Insight Meditatiton in Thailand
Insight Meditation, the Subconscious and Reincarnation
By Simon Ramsden, Thailand
Sir Winston Churchill once said that he believed he was wrong about a quarter of the time. If someone as illustrious as Sir Winston Churchill felt that his powers of judgement were so suspect, how can any of the rest of us feel confident in relying on our own? In the modern Western world, since science took over from religion as the ultimate arbiter between truth and fantasy, we have become accustomed to placing complete credence in the conclusions we come to using our powers of deduction and to ignore our intuition as unreliable. However, there is a problem with this approach, as the conclusions we come to rely on our assumptions and on our deductive powers, both of which may be flawed and so cause us, like Sir Winston, to make mistakes.
Some problems are also just so complex that it is extremely hard to come to a balanced judgement based on ration and reasoning. The subconscious mind, however, does not rely on logic or upon our conscious assumptions, so maybe we should try listening to it sometimes. This is one of the purposes behind vipassana (insight) meditation, that if we ignore conscious thoughts and feelings for long enough then the subconscious has the chance to be heard and to whisper intuition in our inner ears.
Ignoring the conscious mind is a far from easy task, as like a chattering monkey it constantly throws fears, desires and worries at us. Annapanasati (mindfulness with breathing) is an implementation of vipassana, where the meditator slows the stream of conscious thoughts and feelings by concentrating as hard as possible on the sensation of air moving in and out of the nose. It is not a breathing exercise where you try to breathe in a better way (although it will also achieve that), what it primarily achieves is that after a time (for some people a fairly long time) you will start to be able to attach less to the thoughts and feelings that arise – they become just thoughts and feelings, not ‘my’ thoughts and feelings.
When a thought or feeling arises, recognise that it has arisen and then go back to examining the breath. The idea is not to push thoughts away but to allow them to depart of their own accord, which you achieve by not giving them the much-magnified power you usually do by attaching to them as ‘mine’. By attaching to them less the meditator is able to wave them goodbye more easily. Eventually intervals will start to occur between the thoughts and feelings, which are the spaces where insight can arise. In at instant you will just know, with complete certainty, the answer to a problem you may not even have known you had.
Thai people are very strong contenders for being the happiest people on the planet. Buddhists monks believe that the natural state of human beings is contentment despite the tribulations of the vale of sorrow in which we live. Using vipassana and annapanasati, the causes for discontentment are observed and allowed to wither. Personally, I’m tempted to take these monks’ practices seriously as, despite what to most people would seem like extremely boring and ascetic lives, they so often seem to be so deliriously happy. They set a shining example of contentment through non-attachment to impermanent phenomena - those thoughts, feelings, relationships and possessions which come and go in life. This leadership is extremely beneficial to the rest of the community and justifies the reverence in which the monks are held and the physical support which they receive.
It is maybe no coincidence that Thailand is a mainly Buddhist country and that Thai people are very strong contenders for being the happiest people on the planet. The rival countries for the distinction of being the happiest places, in this author’s experience, are the Buddhist Himalayan countries. Meditation encourages people to let their fears and worries arise, to face them and then to let go of them. The Thais’ amazing ability not to worry is maybe at least in part a consequence of this.
Many Westerners will already be aware that they are happiest when forgetting themselves through concentration, but often assume that in order to be effective the object of their concentration must be something exciting like an adventure sport in a foreign country. How lucky the Buddhists are, after they have learned to get the same happiness just from concentrating on the breath going in and out of their noses, which are always there, are always reliable and which also don’t require exhausting and expensive aircraft flights to reach. To delve into the subconscious can for some people be a difficult path. Suppressed feelings and repressed events can arise or be remembered, sometimes extremely painfully. It is recommended that anyone seeking to try out meditation enlists the guidance and support of the people who have been doing it for a very long time, the Buddhists. It is not necessary to subscribe to Buddhist ethics and after-life beliefs to benefit from this religion’s techniques for increasing contentment and generating insight.
While on the subject of Buddhist after-life beliefs, I would like to examine one of the many cases I’ve come across that show to my satisfaction that there is at least a case for suggesting that we are reincarnated. In 1970 a German woman insisted to her hypnotist that she was an 1880s doctor working in the gynaecology department of Edinburgh hospital, the layout of which she drew in detail. When she later visited this hospital for the first time and showed the staff her drawing, she was told that it didn’t match the actual layout. Persistently, she asked to see 1880’s plans for the hospital. The layout of these plans matched her drawing. The above is just one case of many. They don’t constitute one hundred percent proof, but to my mind people who refuse to countenance them are not keeping open minds.
Anybody who is interested in this subject is recommended to read about Edgar Cayce, a 19th century American healer and psychic. It is hard to disbelieve the evidence that he could see peoples’ past lives just by placing his hands on them. There is an alternative explanation for these phenomena. The philosopher Carl Jung believed that humans have a common shared consciousness, through which every person has a link to everything ever experienced by every other person. A species memory. So maybe reincarnation doesn’t really happen, maybe the reincarnation cases are manifestations of Jung’s species memory.
Thai meditation advice: people wishing to try meditation and who feel they are up to an ascetic ten-day retreat are advised to attend Suan Mok monastery (google “wat suan mok”).
Whilst in Thailand, why not visit one of the country’s currently best three beach destinations:
Koh Lao Liang: http://www.andamanadventures.com/kohlaoliang.shtml
Ao Nang: http://www.andamanadventures.com/ao_nang.shtml
Railay/Tonsai: http://www.andamanadventures.com/railay-tonsai.shtml
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About the Author
Runs Andaman Sky Co., Ltd, specialising in climbing and diving trips to Thailand’s best beach destinations.
"Back To Hanoi Again" Skcoll's photos around Hanoi, Vietnam
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