About Sayadaw U Pandita

The path to liberation, says Vipassana master U Pandita, is the precise breaking down of life as it unfolds – part by part, step by step, moment by moment. In this mediation instruction, he lays out the key elements on the path to becoming an arahant – how to do it and why it works. Plunging into the Target. Mindfulness has to stick to the object of meditation. It has to reach it, and stick into it. There is a Pali phrase that describes this: okatittova pavattati. It means “plunging into the target.” Mindfulness should be pakkandana, meaning “hastily speeding” or “hurriedly rushing” toward the object. As soon as an object arises, one has to note it hastily. It is necessary to use very good aiming and very good effort, since an object arises right now and it also vanishes right now. No sooner has it arisen than it disappears. So you have to catch up and follow it as closely as possible. Nothing else matters. There is no time for anything else, especially not for thinking. There is no time to ask why, what and how. Otherwise the mind will not reach the object but miss it. Early on, mindfulness has no speed. But when it plunges into the object, some speed is gathered. For regular meditators, the speed of mindfulness gradually increases over the course of time. If you have gaps of unmindfulness, if you have the habit of taking little breaks and rests, you have to learn how to increase the continuity. A meditator who tries honestly and respectfully to note each arising, whose preceding and succeeding moments of mindfulness are strong, will attain concentration and wisdom and will become able to note the object automatically. This especially happens at the time of the fourth insight knowledge-the direct knowledge of the arising and passing away of all objects. A meditator who tries honestly and respectfully to note each arising, whose preceding and succeeding moments of mindfulness are strong, will attain concentration and wisdom. When the momentum is very good, sati (mindfulness) is running to the target. Vitakka and vicara, the two concentration factors that aim the mind accurately and collect it into the object, will be present. And viriya, effort, is propelling the mindful awareness energetically until it reaches and sticks into the target. The Pali description for this continuous momentum is pakkaditova pavattathi, which means “continuously rushing.” The syllable pa is the same as in satipatthana-it means “extraordinary.” There should be an extraordinary speed to the mindfulness. It should also be vusata, or outstandingly continuous. Then your mindfulness will not slip off, spread out or leave. Extraordinary Effort. When the effort has a high quality, so does the mindfulness. With extraordinary effort, the mind will not slip off. In the early phases of practice, the gross hindrances of desire, anger, sleepiness, restlessness and doubt have to be overcome by a determined effort. After that we can apply paggahita viriya, continuously uplifting effort. It is like lifting an object without lowering it again, without putting it back down on the ground. Then your effort will become paripuñña, fulfilled effort. All of this describes busata sati, extraordinary mindfulness. The term in the Satipatthana Sutta for effort is atapa, urgent exertion. Our effort should not be cool or detached. If it is, our mind will shrink and congeal. It will become inactive, like butter in the refrigerator. To soften butter, you need to apply heat. To make the mind pliable and workable, heat has to be applied. In that way, pliable mind becomes active. In a cold mind, kilesas will arise. Tiredness and laziness, especially, will arise. Thina-middha, the hindrance of sloth and torpor, will come to block the wholesome path. Sloth will weaken and prevent wisdom from unfolding. To dispel sloth and torpor, sharpen the aim, accurately directing the mindfulness toward the object. That will open and refresh the mind. Effort is also very important, of course. Yogis whose practice is in a shambles are the same yogis who practice in an easygoing, casual way. They experience the same thing every day. Their mind does not reach the object, and therefore nothing happens. When one is physically active, it leads to tiredness. But not so the mind. When the mind is used a lot, it gets stronger, like a car battery that charges up when the car travels over the ground. Yogis who look here and there, who think a lot or are not continuous, need to be pushed by their teachers. They need to be told, “Aim, focus! Don’t let your mind slip off! Please apply effort!” and so forth. Of a meditator practices in this way, momentum becomes outstanding. If a meditator’s practice is diligent, respectful and consistent, she or he will have top-quality mindfulness. The Field of Defilement and the Field of Wisdom. Pakkandana pavattati, continuous rushing toward the object, means that you have good or even very good meditation. As soon as an object arises the meditator should attack and capture it in order to know its