finally
it becomes nirvana itself; giving everything to the
void.
For Arahants, vipassana has been developed to perfection, thus for
them it works all of the time with little effort. While they do not
experience such emotions as anger as their minds have realized
nirvana, they do experience bodily feelings of pain, feeling hot,
feeling cold, feeling tired, and feeling the initial need to
breathe when developing Nirodha Samapatti. In all cases they
practice exactly the same as beginners practice. They move the
direction of the mind away from these feelings, and in their case
they give everything to nirvana, the void.
Beginners have something else to hone their skills upon, namely
pain. Pain is the ten-wheeled truck coming down your mind; easy to
spot, and relatively easy to avoid. The nature of the mind is that
it can only experience one thing at a time, so once you have noted
the pain and directed the mind back to the breath it stops for a
moment. Then, it will come back again and you repeat the process.
After doing this for about 99 times the pain then runs away in
disbelief!
As for anger, a beginner’s samadhi, sati, and redirection to the
breath will probably not save them while doing sitting meditation.
It is worth a try, but walking meditation, directing the attention
of the mind to the feet, as far away from the heart as possible, is
much more effective. In ordinary life situations we face the
possibility of not only attachment to our own anger (which arises
from some other attachment), but also attachment to other people’s
anger. The best solution is to say nothing, walk away and go and do
something else until it goes away by itself.
Once a meditator has completed the first path then dealing with
anger becomes a more realistic proposition, as they then have the
first path knowledge (yahn) to direct their anger to. Meditators do
not need a lot of pannya to realize that anger is very
unsatisfactory in nature, but many lack the mindfulness to see it
arising and also have strong habits of attachment to it,
particularly in its more subtle forms.
Thus, if good samadhi and sati are not developed in the initial
stages of vipassana the meditator will come to a stage where they
just keep going up and down instead of progressing. Therefore,
vipassana should be understood as a skillful means of avoiding
suffering, and meditators need perseverance in developing these
skills. All people have slightly different natures, but there is
nothing whatsoever to stop them from developing these skills, other
than their own thoughts, which is thinking, thinking. The way to
become skillful is more and more practice, and the usual idea of
meditation is then transformed into a source of wisdom and an
increasingly effective means of letting go.
*
Note that the method taught to Vipassana Ajarns in Thailand differs
from the traditional Burmese method in several ways. Continuous
noting of a feeling or phenomenon is replaced by noting and then
bringing the mind back to the breath. This develops a more ruthless
approach to letting go (non-attachment) and direction; also
recognizing that there are some feelings that will not go away by
continuous noting. In general, the specifics of a particular
feeling are regarded as inconsequential and all are noted as
feeling, feeling.
In
walking meditation, only the first method is used, lifting,
placing, rather than all six. In this method, awareness of the
intent to move is essential before all movement. This includes not
only during walking meditation (intent to move, intent to turn),
but also changes in posture from sitting to walking and all
movement throughout the day. Thus, all movement has to be carried
out slowly for a period of several months. Being aware of intent is
of the utmost importance because it is the root cause of all
karma.
http://www.dhammaspread.org/page380.htm