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     FUNDAMENTALS OF VIPASSANA MEDITATION

     By The Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw 1959

     Translated by Maung Tha Noe

     Buddha-Sasananuggha Organization
     Mahasi Thathana Yeiktha, Yangon, Myanmar

                      *********************

     CONTENTS
     --------

     A Word from the Translator
     Introductory
     Calm and Insight
     Aggregates
     Knowledge and Freedom
     The Right Method
     The Mind
     What For and What Time?
     Origination
     How Grasping Arises
     Meditate Right Now
     Incessant Work
     Things Fall Apart
     Impermanence
     Rediscovery
     Peace at Last
     Noble Path

     The Young Weaver
     The Dull Young Monk
     A Disciple of Sariputta Thera
     Uposatha the Goddess
     Truths

     Appendix/Glossary

                    ************************

     A Word from the Translator

         "The  Fundamentals  of Vipassana Meditation"  is a  series  of
     lectures delivered by the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw during the  New
     Year Holidays of the Burmese Era 1320 (1959).  The lectures  first
     appeared  in book form in 1961, and have ever since  enjoyed  such
     popularity  with  the  readers  that  they  have  run  to  several
     editions. This is their first English translation.

         As  the reader will see in the following pages,  the  lectures
     were addressed to lay listeners - people were totally new. As such
     the Sayadaw took great pains to make his language plain,  easy and
     direct to the point,  and led his listeners stage by simple  stage
     from such basic facets as differentiation between calm and insight
     meditations to such intricate aspects of the Dhamma as reality and
     concept,  process of consciousness and thought-moments,  stages of
     progress  in  mind  development and realization  of  Nibbana.  The
     listener  -  or reader in our case - begins with  the  very  first
     lesson:  what  insight  is,  how  it  is  developed.  He  is  then
     instructed how to begin his work,  how to progress,  how to be  on
     his  guard  against pitfalls in the course of his  training,  and,
     most  important  of  all,  how to know  when  he  "knows".  He  is
     thrilled,  encouraged,  and made to feel as if he were already  on
     the path to bliss.

         Buddhism  is a practical religion,  a creed to live by  -  not
     just  another system of metaphysical philosophy as most  outsiders
     are  wont  to  imagine it to be.  It examines  the  ills  of  this
     sentient life,  discovers their cause,  prescribes the removal  of
     the cause,  and points the Way to the release from all  suffering.
     Anyone desirous of liberation can walk along the Way.  But he must
     make  the  effort to step and walk.  No-one will pick him  up  and
     offer him a free ride to Peace Eternal.

         You yourself must make the effort.
         Buddhas only point the way.
         Those who have entered the Path and who meditate
         will be freed from the fetter of illusion.

                    (-Dhammapada 276)

         What then is the Way to liberation?  The Buddha himself  tells
     us  in the Satipatthana Sutta that there is but One Way - the  Way
     of   establishing  mindfulness.   It  is  this   establishing   of
     mindfulness that serves as the corner-stone of the whole system of
     insight  meditation  expounded and popularised by the  Ven  Mahasi
     Sayadaw for half a century now.

         Here one must not forget the fact that preaching Vipassana  is
     quite  unlike  the preaching of any other aspect of  the  Buddha's
     teaching,  say,  its moral or meta-physical  portions.  This  most
     scholars  versed  in  the  scriptures can  do.  But  Vipassana  is
     something  that only experience can convince.  The Buddha  himself
     (or,  more correctly, the Bodhisatta) searched for the Way,  found
     it,  traversed it himself, and only then did he teach it to beings
     from his experience.

         "Even so have I,  monks, seen an ancient way,  an ancient road
     followed by the wholly Awakened Ones of olden times....Along  that
     have I gone,  and the matters that I have come to know fully as  I
     was going along it I have told to the monks,  nuns,  men and women
     layfollowers......
                        Sam. ii 105

         The Ven Mahasi Sayadaw,  on his part,  took up the Way pointed
     out  to  all of us by the Buddha,  realized the Dhamma,  and  then
     spoke  to  his  disciples from his  experience.  They,  too,  have
     realized the Dhamma. About this the Sayadaw says in his lectures:

         "Here in the audience are lots of meditators who have come  to
     this stage of knowledge.  I am not speaking from my own experience
     alone.  No,  not  even  from the  experience  of  forty  or  fifty
     disciples of mine. There are hundreds of them."  (Today the number
     is by hundreds of thousands - Translator)

         One  attribute  of  the  Buddha's Dhamma  is  that  "it  is  a
     come-and-see  thing (ehipassiko)"  Millions came and saw  it  well
     over  2500 years ago.  And today hundreds of thousands  more  will
     follow  them,  as we can see in the meditation centres  the  world
     over.  It only remains to the aspirant after liberation  to  awake
     and join the multitude in their march. This book sets out the plan
     of the Way that lies ahead of him. It is,  as the noted scholar in
     the foreword to the Myanmar edition remarks,  not the kind of book
     one reads for reading's sake. It is to be his guide as he ventures
     from one stage of higher wisdom to another.

         In translating this book, I have tried to reproduce in English
     all  that  the Sayadaw has to say in his Myanmar lectures.  But  I
     have not attempted a literal translation nor have I turned out  an
     abridged,   free   version.   I  have   avoided   repetitions   so
     characteristic of spoken language,  and have left untranslated all
     the  mnemonic  verses  that  accompany  the  Sayadaw's   lectures.
     Excepting  these  I have kept the word of the Sayadaw  intact  and
     every effort has been made to retain his simple,  straight-forward
     and lucid style.

         For translation of the Pali texts quoted by the Sayadaw in his
     work  I  have  relied mostly on such noted scholars  as  Dr.  Rhys
     Davids,  F.L. Woodward, I.B. Horner, Nyanatiloka, Nyanamoli and Pe
     Maung  Tin,  with modifications here and there.  I must record  my
     indebtedness to them.

                                                          M T N

                                           Yangon, 3 March 1981

                   ******************************

     FUNDAMENTALS OF VIPASSANA MEDITATION

     Introductory

         Today  insight  meditation  needs  no  special   introduction.
     Everybody  is saying that it is good.  The contrary was  the  case
     twenty years ago.  People thought insight meditation was meant for
     monks  and  recluses and not for them.  When  we  began  preaching
     insight meditation we had had a hard time doing so.  The situation
     has  changed  now.  Today  people keep asking  us  to  lecture  on
     insight.  But  when  we begin telling them  the  simple  facts  of
     insight meditation, they seem unable to appreciate them. Some even
     rise  and go away.  One should not blame them.  They have  had  no
     grounding in meditation to understand anything.

         Some think calm is insight. Some talk of insight meditation as
     nothing different from calm meditation.  The insight meditation as
     preached by some people, though high-sounding in language,  proves
     just  impossible  in  practice.   Their  listeners  are  left   in
     confusion.  For the benefit of such people we will talk about  the
     elements of insight meditation.

     Calm and Insight

     What do we meditate on? How do we develop insight?  This is a very
     important question.

         There are two kinds of meditation:  meditating to develop calm
     and  meditating to develop insight. Meditating on the  ten  kasina
     devices only gives rise to calm,  not insight.  Meditating on  the
     ten foul things (a swollen corpse, for example),  too,  only gives
     rise to calm, not insight. The ten recollections, like remembering
     the Buddha,  the Dhamma and others, too,  can develop calm and not
     insight.  Meditating  on the thirty-two parts of  the  body,  like
     hair,  nails, teeth, skin- these too are not insight. They develop
     only concentration.

         Mindfulness      as      to      respiration      is      also
     concentration-developing.  But  one can develop insight  from  it.
     Visuddhimagga,  however, includes it in the concentration subjects
     and so we will call it as such here.

         Then  there  are  the  four  divine  states,  loving-kindness,
     compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, and the four formless
     states leading to formless jhanas. Then,  there is the  meditation
     on  the  loathsomeness  of  food.  All  these  are  subjects   for
     concentration-meditation.

         When you meditate on the four elements inside your body, it is
     called  the  analysis of the four elements.  Although  this  is  a
     concentration meditation, it helps develop insight as well.

         All  these  forty  subjects of  meditation  are  subjects  for
     developing  concentration.   Only  respiration  and  analysis   of
     elements have to do with insight. The others will not give rise to
     insight. If you want insight, you will have to work further.

         To  come back to our question, how do we develop insight?  The
     answer is: we develop insight by meditating on the five aggregates
     of  grasping.  The  mental and material qualities  in  beings  are
     aggregates  of  grasping.  They may be  grasped  with  delight  by
     craving in which case it is called "grasping of the sense objects"
     - or they may be grasped wrongly by wrong views - in which case it
     is called "grasping through wrong views".  You have to meditate on
     them and see them as they really are. If you don't, you will grasp
     them with craving and wrong views.  Once you see them as they are,
     you no longer grasp them. In this way you develop insight. We will
     discuss the five aggregates of grasping in detail.

     Aggregates

         The five aggregates of grasping are matter or form,  feelings,
     perception,  volitional  activities and  consciousness.  What  are
     they> They are the things you experience all the time.  You do not
     have to go anywhere else to find them.  They are in you.  When you
     see,  they are there in the seeing. When you hear,  they are there
     in the hearing.  When you smell, taste, touch, or think,  they are
     there in the smelling, tasting, touching or thinking.

         When you bend, stretch or move your limbs,  the aggregates are
     there in the bending,  stretching or moving.  Only you do not know
     them  to be aggregates.  It is because you have not  meditated  on
     them and so do not know them as they really are.  Not knowing them
     as they are, you grasp them with craving and wrong view.

         What  happens when you bend?  It begins with the intention  to
     bend. Then come the material properties of bending one by one. Now
     in the intention to bend there are the four mental aggregates. The
     mind that intends to bend is the consciousness.  When you think of
     bending and then bend, you may feel happy, or unhappy,  or neither
     happy nor unhappy, doing so. If you bend with happiness,  there is
     pleasant feeling. If you bend with unhappiness or anger,  there is
     unpleasant  feeling.  If  you  bend  with  neither  happiness  nor
     unhappiness,  there  is neutral feeling. So,  when  you  think  of
     bending,   there  is  the  'feeling'  aggregate.   Then  there  is
     perception,  the aggregate that recognizes the bending. Then there
     is the mental state that urges you to bend.  It seems as though it
     were saying "Bend!  Bend!" It is the volitional activities.  Thus,
     in  the  intention  to  bend,   you  have  feelings,   perception,
     volitional   activities   and   consciousness-all   four    mental
     aggregates.  The movement of bending is matter or form.  It is the
     material  aggregate.  So,  the intention to bend and  the  bending
     together make up the five aggregates.

         Thus in one bending of the arm there are five aggregates:  You
     move  once  and the five aggregates come up.  You move  again  and
     there are more of the five aggregates.  If you have not  meditated
     on them rightly and have not known them rightly,  what happens  we
     need not tell you. You know for yourselves.

         Well,  you think "I intend to bend"  and "I bend"  don't  you?
     Everybody does.  Ask the children, they will give the same answer.
     Ask  adults who can read and write,  the same answer still  if  he
     will say what he has in his mind.  But because he is well-read  he
     may  invent  answers  to suit the scriptures  and  say  "Mind  and
     matter".  It is not what he knows for himself.  Only inventions to
     suit the scriptures. In his heart of hearts he is thinking: "It is
     I  who intend to bend.  It is I who bend.  It is I who  intend  to
     move. It is I who move." He also thinks: "This I have been before;
     am  now,  and  will be in the future.  I  exist  for  ever."  This
     thinking is called the notion of permanence. Nobody thinks,  "This
     intention to bend exists only now."  Ordinary people always think,
     "This mind existed before.  The same I that have existed before am
     now thinking of bending." They also think: "This thinking I exists
     now and will go on existing."

         When you bend,  or move the limbs, you think:  "It is the same
     limbs that have existed that are moving now. It is the same I that
     have  existed that am moving now.  "After moving you again  think,
     "These limbs,  this I,  always exist." It never occurs to you that
     they  pass  away.  This too is the notion  of  permanence.  It  is
     clinging to what is impermanent as permanent,  clinging to what is
     no personality, no ego, as personality, as ego.

         Then,  as you have bent or stretched to your desire, you think
     it  is very nice.  For example,  as you feel the stiffness in  the
     arm,  you move or rearrange it and the stiffness is gone. You feel
     comfortable. You think it is very nice. You think it is happiness.
     Dancers  and  amateur dancers bend and stretch as they  dance  and
     think it is very nice to do so. They delight in it and are pleased
     with  themselves.  When you converse among  yourselves  you  often
     shake  you  hands  and  heads and are pleased.  You  think  it  is
     happiness. When something you are doing meets with success,  again
     you  think it is good,  it is happiness.  This is how you  delight
     through  craving and clinging to things.  What is impermanent  you
     take  to be permanent and delight in.  What is not happiness,  not
     personality,  but just aggregates of mind and matter,  you take to
     be happiness,  or personality, and delight in. You delight in them
     and cling to them.  You mistake them for self and ego and cling to
     them, too.

         So, when you bend, stretch or move your limbs, the thinking "I
     will bend"  is aggregate of grasping. The bending is the aggregate
     of  grasping.  The thinking "I will stretch"  is the aggregate  of
     grasping.  The  stretching  is  the  aggregate  of  grasping.  The
     thinking "I will move" is the aggregate of grasping. The moving is
     the aggregate of grasping. When we speak of aggregates of grasping
     to be meditated on, we mean just these things.

         The same thing happens in seeing,  hearing etc.  When you see,
     the seat of seeing,  the eye, is manifest.  So is the object seen.
     Both are material things. They cannot cognize. But if one fails to
     meditate while seeing,  one grasps them. One thinks the whole body
     with the eye is permanent, happy, self, and grasps it.  One thinks
     the  whole  material  world with the  object  seen  is  permanent,
     beautiful,  good,  happy, and self, and grasps it. So the form eye
     and the form visible object are aggregates of grasping.

         And when you see,  the "seeing" is manifest,  too.  It is  the
     four  mental  aggregates.  The mere awareness  of  seeing  is  the
     aggregate consciousness.  Pleasure or displeasure at seeing is the
     aggregate feeling. What perceives the object seen is the aggregate
     perception.  What  brings the attention to see  is  the  aggregate
     volitional activities. They constitute the four mental aggregates.

         If  one  fails to meditate while seeing,  one is  inclined  to
     think that seeing "has existed before, and exists now." Or, as one
     sees good things, one may think "seeing is good". So thinking, one
     goes  after good and strange things to enjoy seeing.  One goes  to
     watch  plays and films at the expense of money,  sleep and  health
     because one thinks it is good to do so.  If one does not think  it
     is good, one will not go to waste money or impair one's health. To
     think  that  what sees or enjoys is "I",  "I am enjoying",  is  to
     grasp with craving and wrong view.  Because they grasp,  the  mind
     and  matter  that  manifest themselves in seeing are  said  to  be
     aggregates of grasping.

         You  grasp  in  the same way in  hearing,  smelling,  tasting,
     touching  or  thinking.  You grasp all the more to the  mind  that
     thinks,  imagines and reflects as being the I,  the ego.  So,  the
     five   aggregates   of   grasping  are   none   other   than   the
     mental-material  things that manifest themselves at the six  doors
     whenever one sees, hears, feels, or perceives. You must try to see
     these aggregates as they are.  To meditate on them and see them as
     they are - that is insight knowledge.

     Knowledge and Freedom

         "Insight  meditation is meditating on the five  aggregates  of
     grasping."  This is in accordance with the teaching of the Buddha.
     The  teachings  of  the  Buddha are  called  suttas,  which  means
     "thread".  When  a carpenter is about to plane down or saw  off  a
     piece  of timber he draws a straight line using a thread.  In  the
     same way when we want to live the holy life we use the "thread" or
     sutta to draw straight lines in our actions.  The Buddha has given
     us  lines  or instructions on how to train  in  morality,  develop
     concentration  and make become wisdom.  You cannot go out  of  the
     line and speak or act as you please.  Regarding the meditation  of
     the five aggregates, here are a few excerpts from the suttas:

         "Material shape,  monks, is impermanent.  What is impermanent,
     that is suffering.  What is suffering, that is not the self.  What
     is not self, that is not mine, that I am not, this is not my self.
     As  it  really comes to be,  one should discern it thus  by  right
     wisdom." (S.ii,19.)

         You  must meditate so that you will realize this  impermanent,
     suffering,   not-self   material  form  is   really   impermanent,
     dreadfully  suffering  and  without  a self  or  ego.  You  should
     meditate  likewise  on  feelings,  perception,   activities,   and
     consciousness. What is the use of looking upon these aggregates as
     impermanent, suffering and non-self? The Buddha tells us

         "So  seeing all these things, the instructed disciple  of  the
     Ariyans disregards material shape,  disregards feeling and so on."
     (S.iii,68)

         He who realizes the impermanent, suffering, not-self nature of
     the  five  aggregates  is wearied of material form  as  he  is  of
     feelings, perception, activities and consciousness.

         "By disregarding he is passionless"

         That is to say, he has reached the Ariyan Path.

         "Through passionlessness, he is freed"

         Once he has reached the Ariyan path of passionlessness, he has
     arrived  at  the Four Fruitions of freedom from  the  defilements,
     too.

         "In freedom the knowledge comes to be 'I am freed'"

         When you are freed, you know for yourself that you are so.  In
     other  words,  when  you  have  become  an  Arahant  in  whom  the
     defilements  are  extinguished,  you  know  that  defilements  are
     extinguished.

         All  these  excerpts are from Yad anicca Sutta and  there  are
     numerous suttas of this kind. The whole Khandhavagga Samyutta is a
     collection of them. Two of these suttas are especially noteworthy:
     Silavanta Sutta and Sutavanta Sutta. In both suttas the  Venerable
     Maha Kotthika puts some questions to the Venerable Sariputta,  who
     gives very brief but vivid answers. Maha Kotthika asks:

         "What things friend Sariputta, should be attended to correctly
     by a monk of pure moral habit?"

