By Ledi Sayadaw Mahathera
Translated by U Ñana Mahathera
Contents
Publisher’s Foreword to the Second BPS Edition
Vipassana Dipani - The Exposition of Insight
The Three Hallucinations – The Simile of the Wild Deer – The Simile of the Magician – The Simile of the Man who has lost his Way – The Three Fantasies (maññana) – The Two Dogmatic Beliefs (abhinivesa) – The Two Stages (bhumi) – The Two Destinations (gati) – Nakhasikha Sutta (The Sutta on the Fingernail) – Kanakacchapa Sutta (The Sutta on the Blind Turtle) – Explanation of the Two Destinations – The Two Truths (sacca) – Material Phenomena – Four Great Essentials (mahabhuta)
Derived Materiality (upada-rupa)
The Six Bases (vatthu) – The Two Sexes (bhava) – The Vital Force (jivita-rupa) – Material Nutrition (ahara-rupa) – The Four Sense Fields (gocara-rupa) – The Element of Space (akasa-dhatu) – The Two Modes of Communications (viññatti-rupa) – The Three Plasticities (vikara-rupa) – The Four Salient Features (lakkhana-rupa) – The Four Producers of Material Phenomena
Mental Phenomena
Consciousness – Cetasikas or Mental Properties – The Common Properties – The Particular Properties – The Immoral Properties – The Moral Properties – Nibbana – Causes I – Causes II – The Two Abhiññanas or Super-Knowledges – The Three Pariññas or Profound Knowledges – The Growth, Decay, and Death of the Material Aggregates – The Growth, Decay, and Death of the Mental Phenomena
The Exposition of Tirana-pariñña
The Mark of Impermanence in Matter – The Mark of Impermanence in Mental Phenomena – The Mark of Ill – The Eleven Marks of Ill – The Mark of No-soul – How the Marks of Impermanence and Ill become Marks of No-soul – The Three Knowledges pertaining to Insight of the Three Marks
The Exposition of Pahana-pariñña
The Five Kinds of Dispelling – The Practice of Insight Meditation
Conclusion
A Life Sketch of the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw
Publisher’s Foreword to the Second BPS Edition
The Venerable Ledi Sayadaw’s The Manual of Insight was first published in book form by The Society for Promoting Buddhism in Foreign Countries, which was centred in Mandalay, Burma. It was later serialised in the journal The Light of the Dhamma (Rangoon), Vols. I and II. The full text appeared in a collection of Ledi Sayadaw’s treatises, The Manuals of Buddhism, (Rangoon: Union of Burma Buddha Sasana Council. 1965).
The first BPS edition of The Manual of Insight introduced a few minor changes in style and terminology, and replaced a large number of the abundant Pali words by their English equivalents. This second edition carries through the same editorial policy which guided the work on the first edition. For the benefit of modern readers, the style has been simplified and streamlined, archaic and quaint expressions replaced by more contemporary ones, and the substitution of English for Pali executed more thoroughly. It is hoped that these revisions will make this valuable and illuminating treatise easier reading, and a useful and practical guide in achieving the purpose for which it was originally written: the development of meditative insight.
Vipassana Dipani - The Exposition of Insight
The Three Hallucinations
Vipallasa means hallucination, delusion, erroneous observation, [1] or taking that which is true as false and that which is false as true.
There are three kinds of hallucination:
- Sañña-vipallasa: hallucination of perception
- Citta-vipallasa: hallucination of thought
- Ditthi-vipallasa: hallucination of views
Of those three, hallucination of perception is fourfold. It erroneously perceives:
- Impermanence as permanence
- Impurity as purity
- Suffering as happiness
- No-soul as soul
The same holds good with regard to the remaining two hallucinations, those of thinking and views. All these classifications come under the category of “This is mine! This is my self or living soul!” and will be made clear later. The three hallucinations may be illustrated respectively by the similes of the wild deer, the magician, and a man who has lost his way.
The Simile of the Wild Deer
This is the simile of the wild deer to illustrate the hallucination of perception.
