Thursday, February 6, 2020

Pa Auk Sayadaw: What is "vipassana"? (video)

Pa Auk Sayadaw, Setti Wessels (settiwessels.com); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Sayalay, Wisdom Quarterly
Vipassana is systematic clear seeing for gaining liberating-insight into the Truth.
(Pa Auk Sayadaw) In English with English subtitles for greater clarity and ease of understanding.

Prajna Paramita, East Java
Part 1: The most Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw (Bhaddanta Acinna) explains vipassana or "insight meditation."

He is an accomplished Burmese scholar-practitioner with perfect confidence in the Buddha and the Theravada Buddhist Path leading directly to enlightenment and nirvana.

This is rare footage of Sayadaw explaining in English. It was recorded in Korea in 2008 after his yearlong personal retreat in Sri Lanka in 2007.

This archival material was prepared for English meditators to provide an overview of:
  • Subatomic particles (personally verifiable kalapas);
  • Four Elements meditation (the qualities of matter, space and consciousness being the fifth and sixth elements or dhatus taught by the Buddha; see the book);
  • Serenity meditation (Samatha as samma-samadhi, the first four meditative absorptions or jhanas taught by the Buddha but dismissed as distractions by many Goenka fans);
  • Analysis of mentality and materiality (nāma-rūpa, where "mind" is a stream of cittas and cetasikas, mind-moments and mental-concomittants);
  • Dependent Origination in actual, verifiable practice rather than theory (paticca-samuppāda kammatthana); ad
  • Insight meditation (what vipassanā when most meditators do not establish sufficient right-concentration to purify direct vision of reality).
This body is composed of kalapas (particles)
These techniques are taught at Pa Auk Forest Monastery in Burma by the Sayadaw and his accomplished assistant teachers They are personally verifiable rather than theoretical.

Thanks to Joanna Semeniuk for uploading the files in the Netherlands and to Simone Vromen for carrying the originals on DVD all the way from Burma.
- Setti Wessels, Myanmar 2015

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