I just came back from a 12-day face-to-face meditation workshop.
When I practice with you every Sunday,
Can I practice Vipassana or should I stick to Anapana?
Yes,
You can engage in Vipassana.
Because Anapana is actually a part of Vipassana.
So Vipassana is the mainstay of the discipline of Theravada Buddhism.
However,
There are other varieties of training methods,
Methods of practices that are practiced by Mahayana Buddhism.
In Zen Buddhism,
Of course,
There is meditation training.
So if you engage in what he mentioned,
Chamsun training,
Meditation training,
While engaged in Vipassana and Anapana,
That actually differentiates the two practices.
However,
Anapana and Vipassana essentially are the same training practice.
The Vipassana training actually teaches you the four ways of recognizing something,
The four stages of mindfulness.
First is the recognition or sensitivity to the body.
The second is the sensitivity to your emotions.
The third is a sensitivity observation of the mind.
And the last is the observation or recognition of the Dhamma,
The truth.
So this is called the fourth stage of establishment of mindfulness or meditation training.
And there is a sacred text that's associated with this.
However,
The observation of the body or the physical things is divided into further subtexts.
And first is the sensitivity to the breath,
Observation of the breath.
The second is the observation or sensitivity to your own motions.
The third is the observation of the parts of your body.
The fact that different elements that make up your body.
So basically the four elements,
The earth,
Water,
Fire,
Wind,
Air,
That actually your body,
Once it dies,
Goes back to these elements.
That there is no permanence to any of these elements.
And then you observe or are sensitive to different organic parts of the body.
For example,
Stomach,
Intestines,
Liver,
And urethra.
Basically become aware of the different organs of the body,
Whether it's stomach,
Small,
Large intestines,
Whatnot.
And in order to realize the impermanent nature of all these organs.
Then also observe the nine steps it takes that your body to decay and become earth itself after death.
Why do we observe this?
To realize that there's nothing there in the body itself for you to attach yourself to.
And to kind of free yourself from the attachment to your own body.
So what I just explained is the observation of the physical body.
And the first thing from all the steps is the observation of the breath.
The first effect that a breath practice observation has is to calm your body and mind.
So taking this random distracted,
Constantly distracted mind and being able to make it focus to a single point.
So taking just the breath phase of this overall training is called Anapana.
Or in China,
In Korea,
It's called Sushikwan,
Basically meaning the same thing,
Observation or practice of the breath.
And there's a special training that's set aside on the observation of how the body decays.
That's called Baekgolgwan,
Which is observation of how the body turns into a skeleton,
Basically.
This is a very effective practice method for some people This is a very effective practice method for somebody who's too attached to the body.
So including all of these,
Right?
Observation of the body,
But also the emotions,
Also the mind and the truth itself is called Vipassana.
So you observe the breath while sitting down,
And your sensitivities.
And as you move,
If you move,
You become observant of the motions.
And also become observant of the emotions.
And become observant of your own mind.
So whether you're sitting down or moving around,
Being mindful or awake to any type of reaction in the body,
That's Vipassana training.
And if your observation of the breath becomes really deep,
Becomes really easy for you to become aware of everything else happening.
So if you become well-versed in Anapana,
The breath practice,
You will become well-versed in Vipassana.
So if you become well-versed in Vipassana,
You will become well-versed in Vipassana.
And if you do this,
Then the rest of Vipassana comes along much easier.
And if you engage in a five days or ten days,
Kind of a longer consistent meditation training,
Will go from Anapana to Vipassana.
But since we're engaged in a once a week training,
And we have a constant influx of beginners,
That's why we're only engaged in Anapana.
But to the questioner,
If you want to engage in Vipassana meditation training,
There's no problem at all.
