Mindfulness and Insight

Mindfulness is the precursor to Insight Meditation, why? With Mindfulness established on a particular object, can be the breath, or meditating of the 9 values of Buddha, 6 values of Dhamma or the 9 values of Sangha of Bhikkus and many other things on which one can create one=pointed concentration. The best is to work with the breath called Anapana Sathi Meditation, purely observing one's breath. You do not give any value or try to control as in Pranayama but just observe. One will initially notice long breath then after a while short breath. But it does not mean that there is a clear sequence because the short and the long breaths may mix. But you keep observing only. Often in this moment thoughts may arise, but do not ry to fight the thoughts or give any value but merely observe and you will note the thoughts will arise and cease. After a while you will have concentration one-pointed and will not aberrate. Many will feel sensation above the upper lip, below the nostrils. Some may have the sensation in the nostril aperture and later may have the sensation on the area above upper lip and often can be strong. AS you keep observing the sensation, you may feel sensation on top of the head and concentrate there. Slowly you will notice it spreading all over the body, but just observe. These are tactile sensations and can be very rough, smooth, vibrations, heat, cold or even you might feel a muscle so painful that it may break off. Do not react but observe the pain and will note that the pain has vanished after a while. These sensations are the reflection of the dormant defilement that had been covered by ignorance for so long but are coming up as tactile-sensations. In the next post I will tell further. Sugath