Suffering Ceases Where Sensations Cease
- by S. N. Goenka

 (The following is a translation of an article of Samvedanā which originally appeared in the Hindi Vipaśyana Patrikā Aug. 1983.)

Our ingrained mental habit is to reel in the pain of unpleasant bodily sensations, and to roll in the pleasure of agreeable ones. However, when we start to observe sensations objectively, so many realities are revealed.

One reality is that every sensation arises because of a contact: the contact of eyes with a vision, of ears with sound, of the nose with odour, of the tongue with taste, of the body with something tangible, of the mind with thoughts or with the body itself. The contact is essential for a sensation to occur; this is the inexorable law of nature. By the practice of Vipassana meditation one can experience and understand this truth directly.

But because of the ingrained mental habit pattern, even if the meditator tries to observe sensations objectively, he is liable again to sink into the slough of reaction, of rolling and reeling. For a short time his head may rise above the surface of the water and then again he sinks below and is carried away by the current, towards an unknown destination.

As this experience repeats itself, gradually it becomes clear to the meditator that the mind is conditioned to wallow in sensation, whether pleasant or unpleasant. It delights in pleasurable sensations, and by that very act generates aversion towards those that are disagreeable. This habit of the mind is called in Pāli assādo-relishing sensations. If the sensation is pleasant, one wallows in the taste of pleasure. If the sensation is unpleasant, one wallows in the taste of misery.

As the meditator continues observing objectively, he further realizes the danger in sensations, their great potential for harm-in Pāli, adīnava. The habit of wallowing in sensations is a habit of stimulating craving and aversion in the mind. When these arise they intensify the sensations, which in turn strengthen craving and aversion. In this way starts a vicious cycle that feeds on itself. This is dukkha-samudaya-gāminī paṭpadā, the path leading to nothing but misery. The meditator realizes that he has wasted so much of his time in the past walking on this path and thus increasing his suffering.

Now, by the practice of Vipassana, the meditator starts to emerge from the habit of relishing sensations and to develop equanimity. As he does so, he realises that the vicious cycle of misery has been broken, at least temporarily, and he has stopped generating suffering for himself. Surely then he has found the path leading to the cessation of suffering-dukkha-nirodha-gāminī paṭipadā-by following which he will eradicate all the miseries of life.

Having come to this point, now the meditator can see for himself how important is bodily sensation, for from it two paths diverge: that leading to the arising of suffering, and that leading to its cessation.

And now he has experienced directly what suffering is, how it begins and multiplies, the meditator is careful to avoid the path leading to its arising, and to follow the path to its eradication. Continuing to observe sensations objectively, he experiences nissaraṇa-emergence from the habit of reacting in craving or aversion.

When one begins the practice of Vipassana, most of the time one’s head may be below the surface of the water: one wallows blindly in sensations, generating fresh craving and aversion, fresh misery. As one develops skill in the practice, however, the periods of equanimous observation lengthen and the periods of blind reaction diminish. Once one stops generating new saṇkhāras of craving and aversion, one experiences khaya-the destruction of saṇkhāras of the past. Automatically the accumulated past conditionings of the mind arise and are eliminated, layer by layer, until one reaches the stage of nirodha, that is the nibbānic stage beyond the conditioned world of the senses. Anyone who practices Vipassana properly is bound to experience this ultimate truth sooner-or-later.

In the time that one is experiencing the truth of nibbāna, the mind ceases to work, and therefore, the moment-by-moment contact of mind and matter ceases. And because there is no contact, there can be no sensation. In this stage, the six sense organs cease to function; therefore, there is no possibility of a contact occurring between a sense object and any of these organs, and hence no sensation can arise. Thus by observing objectively the meditator emerges from the habit of wallowing in sensations, and reaches the stage in which all sensations and all suffering cease. The wheel of becoming has been shattered.

Come, meditators! Let us work ardently, diligently, patiently and persistently to shun the path of the arising of suffering, and to follow the path of its eradication, so that we may achieve real happiness, real peace.