In the middle of a great forest a certain husbandman cultivated a piece of paddy land. While the cultivator was away, wild deer were in the habit of coming to the field and eating the young sprouts of growing grain. So the cultivator put some straw together into the shape of a man and set it up in the middle of the field in order to frighten the deer away. He tied the straw together with fibres into the semblance of a body, with head, hands, and legs; and with white lime painting on a pot the lineaments of a human face, he set it on the top of the body. He also covered the artificial man with some old clothes such as a coat, and so forth, and put a bow and arrow into his hands. Now the deer came as usual to eat the young paddy; but approaching it and catching sight of the artificial man, they took it for a real one, were frightened, and ran away.
In this illustration, the wild deer had seen men before and retained in their memory the perception of the shape and form of men. In accordance with their present perception, they took the straw man for a real man. Thus their perception was an erroneous perception. The hallucination of perception is as here shown in this allegory of the wild deer. It is very clear and easy to understand.
This particular hallucination is also illustrated by the case of a bewildered man who has lost his way and cannot make out the cardinal points, east and west, in the locality in which he is, although the rising and setting of the sun may be distinctly perceived by anyone with open eyes. If the error has once been made, it establishes itself very firmly, and can be removed only with great difficulty. There are many things within ourselves which we always apprehend erroneously and in a sense that is the reverse of the truth as regards impermanence and no-soul. Thus through the hallucination of perception we apprehend things erroneously in exactly the same way that the wild deer take the straw man to be a real man, even with their eyes wide open.
Sr. Exzellenz,
dem
Königl. Staatsminister
Freiherrn von Zedlitz
Gnädiger Herr!
Den Wachstum der Wissenschaften an seinem Teile befördern, heißt an Ew. Exzellenz eigenem Interesse arbeiten; denn dieses ist mit jenen, nicht bloß durch den erhabenen Posten eines Beschützers, sondern durch das viel vertrautere eines Liebhabers und erleuchteten Kenners, innigst verbunden. Deswegen bediene ich mich auch des einigen Mittels, das gewissermaßen in meinem Vermögen ist, meine Dankbarkeit für das gnädige Zutrauen zu bezeigen, womit Ew. Exzellenz mich beehren, als könne ich zu dieser Absicht etwas beitragen.
Demselben gnädigen Augenmerke, dessen Ew. Exzellenz die erste Auflage dieses Werks gewürdigt haben, widme ich nun auch diese zweite und hiermit zugleich alle übrige Angelegenheit meiner literarischen Bestimmung, und bin mit der tiefsten Verehrung
Ew. Exzellenz untertänig gehorsamster Diener
Königsberg den 23sten April 1787 Immanuel Kant
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SPEECHES OF HIS MAJESTY KAMEHAMEHA IV. TO THE HAWAIIAN LEGISLATURE, WITH HIS MAJESTY’S REPLIES TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF FOREIGN NATIONS AND TO PUBLIC BODIES; ALSO WITH SUNDRY PROCLAMATIONS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO HIS ADVENT TO THE THRONE, WITH THE LAST PROCLAMATION AND AN OBITUARY OF HIS LATE MAJESTY KING KAMEHAMEHA III.
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
PRINTED AT THE GOVERNMENT PRESS 1861.
His Majesty’s Address on the occasion of taking the Oath prescribed by the Constitution. Extr. from Polynesian, Jan. 13, 1855.
I solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, to maintain the Constitution of the Kingdom whole and inviolate, and to govern in conformity with that and the laws. Immediately afterwards, His Highness the Kuhina Nui repeated the words “God preserve the King,” which were re-echoed everywhere throughout the Church with loud cheers; His Majesty’s Royal Standard and the National Ensign were hoisted and a royal salute fired from the fort. Afterwards it pleased the King to make a solemn and eloquent address, in native, to His subjects, which was received by them with great enthusiasm, a translation of which is as follows:
Give ear Hawaii o Keawe! Maui o Kama! Oahu o Kuihewa! Kauai o Mano!
In the providence of God, and by the will of his late Majesty Kamehameha III., this day read in your hearing, I have been called to the high and responsible position of the Chief Ruler of this nation. I am deeply sensible of the importance and sacredness of the great trust committed to my hands, and in the discharge of this trust, I shall abide by the Constitution and laws which I have just sworn to maintain and support. It is not my wish to entertain you on the present occasion with pleasant promises for the future; but I trust that the close of my career will show that I have not been raised to the head of this nation to oppress and curse it, but on the contrary to cheer and bless it, and that when I come to my end, I may, like the beloved Chief whose funeral we yesterday celebrated, pass from earth amid the bitter lamentation of my people.