         Note the attribute "of moral habit"  in this question.  If you
     want  to practise insight meditation with a view to attaining  the
     Path, Fruition and Nibbana, the least qualification you need is to
     be of pure moral habit.  If you don't even have pure moral  habit,
     you  can't  hope for the higher conditions  of  concentration  and
     wisdom. The Venerable Sariputta answers:

         "The  five  aggregates of grasping friend  Kotthika,  are  the
     things  which  should be correctly attended to by a monk  of  pure
     moral habit,  as being impermanent, suffering, as a disease,  as a
     boil,  as a dart, as unwholesome as illness, as alien,  as void of
     self, as decay."

         What  is  the  good of meditating like  that?  In  answer  the
     Venerable Sariputta goes on,

         "Indeed, friend, it is a possibility that a monk of pure moral
     habit so correctly attending to these five aggregates of  grasping
     "as   impermanent   and   so  on  may  realize   the   fruits   of
     Stream-winning."

         So,  if you want to be a Stream-winner and never to be  reborn
     in  the  four  lower states,  you have to  meditate  on  the  five
     aggregates  of grasping to realize their  impermanence,  suffering
     and not-self nature.

         But  that  is not all.  You can become an  Arahant,  too.  The
     Venerable Maha Kotthika goes on to ask,

         "What things friend Sariputta, should be attended to correctly
     by a monk who is a Stream-winner?"

         The  Venerable  Sariputta  answers that it is  the  same  five
     aggregates  of grasping that should be correctly attended to by  a
     Stream-winner, as impermanent, suffering, not-self. The result? He
     moves on to Once-returning. What does a Once-returner meditate on?
     Again  the  same five aggregates of grasping.  He then  becomes  a
     Non-returner.  What  does  a Non-returner meditate  on?  The  five
     aggregates again.  Now he becomes an Arahant. What does an Arahant
     meditate on? The five aggregates again. From this it is clear that
     the  five  aggregates are the things one has to meditate  on  even
     when one has become an Arahant.

         What  good  is  it to the Arahant by meditating  so?  Will  he
     become a silent Buddha? Or, a Supreme Buddha? No, neither. He will
     end  his  round of rebirths as an Arahant and enter  Nibbana.  The
     Arahant  has  no defilements left unremoved or uncalmed.  All  the
     defilements have been removed and calmed.  So,  he has nothing  to
     develop  in order to remove the defilements left unremoved  or  to
     calm  those  left  uncalmed.  Neither  has  he  any  moral  habit,
     concentration  or  wisdom yet to perfect.  All the  moral  habits,
     concentration  and  wisdom that ought to be  perfected  have  been
     perfected in him. So, he has no need to work for the perfection of
     what ought to be perfected,  nor has he any need to increase those
     already perfected. The insight practice brings no such benefits to
     the Arahant.

         One of the benefits the Arahant receives by meditating on  the
     five   aggregates  is  living  with  happiness  in   this   world.
     Notwithstanding  his  being  an Arahant,  if  he  remains  without
     meditation,  disquiet  and discomfort keep coming up  at  the  six
     sense-doors,  now here,  now there. Here,  disquiet does not  mean
     mental  distress.  As  the sense-objects keep  coming  up  despite
     himself,  he finds no peacefulness of mind.  That is all.  Not  to
     speak  of,  even our meditators of today who are immersed  in  the
     practice feel ill at ease when meeting with the sense objects.  As
     they return home from the meditation centre,  they see this thing,
     hear that thing, get engaged in such and such business talks,  and
     there  is  no peace at all.  So they come back to the  centre.  To
     others however,  the disquiet does not last very long.  Just four,
     five or ten days.  Very soon the homely spirit gets the better  of
     them and they are happy with their home life and set to  household
     cares again.  The Arahant never returns to his old habits.  If  he
     meets with various sense-objects without meditation, only disquiet
     results.  Only when he is absorbed in insight meditation  does  he
     find peacefulness of mind.  Thus meditating on the five aggregates
     of grasping brings to the living with happiness in this world.

         Again,  as  he lives in earnest  meditation,  mindfulness  and
     comprehension  of  the impermanence, suffering and  not-self  keep
     rising  in  him.  This is another benefit.  The  Arahant  in  whom
     mindfulness  and comprehension keep rising through  meditation  is
     said  to be called satata-vihari (one who dwells  with  meditation
     constantly).  Such a one can enjoy the attainment to  fruition  at
     any time and for as long as he desires.  For these two benefits- a
     happy  living in the very life and mindfulness  and  comprehension
     the Arahant lives in meditation.

         The above are the answers given by the Venerable Sariputta  in
     the Silavanta Sutta. The same answers are found in Sutavanta Sutta
     too.  The  only difference is in the terms  silavanta,  "of  moral
     habit"    or   "virtuous"   and   sutavanta,    "instructed"    or
     "well-informed".  All the other words are the same. Based on these
     two  suttas and other suttas on the aggregate the dictum has  been
     formulated:

         "Insight   knowledge  comes  from  meditating  on   the   five
     aggregates of grasping."

         Now  to come back to the grasping that rises through  the  six
     sense-doors.

         When people see,  they think of themselves or others as  being
     permanent,  as having existed before, as existing now, as going to
     exist in future,  as existing always. They think of them as  being
     happy,  good,  or beautiful.  They think of them as  being  living
     entities.  They  think likewise when they hear,  smell,  taste  or
     touch.  This  "touch"  is widespread all over the  body-  wherever
     there is flesh and blood. And wherever touch arises,  there arises
     grasping.   The  bending,  stretching,  or  moving  of  the  limbs
     mentioned  earlier are all instances of touch.  So are  the  tense
     movements  of rising and falling in the abdomen.  We will come  to
     this in detail later.

         When  one  thinks or imagines,  one thinks,  "The I  that  has
     existed before is now thinking; thinking,  I go on existing,"  and
     thus one thinks of oneself as being permanent, as an ego. One also
     thinks the thinking or imagining as being enjoyable, as being very
     nice.  One thinks it is happiness. If told that the thinking  will
     disappear, he cannot accept it. He is not pleased. This is because
     he is clinging to it.

         In  this  way  one clings to whatever comes  through  the  six
     sense-doors as being permanent, as being happy,  as ego,  as self.
     One  delights  with craving and clings to it.  One  mistakes  with
     wrong  view and clings to it.  You have to meditate on these  five
     aggregates that can be clung to or grasped.

     The Right Method

         When you meditate, you have to meditate with method.  Only the
     right  method can bring about insight. If you look upon things  as
     being permanent,  how can there be insight?  If you look upon them
     as  being happy,  beautiful,  as soul, as ego,  how can  there  be
     insight?

         Mind  and  matter are impermanent  things.  These  impermanent
     things you have to meditate on to see them as they really are,  as
     being impermanent.  They rise and pass away and keep on oppressing
     you,  so  they  are dreadful,  they are sufferings.  You  have  to
     meditate  to  see  them  as they  are,  as  sufferings.  They  are
     processes lacking in a personality,  a soul,  a self.  You have to
     meditate to see that there is no personality,  no soul,  no  self.
     You must try to see them as they really are.

         So,  every time you see, hear, touch or perceive, you must try
     to see the mental and material processes that rise through the six
     sense  doors  as  they really are.  This you  must  note  'seeing,
     seeing'.  In the same way, when you hear, note 'hearing'. When you
     smell,   note  'smelling'.   When  you  touch,   note  'touching'.
     Tiredness,  hotness,  aches  and such  unbearable  and  unpleasant
     sensations arise from contact too. Observe them:  tiredness,  hot,
     pain,  and so on.  Thoughts,  ideas, may also turn up.  Note them:
     'thinking',  'imagining', 'desire', 'pleasure', 'delight', as they
     arise.  But for the beginner it is hard to observe all that  comes
     up through the six sense doors. He must begin with just a few.

         You meditate on this. When you breathe in and out, the way the
     abdomen  moves rising and falling is especially  conspicuous.  You
     begin observing this movement.  The movement of rising you observe
     as  'rising'.  The movement of falling you observe  as  'falling'.
     This observation of rising and falling is void of the lingo of the
     scriptures. People who are not used to meditational practice speak
     of it in contempt:  "This rising and falling business has  nothing
     to do with the scriptures. It is nothing."  Well may they think it
     is nothing because it is not done up in scriptural language.

         In essence, however, it IS something. The rising is real,  the
     falling is real,  the moving air-element is real. We have used the
     colloquial words 'rising' and 'falling' for convenience's sake. In
     scriptural terminology, the rising-falling is the air-element.  If
     you  observe  the abdomen attentively as it rises and  falls,  the
     distendedness  is there,  the motion is there,  the  conveying  is
     there.  Here,  the "distendedness"  is the characteristic  of  the
     air-element,  the motion is its property, and the conveying is its
     manifestation.  To know the air-element as it really is  means  to
     know its characteristic,  property and manifestation.  We meditate
     to know them. Insight begins with the defining of mind and matter.
     To achieve this the meditator begins with the matter. How?

         "The   (meditator)   should.....    comprehend   by   way   of
     characteristic, function and so on" (Visuddhimagga ii 227.)

         When you begin meditating on matter or mind,  you should do so
     by  way of either the characteristic or the  property  (function).
     "And so on"  refers to the manifestation (mode of appearance).  In
     this  connection  the  Compendium of Philosophy is  quite  to  the
     point.

         "Purity  of view is the understanding of mind and matter  with
     respect  to  their characteristics, function (property),  mode  of
     appearance (manifestation) and proximate cause."

         The  meaning  is  this:  insight begins  with  the  analytical
     knowledge of mind and matter. In the seven stages of purity, first
     you perfect the purity of morals and the purity of mind,  and then
     you begin the purity of views. To achieve the analytical knowledge
     of mind and matter and the purity of views,  you have to  meditate
     on mind and matter and know them by way of their  characteristics,
     property (function),  manifestation and proximate cause.  Once you
     know  them  thus,  you gain the analytical knowledge of  mind  and
     matter.  Once  this knowledge matures, you develop the  purity  of
     views.

         Here,  "to know them by way of their characteristics" means to
     know the intrinsic nature of mind and matter.  To know "by way  of
     property"  is to know their function.  Manifestation is their mode
     of appearance. It is not yet necessary to know the proximate cause
     at the initial stage of meditational practice.  So we will just go
     on to explain the characteristics, function and manifestation.

         In  both the Path of Purity and the Compendium  of  Philosophy
     just  quoted  it is not indicated that mind and matter  should  be
     meditated  on  by  name,  by  number,  as  substance  of  material
     particles or as incessantly coming up processes.  It is only shown
     that they should be meditated on by way of their  characteristics,
     function and manifestation.  One should take careful note of this.
     If not, one can be led to concepts of names, numbers, particles or
     processes.  The commentaries say that you should meditate on  mind
     and  matter  by  way  of  their  characteristics,   function   and
     manifestation, and so when you meditate on the air-element, you do
     so by way of its characteristics, function and manifestation. What
     is the characteristic of the air-element? It is the characteristic
     of support.  This is its intrinsic nature. The air-element is just
     this. What is the function of the air-element? It is moving.  What
     is  its  manifestation?  It is conveying.  Manifestation  is  what
     appears  to  the meditator's intellect. As one  meditates  on  the
     air-element,  it appears to the meditator's intellect as something
     conveying,  pushing and pulling.  This is the manifestation of the
     air-element. As you meditate on the rising-falling of the abdomen,
     all the distended,  moving, conveying, become clear to you.  These
     are  the  characteristic,   function  and  manifestation  of   the
     air-element.   This  air-element  is  important.  In  sections  on
     postures   and   comprehension,   contemplation   of   the   body,
     Satipatthana-sutta,  the  commentator  has laid  emphasis  on  the
     air-element. Here is the Buddha's teaching:

         "Gacchanto va gacchami ti pajanati."

         (When he walks, he is aware 'I am walking.')

         The Buddha is instructing us to be mindful of the form walking
     by noting 'Walking, Walking' every time we walk.  How knowledge is
     developed from meditating thus is explained by the commentator:

         "The thought I am walking arises.  This produces air.  The air
     produces the intimation. The bringing forward of the whole body as
     the air-element spreads is said to be walking."

        The  meaning is this:  The meditator who is used to  meditating
     'walking,  walking' every time he walks realizes like this.  First
     the idea 'I will walk'  arises. This intention gives rise to tense
     movement all over the body,  which in turn cause the material body
     to move forward move by move. Thus we say "I walk," or "He walks."
     In reality there is no I or He that walks.  Only the intention  to
     walk and the form walking. This the meditator realizes.  Here,  in
     this  explanation  of  the  Commentary, the  emphasis  is  on  the
     realization  of  the  moving  of  the  air-element.  So,   if  you
     understand the air-element by way of its characteristics, function
     and  manifestation,  you  can decide  for  yourself  whether  your
     meditation is right or not.

         The  air-element  has  the characteristic  of  support.  In  a
     football  it  is  air that fills and supports  so  that  the  ball
     expands  and remains firm.  In colloquial speech we say  that  the
     ball is full and firm.  In philosophical terms the air-element  is
     in  support.  When you stretch your arm you  feel  some  stiffness
     there.  It is the air-element in support. In the same way when you
     press an air-pillow or mattress with your body or head,  your body
     or head will not come down but stay high above.  It is because the
     air-element  in the pillow or mattress is supporting  you.  Bricks
     pile up as the ones below support those above. If the bricks below
     are not supporting,  the ones above will tumble down.  In the same
     way the human body is full of the air-element which gives  support
     to  it  so  that  it  can stand stiff  and  firm.  We  say  "firm"
     relatively.  If there is something firmer,  we will call it "lax."
     If there is something more lax, it becomes firm again.

         The function of the air-element is moving. It moves from place
     to place when it is strong.  It is the air-element that makes  the
     body bend,  stretch,  sit, rise, go or come.  Those unpractised in
     insight meditation often say, "if you note 'bending,  stretching',
     only  concepts like arms will appear to you.  If you  note  'left,
     right'  only concepts like legs will appear to you.  If  you  note
     'rising,  falling',  only concepts like the abdomen will appear to
     you."  This may be true to some of the beginners,  but it  is  not
     true to think that the concepts will keep coming up. Both concepts
     and  realities appear to the beginner.  Some people  instruct  the
     beginners  to meditate on realities only.  This is impossible.  To
     forget concepts is quite impracticable at the beginning.  What  is
     practicable  is  to observe concepts combine with  realities.  The
     Buddha  himself  used the language of concepts and told us  to  be
     aware 'I am walking'  etc. when we walk,  bend or stretch.  He did
     not  use the language of realities and tell us to be aware 'It  is
     supporting,  moving' etc. Although you meditate using the language
     of  concepts  like  'walking,  bending,   stretching',   as   your
     mindfulness  and  concentration grow stronger,  all  the  concepts
     disappear and only the realities like support and moving appear to
     you.  When  you reach the stage of the knowledge  of  dissolution,
     although you meditate 'walking, walking', neither the legs nor the
     body  appear  to you.  Only the successive  movements  are  there.
     Although  you meditate 'bending,  bending', there will not be  any
     arms or legs.  Only the movement.  Although you meditate  'rising,
     falling', there will be no image of the abdomen or the body.  Only
     the  movement  out  and  in.  These as well  as  swaying  are  the
     functions of the air-element.

         What  appears  to  be  bringing  out  or  drawing  in  to  the
     meditator's mind is the manifestation of the air-element. When you
     bend or stretch your arm, it appears something is drawing it in or
     pushing it out. It is plainer when walking. To the meditator whose
     concentration  is  grown sharper by noting 'walking,  right  step,
     left step,  lifting,  putting forward,  putting down'  this moving
     forward  as if being driven from behind becomes quite  plain.  The
     legs seem to be pushing forward of their own accord.  How the move
     forward  occurs  without the meditator making any effort  is  very
     plain.  It is so good walking noting like this that some  spend  a
     lot of time on it.

         So when you meditate on the air-element, you should know it by
     way of its characteristic of support, its function of moving,  and
     its manifestation of conveying.  Only then is your knowledge right
     and as it should be.

         You  may  ask,  "Are we to meditate only  after  learning  the
     characteristic,  function  and manifestation?" No.  You  need  not
     learn  them.  If you meditate on the rising  mind-and-matter,  you
     know  the characteristic,  the function and the  manifestation  as
     well.   There  is  no  other  way  than  knowing  by  way  of  the
     characteristic,  function and manifestation when you  meditate  on
     the rising mind-and-matter. When you look up to the sky on a rainy
     day  you  see  a flash of lightning.  This  bright  light  is  the
     characteristic  of lightning.  As lightning flashes,  darkness  is
     dispelled.   This  dispelling  of  darkness  is  the  function  of
     lightning,  its work.  You also see what it is like- whether it is
     long,  short,  a curve,  a circle, straight or vast.  You see  its
     characteristic, its function, its manifestation, all at once. Only
     you  may not be able to say the brightness is its  characteristic,
     dispelling of darkness is its function, or its shape or outline is
     its manifestation. But you see them all the same.

         In  the  same way,  when you meditate on the rising  mind  and
     matter,   you   know  its  characteristic,   its   function,   its
     manifestation,  everything. You need not learn them.  Some learned
     persons think that you have to learn them before you meditate. Not
     so.  What you learn are only concepts not realities. The meditator
     who  is contemplating the rising mind and matter knows them as  if
     he were touching them with his own hand.  He need not learn  about
     them.  If there is an elephant before your very eyes,  you do  not
     need to look at the picture of an elephant.

         The  meditator who is meditating on the rising and falling  of
     the   abdomen   knows  the  firmness  or   laxity   thereof-   its
     characteristic.

         He knows the moving in or out- its function. He also knows its
     bringing in and pushing out- its manifestation.  If he knows these
     things as they really are,  does he need to learn about them?  Not
     if he wants the realization for himself. But if he wants to preach
     to others, he will need to learn about them.

