The Foundations of Mindfulness with Bhante Vimalaramsi - Edited
33:31 - 3 years ago
Note: This is an edited version. New students not familiar with Bhante V's teaching style are urged to watch the unedited version. In this talk, amidst images of nature from Missouri and California, Bhante Vimalaramsi discusses a very important step that many meditation teachers have left out in their teaching of the classic Breathing Meditation and other foundations of mindfulness. In this talk he compares the Mahasi Style, taught in Burma, with the method which he proposes that the Buddha really meant to teach, which is what is written in the Theravada Buddhist Suttas in any number of Suttas, most notably the Satipatthana and Anapansati Suttas. He talks about a critical step that enables the meditator to reach very high levels of tranquility- even far up into the Jhanas in a relatively short time. Students on his retreats have reported very fast progress over other styles of retreats. He talks about this different "Tranquil Meditation" he is teaching versus the "Absorption/Momentary Concentration Meditation" of today's Buddhist Vipassana Teachers. Bhante Vimalaramsi meditated up to 22 hours per day in Burma and finally left because he still felt there was something more. He found that, with Sinhalese teachers in Malaysia who told him, "Throw out the commentaries and only go with the Suttas'" After much study and practice he now tells us what he has found. First he reads the Sutta and then comments on it and relates it to today's meditation practice. For Theravada Vipassana practitioners this is a very important talk. This is the first half of the talk of the 3rd talk from the Joshua Tree Set available at Dhammasukha.org Purchase inexpensive DVDs here at the site listed. For his direct on video instructions please see the new talk now online "Instructions and Higher Stages" for his live talk on how to do this meditation. Transcripts and charts referred available at www.dhammasukha.org Sutta text translation: (C) Bhikkhu Bodhi 1995, 2001. Reprinted from The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya with permission of Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 U.S.A,