Читать книгу Vipassana Meditation. London, Paris, Roma, Madrid, Lisboa, Moscow - Vyacheslav Yatsenko - Страница 7

When sensations arise in the body, the meditator can choose one of three attitudes toward these sensations:

(1) to perceive them, whatever the sensation, as a boon to be simply observed, patiently observed: sensations arise, sensations disappear, Anicca;

(2) to perceive sensations as pleasant sensations;

(3) to perceive sensations as unpleasant sensations.

The practice of Vipassana meditation shows that a person who has not learned Vipassana meditation usually chooses the second or third option.

When a person perceives sensations in the body as pleasant, and has not been trained in Vipassana meditation, he usually wants to experience the same sensations again. Essentially, a person develops attraction for pleasant sensations, an attachment is formed (in Pali, «sankara»).

When a person perceives sensations in the body as unpleasant, he usually wants to avoid such sensations. A person develops an aversion to such sensations and develops attachment («sankara»).

«Sankara» (or «sankhara») is a Pali term for «formations» or «conditioned phenomena,» primarily mental tendencies or volitional actions. Pali is an ancient Indo-Aryan language, the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism, closely related to Sanskrit.

A spiritually prepared person perceives what comes into a person’s life – circumstances, events, people – as boon and applies the rationale «it must be so.»

Ignorant people, however, label such boon, weal as either good or evil. If such boon bring a person pleasant sensations, the ignorant person regards it as good, something he desires to have more of.

However, if boon bring a person unpleasant sensations, he regards it as evil, something he must avoid at all costs.

The development of a strong attraction to good, as well as the development of a strong aversion to evil, is a manifestation of attachments to good and attachments to evil (sankaras), which cause a person mental suffering and make him feel unhappy.

Learning Vipassana meditation techniques enables a person to free himself from sankaras, free himself from the mental suffering associated with these sankaras, experience inner peace, joy, and achieve a state of pacification.