Hỏi Đáp

It’s very good that you have told me in detail your particular situation while participating the retreat in 2006. In my opinion, your experience might be rooted from two causes: 1) The extreme tenseness or severe stress in the intensive retreats might bring about nerval asthenia which resulted in hysteria. 2) That might be one of your kammic effects which came from your past wrong doing. For instance, some one whom you had forced to death in the previous life, at that time would be an Asura or Yakkha… came claiming the debt. Usually, these two causes are related to each other. When you are in tenseness the bad kammic effect will easily come, whereas, when you are at ease and open-minded the meritorious deeds will opportunely bear fruits.

So, don’t be too severe in practising concentration or vipassana. In concentration, just relax your body and free your mind from any intention to become concentrated or to gain any stage of meditative mind. Let your mind be easy and restful then the serenity, tranquility, calmness or stillness will come naturally without effort. Your intention to obtain any longing state in the future forms the will-and-effort to carry it out. The very will-and-effort, which forms the illusive self, thought and psychological time, leads to tenseness, asthenia and hysteria. In vipassana, right effort means not to follow the will of the illusory self, though the will is to attain any stage of insight in the future. When you release all intentions of the self, the mindfulness and awareness appear naturally and immediately, because these characteristics are already in the mind itself, not comming from the will-and-effort of the illusory self.

As I said with your group at Bodhi Heart Sanctuary, the mind has three main natural qualities: Purity, Serenity and Clarity. Purity is the core of Morality (Sila), Serenity is the core of Concentration (Samadhi) and Clarity is the core of Wisdom (Panna). When your activity is taking place in a pure, serene and clear mind, that is perfect vipassana. Don’t try to practise anything else. The interference of your will-and-effort will frustrate the best vipassana. The mind has three other active qualities: Carefulness,  Attentiveness and Observability. When you have to do something rather quite hard, the mind will automatically take caution, pay attention and observe fully and clearly the process of doing. You only need to make use of Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Awareness when your thoughts or your intentions are wandering away. In vipassana, these three qualities help to call your wandering mind returning to the reality right in your body, sensation, mental state and the dhamma phenomenon.

Perhaps, owing to this serious experience, you can now realise that practising vipassana is not too complicated and difficult as you thought formerly. You can practise it effectively in your daily activities, no need to participate any other intensive retreat. May the clear mind always be with you!