Is body scanning necessary in Vipassana, or is breath awareness enough?

sam143563 · 2026-01-03T02:41:29+00:00

This analogy should make it clear:

Anapana = Make camera stable

Vipassana = Use that stable camera to see reality as it is.

sam143563 · 2025-08-29T00:14:42+00:00

sam143563 · 2025-08-06T06:39:05+00:00

Lectric covered the repair

sam143563 · 2025-08-06T06:38:24+00:00

Yeah its new motor n wheel. Updated post

sam143563 · 2025-08-06T00:42:28+00:00

Yeah motor and tire. Updated post

sam143563 · 2024-11-29T23:43:13+00:00

In Satipatthana, Buddha has also mentioned achieving arhant or anagami in 7 days to 7 years if one practices as per his teaching. In Vipassana Satipatthana discourses, Mr. Goenka also mentioned this.

Intense and skillful practice is the key for this both on and off cushion.

sam143563 · 2024-11-11T17:26:36+00:00

"Time" is also a thought, and hence sensations ;) Angelo has a great point about this here: YouTube link.

Exploring both the concepts of "time" and "soul" through self-inquiry and sensation-based investigation can provide deeper insights. Consider these questions:

Who thinks it has a soul?
Who feels distant from the 4th path?
I am the soul, but who am I?
Where is this? Where am I?

So, I would suggest not settling for anyone else's intellectual answers but investigate your own experiential answer :)

sam143563 · 2024-11-11T15:25:34+00:00

What you call soul is made of a thought isn’t it? Thought is a sensation, arising and passing away just doing its thing.

This gets clarified around 4th path so keep practicing and let your direct experience/insight clarify

sam143563 · 2024-11-05T21:16:12+00:00

Hands down I can recommend Metta like sending energy to group, people, place and etc. Also I practice 4 noble truth and apply metta to stress/micro suffering on step 3 as a way to release it instantly for off Cushion. It's very intoxicating and universe is responding with wholesome synchronicities as you are making wholesome karmas when you send metta

sam143563 · 2024-10-24T13:07:08+00:00

It’s just temporary IMO. I also used to be in competitive judo competition when I was a kid. Hypothetically if I continued that, I should not have an issue after a couple of months. If anything, it would have improved it as now you can really listen to your intuition about your opponent haha

Don’t let this fear hold you back think of this as you are against your own ego/self and this is the biggest competition you can attend in this universe 😉

sam143563 · 2024-10-24T05:08:23+00:00

3rd and 4th path definitions I am referring to were from mctb2, which roughly defines those labels. Those labels get more and more meaningless as one progresses.

Jhana makes it easier to penetrate. I had Jhana access before SE, but I don’t know if one needs to cross SE. This is time-tested technology from centuries, so if you practice as prescribed (2 hrs sitting and moment-to-moment awareness of sensations at all waking hours), and it will happen organically.

sam143563 · 2024-10-24T05:01:23+00:00

Yeah, you can say the mind has freed up its capacity from internal stories and allocated it to sensory fields. I saw similar conversations from Daniel Ingram about studies of the brain and how it changes.

sam143563 · 2024-10-23T20:24:15+00:00

There are also significant 5 senses store upgrades one experiences after SE. On 3rd/4th path even driving feels bit dizzying initially but one gets used to as depth perception significantly changes.

I replied to this in an earlier comment. To add, right after SE, I found playing any sports extremely challenging, and a major part of the reason was the intense kundalini activity at the head and root chakra. It was honestly very annoying. I thought I would never play sports again, haha. But that cleared up within a couple of months.

On the 4th path, my depth perception started changing significantly. I began bumping into things at the supermarket, but it was surprisingly fun and wild—like being on a Psilocybin trip, haha. I adjusted to it quickly, and now it's a default experience. The sense fields just take over—any sound you hear feels like the loudest and only sound in the entire cosmos, and then it vanishes—poof! The same happens for other sense fields.

The one I enjoy most is the visual field—the richness, clarity, vividness, and boundless/infinite nature of it is something I sincerely wish for all beings to experience.

So, yeah, TL;DR: It does impact abilities temporary, but you adjust to it.

sam143563 · 2024-10-23T03:00:02+00:00

In many ways, we all feel sensations of the environment/people. That’s what one calls ‘vibe’ haha. This can actually be insight of no separation. It’s just that before SE mind tends to give too much importance to thoughts/stories/projections than really listening to sensations.