The good, the generous, the kind hearted Kamehameha is now no more. Our great Chief has fallen! But though dead he still lives. He lives in the hearts of his people! He lives in the liberal, the just, and the beneficent measures which it was always his pleasure to adopt. His monuments rise to greet us on every side. They may be seen in the church, in the school house, and the hall of justice; in the security of our persons and property; in the peace, the law, the order and general prosperity that prevail throughout the islands. He was the friend of the Makaainana, the father of his people, and so long as a Hawaiian lives his memory will be cherished!
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
—Introibo ad altare Dei.
Halted, he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely:
—Come up, Kinch! Come up, you fearful jesuit!
The University of Oxford (Oxford, England), is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, dating at least to the 11c. With its rival Cambrige, it is one of the two most selective and prestigious universities in the UK. Oxford has 39 colleges, each with its own internal structure and activities. Currently, Oxford prides itself on having educated 4 British, and at least 8 foreign kings, 47 Nobel prize-winners, 3 Fields medallists, 25 British Prime Ministers, 28 foreign presidents and prime ministers, 7 saints, 86 archbishops, 18 cardinals, and 1 pope.
I look at the river.
A banana skin
Falls from my hand.
Jean-Paul Sartre – L’être et le néant. Essai d’ontologie phénoménologique – 1943
[...] Die wesentliche Konsequenz unserer vorangehenden Ausführung ist, daß der Mensch, dazu verurteilt, frei zu sein, das Gewicht der gesamten Welt auf seinen Schultern trägt: er ist für die Welt und für sich selbst als Seinsweise verantwortlich. Wir nehmen das Wort “Verantwortlichkeit” in seinem banalen Sinn vor “Bewußtsein davon, der unbestreitbare Urheber eines Ereignisses oder eines Gegenstands zu sein” [...] , denn die schlimmsten Übel oder die schlimmsten Gefahren, die meine Person zu treffen drohen, haben nur durch meinen Entwurf einen Sinn; und sie erscheinen auf dem Grund des Engagements, das ich bin. Es ist also unsinnig, sich beklagen zu wollen, weil ja nichts Fremdes darüber entschieden hat, was wir fühlen, was wir erleben oder was wir sind. Diese absolute Verantwortlichkeit ist übrigens keine Hinnahme: sie ist das bloße logische Übernehmen der Konsequenzen unserer Freiheit. Was mir zustößt, stößt mir durch mich zu [...]
der menschliche embryo macht im mutterleibe alle entwicklungsphasen des tierreiches durch. wenn der mensch geboren wird, sind seine sinneseindrücke gleich denen eines neugeborenen hundes. seine kindheit durchläuft alle wandlungen, die der geschichte der menschheit entsprechen. mit zwei jahren sieht er wie ein papua, mit vier jahren wie ein germane, mit sechs jahren wie sokrates, mit acht jahren wie voltaire. wenn er acht jahre alt ist, kommt ihm das violett zum bewußtsein, die farbe, die das achtzehnte jahrhundert entdeckt hat, denn vorher waren das veilchen blau und die purpurschnecke rot. der physiker zeigt heute auf farben im sonnenspektrum, die bereits einen namen haben, deren erkenntnis aber dem kommenden menschen vorbehalten ist.
das kind ist amoralisch. der papua ist es für uns auch. der papua schlachtet seine feinde ab und verzehrt sie. er ist kein verbrecher. wenn aber der moderne mensch jemanden abschlachtet und verzehrt, so ist er ein verbrecher oder ein degenerierter. der papua tätowiert seine haut, sein boot, sein ruder, kurz alles, was ihm erreichbar ist. er ist kein verbrecher. der moderne mensch, der sich tätowiert, ist ein verbrecher oder ein degenerierter. es gibt gefängnisse, in denen achtzig prozent der häftlinge tätowierungen aufweisen. die tätowierten, die nicht in haft sind, sind latente verbrecher oder degenerierte aristokraten. wenn ein tätowierter in freiheit stirbt, so ist er eben einige jahre, bevor er einen mord verübt hat, gestorben. der drang, sein gesicht und alles, was einem erreichbar ist, zu ornamentieren, ist der uranfang der bildenden kunst. es ist das lallen der malerei.