         When  you  meditate  'right step, left  step',  you  know  the
     tenseness in every step- its characteristic.  You know the  moving
     about-   its   function.   And  you  know   its   conveying-   its
     manifestation. This is proper knowledge, the right knowledge.

         Now,   to  know  for  yourselves  how  one  can  discern   the
     characteristic  and  so on by just meditating on what  rises,  try
     doing  some  meditation.  You certainly have some  hotness,  pain,
     tiredness,  ache, somewhere in your body now. These are unpleasant
     feelings  hard to bear.  Concentrate on this  unpleasantness  with
     your intellect and note 'hot, hot, or pain,  pain'.  You will find
     that you are going through an unpleasant experience and suffering.
     This  is  the  characteristic  of  suffering-  going  through   an
     unpleasant experience.

         When   this  unpleasant  feeling  comes  about,   you   become
     low-spirited.  If the unpleasantness is little,  there is a little
     low-spiritedness.  If it is great,  then low-spiritedness is great
     too. Even those who are of a strong will have their spirits go low
     if the unpleasant feelings are intense.  Once you are very  tired.
     You can't even move. This making the spirit go low is the function
     of unpleasant feeling.  We have said "spirit"  the mind.  When the
     mind is low, its concomitants get low too.

         The   manifestation   of  unpleasant   feeling   is   physical
     oppression.   It  manifests  itself  as  a  physical   affliction,
     something  unbearable,   to  the  meditator's  intellect.   As  he
     meditates 'hot,  hot, pain, pain', it comes up to him as something
     oppressing in the body,  something very hard to bear.  It shows up
     so much that you have to groan.

         If  you meditate on the unpleasant feeling in your body as  it
     rises, you know the undergoing of undesirable tangible object- its
     characteristic,  the withering of associated states- its function, 
     and  the physical affliction- its manifestation.  This is the  way
     the meditators gain knowledge.

     The Mind

         You can meditate on mind,  too.  Mind cognizes and thinks.  So
     what  thinks  and  imagines is mind.  Meditate  on  this  mind  as
     'thinking,  imagining,  pondering',  whenever it arises.  You will
     find  that  it has the intrinsic nature of going  to  the  object,
     cognizing the object. This is the characteristic of mind, as it is
     said,  "Mind has the characteristic of cognizing."  Every kind  of
     mind cognizes. The consciousness of seeing cognizes the object, as
     do the consciousness of hearing, smelling,  tasting,  touching and
     thinking.

         When you work in collective, you have a leader.  Consciousness
     is  the leader that cognizes the object that appears at any  sense
     door.  When the visible object comes up to the eye,  consciousness
     cognizes  it  first  of  all.  It is  then  followed  by  feeling,
     perception, desire, delight, dislike, admiration and so on. In the
     same  way,  when  the audible object comes up to the  ear,  it  is
     consciousness that cognizes it first.  It is more obvious when you
     think  or imagine.  If an idea comes up while you  are  meditating
     'rising, falling', etc. you have to note the idea. If you can note
     it the moment it appears, it disappears immediately. If you can't,
     several  of  its  followers like delight,  desire,  will  come  in
     succession.  Then the meditator realizes how consciousness is  the
     leader- its function.

         "Mind precedes things." (Dhammapada,1.)

         If  you note consciousness whenever it arises,  you  see  very
     clearly how it is acting as leader, now going to that object.

         Again the following is said in the Commentary:  "Consciousness
     has  the manifestation of continuity."  As you  meditate  'rising,
     falling' etc., the mind sometimes wanders away. You note it and it
     disappears.  Then another consciousness comes up.  You note it and
     it disappears. Again another consciousness appears. Again you note
     it and again it disappears.  Again another comes up.  You have  to
     note lots of such comings up and going away of consciousness.  The
     meditator  comes  to realize:  "Consciousness is a  succession  of
     events  that  come  up and go away one  after  another.  When  one
     disappears,  another  appears."  Thus you realize  the  continuous
     manifestation  of consciousness.  The meditator who realizes  this
     also  realizes  death and birth. "Death is nothing  strange  after
     all.  It  is  just  like  the  passing  away  of  each  moment  of
     consciousness  I have been noting.  To be born again is  like  the
     coming  up of the consciousness I am now noting that has risen  in
     continuation of the one before.

         To  show that one can understand the characteristic,  function
     and  manifestation of things even though one has not learnt  about
     them,  we have taken the air-element out of the material qualities
     and  the  unpleasant feeling and consciousness out of  the  mental
     qualities.  You just have to meditate on them as they  arise.  The
     same  applies to all the other mental and material  qualities.  If
     you  meditate  on them as they arise,  you will  understand  their
     characteristics,  functions and manifestations.  The  beginner  in
     meditation  can  meditate on and  understand  the  mental-material
     aggregates  of  grasping  only by way  of  these  characteristics,
     functions and manifestations.  At the initial stage of  analytical
     knowledge  of  mind  and matter and the  knowledge  of  discerning
     conditionality,   which  are  elemental  in  insight   meditation,
     understanding that much is enough.  When you come to real  insight
     knowledges  like  the  knowledge of investigation,  you  know  the
     nature of impermanence, suffering and not-self as well.

     What For and What Time?

         The question now arises:  What do we meditate on the  grasping
     aggregates for? And, as regards time, at what time do we meditate,
     when they are gone, or before they come up, or when they arise?

         What do we meditate for?  Do we meditate on the aggregates  of
     grasping  for  worldly  wealth?  For  relief  from  illness?   For
     clairvoyance? For levitation and such supernatural powers? Insight
     meditation aims at none of these. There have been cases of  people
     who  get  cured of serious illnesses as a result  of  meditational
     practice.  In  the days of the Buddha persons  who  got  perfected
     through insight meditation had supernatural powers.  People  today
     may  have  such powers if they get perfected.  But  fulfilment  of
     these powers is not the basic aim of insight meditation.

         Shall  we  meditate  on  phenomena past  and  gone?  Shall  we
     meditate  on  phenomena not yet come?  Shall we  meditate  on  the
     present phenomena?  Or,  shall we meditate on phenomena which  are
     neither past,  future nor present,  but which we can imagine as we
     have  read about them in books? The answer to these questions  is:
     we meditate not to grasp and we meditate on what is arising.

         Yes,  people not practised in meditation grasp at  the  rising
     mind and matter every time they see, hear, touch,  or become aware
     of. They grasp at them with craving, being pleased with them. They
     grasp at them with wrong views,  taking them as permanent,  happy,
     as  the  I,  or the ego.  We meditate in order not  to  let  these
     graspings arise,  to be free from them.  This is the basic aim  of
     insight meditation.

         And,  we meditate on what is arising.  We do not  meditate  on
     things past,  future,  or indefinite in time. Here we are speaking
     of practical insight meditation.  In inferential meditation we  do
     meditate on things past,  future,  and indefinite in time.  Let me
     explain.  Insight  meditation  is  of  two  kinds,  practical  and
     inferential. The knowledge you gain by meditating on what actually
     arises   by  way  of  intrinsic  characteristics  and   individual
     characteristics  such as impermanence is practical  insight.  From
     this practical knowledge you infer the impermanence, suffering and
     not-self  of  things  past  and  future,   things  you  have   not
     experienced. This is an inferential insight.

         "The  fixing of both (seen and unseen) as alike  by  following
     the object......" (-Patisambhida magga)

     The Visuddhimagga explains this statement as follows:

         "......by  following,  going after the object  seen,  visually
     determining  both  (the seen and the unseen) as one  in  intrinsic
     nature:  'as this (seen) one,  so what goes as complex broke up in
     the  past  and  will break up in the future also'"  (The  Path  of
     Purity, p786.)

         "The  object  seen"  - this is practical insight.  And  "going
     after the object seen.....determining both.....in the  past.....in
     the  future"  - this is inferential insight.  But here  note:  the
     inferential  insight  is  possible only after  the  practical.  No
     inference can be made without first knowing the present.  The same
     explanation is given in the Commentary on Kathavatthu:

         "Seeing  the impermanence of even one contemplated  formation,
     by  method  one  draws the conclusion as regards  the  others,  as
     'Impermanent are all formations'"

         Why don't we meditate on things past or future?  Because  they
     will  not make you understand the real nature and cleanse  you  of
     defilements.  You  do not remember your past existences.  Even  in
     this  existence,  you do not remember most of your childhood.  So,
     meditating on things past,  how can you know things as they really
     are with their characteristics and functions?  Things of the  more
     recent past may be recalled.  But, as you recall them,  you think,
     "I saw,  I heard,  I thought. It was I who saw at that time and it
     is I who am seeing now."  There is the "I"  notion for you.  There
     can  even  be notions of permanence and  happiness.  So  recalling
     things  past  to meditate on do not serve our  purpose.  You  have
     already grasped them and this grasping cannot be removed. Although
     you  look  on them as mind and matter with all your  learning  and
     thinking, the "I" notion persists because you have already grasped
     it.  You say "impermanent"  on the one hand,  you get  the  notion
     "permanent"  on  the other.  You note suffering,  but  the  notion
     "happiness"  keeps turning up.  You meditate on not-self,  but the
     self notion remains strong and firm.  You argue with yourself.  In
     the  end  your  meditation has to give way  to  your  preconceived
     ideas.

         The  future  has  not yet come, and you  can't  be  sure  what
     exactly it will be like when it comes.  You may have meditated  on
     them in advance but may fail to do so when they turn up. Then will
     craving,  wrong  view,  and defilements arise  all  anew.  So,  to
     meditate  on the future with the help of learning and thinking  is
     no  way to know things as they really are.  Nor is it the  way  to
     calm defilements.

         Things of indefinite time have never existed,  will not exist,
     and  are  not existing,  in oneself or in others.  They  are  just
     imagined by learning and thinking. They are high-sounding and look
     intellectual,  but on reflection are found to be just concepts  of
     names, signs and shapes. Suppose someone is meditating, "Matter is
     impermanent.  Matter rises moment to moment and passes away moment
     to moment."  Ask him:  What matter is it? Is it matter of the past
     or present or the future?  Matter in oneself or in others?  If  in
     oneself,  is it matter in the head? The body? The limbs?  The eye?
     The  ear?  You  will  find that it is none of  these  but  a  mere
     concept,  an  imagination  such  as name concept.  So  we  do  not
     meditate on things on indefinite time.

     Origination

         But  the present phenomenon is what comes up at the six  doors
     right  now.  It has not yet been defiled.  It is like an  unsoiled
     piece of cloth or paper. If you are quick enough to meditate on it
     just as it comes up,  it will not be defiled.  You fail to note it
     and it gets defiled. Once defiled, it cannot be undefiled.  If you
     fail to note the mind-and-matter as it rises, grasping intervenes.
     There is grasping with craving - grasping of sense-desires.  There
     is  grasping  with wrong view - grasping of wrong views,  of  mere
     rite  and ritual,  of a theory of a self.  What if grasping  takes
     place?

         "Conditioned by grasping is becoming;

          conditioned by becoming is birth;

          conditioned by birth, old age and dying,

          grief, suffering, sorrow, despair and

          lamentation come into being.

          Thus comes to be the origination of this

          entire mass of ill. (M i 333; S ii 1-2)

         Grasping is no small matter.  It is the root cause of good and
     bad  deeds.  One  who  has grasped works  to  accomplish  what  he
     believes are good things.  Everyone of us is doing what he  thinks
     is good.  What makes him think it is good? It is grasping.  Others
     may think it is bad,  but to the doer it is good.  If he thinks it
     is not good,  of course he will not do it.  There is a  noteworthy
     passage in "Of one's work". One never thinks evil of one's work.

         "A thief steals because it is good to him to steal.  A  robber
     robs  people because he thinks it is good to rob.  A killer  kills
     because he thinks it is good to kill."

         Ajatasattu killed his own father,  King Bimbisara.  He thought
     it was good.  Deva-datta conspired against the life of the Buddha.
     Why, to him it was good. One who takes poison to kill himself does
     so because he thinks it is good. Moths rush to a flame thinking it
     is  a very nice thing.  All living things do what they do  because
     they think it is good to do so.  To think it is good is  grasping.
     Once  you are really grasped you do things.  What is the  outcome?
     Well, it is the good deeds and bad deeds.

         It is a good deed to refrain from causing suffering to others.
     It is a good deed to render help to others.  It is a good deed  to
     give. It is a good deed to pay respect to those to whom respect is
     due.  A  good deed can bring about peace,  a long life,  and  good
     health  in this very life.  It will bring good results  in  future
     lives,  too.  Such grasping is good, right grasping. Those who are
     thus  grasped do good deeds like giving and keeping  precepts  and
     cause thereby to bring about good karma.  What is the result then?
     "Conditioned  by  becoming is birth." After death  they  are  born
     anew. Where are they born? In the Good Bourn, in the worlds of men
     and gods.  As men they are endowed with such good things as a long
     life,  beauty, health, as well as good birth, good following,  and
     wealth.  You can call them "happy people." As gods, too, they will
     be  attended by multitudes of gods and goddesses and be living  in
     magnificent palaces. They have grasped by notions of happiness and
     in a worldly sense, they can be said to be happy.

         But  from  the point of view of the Buddha's  teaching,  these
     happy men and gods are not exempt from suffering.  "Conditioned by
     birth are old age and dying."  Although born a happy man,  he will
     have to grow into an old "happy"  man.  Look at all those  "happy"
     old  people  in  the  world.  Once over  seventy  or  eighty,  not
     everything is all right with them. Grey hair,  broken teeth,  poor
     eyesight,  poor hearing,  backs bent double,  wrinkles  all  over,
     energy all spent up, mere good-for-nothings! With all their wealth
     and big names,  these old men and women,  can they be happy?  Then
     there is disease of old age. They cannot sleep well,  they  cannot
     eat  well,  they have difficulty sitting down or getting  up.  And
     finally,  they must die. Rich man, king, or man of power, dies one
     day.  He has nothing to rely on then.  Friends and relatives there
     are around him,  but just as he is lying there on his death-bed he
     closes his eyes and dies.  Dying he goes away all alone to another
     existence.  He  must  find it really hard to  part  with  all  his
     wealth. If he is not a man of good deeds, he will be worried about
     his future existence.

         The  great  gods,  likewise,  have to die.  Gods too  are  not
     spared.  A  week before they die, five signs appear to  them.  The
     flowers  they  wear  which never faded now begin  to  fade.  Their
     dresses which never got worn-out now appear worn-out.  Sweat comes
     out in their armpits, an unusual thing.  Their bodies which always
     looked young now look old. Having never felt bored in their divine
     lives, they now feel bored. (Itivuttaka, p.247)

         When  these  five  signs appear, they at  once  realize  their
     imminent  death,  and  are greatly alarmed.  In the  days  of  the
     Buddha, the Sakka (King of Gods) himself had these signs appear to
     him.  Greatly alarmed that he was going to die and lose his glory,
     he came to the Buddha for help.  The Buddha preached the Dhamma to
     him  and  he became a Stream-winner. The old Sakka  died  and  was
     reborn  as a new Sakka.  It was lucky of him that the  Buddha  was
     there to save him.  Had it not been for the Buddha,  it would have
     been a disaster to the old great god.

         Not  only  old age and dying.  "...grief,  suffering,  sorrow,
     despair   and  lamentation  come  into  being."   All  these   are
     sufferings.  "Thus comes to be the origination of this entire mass
     of  ill."  So,  the good life resulting from grasping is  dreadful
     suffering after all. Men or gods, all have to suffer.

         If  the good life resulting from good deeds is suffering,  had
     we better not do them?  No. If we do not do good deeds,  bad deeds
     may come up.  These can lead us to hell,  to the realm of animals,
     to the realm of ghost,  to the realm of Asuras.  The sufferings of
     these  lower  planes  are far worse.  Human  and  divine  life  is
     suffering  compared  with the happiness of deathless  Nibbana  but
     compared with the sufferings of the lower states,  human or divine
     life is happiness indeed.

         Right  grasping  gives  rise to  good  deeds.  Likewise  wrong
     grasping gives rise to bad deeds.  Thinking that it is good to  do
     so,  some kill,  steal, rob, do wrong to others.  As a result they
     are reborn in bad bourn-in hell,  in the realm of animals,  in the
     realm of ghosts. To be reborn in hell is like jumping into a great
     fire.  Even a great god can do nothing against hell fire.  In  the
     days  of the Kakusandha Buddha there was a great Mara-god  by  the
     name of Dusi. He was contemptuous of the Buddha and the members of
     the Holy Order. One day he caused the death of the chief disciple.
     As  a result of this cruel deed the great god died and was  reborn
     in Avici hell.  Once there he was at the mercy of the guardians of
     purgatory. Those people who are bullying others in this world will
     meet the same fate as that met by the great god Dusi one day. Then
     after  suffering  for a long time in hell,  they  will  be  reborn
     animals and ghosts.

     How grasping arises

         So grasping is dreadful. It is very important too. We meditate
     to let this grasping not be, to put an end to it.  We meditate not
     to grasp with craving or wrong view - not to grasp as permanent or
     happy,  not  to grasp as self,  ego,  the I.  Those  who  fail  to
     meditate  grasp  whenever they see, hear,  feel or  perceive.  Ask
     yourselves if you don't grasp. The answer will be too obvious.

         Let's begin with seeing.  Suppose you see something beautiful.
     What do you think of it?  You are delighted with it,  pleased with
     it,  aren't you? You won't say, "I don't want to see, I don't want
     to  look  at it."  In fact, you are thinking,  "What  a  beautiful
     thing!  How lovely!"  Beaming with smiles you are pleased with it.
     At  the  same time you are thinking it is permanent.  Whether  the
     object seen is a human being or an inanimate thing,  you think  it
     has existed before,  exists now,  and will go on existing forever.
     Although  it is not your own, you mentally take possession  of  it
     and delight in it. If it is a piece of clothing,  you mentally put
     it on and are pleased.  If it is a pair of sandals,  you  mentally
     put them on.  If it is a human being,  you mentally use him or her
     and are pleased, too.

