A student who has done a number of Goenka-style 10-day Insight meditation retreats, and who knew that I have done some work in this area myself, asked me if I would like to take part in a podcast ’round-table’ discussion about what he described as my “awakening”, and those of the other guests. On reflecting on his request, I said that I was not sure that a round-table discussion would serve the audience well—such discussions tend to bog down in definitional arguments and ‘my evidence is bigger than yours’. Personally, I have little interest in trying to convince anyone that what has been useful for me is anything more than potentially useful to anyone else. I told him I would be happy to talk about my experiences, if that would be of interest. That podcast might happen yet.
I do not describe myself as having ‘awakened’, rather that I find myself in an awakening process from time to time. I find myself in other processes too, if sufficiently tired—this is key, because the way some people talk about their awakening is that, in some way, it’s a permanent change (and the sub-text is that the work is done, and no further effort is required). This is not the case in my experience. While the Satipatthana Sutta* describes this process as a “one-way street” once one has got on that path sufficiently (a one-way street that goes to Nibbana directly with no turn-offs), I think this is a simplified version of what can happen. I know at least one person who achieved profound awakening, and then deliberately tried to revert, in a kind of, ‘let’s see how permanent this really is’ kind of way, and she was successful. She is now one of the unhappiest people I know.
Swami Rudrananda’s (“Rudi”) perspective is helpful, and orients us in the most useful direction, I feel: “The reward of the work is more work”, he says. Key here is the insistence on the need to keep working, possibly at a deeper level of understanding or subtlety, but in all instances to keep working. Note that this use of ‘work’ is as far from the 9–5 sense as can be, but the activity requires effort and vigilance, nonetheless.
As well, the Tibetan perspective on this is cautionary: they say that if you enter the God realm, it’s impossible to get out of it—and that is something I have kept in mind over these last 30 years of practise. If even the smallest part of you believes that you are enlightened, or even well along that path, you have stepped into the God realm. No thank you.
This self-entrapment has led to many gurus teaching false teachings, which are always based around their own awakening experiences, but which never set properly or, perhaps better, did not go deep enough. From my perspective, it never “sets properly”: there is only the continuing opportunity to practise.
Another aside: the Satipatthana Sutta speaks of the different kinds of students (in the sense of their attributes and inclinations), and which of the two practises, Vipassana and Samatha, each should do. The same sutta also describes the “Four Postures of Meditation”: lying, sitting, standing and moving. In the West, sitting has become the ‘gold standard’ but no justification can be found for this in the suttas. All postures will need to be explored. My understanding is that these four postures describe one’s whole daily life—there is no place or time one can’t be practising is my read.
And there is a famous quote from the Dalai Lama that is relevant here, too. He was asked, “What is your religion?” He answered, “Kindness. Be kind wherever possible. He paused, looked away, and looked back, “It is always possible.” Olivia put forward a similar sentiment, after we had spent some time with another well-known teacher, and while talking about whether we would continue to work with him: she said that she was only interested in practises that would make her a better human being.
So, to put this together, I am working on being a better human being; and that is all. This is a small thing, and a personal one. And the suttas describe a range of techniques to help you in that goal. They are one map. Schools of Yoga and Taoism have other maps. And as one teacher said to me once, “There are many maps to buried treasure, but not all maps lead to buried treasure.”
My own path was to rediscover Samatha meditation by myself (Serenity meditation, contrasted with Vipassana, or insight meditation), when on that long retreat in NM doing 4–6 yoga nidras daily, and often with breath counting. I was trying to be present in what Western science calls “the delta state”. The cessation of thought, and the concomitant opening of a much larger space of experience, in which thoughts can be seen dancing around, like fish on the surface of the ocean, crying out, “I am the ocean, etc.” is inevitable if you practise for long enough, I believe. Nothing special, actually, except it changes how you relate to thoughts that arise; at least it did for me.
If your clear experience is that thoughts are a very small, constantly changing content in a much larger, unchanging, space, you will never take your own thoughts for anything but what they are: the mind just doing its thing. Useful when useful. This experience can show the practitioner one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, impermanence, very clearly—my reaction was to laugh, I recall.
I think there are an infinite number of paths to awakening. The Buddhists are certain that theirs is the ‘correct’ one, and certainly there is the scriptural backup of the Pali Canons and the other parallel records in Sri Lankan, Chinese, and Japanese, and no doubt it is a successful method. But it is not the only one. The Buddha himself said many times that his ‘way’ was an approach that was empirical: try for yourself and see if it works for you.
Vipassana has captured the West, but somewhere in one of the suttas the Buddha says, “The bird of meditation needs two wings to fly”; the wings are Samatha and Vipassana. Insight arises in both approaches, though some teachers claim that only Vipassana leads to insight. If not taught well, Vipassana can become another fascination for the mind.
