First insight
(Knowledge arising from analysis of mind and body)
If a meditator practices Vipassana, in accordance with the instructions given in the preceding pages, he will get deep concentration- in due course. When the concentration becomes sufficiently strong, he will be aware of the inhaling and the mind that is aware of the inhaling, the exhaling and the mind that is aware of the exhaling, the sitting and the mind that is aware of the sitting, the bending and the mind that is aware of the bending, the stretching and the mind that is aware of the stretching, the raising of the feet and the mind the mind that is aware of the raising, the stepping and the mind that is aware of the stepping, the lowering and mind that is aware of the lowering and so on. The experiences are attached to each other like pairs.
When the awareness is strong, the meditator will realize that the inhaling is one entity and the awareness is a different entity, that the exhaling is one entity and the awareness is different entity and so on. In this way, he will have a very clear realization of the existence of two different entities of mind and body. Soon it will become clear in his awareness that the mind is flying towards objects, such as inhaling, exhaling, sitting, standing, bending, stretching and so on. When this fact becomes clear in his awareness, the meditator is said to have perceived the true nature of the mind, ie., the mind always runs or moves towards objects.
When the existence of the two entities becomes very clear in his awareness, he may get this kind of realization:-
There are only two entities- inhaling and awareness; exhaling and awareness; sitting and awareness; bending and awareness and so on. There is nothing besides these two; a human being is nothing but these two. A man is nothing but these two. A woman is nothing but these two. Besides these two, there is no such thing as ‘soul’ or ‘I’ or ‘spirit’. He gets this kind of realization during his awareness of objects, such as inhaling, exhaling, sitting, stretching, and so on.
The meditation generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the first insight.
Second Insight
(Knowledge concerning the nature of desire for requisites)
When concentration grows stronger, the meditator is aware as soon as he has a desire to move any part of his body. In the beginning of the Vipassana he is not fully aware of the desire as soon as it appears. Even though he is saying, ‘desiring’, he generally says so only after the desire has disappeared and that part of the body has already moved as a result of the desire. However, when the concentration grows stronger, as soon as the desire to bend his arm appears, he is fully aware of it. Therefore he can say, ‘desiring to bend’ simultaneously with the appearance of the desire to bend. In the case of other movements also, desire to move and awareness of it take place simultaneously. The awareness of movements takes place only after the awareness of the desire has taken place.
In the beginning of the Vipassana, since generally he misses the desires and says, ‘desiring, desiring’, only after it has already started, he thinks that the body moves quicker than the mind. When the concentration grows stronger, he feels as if his awareness even precedes the desire and seizes it as soon as it appears, just as a stork, sitting by the side of a stream, picks up a fish as soon as it jumps out of the water. At that stage, he begins to see very clearly that mind moves faster than body. Since he is fully aware of every desire and every appropriate movement that follows the desire, he realizes that desire is the cause and appropriate movement of the body is the effect.
While he is concentrating, he clearly perceives that his awareness is jumping from inhaling to sitting, from sitting to exhaling, from exhaling to touching, from touching to inhaling and son on. And when he suddenly sees a picture on the wall, his awareness leaves for the picture. While he is saying, ‘seeing, seeing’ as a verbal confirmation of his awareness, he hears the barking of a dong. Then his awareness leaves the picture and flies to the sound. While he is saying, ‘hearing, hearing’, he suddenly becomes aware of a desire to scratch an itch on his thigh. After he has said, ‘desiring, desiring’, he is aware of every movement of his hand, stretching to scratch the itch. He says, ‘stretching, stretching’, At that moment, a thought object of his favourite food appears. So he says, ‘appearing, appearing’. All of a sudden he is aware of saliva flowing on his tongue. While he is saying, ‘flowing, flowing’, he thought object of food reappears. He says, ‘reappearing’ and after a few moments, he becomes annoyed because the thought of his favourite food refuses to go. Therefore he will be saying either, ‘being annoyed, being annoyed’ or ‘refusing to go, refusing to go’.
From such experiences he realizes-
a) that there is awareness because there is object;
b) or that object is the cause and awareness is the effect;
c) or that there will be no awareness when there is no object;
d) or that there will be no effect when there is no cause.
Out of this clear perception, he gets a spontaneous realization that what a being decides or says or does, is the cause of an endless chain of the past, present and future rebirths and also all the good and bad things of life that follow every rebirth.
The meditation must not allow this realization to occur again and again. After once or twice, he should be aware of its recurrence by saying, ‘recurring, recurring’ until it disappears. Then the meditator must concentrate on one of the objects.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the second insight.