         The same thing happens when you hear,  smell,  taste or touch.
     You  take pleasure on each occasion.  With thoughts the  range  of
     your delights is far wider.  You fancy and take delight in  things
     not your own, long for them, and imagine them to be yours. If they
     are your own things,  needless to say,  you keep thinking of  them
     and are pleased with them all the time.  We meditate to check such
     taking delight in and grasping.

         We grasp with wrong views, too. You grasp with the personality
     view.  When you see,  you think what you see is a person,  an ego.
     Your  own consciousness of seeing,  too, you take as a person,  an
     ego.  Without a thorough insight knowledge we grasp at things  the
     moment  we  see them.  Think of yourselves and you  will  see  for
     yourselves how you have got such a grasping in you.  You think  of
     yourself  as well as of others as an ego that has lived the  whole
     life long.  In reality there is no such thing.  Nothing lives  the
     whole life long.  Only mind and matter rising one after another in
     continuation. This mind-and-matter you take as a person, ego,  and
     grasp. We meditate to not let these graspings with wrong views be.

         But we have to meditate on things as they come up.  Only  then
     will  we  be able to prevent the graspings.  Graspings  come  from
     seeing,  hearing,  smelling, tasting, touching and thinking.  They
     come from six places - six doors. Can we cling to things we cannot
     see?  No.  Can we cling to those we cannot hear?  No.  The  Buddha
     himself has asked these questions.

         "Now  what  think you,  Malunkya's son?  As  to  those  shapes
     cognizable by eye,  which you have not seen,  which you have never
     seen  before,  which  you  do  not see  now,  which  you  have  no
     expectation  of  seeing in future, have you  any  partiality,  any
     passion, any affection for such shapes?"

         "Not so, my lord"    (-S. iv. 72)

         What  are  those shapes you have not seen  before?  Towns  and
     villages  and  countries  you have never been to,  men  and  women
     living there,  and other scenes.  How can anyone fall in love with
     men  and women he or she hasn't ever seen?  How can you  cling  to
     them?  So,  you  do not cling to things you have  never  seen.  No
     defilements arise in respect of them. You do not need to  meditate
     on them.  But things you see are another matter.  Defilements  can
     arise - that is to say, if you fail to meditate to prevent them.

         The  same  is true of things heard,  smelt,  tasted,  touched,
     thought on.

     Meditate Right Now

         If you fail to meditate on the rising phenomena and so do  not
     know  their real nature of impermanence,  suffering and  not-self,
     you may relive them and thus let defilements be. This is a case of
     latent defilements.  Because they arise from objects, we call them
     "object-latent". What do people cling to and why do they cling to?
     They  cling to things or persons they have seen because they  have
     seen.  If you fail to meditate on them as they arise,  somehow  or
     other graspings arise.  Defilements are latent in whatever we see,
     hear, taste, etc.

         If you meditate, you find that what you see passes away,  what
     you hear passes away.  They pass away in no time at all.  Once you
     see them as they really are, there is nothing to love,  nothing to
     hate,  nothing to cling to.  If there is nothing to cling to there
     can be no clinging or grasping.

         And you meditate right now. The moment you see,  you meditate.
     You can't put it off. You may buy things on credit, but you cannot
     meditate  on  credit.  Meditate  right now.  Only  then  will  the
     clingings not come up. Scripturally speaking, you meditate as soon
     as  the  eye-door thought-process ends and before  the  subsequent
     mind-door thought-process begins.  When you see a visible  object,
     the process takes place like this: First,  you see the object that
     comes up.  This is the seeing process.  Then you review the object
     seen.  This is the name process. With objects you have never  seen
     before,  and so you do not know the names of,  this naming process
     will  not  occur.  Of the four, when the first or  seeing  process
     takes place,  you see the present form, the reality,  as it rises.
     When the second or reviewing process takes place,  you review  the
     past form, the form seen - reality again. Both attend on reality -
     the  object seen.  No concept yet.  The difference is between  the
     present reality and the past reality.  With the third process  you
     come  to  the concept of shape.  With the fourth you come  to  the
     concept  of  names.  The processes that  follow  are  all  various
     concepts.  All these are common to people not practised in insight
     meditation.

         There  are  14 thought-moments in the process  of  seeing.  If
     neither  seeing,   hearing,  nor  thinking  consciousness  arises,
     life-continuum   goes   on.   It   is   identical   with   rebirth
     consciousness.  It is the consciousness that goes on when you  are
     sleeping  fast.  When  a  visible  object  or  any  such  appears,
     life-continuum is arrested, and seeing consciousness, etc. arises.
     As  soon  as  life-continuum  ceases,   a  thought-moment   arises
     adverting  the  consciousness to the object that  comes  into  the
     avenue of the eye. When this ceases,  seeing consciousness arises.
     When this again ceases,  the receiving consciousness arises.  Then
     comes  the investigating consciousness.  Then,  the  consciousness
     that determines whether the object seen is good or not.  Then,  in
     accordance  with the right or wrong attitude you have with  regard
     to  things,  moral or immoral apperceptions arise  forcefully  for
     seven thought-moments.  When these cease,  there comes  subsidence
     into  life-continuum like falling asleep.  From the  adverting  to
     retention there are 14 thought-moments. All these manifest as  one
     seeing consciousness.  This is how the seeing process takes place.
     When  one  is  well-practised in  insight  meditation,  after  the
     arising  of life-continuum following the seeing  process,  insight
     consciousness that reviews "seeing"  takes place.  You must try to
     be able to thus meditate immediately. If you are able to do so, it
     appears in your intellect as though you were meditating on  things
     as they are seen,  as they just arise.  This kind of meditation is
     termed in the Suttas as "meditation on the present".

         "He discerns things present as they arise here and now."

                                                 (-M. iii. 227)

         "Understanding  in reviewing the perversion of present  states
     is knowledge in arising and passing away."

                                         (-Patisambhidamagga)

         These  extracts  from  the Suttas clearly show  that  we  must
     meditate  on  present  states.  If you fail  to  meditate  on  the
     present,  apprehending  process  arises cutting off  the  flow  of
     life-continuum.  This process arises to review what has just  been
     seen.    The    thought-moments   included    are:    apprehending
     consciousness-1, apperceptions-7, and registering consciousness-2,
     a  total of 10 thought-moments.  Every time you think  or  ponder,
     these  three types of consciousness and ten  thought-moments  take
     place. But to the meditator they will appear as one thought-moment
     only.  This  is  in  conformity with  the  explanations  given  in
     connection with the knowledge of dissolution in  Patisambhidamagga
     and  Visuddhimagga.  If  you  can meditate  (or  note)  after  the
     apprehending  process,  you may not get to concepts and  may  stay
     with the reality - the object seen. But this is not very easy  for
     the beginner.

         If you fail to meditate even at the apprehending,  you get  to
     form  process  and name process.  Then graspings come in.  If  you
     meditate  after  the  emergence  of  graspings,   they  will   not
     disappear.  That is why we instruct you to meditate,  immediately,
     before the concepts arise.

         The processes for hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, are to
     be understood along similar lines.

         With  thinking  at  the mind-door, if  you  fail  to  meditate
     immediately,  subsequent processes come up after the  thought.  So
     you meditate immediately so that they may not arise. Sometimes, as
     you are noting 'rising, falling, sitting, touching',  a thought or
     an idea may come up in between. You note it the moment it  arises.
     You note it and it ends right there.  Sometimes a wandering of the
     mind  is about to arise.  You note it and it quiets down.  In  the
     words of some meditators,  "it is like a naughty child who behaves
     himself when shouted at 'Quiet!'"

         So,  if you note the moment you see, hear, touch, or perceive,
     no subsequent consciousness will arise to bring about graspings.

         "...you  will  simply have the sight of the  thing  seen,  the
     sound of the things heard, the sense of the things sensed, and the
     idea of the thing cognized."

         As  this  extract  from Malunkyaputta Sutta  shows,  the  mere
     sight,  the mere sound,  the mere sense,  the mere idea is  there.
     Recall  them  and only the real nature you  have  understood  will
     appear.  No  graspings.  The meditator who meditates  on  whatever
     arises  as it arises sees how everything arises and  passes  away,
     and  it  becomes  clear  to him  how  everything  is  impermanent,
     suffering,  not-self.  He knows this for himself - not  because  a
     teacher has explained it to him. This only is the real knowledge.

     Incessant Work

         To arrive at this knowledge needs thorough work.  There is  no
     guaranteeing  that  you will gain such knowledge at  one  sitting.
     Perhaps one in a million will. In the days of the Buddha there are
     people  who  attained to the Path and Fruit after listening  to  a
     stanza.  But you can't expect such things today.  It was then  the
     Buddha  himself who was teaching.  He knew the disposition of  his
     listeners  very well.  The listeners on their part were people  of
     perfections  i.e.  they had accumulated experience in  their  past
     lives.  But  today  the preacher is just an  ordinary  person  who
     preaches  what  little  he  has  learnt.  He  does  not  know  the
     disposition of his listeners. It will be difficult to say that the
     listeners are men and women of perfections. If they had been, they
     would  have  gained deliverance in the days of the Buddha.  So  we
     cannot  guarantee you will gain special knowledge at one  sitting.
     We can tell you that you can if you work hard enough.

         How  long  do  we have to  work?  Understanding  impermanence,
     suffering  and not-self begins with the  investigating  knowledge.
     But  it does not come at once. It is preceded by purity  of  mind,
     purity of views, and purity of transcending doubts.  To speak from
     the level of the present-day meditators, a specially gifted person
     can  achieve this knowledge in two or three days.  Most will  take
     five, six or seven days. But they must work assiduously. Those who
     get lax at work may not gain it every after fifteen or twenty days
     have  passed.  So  I will talk about working  in  earnest  at  the
     beginning.

         Insight  meditation is incessant work - meditate whenever  you
     see, hear, smell, taste, touch or think, without missing anything.
     But  to beginners,  to note everything is quite impossible.  Begin
     with several.  It is easy to observe the moving form in the rising
     and falling of the abdomen. We have already spoken about it.  Note
     without  a let-up 'rising,  falling,  rising,  falling'.  As  your
     mindfulness and concentration grow stronger,  add the sitting  and
     the touching and note 'rising, falling, sitting, touching'. As you
     note on, ideas may come up. Note them, too:  'thinking,  planning,
     knowing'.  They are hindrances.  Unless you are rid of  them,  you
     have   not  got  purity  of  mind  and  will  not  have  a   clear
     understanding of mind-matter phenomena. So don't let them in. Note
     them and get rid of them.

         If unbearable feelings like tiredness,  hotness,  pain or itch
     appear in the body, concentrate on them and note:  'tired,  tired'
     or 'hot,  hot'  as they arise.  If the desire arises to stretch or
     bend the limbs, note it too, 'desire to bend,  desire to stretch'.
     When you walk, note every step. When you sit down, note it. If you
     lie down, note it too.

         Every bodily movement made,  every thought that arises,  every
     feeling that comes up,  all must be noted.  If there is nothing in
     particular  to  note,  go on  noting  'rising,  falling,  sitting,
     touching'.  You must note while eating or having a bath.  If there
     are things you see or hear particularly, note them too. Except for
     the four, five or six hours you sleep, you keep noting things. You
     must try to be able to note at least one thing in a second.

         If  you keep on noting thus in earnest,  you will,  in two  or
     three days,  find your mindfulness and concentration quite strong.
     If not in two or three days,  in five or six.  Then very rarely do
     wanton thoughts come up. If they do, you are able to note them the
     moment they come.  And they pass away the moment you notice  them.
     The  object noted like the rising and falling and the mind  noting
     it seem to be well-timed. You note with ease. These are signs that
     your  mindfulness and concentration have become strong.  In  other
     words, you have developed purity of mind.

     Things Fall Apart

         From  now on,  every time you note,  the object noted and  the
     mind  that notes it appear two separate things.  You come to  know
     that  the material form like the rising and falling is  one  thing
     and  the  mental state that notes it is another.  Ordinarily,  the
     material form and the mind that cognizes it do not seem  separate.
     They  seem one and the same thing.  Your book knowledge tells  you
     they are separate but your personal feeling has them as one. Shake
     your index finger. Do you see the mind that intends to shake?  Can
     you  distinguish  between that mind and the shaking?  If  you  are
     sincere,  the  answer will be "No."  But to  the  meditator  whose
     mindfulness  and  concentration are well developed the  object  of
     attention and the awareness of it are as separate as the wall  and
     the stone that is thrown to it.

         The Buddha used the simile of the gem and the thread  (D.i.72)
     Just  as when you look at a string of lapis lazuli you  know:  the
     gem is threaded on a string;  this is the gem,  this is the string
     the gem is threaded on,  so does the meditator know:  this is  the
     material  form,  this is the consciousness that is  aware  of  it,
     which  depends on it,  and is related to it.  The Commentary  says
     that the consciousness here is the insight consciousness,  insight
     knowledge,  that observes the material form.  The lapis lazuli  is
     the  material  form  and  the string  is  the  consciousness  that
     observes.  The  thread  is in the gem  as  the  insight  awareness
     penetrates the material form.

         When you note 'rising', the rising is one thing, the awareness
     is one thing- only these two exist.  When you note 'falling',  the
     falling  is  one,  the  awareness is  one-  only  these  two.  The
     knowledge comes clear in you of its own accord.  When you lift one
     foot in walking,  one is the lifting, the other is the awareness -
     only these two exist.  When you push it forward,  the pushing  and
     the  awareness.  When you put it down,  the putting down  and  the
     awareness. Matter and awareness. These two only. Nothing else.

         As your concentration improves further, you understand how the
     material and mental things you have been noting keep passing  away
     each  in its own time.  When you note falling,  the  form  falling
     comes  up gradually and then passes away.  You also find that  the
     rising as well as the awareness passes away,  the falling as  well
     as  the  awareness passes away.  With every noting you  find  only
     arising  and  passing away.  When noting 'bending,  bending',  one
     bending and the next do not get mixed up. Bends,  and passes away,
     bends,  passes  away - and thus, the intention to bend,  the  form
     bending,  and  the awareness,  come and go each in  its  time  and
     place.  And when you note the tiredness,  hotness and pain,  these
     pass  away as you are noting them.  It becomes clear to you:  they
     appear and then disappear, so they are impermanent.

         The  meditator understands for himself what  the  commentaries
     say,  "They  are impermanent in the sense of being  nothing  after
     becoming."  This  knowledge comes to him not from books  nor  from
     teachers.  He understands by himself. This is real  knowledge.  To
     believe what other people say is faith.  To remember out of  faith
     is  learning.  It is not knowledge. You must know  from  your  own
     experience.  This is the important thing.  Insight  meditation  is
     contemplation in order to know for yourself. You meditate, see for
     yourself, and knowing this alone is insight.

         Regarding Contemplation on impermanence the commentary says:

         ".....the impermanent should be understood."

         ".....impermanence should be understood."

         ".....the   discernment   of   the   impermanent   should   be
     understood."
          (- Visuddhimagga, i. 281)

         This  brief statement is followed by the  explanation:  "Here,
     'the impermanent' are the Five Aggregates." You must know that the
     Five Aggregates are impermanent.  Although you may not  understand
     it  by  your own knowledge,  you should know this much.  Not  only
     that.  You should know that they are all suffering,  all without a
     self.  If you know this much, you can take up insight  meditation.
     This    understanding    made   by   learning    is    given    in
     Culatanhasankhaya-sutta:

         "If,  O Lord of devas,  a monk has heard,  'All states are not
     fit for adherence, he understands all the truth." (-M.i.318)

         To "understand"  means to meditate on the mind-and-matter  and
     be  aware of it.  It is the basic insight knowledge of  Analytical
     Knowledge of Conditionality.  So, if you have learnt that mind and
     matter are all impermanent, suffering and not-self,  you can begin
     meditating from the analysis of mind and matter.  Then you can  go
     on to higher knowledges like the Investigating Knowledge.

         "Understanding all the states, he comprehends all of them."

         So,  the least qualification required of a beginner in insight
     meditation   is  that  he  must  have  heard  or  learnt  of   the
     impermanent, suffering, and not-self nature of mind and matter. To
     Buddhists  in  Myanmar  this  is something  they  have  had  since
     childhood.

         We say mind and matter are impermanent because they come to be
     and then pass away. If a thing never comes to be, we cannot say it
     is impermanent. What is that thing which never comes to be?  It is
     a concept.

         Concepts never come to be, never really exist. Take a personal
     name.  It comes into use from the day a child is named. It appears
     as  though it has come to be. But actually people just say  it  in
     calling him.  It has never come to be; it never really exists.  If
     you think it exists, find it.

         When a child is born,  the parents give it a name.  Suppose  a
     boy  has been named "Master Red."  Before the naming ceremony  the
     name  Master  Red is unknown to all. But from the day the  boy  is
     named  people begin calling him Master Red.  But we can't say  the
     name has come into being since then. The name Master Red just does
     not exist. Let's find it out.

         Is the name Master Red in his body? On his head?  On his side?
     On his face?  No,  it is not anywhere.  The people have agreed  to
     call him Master Red and that is all. If he dies, does the name die
     with him too?  No.  As long as people do not forget it,  the  name
     will  live  on.  So it is said,  "a name  or  surname  never  gets
     destroyed".  Only when the people forget it will the  name  Master
     Red disappear. But it is not destroyed. Should someone restore it,
     it will come up again.

