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BU
DDHANET'SBOOK LIBRA
RY
E-mail: bdea@buddhanet.net
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Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw
Practical Vipassana Exercises
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1
Contents
Part 1 — Basic Practice
Preparatory Stage
2
Basic Exercise I
5
Basic Exercise II
6
Basic Exercise III
8
Advancement in Contemplation
16
Basic Exercise IV
18
Summary
19
Part II — Progressive Practice
20
Practical Vipassanā
Meditation Exercises
30
Venerable Mahāsī Sayādaw
A Biographical Sketch
45
Appendix
Techniques of Meditation
57
Rising and Falling Movement
of the Abdomen
58
Mahāsī Sāsana Yeiktha
Meditation Centre
61
2
Part I • Basic Practice
Preparatory Stage
If you sincerely desire to develop contemplation and
attain insight in this your present life, you must give up
worldly thoughts and actions during the training. This
course of action is for the purification of conduct, the
essential preliminary step towards the proper
development of contemplation. You must also observe
the rules of discipline prescribed for laymen, (or for
monks as the case may be) for they are important in
gaining insight. For lay people, these rules comprise the
eight precepts which Buddhist devotees observe on
Sabbath days (uposatha) and during periods of
meditation.1 An additional rule is not to speak with
contempt, in jest, or with malice to or about any of the
noble ones who have attained states of sanctity.2 If you
have done so, then personally apologize to him or her or
1 The eight Uposatha precepts are: abstention from 1) killing, 2) stealing, 3) all sexual
intercourse, 4) lying, 5) intoxicants, 6) taking food after noon, 7) dance, song, music,
shows (attendance and performance), the use of perfumes, ornaments, etc., and
8) using luxurious beds.
2 There are four noble individuals (ariya-puggala). They are those who have obtained
a state of sanctity:
a. The stream-winner (sotāpanna) is one who has become free from the first three of
the ten fetters which bind