Third Insight
(Determining of all phenomena of existence as impermanent, miserable and impersonal)
When concentration grows stronger, many meditators experience a good deal of unpleasant feelings, such as itches, burning sensation, pains, aches, heaviness, strange feelings as if they are tightly bound with ropes or put into a very narrow hole. However, when they stop their Vipassana, these unpleasant feelings disappear. And when they carry on their Vipassana, these unpleasant things reappear. The meditators need not worry about them. When they reach this stage of the Vipassana such unpleasant feelings generally appear. If they concentrate on them and say, ‘itching, itching’ or ‘pain, pain’ or some other appropriate words as a confirmation of awareness these unpleasant feelings will gradually disappear.
This is in addition to these unpleasant feelings the meditator may feel as if he is seeing strange sights, such as: the persons whom he loves and reveres, forests, mountains, gardens, clouds, decomposed corpses, human skeletons, disintegration of animate beings and inanimate objects, condemned beings in hell, celestial beings of Heavens etc. He may also feel as if he is seeing himself bleeding or cut into pieces, or becoming decomposed. He may also feel as if he is actually seeing his bones, flesh, sinews, entrails and so on. These are only figments of his imagination. At this stage of Vipassana, his concentration is so advanced that as soon as he imagines something, these figments suddenly appear.
Whenever these appear, the meditator will be aware of them and say, ‘seeing, seeing’. However if the meditator is interested in these strange sights or if he is overcome with fear after seeing such sights, they will not disappear soon. Otherwise, after saying, ‘seeing, seeing’ once or twice, they should disappear.
At this stage, the meditator should take great care that imagination does not distract his concentration.
Some meditators do not have such experiences, and they will become bored after concentrating after a long time on their regular objects of inhaling, exhaling, sitting, touching. Then they must be aware of this fact and say, ‘being bored, being bored’ until boredom disappears.
When the meditator reaches this stage of Vipassana, his concentration has considerably improved. Therefore whenever he is aware of an object, he is clearly aware of its beginning, middle and end. In the past he left the old object, whenever there was a new object. He was not clearly aware of the disappearance of the old object. But now it is different. He leaves the old object for the new object, only after he is clearly he aware of the disappearance of the old object.
a) When his concentration is particularly good, as he very clearly perceives the sudden appearance and disappearance of objects, he gets a spontaneous realization that all objects come and go, that they are not permanent.
b) In addition to this, he will also realize that impermanence can never be a source of bliss, it can cause only misery. He comes to know that beings are attached to life because they are ignorant of its unreal and impermanent nature.
c) He will also realize that no one can change this impermanence into permanence since impermanence takes place in accordance with the laws of nature.
The first, second and third realization indicate respectively the impermanent, unsatisfactory and soulless nature of mind and matter.
From the known, the meditator jumps to the unknown and realizes that these three characteristics are inherent in all mind and all matter without exception.
When the meditator has such realizations, he must not allow them to recur more than once or twice. And he must concentrate on his inhaling, exhaling, sitting, touching.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the third insight.
Fourth Insight
(Knowledge arising from the contemplation of )
While he is concentrating on the above objects, his awareness improves. Before he reaches this stage, while he was inhaling he was aware only of the inhaling. Now because of his improved awareness, he becomes aware of several stages of inhaling. In the past while he was exhaling, he was aware of only one exhaling. Now he becomes aware of several stages of exhaling. In the case of other bodily movements also, such as bending, stretching, sitting, standing, lying etc. he becomes aware of many more stages of movements.
Throughout his body also, he becomes aware in quick succession, of all the itching sensations which he was not aware of before. Some meditators become aware in quick succession of extremely slight itching and pain throughout their body.
At this stage concentration is in a very fine state. Whenever there is an object, it seems as if awareness is rushing straight into it. Sometimes it appears as the object itself which is directly falling on the awareness. The meditator’s awareness is not vague. He can vividly distinguish one object from the other. Because of this powerful concentration, if only he follows the objects as each appears, he can be aware of all the objects as they come and go, although the speed with which they come and go is incredibly swift.
Because of this improved concentration, the meditator will suddenly feel as if the atmosphere around him becomes illuminated. In whichever direction he may look, he feels as if he sees some pleasant lights.
Because of his steadfast awareness, he may get rapture. It is a kind of ecstasy, which a meditator usually gets when his meditation becomes strong. Because of this ecstasy, pleasant tremors pass through different parts of his body. This ecstasy may cause tears to roll down the eyes. The meditator may feel as if he is riding a merry-go-round. Many religious books record these experiences which have been had by their saints. Actually there is no divine power involved. All human beings who achieve certain levels of spirituality can experience them.