         Think  of the Bodhisatta's names in the  Jatakas:  Vessantara,
     Mahosadha, Mahajanaka, Vidhura, Temiya, Nemi..... these names were
     known  in the times of the stories but were lost for  millions  of
     years  until  the Buddha restored them.  Four  asankheyyas  and  a
     hundred thousand kappas ago (asankheyya is a number with the digit
     1  followed by 140 zeroes) the name Dipankara the Buddha  and  the
     name  Sumedha  the  recluse were well known.  They  were  lost  to
     posterity afterwards.  But our Buddha restored them and the  names
     are known to us again.  They will be known as long as the Buddha's
     teaching lasts.  Once Buddhism is gone from earth these names will
     be forgotten too.  But if a future Buddha were to speak about them
     again,  they would become known again. So,  concepts,  names,  are
     just conventions.  They never exist. They have never been and they
     will never be. They never arise, so we can't say they "pass away."
     Nor can we say they are impermanent.  Every concept is like  that;
     no existence, no becoming, no passing away, so no impermanence.

         Nibbana,  although  it  is a reality,  cannot be  said  to  be
     impermanent because it never comes to be or passes away.  It is to
     be regarded as permanent because it stands as peace forever.

     Impermanence

         Realities other than Nibbana - mind and matter - never were in
     the beginning.  They come into being whenever there arise  causes.
     After coming into being they pass away.  So we say these realities
     of  mind and matter are impermanent.  Take seeing for example.  In
     the  beginning there was no seeing.  But if the eye is  good,  the
     object comes up,  there is light,  your attention is drawn to it -
     if  these four causes concur,  then there is seeing.  Once it  has
     risen,  it  passes  away.  No more of it.  So  we  say  seeing  is
     impermanent.  It is not very easy for an ordinary person  to  know
     that seeing is impermanent. Hearing is easier to understand. There
     was no hearing in the beginning. But if the ear is good, the sound
     comes up, there is no barrier, your attention is drawn to it - if,
     these four factors concur,  then there is hearing.  It arises  and
     then passes away. No more of it. So we say hearing is impermanent.

        Now you hear me talking. You hear one sound after another. Once
     you have heard them, they are gone. Listen, SOUND,  SOUND,  SOUND.
     When I say s-, you hear it, then it is no more.  When I say -ound,
     you hear it, then it is gone. That is how they come and pass away.
     The same is true of other psycho-physical phenomena. They come and
     go.  Seeing,  hearing,  smelling,  tasting,  touching,   thinking,
     bending,  stretching, moving - all come and go away.  Because they
     keep passing away, we say they are impermanent.

         Of these, the passing away of consciousness is very clear.  If
     your mind wanders while you are noting 'rising, falling', you note
     'wandering'.  As you note it, the wandering mind is no more. It is
     gone. It has not existed before. It comes about just then. Then it
     is gone in no time at all when noted. So we say it is impermanent.
     The passing away of unpleasant feelings, too,  is obvious.  As you
     go on noting 'rising,  falling,  tiredness,  hotness',  or 'pain',
     appears somewhere in the body.  If you concentrate on it and  note
     'tiredness,  tiredness',  etc. sometimes it disappears completely,
     and sometimes it disappears at least for the time you are  noting.
     So  it  is impermanent.  The meditator  realizes  its  impermanent
     characteristic as he notes its arising and passing away.

         This   realization  of  the  fleeting  nature  of  things   is
     Contemplation on impermanence. It comes from your experience. Mere
     reflection   without  personally  experiencing  it  is   no   true
     knowledge.  Without meditating you will not know what things  come
     up and what things pass away. It is just book learning.  It may be
     a meritorious deed but no real insight knowledge.

         Real  insight  knowledge  is what you  know  for  yourself  by
     meditating  on things as they come up and pass away.  Here in  the
     audience  are  lots of meditators who have come to this  stage  of
     knowledge. I am not speaking from my own experience alone. No, not
     even  from  the experience of forty or fifty  disciples  of  mine.
     There  are  hundreds of them.  Beginners may not have  such  clear
     knowledge yet.  It is not quite easy.  But it is not too difficult
     to achieve,  either.  If you work hard enough as we instruct,  you
     can  have  it.  If  you don't,  you  can't.  Educational  degrees,
     distinctions,  honours all are results of hard work.  No pain,  no
     gain.  The insight knowledge of the Buddha,  too,  must be  worked
     for.

         As your concentration grows sharper, you will be able to see a
     great  number  of  thoughts  in  one  single  act  of  bending  or
     stretching  of the limbs.  You will see large numbers of  thoughts
     coming up one after another as you intend to bend or stretch.  The
     same number when you step.  There arise a great number of thoughts
     in  the twinkling of an eye.  You have to note all these  fleeting
     thoughts as they arise. If you cannot name them, just note 'aware,
     aware.'  You will see that there are four,  five,  or ten thoughts
     arising in succession every time you note 'aware'.  Sometimes when
     the  awareness is so swift,  even the word 'aware'  is  no  longer
     necessary. Just following them with your intellect will do.

         Now a thought arises, now the mind is aware of it: now another
     thought arises, now the observant consciousness is aware of it. It
     is like the saying "a morsel of food, a stroke of the stick."  For
     every thought that arises there is the observant consciousness  to
     be  aware  of  it.  When you are thus aware,  these  arisings  and
     passings away cannot but be very plain to you.  The wandering mind
     that  arises  as  you are noting the rising  and  falling  of  the
     abdomen is caught by the observing consciousness as an animal that
     falls  direct  into  the  snare or an object  that  is  hit  by  a
     well-aimed stone.  And once you are aware of it,  it is gone.  You
     find  it  as clearly as if you were holding it in your  hand.  You
     find thus whenever consciousness arises.

         When tiredness arises,  you note 'tired',  and it is gone.  It
     comes up again, you note it again, and it is gone again. This kind
     of passing away will be made all the more clearer in higher stages
     of insight.  Tired,  noted,  gone: tired, noted,  gone - they pass
     away one by one.  There is no connection between one tiredness and
     the next. The same with pain. Pained, noted, gone: pained,  noted,
     gone  - each pain is gone at each noting.  One pain does  not  mix
     with the other. Each pain is distinct from the other.

         To  ordinary people there is no interruption in  tiredness  or
     pain.  It seems to tire or pain you continuously for a long  time.
     In  fact,  there  is no tiredness or pain for a  long  while.  One
     tiredness  and the next,  one pain and the next,  just very  short
     pieces, very separate ones. The meditator sees this as he notes.

         When  you  note 'rising',  the rising comes up  gradually  and
     passes away by degrees. When you note 'falling', the falling comes
     up  and passes away by degrees. Common people who are ignorant  of
     this  fact think of the rising and falling in terms of the  absurd
     abdominal  shape.  So  from their own experience  they  think  the
     meditators,  too,  will only be seeing the absurd abdominal shape.
     Some  make  accusations  to this effect.  Don't  speak  by  guess,
     please.  Try and see for yourselves, let us warn. If you work hard
     enough, you will find out.

         When  you  note 'bending',  you see clearly how it  moves  and
     passes,  moves and passes, one move after another.  You understand
     now  the scriptural statement that realities like mind and  matter
     do not move from place to place.  Ordinary people think it is  the
     same hand that moves, that has been before the bending. They think
     the  same  hand  moves  inwards  and  outwards.   To  them  it  is
     ever-unchanging  hand.  It  is because they  have  failed  to  see
     through  the  continuity  of  matter,  the  way  matter  rises  in
     succession.  It  is  because they lack in  the  knowledge  to  see
     through.  Impermanence is hidden by continuity, it is said.  It is
     hidden  because  one does not meditate on what arises  and  passes
     away. Says Visuddhimagga

         "Because   the  rise  and  fall  are  not  attended  to,   the
     characteristic of impermanence does not appear,  as long as it  is
     hidden by continuity."

                      (-Vis. xxi, Path of Purity, p781)

         Since  the  meditator is watching every  arising,  all  things
     mental and material appear to him as separate, broken pieces - not
     as  things whole and unbroken.  From a distance ants look  like  a
     line,  but  when you get nearer you see the ants one by  one.  The
     meditator  sees things in broken pieces so continuity cannot  hide
     the  fact  from him.  The characteristic of  impermanence  unfolds
     itself to him. He is no longer illusioned.

         "But  when  the rise and fall are grasped  and  continuity  is
     broken,  the  characteristic of impermanence appears in  its  true
     peculiar property."  (Ibid.)

         This   is  how  you  meditate  and  gain  the   knowledge   of
     Contemplation on Impermanence.  Mere reflection without meditation
     will not give rise to this knowledge.  Once this knowledge is made
     become, those on suffering and not-self follow.

         "To  one,   Meghiya,   who  has  perceived  impermanence   the
     perception of not-self is established." (A.iii,169.)

         How  will you take what you very know to be capable of  rising
     and passing away to be self,  ego,  a being?  People cling to  the
     self  because they think they have been the same person the  whole
     life.  Once it is clear to you from your own experience that  life
     is but made up of things that rise and pass away incessantly,  you
     will not cling as self.

         Some  obstinate  persons  say that this  sutta  is  meant  for
     Meghiya alone. This is something that should not be said.  We fear
     others  will come up who will say what the Buddha said were  meant
     for  the people of his days,  not for us who live today.  But  the
     statement is found not in that sutta alone.  In Sambodhi Sutta the
     Buddha says:

         "To one,  monks, who has perceived impermanence the perception
     of not-self is established." (A.iii.165.)

         And,  if one realizes impermanence,  one  realizes  suffering,
     too.  The meditator who realizes how things are rising and passing
     away,  can see how the two events,  rising and passing away,  have
     been oppressing him. The Commentary to Sambodhi Sutta says:

         "When   the  characteristic  of  impermanence  is  seen,   the
     characteristic  of not-self is seen,  too,  since when one of  the
     three characteristics is seen the other two are seen too."

         So,  it is very important to understand the one characteristic
     of impermanence.

     Rediscovery

         In  this  connection  let  me tell you a  story  from  my  own
     experience as a meditation teacher.  It is about a meditator  from
     my  native village,  Hseikkhun,  in Shwebo district.  He was  none
     other than a cousin of mine. He was one of the first three persons
     from the village to take up insight meditation.  The three of them
     agreed among themselves to work very hard. They had brought to the
     hermitage  cigars  and betel quids to be taken one each  day.  But
     when they returned from the hermitage they took home all the seven
     cigars and quids - untouched.

         So  hard  did they work that in three days they  attained  the
     knowledge  of rising and falling and were overjoyed to  experience
     tranquillity and see the brilliance around.  "Only at this old age
     have we discovered the truth," they spoke with great joy.  Because
     they  were  the first to take up meditation I thought  of  letting
     them go with their joys and just told them to go on noting.  I did
     not tell them to note the joys.  So although they worked for  four
     more days, they did not get any higher.

         After  a  few day's rest they came again for another  week  of
     meditation.  That  cousin of mine then reached the  stage  of  the
     Knowledge of Dissolution. Although he was noting 'rising, falling,
     sitting',  he did not see the abdominal shape, and his body seemed
     to have disappeared, so he had to touch it with his hand to see if
     it was still there,  he told me.  And,  whenever he looked or saw,
     everything seemed to be dissolving and breaking up.  The ground he
     looked  at  was  dissolving,  and so were the trees.  It  was  all
     against what he had thought things to be. He began to wonder.

         He  had  never thought such  external,  season-produced  gross
     material things like earth, trees, logs, etc. could be incessantly
     breaking   up.   He  had  thought  they  perished  only  after   a
     considerable length of time. They lasted for quite a long time, he
     had  thought.  Now,  as insight  knowledge  gained  momentum  with
     meditation, the rising and passing of phenomena appeared to him of
     their  own accord without his specially meditating on  them.  They
     were passing away,  breaking up, there before him.  It was all the
     reverse of his former beliefs.  Perhaps his new vision was  wrong.
     Perhaps his eyesight was failing.

         So he asked me.  And I told him. The passing away and breaking
     up  he saw in everything were true.  As your insight grew  sharper
     and quicker,  things appear rising and passing away to you without
     your meditation on them.  These are all true,  I explained to him.
     Later on he again told me about his own findings as he  progressed
     in insight. Today he is no more. He has long been dead.

         When insight knowledge has grown really sharp, it will prevail
     over  wrong  beliefs and thoughts.  You see things in  their  true
     light,  as impermanent, suffering, not-self. An uncultured mind or
     reflection  without meditation cannot give you real  insight  into
     the nature of things. Only insight meditation can do that.

         Once  you realize impermanence,  you see how they oppress  you
     with their rising and passing away, how you can derive no pleasure
     from them, how they can never be a refuge, how they can perish any
     moment, so how they are frightening, how they are suffering, etc.

         "...ill (suffering) in the sense of fearful."

         You thought,  "This body will not perish so soon. It will last
     for quite a long time." So you took it for a great refuge. But now
     as you meditate you find only incessant risings and passing  away.
     If  no  new ones rise up for the mental and material  things  that
     have  passed away,  one dies.  And this can happen any moment.  To
     make  a self out of these mental and material things that can  die
     any  moment and to take a refuge in it is as dreadful a  thing  as
     sheltering in an old house which is tumbling down.

         And you find that nothing happens as you desire.  Things  just
     follow  their  natural course.  You thought you could  go  if  you
     wished to,  sit if you wished to, rise, see, hear,  do anything if
     you  wished to.  Now as you meditate you find that it is  not  so.
     Mind and matter are found to be working in a pair. Only when there
     is intention to bend is there the form bending. Only when there is
     intention  to stretch is there stretching.  There is  effect  only
     when  there is cause.  Only when there is something to see do  you
     see.  If there is something to see, you can't help seeing it.  You
     hear  when there is something to hear.  You feel happy  only  when
     there  is a reason to be happy. You worry when there is  cause  to
     worry.  If there is cause,  there is effect.  You cannot help  it.
     There is nothing that lives and does what it desires.  There is no
     self, no ego, no I. Only process of arising and passing away.

         To  understand clearly is the most important thing in  insight
     meditation.  Of course, you will come across joys,  tranquilities,
     bright  lights  in  the  course of your  training.  They  are  not
     important things. What is important is to understand impermanence,
     suffering  and not-self.  These characteristics are made clear  to
     you as you just keep on meditating as explained.

     Peace at Last

         You  make things clear to yourself not believing  what  others
     tell  you.  If any of you beginners have not  had  such  self-made
     knowledge yet, know that you have not reached that stage. Work on.
     If others can, you can. It will not take very long.  The knowledge
     comes  to you as you are meditating.  Only when you know for  sure
     that  all  are impermanent,  suffering and not-self will  you  not
     cling to sense objects as permanent, happy, beautiful,  good.  Nor
     will you cling to them as self, soul, the I. All the graspings are
     done away with.  What then?  Well,  all the defilements are calmed
     and Ariyan Path and Nibbana are realized.

         "One who has no grasping does not long after things.  One  who
     does not long after things is calmed in himself." (M.ii,318)

         Whenever you meditate,  you have no obsession with the  object
     noted.  So no grasping arises.  There is no grasping to  what  you
     see,  hear, smell, eat, touch or are aware of. They appear to rise
     each in its time and then pass away.  They manifest themselves  as
     impermanent.  There is nothing to cling to.  They oppress us  with
     their rise and fall. They are all sufferings.  There is nothing to
     cling  to as happy,  good or beautiful.  They rise and fall as  is
     their nature, so there is nothing to cling to as self, soul, or I,
     that  lives and lasts.  All these are made very plain to  you.  At
     that  the graspings are done away with.  Then you realize  Nibbana
     through  Ariyan  Path.  We  will explain  this  in  the  light  of
     Dependent Origination and Aggregates.

         "The stopping of grasping is from the stopping of craving; the
     stopping  of  becoming  is  from the  stopping  of  grasping;  the
     stopping  of  birth  is from the stopping of  becoming;  With  the
     stopping  of birth then  grief,  suffering,  sorrow,  despair  and
     lamentation  are stopped.  Thus comes to be the stopping  of  this
     entire mass of ill." (M.i,337;S.ii,1-3)

         One  who  meditates on the mental and  material  objects  that
     appear  at  the  six doors and knows  their  intrinsic  nature  of
     impermanence, suffering and not-self does not delight in them.  As
     he does not grasp them,  he makes no effort to enjoy them.  As  he
     refuses  to  make  and  effort,  there  arises  no  kamma   called
     "becoming". As no kamma arises, there is no new birth. Where there
     is  no  new birth there is no occasion for old age,  dying,  grief
     etc.  This is how one realizes momentary Nibbana  through  insight
     path  whenever one meditates.  We will explain the realization  by
     Ariyan Path later.

         In  Silavanta sutta earlier quoted,  the  Venerable  Sariputta
     explained  how,  if a monk of moral habit meditates  on  the  five
     aggregates of grasping as impermanent, suffering, and not-self, he
     can become a Stream-winner;  if a Stream-winner meditates,  he can
     become a Once-returner; if a Once-returner, a Never-returner; if a
     Never-returner,  an  Arahant.  Here,  to realize the  four  Ariyan
     fruitions of Stream-winning, Once-returning, Never-returning,  and
     Arahantship  means  to  realize Nibbana through  the  four  Ariyan
     Paths.

     Progress

         To  get to the Ariyan Path one starts with insight  path.  And
     insight  path  begins with the analytical knowledge  of  mind  and
     matter.   Then  one  arrives  at  the  knowledge   of   discerning
     conditionality.  Then,  working on,  one gains  the  knowledge  of
     investigation.  Here  one  comes to enjoy  reflecting  on  things,
     investigating  them,  and persons of considerable  learning  often
     spend  a  long time doing so.  If you do not want  to  reflect  or
     investigate,  you  must  keep on meditating.  Your  awareness  now
     becomes light and swift. You see very clearly how the things noted
     arise and pass away.  You have come to the knowledge of rising and
     passing away.