FRANZ KAFKA – BETRACHTUNG MDCCCCXIII – ERNST ROWOHLT VERLAG – LEIPZIG
Dies Buch wurde in 800 numerierten Exemplaren im November 1912 von der Offizin Poeschel & Trepte gedruckt.Copyright 1912 by Ernst Rowohlt Verlag, Leipzig.
Entschlüsse
Aus einem elenden Zustand sich zu erheben, muß selbst mit gewollter Energie leicht sein. Ich reiße mich vom Sessel los, umlaufe den Tisch, mache Kopf und Hals beweglich, bringe Feuer in die Augen, spanne die Muskeln um sie herum. Arbeite jedem Gefühl entgegen, begrüße A. stürmisch, wenn er jetzt kommen wird, dulde B. freundlich in meinem Zimmer, ziehe bei C. alles, was gesagt wird, trotz Schmerz und Mühe mit langen Zügen in mich hinein.
Aber selbst wenn es so geht, wird mit jedem Fehler, der nicht ausbleiben kann, das Ganze, das Leichte und das Schwere, stocken, und ich werde mich im Kreise zurückdrehen müssen. Deshalb bleibt doch der beste Rat, alles hinzunehmen, als schwere Masse sich verhalten und fühle man sich selbst fortgeblasen, keinen unnötigen Schritt sich ablocken lassen, den anderen mit Tierblick anschaun, keine Reue fühlen, kurz, das, was vom Leben als Gespenst noch übrig ist, mit eigener Hand niederdrücken, d. h., die letzte grabmäßige Ruhe noch vermehren und nichts außer ihr mehr bestehen lassen. Eine charakteristische Bewegung eines solchen Zustandes ist das Hinfahren des kleinen Fingers über die Augenbrauen.
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by Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated by Constance Bache
To Princess Christine Belgiojoso in Paris
It would be self-conceit in me, Princess, to complain of your silence. Your letters have always been for me a favor, a charm. I am not meaning to say that I have the slightest right to them. Nevertheless, as you do not reply to me any more, I hope you will at least permit me to tell you how very much I feel the very slightest marks of your kindness, and what a price I set upon your remembrance.
Some numbers of the Gazette or Revue Musicale, which have accidentally fallen into my hands at the house of one of my Russian friends (for in this happy country of the Arts, and of music in particular, you can well imagine that no one is foolish enough to spend a thirty francs’ subscription on the Revue Musicale), have informed me that you had decidedly raised altar for altar, and made your charming salon echo with magnificent harmonies. I confess that this is perhaps the one regret of my winter. I should so immensely have liked to be there to admire you, to applaud you. Several people who had the honor of being present at these choice evenings have spoken to me about them with enthusiasm.
What a contrast to the tiresome musical soliloquies (I do not know what other name to give to this invention of mine) with which I contrived to gratify the Romans, and which I am quite capable of importing to Paris, so unbounded does my impudence become! Imagine that, wearied with warfare, not being able to compose a programme which would have common sense, I have ventured to give a series of concerts all by myself, affecting the Louis XIV. style, and saying cavalierly to the public, “The concert is–myself.” For the curiosity of the thing I copy one of the programmes of the soliloquies for you:–
1. Overture to William Tell, performed by M. L.
2. Reminiscences of the Puritani. Fantaisie composed and performed by the above-mentioned!
3. Etudes and fragments by the same to the same!
4. Improvisation on themes given–still by the same. And that was all; neither more nor less, except lively conversation during the intervals, and enthusiasm if there was room for it.
A propos of enthusiasm, I ought at least to talk to you of St. Peter’s. That is the proper thing to do when one writes from Rome. But, in the first place, I am writing to you from Albano, whence I can only discern the dome, and, secondly, this poor St. Peter’s has been so disguised, so embellished by papier-mache wreaths, horrid curtains at alcoves, etc., etc., all in honor of the five or six last saints whom His Holiness has canonised, that I try to put away the recollection of it. Happily there have not been any workers of miracles to glorify at the Coliseum and the Campo Vaccino, otherwise it would have been impossible to live in Rome.