Here the meditator must be given a note of warning. The strange but pleasant lights he sees around him, the feelings of heightened joy he has, the wonderful experiences that he receives as a result of his surprisingly steadfast awareness, may influence the mind and lead him astray from the Vipassana. There are many cases of meditators, who have become victims of this disturbance. Some wept bitterly when they found that the light, the feelings of joy and the wonderful experiences in which they had taken keen delight, had disappeared together with meditation, because of this mental attitude.
Therefore when the meditator sees the lights or when he has a feeling of joy or when he is attracted by the wonderful experiences, he must be aware that these are dangerous conspirators. He must not allow himself to hanker after them. As usual, he must say, ‘seeing, seeing’ or ‘exulting, exulting’ or ‘wondering, wondering’ or some other appropriate words, till these influences disappear. In the beginning, the meditator might find it difficult to combat with these influences, since he himself is very fond of them. But with perseverance and knowledge of the evil consequences, he will triumph over them.
Fifth Insight
(Knowledge on arising from contemplation of the dissolution of all forms of existence)
When concentration becomes stronger, the meditator clearly sees only the end of the object, without clearly seeing the beginning. When the meditator sees in this way, he thinks that objects are disappearing faster than before. In fact objects are not disappearing faster than before, but because of his better concentration, he sees more. The explanation is as follows:
In the past, while he was concentrating on the inhaling, he was aware of the inhaling only. But now, while he is concentrating on the inhaling, he is aware not only of the disappearance of the inhaling, but also of the disappearance of the mind that is aware of the disappearance of the inhaling. He clearly perceives the disappearance of both inhaling and the mind that is aware, the latter following the former in quick succession. Also in the case of other objects, such as exhaling, sitting, standing, bending, stretching, aching, itching, scratching and so on, he perceives clearly the disappearance of the objects as well as the mind that is aware.
Some times at this stage awkward incidents can take place. For instance, as soon as there is a desire to bend his hand, the meditator is aware of this desire. And since the mental stimulus is broken up by the awareness, the meditator finds himself unable to bend his hand for a moment. Also in other movements, he finds similar experiences. This is a good sign. It shows that his concentration is improving. When the meditator reaches such a stage, he should give up his usual objects of meditation. He should concentrate on the objects, as each appears on the sense organs. Only when he becomes tired, or when some powerful distractions disturb his awareness, should he revert to his usual objects . And as soon as he regains his steadfast awareness he should abandon his normal objects and concentrate on objects as each appears on his sense organs.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experience when he achieves the fifth insight.
Sixth Insight
(Knowledge arising from the awareness of Terror or dreadful feeling born out of knowledge)
After he has constantly seen, in quick succession, the disappearance of objects and the minds that are aware of such disappearances, he has a spontaneous realization that in the past mind and matter would have been impermanent, as they are at present and that they will b e impermanent in the future also. The meditator must be aware of this realization and say, ‘realizing, realizing’ until it disappears.
Moreover, in between the awareness of objects, the meditator becomes aware of a certain feeling of dread in him. It is not like the feeling of dread he usually has when he encounters a dreadful animal or apparition or object. It is feeling of dread born out of deep knowledge of the impermanence of mind and matter. He must be aware of it and say, ‘Dreadful, dreadful’ whenever it appears.
The mediator generally has the above mentioned experience when he achieves the sixth insight.
Seventh Insight
(Knowledge arising from the contemplation of misery)
The previous stage, this stage and the following stage are one and the same. One differs from the other only in degree.
When the meditator reaches this stage, he becomes aware of the impermanence of both the object and the mind that is aware of the object, more clearly than in the previous stage. Therefore his abhorrence of mind and matter grows. Now and then, he will blame impermanent mind and matter as bad, useless, dangerous; he may blame rebirths as being the source which produces suffering, such as old age, disease, death, worry, extreme misery due to separation from dear ones and so on; he may blame illusions that hide reality from being seen; he may blame all attempts to cling to life that is impermanent and so on. Every time he blames he will be aware of it and say, ‘blaming, blaming’.
At this stage, he will feel as if his whole body is very rapidly disintegrating. Some meditators feel as if their bodies are becoming very rapidly decomposed and rotten.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the seventh insight.