         At  this stage noting tends to be easy.  Illuminations,  joys,
     tranquilities  appear.  Going  through  experiences  unthought  of
     before,  one is thrilled with joy and happiness.  At  the  initial
     stage of his work,  the meditator has had to take great pains  not
     to let the mind wander this way and that.  But it has wandered and
     for most of the time he has not been able to meditate.  Noting has
     seemed  all right.  Some have had to fight back very hard  indeed.
     But  with  strong  faith in one's teachers,  good  intentions  and
     determination,  one has passed all the difficult stages.  One  has
     now  come to the knowledge of rising and passing away.  Everything
     is fine at this stage.  Noting is easy and effortless.  It is good
     to  note,  and brilliant lights appear.  Rapture  seizes  him  and
     causes  a sort of goose-flesh in him.  Both body and mind  are  at
     ease  and he feels very comfortable. The objects to be noted  seem
     to drop on one's mindfulness of their own accord.  Mindfulness  on
     its part seems to drop on the object of its own accord. Everything
     is  there already noted.  One never fails or forgets to  note.  On
     every  noting  the  awareness  is very clear.  If  you  attend  to
     something  and reflect on it,  it proves to be a plain and  simple
     matter. If you take up impermanence, suffering and not-self, about
     which  you  have  heard  before,  they  turn  out  to  be  plainly
     discernable  things.  So you feel like preaching.  You  think  you
     would make a very good preacher. But if you have had no education,
     you  will make a very poor preacher.  But you feel like  preaching
     and  you can even become quite talkative.  This is what is  called
     "the ideal Nibbana"  the meditators experience. It is not the real
     Nibbana of the Ariyans. We may call it "imitation Nibbana"

         "It is the immortality of those who know."

         Training in meditation is like climbing a mountain.  You begin
     climbing from the base. Soon you get tired. You ask people who are
     coming down and they answer you with encouraging words like  "It's
     nearer  now."  Tired you climb on and very soon come to a  resting
     place  in the shade of a tree with a cool breeze blowing  in.  All
     your  tiredness is gone.  The beautiful scenery around  fascinates
     you.  You get refreshed for a further climb.  The knowledge of the
     rising and passing away is the resting place for you on your climb
     to higher insight knowledge.

         Those  meditators  who  have not yet  reached  this  stage  of
     knowledge  may be losing hope.  Days have passed and no  taste  of
     insight  yet.   They  often  get  disheartened.   Some  leave  the
     meditation  centre with thoughts that meditation is nothing  after
     all.  They  have not discovered the "meditator's Nibbana".  So  we
     instructors  have  to encourage newcomers to the centre  with  the
     hope that they will attain to this knowledge at least.  And we ask
     them  to work to attain it soon.  Most succeed as we advise.  They
     don't need further encouragement.  They are now full of faith  and
     determination to work on till the ultimate goal.

         The "meditator's Nibbana" is often spoken of as amanusi rati -
     non-human  delight or superhuman enjoyment (i.e.  joy  or  delight
     transcending that of ordinary human beings).  You derive all kinds
     of delights from various things - from education,  wealth,  family
     life.  The "meditator's Nibbana"  surpasses all these delights.  A
     meditator  once  told  me that he had indulged  in  all  kinds  of
     worldly pleasures.  But none could match the pleasure derived from
     meditation. He just could not express how delightful it was.

     But is that all? No, you must work on. You go on with your noting.
     Then,  as  you progress,  forms and features  no  longer  manifest
     themselves and you find them always disappearing. Whatever appears
     disappears  the  moment  you  notice  it.  You  note  seeing,   it
     disappears  swiftly.  You note hearing,  it  disappears.  Bending,
     stretching,  again it disappears swiftly. Not only the object that
     comes up, the awareness of it too disappears with it in a pairwise
     sequence. This is the Knowledge of Dissolution.

         Every time you note,  they dissolve swiftly.  Having witnessed
     it  for  a long time,  you become frightened of them.  It  is  the
     knowledge  of the Fearful.  Then you find fault with these  things
     that keep passing away.  It is the Knowledge of Tribulation.  Then
     as you meditate on,  you get weary of them. It is the Knowledge of
     Repulsion.

         "So  seeing all these things, the instructed disciple  of  the
     Ariyans disregards the material shapes, disregards feeling."
                                          (M.i,137;S.iii,68.)

         Your material body has been a delightful thing before. Sitting
     or  rising,  going or coming, bending or stretching,  speaking  or
     working,  everything has seemed very nice.  You have thought  this
     material  body of yours to be a dependable and  delightful  thing.
     Now  that  you  have  meditated on it  and  seen  that  everything
     dissolves,  you no longer see your body as dependable.  It  is  no
     longer delightful. It is just a dull, tiresome business.

         You  have  enjoyed both pleasurable feelings of the  body  and
     mental  pleasure.  You  have thought, "I  am  enjoying,"  "I  feel
     happy."  Now these feelings are no longer pleasurable. They,  too,
     pass away as you notice them. You become wearied of them.

         You  have thought well of your perception.  But now  it,  too,
     passes away as you notice it. You feel disgusted with it as well.

         Volitional  activities  are responsible for all  your  bodily,
     mental and vocal behaviours.  To think, "I sit,  I rise,  I go,  I
     act,"  is to cling to volitional activities. You have thought well
     of  them  too.  Now  that you see  them  passing  away,  you  feel
     repulsion for them.

         You  have enjoyed thinking.  When newcomers to the  meditation
     centre  are  told  that they must not  engage  in  thinking  about
     things, but must keep noting, they are not at all pleased. Now you
     see how thoughts,  ideas, come up and pass away, and you are tired
     of them too.

         The same thing happens to your sense-organs. Whatever comes up
     at the six doors is now a thing to disgust, to be wearied of. Some
     feel extreme disgust, some a considerable amount.

         Then arise desires to be rid of them all.  Once you are  tired
     of  them,  of course you want to get rid of them.  "They come  and
     pass  incessantly.  They  are no good. It were well  if  they  all
     ceased."  This is the Knowledge for Deliverance.  Where "they  all
     ceased" is Nibbana. To desire for deliverance from them is to long
     for  Nibbana.  What  must one do if one wants  Nibbana?  He  works
     harder   and  goes  on  meditating.  This  is  the  Knowledge   of
     Re-reflection. Working with special effort, the characteristics of
     impermanence,  suffering and not-self become all the more  clearer
     to you. Especially clearer is suffering.

         After re-reflection you come to the Knowledge of  Indifference
     to Formations.  Now the meditator is quite at ease.  Without  much
     effort  on his part the noting runs smoothly and is very good.  He
     sits  down  to  meditate  and  makes  the  initial  effort.   Then
     everything  runs  its course like a clock once wound  up  goes  on
     ticking of its own accord. For an hour or so he makes no change in
     his posture and goes on with his work without interruption.

         Before  this knowledge there may have been disturbances.  Your
     mind  may  be directed to a sound heard and thus  disturbed.  Your
     thought  may  wander  off and  meditation  is  disturbed.  Painful
     feelings like tiredness, hotness, aches, itches, coughs appear and
     disturb you.  Then you have to start all over again.  But now  all
     goes well.  There are no more disturbances.  Sounds you may  hear,
     but you ignore them and go on noting.  Whatever comes up you  note
     without being disturbed. There are no more wanderings of the mind.
     Pleasant objects may turn up but no delight or pleasure arises  in
     you.   You  meet  with  unpleasant  objects.  Again  you  feel  no
     displeasure or fear.  Painful feelings like tiredness,  hotness or
     aches  rarely appear.  If they do,  they are not unbearable.  Your
     noting  gets  the  better  of  them.  Itching,  pains  and  coughs
     disappear once you attain this knowledge.  Some even get cured  of
     serious illnesses. Even if the illnesses are not completely cured,
     you get some relief while noting in earnest.  So for an hour or so
     there  will  be no interruption to your notings.  Some can  go  on
     meditating  for two or three hours without interruption.  And  yet
     they  feel no weariness in the body.  Time passes unheeded.  "It's
     not long yet," you think.

         On such a hot summer day as this it would be very fine to have
     attained this knowledge. While other people are groaning under the
     intense  heat,  the meditator who is working in earnest with  this
     knowledge  will  not be aware of the heat at all.  The  whole  day
     seems to have fled in no time. It is a very good insight knowledge
     indeed, yet there can be dangers like excess of worry, ambition or
     attachment.  If these cannot be removed, no progress will be made.
     Once  they are removed,  the Ariyan Path knowledge is there to  be
     realized. How?

     Noble Path

         Every  time  you  note 'rising,  falling,  sitting,  touching,
     seeing,  hearing,  bending,  stretching,'  and so on,  there is an
     effort being made. This is the Right Effort of the Noble Eightfold
     Path.  Then there is your mindfulness.  It is  Right  Mindfulness.
     Then  there is concentration which penetrates the object noted  as
     well  as  remains fixed on it.  This is Right  Concentration.  The
     three  are  called Concentration Constituents of  the  Path.  Then
     there is initial application which,  together with  concentration,
     ascends  on  the  object  noted.  It is  the  application  of  the
     concomitants  on  the object.  Its characteristic is  putting  the
     concomitants onto the object (abhiniropana-lakkhana), according to
     the  Commentary.   This  is  Right  Thought.  Then  there  is  the
     realization  that the object thus attended is just movement,  just
     non-cognizing,  just  seeing,  just  cognizing,  just  rising  and
     disappearing,  just impermanent and so on. This is the Right View.
     Right Thought and Right View together form the Wisdom Constituents
     of the Path. The three Morality Constituents, Right Speech,  Right
     Action and Right Livelihood,  have been perfected before you  take
     up insight meditation - when you take the precepts. Besides, there
     can be wrong speech,  wrong action, or wrong livelihood in respect
     of  the  object  noted.  So whenever you  note,  you  perfect  the
     Morality Constituents of the Path as well.

         Thus  the  eight constituents of the Noble Path are  there  in
     every  act  of awareness.  They constitute the insight  path  that
     comes up once clinging is done away with. You have to prepare this
     path  gradually until you reach the Knowledge of  Indifference  to
     Formations.  When  this  knowledge grows mature  and  strong,  you
     arrive  at Ariyan Path in due course.  It is like this:- When  the
     Knowledge  of  indifference to Formations has  matured  and  grown
     stronger,  your notings get sharper and swifter. While thus noting
     and  becoming aware,  swiftly all of a sudden,  you fall into  the
     peace  that is Nibbana.  It is rather strange.  You have no  prior
     knowledge  that  you  will reach it.  You  cannot  reflect  on  it
     reaching,  either.  Only after the reaching can you reflect on it.
     You reflect because you find unusual things. This is the knowledge
     of Reflection.  Then you know what has happened.  This is how  you
     realize Nibbana through the Ariyan Path.

         So  if you want to realize Nibbana,  what is important  is  to
     work  for freedom from clinging.  With ordinary  people  clingings
     arise everywhere:  in seeing,  in hearing,  in touching,  in being
     aware.  They cling to things as being permanent,  as being  happy,
     good,  as soul,  ego, persons. We must work for a complete freedom
     from  these clingings.  To work is to meditate on whatever  rises,
     whatever  is  seen,  heard,  touched,  thought  of.  If  you  keep
     meditating  thus,  clingings cease to be,  the Ariyan Path  arises
     leading to Nibbana. This is the process.

     TO SUM UP:

     How is insight developed?

     Insight  is  developed  by meditating on the  five  aggregates  of
     grasping.

     Why and when do we meditate on the aggregates?

     We meditate on the aggregates whenever they arise in order that we
     may not cling to them.

     If we fail to meditate on mind and matter as they arise  clingings
     arise.

     We cling to them as permanent, good and as ego.

     If we meditate on mind and matter as they arise,  clingings do not
     arise.

     It  is  plainly  seen that all are  impermanent,  suffering,  mere
     processes.

     Once clingings cease, the Path arises, leading to Nibbana.

     These, then, are the elements of Insight Meditation.

                *****************************

     WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

     The Young Weaver

         Now a few words of encouragement.

         When  the  Buddha preached,  his listeners meditated  as  they
     listened to him and gained enlightenment. The number of people who
     thus  gained enlightenment at the end of each preaching  was  very
     great  indeed.  Sometimes as many as eighty-four  thousand  beings
     gained  enlightenment  at the end of a sermon,  according  to  the
     Commentary.  But reading this, you may want to remark, "It appears
     quite easy to gain enlightenment.  But here we are,  working  very
     hard and yet unable to gain anything. Why such a difference?"

         Here  you must remember that the commentary is just giving  an
     account of the occasion and as such does not go into details as to
     the qualifications of the listeners. The preacher himself was  the
     Buddha and none other.  His listeners were people of  perfections.
     As an example let us consider a story.

         Once  the  Buddha  was  teaching  at  Alavi,  the  present-day
     Allahabad.  His  theme  was  mindfulness of  death.  He  told  his
     listeners to remember,  "My life is not lasting.  My death is sure
     to  come.  My life will end in death.  Inevitable is my death.  My
     life  is  uncertain.  Death is certain."  Then  he  went  back  to
     Savatthi.

         Among  the listeners at Alavi was a sixteen-year-old  girl,  a
     weaver. She developed mindfulness of death since then. Three years
     later, the Buddha came to Alavi again. As the Buddha sat among his
     listeners,  he saw the girl coming towards him.  He asked,  "Young
     lady,  where have you come from?" The girl replied, "I don't know,
     my lord."  "Where are you going?" he continued. "I don't know,  my
     lord"  was the answer. "Don't you know?" "I do, my lord."  "Do you
     know?" "I don't, my lord."

         The people were full of contempt for the girl. She was showing
     disrespect  to the Buddha,  they thought.  The  Buddha  therefore,
     asked the girl to explain her answers.  Said she:  "Sir,  you  the
     Buddha will not engage in small talk. So when you asked me where I
     had  come  from,   I  knew  at  once  you  were  asking  something
     significant.  You  were asking me what past existence I  had  come
     from.  This  I do not know and I answered so.  When you  asked  me
     where I was going to,  you meant the next existence I am going to.
     This  again I don't know and so I answered.  Then you asked  if  I
     don't know I am to die one day. I know I have to die one day, so I
     answered I do.  You then asked if I know when I will die.  This  I
     don't  know  and  I answered no."  The Buddha  said,  "Well  done"
     (Sadhu) to her answers.

         So,  by the third question it is certain that we will die.  It
     is not certain when we will die.  Let us ask ourselves the  second
     question "Where are you going?"  It is rather difficult to answer,
     isn't  it?  But there are ways to make the answer  not  difficult.
     Think  about  your  bodily,  verbal and mental  deeds.  Which  are
     greater  in number,  good deeds or bad deeds?  If good deeds,  you
     will go to Good Bourn. If bad deeds, you will be bound for the Bad
     Bourn. So we must make an effort to do good deeds. The best way is
     to  be  engaged in insight meditation, so that you will  be  freed
     from  the lower states forever.  You should try to reach at  least
     the stage of Stream-winning. Is this enough? If you can reach that
     stage,  I will be happy. But according to the Buddha you must work
     till you attain to the fruition of Arahantship.

         Now to go back to the young weaver. She became a Stream-winner
     at  the  end  of  the  Buddha's  sermon.   Clearly,   she   gained
     enlightenment  as a result of her having developed mindfulness  of
     death for three years. From this we can infer that many people had
     been like her.

         While  the Buddha was staying at Jeta Grove at Savatthi  there
     were dhamma talks everyday. There the citizens of Savatthi came in
     the  evening  dressed in clean clothes and bringing  offerings  of
     flowers  and  incense  to the dhamma.  The  same  thing  may  have
     happened  while the Buddha was staying at Bamboo Grove,  Rajagaha.
     So,  listening to the dhamma,  they must have taken up  meditation
     just as they had taken up the precepts.  Even today people  listen
     to  a teacher of meditation and begin practising it.  It was  then
     the  Buddha  himself who was preaching.  How could they  help  not
     practising  it?  It  was  these people who  had  listened  to  his
     previous   sermons   that  listened  to  a   sermon   and   gained
     enlightenment.

         Then there were monks, nuns, lay men and women disciples,  all
     types of people. These people who had the opportunity to listen to
     the Buddha must have been men and women of great perfections.  And
     when the Buddha preached, he did so to suit the disposition of the
     listener. Now this is important.

     The Dull Young Monk

     Once there was one Younger Panthaka who could not learn (memorize)
     a  stanza of 44 syllables in four months.  His brother  the  Older
     Panthaka got impatient with him and sent him away. The Buddha took
     him to himself,  gave him a piece of cloth,  and instructed him to
     handle  it  while  repeating,  "Removal of  impurity,  removal  of
     impurity." The monk did as instructed, realized the nature of mind
     and  matter in him and became an Arahant.  It must have taken  him
     two  or  three hours at most.  He gained enlightenment  so  easily
     because  he  was  given a subject of meditation  that  suited  his
     disposition.

     A Disciple of Sariputta Thera

         Once  a disciple of the Venerable Sariputta meditated  on  the
     foulness  of the body in vain for four months.  So  the  Venerable
     Sariputta took him to the Buddha, who brought forth a golden lotus
     by  his supernormal power and gave it to the monk.  It turned  out
     that the monk had been a goldsmith for five hundred existences  in
     succession.  He liked beautiful things and had no interest in foul
     things.  Now when he saw the golden lotus,  he was fascinated  and
     developed  jhana  while looking at it.  When the Buddha  made  the
     lotus  fade  away,  he realized  the  impermanent,  suffering  and
     not-self nature of things. The Buddha then taught him a stanza, on
     hearing which he became an Arahant.

         The  Elder  Channa was not successful in his efforts  to  gain
     enlightenment. So he asked the Venerable Ananda for advice. Ananda
     said   to   Channa,   "You  are  a  person  capable   of   gaining
     enlightenment."  The  elder was filled with joy  and  delight.  He
     followed Ananda's advice and soon gained enlightenment.

         Some teachers of meditation of today do not know how to  teach
     to suit the disposition of the would-be meditators. They use words
     not suitable to them.  As a result,  the prospective meditators go
     home discouraged.  But some do know how to speak.  Their disciples
     who  thought of spending only a few days at the meditation  centre
     were  heartened  enough to stay on till they finished  the  course
     satisfactorily.  It  is  very  important  to  teach  to  suit  the
     disposition of the listener.  No wonder thousands of people gained
     enlightenment at the end of a sermon by the Buddha.

