Title The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation

Author The teachings of S.N. Goenka by William Hart

Year Published 1987

Kind of Book Meditation/Buddhism/Religion

How Strongly I Recommend It 7/10

My Impressions This book was a good snapshot of Goenka's ideas, but it really doesn't come close to the experience of going on a retreat or even watching his lectures. It was nice to have some of these ideas in written form since it makes it easier to analyze and scrutinize them.

Date Read July 2018

Practical Takeaways

  • Learn how to swim. Don't just read books about swimming, and debate about it theoretical. Do it

  • Experience things directly

  • Don't simply believe what you are told or what has been handed down from past generations

  • Look within and observe yourself

  • Become aware of your conditioned reactions

  • Think of mediation as a nice things you can do for others, not as selfish

  • Balance the mind

  • Walk the path yourself (don't rely on others to carry you)

  • Don't shirk from unpleasant sensations, just observe them

  • Don't cling to pleasant sensations, just observe them

  • Don't evaluate sensations as pleasant or unpleasant. Just observe them

  • Become interested in your "pain" don't try to get away from it

  • Observe objectively what is happening in your body

  • Practice meditation every day the same way you practice physical exercises

  • Be happy, whether you are wealthy or not

  • Practice non attachment ie. Don't cling to anything (pleasant feelings, experiences, relationships, etc)

  • Don't be attached to your plan in life

  • Do nothing that harms others or disturbs their peace and harmony

  • Help others and contribute to their peace and harmony

  • Practice right speech ie. Don't tell lies, slander, gossip, or speak harsh words

  • Practice right Action

  • Abstain from killing any living creature

  • Abstain from stealing

  • Abstain from committing rape or adultery

  • Abstain from intoxicants

  • Practice Right Livelihood: Don't allow your means of livelihood involve injuring other beings (eg. Man who sells guns is still participating in violence even if not directly)

  • Develop on the path of Dharma until sex has no meaning at all

  • Either be committed to one person or live in celibacy

  • Abstain from even a little bit of alcohol (it can lead to a lot)

  • Don't eat meat unless someone else killed the animal and served it to you

  • Don't be a Pacifist ("inaction in the face of aggression is wrong")

  • Do not alter the breath or manipulate it in any way. Just observe it

  • When doing Vipassana meditation focus the area of focus on a sharp point. (the smaller the area the sharper the mind becomes)

  • Uproot the habit of craving and aversion through meditation

  • Don't punish the body to purify the mind

  • Just observe the physical sensations in your body while doing Vipassana meditation (not thoughts)

  • "Observe [yourself] with the same detachment as a scientist observing in a laboratory."

  • "Examine the sensation objectively like a doctor examining someone else's pain."

  • Scan the body in order from top to bottom or bottom to top. Don't jump around to where you feel sensations. You want to feel sensations in every area. If you have "blind spots" in the body where you don't notice any sensation just notice that.

  • Don't be reactive

  • Aim for full awareness of reality

  • No matter what happens, face it. Observe it

  • Accept "smilingly" whatever life has to offer

  • When a pleasant situation occurs, savor it completely, having full and undistracted awareness of the present moment, but then when the experience passes do not cling to it.

  • Meditate just to Mediate. Not to get somewhere

 

Big Ideas

  • A man who sells guns is participating in violence (even if not directly)

  • Drinking a little bit of alcohol may lead to drinking a lot of alcohol

  • Inaction in the face of aggression is wrong

  • An intellectual understanding of reality does not lead to enlightenment

  • An experiential understanding is the only path to enlightenment

  • Meditation is not selfish

  • Meditation is beneficial to others

Because

  • The meditator becomes calmer and more compassionate towards others people through meditation

  • Our mind's habitual reaction to judge input as good or bad is what causes suffering

  • Meditation allows us to realize that our habitual reaction to judge input as good or bad causes suffering

  • We can experience both heaven and hell in this life within ourselves

  • When we realize the impermanent nature of reality our attachments to certain things passes away

  • An intellectual understanding of swimming will not help you to swim

  • If you want to learn to swim you need to get in the water

  • Your subjective experience of truth is the highest authority of truth

  • You have to walk the path (the dharma) yourself (nobody can walk it for you)

  • Every thought, ever emotion, every mental action is accompanied by a corresponding sensation within the body.

Therefore

  • By observing the physical sensations of the body we also observe the mind

  • Objective observation of reality is the key to stopping your own suffering

 

Unknown Terms

Vipassana: literally, "without-seeing", "without, seeing", or "insight" in the ancient Pali language is a Buddhist term. The Pali Canon describes it as one of two qualities of mind which is developed in Buddhist meditation, the other being samathameans. 2) This is a form of Buddhist meditation focused on observing what is happening (whether it be one's breath, thought, sensations, sounds) in an objective detached way.