Eighth Insight
(Knowledge arising from contemplation of aversion)
The Vipassana requires every meditator to be aware of objects, as each appears on the sense organs. Objects are nothing but matter and mind. Therefore, when the meditator reaches this stage of Vipassana, because of his abhorrence of mind and matter, his enthusiasm for Vipassana wanes. He feels like giving up Vipassana in order to get rid of the awareness of mind and matter, which he abhors. However, he feels himself unable to give it up. Because of his strong concentration, Vipassana appears to become automatic. Without much effort on his part, he is aware of every object that appears on his sense organs. At this stage, he is very much like a man in the story who has to pass through a certain road, which is fully covered with dirt and mud. He loathes to set his feet on the road. However, since he has very urgent business to attend to at the end of the road, he has to go on in spite of his disgust. Therefore, even though he hates to be aware of mind and matter, he has to carry out the Vipassana, since the road towards the complete annihilation of mind and matter lies through the Vipassana.
Before Vipassana, or even in the beginning of it, when the meditator thought of affluent and powerful persons (deities), he felt very much attracted to them. However, when he reaches this stage of Vipassana, the thought of them fills him with abhorrence since he sees only reality, that is the rapid disintegration, without seeing illusions, such as forms, radiance, charm, beauty etc.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the eighth insight.
Ninth Insight
(Knowledge arising from the Desire for deliverance)
When the meditator reaches this stage, because of his strong abhorrence of mind and matter, he clearly feels as if a strong impulse is driving him away from the awareness of mind and matter. He begins to feel that it will be ideal if there are no objects, no sense organs and no mind since they are the cause of suffering; that it will be ideal if he can escape from these causes of suffering; that it will be ideal if he can reach that place where such causes are totally absent.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the ninth insight.
Tenth Insight
(Knowledge arising from Reflective Contemplation)
Some meditators think that it will be better to suspend their practice of Vipassana since they are aware only of the most depressing and unpleasant things. If the meditator ha such thoughts, he should say, ‘thinking, thinking’ till these disappear. However, some meditators find it difficult to get rid of these thoughts. So they run away from the center. But to their amazement, they find that they cannot get rid of Vipassana. Even at home, they are aware of every object that falls on any of their sense organs.
When a meditator reaches this stage, an experienced instructor knows well. The experienced instructor knows that due to the meditator’s abhorrence of mind and matter, his enthusiasm for Vipassana is waning. Therefore the instructor, during his daily contacts with the meditator, always emphasizes on the importance of being aware of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and soullessness, since only through this awareness, can he obtain freedom and sainthood. Acting on this advice the meditator works harder.
However some meditators do not need prompting for the instructor. By themselves, they get realizations to this effect.
At this stage of meditation, some meditators may experience unbearable pain. They should not worry about it. Concentrate on it and say, ‘paining, paining’ until it disappears.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the tenth insight.
Eleventh Insight
(Knowledge of equanimity with regard to the formation of existence)
This is the most important stage in the Vipassana meditation. It is only two stages away from freedom and sainthood. These two remaining stages, in fact, are not hurdles. As soon as the meditator reaches the peak of this stage, the two stages automatically let him go straight to sainthood. However, when a meditator is close to the peak of this stage, he may falter again and again because of the wrong steps he has taken. Before discussing something about this insight, it will be useful to mention the wrong steps which make a meditator falter when he is nearing the peak.
When the meditator steps into this insight from the preceding insight, his concentration and awareness of objects develop. It will not be an exaggeration if it is said that no objects, however insignificant they may be, will escape his awareness, as soon as they come into contact with any of his sense organs. From this very good point, the meditator will steadily go up to the peak.
If we say for example, that the peak of this insight is 90 degrees from the bottom, the meditator will have a very pleasantly strange experience, when he has climbed to about 85 degrees. At this point his awareness becomes much more accelerated. It makes him think something unusual is going to happen. It makes him expect that he is going to get sainthood. Thinking that he is going to get sainthood soon, he feels delighted. In order to gain sainthood as speedily as possible, he makes special efforts at concentration.
Thoughts, expectations, delights, making special efforts and many other such things are enemies of awareness. Because of these, the awareness becomes weak and as a result, the meditator slips many times from 85 degrees to lower degrees. Among the meditators who slip in this way, there are many who had advance knowledge of experiences, mentioned in this treatise. At this stage of Vipassana, extremely steadfast awareness is essential. The meditator must not under any circumstances, allow thoughts, expectations, delights and such things to distract him. The meditator must neither make a special effort nor relax. He must carry on as usual.
When the meditator reaches this stage, his awareness becomes clearer. He feels that he is aware of even the very insignificant objects without effort. Sometimes, objects may occur in very rapid succession. In spite of the rapid succession with which each object comes to contact with different sense organs, from head to toe, his awareness is quite able to cope with the emergency.
