We are on the second day of our segment on “Satya” or non-falsehood. Satya is one of the 5 Yamas or restraints of a yoga student. On the other side of non-falsehood, Satya also means truthfulness.
Today, our focus will be on truthfulness of sight. Vipassana means to “see things as they really are” - rather than how we want them to be. It is an ancient technique discovered by Gotama Buddha about 2,500 years ago in Northern India.
At this time in India, there were many sages and teachers, practicing many kinds of meditation and spiritual practices. Several hundred years later, by the the 2nd century BCE, a sage by the name of Patanjali compiled yogic texts into the 8 Limbs of Yoga and the Yamas and Niyamas that we are discussing today.
When we practice body scan, we are practicing a form of Vipassana. Learning how to be spiritual scientists, observers of our own mind and body. Our body sensation is one channel which we can observe. Such as, what happens when you sit and notice the skin of your hands? (pause)
We have other channels to notice as well, such as sight sensation, taste sensation, smell sensation and hearing sensation. In the Buddhist framework of understanding mind and body, the brain is a receiving organ for thought and emotion sensation - in the same way that the eyes are a receiving organ for light waves, the nose for scent molecules, the tongue for taste and the eardrums for sound waves.
In Western philosophy, we have René Descartes’ quote “I think therefore I am” - the Buddhist philosophy would be slightly different, something along the lines of “I receive thought and through delusion believe that I am.”
What I love about Vipassana as a technique, is that only you can know this for yourself by direct observation. What René Descartes, Buddha, Socrates or Rumi says - is quite likely well-thought out advice and very wise - but only you can know for yourself, by the direct observation, of sitting and observing for yourself, your own mind and body.
Share this post