nature. Anupassana, contemplation, is only possible when rushing toward the object. Then wisdom can arise. If mindfulness is not there when the object arises, then wisdom cannot develop. Delusion, moha, instead will be there. The noting mind separates from the object and flies off restlessly. Then aversion, ill will, agitation and sensuous desire will arise. People who lack mindfulness will not own their own body and mind (nama-rupa). Instead they are governed by the kilesas (defilements). In order to repossess one’s own body and mind, one needs to attack the arising objects with instantaneous awareness. In texts the six sense doors are called bhumi, often translated as “fields” or “realms.” A bhumi is an area where something arises. The kilesa bhumi, the realm of defilement, is governed by the kilesas-and that is what weak meditators own. To attack the objects at all six sense doors requires courage. Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win. As you become more successful, wisdom arises. A respectful and diligent meditator possesses the pañña bhumi, the field of wisdom. The gist of this is that if one does not observe with energetic mindfulness, the sense doors become a field of defilements. Whenever you miss the object, the kilesa bhumi arises intermittently. But if you closely attend to moment-by-moment experience at the six doors, then the series of insight knowledges will begin to arise. If the mindfulness does not reach the target in time, then defilements emerge and there is no knowledge. Instead, ignorance is present in two ways: simple unknowing and perverted unknowing, which leads to wrong views and forms the kilesa field. Especially in those who do not contemplate objects carefully, there will be many wrong views about the nature of life. Others will come to know the nature clearly. Their lives will be pañña-bhumi, a field of wisdom. The word bhumi means literally “virgin soil” -- a place for trees to grow, or for human beings to stand on, or for animals and inanimate objects to be. Objects arising at the six sense doors are a field. The eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind are a field, but there is no soul involved. The kilesa weeds grow in the field of the sense doors. They grow at all times except when we are asleep and absent. Our life becomes a kilesa forest, full of many weeds. When weeds take over and multiply it is not beneficial; it is ugly to look at and may be dangerous. It’s like a plot of land that is overgrown. You must clear the soil and plant nice, useful and beautiful trees-hardwoods and the like. This adds to the value of the land. Understanding How Experiences Arise. If you capture the object in your awareness, you end up in the pañña-bhumi, the realm of wisdom. But if you do not, then the defilements arise first and you go instead to the kilesa-bhumi, the realm of the defilements. Take the example of hearing. The speaker talks, though he has no soul, and his sound waves are called the “striker element.” They strike the meditator’s ear sensitivity, though again there is no permanent self involved here. When there is contact with the receptor element, then hearing arises. The experience of hearing consists of three elements: contact, ignition and feeling. The sequence goes as follows. First is contact. For contact, the ear must be present, there must be a sound, and there must be consciousness. All three of these converge in the moment of contact. Then comes the second element, known as ignition, when an experience of hearing occurs. Ignition is a mental experience, but again there is no entity inherent in the process. Finally there is some feeling-some pleasantness, unpleasantness or neutrality associated with hearing the sound. The mind is malleable and “wieldy.” If hearing occurs during a gap in mindfulness, then delusion and ignorance (avijja) are produced and there will be an array of kilesas. But when one comes to know the experience of hearing clearly, one will come to know the three elements of contact, ignition and feeling, and will understand the way that experiences arise. Mindfulness will see clearly that the sound waves are materiality. Or mindfulness may pinpoint the ear sensitivity, or the ignition element. It will understand that these are forms of materiality, while understanding that hearing consciousness, contact and feeling all are forms of mentality. Or perhaps more generally, it will see that the experience of hearing is simply a convergence of mind and matter, of sound and consciousness. If one is aware of all these mental and material events, one will understand the nature of life. One will be staying in the pañña bhumi, the field of wisdom. One will be adding to the value of one’s life. At the outset the meditator must forcefully align the mind with the objects of experience. Later on, at the time known as “the knowledge of arising and passing away,” no special effort is required. At that time there will also be...

About Sayadaw U Pandita

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