Vipassana practice in the Monywa Hills
“Today, I went up the hills in the east of my home town and took Buddhanusati Bhāvanā for some hours. It is a meditative practice of recalling the Enlightened Buddha's attitudes or qualities, mainly such as his first quality of being free from mental defilements. We, human beings especially of household life, are mostly on fire of burning defilements in all senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought. We are even self-ignorant of the fact that we are usually on fire of sensual pleasures or defilements. This is why, we should better take a break to take a contemplative look deeply into ourselves or our mind what is the nature or reality is. The nature of ourselves or the Dhamma is neither outside us nor in the heaven. The real happiness or bliss of calm is only inside us. Just close your eyes for a short while and take gentle breaths in and out. Please, take a contemplative look into yourself. Sure, your heart may be beating like a pump engine or you may feel like it is so hurt deeply when you are angry.
The Enlightened One guided us neither to look outside nor to search medicine outside and point to the outer causes. He significantly guided us to watch ourselves and just let the nature go on as it is. Every time I study and think about the Enlightened One, I am to recall his discovery or enlightenment of real happiness or ultimate calm or absolute inner peace. Why could he discover it? The answer is "because he already ceased all the mental defilements in himself with the help of the Arahatta Insight."
How did it come he could achieve or attain the Arahatta Insight? The answer is, by practicing Vipassana (meditative insight of knowing the nature or reality of one's self). For the reason of his enlightenment of Arahatta Insight by which he illuminated to cease all his defilements, he unequally deserves to be admired or adored by all beings and Pandits (the wise ones) who wish and seek for the eternal liberation from all troubling defilements.
The Enlightened Buddha discovered his Arahatta Insight by practicing contemplative meditation (Vipassana) repeatedly by avoiding from two extremes of self-mortification and addiction to sensual pleasures in all senses. For this reason, the Enlightened Buddha is also named as Sugatha, the one who walks well on the Middle Way between the two extremes.
The Enlightened One has illuminated the lights of Dhamma. He has already guided the ways how to be free or liberate from troubling defilements which are the real causes of suffering. He taught us to keep our meditative practices (Vipassana) repeatedly and just observe what is going on in ourselves, as its nature. The task either to achieve liberation or attain the enlightenment/ insight will be naturally done by itself (by the insights attained during our repeated practices) but we definitely need to keep practicing day by day. It's just like washing a very dirty clothes which has been dirtied for years. We have dirtied ourselves with defilements for uncountably many lives, so we need the same amount of an input to wash out or clean up by Vipassana (in another term, by doing Bhāvanā) for a required Iength of time. Doesn't "Time(t)" include in many formulas in Physics, does it? Thus, we need it for sure, too. But don't forget to keep practicing.
I gladly share my delight of doing Buddhānusati Bhāvanā today, with you all (my Dhamma Fellows). It is so quiet, breezing and peaceful to be contemplative on my deeds of Bhāvanā.” — Zaw Win Htet