         Here  among our listeners can be one or two who have  attained
     perfections as those people in the days of the Buddha.  Then there
     will be those who have matured after days and months of  training.
     These  few  may gain enlightenment while listening to  the  dhamma
     now.  If you can't get it now, you will get it very soon as you go
     on meditating.  Those of you who have never meditated before  have
     learnt the right method now,  and if you start meditating at  some
     convenient time,  you will also gain it.  Whether you have  gained
     enlightenment,  or just done good deeds, you will all be  born  in
     the six deva worlds when you die. There you will meet those Ariyan
     devas who have been there since the days of the Buddha.  You  will
     meet  Anathapindika,  Visakha and others. Then you  can  ask  them
     about  what  they have learnt from the Buddha  and  practised.  It
     would  be a delightful thing discussing the dhamma with good  folk
     in deva worlds.

         But  if you do not want to be born in the deva world but  just
     want to be born in the world of men, well,  you will be born here.
     Once, that is, about 25 or 30 years ago, a Chinese devotee invited 
     some monks to a feast at his home in Moulmein. After the meal, the
     presiding monk made a gladdening speech for the occasion.  He said
     how,  as  a  result of his good deed of  feeding  the  monks,  the
     Chinese  devotee would be born in the deva worlds,  where life  is
     full  of delights with magnificent palaces and beautiful  gardens.
     The monk then asked the Chinaman, "Well,  devotee,  don't you want
     to  be born in the deva world?"  "No."  the Chinaman  replied,  "I
     don't  want  to be born in the deva world."  Surprised,  the  monk
     asked, "Why?" "I don't want to be anywhere else. I just want to be
     in my own house,  in my own place." "Well,"  said the monk,  "then
     you will be born in your own house,  in your own place."  The monk
     was right. His kamma will lead him to where he wants to be.

         "The  aspiration,  monks,  of a man of  morality  is  realized
     because of purity." (A.iii,71.)

         Now  you listeners here are of pure morality.  At a time  when
     most  people  in Yangon are enjoying themselves at this  New  Year
     time,  you  are  here  to do  meritorious  deeds,  away  from  the
     merry-making, some of you donning the yellow robes and training in
     meditation.  Some keep eight precepts and do meditation.  So  your
     moral habits are pure. If you want to be born in deva worlds,  you
     will  be born there.  If you want to be born in this human  world,
     you will.

         In this connection there is something that has been a cause of
     concern  to  us.   Today  countries  in  Europe  and  America  are
     prospering.  We fear those Myanmar who do good deeds get  inclined
     towards those countries and will be born there.  I think it is the
     case  already.  Some ask,  "Although Buddhists do good deeds,  why
     isn't a Buddhist country prospering?" They seem to think,  "When a
     Myanmar dies,  he is born in Myanmar only." It is not so. A man of
     merit can be born anywhere. A Myanmar if he so desires can be born
     elsewhere.

         Those  wealthy  people in other countries may have  been  good
     Buddhists  from  Myanmar.   There  are  so  many  people  who   do
     meritorious deeds here.  But there are not enough wealthy  parents
     to receive them in their next life here.  So they will have to  be
     born  elsewhere.  If you are born there,  and if you  are  just  a
     worldling,  you will have to take up the religion of your  parents
     there. This is very important.

         So,  to be steadfast in your religious faith,  you  must  work
     now.  You  must try to reach a stage in which your  faith  in  the
     Buddha,  the Teaching and the Order will never waver. Such a stage
     is that of Stream-winning. Once a Stream-winner, your faith in the
     Three Gems will never waver whatever country you may be born.

         These days it is not very good to be born in the world of men.
     Life is short,  disease are plentiful,  ideologies are  confusing,
     and dangers abound. So, if you do not want to be born in the world
     of men,  you will be born in the world of devas.  Even if you have
     not  gained  the  Path and Fruit, your good deeds  of  giving  and
     keeping  precepts  will take you wherever you want to be.  If  you
     attained the Path and Fruit, all the better.

     And the world of devas is not very hard to come by.  One Indaka of
     Rajagaha  made a gift of a spoonful a rice (to the Order) and  was
     born  in the Tavatimsa heaven.  Our lay devotees in  Myanmar  have
     been making far greater gifts than a spoonful of rice.  As regards
     precepts,  observing  them  for a while has sent  people  to  deva
     heavens.  Some kept eight precepts for half a day and were born in
     heavens.  Now  you  have observed eight  precepts  very  well  and
     practised meditation very well.  If you want,  you will easily get
     to  the deva worlds.  Why not? Once there,  ask the  Ariyan  devas
     about the teaching of the Buddha and discuss the dhamma with them.
     Please do, may I ask you.

     Uposatha the Goddess

         In the time of the Buddha there was a girl called Uposatha  at
     Saketa, which lies in Kosala region in Central India. She lived by
     the teachings of the Buddha and became a Stream-winner.  When  she
     died  she  was  born in Tavatimsa heaven.  There she  lived  in  a
     magnificent  palace.  One day the Venerable Moggallana while on  a
     tour of deva worlds met her.  The monks in those days were perfect
     in  higher  knowledge and had acquired  supernormal  powers.  They
     could  travel  to  deva worlds or look  towards  them  with  their
     deva-sight  or listen to them with their deva-hearing.  But  today
     there are no monks known to possess such powers.  We cannot go  to
     the deva worlds. Even if we managed somehow to get there, we would
     not  be  able to see them.  Let alone those devas  in  the  higher
     planes,  we  cannot even see devas in this world of men,  such  as
     guardians of trees and guardians of treasures.

         Well, the Venerable Moggallana often toured the deva worlds by
     his  supernormal powers.  It was his intention to  get  first-hand
     reports  from the devas interviewed as to how they had got  there,
     what good deeds they had performed to deserve the good life there.
     Of course,  he could learn of their stories without going to them.
     But  he wanted their stories as told by themselves.  As the  Elder
     went  there,  he came near to the palace of the goddess  Uposatha,
     who  saluted  him from her palace.  Moggallana asked  her,  "Young
     goddess,  your  splendour  is like the brightness  of  the  planet
     Venus. What good deeds have you done to deserve this splendour and
     good life?" The goddess answered:

         "I was a woman by the name of Uposatha, at Saketa.  I listened
     to the Buddha's teaching,  was full of faith in his teaching,  and
     became a lay disciple who went to the Three Gems for refuge."

         Putting  your  faith  in  the  Three  Gems,  the  Buddha,  the
     Teachings,  and the Order,  is "going for refuge."  You do this by
     repeating the formula: "I go to the Buddha for refuge, I go to the
     Dhamma for refuge, I go to the Order for refuge."

         The  Buddha  knows  all the dhamma.  Having  himself  realized
     Nibbana,  the  end  of all sufferings like old  age,  disease  and
     death,  he taught the Dhamma so that beings may enjoy the bliss of
     Nibbana like him. If one follows the teachings of the Buddha,  one
     can  avoid the four lower states and be freed from all  suffering.
     Believing this, you go to the Buddha for refuge. When you are ill,
     you have to put your faith in the physician.  You must trust  him.
     "This doctor is an expert.  He can cure me of my illness."  In the
     same way,  you put your trust in the Buddha knowing that you  will
     be saved from all suffering by following his teachings.  But these
     days  some  do not seem to know the significance of  the  formula.
     They  respect  them because their parents or  teachers  make  them
     repeat.  This is not the right thing.  You must know the  meaning,
     think of it in your mind,  and repeat the formula slowly.  If  you
     cannot do it often, try to do it at least once in a while.

         When you say "I go to the Dhamma for refuge,"  you are putting
     your  faith  in  the teachings of the Buddha -  teachings  of  the
     Paths,  the Fruits and Nibbana. You are acknowledging your  belief
     that  the practice of these teachings will save you from the  four
     lower states and from all suffering of the round of rebirths.

         When you say "I go to the Order for refuge,"  you are  putting
     your faith in the brotherhood of the holy ones who,  by practising
     the dhamma as taught by the Buddha,  have attained or are about to
     attain  the Paths and Fruitions. You are acknowledging the  belief
     that  reliance on the Order will lent you freedom from  the  lower
     states and the round of rebirths.

         A  man who has gone to the Three Refuges is called in Pali  an
     upasaka,  and  a woman an upasika.  Being an  upasaka  or  upasika
     amounts  to  doing  a good deed that will send  you  to  the  deva
     worlds.

         "Those who have gone to the Buddha for refuge will not go  the
     lower worlds.  Leaving human bodies, They will fill deva  bodies."
     (D.ii,204; S.i,25)

         The  goddess  Uposatha  had done other good  deeds,  too,  she
     continued.  I was full of morality. I gave alms.  I kept the eight
     precepts.

         Those  who do not know Buddhism make fun of keeping the  eight
     precepts and often say,  "You fast and get starved.  That's  all."
     They know nothing about good and bad deeds.  They do not know  how
     by   overcoming  the  desire  to  eat,   which  is   greed,   good
     consciousness is being developed.  But they will know how  fasting
     can be good to sick people. They praise it then.  They  understand
     current material welfare only.  They are totally ignorant of  mind
     and  afterlife.  To observe the eight precepts is to  prevent  bad
     things  from coming up and develop good things like restraint  and
     long suffering day and night. "The holy ones,  the Arahants,  live
     avoiding   forever  bad  things  like  killing,   stealing,   sex,
     falsehood,  strong drinks, eating at improper times. I will follow
     their example for one day and honour them by so doing." The Ariyan
     good folk think like this when they keep the eight precepts.  When
     you feel hungry,  you control yourself and try to free yourself of
     the defilement of hunger.  It is a noble act.  As noble acts arise
     in your mind,  it gets purified. It is like fasting and  cleansing
     your  intestines when you are sick. Since your mind is pure,  when
     you die,  a pure continuity of consciousness goes on.  This we say
     "being born a man or a deva".

     Truths

         The goddess Uposatha continued, "I come to live in this palace
     as a result of restraint and generosity." Here "restraint" is very
     important.  Even in this world,  if there is no restraint in  your
     spending  you will become poor.  If there is no restraint in  your
     actions, you will contract diseases or get involved in crimes.  As
     for  the next life,  restraint is important as it can  purify  the
     heart.  That  generosity  can lead one to deva  worlds  is  common
     knowledge among Buddhists.

         She  said,  "I knew the Noble Truths."  The Noble  Truths  are
     truths  to  be known by,  made known to,  the Noble  Ones  of  the
     Ariyans.  Once you understand these truths by yourself, you become
     an Ariyan. They are the Truth of Suffering, the Truth of the Cause
     of  Suffering,  the Truth of the Cessation of Suffering,  and  the
     Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering.  This  is
     the most important part.

         "To know the Noble Truths" does not mean to learn of them from
     hearsay.  It means realization by yourself.  You should understand
     them well,  give up what ought to be given up,  realize (the  end)
     and make become (the Path) in yourself. So goes the Commentary.

         The  five aggregates of grasping we have discussed  constitute
     the truth of suffering. So noting the aggregates and understanding
     them is understanding the Truth of Suffering. As you note, you see
     how they arise and pass away, how they constitute suffering.  Thus
     you understand while meditating.  When you reach the Ariyan  Path,
     you  see  Nibbana,  the  end  of  suffering,   and  on  reflection
     understand  that whatever arises and passes away and has not  come
     to cessation is suffering. Thus you understand at the Path moment.
     It  is  not understanding by way of attention to the  object,  but
     rather by way of function.

         As you meditate, there can be craving for the object meditated
     on.  This is understanding by way of giving up. On reflection,  no
     craving  will  arise on objects you have seen to  be  impermanent,
     suffering and not-self.  It has been extinguished. This is how you
     understand while meditating.  When you realize the Ariyan Path and
     Nibbana, no craving will ever arise with respect to the Path. With
     the Path of Stream-winning any gross craving that can lead one  to
     the  lower  states is done away with.  With  Never-returning,  all
     cravings  for sense-pleasures are put away and  with  Arahantship,
     all remaining types of craving.

         Whenever you note, no defilements, no kamma,  so no sufferings
     will arise in respect of the objects noted.  All are extinguished.
     Such  cessation  of  suffering is experienced with  every  act  of
     noting.  This  is how you realize the Truth of Cessation.  At  the
     Ariyan Path moment you realize Nibbana. This is obvious now.

         Every time you meditate,  Right View regarding the true nature
     of  mind  and  matter  arises.   Once  there  is  Right  View  its
     concomitants such as Right Thought arise too.  We have dealt  with
     them above.  To make become the eight constituents of the Path  is
     to develop the Path. It is how you understand while meditating. At
     the Ariyan Path moment the eight constituents arise and Nibbana is
     realized. The one who has arrived at the Path and Fruition can see
     on reflection how the Ariyan Path has come to be.  He sees.  This,
     too, is understanding.

         Thus, if you understand how mind and matter are sufferings, if
     you have given up craving which is the cause of suffering,  if you
     realize  the end of suffering,  and if you make become  the  eight
     constituents  of  the Path in you,  we can say you know  the  four
     truths. So, when the goddess Uposatha said she knew the four noble
     truths,  she  meant she had seen the insight path and  the  Ariyan
     path  by  her  own  experience.   In  other  words,   she  was   a
     Stream-winner.

         Once  you know the four truths you know the Ariyan dhammas  as
     well. We will give an excerpt from the suttas.

         "..the  well  instructed Ariyan disciple,  one  who  sees  the
     Ariyans, who is skilled in the Ariyan dhamma"

         If  you are not an Ariyan,  you will not know by right  wisdom
     what  kind  of a person an Ariyan is.  Those who have  never  been
     initiated  into the Order will not know from  personal  experience
     how  a  monk  behaves and lives. Those who  have  never  taken  up
     meditation  will not know how a meditator behaves and lives.  Only
     when you yourself are an Ariyan will you discern who an Ariyan is.

         According to the Commentary, the Ariyan dhamma consists of the
     four  establishments  of mindfulness, four supreme  efforts,  four
     means  of  accomplishment,  five  faculties,  five  powers,  seven
     factors  of enlightenment,  and eight constituents of the  Path  -
     seven  categories  in  all.  If you know  any  one  of  the  seven
     categories,  you know the other six.  So we have said that if  you
     know the four truths you know the Ariyan dhamma, for the Eightfold
     Path  which is one item of Ariyan dhamma is included in  the  four
     truths.

         When  you try to make become any of the seven categories  like
     the  establishment of mindfulness in you,  you understand it  from
     your  own experience.  This is true understanding.  Learning  from
     hearsay will not do.

         "A  monk  when  he  walks is aware  'I  am  walking'"  So  the
     meditator  who  is going to be an Ariyan,  when  he  walks,  walks
     noting  either 'walking,  walking' or 'lifting,  moving,  forward,
     putting  down'.  As he so walks,  mindfulness arises  whenever  he
     notes,  as does knowledge that cognizes the object noted. You know
     how the intention to walk,  the material form of walking,  and the
     awareness arise and pass away. The mindfulness and knowledge  that
     arise whenever you note constitute establishing mindfulness by way
     of contemplation of the body.

         "He is aware 'I am feeling a painful feeling'  when he feels a
     painful feeling."  The meditator notes 'hot, hot' or 'pain,  pain'
     whenever  there arises hotness or pain. Thus he is mindful and  he
     knows how feelings arise and then pass away.  This is establishing
     mindfulness by way of contemplation of feelings.

         "He  is  aware of a passionate mind that  it  is  passionate."
     Every  time  such a thought or idea arises,  the  meditator  notes
     'clinging,  delighting'.  He is thus mindful and  knows  how  they
     arise  and pass away.  This is establishing mindfulness by way  of
     contemplation of mind.

         "One  who  has existing in himself a sensual desire  is  aware
     'There is in me a sensual desire.'"  The meditator notes  'desire,
     delight' and so on, and is mindful and knows how dispositions like
     sensual  desire  arise  and  pass  away.   This  is   establishing
     mindfulness by way of contemplation of dhamma objects (=hindrances
     and so on).

         Those of you who have been training here have been  meditating
     and  understanding from self-experience.  You get skilled  in  the
     Ariyan dhamma, the four establishments of mindfulness. At the same
     time you are making the four supreme efforts,  too.  As you  note,
     you are making an effort to discard evils that have arisen,  or to
     prevent the arising of those evils not yet arisen,  or to  develop
     those good deeds of insight and Path that have not yet arisen,  or
     to augment the insight knowledge that has already arisen. The four
     means of accomplishment are involved too. When you work,  you have
     to  rely  on either will,  effort,  thought or  reason.  The  five
     faculties of confidence,  effort,  mindfulness,  concentration and
     wisdom  are there too.  The five powers are the same as  the  five
     faculties.  The seven factors of enlightenment,  too,  are  there.
     When  you  note,  you  have  mindfulness,  investigation  (of  the
     dhamma),  effort, rapture, quietude, concentration and equanimity.
     That the Eightfold Path is involved too need not be repeated here.

         To go back to the story of the goddess Uposatha. She said,  "I
     kept the five precepts.  I was a lay woman-disciple of Gotama  the
     Buddha.  I  often heard of Nandana and wanted to be  there.  As  a
     result I came to be born here in Nandana."

         Nandana  is the name of a garden in the deva world.  In  those
     days  people  talked so much of Nandana as they do of  America  or
     Europe  these  days.  Uposatha heard people talk  about  the  deva
     garden and wished to be born there. So was she born.  But now  she
     was not happy there.  She got dissatisfied with her lot.  She told
     Moggallana,  'I failed to do the Buddha's word.  Having turned  my
     mind to this lowly plane, now I am full of repentance."

         The Buddha taught us that life - whatever form it takes is  no
     good.  It  is mere suffering.  He told us to work for the  end  of
     suffering.  But Uposatha had disregarded the Buddha's teaching and
     longed  for life in a deva world.  Now she realized she  had  been
     mistaken.

         You may ask,  "Well,  why not work for the end of suffering in
     the deva world?"  It is not easy to meditate there.  The devas are
     always singing,  dancing and making merry.  There is not a  single
     quiet spot there as in the world of men. Well,  even in this world
     of men,  when you meditators return home, you can't meditate well,
     can you? So, work hard now.