IMHO, Samatha is more useful in the modern Western world, with its myriad distractions—which always pull one away from one’s internal state. Samatha (among other things, the cultivation of the experience of serenity in the body) is rooted in sensations in the body. As bodily sensations only exist in the continually unfolding present, this focus helps to keep the practitioner present. Additionally this is why I have focussed my work on stretching: adding these sensations to the mix helps keep you grounded and present and helps the process of more finely discriminating these sensations.
*Satipatthana Sutta: “Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness”
A note on meditation retreats:
If any readers do have an opportunity to attend an Insight meditation retreat, I strongly urge you to act on this, but with one caveat: I recommend Mahasi-style retreats over the Goenka variants, because the former explicitly includes some instruction on walking meditation, and alternates these with sitting sessions, usually 45′ each. The Goenka retreats only do sitting practise, and unless you are an experienced sitter, pain will be a major fraction of your experience.
wkpeace said:
Hi Kit, excellent comment on a subject that is close to me. The process of awakening can only be useful if it is continuous. By useful, I meant to create clarity and harmony to those around us and within the community. Too many schools or organised religious groups like to put forward evidence of “awakened” individuals, to me it is a subtle way of “advertising”. … On recommendation, I think Goenka 10-days retreat is more effective as opposed to Mahasi-style (I have attended both) but with a caveat – start with Stretch Therapy first as the pain, aka sensations from sitting too long, could kill all your good intentions 😉
kitlaughlin said:
Can you please describe what you have found to be the advantages of the Goenka 10-day retreats over similar Mahasi ones? I am genuinely interested in your reply.
Chi Chang said:
I have attended three Goenka 10-day retreats, and a Mahasi-style 14-day retreat by Patrick Kearney.
In discussing advantages and disadvantages, it is first useful to define your aims. For me, the aim of meditation is to compose the mind; and to learn to live in the present moment instead of contemplating the past or wondering about the future. In simpler words, as some meditation teachers put it, “To tame the monkey mind and stop mental chatter.”
Aside: My original goal, when starting meditation, and before I really delved into these things, was to be a calmer person. I used to be a very angry person, unhappy with the inefficiencies, incompetence, inconsiderateness etc I perceived around me.
I didn’t like that, and had gone through the standard anger management tools of the day (which, in my case, was the 1990s) – eg count to 10, put yourself in the other’s position, etc etc They all helped somewhat – in that I managed to learn to control myself so I didn’t explode with anger. But while I was able to smile outside, I would still be seething inside, which I didn’t like.
At that time, meditation was still kind of New Age and out there with all sorts of fluffy concepts that didn’t appeal to my analytical-oriented nature and there wasn’t all that much available on the internet. But I found a really useful book – When the Iron Eagle Flies by Ayya Khema.
Ayya Khema is a nun of German origins, and her matter-of-fact, practical approach appealed to me. Using that book as my guide, after about a year, I could make it to about 20 minutes (on a good day!). More usually it was 7-10 minutes before the mind started wandering off. It was still a lot better than the 30 seconds or so when I first started, but I realised I need more guidance.
Googling again, I came across the Goenka method. The practical, no-nonsense tone appealed to me. But, at that time, they were not so widespread and I was still a little concerned that they were a cult. But I asked around and found someone I knew who had attended and said it was alright, so I went. And that is perhaps the best thing I ever did.
Back to the main aim of “taming the monkey mind”. The Goenka retreats are extremely effective at this because they take away pretty much all opportunities for your mind to wander:
1. You have no entertainment of any sort. No phones, of course, but also no reading nor writing material.
2. Your meditation place, and eating place, is assigned from Day 1.
3. Silence is strictly enforced.
4. Your ‘work’, as they put it, is to meditate. Everything else is taken care of by the volunteers around you.
Once you are in the environment, when you no longer have to worry/think about everyday things (where shall I sit today for meditation? …. I hope that hairy bloke with BO doesn’t come near me 🙂 …. what’s for lunch? I hope my favourite spot near the window will be available … hmm .. time to do washing up … oh where’s the soap? … etc etc) it becomes very clear how much your mind jumps around.
It can be, frankly, brutal. To entertain/distract himself the guy in the next room on my first course kept taking showers; and later on, started singing and talking to himself. But if you are in the appropriate frame of mind, it is a fantastic, extremely effective way to get started on meditation.
And here is the rub: “Appropriate” is individual. We all have preferences. For example, in learning, some of us like to listen (hence podcasts), some like to watch and some prefer to read. In learning to compose the mind/meditate as well, there are preferences. Hence the proliferation of methods: whether using mantras, visualisations or moving, or seated …. The Buddha tailored his delivery to his audience.
