Part 3 · 35 Days into Vipassanā — Body-Scanning Insight Meditation
From the breath to sensations throughout the body, observed with equanimity.
This Part is in production. The curriculum is written; the guided sittings are being recorded in English, Spanish and Russian. It will open to students who have completed the Part before it.
- Part
- 3 of 5
- Length
- 35 days · 2 sittings per day
- Practice
- Vipassanā (body-scanning insight meditation)
- Training
- Sīla, Samādhi, Paññā
- Level
- Intermediate
- Prerequisite
- Part 2
- Status
- In production
- Languages
- English, Spanish, Russian
- Cost
- Donation-based
- Teacher
- Ocean DYNN
- Tradition
- Theravāda
What changes in Part 3
Attention moves from the breath to physical sensation throughout the body. Pleasant sensation is not pursued; unpleasant sensation is not pushed away. The training is to observe, and to notice that everything observed is changing.
How the thirty-five days progress
- Days 1–14 · the breath. First the basics: attention at the entrance of the nostrils; the length, rhythm and depth of the breath; the pauses between in-breath and out-breath. Then deeper: the flow of air from the nose to the lungs, the breath as one continuous stream, and the inner space of the body felt through the breathing. The aim is a stable mind and one-pointed concentration.
- Days 15–20 · the surface of the body, in the manner of S. N. Goenka: scanning from the head to the feet; the contact of skin with clothing and air; differences of temperature, pressure and vibration; sensation and breath observed together. The aim is to feel the body as a single field of sensation.
- Days 21–25 · inside the body: inner warmth, the heartbeat, the movement of blood; emptiness and fullness within; attention moving through the inside of the body. The first day of this stage is a two-hour sitting.
- Days 26–35 · inside the body, with Pa-Auk's four elements: earth as density, weight and hardness; water as flow and cohesion; fire as heat; air as vibration and movement. The body is scanned through these elements, and experienced as a process rather than a fixed form.
Three sittings a day
Part 3 asks for three sittings a day, with a fourth optional: one early, between 4:30 and 6:00; two of an hour each at any time between midday and five; and one in the evening, between six and nine.
If your days are full with work, this Part is for people who take the practice and its discipline seriously. Tell the people you work for that you are doing a meditation course with set practice times, and keep them. That is the only way to move forward on this path.
When sensation floods
With strong concentration on one object, a calm mind, and sensation observed objectively without identifying with it, subtle or gross, a great deal of sensation comes to the surface. Then a stage arrives when the mind slides back into it more and more often, as if it wanted to feel it all again — pulled in like a bog. The task is to switch back to the breath: know the in-breath as in-breath and the out-breath as out-breath, with all attention on the breathing, while the release of sensation and the changing pace of the breath continue in the background. Only this way does the practice move on when the flow of sensation grows strong.
Before you begin, read the safety page.
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