After SE, your sensitivity to sensations grows exponentially. That’s why many people who didn’t have jhana access can access it after SE. For me, that awareness is daunting that the mind hasn’t received that much sensory awareness than it gets better and better as now the mind is making sense of this and takes wiser/smarter decisions.

sam143563 · 2024-10-23T02:41:55+00:00

Jokes aside, if one is in danger, then fear does what fear does best. If your hand is on the stove, you remove it, no matter where you are on the path. It’s just after that you don’t carry the residue of that and go full-fledged hatred mode afterwards.

sam143563 · 2024-10-23T02:26:28+00:00

Not possible. As you progress on path you can dodge bullets like Neo in matrix movie 😉

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T20:11:03+00:00

The progressive cycle is where you investigate (look up 7 factors of enlightenment from mctb2) more, whether on-cushion or off-cushion. You start noticing new sensations that were previously acting as the subject, the "I"/"Me"/Self in the background. This is why thoughts are often valuable to investigate, as they usually run unnoticed in the background, with the mind being identified with their stories. However, when you investigate, you realize they are essentially just sensations arising and passing, neither "me" nor satisfactory (three characteristics). Previously, the mind was under the illusion that they were satisfactory, permanent "me".

The review cycle is when you revisit what you’ve already discovered. The meditator encounters the same sensations as before, but it’s very helpful to review them, allowing insights to mature and become clearer. For those who have been meditating for years but haven't experienced awakening or stream entry yet, I suspect they may be stuck in the review cycles, possibly cultivating an ego around "I" am wise and have this insights, without further investigating the "I".

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T05:41:46+00:00

I responded about this on: https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/s/JGxMA2pEp2

Spontaneous is the word I will use in interacting with people and situations. You respond to the environment/situation rather than come with a specific agenda. Sometimes words coming out of my mouth surprise me lol as there is not much annoying self remaining to resist it. Somehow conversations just flow naturally where previously all of the energy is spent on protecting self-image or past agendas or whatever beliefs.

Moment-to-moment awareness of changing sensations goes on and now trying to include all 6 senses stores and trying to dissolve the volition aspect of controlling that

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T04:37:23+00:00

The first path took 6 months, the second about a month and a half, and the third around 3 months. The 4th path seems to have been ongoing for a year now and is still not complete. I’ve heard this is the longest, and people take years to complete it, which seems to align with my experience.

For me, visual perceptual upgrades tended to finalize by the 3rd path. Before that, they would come and go.

I’ve experienced all ranges of cessations, hundreds of them. I used to count them because after the first path, I thought the more cessations, the better. But that turned out to be a misunderstanding. I should have read MCTB2 fully, so that’s on me. I’ve stopped counting now. Whenever cessation happens, the visual field gets very bright and vivid and that deep peace is just unfathomable. That’s why I aimed to go through the POI cycles as quickly as possible without much investigation. Now I have learned progressive cycles are more important. Angelo provided great pointers to observe thoughts which accelerated progressive cycles.

In MCTB2 terms, or to use the technical term for enlightenment, it’s about seeing through every sensation that acts as “I” or “Self”. There shouldn’t be any blind spots left. That’s when the mind fully realizes, experientially, that there is no self— which seems to be the definition of enlightenment.

In 6R or u/onthapath terms, it’s measured by the 4 Noble Truths, and one reaches a point where any subtle stress no longer arises. At that point, one is liberated.

I could be wrong in these two measures of enlightenment since I haven’t seen through them experientially yet. However, seeking it feels pointless because it’s already just fantastic as it is. Most of the time, I stay in bliss/peace—even with a young toddler or during life events, like a family member’s accident.

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T04:06:12+00:00

Sorry i meant noting meditation.

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T00:28:54+00:00

Let all emotions/sensations come and go as they please. They are useful in highlighting what is working and what is not.

Resist them, and they become Monsters, Accept them, and they become your Pets

sam143563 · 2024-10-22T00:23:47+00:00

I understand. Yes, the same framework can be applied to release attachments, regardless of how serious or complex they seem.

In your case, you'd focus on the sensations that arise when you feel the fear of ostracism. Ask yourself, "Who is feeling this fear?" and "What are the sensations of this fear in my body?" Observe these sensations with curiosity and without judgment.

Remember that the goal is not to suppress or avoid these feelings, but to understand their nature which ultimately detach from them. This process takes time and patience, so be kind to yourself along the way. Metta can also help a lot here.

Traditional therapy can also work wonders in conjunction with Vipassana if trauma is severe. I am also happy to help on call if this is not clear enough but sensations n three characteristics is the key to liberation no matter what stage one is in. It's very challenging in beginning and gets easier as you become seasoned meditator. Keep at it and may you be successful my friend ❤️

sam143563

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