Vipassana

Samatha means <one point Concentration>. You can get samadhi by doing samatha. In fact, it is easy to say, "I got samadhi", but Even for a monk not many of them obtained Samadhi. It is said that if you get Samathi, you will gain supernatural powers. Siddhartha got the first Jhana already during his childhood, and since then he has met his teacher and has reached <the eighth Jhana>. It becomes a state similar to liberation when you get Jhana. When Buddha reached Eighth Jhana, he was still not liberated, until he discovered Vipassana, he reached Nibbana.

When you practice samatha meditation, the Pa Auk Sayadaw suggest you must focuse on the end of the nose and the Mahashi Sayadaw suggest to focus "on the rising and falling of stomach". Then you can see Nimita and you can get samadhi soon. By the way, until Nimita comes out, you just sit and concentrate. There is no other way until you can get the first jhana. You have to concentrate until you go over a certain critical point. The Pa Auk sayadaw says he can focus on the edge of his nose for three hours without thinking. If you can do that, you can see Nimitta and get Jhana. However, if you are a beginner, you will not be able to focus on your nose for even a minute. You may think meditaion is nothing, but when you try it, you will realize it is really difficult.

I already said that Siddhartha discovered Vipassana. And Siddhartha became enlightened by this practice and became Buddha.

Vipassana is to observe feelings, sensations, and Consciousness that happening at present moment. Unlike Samatha, which focus only on one object. For example, one thing is to observe the pain. Observe it when your legs are benumbed or you have tickle somewhere. Observe... just look at mind door. If you look at it, you can see the reality.

Do it for an hour in the room right now, see what happens.

Most of you will know about Pa Auk, Mahashi, Chanmyay, and Shwe-Oo-Min. By the way, the Myanmar people do not know these temples. For the people of Myanmar, Ledi Syadaw and Mogok Sayadaw are the best known monks. Pa Auk Sayadaw and Mahashi Sayadaw are especially famous by foreigners.

Pa Auk and Mahashi published the books in English so they are known to foreign countries, but Mogok seems to be working in Myanmar rather than foreign countries. Mogok has over 1000 temples in Myanmar.

Pa Auk is famous for its Samatha meditaion, and Mahashi is famous for oberserving and contemplating on body movements. Chanmyay system emphasizes especially the meditation of Metta, and Shwe-Oo-Min Sayadaw emphasizes meditation in every activities.

Mogok system especially emphasizes twelve reason-result theory(Dependent Origination).

It's just a little different from what each temple are emphasizing.

In fact, when you practice Vipassana meditation, you must observe consciousness, the five senses and feelings. When there is nothing special happening, you must focus on breathing.

Just as a spider waits on a spider web, you focuses on breathing and observes it as soon as anything happens.

The biggest advantage of Mogok Vipassana is its tolerance and balance. Mogok Sayadaw insist the students to understand the Dependent Origination (Cause and effect relationship) before they start meditation.

When you practicing meditation, you need to report the result of the meditation to Sayadaw, Pa Auk is more professional in the samatha interview because of their own way. But if you are in Pa Auk, you can only look at the end of the nose until you see the Nimita. If you can see nimita, you would have many questions during interview , but before that I have nothing to report.

But only one out of a thousand or ten thousands people can see the nimita. Most of people concentrate on so much that they see what they want to see. The real Nimita is so hard to see. When you see nimita, you need to have a interview to know whether the nimita is fake or not.

In my opinion, interviewing is meaningless until I reach a certain level. And it is very difficult to meet the someone who actually reach the Enlightment.

If i come to Myanmar, will I reach enlightment sooner ? Do not have this fantasy. The good intention is to have a chance to invest time in meditation, and quit other miscellaneous tasks. Maybe this is the right reason for coming to Myanmar.

Everything happening in your mind. If meditation is good in your room, it is the best place to meditate.

In that respect, Mogok is a bit easier to live than other well-known temples that only practice meditation. It's easier to live and practice.

Spartan, so it sounds great, but if you take it with Spartan, it can be stressful too.