attachments, to the achievement of the ultimate goal - to nirvana. But I didn't start asking Sayadaw questions during the first report. Subsequently, my questions led to very interesting conversations. And on that day, he, in all likelihood, wanted my report to serve only as a pretext for acquaintance, and I very deeply appreciated his desire to see me so soon, immediately upon my return. Then there were other reports, already in his house, when he again occupied it after Shwesedi. But the latter remained at the Center and still directed most of my training. Although many meetings with Shwesedi were joyful events, in general he answered my questions with much less confidence. I think that he experienced some discomfort in dealing with a European, while the more experienced teacher Mahasi was much more free about the peculiarities of Western thinking, and therefore his answers turned out to be more complete and more satisfactory. (Practice of Attention Limitation)
Soon my life was subject to a rather monotonous routine - walking, sitting, walking again. And in this process, something happened that was bound to happen: the outside world began to move away from my conscious thoughts. In the next chapter, I will talk about how the successive steps meditation exercises are designed to narrow the horizon of the practitioner and keep his mind occupied within a certain field. As the world outside my Direct Study Center became less and less real, the small, unimportant details of the daily events around my block took on an importance that left them in my memory with a clarity totally disproportionate compared to other, far more significant events before. and after visiting the Center. It is the degree of attention that gives depth and permanence to memory, and not the special intrinsic value of the event itself. Now, when I look back at the experience, it seems to me as isolated as a slide we look at through a projector or the sky through a telescope. But in both these cases there is an essential interest which helps to bring the attention to and keep it within the capacity of the instrument; and during my life at the Center the limitation of attention was brought about by the continual employment of the mind within a clearly defined sphere. It was only gradually that this restriction led to results, but that this was the case was finally shown to me only at the end of the third week, when it was necessary to telephone the Australian Embassy in Rangoon and answer a telegram received from Singapore. As I contemplated the telegram and arranged for a telephone conversation, I felt that I had been rudely pulled out of my circle; while talking on the phone, I conveyed my instructions to the naval attache with a feeling of acute excitement mingled with concern. When the business was finished and I returned to my cell, I felt with relief that the world had again narrowed down to the immediate boundaries of my block and my dwelling, that it again consisted of monks, dogs, crows, heat and mosquitoes in my cell, that is, of everything what I have arranged in an orderly and indestructible existence. But it took some time before the rising wave of anxiety completely subsided. 5. SATIPATTHANA METHOD
В основе метода сатипаттхана лежит простая и логичная теория, и я надеюсь, что западный аналитический ум почувствует гораздо больше доверия к практике упражнений этого метода, if ознакомится с предварительными объяснениями, которые я дам в этой главе. But usually such explanations are not are given; they say simply: “Do this and you will feel this, not necessarily immediately and not even soon, but with your perseverance, these phenomena will eventually come.” As I mentioned, I read a little about this method even before coming to the Center, but most of the following explanations were received in response to my inquiries during reports to this or that sayado. At first, Shwesedi was reluctant to give me advice, since it is not actually needed to complete the practice or overcome obstacles; but he took pity on me when he saw that it was not mere curiosity that impelled me, but a genuine desire to understand—for understanding would deepen my confidence and sustain my perseverance. This reluctance to dwell on theoretical considerations is common to all Buddhist practice, and I will have to talk more about it in the next chapter.
The goal of a Buddhist who has taken the course of satipatthana is to acquire vipassana, or insight. It is only when the mind is stilled that insight, or as we might call this quality, intuition, can access the facts that underlie Buddhist doctrine—and reveal them as experience. It is in connection with this revelation that the Sayado are so reluctant to talk about those things that in any case cannot be correctly understood without experiencing them, and each person, with a little patience and a certain perseverance, is able to do this on his own. Moreover, such spiritual experiences are interpreted differently by different people; and it is most difficult to explain such a phenomenon without giving a new meaning to words that are commonly used in other contexts, or one must use new words without being able to accurately explain their meanings.
My goal was to complete the course rather than wait for this inner revelation. I knew it was absolutely incredible that I could have made significant progress in the time I had available to enable me to experience such a revelation. But I really hoped that this course was suitable for the Western mind; I wanted to know how much the ability to fix the mind on some object and hold it firmly there for long periods is the kind of ability that the average person can achieve. With regard to this desire of mine, at the end of the course I was completely satisfied that this course turned out to be simple, safe, logical, that there is no reason why any person could not achieve the limited goal that I have set for myself.
The first important requirement in the task of learning to control the mind is to limit its activities. Достижение сознательного контроля над умом в любых условиях является трудной задачей, но if во время таких попыток разрешить уму действовать в пределах обширного поля, сознательный контроль окажется невозможным. The activities of the mind must be limited in some way. We do this unconsciously when we are particularly interested in some thing and we exclude everything else from view. А if действенное ограничение сможет в течение длительного периода поставить пределы хаотической деятельности ума, для воли откроется возможность постепенно приобрести контроль над ним. The whole secret of the success of the satipatthana method lies in the selection of the natural field of this activity, which, although it remains limited, still provides continuous food for the mind. (Additional exercises)
The beginning of this process of restriction was the two basic exercises I described in the first two chapters. Earlier, I mentioned that I had to sacrifice the simple pleasure that I got from the sensations during my morning walk for tea—sacrifice in favor of contemplating the feet, every step they take back and forth. Very soon, actions during meals were also included in the process of contemplative exercises. The mind had to follow the movements of the hands when I brought food to my mouth, to follow the process of chewing, swallowing and drinking. I had to follow my mind continuously and consciously for each successive action during eating, from the first of them, with sitting down, and ending with the last, wiping my lips and standing up. The greater the amount of detail that needed to be included in contemplation, such as the taste of food, the feeling of cold water in the mouth, the actual density of the food eaten, the easier it was to keep the mind from wandering. In reality, this is not as difficult a task as it seems at first, but one must overcome the initial reluctance to undertake such a task. Then the actions of getting up in the morning, washing, etc., as well as going to bed are added here. It soon became a habit of mine to start the morning with my first conscious thought: “Wake up, wake up!” - and to quickly run my attention through all the senses in order to detect the touches, sounds, etc. received by them. Then the following action came: I sat down, stretched one leg, then the other, got up from the bed, etc. stretched out his arm, turned on the shower, felt the water on his body, soaped himself, dried himself, then walked into his cell - “up”, “forward”, “down” - until he came to the door, and then, to enter the cell, actions were required stretching out a hand, turning a handle, and pushing a door. One can easily understand that the mind was really busy; and this close attention to all the actions of the body continued until the beginning of this or that basic exercise. Thus the mind was left with little possibility of returning to the outer world; it remained within the sphere bounded by the immediate surroundings of the body. The effect of even the first attempts to achieve such a complete limitation was simply remarkable: the mind remained completely occupied all the time, but always only with those things that were, so to speak, under its very nose! There was not a time during the whole day when he did not attend to the direct physical activity of the body. Even