If nothing occurs to prevent it, I expect to pass the end of next winter (March and April) in Paris. Will you permit me then to fill up all the gaps in my correspondence from the Rue d’Anjou? [Here the Princess lived.] I count always upon your friendly and indulgent kindness. But shall you extend this so far as to give me a sign of life before the close of my stay in Italy? I do not know. In any case, letters addressed poste restante, Florence, will reach me till the 1st of next September.
I beg you, Madame la Princesse, to accept the expression of my profound and most devoted respect.
F. Liszt – Albano, June 4th, 1839
Will you be good enough to remember me affectionately to (Madame) your sister and to Mr. d´Aragon?
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Towards the end of November, during a thaw, at nine o’clock one morning, a train on the Warsaw and Petersburg railway was approaching the latter city at full speed. The morning was so damp and misty that it was only with great difficulty that the day succeeded in breaking; and it was impossible to distinguish anything more than a few yards away from the carriage windows.
Some of the passengers by this particular train were returning from abroad; but the third-class carriages were the best filled, chiefly with insignificant persons of various occupations and degrees, picked up at the different stations nearer town. All of them seemed weary, and most of them had sleepy eyes and a shivering expression, while their complexions generally appeared to have taken on the colour of the fog outside.
When day dawned, two passengers in one of the third-class carriages found themselves opposite each other. Both were young fellows, both were rather poorly dressed, both had remarkable faces, and both were evidently anxious to start a conversation. If they had but known why, at this particular moment, they were both remarkable persons, they would undoubtedly have wondered at the strange chance which had set them down opposite to one another in a third-class carriage of the Warsaw Railway Company.
One of them was a young fellow of about twenty-seven, not tall, with black curling hair, and small, grey, fiery eyes. His nose was broad and flat, and he had high cheek bones; his thin lips were constantly compressed into an impudent, ironical—it might almost be called a malicious—smile; but his forehead was high and well formed, and atoned for a good deal of the ugliness of the lower part of his face. A special feature of this physiognomy was its death-like pallor, which gave to the whole man an indescribably emaciated appearance in spite of his hard look, and at the same time a sort of passionate and suffering expression which did not harmonize with his impudent, sarcastic smile and keen, self-satisfied bearing. He wore a large fur—or rather astrachan—overcoat, which had kept him warm all night, while his neighbour had been obliged to bear the full severity of a Russian November night entirely unprepared. His wide sleeveless mantle with a large cape to it—the sort of cloak one sees upon travellers during the winter months in Switzerland or North Italy—was by no means adapted to the long cold journey through Russia, from Eydkuhnen to St. Petersburg.
The wearer of this cloak was a young fellow, also of about twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age, slightly above the middle height, very fair, with a thin, pointed and very light coloured beard; his eyes were large and blue, and had an intent look about them, yet that heavy expression which some people affirm to be a peculiarity as well as evidence, of an epileptic subject. His face was decidedly a pleasant one for all that; refined, but quite colourless, except for the circumstance that at this moment it was blue with cold. He held a bundle made up of an old faded silk handkerchief that apparently contained all his travelling wardrobe, and wore thick shoes and gaiters, his whole appearance being very un-Russian.
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This Treaty to be humbly laid before her Majty, for her ratification and farther orders. In Witness whereof, We, the Delegates aforeso, by name, Kireberuit, Iteansis, and Jackoit, for Penobscot, Joseph and Eneas, for St. Johns, Waracansit, Wedaranaquin, and Bomoseen, for Kennebeck, have hereunto set our hands & seals, the day and year first above written.
Signed, Sealed, & Delivered in the presence of:
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In the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e’en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
All else will I relate discover’d there.
How first I enter’d it I scarce can say,
Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh’d
My senses down, when the true path I left,
But when a mountain’s foot I reach’d, where clos’d
The valley, that had pierc’d my heart with dread,
I look’d aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet’s beam,
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.
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