Day Nine: 30 November 2005

Achieved this human lifel achieved this priceless Dhamma. Now with faith and effort, untie the bonds of the mind!

17.20
Sweeping the body, where there are sensations of pain, don't give rise to aversion. That way old suffering created by aversion are drawn to the surface. Where there's no reaction to that pain, there will also be no new sankhara created. Thus the suffering is uprooted.

Similarly, where there are subtle sensations, sensations of flow and lightness, don't give rise to craving. That way old sankharas of craving are uprooted, as they don't gain further energies to multiply and grow.

Sweep and sens, remaining equanimous and with the the law of impermenance in the mind. This is the way to liberation.

20.29
Problems lie within myself. This self and the images thereof have been so perfectly sculptured and worshipped deep within us all that we are deluded by the myth that problems are outside of us. Discover the self, remove it, perfect it, and accept others as they are, not as what we perceive them to be. Know the whole truth!

Live the practice. Live the Dhamma.

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The Discourse Summaries--talks from a ten-day course in Vipassana Meditation, S.N. Goenka

" Dhamma is an art of living. If you cannot use it in daily life, then coming to a course is no better than performing a ritual or ceremony. "

" fully enlightened person finds a real solution: don't run away from the problem; face it. Observe whatever impurity arises in the mind. By observing one does not suppress it, nor does one give it a free licence to express itself in harmful vocal or physical action . Between these two extremes lies the middle path: mere observation."

"Seeing from only one angle, one imagines that one's suffering is caused by other people, by an external situation. Therefore one devotes all one's energy to changing others, to changing the external situation. In fact, this is a wasted effort. One who has learned to observe reality within soon realizes, that he is completely responsible for his misery or happiness."