The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation - Softcover

Weisman, Arinna; Smith, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0609806475 ISBN 13: 9780609806470

Verlag: Crown Publications, 2001

Inhaltsangabe

An introduction to Vipassana Buddhism shares the fundamentals of meditation practice, the basic teachings of the Buddha, descriptions and excerpts from important Buddhist texts, answers to frequently asked questions, and a listing of American Insight Meditation centers and resources. Original. 15,000 first printing.

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ARINNA WEISMAN was a resident teacher at the Insight Meditation Society and recently founded the Dhamma Dena Meditation Center in Northampton, Massachusetts.

JEAN SMITH is the author of The Beginner's Guide to Zen Buddhism and the editor of four collections of Buddhist teachings.

Aus dem Klappentext

an and Jean Smith combine clear explanations of the Buddha's teachings on freedom and happiness with their personal stories highlighting some of the challenges and insights of practice. The Beginner's Guide to Insight Meditation offers advice about going on retreat and help in choosing a teacher and a sangha (practice community), as well as suggestions for further reading and information on various Insight Meditation or Vipassana centers and resources. Here is an enormously practical book that covers every aspect of the teachings a beginner needs to get started.

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Chapter 1

1. The Possibility of Change: A Cinderella Story

When I was a child, the Cinderella story made me distinctly uncomfortable. So did Anne of Green Gables. Here were these images of people who were just too good to be true: They were generous, they were sweet, they were diligent, they worked hard, they were compassionate, they never seemed angry or judgmental or shaming or hating. At some level, I longed to be like them, but I felt that I was more like Cinderella's ugly sisters: They were jealous of each other, they were nasty, they were competitive, and they were social climbers. They thought that they were not good enough, and yet they were self-consciously proud. Not until many years later did I learn that within the practice of Insight Meditation I could embrace such seemingly contradictory feelings with peace and even affection. - AW

Many people experience this rift within themselves. Sometimes we feel anger, jealousy, envy, and desire like Cinderella's ugly sisters, who will eventually be relegated to the dim kitchen in the Prince's palace or to a dark place in our hearts. At the same time, we yearn to have the qualities of Cinderella and the Prince-beauty, virtue, generosity-and to live happily ever after. The good news is that no matter how powerfully we may feel torn between such conflicting feelings, the Buddhist tradition known as Insight Meditation, or Vipassana, invites us to heal that division.

Insight Meditation teachings do not demand that we live life as an eternal bliss trip by judging or cutting off what feels difficult or negative. That is simply not a realistic expectation for any human being. Instead, when energies such as anger, hatred, doubt, and anxiety-traditionally called the hindrances in this practice (chapter 3)-arise, we can learn to hold them in our hearts with kindness and with acceptance. We acknowledge them and even honor them, saying, "Aha, here are these energies inside me. May I hold them with kindness. May I hold them with softness." That conscious relationship-it is like Cinderella and the ugly sisters merged-is where transformation happens.

If we could not envision how we would like to live and if we did not have the perseverance to make that vision a reality, we could not change. One of our greatest advantages as human beings is that as long as we are alive, we can change.

This capacity feels to me like such a critical piece because when I was growing up I was not very happy. I was quite shut down and judgmental. I'm not saying this out of any sense of shame -- it is just a pure acknowledgment of how I was, of how unhappy I was. If it were not for the possibility of change, I would still be caught in those negative energies. - AW

Even though we sometimes feel as if we are being clutched by hurtful energies, the fundamentally good part of our nature is always there and can be awakened. The heart of Insight Meditation calls upon our inner potential for wisdom, kindness, illumination, and a deep sense of connection to the beauty of all life. When this potential unfurls without obstruction, we are free-free of suffering, living with happiness that is not dependent on any particular thing, experience, or circumstance. This is our possibility. It is not just theoretical or something we are asked to accept on blind faith. Proof of it exists in the lives of our spiritual teachers and people such as the Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Hildegard of Bingen, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Dalai Lama.

Nelson Mandela elegantly invited us to express our possibility in his 1994 inaugural speech as president of South Africa.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deep fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?
Actually who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to be the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

The Nature of Suffering in Our Lives

Insight Meditation teachings recognize the challenges we face in living as human beings and the reality that we often experience pain and sometimes tremendous suffering. Suffering does not mean we are failures or awful persons or should feel ashamed about what is happening to us. The process of healing begins when we acknowledge our suffering and explore it, when we admit what is happening-and accept it.

As we open to our lives, we face the difficulty of illness. Some of us lose our health in a permanent way, for example, through cancer, heart disease, or arthritis. We all undergo the process of aging. Our bodies disintegrate in different ways and at different rates, but the changes due to aging are unavoidable and often painful. And we will all die-a scary prospect for many of us.

For some of us, our deepest challenges may be not physical but emotional, as psychic wounds keep opening up and bringing suffering. Even when no great difficulties are confronting us, a general sense of dissatisfaction may permeate us. We may believe things are going well, but we may still feel unfulfilled, or that we are not living our deepest purpose, or even that our life is out of control.

The Buddha said that we cannot deny these difficulties. It would be foolish and unrealistic to even try, for we would just be repressing a part of ourselves. Insight Meditation is not about repression; nor is it about splitting ourselves off from ourselves or pretending to be some sort of perfect spiritual model that excludes half of our lives. This practice, rather, is about relating to ourselves as we are. It is about saying, "Okay, let me find a way to work with these difficulties. How do I do that?" The Buddha said, "This is the way," and he laid out teachings so that we could live with the challenges of life and still find happiness. The teachings are revolutionary because they acknowledge our difficulties and in doing so inspire us to embrace a spiritual practice that can bring us peace.

You may have picked up this book because you know, at some level, that this is the moment for you to seek your spiritual truth. Or perhaps your life partner just died, you lost a job that was very important to you, or you have developed a chronic physical disability or experienced some other huge challenge. You say to yourself, "I know I cannot pretend this did not happen. Of course it happened. But how do I live with peace and equanimity? How can I live with kindness to myself?" Within Insight Meditation practice there are answers to these kinds of questions.

Our first step together could be to take the Refuges.

The Three Refuges

Over the centuries many people seeking the path of awakening, happiness, and freedom have begun their commitment by a practice known as taking the Three Refuges. But this practice is much more than a historical ritual. It is an affirmation of our capacity to change. It acknowledges, first, that there is a possibility of our awakening; second, that there is a way of living or practicing that can create the conditions for this awakening; and third, that we are not alone in this endeavor-we are joined and supported by thousands of other beings and communities.

Some phrases for taking the refuges are:

May I take refuge in my capacity to awaken.
May I take refuge in the ways of living that bring about my freedom...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Crown Publications
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2001
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0609806475
• ISBN 13: 9780609806470
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 237
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar