Changing Buddhist Practice in Burma - Online Burma Library

enlightenment to escape from the cycle of rebirth and its practical goal of
gaining relief from the sufferings and crises of every day mundane life. And,
while insight meditation is a prescribed path to realize Nirvana (Nibbana), it
can nevertheless be practised also by those who initially take the basic exercise
of concentration meditation. 20
Vispassana and its techniques
The significance of Mahasi vispasssana meditation, in comparison to the
concentration meditation, is its outright recognition of body and mind as the
realistic condition and as the subject of meditation. Vispassana necessitates a
basic knowledge, "either in belief or in extenso, of the facts that living beings
consist of the two constituents, of body (rupa) and mind (nama), that the body
and mind are formed due to cause and effect and that, as they are in a constant
state of changing process, they are impermanent, ill and devoid of 'atta'"
(original emphasis, Mahasi Sayadaw 1958: 5). 21 Therefore for the meditator,
"With the full development of the factual knowledge of 'Anicca
[impermanence], dukkha [suffering], anatta [non-self]' there arises the insight
of 'Magga and Phala' [knowledge of the Path and its Fruition] 22 and he realizes
Nibbana" (Mahasi Sayadaw 1958: 6).
Vispassana meditation is primarily about contemplating, concentrating, and
becoming mindful particularly about one's own body and mind. It recognizes
the ever changing and impermanent nature of body and mind such as ills from
old age and crises of life. For instance, the physical experience of seeing
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