1 00:00:01,162 --> 00:00:09,425 When I sit and say to myself sitting, I have to do a quick body scan, at least of my legs and spine, in order to really know that I'm indeed sitting. 2 00:00:09,967 --> 00:00:13,436 Isn't that quick body scan somewhat contrary to a one-pointed mind? 3 00:00:14,218 --> 00:00:15,542 Is one label really enough? 4 00:00:17,142 --> 00:00:18,744 You don't really have to do that. 5 00:00:19,506 --> 00:00:24,874 I would say it's not really the object or not exactly proper meditation. 6 00:00:24,954 --> 00:00:25,995 It's much more forceful. 7 00:00:26,937 --> 00:00:33,807 You could in the beginning and you could say that it's at least calming the mind down or focusing the mind. 8 00:00:34,188 --> 00:00:37,513 Because remember, none of that's wrong. 9 00:00:37,493 --> 00:00:39,556 in tranquility meditation. 10 00:00:39,656 --> 00:00:48,590 If your purpose is simply to calm the mind, you can force it, push it, knead it, mold it into shape. 11 00:00:50,653 --> 00:00:53,818 Concentration meditation is not for the purpose of cultivating insight. 12 00:00:53,898 --> 00:00:57,544 So in a sense, we can use that at least in the beginning. 13 00:00:57,844 --> 00:01:01,830 And so a meditator in Vipassana meditation might 14 00:01:01,810 --> 00:01:20,038 calm themselves down by doing these body scans by just knowing that they're sitting but in vipassana meditation the point is not the sitting sitting is a description of those feelings that you have and so the fact that you're aware of the tension in your back or the pressure on the floor 15 00:01:20,018 --> 00:01:22,702 at that moment when you say sitting, that's enough. 16 00:01:23,624 --> 00:01:27,370 You're aware of that experience and you call that experience sitting. 17 00:01:28,172 --> 00:01:32,158 So it's simply important to recognize this is a physical phenomenon. 18 00:01:32,639 --> 00:01:35,604 It's not so important to be aware that this is a sitting posture. 19 00:01:36,225 --> 00:01:40,192 Put your mind on the whole body, the entire body, and say to yourself sitting. 20 00:01:40,352 --> 00:01:46,482 The recognition that that is a sitting posture comes 21 00:01:48,031 --> 00:01:52,999 comes on its own and comes unexpectedly. 22 00:01:53,039 --> 00:01:58,428 It's the sannyā part, the recognition that this is sitting. 23 00:01:58,909 --> 00:02:09,205 Sannyā is impermanent and so what you're seeing that leads you to say that you have to do this, you have to push it in order for it to come, is that it's non-self. 24 00:02:09,225 --> 00:02:10,387 It doesn't come automatically. 25 00:02:10,427 --> 00:02:11,108 Sometimes it does. 26 00:02:11,268 --> 00:02:13,151 Sometimes you immediately know that you're sitting. 27 00:02:13,172 --> 00:02:15,355 You recognize, oh, this is a sitting posture. 28 00:02:15,335 --> 00:02:19,183 Sometimes you look and look and then there's no, bing, this is sitting. 29 00:02:19,203 --> 00:02:21,188 You just never are aware that it's sitting. 30 00:02:21,208 --> 00:02:23,032 This is because it's not self. 31 00:02:23,372 --> 00:02:25,998 You can't force yourself to know that's what you're seeing. 32 00:02:26,659 --> 00:02:29,525 And so that is the whole purpose of practicing. 33 00:02:29,566 --> 00:02:31,710 And that's what you're going to find. 34 00:02:31,730 --> 00:02:33,073 You're going to find that 35 00:02:33,053 --> 00:02:43,308 Sometimes you are aware of the feeling, sometimes you're aware of this feeling, sometimes you're aware of that feeling, sometimes you're aware of the recognition of the feeling or putting it together as sitting, sometimes you're not. 36 00:02:44,129 --> 00:02:47,133 And that's the point of the practice, not to perfect it. 37 00:02:47,153 --> 00:02:59,972 You see, this is key, and I did a video on this that I think is most important, one that we should emphasize again and again, that often people, often meditators, very often, 38 00:02:59,952 --> 00:03:09,034 You come to the conclusion that they're practicing incorrectly or they're unable to practice because, specifically because they're seeing what we want them to see. 39 00:03:09,315 --> 00:03:12,382 They're seeing impermanence, they're seeing suffering, they're seeing non-self. 40 00:03:12,823 --> 00:03:19,078 So I would say much more important is the practice than perfecting it. 41 00:03:19,961 --> 00:03:23,850 Perfecting it's not going to happen, not in insight meditation.