         The  Venerable  Moggallana cheered her up  with  these  words,
     "Don't  worry,  Uposatha.  The Fully Enlightened One has  declared
     that  you  are a Stream-winner with special  attainment.  You  are
     freed from the Bad Bourn."

         The  young  goddess is still in Tavatimsa.  She has  not  been
     there  long  in the reckoning of the deva world.  A  century  here
     equals  a day there.  From the Buddha's time till now it  is  2500
     years,  which is only 25 days according to the Tavatimsa calendar.
     She  is not yet a month old.  If you attain enlightenment now,  in
     forty,  fifty or sixty years you will be born in the  deva  world,
     meet  this goddess,  and discuss the dhamma with her on  an  equal
     level.  If you have not got any stage of enlightenment,  do not be
     discouraged. At least you will be born in the deva world. Then ask
     the Ariyan devas,  listen to their teachings, and pay attention to
     what  they teach.  Then you will attain to the Path and  Fruition.
     The corporeality of the devas is very pure. The consciousness that
     arises depending on this pure matter is keen and swift. So, if you
     remember  what you have meditated on in your human existence,  you
     will  understand the arising and passing away of mind  and  matter
     and reach the Ariyan Path and Fruition in no time at all.

         "The pieces of the dhamma which he has experienced before flow
     to him in his happiness there. The arising of recollection, monks,
     is slow.  But then quickly does that being reach the attainment of
     Path, fruition and Nibbana." (A.i,505)

         A Sakyan woman, Gopika by name, who was a Stream-winner,  died
     and was born a son of Sakka, the King of devas in Tavatimsa. There
     he saw three gandhabba gods who had come to dance at his  father's
     palace.  On reflection Gopaka (for it was his name now)  saw  that
     the  three  gods had been monks he had worshipped  in  his  former
     existence.  He told them.  Two of the gods remembered  the  dhamma
     they  had practised,  meditated on it,  and there and then  gained
     jhana, and became Non-returners, and rose to Brahmapurohita world.

         There are lots of gods and goddesses like Uposatha now  living
     in  the  world  of devas,  who have practised the  dhamma  in  the
     Buddha's time.  There are gods like Gopaka who have been born gods
     from women.  All of them have practised the dhamma just like  you.
     It is very heartening.  This is the ancient road.  It is the  road
     taken  by the Ariyans.  You must know that we are  following  this
     road.  Every time you note you are walking along this road.  As  a
     traveller nears his destination with each step, you come closer to
     Nibbana with each noting.

         If  the  Path-Fruition  were to be  reached  in  ten  thousand
     notings,  and  if you now have made a thousand notings,  then  you
     need nine thousand more notings to reach it. If you have made nine
     thousand notings already,  then you need only a thousand more.  If
     you have 9999 already, then the very next noting could be the Path
     process. The more you note, the nearer you come to the Path.

         May you be able to note

         The five aggregates of grasping

         whenever they arise at the six doors.

         May you realize their impermanence,

         suffering and not-self nature.

         May you make swift progress in your insight
     and realize NIBBANA, the end of all suffering.

     3087 words, p114

                      *************************

                           APPENDIX

                           Glossary

         Action = kammanta

         right action = samma-kammanta,  it consists of refraining from
     killing, stealing and sexual misconduct.

         wrong  action  =  miccha-kammanta,  it  consists  in  killing,
     stealing and sexual misconduct.

         activities,   volitional  =  sankharas.  This  word  is   also
     translated as mental formations.  They consist of volition or will
     and other mental concomitants (cetasikas).

         adverting  = avajjana.  In a thought process it is the  moment
     when  mind,  or rather,  consciousness turns  towards  the  object
     presented through one of the sense-doors,  viz.  eye,  ear,  nose,
     tongue,  body and mind, or when consciousness becomes conscious of
     the object.

         aggregate = khandha.  Khandhas are so called because they have
     the division into past, present, future, internal, external,  etc.
     Perception  for  example,  though only one is  called  khandha  or
     aggregate because there can be past perception, present perception
     and so on.

         -of grasping, or of clinging = upadanakkhanda, aggregates that
     are objects of grasping or clinging (upadanas)

         air-element, see element

         analysis = vavatthana. Discerning things well defined,  seeing
     which is which. See next.

         -of  four  elements = catudhatu-vavatthana   Seeing  the  four
     elements clearly and well defined, seeing 'This is earth-element',
     'This is water-element' and so on. See element also.

         analytical     knowledge    of    mind    and     matter     =
     namarupaparicchedanana.  An insight knowledge which sees mind  and
     matter clearly and well defined as,  for example,  'This is mind',
     'This is matter.'

         apperception  =  javana.  The meaning of  this  Pali  word  is
     'running,  or force, or speed'. In Abhidhamma it is the name given
     to  certain  types of consciousness which  experience  the  object
     forcefully or thoroughly. It is also translated as 'impulsion'.

         attainment = samapatti. This means entering into and remaining
     in a certain state of higher consciousness.  There are three kinds
     of samapatti.

         1.  Jhapatti-samapatti,  entering into and  remaining  in  the
     state of jhana.

         2.  Phala-samapatti,  entering into and remaining in the state
     of Fruition consciousness.

         3. Nirodha-samapatti, entering into and remaining in the state
     of cessation of mental activities.

         awareness  =  vinnana.  Pure awareness of the  object  is  the
     characteristic of consciousness (citta or vinnana)

         Becoming = bhava. It is also translated as existence.
      
         birth = jati.  Arising of mind and/or matter,  so it does  not
     necessarily mean to be born as a child only.

         body = kaya.

           contemplation of the body = kayanupassana. See contemplation

         bourn = gati. Existence or realms beings go to.

           bad bourn = duggati, realms of woe, such as hell and animal
                       kingdom

           good bourn = sugati, realms of happiness, such as human and
                        deva worlds

         brahma = higher celestial beings.

         Calm = samatha, also translated as 'tranquillity'.  Samatha is
     synonymous with samadhi (concentration).

         clear comprehension = sampajanna

         compassion = karuna

         Compendium of Philosophy,  name of the English translation  of
     an ancient Abhidhamma treatise called 'Abhidhammatthasangaha'.  It
     itself  is  often referred to as Compendium of Philosophy  in  the
     present book.

         concentration  = samadhi.  Samadhi is defined as  that  mental
     state  (cetasika) which places consciousness and its  concomitants
     undistracted and unscattered on a single object. Samadhi is one of
     the five mental faculties functioning during meditation.

         concept  =  pannatti.  Pannatti  is  explained  as  having  no
     individual essence, so it is a non-reality.

         concomitants of mind = cetasikas.  Cetasikas are those  mental
     states  or  mental factors which arise and  perish  together  with
     consciousness (citta)

         condition = paccaya

         confidence, faith = saddha. See also faculty.

         consciousness = vinnana or citta, which is defined as the pure
     awareness of the object. Consciousness (citta) and concomitants of
     mind (cetasikas) constitute what we call mind.

         constituent (of Path) = (magg-) anga. There are eight of them,
     and  they  are  as a group what is popularly known  as  the  Noble
     Eightfold Path.

         contemplation = anupassana
         -of body = kayanupassana
         -of dhamma objects = dhammanupassana
         -of feelings = vedananupassana
         -of mind = cittanupassana

         continuity = santati

         craving = tanha

         Death, dying = marana. Disappearing of mind and matter.

         deed = kamma. See kamma.

           bad deed = akusala kamma.
           good deed = kusala kamma.

         defilements = kilesas.  Mental impurities such as  attachment,
     ill will and delusion.

         Dependent  Origination = Paticca-samuppada.  The teaching  (or
     law)   of  conditionality.   This  word  is  also  translated   as
     'Conditioned Genesis'.

         desire (will) = chanda.  Chanda is mere will to do.  It can be
     associated with kusala or akusala.

         determining consciousness = votthabbana citta.  It is the type
     of consciousness which determines whether the object presented  to
     the mind and investigated by the previous moment of investigations
     is desirable or undesirable.

         devas  = celestial beings.  It can mean both  lower  celestial
     beings and higher celestial beings called 'brahmas'.

         deva-sight  =  dibba-cakkhu.  It is  one  of  the  supernormal
     knowledges;  by  it one can see things very  minute,  subtle,  far
     away,  hidden and so on.  The ability to see beings dying from one
     existence  and  being  reborn  in another is  a  variety  of  this
     knowledge.

         deva-hearing or deva-ear = dibba-sota.  One of the supernormal
     knowledges  by  which  one can hear sounds  very  minute,  subtle,
     hidden, far away and so on.

         deva-world = devaloka. The realm of celestial beings.

         divine states = brahma-viharas, way of living of brahmas. They
     are loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna),  sympathetic joy
     (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha).

         door (sense-door) = dvara. There are six sense doors according
     to  Buddhism,   viz.,  eye-door,  ear,  nose,  tongue,   body  and
     mind-door.  These  are the doors through which objects  come  into
     contact with mind.

         Effort = vayama. See also faculty.

           right effort = samma-vayama.

         ego(self) = atta.

         element  = dhatu.  Mental as well as physical  properties  are
     called dhatus. There are four great elements of matter, viz.,

         1. Earth-element = pathavi-dhatu, solidity of things.

         2. Water-element = apo-dhatu, fluidity or cohesiveness.

         3. Fire-element = tejo-dhatu, heat or cold, temperature.

         4. Air-element = vayo-dhatu, distendedness.

         equanimity  =  upekkha.  Upekkha also  means  indifference  or
     neutral feeling.

         establishment  of  mindfulness  =  satipatthana.  It  is  also
     translated as 'foundations of mindfulness'.

         Factors  of Enlightenment = sambojjhanga or  bojjhanga.  There
     are seven of them, viz.

         1. Mindfulness = sati
         2.  Investigation of dhammas = dhamma-vicaya. It is in reality
     understanding or wisdom.
         3. Effort = viriya
         4. Joy or rapture = piti
         5. Tranquillity = passaddhi
         6. Concentration = samadhi
         7. Equanimity = upekkha

         faculty = indriya.  There are 22 of them taught in Abhidhamma.
     The five mental faculties important in the practice of  meditation
     are confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration and wisdom.

         faith (confidence) = saddha

         feeling = vedana

         form (matter) = rupa

         formless = arupa. The word means 'non-matter', which according
     to  Buddhism  comprises  consciousness  (citta),   mental  factors
     (cetsikas),   and  Nibbana.  In  most  cases,  however,  it  means
     consciousness  and mental factors only.  Arupa is synonymous  with
     'nama'

         foul thing = asubha, such as bloated corpse.

         fruit(ion)  =  phala.  It is the resultant of  magga  or  Path
     consciousness,  and  at the time of enlightenment  it  immediately
     follows the Path consciousness and arises for two or three  times.
     In phala-sampatti it arises countless times.

         function,  property  as  = kicca. Action  done  by  things  of
     reality. The function of air-element, for instance, is moving.

         Going for Refuge = sarana-gamana,  taking someone or something
     as a refuge,  as a guide. Only those who take refuge in the Triple
     Gem are called upasakas or upasikas,  followers of the Buddha,  or
     Buddhists. 

         grasping  = upadana.  It is the name of attachment  and  wrong
     view.

         Happiness = sukha.

         happy living in this very life = ditthadhamma-sukhavihara.

         higher knowledge (superknowledge) = abhinna.

         hindrances = nivarana. There are five of them, viz.

         1. Sense-desire = kamacchanda.

         2. Ill will = byapada

         3. Sloth and torpor = thina-middha

         4. Restlessness and remorse = uddhacca-kukkucca

         5. Doubt = vicikiccha

         In  Abhidhamma  ignorance  (delusion)  also  is  describes  as
     hindrance.

         Impermanence = anicca

         inferential insight = anumana-vipassana

         initial application = vitakka

         insight = vipassana.  The real meaning of the word 'vipassana'
     is  'seeing  in various ways', i.e.,  seeing mental  and  physical
     phenomena  as  impermanent,   suffering  (or  unsatisfactory)  and
     not-self (or insubstantial).

         intimation = vinnana. There are two kinds of intimation, viz.,

         1. Bodily intimation = kaya-vinnatti, gestures, etc.
         2. Verbal intimation = vaci-vannatti, mode of speech.

         investigating consciousness = satirana citta.  It is the  type
     of  consciousness which investigates the object presented to  mind
     and  accepted  by the previous moment whether it is  desirable  or
     undesirable.

         investigating knowledge = sammasana-nana, one of the stages of
     vipassana knowledge.

         investigation  of  dhammas  = dhamma-vicaya.  See  Factors  of
     Enlightenment.

         Kamma = volition.  Technically,  kamma is volition,  a  mental
     factor.  Since it is always with this volition that beings do good
     or bad deeds, deeds themselves are often referred to as kamma.

         knowledge = nana

         - analytical, of mind and matter = namarupa-pariccheda-nana
         - of desire for deliverance = muncitukamyata-nana.
         - of (by) discerning conditionality = paccaya-pariggaha-nana.
         - of dissolution = bhanga-nana
         - of indifference to formations = sankharupekkha-nana
         - of investigation = sammasana-nana
         - of re-reflection (re-observation) = patisankha-nana
         - of repulsion (disgust) = nibbida-nana
         - of rise and fall (rising and passing away) = udayabbaya-nana
         - of the fearful = bhava-nana
         - of tribulation = adinava-nana

         Law = dhamma

         life-continuum  =  bhavanga.  It is the  inactive  moments  of
     consciousness.

         livelihood = ajiva

           right livelihood = samma-ajiva
           wrong livelihood = miccha-ajiva

         loving-kindness = metta

         lower states = apaya, literally, states of woe or suffering

         Manifestation (mode of appearance) = paccupatthana

         matter (material, physical, form) = rupa

         means of accomplishment = iddhipada

         meditator = yogi

         member of enlightenment = bodhipakkiya-dhamma

         mental quality (mind, psychological) = nama

         mind = mana, citta or nama. 'Mind' is often used to mean citta
     and cetasikas together.

         mind and matter = nama-rupa

         mindfulness = sati

           -of death = maranussati
      
         mode of appearance = see manifestation

         moral habit = sila

         Nama  =  literally that which inclines towards the  object  or
     that  which  makes  others  incline towards  it.  It  consists  of
     consciousness (citta),  mental factors (cetasikas),  and  Nibbana.
     But  in most cases nama is used to mean citta and  cetasikas  only
     as, for example, in the word 'nama-rupa'.

         neutral feeling = adukkha-m-asukha vedana

         never-returner (non-returner) = anagami

         noble one = ariya

         Noble Eightfold Path = Ariyo Atthangiko Maggo

         non-returner = anagami

         notion = sanna

         notion of permanence = nicca-sanna

         notion of loathsomeness of food = ahare patkula-sanna

             Developing the notion that food is loathsome by reflecting
     in various ways so that one does not get attached to food.

         not-self = anatta

         object-latent = arammananusaya

         old age = jara

         once-returner = sakadagami

         Order (of noble monks) = samgha

         origin (origination, cause) = samudaya

         Path = magga.  The name given to the group of eight factors of
     Path such as Right View etc. Consciousness which they accompany is
     called Path consciousness.

         Path of Purity (Purification) = Visuddhimagga

         perception = sanna

         permanence (-ent) = nicca

         pleasant (pleasurable, happy) = sukha

         power = bala

         practical (personal) insight = paccakkha-vipassana

         process (thought-process) = vithi

         property = rasa.  It has two varieties, viz.,  as function and
     as achievement.

         proximate cause (immediate occasion) = padatthana

         purity = visuddhi

         Quietude  (tranquillity) = passaddhi,  one of the  factors  of
     enlightenment

         Rapture  = piti.  Piti is translated differently by  different
     authors,   as  joy,  happiness,  rapture,  zest,  and  pleasurable
     interest.

         reality = paramattha

         reason = vimamsaa

         rebirth = patisandhi. It is also translated as relinking
           -consciousness = patisandhi-citta

         receiving  (recipient) consciousness = sapaticchana citta.  It
     is  the type of consciousness which receives the object  presented
     to the mind.

         recollection = anussati

         refuge = sarana

         retentive  (registering)  consciousness =  tadarammana  citta.
     This consciousness always arises twice or none at all.  It follows
     the moments of apperception (javana)

         round of rebirths = samsara

         Self (ego) = atta

         sense-objects = kama

         Silent  Buddha  = Pacceka Buddha.  'Pacceka'  literally  means
     separate.  They  are not Supreme Buddhas,  nor are  they  ordinary
     arahants. They are lower than the Supreme Buddhas, but higher than
     the  arahants.  They appear in the world when there is no  Supreme
     Buddha or no teachings of Supreme Buddhas are available.

         specification (analysis) = vavatthana

         speech = vaca

           right speech = samma-vaca
           wrong speech = miccha-vaca

         stream-winner = sotapanna

         stream-winning = sotapatti

         subject  of  meditation  =  kammatthana.  It  also  means  the
     practice of meditation.

         subsequent (thought-) process = anuvattaka vithi

         suffering (ill, misery, pain) = dukkha

         Supreme Buddha = Sammasambuddha

         supreme effort = sammappadhana

         sympathy (sympathetic joy) = mudita

         Theory of the self = attavada

         thought = citta, sankappa

           right thought = samma-sankappa
           wrong thought = miccha-sankappa

         thought moment = cittakkhana

         Three Gems = Tiratana

         tranquillity = passaddhi

         transcending doubts = kankhavitarana

         Unpleasant = dukkha

         unwholesome  =  akusala.   'Akusala'  is  also  translated  as
     immoral, unprofitable and unskilful.

         View (wrong view) = ditthi

         volitional activities = sankharas

         Wholesome = kusala. It is also translated as moral, profitable
     and skilful.

         will (desire) = chanda

         wisdom = panna

         wrong = miccha

         Yogi = meditator

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