I agree 100% with Kit that the sitting is a pain (and that is from direct, personal experience). In an ideal world, the Goenka retreats should also include lessons in how-to-sit, as we ST practitioners know how physically-challenged most modern people are. But nothing is ideal, and that shortcoming does not detract from how effective the course is.
I would highly recommend Goenka retreats. For me, they are a very effective way to put your practice on a firm foundation.
kitlaughlin said:
For the record, I have attended Mahasi-style retreats with precisely the same restrictions you mention above:
It all depends on the hosting organisation. For me (and I can sit for ten days straight) I favour the alternating walking and sitting of the Mahasi-style retreats, because most Westerners cannot sit for ten days in comfort. While pain is a traditional meditation object, better IMHO if you can meditate without pain, as subtler aspects can manifest. And I find meditation in all four postures is useful. The final comment is simply this: if the Goenka-style retreats work for you, fantastic.
wkpeace said:
My apology Kit, It wasn’t a fair comparison. The Mahasi-style retreat I went was only for 5 days as oppose to Goenka’s 10-days and I went to Goenka’s retreat first (which I already liked) which meant, I had some expectations when I attended Patrick Kearney’s retreat that were not met…. The keys to me are the set routine, no communication rule, sitting only and the simple but practical discourses in the evening. I started my on again off again meditation journey with various teachers 18 years ago, for 14 years, I had never able to sit consistently daily for longer than a 3 months period, it was only after I attended the Goenka’s course that I finally able to do daily sitting practice consistently for the past 4 years. Some may say they are too strict, but the techniques worked for me!
Wai
kitlaughlin said:
Wai, you wrote, “I had some expectations when I attended Patrick Kearney’s retreat that were not met”. Expectations are just that—expectations. In my view, best to have none (hard to do, I realise).
PK and I have talked about the ‘relaxed’ environment at SBS; he felt he inherited these when he was asked to teach there, because that was the culture there. I have done other Mahasi-style retreats with him where the discipline was identical to the retreats you describe, with the exception of the walking meditation component. I mention this because it seems to me that the tighter discipline of the Goenka retreats is what suits you better; perfectly fine. Few Westerners can sit (as in only sit) for ten days in comfort which is why I favour the Mahasi-style retreats. And, given that the relevant sutta talks about the four postures of meditation, I add a lying session when I work with Patrick. If I had my way, we would do standing meditation too. In the end, any retreat is better than no retreat!
Colin said:
I’ve been pondering this subject myself recently. It seems to be becoming a greater part of the zeitgeist, though perhaps that’s just confirmation bias.
It seems to me that most western practice is samatha, even though we tend to lump everything together as vipassana. All the approaches I’ve been exposed to don’t divide them so strictly.
Thought this distinction might just delve into quibbling semantics. It’s all philosophy in the end, a practice that loves tying itself into metacognitive knots above all else.
I agree with Olivia that the ultimate goal of any practice should be to make us better, more specifically better towards each other. Anything else is just egotistical self-indulgence which reinforces the delusions that we are all special little islands of humanity distinct and separate from everyone else, which appears to be a very real risk as all the gurus in waiting “ascend towards the divine”.
kitlaughlin said:
Thanks Colin; you wrote:
“we are all special little islands of humanity distinct and separate from everyone else”
and there are seven billion of us who feel the same way. No wonder we have problems!
Thanks; appreciated.
Colin said:
No kidding. I wish I could claim I was above it all, but I’m still a work in progress!
kitlaughlin said:
We always will be; good thing.
Jim macAirt said:
Great post Kit ,
Foolishly as a young practitioner taking my first tiny steps and enquiries into Buddhism, (I guess I would have been 15 or so) I was under the misunderstanding that once you reached ‘Nirvana’ that was it.
That was the impression I was given by watching films and tv shows of archetypal Asian myths and legends. I loved David Carradine in ‘Kung-Fu’ !
Those films and glimpses of the east even though they portrayed a romantic idealised fiction, there seemed to be an attractive draw on how a human could behave and be.
I recall being on a retreat and asking Lama the question, “After enlightenment what next ?”
The answer : ” Keep practicing”
xxx
kitlaughlin said:
🙂
Love to you, brother.
Jim macAirt said:
Likewise 🙂
Garth said:
You may be interested to read a study by Tibetan Buddhist and psychology academic, Dan P. Brown, on a marked increase in gamma brain waves during states of awakening in intermediate meditation students. https://app.box.com/shared/static/tfrtgkunopvrwhdv32t7mfg2cdmdq2bu.pdf
Video explaining the study
https://vimeo.com/pointingoutway/review/252875714/f2734dde7d
kitlaughlin said:
Garth, thanks for posting.