Questions & Answers

Questions & Answers

Question: Please advise us how to answer the following questions briefly: What is a sensation?

Goenkaji: Whatever you feel at the physical level on your body, we call it a sensation.

Question: Why do we get sensation?

Goenkaji: Because you are alive. Your mind and matter-nāma and rūpa-are working together. Where there is no nāma, no mind, one cannot feel. An inanimate body cannot feel sensations. This pillar cannot feel sensations. Wherever there is life, sensations can be felt.

Question: What is equanimity?

Goenkaji: When you don't react to sensations, you experience equanimity.

Question: What do we mean when we say not to react?

Goenkaji: Don't generate craving for pleasant sensations. Don't generate aversion for unpleasant sensations. Then you are not reacting.

Question: What is a free flow?

Goenkaji: There is nothing that flows. It is only your mind which moves from head to feet, or feet to head rapidly, because there is no obstacle on the way. Now there are no longer any blind areas or gross, solidified sensations-only very subtle vibrations of the same type. Your mind moves easily, and it feels as if a flow is there. The whole purpose is that you understand that no matter whether there are gross sensations, or subtle sensations, your mind must remain equanimous. Don't react with aversion towards the gross sensations. Don't react with craving for the pleasant sensations.

(20 January 1996, Annual Meeting: Dhamma Giri)

Source:

http://www.vridhamma.org/en2001-07

Maintain equanimity; that is the smartest way!

💐 Question: "This morning my practice was very powerful, but in the afternoon I began to feel really hopeless and angry, and to think, 'Oh, what's the use!' It was just as if when the meditation was strong, an enemy inside me— the ego perhaps—matched that strength and knocked me out. And then I felt I did not have the strength to fight it. Is there some way to sidestep so that I don't have to fight so hard, some clever way to do it?"

"Goenkaji: 

Maintain equanimity; that is the smartest way! 

What you have experienced is quite natural. When the meditation seemed to you to be going well, the mind was balanced, and it penetrated deeply into the unconscious. As a result of that deep operation, a past reaction was shaken and came to the surface level of the mind, and in the next sitting you had to face that storm of negativity. 

In such a situation equanimity is essential, because otherwise the negativity will overpower you, and you cannot work. If equanimity seems weak, start practising the awareness of respiration. When a big storm comes, you have to put down your anchor and wait until it passes away. The breath is your anchor. Work with it and the storm will pass. 

🌷 It is good that this negativity has come to the surface, because now you have the opportunity to clear it out. If you keep equanimity it will pass away easily."

गुरूजी-

🌹गुरूजी--

विवादम भयतो दिस्वा,

अविवादम च खेमतो।

समग्गा सखिला होथ,

एस बुद्धानुसासनी।।

🍁यह शिक्षा है उस महापुरुष की।

जहाँ विवाद देखा कि उसमे भय नजर आये।बड़ा खतरनाक है, कहाँ उलझ गए?

हम झगड़ा करने के लिए इस मार्ग पर आये! तू छोटा, मै बड़ा यह करने के लिये इस मार्ग पर आये।

🌷अविवाद में ही कुशल है हमारा।

बड़े प्यार से रहेंगे।

बड़े प्रसन्न चित्त से रहेंगे।

बड़े मिलजुलकर रहेंगे।

यही चाहते हैं भगवान।

यही उनकी शिक्षा है।

यह हमेशा याद रहे।

धर्म का विकास जरा सी भी कडुवाहट लेकर न हो।

वर्तमान क्षण

गुरूजी- शरीर और चित्त की संयुक्त धारा पर इस क्षण जो भी घटना घटित हुई, अर्थात शरीर स्कंध पर जो भी संवेदना महसूस हुई, उसका भूतकाल की संवेदनाओ की यादों से कोई संबंध न हो, भविष्य में होने वाली संवेदनाओ की कामना- कल्पना से कोई संबंध न हो, केवल वर्तमान क्षण की संवेदना का अनित्य स्वभाव ही महसूस हो।

यही इस क्षण में जीना है, यही विपश्यना साधना है।संबंध हुआ की तुलना होगी, मूल्यांकन होगा, अच्छे- बुरे का लेबल लगेगा और प्रतिक्रियास्वरूप नए राग और नए द्वेष का प्रजनन होगा।यह सब ना हो और केवल इस क्षण के तथ्य को और उसके परिवर्तनशील स्वभाव को स्वीकार करके रह जाएँ तो उसके प्रति न राग जागेगा, न द्वेष।

🌷Pujya Guruji S N Goenkaji

🌷Pujya Guruji S N Goenkaji :

(The following extract is from an article written by Goenkaji in 1979 to mark his completion of ten years as a Teacher of Vipassana meditation.)

I do not devalue what has been done for the spread of Vipassana in the last ten years, since to do so would be to de-value the selfless service given by so many people. But the fact remains that up to now only a first step has been taken in the work, and a small step.

From a firm base in India, the light of Vipassana must spread everywhere around the world.

It is a lifetime job.

It is a steep ascent of the mountain.Upon the way are many obstacles and hindrances, those within and those without.... To overcome these difficulties

requires great strength of Dhamma, perseverance, forbearance, zeal, and egolessness.

🌷At times when faced with great difficulties, I find that I have stooped beneath their weight. Very soon, however, I have stood up, brushed the dust from my knees, and started walking with increased Dhamma strength. Whatever portion of the journey has been completed gives the inspiration and strength to walk on. And the greatest help upon the path is gratitude. This is the support for the journey ahead.

Therefore gratitude keeps overflowing in my mind, firstly to the Enlightened One who rediscovered this lost technique and used it for his benefit, and who with free hand and compassionate heart distributed it for the benefit of one and all I am grateful to the entire chain of teachers from the Buddha to Sayagyi U Ba Khin who maintained this wonderful technique in its original form, thereby permitting me to learn it in its purity. I am grateful to all the members of my family whose co-operation has been so helpful in the Dhamma work.

I am grateful to all my comrades and friends in the Dhamma, all who have given me their co-operation and assistance, whose companionship has given me sustenance on the path.

If during the last ten years by my deeds of body, speech, or mind I have committed any wrong action knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally toward anyone, I ask pardon.

May all beings be happy!

May all beings be peaceful!

May all beings be liberated!

—Traveler on the Dhamma Path, 

S.N. Goenka.

(Vipassana International Newsletter. Dec'86)