Day Two: 23 November 2005

In breath, out breath- if you keep nbroken awaken-ness,
the knots of Karma will be sundered leading to the highest welfare.

20.23
Understanding more and more the importance of observing the breath. Difficult at first. Mind racing everywhere and anywhere. Yet must be determined, vigiliant, consistent, persistent; despite the aches, impatience and frustrations.

Tame the mind, master it to gain control.


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

"Understand what is the path, on which you have started walking. The Buddha described it in very simple terms:

Abstain from all sinful, unwholesome actions,
perform only pious wholesome ones,
purify the mind;
this is the teaching of enlightened ones.

It is a universal path, acceptable to people of any background, race, or country."


"The path of Dhamma is called the Noble Eightfold Path, noble in the sense that anyone who walks on it is bound to become a noble-hearted, saintly person. The path is divided into three sections: sila, samadhi, and panna. Sila is morality--abstaining from unwholesome deeds of body and speech. Samadhi is the wholesome action of developing mastery over one's mind. Practising both is helpful, but neither sila nor samadhi can eradicate all the defilement accumulated in the mind. For this purpose the third section of the path must be practised: panna, the development of wisdom, of insight, which totally purifies the mind. "