His awareness is mostly followed by realizations of either the impermanent, unsatisfactoriness or soulless nature of mind and matter.
Even in the initial stage of his insight, the mental concentration of the meditator is very advanced. That is why he is aware of even the very insignificant objects without effort. At this stage, when the concentration is advanced and not yet perfect, it will be very helpful if he can, instead of concentrating on his usual objects, concentrate on objects as each falls on any one of his sense organs. He will not be able to do so when his concentration is firm in due course. During this stage, the mind has the tendency to rest on a particular object for a long time. Therefore, while it can flit about with ease, the meditator should take fullest advantage and concentrate on all objects s each falls on any one of the sense organs. It will be very helpful in pushing him towards sainthood more speedily.
When his concentration becomes stronger, he sometimes feels as if he is being lifted into the air. Sometimes, he feels as if his whole body is being gently touched with delicate pieces of cotton or velvet. Sometimes, very few objects appear and he is very calmly aware of them as each appears. Sometimes all the objects disappear together with his body from his awareness. And the meditator is aware of only his mental process- one mind after another coming into being and disappearing.
When the meditator reaches this stage, he is quite close to his sainthood. Therefore he should carry on with diligence. When his awareness becomes accelerated, he must be very alert because it is quite essential to keep himself strictly to the path of awareness. It is a sign that he is approaching sainthood. Therefore, under no circumstances should he allow the distractions such as expectations, joys, worries, etc. to damage his concentration. These are in fact the great enemies of meditation.
The meditator generally has the above mentioned experiences when he achieves the eleventh insight.
Twelfth insight
(Conformity- knowledge is identical with adaptation to truth-knowledge)
As soon as the preceding insight reaches its peak, this twelfth insight transforms the mind to become qualified to rest on ultimate peace. It is the last Vipassana insight.
Thirteenth Insight
(Maturity of knowledge)
This insight is known as Gotravu. This insight maintains clear concentration like the preceding twelfth insight. For the first time throughout his infinite rebirths, the mind in this stage leaves the six objects on which the mind used to rest, and rests on an entirely different object, which is neither mind nor matter. It’s a different thing he has ever experienced. Buddhism calls it Nibbana, which means extinction of sufferings and extinction of rebirths.
The duration of the twelfth and thirteenth insight is extremely short, since each insight comprises only one concentration.
This insight is not a Vipassana insight. While the meditator is having Vipassana insights, his mind rests on mind and matter. Gotravu rests on Nibbana. This is the difference between Vipassana insights and the rest, namely Gotravu, Magga and Phala insights.
Fourteenth and Fifteenth Insight
(Knowledge of what is the correct path for Nibbana and the realization of the fruition)
The mind that immediately follows Gotravu is called Magga. It also rests on Nibbana.
The first magga uproots two seeds of inclinations namely- inclination to speculation (wrong view) and inclination to wavering (doubts about Buddha, dhamma and Sangha).
There are four maggas of which the second magga weakens the five remaining seeds of inclinations namely- inclination to the attachment to five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch; inclination to anger; inclination to pride; inclination to desire for superior existence and inclination to ignorance. The third magga uproots the first two out of these five seeds of inclinations. The fourth and final magga uproots the three remaining seeds of inclinations.
Phala means the fruit of the consequence of magga. Some meditators who have a fair accumulation of paramis (perfections), gain two stages of phala minds, which follow magga. Some meditators with a solid accumulation of paramis experience three phalas, which follow magga.
Phala minds also rest on Nibbana.
Sixteenth Insight
(Recollected mental image obtained in concentration or inner experience on Fruition of the Truth)
There is one more insight. It is called Knowledge on recollections. This insight recalls one’s experience of magga, phala and Nibbana.
This insight also does not last long. Because of this insight, the meditators are able to relate their experiences to the instructor. As follows where this came from, this is a focus point that you think then your aware.
The duration of the total disappearance of objects and awareness is not a long one. It is as long as the duration of three consecutive minds with a point though is one magga mind and two phala minds. However as your aware, since it is a phenomenal occurrence, it makes a very strong impact on the meditators. So after recalling their experience some exclaim, ‘It is an extraordinary experiences’. Some guess it must be a magga and phala. Some people who have some knowledge on Buddhism know that total cessation of objects and awareness means Nibbana. They also know that they were aware of the total cessation of object and awareness, because they have got to Magga and Phala, the highest stage in their mental development.